Teddy’s eyes close in recognition. Like he already knows what she’s about to say.
“And that fragment had nowhere to go.”
A pause. Heavy. Thick.
Elyssara sucks in a sharp breath.
“So it made a home in Kael.” The words taste like poison as she says them.
Saying it aloud makes it real.
Murmurs fill the room. Teddy’s head falls into his hands. Heartbreak tears through Elyssara anew. Agony taking root in her chest, like the tether itself is being ripped from her.
“We can remove it,” Seren pleads desperately.
“An elixir,” Rubi offers, hands rifling through the bags she’s brought with her.
Elyssara shakes her head wordlessly.
“Heal him,” Jax snaps, stabbing a finger in Elyssara’s direction.
“We’ve tried. We’ve tried it all. The books in Elarion’s library all say the same thing: madness, violence, death. This thing…” Elyssara trails off, memories of Kael overtaken by the Decay flooding her. “This thing commands him. It possesses him somehow.”
“If it fully takes him,” Teddy says quietly, “there may not be a kingdom left to save.”
The words curl through the air like smoke.
But Jax ignores it. “You fucking fix him, Elyssara,” she chokes out.
Teddy doesn’t speak, just keeps his head buried in his hands.
Then slowly, his gaze lifts, settling on Elyssara. “Has anything been able to alter the grip it has on him?” he asks, calculating every angle, assessing every option.
Elyssara nods slowly. “Me,” she breathes. “My presence. My voice.”
She sucks in a steadying breath. “It doesn’t work completely. Not every time. But… it recedes enough to reach him, so he can pull himself back. He’s there. He’s still in there.”
Teddy takes it in, thoughts churning through his mind, desperately trying to strategize a plan. But a voice cuts through the emotion like a godsdamned guillotine.
“He needs to be eradicated. It’s that simple.” The words land like a blade dropped between them.Marin.
Her voice slams through Elyssara’s skull like a battering ram. Elyssara’s gaze lifts from her lap, and stares at Caeloria’s Princess with a look that could end worlds.
Breaths hiss through Elyssara’s teeth, and light flares at her chest in warning. “You touch my Starbound, Marin, and Caeloria will exist only in the history books. I will burn it from existence without a second thought.”
And every person in the room believes her.
Her gaze snaps to Saana, and no one misses what this is: a promise.
Marin shrugs, unfazed by the threat. “He’ll kill us all, then.”
Teddy’s rich timber commands the room. “Your lives are bound,” he says, pointing out the truth.
Eyes drift to her now. Waiting for her response.
“Yes,” Elyssara admits.
And the implications fill the space. If he dies, she dies.
