"What?" Riven let out a soft, almost amused exhale, lifting both hands slightly as if defending himself, his tone carrying that same infuriating lightness. "You know I can’t lie... it really happened just like that. Maybe blame your luck... or whatever curse’s that always follows you around." He tilted his head, glancing briefly at the still-fading portal above. "I was only planning to bring that kid." His eyes flickered back to Razeal, watching him carefully. "Maybe... this is what destiny wants."

He said it as if it explained everything. As if it justified anything.

And even though he didn’t need to explain himself didn’t owe anyone anything.. he still did. Not out of guilt or necessity. But because, deep down... he was enjoying this. The disruption. The fracture. The way things had suddenly become more... complicated for razeal..

Though...

Why didn’t he thought of this earlier? And That was the only thing he regretted.

Razeal, however, didn’t respond.

Didn’t even acknowledge him.

He had already decided whatever came out of Riven’s mouth wasn’t worth listening to. Not now or ever will

Instead, he turned.

Toward the voice that had called his name.

His gaze settled on her.. on those deep, royal purple strands of hair that fell behind her like a silent cascade, on those sharp eyes that no longer looked sharp at all.. Now more like holding sorrow, pain and guilt.. All so clearly..

Yes, it was Nova.

"You... you’re alright," she whispered, her voice soft, almost fragile in contrast to the poised figure she had been moments ago. Her hand, which had been resting on the hilt of her sword, slowly slid down, releasing it completely as she began to walk toward him. Each step was careful, hesitant not out of fear, but something far more personal.

"And you’re here..." she continued, her breath uneven, as if she was still convincing herself that this was real. "You’re back..."

She moved closer.

Closer and closer .

And Razeal atill didn’t not move.

Behind Razeal.

"Who’s she?" Sofia leaned slightly toward Maria, her voice lowered to the barest whisper, careful not to draw attention. Her eyes flicked between Nova and Razeal, noting the tension.

She had noticed the way Razeal looked at her silent, unmoving, but there was something there... something heavy. Not warmth. Not relief. It was closer to annoyance... or exhaustion. Like just the sight of her was enough to stir something unpleasant within him.

Maria hesitated.

"That’s... his sister," she replied quietly. "Nova Virelan."

Even as she said it, there was uncertainty in her tone. Not about the identity but about the situation. About whether this... this meeting... was even a good thing at all.

And at that answer Sofia went silent.

The realization settled in quietly, but heavily. She looked at Nova again, this time differently. And then she fell silent. Because now... it made sense. The tension. The suffocating atmosphere that had suddenly taken over everything.

"Go, You can go talk to your brother..." Razeal said, his voice cutting through the moment as if he had just stepped out of whatever distant place his mind had wandered into as he turned slightly, looking at Nancy beside him as he spoke, his tone neutral but deliberate.

Nancy blinked, momentarily caught off guard as she looked at him.

Then her gaze shifted from him

To Nova.

And Something in her expression changed.

Before, she had respected her. Admired her even. Seen her as strong... composed... someone worthy of that image she carried.

But now...

Now that she knew the truth.. knew how Nova had believed the lies, had followed the manipulation spun by Celestia and Selena without question, without even sensing something was wrong that image had cracked.

It wasn’t anger.

Not quite disappointment either.

Just... a quiet loss of regard.

Like something she once believed in had turned out to be less than what it seemed. She must be regretting it now? Isn’t she? Nancy thought to herself.

"Alright..." Nancy said softly, her voice steady enough, though her thoughts were anything but.

Then

She turned.

And ran.

Her movement was sudden, almost abrupt, as if something inside her had snapped into motion all at once. Her steps were quick, urgent not out of fear, but out of something far deeper. A pull. A need.

Her eyes locked onto him instantly.

At Areon.

He stood at a distance, still trying to make sense of everything happening around him, his gaze shifting from one figure to another, confusion and tension mixing within his expression. For nearly two months, he had been searching relentlessly and desperately for her. With no certainty. With no answers. Only the lingering question that refused to leave him..

Where is she? Is she alright? What happened to her?

And now

He finally saw her.

His entire focus snapped toward her the moment she came into view, running straight at him.

"Nancy.."

He didn’t even finish.

Because she was already there.

Nancy didn’t slow down.

She reached him and threw herself into him, her arms wrapping tightly around him as if anchoring herself like if she didn’t hold on now, she might lose this moment again.

There was a brief pause

A fraction of a second

Where something inside her hesitated.

A small, invisible shield.

Because she knew now. She knew things she hadn’t known before.

Knew that her brother... unknowingly... had become a part of something dangerous for her. That fate itself had written something between them.. something neither of them chose, something neither of them deserved that could one day turn him into a threat she would have to face.. if he already isn’t..

But she also knows.. its not by his will.

Nor by his choice.

But still...

It existed.

He didn’t do anything wrong... her thoughts whispered quietly, almost as if she was reminding herself. This isn’t his fault...

