2nd, second moon.

Nytherael snapped awake, the heat from his bond with his husbands pulling him from slumber.

He knew that Aeltharion and Sseraphis were together, together. He wasn’t sure how intimate they ha been but lingering moments, they were both extremely heated for each other.

Feeling that left a hollow void in his soul. He hated knowing how well they getting along without and feeling it for himself wasn’t any better.

He desired to punch a hole in the earth to vent his frustrations and the ill desires mirrored in his half golden and half crimson eyes. His fox ears stood straight, twitching murderously.

Nytherael’s anger had never looked as beautiful as it did now. The first light of dawn slipped through his window and fell over him. Under the sunlight, he was extremely breathtaking.

Half of his face held a soft, almost feminine beauty, while the other half carried a strong masculinity. Anyone who looked at him would struggle to tell whether he was a husband or a wife.

He was like a woman with the handsome features of a man, both blending perfectly, neither overpowering the other.

Nytherael clenched his fist into the silk blanket covering him. His face twisting with dilemma.

His king-sized bed and mattress held his weight without shifting at all. He rolled over, the sheets wrinkling under his movements.

"Keep sleeping... and everything that happened yesterday can remain just a bad dream," he told himself.

He wished that everything that had happened since waking up from Qihera would turn into nothing more than a nightmare.

Dreams end when one wakes up but reality is harder to escape, because it follows you whether you’re asleep or awake.

"I hate to tell you this, but everything that happened yesterday was real... not a dream," he heard the voice of his sister, Nerezza.

Nytherael opened his eyes and looked toward his dressing table. There, Nerezza sat comfortably.

She threw him a smile that could ruin nations. Nytherael found himself shivering, his body refusing to believe the gentleness on her face.

"Oh, wait. I don’t hate telling you the truth that I know will break your heart. I actually enjoy it," she said, her cruel words completely mismatched with her soft smile. "I enjoy seeing you in pain," she added, breaking Nytherael’s bubble.

Nytherael tossed the blanket aside and stood up from the bed. After waking up to the feeling from the strings of fate giving him a sense of his lovers being intimate, he was already been in a terrible mood.

He feared he might say something he’d regret if he stayed there any longer listening to her.

"Good morning to you too," he forced himself to say calmly.

Nerezza’s smile dropped at his nonchalance. She stood, grabbed a hairbrush from the table, and hurled it at him with force.

Nytherael raised his hand and caught it mid-air. Being a nine-tailed fox while his sister was only a four-tailed one meant he was far stronger, faster, and more skilled. Unless he allowed it, she couldn’t hurt him at all.

"Sister, why are you so full of hatred this early in the morning?"

"Because you’re still alive," Nerezza replied. "Try dying... you’ll see how full of love I’ll become toward everything."

Nytherael gave her a faint smile before heading to the bathroom. Yiwa had already prepared his bath.

The bathwater was hot, mixed with milk and various flowers to give it a sweet fragrance. A wooden tray nearby held soap and a scrub.

He removed his night clothes and dropped them into the laundry basket. His skin glowed in the light, making him alluring and impossible to look away from.

Yiwa and the other servants of the Auryn household entered to assist him. All their eyes lingered on Nytherael’s body, too stunned to look away to report to their tasks.

Nytherael, oblivious to their reaction, stepped into the water. The heat soothed his skin, bringing him relief. For a moment, he forgot all his troubles and simply enjoyed the bath.

Yiwa knelt beside the pool, took the scrub, and applied soap before soaking slightly in the water. "Tell me... what’s your plan for today?" he asked while scrubbing Nytherael’s body.

"It’s too early, Yiwa. Don’t start again."

"You say that like I had stopped."

Nytherael played with the water. Yiwa’s voice reminded him of the argument with Nerezza the previous day and everything that had gone wrong in his life, problems he didn’t even know how to fix.

"Why is everyone so determined to remind me of my mistakes?"

"Because your mistakes affected everyone... and they’re still suffering from them. Now that you’re back, it’s only fair they let out their anger on you."

"I have a heart too... and it hurts. Why can’t they see that?"

Yiwa deliberately scrubbed his back harder. Annoyed by Nytherael victimising himself against the outcome of his mistakes.

"Aaargh!" Nytherael cried out, swimming away to the other side of the pool. "What’s wrong with you?"

"Why are you glaring at me?" Yiwa asked as if he’d done nothing wrong.

"You hurt me, Yiwa, and you’re asking why I’m glaring?"

"I just wanted to see if you still had feelings."

"Well, now you’ve seen. You know the truth."

Yiwa slowly walked along the edge of the pool to where Nytherael was, knelt again, and continued scrubbing him.

"You get angry when people show you hatred born from the pain of your betrayal... yet you get upset when you’re hurt?" Yiwa said. "Are your feelings the only ones that matter?"

Nytherael frowned. Ever since waking from the ice, everyone had made a habit of telling him harsh truths to his face, leaving him drowning in regret.

No one knew how much he had ruined his own life more than he did. The hatred people felt for him could never surpass the hatred he felt for himself.

’I know their feelings natter too,’ he thought.

Yiwa finished bathing him, and Nytherael stepped out of the water. The servants quickly gathered to dress him and style his hair.

He wore black two-piece outfit with silver detailing along the edges. His hair was styled into two smooth braids flowing backward, exposing his face and making him even more irresistible.

He wore a half-moon chain, symbolizing that he had begun to accept he was incomplete without his mates.

"You’re ready," Yiwa said in awe. He applied a perfume that smelled like gold on Nytherael, one Sseraphis had created because the snake was obsessed with Aeltharion’s natural scent.

Once, Nytherael had laughed at Sseraphis for that obsession. Now, here he was using that same perfume just to feel closer to Aeltharion, even if only a little.

"Breakfast is ready. Let’s go eat."

They went straight to the dining hall. The guests who had arrived the previous day; his sister Nerezza, his brother Veance, his childhood friend Rhysandor, and two unfamiliar girls were already eating. No one had waited for him to arrive.

"Good morning," he greeted.

"Good..." Rhysandor began to respond before Nerezza shoved a piece of fried beef into his mouth.

"What’s so good about this morning, Nytherael?" she asked, clearly picking a fight.

Nytherael took a breath, reminding himself that arguing before eating was pointless.

Yiwa pulled out a chair for him. Just as Nytherael was about to sit, a male war-tiger beastman entered, holding a golden scroll.

"Decree from the Emperor," he announced.

Everyone present stood and knelt except Nytherael, who remained standing, staring at the war-tiger without any ounce of respect or fear.

"By order of the Emperor: Nytherael Auryn, former Fate Envoy and Illusion Adjudicator, is hereby reinstated to his former post, effective immediately. He is to set out and cleanse the nation of the poisons that threaten to destroy it. A task force has been assigned to assist him, consisting of Princess Samahita Vaelthorne, Princess Sheana Vaelthorne, Beast Court representative Aenyra Zhen, General Rhysandor Dulleurama, Nerezza Auryn, memory archivist Theren Altharos, and the Emperor’s envoy war-tiger Tivnir Lysven."

Tivnir finished reading out the decree. He rolled up the scroll and handed it to Nytherael. "Do you accept the decree?"

"We accept!" The others claimed however, Nytherael remained silent as though he hadnt heard the question.

Nytherael took the scroll with clear displeasure. He hated being forced into anything, and now the Emperor was ordering him to fix everything and save the people of the Lume Dynasty.

"Reinstated? When was I ever dismissed?" Nytherael asked in confusion.