Chapter 14: Kaelthorn’s Rage

The chilly air slipped through the open windows of the cabin, but Kaelthorn remained unmoving, his chest rising and falling in steady patterns.

Aden’s feet twitched. Then his arms. When his eyes opened, there was an unsettling calm behind them—uncharacteristic for someone who had just awakened.

His feet awkwardly found the damp floor board, the pressure causing the contents to surface.

His head tilted downward, expression neutral, as he watched blood thin into water across the floorboards

“That’s blood…” he murmured, eyes fixed on the dark trail. “I wonder whose it is.”

A thunderflash caused Kaelthorn’s sleeping figure to reflect in the corner of Aden’s eyes.

Facing Kaelthorn, a brief flicker of confusion passed through his expression.

“Weren’t we training just now?” He paused. “Oh. I passed out. He must’ve been watching me.”

A thin smile formed as he watched his sleeping master.

“What a caring Master—?”

Aden belatedly realized something. He never got to know his master’s true name.

A chuckle preceded from his lips, his face burying themselves in his palms. “What kind of student am I?”

Slowly, he stood up, his stiff bones cracking with every movement.

“I expected to be in more pain. K—”

Aden frowned.

The word vanished before he could articulate it.

“What was I about to say next…” He muttered as he walked around the room.

His thoughts were halted by a small slosh sound as he went to the farthest end of the cabin where his master lay.

“Hm?”

Crouching, his fingers dipped themselves into the pool of blood, the thick liquid gripping onto the extended finger as he pulled out.

He brought it closer to the window so the little light that came through the window would illuminate the liquid.

“Blood… here too.” His gaze drifted to his master. “How did that happen?” He asked himself.

His master’s body shook a little— whether from his intense stare or the cold, he wasn’t sure.

“At least he isn’t dead. That’s good.”

Aden moved from his position, and headed outside, but a calm, familiar voice stopped him in his tracks.

“Aden? I—is that you?”

’Did master just stutter?’ Aden frowned.

He turned to his master who still remained in the darkness.

Kaelthorn’s obsidian eyes glowed even in the darkness as he spoke:

“How are you feeling?”

Silence hung in the air. Even the persistent thunder storms stopped their reckless claps.

Aden’s head cocked sideways at the question, a smile that couldn’t reach his eyes formed.

“I’m quite fine, Master. Your healing spells are as potent as ever.”

Kaelthorn didn’t respond immediately.

His eyes glowed a little brighter as he shifted slightly.

’His Resonance flow is…calm… almost too calm.’

For someone who just came out of such a coma, there should have been turbulence. Something.

’….What am I going to do now?’

“Master?”

Aden’s words brought Kaelthorn out of his thoughts.

He hummed a little hastily.

“Is there a problem?” Kaelthorn asked, putting an effort to keep his expression neutral.

The thunder struck again, it’s flash highlighting both of their figures, and just in time for Aden to catch a single sweat drop from Kaelthorn’s face.

“Is everything alright?” His head tilted slightly. “You seem tense. That’s unlike you.”

Kaelthorn stood from the chair, each step causing a creak from the cabin.

As he walked past Aden’s stationary figure, Kaelthorn instructed:

“Go have some rest. We’ll talk in the morning.”

Before Aden could respond, the door had been shut.

Kaelthorn’s room was just opposite Aden’s, but unlike his, it wasn’t quite finished yet.

The floorboards were completely fixed, but the ceiling alongside the rest of the walls were still underway.

But Kaelthorn couldn’t care less about the luxury. His body slumped onto the half-finished bed as he stared at the turbulent sky through the transparent roof, thinly veiled by his Resonance.

The cabin fell eerily silent. Kaelthorn could’ve determined whatever Aden was doing at the moment, but he just didn’t want to.

His eyes remained open for a while as he listened to the violent claps of thunder and watched the dark clouds hover above him.

“…There was no other way.”

Forcefully, he closed his eyes and threw himself into a guilt ridden sleep.

In Aden’s room, his still figure brought an unsettling strangeness further heightened by the pitch darkness.

“Master must be angry I pushed myself too far again,” Aden mumbled.

He sat on the edge of the bed, his back straight.

“I’ll apologize tomorrow. I’m sure he’d love some Wyvern Steak and Hydra Cake—”

Aden paused.

“When did I know how to prepare these? I don’t remember Master teaching me though…”

Brushing it off as a consequence of his bad memory, Aden laid on his bed and calmly closed his eyes.

“I feel like I’m forgetting something….”

With that statement, he drifted off voluntarily.

Unbeknownst to neither Kaelthorn nor Aden, three figures cloaked in dark outfits that clung to their bodies perched on a tree quite a distance from their cabin.

Their eyes glowed through the masks they put on. After a while of surveillance, they looked at each other before they retreated.

Making sure they were a far distance from the cabin, one of them spoke telepathically.

<Who would’ve thought there’d be a cabin this deep in the jungle?>

Skidding across the damp branches with practiced ease, a femine figure replied:

<Master Baldric did. There’s no surprise there. He’s naturally amazing>

Running half–crouched on an extended branch, the second male replied:

<Although Evaine is correct, I won’t fully support her statement due to the excess fanboying I’m smelling.>

Jumping on and off a trunk dangerously close to the speaker’s face, Evaine transmitted:

<I wonder what Master Baldric would think if one of his best students dare belittle his competence>

The second man’s movements faltered slightly but before he could refute, the first speaker interrupted.

<Careful. There’s a trap here>

They immediately halted in their tracks, their eyes peered into the distance.

<I don’t see anything,> Evaine said.

<That’s because you were too concerned with Vryn that you forgot about your surroundings.>

Evaine couldn’t come up with a come back.

<What’re we going to do then?> Vryn asked.

<Your control over your energies aren’t enough to see this, but there’s a mesh,> he gestured. <There…there and there.>

Pointing at assumably three random points, the man’s fingers converged at his middle.

<They all connect to the middle>

<Like a spider web?> Evaine asked.

<An extremely intricate spiderweb,> the man responded solemnly.

<Whoever set this up doesn’t want anybody intruding in his space and has the capacity to deal with whoever does.> Vryn added.

<Can’t we just go back the way we came?> Evaine pleaded.

The man shook his head.

<Master Baldric gave us each a Resonance Nullifier and I advice we don’t use it… yet>

<I don’t see a way we can escape without it. Heck, I don’t even see what we’re escaping from!>

<Watch your tone, Evaine.>

Evaine clicked her tongue softly and turned her head in Vryn’s direction.

Establishing a private connection, she spoke:

<I suggest we leave Amir here and go on our own.>

<… That’s not a good idea.>

<I suspected you’d say that. If you want to stay here, so be it, but I’m not staying one more moment with that egotistical scumbag>

<Evaine, wait—>

The connection cut off abruptly and Evaine travelled in the opposite direction.

Vryn attempted to give chase, but he was stopped halfway by Amir’s grunt.

<Let her learn.>

Vryn’s confliction could be made through his mask but he didn’t defy his orders.

Evaine veered left, vaulting over earthen mounds and skidding along wet branches, anger driving every movement.

Her footing slipped. A branch snapped beneath her weight, and she crashed into the mud below.

Rain splattered filth across her clothes. She pushed herself up without hesitation and pressed on,

But a deliberate crack behind her caused her to stiffen.

Before she could identify the cause of the sound, her head burst open abruptly, mass of flesh and bone scattering across the damp floor.

The dull thud of her body revealed a large figure, his obsidian eyes burning with undisguised fury as he watched the blood mix with the rain water.

“Foolish children don’t deserve mercy.”

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