The Septic Curse ★ Catalyst Saga Book Two

➽Chapter Forty Eight

The next few days were tortuous and painstakingly slow.

Raebar had overtaken the Inner Circle, imprisoning those in the poorer regions who had not managed to escape. Though Elsavior and Navidia were safe, farther regions such as Aragon and Varien who could not evacuate all their citizens in time were completely enslaved, citizens held up in chains and thrown into dungeons, their powers being used to torture them until their minds broke.

Draco, the Inner Circle, and the rest of the emperors and empresses have been held prisoners in the dungeons of the Revian Palace for five days. They were all divided into shared cells, being deprived and beaten with chains until they could no longer feel their bodies. The tribe leaders tortured them with knives and poison, breaking their bodies just enough to torture them but not enough to kill them.

Draco had been sitting in the corner of the cell, barely talking to Iredine or Raiyah for a week. His eyes were fixed on Onyx's body which lied in front of him. Iredine kept her hydrated by constantly pressing a wet cloth to her head, using her powers to treat the little wounds she could. The emperor watched her as she cleaned the blood in between her fingers, pushing her hair back.

"When did you find out?" he asked, capturing Iredine's attention as she ringed the wet cloth. Blood water pooled from it, soaking the floor. "I found out a few days before the attack. I figured it out when I tried to help Alesandria and break the bond. Unfortunately, their forced bond was too deep for me to break. My Helio powers could not breakthrough."

"Why didn't you tell me?" he pressed, his eyes holding Iredine's gaze. She sighed, sagging to the floor. "I wanted to but I couldn't. It wasn't my secret to tell. That is why I injected Alesandria with my Helio magic. I knew it would force her to tell the truth and frankly, it would be more insightful coming from her than me."

Draco huffed, turning away from her. He looked down at his fingers that were slick with dried blood, picking at them in between his fingers. "And look at what happened. I still couldn't save her" he said. Raiyah sighed, reaching out for her brother. She placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing tight.

"You tried" she encouraged. He passed her a cold look, brushing her hand away.

"I failed" he responded, shaking his head. "I failed miserably."

Iredine hummed, looking down at Onyx. She stroked her pale arm, using her magic to keep her warm. "It's a bit more complicated than that Draco" she informed him, her fingers dancing to feel her pulse around her neck. "She's physically dead. Her body is unresponsive and I can't feel her pulse. Her soul has been detached from her soul so from my standpoint, I can say that she's dead. However, I can still feel some remnants of her bond with you and lingering bits of her magic."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" he asked.

"It means that I don't know if she's truly dead or not and until I can figure that out, I don't know how to bring her back. It would be a different story if she was just stabbed with the white ash dagger. There are some remedies for that and curing her would be plausible. However, he stabbed her with her sword which was wrapped in siphoning magic. Because of that, it tore out the last bit of her soul and trapped it in an unknown region. Because it is not heaven, hell, or anything in between, I don't know where it is, so I don't know how to retrieve it. Furthermore, her body is infested with poison and her magic is seemingly muddled underneath it. I would have to find a way to untangle her magic from the poison before draining it from her body. If I can't figure out how to do any of these, I can't bring her back."