He raised his eyes, his black irises suddenly meeting hers. For a second, she felt incredibly wary of his reaction, but much to her relief, a smile soon appeared on his lips. He finished tightening his forearm protection with one movement, and then gently placed his hands on her cheeks, caressing them gently.
“Much better, now that you’re here. ...I’m sorry about earlier.”
Cessilia felt relieved, finally. Ashen wasn’t mad or upset at all. Instead, his eyes expressed deep regret, and one of his hands came to take hers.
“I always need... a long time to get to the answers I need,” he muttered. “I’m sorry I made you suffer again.”
“It’s alright...”
“Cessi.”
He gently lifted her chin up with his finger, making sure they’d look into each other’s eyes. Cessilia smiled shyly. How strange was it that she always felt shy in front of his big dark eyes... She took a deep breath in, and nodded, leaning closer to him. They were fine now. Ashen smiled, and gently put his forehead against hers with a smile.
“...You’ve been busy,” he muttered. “The Cheshi, huh?”
“They d-don’t hate you.”
“Just my luck.”
“Ashen... your m-mom was one of theirs.”
He frowned a bit, his eyes going down to their hands. He sighed and faintly nodded.
“I had a hunch... Perhaps a part of me always knew, and that’s why I couldn’t bring myself to trust them after they basically abandoned her. I know how my mom was, though. She probably wasn’t very... receptive either.”
“C-can you work with them?”
“I’ll make do,” he chuckled. “It’s not like I have much of a choice... and they are still part of this Kingdom after all. Your friend Naptunie is right. It’s high time they took part in this. Plus, the armor is pretty cool indeed.”
Cessilia chuckled. She liked the set she was almost done putting on too. It had a dark purple shade with pink undertones, something that reminded her of Cece. Her dragon was a very unique silver color, with shades of magenta when her scales shone...
“Will you b-be alright?” Cessilia asked with a frown. “Your injury was...”
Her eyes went down to the spot under his armor, but to her surprise, Ashen guided her fingers for her to touch his abs. Cessilia blushed, but even more surprising, she felt the very distinct and familiar touch of smooth skin that characterized a scar. She frowned, confused, and her fingers followed the line, confirming it. A new scar? How could there already be such a clean and neat scar? While she got lost in her questions, Ashen suddenly shuddered.
“Um... Cessi. It tickles.”
She blushed and took her hand back, realizing she had been caressing him unintentionally. Flushed and looking aside, Cessilia cleared her throat loudly, taking a step back.
“How... how d-did?”
“I gave him some blood.”
Her eyes went to Kassian, who was ready on the side in beautiful blue-gray armor, his arms crossed and a couple new weapons lined his back. He stepped forward, his eyes on Ashen.
“I gave him some of my blood... so he could heal faster. Dragon blood is surprisingly efficient, and we had already established he was compatible the first time we found him...”
“Really?” exclaimed Cessilia, surprised. “I d-didnt think about that.”
“You’re not the only one who got lessons from mom,” chuckled Kassian, giving her a quick kiss on her temple. “He’s not fully healed, but it will be enough for today. It’s not like the King can take a rest day while we reconquer his Kingdom, right?”
His green eyes went to Ashen, who nodded, an air of humility painted all over his face. Cessilia wondered how these two had come to an understanding while she was gone... It seemed like they had resolved a thing or two, and now, they were back to that precious bond of deep trust between them. She felt a bit happy about it, although she could still feel some tension.
“You look handsome in this, b-big brother,” she said with a faint smile.
“Thanks. Father used to have armor like this... one made of Krai’s dead scales. It wasn’t as well-crafted as this, but I was always curious about it. Krai was the only dragon that shed his scales, so there was only his that could be made, and not enough material to replace it.”
“I’m glad these will be helpful to you!” declared Lady Aglithia. “They all suit you very well.”
Cessilia glanced around. Indeed, they had picked well. Ashen’s silver-white armor was perfect with his hair, and covered the injured area too, which was the main reason she had picked it in the first place. Tessandra’s armor was perfect for a very mobile bearer, and Kassian’s was a perfect balance between a heavy defense and enough freedom of movement as well. Nana could only carry forearm protections that Darsan was helping her tighten and a small dagger, but it would probably be enough. Cessilia had no intention to have Naptunie in the middle of the battle, anyway.
“Cessi, whatever the plan is, we should get started soon,” Tessandra declared, her eyes looking out the windows. “The sun has nearly risen.”
Only a short span of time had passed since Cessilia and Aglithia had come back from the Cheshi household, but each minute was unbearably precious at the moment. She nodded, and used the table Ashen had been lying on the previous night to lay down the map in front of them.
Thanks to the Cheshi’s years of keeping an accurate track of the changes within the Capital, this was probably the most accurate representation they could find of Aestara and its surroundings, including the four bridges. Everyone gathered around, serious and ready to listen to Cessilia’s plan.
“We n-need to keep the fight within the Inner Capital,” she said, her finger surrounding the main island. “We c-can’t bring Kian or K-Krai in, as they would destroy t-too much and risk harming people, b-but we can use them to c-confine the fight.”
“If anyone tries to cross a bridge, they should grill them!”
“But we have people willing to fight in the Outer Capital too,” said Nana. “My tribe’s people that were outside the walls are already gathering, so are the rest of the Hashat, and even the surviving Pangoja!”
“We d-don’t need to block all the bridges,” nodded Cessilia. “Krai can t-take the southeast one, Kian the northeast, and D-Darsan the northwest. We should leave the southwest one, where we are now, open for people to c-come in and help us. If we focus all our s-strength on one bridge, it will b-be more manageable.”
“It’s a good plan, Cessi, but we are running out of time... Sab is running out of time. We don’t have time to wait until we reconquer all the way to the Inner Capital! They will see us coming!”
“We c-can use the Cheshi’s secret tunnels,” declared Cessilia.