And yet

I still need to be careful...

That contradiction tightened painfully in her chest.

Because both things were true. And neither of them could erase the other.

She didn’t want distance between them. Didn’t want this unseen line to exist.

But it did. Somehow

And that made everything feel heavier than it should have been. More complicated.

More painful.

Areon though didn’t notice any of it.

The moment she collided into him, his arms came around her instantly tight, firm, protective. Like it was instinct. Like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Like letting go wasn’t even an option.

His grip tightened slightly as emotion surged through him all at once, unfiltered and overwhelming.

He had found her.

After all this time.

After weeks of searching, of not knowing, of imagining the worst wondering if she was alive, if she was hurt, if he had already lost her without even knowing..

And now.. She was here.

Alive.

In his arms.

His chest rose sharply as he held her, his breath uneven, his hand pressing gently against her back as if grounding himself in the reality of it.

"You’re... you’re okay..." his voice came out low, almost breaking, though he tried to steady it. As if saying it aloud would make it more real.

And Nancy

For all the strength she had shown until now...

For everything she had endured alone...

For all the truths she carried, all the pain she had buried just to keep moving forward..

Afterall She was still just a young girl. A girl who needed someone. Someone she didn’t have to think around. Someone she didn’t have to guard herself against.

Someone she could simply... be with.

And in this moment

That someone was him.

Her brother.

The one place that still felt like home.

The composure she had maintained for so long the calm, controlled strength she had carried in front of Riven.. To not cry or show any of her vonurablity..

It cracked.

Then shattered.

Completely.

Her fingers tightened slightly against his back, gripping onto him just a little more, as her breathing faltered. The weight she had been carrying.. the fear, the confusion, the pain, the exhaustion of holding everything together

It all surfaced at once.

She couldn’t hold it anymore

And in his arms

Nancy stopped trying to be strong.

The fragile reunion between Nancy and Areon continued, filled with suppressed emotion and unspoken complications and all.

While behind them

Razeal and Nova facing each others after very so long time.

"Well," Razeal began at last, his voice carrying that same unsettling calm, both hands tucked lazily into his pockets as though none of this required even the slightest effort from him, "it wasn’t in any plan of mine to see you... or meet you." A faint smile curved across his lips, subtle but unmistakably there, as his gaze settled on her steady, assessing, and faintly amused.

"But here we are." He let out a quiet breath that almost turned into a soft laugh, shaking his head just slightly as if the entire situation amused him on a level deeper than words. "Guess this is just another one of destiny’s little games... trying to get back at me."

There was humor in his tone real humor.. but not the kind born from joy. It was dry, edged with mockery, as if he found the very concept of fate trying to get back on him was just laughable.

His eyes lingered on Nova as he spoke, studying her not like someone seeing a long-lost sister, but like someone observing a piece placed onto a board unexpected, but ultimately insignificant.

Yeah had believed Riven’s explanation. Not because he trusted him.. never that but because this... this didn’t feel like Riven’s doing. It was too precise, too perfectly timed and too... convenient.

This had a different weight to it. Something far more irritating. Fate? Destiny? Or Whatever that unseen force liked to call itself when it moved pieces around and pretended it wasn’t interfering. And standing there, looking at Nova, Razeal couldn’t help the quiet chuckle that slipped out of him low, amused, almost entertained.

So this is what you came up with?

His crimson eyes rested on Nova.

Does this think will do anything to him?

Changing the laws of the world. Breaking its order. Walking a path no one else even dared to imagine and this... this was supposed to be retaliation?

Bringing her here?

The idea itself was almost insulting.

Actually more of disappointing..

Does it think I’ll regret anything? Stop? Hesitate?

"What exactly do it think this is going to do to me...?" he muttered faintly to himself

Genuinely curious.. before lifting his gaze properly toward her, that same faint smile still sitting on his face.

"So what?" he asked his voice smooth, conversational, as though they were discussing something trivial rather than standing in the middle of something unresolved and heavy. "You here to complain now?" His head tilted slightly, curiosity laced with quiet sarcasm. "About how I manipulated you? Sent you to that churchyard?"

A pause.

Then, softer more pointed.

"Or maybe you want to give me a lecture."

His gaze held hers, unwavering.

"About what I did to those people." 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

A faint silence followed brief, but intentional.

"The ones I tortured? killed." His tone didn’t change. No remorse. No justification. Just statement. "Or whatever version you prefer to remember."

Another low chuckle slipped from him.

"Oh well..." he added lightly, almost dismissing the weight of his own words. "I suppose it must have been quite the sight for you." His lips curved faintly again. "A beautiful picture, wasn’t it?"

The irony in his voice was unmistakable.

"Something so... disgusting." His gaze sharpened just slightly. "For someone like you to witness."

He let that sit for a moment.

"The great Nova Virelan..." he continued, his tone dipping just enough to carry that familiar edge of mockery. "Of the great and respected Virelan family." A faint pause. "The one that makes the world fear."

