CHAPTER 16: Ember
Today was yet another bright day.
The sun hung high in the sky, gazing down upon the world below.
Its rays streamed through the air, touching each and every figure that came into its range of view, whether a plant, human or animal—conquering them all.
Beneath the toweringat the heart of Nysia.
Different kinds of birds sang their songs, their melodies drifting with the gentle breeze.
Zalchys and Elestria spent the previous day wrapped in the soft embrace of memory, wandering through the echoes of their past.
At present.
Zalchys stood before Elestria, his back facing her like a wall of silence.
‘I have a gut feeling… Something great is about to happen today. Is it But I just woke up… Isn't it a bit too soon for a meeting? Should I leave Nysia for now? Or trust my intuition?’
He wore a thoughtful expression on his face.
‘While it's true that I have some ideas about this…I'm just not too confident because of my confusing memories. Who was it? Who arranged everything for me? I have to ask him. But…what if he takes advantage of my ignorance and bends the truth?’
He frowned at the possibility of being confronted with a grave situation.
Behind him, Elestria sat beneath the tree, her gaze fixed upon Zalchys’s back.
In silence, she watched him—
her eyes tracing his still figure as though bound by an invisible thread.
She took a bite from the apple in her right hand. Her left hand drifted through her black hair as she thought—
‘What is he thinking about? He just won't tell me everything at once, will he? Hah! Even turning your back on me now, are you!?
Her blue eyes gleamed, lips curving into a mischievous grin.
Chuckling softly, she stood up.
Zalchys, who was still in deep thoughts, sensed Elestria approaching him from behind.
He felt her leaning towards his right shoulder.
And then.
A teasing whisper caused him to shiver, shaking his very soul.
His face flamed crimson. Without thinking, he spun around and pulled Elestria into his arms.
Elestria exclaimed in a slightly dramatic tone, pretending to be panicking.
“Woman, you dare! No one can save you today! Today I shall eat you whole!”
Zalchys said, mischief dancing in his eyes, a sly curve forming on his lips.
She squealed in a low, teasing voice.
She cried out, her voice still low but laced with mischief.
Zalchys tightened his brace and gently touched their foreheads together.
Their fiery gazes locked, burning into each other.
A pair of white-irises encircling golden pupils stared into a pair of blue-irises encircling golden pupils, each shimmer reflecting the intensity of their shared bond.
Her sensual smile whispered promises unspoken, luring him in with effortless grace.
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Zalchys couldn’t help but stare at her, her intentions unfolding before him like an open book.
Each glance, each subtle shift in expression pulling him deeper into her spell.
The air between them shimmered with a tension both fiery and tender. Every heartbeat, every subtle motion, spoke volumes. The world around them faded, leaving only the magnetic pull of their gazes.
Elestria held him tighter, tilting her head to the left as her lips brushed his ear. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she whispered in a dreamy voice,
Zalchys subconsciously swallowed hard.
…
Even as Zalchys and Elestria indulged in their little play, something else was happening at the very heart of Cinderfall.
…
Cenking City.
Royal Palace.
At the westernmost room on the palace’s lowest floor, a tiny space measured only about three by four meters, with a low ceiling.
A bright oil lamp cast its glow across the room, illuminating a two-meter-tall and one-meter-wide canvas that dominated the small space.
This canvas was no ordinary painting, it bore a lifelike portrait of a young man.
His dark crimson hair fell to his shoulders, a pair of ember-red eyes glowed with a quiet, piercing intensity. A tiny flame-shaped mark burned faintly on his forehead, subtle yet unmistakable. He wore an elegant golden robe, its surface etched with intricate red patterns. In his left hand, he held a book like it was an extension of his presence.
A subtle smirk tugged at the corner of his blood-red lips, curving toward his left cheek.
At first glance, the portrait radiated an unsettling menace, as if the young man could step out from the canvas at any moment.
Linger long enough and it was impossible not to feel that his eyes were following, that his very presence could seep from the painting and into the room.
As of right now, a figure stood before the portrait.
An old woman in her later years wearing a similar golden-robe as the young man in the portrait.
She sighed, her half-closed red eyes locked in the canvas before her as she began to speak, her voice tinged with quiet nostalgia—
“It has been 3,210 years since that day… I can still remember the past very vividly… I was utterly broken when I lost you… It felt like I lost everything. I didn't want to remember anything but you."
She went closer to the portrait.
“After discovering myself here 1,741 years ago… I was alone… but with a role… I questioned myself, if I should take my own life, to end this hollow existence where I stood like a showpiece in a glass case, pleasing to the eyes and admired from the outside… but with teary eyes and fragile inside…”
Her voice trailed off, her gaze lingered on the portrait, and a faint but warm smile touched her lips.
“It was pretty similar compared to back then … When I had NOTHING except for endless suffering…. But everything changed the moment I met you for the first time. You reached down into my despair and pulled me out of that endless abyss. Maybe it was gratitude, or maybe just the innocence of youth… but I truly believed that GOD created you only for me... I wanted nothing more than to give you my all… every piece of me.”
She paused. Her eyes turned cold as her gaze fell upon the book in the portrait. When she spoke again, her voice trembled with fury—
“If it weren’t for that You’d still be here! With me! Even today!”
She fell silent once again. Closing her eyes, she drew a deep breath, forcing herself to calm before continuing.
