"You don’t mean that, brother-in-law," Aenyra’s weak voice broke through the tension.

Sseraphis muttered a fierce curse under his breath and turned viciously towards Aenyra. Though, his memories of her were always of her protecting him shielding him and caring for him.

His eyes subconsciously softened as he faced her. Unlike Aeltharion and Nytherael, he couldn’t bring himself to be horrible to her.

Aenyra stood up with Sheana’s help, she removed the cloak on her shoulders and showed her arm to Sseraphis.

"You are speaking as though years have passed since you were married to my brother but it was only yesterday that you treated my wound," she said, showing him the wound from the hourglass. "So how did Aeltharion and Nytherael chose each other over you, divorce you,move on together and you finding new love in a matter of hours, huh?" 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Sseraphis recognized that wound. He remembered he’d spent hours treating her, at the end he felt exhausted and his body burnt to a degree he’d never felt before. But in his memories, that happened years ago... many, many years back.

He moved towards her and touched the wound, a sharp pain struck in his head, his body jolted forward, luckily Sheana caught him with her free hand before he spit out blood.

Sseraphis’ clasped a hand over his closer eyes, wincing in deep pain as his head felt like it was being split open.

"Aenyra," Sheana steadied the dragoness who had also slipped away from her hold. "A little help?" She looked at the two lovers.

Its not that weight of the two was crashing down on her but she didn’t like holding Sseraphis. The venomous serpent sent chills down her spine and she was afraid that when Sseraphis gets better, he might sever her hand for daring to hold him.

And additionally, she much preferred holding and caring for Aenyra and Aenyra alone.

"Here, I’ll take him."

Aeltharion reached out, right when he held Sseraphis, he was surprised to see soft fair hands also holding the snake from the other side.

He looked up and his molten amber-gold eyes against mismatched crimson and gold eyes. The colour of both pairs of eyes were deep because of their heightened emotions.

They had a shared understanding in those eyes without needing a conversation. They both held Sseraphis and transfered their vital essence to him to ease his ache.

Sseraphis unconsciously leaned towards the warm flow of essense and the softness left in it’s wake. He took deeper breaths, biting his lips to hold off from screaming out.

In his brain, fake and real memories were crashing. The black snake-like energy inside of him was shaking frantically, unsettled by the strong resistance it encountered.

Sseraphis saw the scarlet-eyed beast but before he could find peace in those eyes, the amber-gold eyes glanced back at him with tenderness and two confused him, both feeling like home and his peaceful place.

Jura crept in from the back, he clasped Sseraphis’ head, his fingers stretching out over his forehead. His spirit voice invaded Sseraphis’ torn mind and since Sseraphis was physically, emotionally and spirituality exhausted, it became easy for him to issue a command to his mind.

"Sleep," he ordered. Sseraphis heard the command, his weakened state fell to submission.

He closed his eyes and fell to slumber. The ache in his head eased up once his mind stopping working on trying to make sense of two sets of existing memories with different time lines in his head.

"Lay him on the floor," Jura instructed them. He went back to searching for the Nox.

The hidden techniques in that book had the method of dream invasion and memory binding that they needed to free Sseraphis from the unknown beast’s attack.

"What is the plan? How do we save Sseraphis from the beasts interference?" Aeltharion asked, his eyes focused on his venom.

At that moment, he was ready to give up anything just to have the snake back to being himself. His venom wasn’t his venom when the choices he made weren’t his but influenced.

Nytherael chipped in. "I am ready to do whatever it takes to bring him back. He can hate me... Scheme against me...but he isn’t allowed to think that he’s moved on from us when he hasn’t," he badly wanted to get his hands on the beast that messed with Sseraphis’ brain.

The two of them locked eyes again. Remembering Jura’s earlier instruction, they both focused on the beautiful and sweet memories of their marriage. Their time together that brought them together.

A pleasant warm and fuzzy energy sipped out of his fox form, a fiery flame sizzled out of the dragon and levitated Sseraphis’ body that they were both holding.

The energy formed a bubble that enveloped all the three of them and the two of them were also lifted up in the air. They maintained eye contact the whole time, never blinking or looking away.

And in the space between their faces, the memories they visualized in their heads manifested and played out like a movie.

Their shopping sprees with Nytherael buying everything that caught his eyes and Sseraphis and Aeltharion trailing behind him, carrying the shopping bags for him. Her drag them store to store buying things he knew he’d never wear or use just because they caught his eyes and pleased him.

Sseraphis and Aeltharion complained that he was wasting shards and acting like a spoilt child but Nytherael would laugh it off and own that he was a spoilt child.

Memories of going treasure hunting. Aeltharion dragging them around the dynasty with a map in hand, searching the surface for lost treasures to add to his collections.

Nytherael and Sseraphis would complain and say he already had enough treasures but Aeltharion would insist and they’d follow along on the adventures.

Memories of the lazy days when Sseraphis didn’t feel like getting out of bed and moving around when they would give him the full royalty treatment. Aeltharion would cook and he’d carry the food over to his bed. They give him a massage, spoon feed him and attend to all his needs before he even asked them to.

Those sweet moments floated around them and the deeper their feelings run, the brighter the bubble around them became. Their tri-soul bond activated and the light from the bubble shot out from the room, crossed the ocean and shot out to all the three realms of the dynasty.

Every inch of the abyssal coil was lit up, the surface felt as bright as day with the three moons in the sky that formed the day their bond formed soaking up the light and lighting up brighter than the sun, the skies were engulfed in such brightness that it was impossible to see through anything.

Beastfolk everywhere stopped what they were doing and stared up at the light. It was a rare occurrence for the world to be so bright and have the light not feel blinding or hurt their eyes. Rather it felt warm, like the feeling of home they’d long forgotten in the midst of the chaos and poisons in the world.

"We got you," Nytherael and Aeltharion whispered to Sseraphis.