He watched her carefully now.

As if he already knew what she would say. As if none of this surprised him.

Nova, however

Didn’t react.

She had stopped a few steps away from him, maintaining that quiet distance between them. Her posture was straight, composed not rigid, but controlled in a way that spoke of effort rather than ease.

And through all of it

She said nothing.

She simply looked at him and Listening.

Absorbing.

And.. Enduring.

Razeal saw her not responding.. So he thought to push it further.

"Or..." he went on, his voice changing slightly now less mocking, more probing, though the underlying sharpness remained. "Is it something else?"

"Something like.. You here to explain?" His eyes didn’t leave hers.

"To tell me you finally figured it out?"

The air seemed to tighten just a little.

"That you were wrong... and I was right."

The words settled between them, heavy, deliberate.

"That.. The truth is out," he continued, quieter now but colder. "And you can’t accept it."

His gaze didn’t waver.

"That the great, intelligent, Mastermind Nova Virelan..." his voice carried a faint, cutting emphasis"...who prided herself on knowing me... correcting me... believing she understood everything..."

"...was wrong."

Silence.

"Manipulated," he said simply. "By children."

The word lingered.

"And you believed them."

No emotion.

Just fact.

"Even when the truth was right in front of you." His voice lowered slightly. "Even when I told you to your face."

Another pause.

"But you didn’t listen." Now there was something else beneath the calm.

Something sharper.

"Because you were too arrogant," he said, the word landing clean, unfiltered. "Too convinced that if you thought you were right... then you were."

Silence followed again.

Longer this time.

"So now what?" he asked, his tone returning to that earlier calm curiosity, though now it felt more genuine. "You here to fix it?"

His head tilted slightly.

"To take me back?"

A faint, humorless smile touched his lips.

"Pack me up like a sack of potatoes and drag me back to that so-called home... because you can’t accept that you were wrong?" His eyes locked onto hers.

"Or in other words you come here to stop me?"

There was no sarcasm in that last question.

Just curiosity.

Real, unfiltered curiosity.

Because beneath everything beneath the mockery, the indifference, the quiet disdain he genuinely wanted to know.

What was she here for?

What did destiny expect her to do?

What role did she think she could possibly play now?

His eyes held hers, waiting not impatiently, not aggressively but with a stillness that demanded an answer.

But Nova didn’t respond.

Not immediately.

She stood there, a few steps away from him, her posture steady, her breathing controlled. Her eyes remained fixed on him not defiant, not broken just... unwavering. She let him speak. Let every word land. Let every accusation settle between them without interruption.

And in that silence

There was weight.

Not emptiness.

Not avoidance.

But something restrained.

Something held back.

Then

When he finally stopped

She moved.

"I came..." her voice broke through the silence, quiet but clear, steady in a way that didn’t need volume to carry strength. Her eyes didn’t leave his. Not even for a second. "To make it even."

The words were simple.

But they shifted something.

Subtle.

Yet undeniable.

And then

With a faint flicker of light pulsed from the ring on her finger.

In the next instant a Whip materialized in her hand.

It appeared smoothly, as if drawn from nothing, its presence immediate and unmistakable. The handle rested firmly in her grip but her hand... it was trembled.

Just slightly. Just not enough to weaken her hold.

But enough to reveal what lay beneath the surface.

"Here..." she said, her voice still steady despite the faint shake in her fingers. She raised it just enough for him to see clearly. "It’s the same whip."

A brief pause.

"The one I used..." her grip tightened just a fraction, as if anchoring herself to the moment, "...to whip you."

The air seemed to still.

"In front of the entire empire."

The words carried no pride.

No justification.

Just truth.

"I kept it," she continued, quieter now but not weaker. Her eyes remained locked onto his, refusing to look away. "For you."

"And.. For this day."

And then

She threw it go.

The whip left her hand in a controlled motion not thrown in anger, not forced but deliberate. Intentional.

It fell.

Landing at Razeal’s feet with a soft, heavy sound, the coiled leather settling against the ground between them.

Silence followed.

Razeal’s gaze dropped.

Slowly to the whip lying there. And the first time

There was something unexpected.

Not shock.

Not exactly.

But something close enough to disrupt the stillness he carried.

His eyes lingered on it for a moment longer than they should have, as if processing not the object itself, but what it represented.

Then

Just as slowly

He lifted his gaze back to her.

And for the first time

There was no immediate response.

No smirk.

No remark waiting at the edge of his lips.

Just stillness.

Around them, even the others felt it.

Around them, Sofia, Maria, and the others had gone quiet also..their expressions shifting into something uncertain confusion as kinda unsettled, unable to fully grasp what they were witnessing.

Nova didn’t move.

Didn’t speak again.

She simply stood there

Waiting.

And Razeal

Remained exactly as he was.

Hands still in his pockets.

Eyes on her.

And neither of them broke the silence that followed.

——