10. Revealing

"You like her, don't you?"

"Shut up brother."

"You like-"

"Shut up." Zesha glared at his twin, who was merely smiling back at him with a too-innocent-to-be-true smile. "I do not like Calista in such a way."

"You know you just adressed her informally, right?"

"What!?"

"I knew it! You have romantic sentiment for her!"

Zesha glared at his brother still, now also blushing furiously with embarrassment. "Zepha.."

"Alright, I'll stop teasing for now..." His twin regained composure, taking a deep breath before speaking. "I can see that if you do end up being with Lady Calista in such a way, I'd advise to keep it secret if I were you. I am sure that there will be some of our people that will not be happy with their King marrying the Countess of Lazulis..."

"Of course..."

"And be careful if there are others that like her in such a way as well. They could even become your enemies."

"Zael doesn't like Calista in that way, though..."

"...You never know, brother. You never know."

"General Asthar, Dagran is-"

"Alive, Therius, I know." General Asthar cut off, rushing down the hallway alongside Azalea. "We can sense him in the hospital wing!"

Therius blinked in surprise, before rushing after them and into the hospital wing of Lazulis Castle.

"Dagran.."

Calista, as well as Lowell, Syrenne, Mirania, Yurick and Zael, all turned to face the three. Dagran himself was asleep in the hospital bed, and still was as Asthar and Azalea approached them.

"How did you find him...?" Azalea trailed off, looking at Dagran in dismay. She started healing the wounds on his shoulder, arms, chest...there were a lot of wounds. Either Dagran must have been travelling for quite some time or he barely survived a fight with Sebastian. Most likely the latter.

"He just...walked into Ariela's Tavern and fainted, really." Lowell spoke up, wincing at the wounds on his once-dead friend. "That's basically what happened. We didn't find him. He found us."

The group heard a soft groan from below them, and they looked down to see Dagran's eyes slowly open. He glanced at Zael quietly, before his gaze turned to Azalea. His eyes shot open, and he struggled to sit up, as if trying to go and strangle her, but Lowell and Therius held him down.

"She's-"

"Dagran, calm down, she isn't going to hurt you! And you need rest!" Therius snapped, struggling to keep Dagran confined to the bed. Dagran eventually gave up, slumping back down onto the bed and letting out a slow breath. He paused, before speaking up.

"Where am I, and what's going on? Can someone explain?"

Azalea paused, before speaking. "I'll make this explanation as short as possible, Dagran. Draven and I are now helping these people here to stop a prophecy that our former master is going to execute and use you for, and Sebastian is basically out to kill you because you escaped his clutches from earlier. End of story."

Everyone else seemed to blink a bit in surprise. "That was..fast..." Yurick trailed off sheepishly.

Zael let out a quiet sigh, grasping one of Dagran's hands and squeezing it lightly. "Hey, Dagran...just get some rest. You'll be okay by tomorrow, I'm sure."

Dagran seemed to smile faintly at Zael. "Hope so. I don't plan on staying in bed all day..."

Asthar and Azalea, meanwhile, had moved to the side to talk briefly.

"I should assume, Azalea, that you and Dagran did not get along too well?"

Azalea nodded. "I suppose you could say that. I literally brought him back to life, dug him out of his grave and then bound him and handed him over to Sebastian. I'm not surprised that he tried to lash out at me like that..." She seemed to shrug a bit. "Then again, fellow human beings have never really gotten along with me in general..."

Draven appeared to be in some sort of slump. And Calista seemed to be the only one noticing this. Therefore, she approached him and asked what was wrong.

"What's wrong?" Draven repeated her question, looking at her straight in the eye. "It's consisting of two things. The first is considering that Azalea and I are now traitor to our former master, he's likely to send out Sebastian and Kresa to try to kill us eventually, and all hell will break loose in the worst case scenario. The second, um..." He winced a bit. "Azalea is most likely going to kill me by the time she finds me."

Calista stared. "Why?"

"...I ate one of her cupcakes that she was going to bring on the picnic with Asthar earlier..."

"What!?"

"I was hungry! And I couldn't find the kitchen to make myself anything, so..."

"You could have just bought something in the Market!"

"I know, but I was in the castle, I couldn't find the kitchen, and I was going to faint of hunger earlier if I didn't eat anything right that second at the time!" He let out a groan, shaking his head a bit. "Azalea is going to try to strangle me, cut me apart or slit my throat. Most likely the first out of those three...

Calista winced. "Is she truly that deadly?"

"She's my former fiance, Lady Calista. Yes, she is therefore that deadly, at least to me."

Calista let out a sigh. "You should be more careful..."

"I know..." He paused, before speaking up. "Are you and Zesha...together, romantically?"

Calista kind of stared at him. "What?" She blinked. "Why do you assume that?"

"Because, erm...it's obvious that he likes you. Oh, and Therius too-that white knight just keeps glaring at Zesha whenever he's talking to you. I can see that." Dravem giggled a bit at this. "I think he's jealous, Calista. I would suggest that you be careful, lest they be in the same room as you..."

"DRAVEN!" That was Azalea screaming. "What is this about eating cupcakes!?"

Draven winced. "Gotta run. Adieu." He the promptly turned and ran, screaming bloody murder as Azalea chased him down the hall.

Poor Calista was sorely confused. What sort of odd tug of war had she gotten into...?