Omega's Rebirth-Chapter 542: Routine Changes ()

"Xenon... what happened out there?" Neveah asked, when she noticed the change in Xenon’s expression.

They had not gotten a chance to truly talk about what had happened a few days ago and Neveah had been constantly bothered by it,

Xenon could have been badly injured or worse, it had been too much of a close call and it made no sense that Xenon had done that with no reason.

Xenon frowned slightly, his gaze narrowed in concentration as he pondered in silence for a moment,

Neveah did not interrupt knowing Xenon would speak when he collected his thoughts.

Soon, Xenon shook his head in resignation, heaving an exasperated sigh.

"I have tried to figure it out, time and time again...why and how I lost my cool out in the dark lands."

"I have thought about it over and over again, but I just cannot fathom what went wrong...one moment, I destroyed the shadow beast, but in the next...my mind went blank, it was like I lost my mind...like it was no longer my own,"

"And before I recovered my awareness, I had cut off my flight and was crashing down." Xenon murmured in bafflement.

"I did not even sense the haze creeping up on me, it took me so long to gain a semblance of control over it, how could I have just lost it so suddenly? With no signs?" Xenon continued, his question directed more to himself than it was to Neveah.

Neveah could hear the apprehension, expertly concealed in Xenon’s tone. The more she got to know him, the more she could pick up on the little, visible signs of his emotions that she had never been able to notice before now.

Xenon was confused and burdened by what had happened, especially because he himself had no reasonable explanations for it.

There was nothing worse than not knowing, being unable to tell such a significant occurrence that could have been detrimental to his own life.

Neveah moved closer to Xenon, taking his hand in hers, she rubbed soothing circles with her thumb.

"Hey...we will figure it out. What matters is that you have successfully contained the wild haze once again, it will get all that much harder for it to reemerge." Neveah comforted.

Xenon nodded slowly, passing Neveah a look.

"That had nothing to do with me." Xenon reminded.

Neveah winced visibly as she thought back to what she had done in that moment.

"I... I have been meaning to say, I am deeply sorry for marking you without seeking your consent, Xenon. It is untraditional to do such and inconsiderate as well... forgive me." Neveah apologized sincerely.

Xenon raised a brow at Neveah’s words, tilting his head to the side slightly.

"Are you truly sorry?" Xenon asked Neveah pointedly.

Neveah thought over it for a moment, if she was placed in the same position as she had been then, with Xenon on the brink of spiralling,

Neveah knew she would still have made the same decision, she could blame it on her wolf as much as she wanted, but Neveah and her wolf shared common thoughts and intents, it was only that one was more brazen than the other.

"No, not really." Neveah admitted guiltily.

Xenon chuckled quietly, nodding his head in approval.

"Good, because neither am I." Xenon clarified.

Neveah and Xenon’s attention were drawn to the sudden change in the temperature, it was slight and lasted only for a moment before it dissipated.

So quickly that one would find it hard to believe there had been any change at all.

Neveah passed a look to Xenon to confirm if he had taken note of it, and he surely had, the look on his face told that much, Xenon was not surprised by the change, immediately recognizing it for what it was.

"Jian." Xenon said to Neveah when she glanced over at him.

"I could sense the tense atmosphere in the light hall. He is raging...what exactly did Cassian report?" Neveah asked in concern.

Women were not allowed into the light hall, with the only exception being the few female attendants of the Fae that saw to their daily necessities.

But even for those few, their entrance and exit was closely regulated and they were scarcely permitted into the hall itself. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Only male fairies manned the light hall and controlled the Asvarian Beacon, Neveah had known this right from the first night in the stronghold.

Then, she was quite nearly executed for breaking into the light hall on the far Western end of the stronghold, the first landing after the dragons had taken her from wolf territory.

Though Neveah did not think those laws could still apply to her, she had chosen not to venture into the light hall out of habit.

She had not come here to interfere with Xenon and Jian’s interrogation into the situation at the light hall, she had not even known they were present at the light hall till she arrived, she had only come to see her father off from a distance.

"There is something off with the light hall here in the Dunes, Neveah. Cassian has paid a visit before departing for Keep Skies."

"Jian entrusted me to take a look, and I did. At first, nothing seemed out of the ordinary...it was not until I sent word of my investigation to Cassian. Comparing both findings, a few disparities are noticeable..."

"There are some of the Fae kind inhabiting the light hall that have been changed since Cassian’s visit, they must have believed we would not take note of the personnel change."

"Not only that, but adjustments have been made to their daily report ledgers since Cassian’s inspection, barely noticeable but they are there."

"The central issue here is, Cassian’s visit was unexpected and happened immediately after the breach...they had no time for a cover up. They have since had the time to do so...yet they are unwilling to provide a reasonable explanation beyond routine changes." Xenon relayed.

"Routine changes right after a breach? And why was my father not made aware of any of this? The slated personnel change of the light hall is regulated by my father in person and last I checked, there are no personnel changes scheduled for the next few months." Neveah relayed to Xenon.