She pursed her lips. Slowly, she opened her eyes and gazed at the portrait once more.
“I tried to forget you… but I cried for days, for months, for years.
I tried to console myself with the memories of what we had built together… but I wept for centuries whenever I thought I had lost you forever.”
Suddenly the sound of door knocking encompassed the room as a young maid wearing a dark-red robe stood at the doorstep and bowing slightly she said,
“Your Majesty, please pardon me for causing the disturbance but I have just received a very important news and came directly to report.”
The old woman frowned and said in an irritated tone,
“Speak!”
“Your Majesty, about half an hour ago one of our cleaning maids went to the place you mentioned. She was totally alone and was always under our knight’s supervision. Around five minutes ago they hurriedly came back with panicked faces and said that the book you told her to cover up with the secret spell was missing.”
The old woman's eyes widened as a look of disbelief covered her wrinkled face. She thought,
‘It… vanished? But it was there just yesterday! I saw it with my own eyes! Yesterday… I suddenly collapsed on the ground after moving my eyes from the
The room was silent for the following few moments as all of a sudden her eyebrows twitched and she looked deep into the young man’s ember-red eyes on the portrait.
And then.
“I see. If it is gone, then it was fated to be so. There is no need to inquire about this any further. Also, make sure to deal with that group who brought this news properly. You are dismissed!”
The old woman said in an unhurried and calm voice.
The bowing maid felt quite confused as she thought,
‘Huh? After all she had done just to get this one book, she's willing to let it go like this? Just what's she thinking!? we normal people really can't understand those with the higher status, those pitiful souls now have to be dealt with too. What a pain!’
Even though she was quite surprised at her majesty's reaction, she didn't delay her reply for a second longer and said in a respectful tone—
“Then this servant shall do just as she was instructed!”
With this the maid left.
Just as she left. And the old woman was all alone once again.
In that instant, the small room flashed with red light and when it faded, the old woman was gone. In her place stood a woman in her thirties.
She was clad in an elegant carmine gown that veiled her form entirely, except for her arms and the gentle rise of her neck.
Both her hair and eyes gleamed a deep sanguine-red.
Her face was a paradox of softness and sharpness.
Upon her head rested a ruby-crown that seemed to bear the weight of eternity itself. On her ring finger, there was a beautifully crafted wedding-ring.
She was the very embodiment of grace and beauty.
A sweet, serene smile bloomed on her face, carrying warmth even to the coldest heart. Her eyes sparkled, filled with hope.
A pair of encircling golden pupils was looking at the portrait’s pair of encircling golden pupils.
This woman in red was the King of Cinderfall,
…
Nysia.
Under the
Zalchys’s left hand traced slowly beneath Elestria’s robe, his firm fingers pressing against the taut muscles of her bare waist. Elestria’s eyes fluttered shut, her long lashes trembling. After nearly two millennia of restraint, she let go entirely, surrendering herself to Zalchys once more. It's a desire that time itself could not diminish.
His right hand found its way to her neck, drawing her closer as his lips traced each inch with slow, deliberate hunger—like a predator claiming its prey, savoring each inch as though it were a delicacy.
It wasn’t their first time, but heat rushed to Elestria’s cheeks and her heart pounded.
‘Ah… this feeling!’,she gasped inwardly.
‘After a break of over seventeen hundred years… it’s a sensation both familiar and strange. I can’t— my body feels as if it’s burning in a wildfire. If he stops halfway, I don’t know whether I’ll kill him or what. Fu… what am I thinking?’
In truth, Zalchys was equally taken aback by the sensations stirring within him at Elestria’s touch. Though he had been distant from romantic entanglements for an incredibly long time, due to some twists and turns of fate, he hadn’t endured a wait nearly as long as hers. Yet even so, the intensity of this moment—the she ignited in him was unlike anything he had expected.
So, Zalchys resolved to obey her unspoken command, to punish her thoroughly and without restraint.
He lifted her gently and carried her beneath the largest branch of the tree, placing her softly upon the grass.
Elestria looked at him with a unique light in her eyes, her breathing ragged.
Their gazes are still locked into each other. Zalchys leaned forward, closing the distance between them.
By now, the entire tree area was enveloped in something grayish.
It coiled the surroundings like a curtain, refusing to let anyone get any vision from outside.
Elestria slowly clenched her fists on Zalchys's top and then—
She instantly tore apart his top and pulled him even closer to her. Her hands held the back of his head.
‘GOD have mercy on me today! Please no distractions, or else she might go crazy and do something stupid!’
Zalchys gulped inwardly.
Smiling slyly, he stripped away the last barrier between them, revealing the perfection that time could never fade.
Throughout it all, Elestria never blinked—her gaze unwavering, almost inhuman. It was as if she refused to miss even a single moment, determined to feel everything Zalchys had to offer.
‘Damn! She looks both scary and enticing at the same time! Oh, how I’ve missed this look of hers!’
Zalchys was completely mesmerized by her. His body just above hers, his heart pounding so fast it felt like it might explode. He could almost see the look on her bewitching face.
Then.
Just as he was about to take a step further,
he suddenly jolted and almost instantly shifted his head to his left, far to the north.
And,
He murmured,
Right now, his eyes went through a change.
At this very moment,
Zalchys’s eyes had encircling golden pupils.