Free Web NovelChapter 386: They Better
Zethar;
"I should have," I answer quickly, because that is the truth.
There’s no space left in me for excuses. Not now that everything has been laid out so clearly in front of me. Not now that I understand what that name means, what it carries, what it has already done once before.
I know how I think. I know how I notice things. How I pick at details until they either make sense or refuse to. I know the way my instincts sit in my chest when something isn’t right.
I felt it.
I did.
And instead of trusting it, instead of staying long enough to understand it, I turned my back on it like it was nothing.
I bury my face in my palms, my fingers pressing hard against my forehead as the weight of that realisation settles fully.
It refuses to move.
Lioran shifts slightly beside me, his hands resting against his knees as he stares ahead, and I don’t need to look at him to know he’s thinking the same thing I am. Maybe not in the same way, but close enough.
"Elien is there," he says quietly. Once again calling Elián by the wrong name.
But the way he says it is different. He’s not just stating a fact.
...He’s holding onto it.
Clinging to it, like saying it out loud, makes it easier to face.
I lift my head slowly and glance at him.
His expression hasn’t changed much. If anything, it’s almost too still. But I see it. I’ve known him long enough to see past what he chooses to show.
I can see the tension in his jaw.
The way his fingers curl slightly against the fabric of his clothes, gripping without realising it... The way his shoulders sit just a little tighter than they should.
He’s worried, and he’s scared. I hate that I understand that fear more than I want to.
"They’re all there," I say.
But as the words leave my mouth, I know they don’t help. They don’t soften anything. If anything, they make it worse.
Because it means that almost everyone we care about is in the same place.
The same place where something ancient and violent has found its way back into the world. The same place where something that once rotted an entire kingdom is moving again.
Lioran exhales slowly, his gaze dropping briefly before lifting again, like he’s forcing himself to stay present instead of getting pulled under by all we’ve just learned.
"If this is really the Sect... then Nagari isn’t just in danger." He says, with his voice quieter now... more grounded,
I stare at him in silence, because that’s the truth.
Not a warning, not a possibility... Not something that might happen if we don’t act fast enough.
It is already happening. Right now.
While we’re sitting here. While we’re reading about it.
...While we’re trying to understand something that doesn’t wait for understanding. ƒгeewёbnovel.com
My hands curl slightly at my sides, nails pressing into my palms as something sharp and restless twists in my chest.
This is wrong.
All of it.
I shouldn’t be here.
I shouldn’t be sitting on the floor of a quiet library, learning about this from a book that I should never have had to remember or find.
I shouldn’t be this far away from where it’s happening. I should be there.
That thought lands differently this time. There’s no hesitation behind it.
No second-guessing... No part of me is trying to argue against it.
It settles cleanly. Sharp and certain.
"I’m not staying."
The words come out steady. Firm and final.
Lioran looks at me immediately, like he expected it... and still didn’t.
"You heard what Father said. He told you to stay here." He says, and I stare at him.
"I know what he said."
"And you’re just going to ignore it?"
"Yes."
There’s no pause before the answer. No space for doubt.
If I stay here... I do nothing. If I stay here... I wait.
Staying here is leaving them there to their fate.
And I won’t.
I won’t do that when I can fight alongside them.
Lioran studies me for a moment, his expression unreadable in a way that tells me he’s weighing more than just my words.
Then he exhales slowly, dragging a hand through his hair.
"If you leave, you’re disobeying him."
"I’m aware."
"And if something happens here—"
"It won’t. Not like what’s happening there." I answer, and he falls silent because we both know that’s true.
The capital isn’t the centre of this. Nagari is.
Everything points back to it.
"That’s where the Sect is, that’s where the threat is. That’s where almost everyone who matters right now is." I explain, and I watch his gaze sharpen slightly as I speak.
"And you think going back alone is going to fix that?" he asks. ƒrēewebnovel.com
"No," I answer honestly.
"But staying here definitely won’t," I add, and he doesn’t argue.
Because he knows it. Or at the very least, he knows I’m not wrong.
"I left them there," I say again, quieter now, the words sitting deeper this time.
"I should be there." The admission doesn’t sting less the second time.
Lioran watches me for a long moment, like he’s measuring something I can’t see, something he’s still deciding on.
Then his shoulders drop slightly in acceptance.
"You’re not going to change your mind," he says, and I shake my head.
"No."
He nods once, a slow breath leaving him.
"Then you’re not going alone." He says, and I frown instantly.
"You’re needed here."
"So are you!" he snaps, and that’s enough to stop me.
Because he’s right, and he knows it.
"And I’m not staying here pretending this isn’t happening. Not when Elien is there."
There it is again. That name.
I study him for a moment.
He’s serious. Completely serious. And I understand it.
Because if our positions were reversed, I wouldn’t have wanted to stay either.
I wouldn’t have been able to.
A slow breath leaves me as I look at him, and something shifts again, quieter this time, more grounded.
Not everything is about what I want. Not everything is about what feels right.
There’s more at stake than just Nagari.
...More than just the people there.
The capital. The empire...
.
Everything still stands because someone is holding it together.
And right now— That someone is meant to be us.
I look away from him and draw my knees to my chest— my arms wrapping around them as I stare ahead.
My thoughts settle into something heavier, something less impulsive.
"We can’t leave," I say quietly.
The words don’t come easily. But they come nonetheless.
"The entirety of Beast Heaven rests on our shoulders right now. We’ll hold the fort here... and pray that our brother and father... that our family returns to us in one piece." I add.
It feels wrong. It feels incomplete. But it also feels true.
Lioran drags in a long breath beside me, the sound uneven in a way he tries to hide.
He looks away from me and mirrors my posture, pulling his knees to his chest like he’s trying to make himself smaller against something that suddenly feels too big.
"Yeah..." he murmurs.
"They’ll come back."
The words are quiet. Not spoken to me, but spoken to something deeper than that.
Something that needs to believe it.
I stare ahead, my jaw tightening slightly as I let that sit.
They have to.
Because if they don’t—
I don’t let that thought finish.
They will.
They have to.
"They better."
