Chapter 255: A Palace That Could Not Breathe, Questions With No Answers, and a Silence That Refuses to Break
Chapter 255: A Palace That Could Not Breathe, Questions With No Answers, and a Silence That Refuses to Break
Elyn’s POV
Thankfully... somehow... we managed to calm them.
I still wasn’t entirely sure how it happened, but one moment everything was spiraling out of control and the next, it slowly began to settle, like a storm that had exhausted itself and decided to quiet down on its own.
Maybe it was Ignivar.
He had a way about him, something steady and controlled that made everything around him feel... anchored. Even when things were falling apart, he didn’t move like someone who was panicking, and somehow that alone made it easier to breathe.
Or maybe it was because whatever Zorathys had done had stopped just as suddenly as it started.
Or maybe the children were simply too overwhelmed to keep reacting the way they had been.
Whatever it was, one by one, they began to calm down.
The crying didn’t stop immediately, but it softened. The shaking eased little by little until it wasn’t as violent as before. Even Zayrion, who had been struggling the most, eventually steadied under Ignivar’s guidance, his breathing no longer sharp and uneven like he was fighting for air.
Brixton took longer.
The stone didn’t disappear completely, but it stopped spreading, and for now, that was enough. Ignivar stayed close to him, watching carefully, making sure nothing worsened while I focused on the others.
And eventually... they fell asleep.
All of them.
I exhaled quietly, due to the fact that we couldn’t even summon the maids because all the demons were trying to recover from what had happened with Zorathys, I placed them in my room. My bed was large enough to accommodate their small bodies after all.
Honestly, at first I thought that Zorathys had only affected the children and Marrok, but then I had gone to my office just before putting the children to bed to get Morthen, Rin, and Vaelory to help me with the children, but they were in no better condition than the children themselves.
Morthen was bent slightly forward, one hand gripping his chest, his spectacles crooked on his face as he tried—and failed—to steady his breathing.
Vaelory was worse.
She looked seconds away from collapsing entirely, her hand braced against the table as her body trembled faintly.
Rin had a hand pressed tightly to her chest, a pained sound escaping her lips as she tried to inhale, her brows drawn together like even breathing had become something difficult.
Ignivar and I once more helped them calm down, and immediately they calmed down, I sent them away to get some rest, dismissing them for the day.
The moment they were gone, the office felt too quiet.
Too still.
I turned to Ignivar immediately.
"What just happened?" I asked. "Is this normal? Surely there must be some explanation, right? Does he do something like this normally?"
He looked at me.
There was a pause.
A small one, but noticeable.
"Regarding if he does something like this normally, he doesn’t," Ignivar told me. "And I cannot explain why this would happen. I do not know."
I stared at him.
"You don’t know," I repeated.
"I do not."
Something in me tightened at that.
"You work closely with him," I said slowly. "Closer than most."
He didn’t interrupt.
"You and Naviel are practically inseparable from him. You once told me that you were friends, even if Zorathys only uses the word when it benefits him," I continued, watching him carefully. "So what do you mean you don’t know?"
"I mean exactly that, Your Majesty," Ignivar replied calmly. "I do not know."
I held his gaze for a moment longer, searching for something—anything—that suggested he was holding back.
But there was nothing.
And before I could press further, I heard footsteps, and they belonged to multiple people.
Soon, my office was filled with all the dukes and duchesses belonging to the demon realm.
"What happened?" Caleth asked Ignivar.
The others didn’t even wait.
"What was that?"
"The entire realm—"
"Demons are collapsing—"
I raised my hand.
And slowly, reluctantly, they quieted.
"Why are you all here?" I asked.
Because yes, that mattered too.
How did they even know?
Aurelixa stepped forward.
She still held her composure, but it wasn’t as firm as usual.
"Every lower demon has been affected," she said.
I frowned.
"What?"
"The entire realm," she continued, her voice steady despite the tension beneath it, "is in distress. Demons are gasping for air. Some have collapsed. Many are on the verge of death. And the only demon who could do that is the King, hence why we are asking to know what happened, Your Majesty."
Seraphielle turned to Ignivar again. "What happened?" she asked him.
"I do not know what happened," Ignivar said with a shake of his head.
Xalerom turned to him sharply.
"You were in the palace," he said. "How do you not know what happened?"
"I was with Naviel," Ignivar replied. "We were working."
His gaze shifted slightly, like he was recalling it as he spoke.
"Then the air changed. The air in the office felt like it had been sucked out; the sky outside the window—yes, I checked—had darkened."
"Naviel stopped mid-sentence," he continued. "His hand went to his chest, and he began gasping for air."
The office had gone completely still now.
"There is only one being in this realm capable of causing such a reaction," he finished. "So I left the office as fast as I could, but he was gone when I arrived."
"What could result in something like this?" Draeven asked, confused.
Guilidern turned to me then.
"Your Majesty," he said. "Perhaps you were with him when this happened?"
"With who?" I asked.
"The King," he replied, and I nodded.
"I was, but I also cannot explain what happened. I had even asked Ignivar to explain, but he too doesn’t know," I told them.
"But you were with him, right?" Ysera asked. "Can you explain what happened before he reacted that way then?"
I took a deep breath and then told them everything—about how we had seen the children and how Zorathys had been the one to make me realize that the children were playing a trick on me, and then how Thalira had said she loved me.
When I was done, every one of the dukes and duchesses stared at me with wide eyes.