The Unwanted Wendigo [ManxMan]

Chapter Forty-six: Endings and Beginnings

~Chapter Forty-six: Endings and Beginnings~

As it turns out, following Triton's disappearance, the army attacking the city fled - even if the armies attacking the Southern Kingdom continued their siege for a while longer due to a lack of communication among the enemy forces. Still, this meant that Poseidon's surrender and Triton's disappearance were, in fact, it. Or, at least, that is what Perun assured Felix...before disappearing to make sure the gods had not left any surprises for us that would contradict his statement.

Despite that reassurance, though, it does not change the fact that the palace is in desperate need of repair, and it is only because of Felix's magic stone that it has not been completely submerged. No one was seriously hurt within its walls from what my fiance called 'magic torpedoes,' but that does not change the fact it will take a long time to fix everything. The actual city also looks really bad, even from a distance, which means, even with the end of the battling, it will probably be months before everything returns to normal.

And longer still for people to mourn all the dead.

I am not sure how long Triton's army had between breaking through the city's defenses and fleeing, but they apparently were able to do a lot of damage to the buildings and kill a lot of people before they left.

Felix, of course, wanted to go down to check on the rescue operations and help out, but Atasah had fortunately arrived with Cyra while I was considering whether or not sitting on him would keep him from doing anything stupid since he refused to listen, and he talked his brother-in-law out of it. More likely than not, he succeeded in convincing Felix where I failed because the reasons we gave were very different. Where I was concerned about his health - the stubborn Mer was bleeding from his eyes, for Pete's sake - Atasah wisely pointed out that he looks like death warmed over, and if the king passed out because he was too stubborn to see a doctor, it would look very bad for the kingdom.

Apparently, I was a fool to think Felix would care about his own health.

Still, Felix did agree to see one of the palace healers...even if it ultimately failed. Unfortunately, the hospital wing was one of the few areas that, while still intact, was blocked off by the rubble of one of the attacks on the castle walls. So, instead, Atasah called on all the medical knowledge he had at his disposal - which he warned was not a lot since he was more of a warrior than a healer - and checked over Felix's injuries. This led to the discovery that the king overused his magical core, something Atasah was apparently very familiar with - and that is something I might want to let Nero in on when he returns since Atasah very clearly tried to dodge Felix's questions about why he knew so much about magic overuse treatments - and needs to rest it, or he could risk damaging his core permanently.

And that apparently concerned him enough to agree to stop doing anything taxing for a good four hours...but only four hours.

"I should be out there," Felix says, pausing in his pacing of Nero's living room to gesture towards the large windows, through which we can see the city slowly trying to piece itself back together in the aftermath of the attack. The damage is not as bad as it looked a few hours ago, as the bodies and a lot of the more noticeable debris has been cleared away, but it still looks bad and reminds me a lot of the aftermath of the two world wars the humans had, just on a smaller scale.

Sure looks like a few bombs went off, though.

"No, you shouldn't," I counter, stepping close enough to lean into his personal space, which in turn makes him lean back a little. I would relish his uncertainty...if he were anyone else. Instead, I just frown at him and carefully reach for his hand, giving him plenty of time to pull away. When he does not, though, I snatch it and start rubbing my thumb over the back of it. "Doctor Atasah said you need to rest for at least another couple'a hours."