Chapter Twenty-Three - A Ceremony And A Bond

"Zenon you have to listen to me, now!"

Liz's voice was a scream by now as she stood in front of his door. It was half past six, Elea's bonding ceremony being only half an hour away and so far, Zenon had shut her off. She stood in front of the door of his room now, screaming her lungs out for the past four hours, but so far nothing had been able to coax him out.

This was why she had been reluctant to send Arette away! If Arette had been here, she'd just kick the door in and drag Zenon out, but Liz neither had her best friend's courage nor her strength.

So here she was, begging.

"Zenon, please…I know you never liked me and I know that you're angry at us, but you don't understand! Elea didn't reject you because she was angry or because she hates you! You have to believe me!"

"STOP LYING!" he thundered out of his room, voice coarse and harsh. There was a slight quiver as well as if he'd been crying. Liz's heart clenched for this man, who had suffered so much.

Before Arette, she'd never had much contact with Zenon - or Murron, as he called himself. As a teacher of an advanced class she never got into, he was far removed from her.

After that, she always knew that he harbored dislike for her. Maybe it was her own sense of bad things that made her so keenly aware of his disregard, but then again, most people happened to dislike her and he just was another addition to that.

But the last two weeks had changed that.

Hearing his story, there was no way she couldn't feel for him. Traveling with him for two weeks made her unable to dislike him, who shared a silent and steady disposition with her - and by now, she wanted to see him as happy as Arette did.

And the fact that he had just denied that there was still hope for his love life for about nine hours straight brought her close to her limits. So when she knocked on the door for the millionth time that night, her face was covered in tears and she was close to giving up.

It was then that the door finally opened.

Zenon stood behind it, eyes red from either crying or not sleeping, looking about as horrible as Liz felt. Startled, Liz fell to her knees and stared up at him hastily wiping her tears away.

"Liz, what are you doing?" he asked with a shake of his head as he took in her distressed form.

"Zenon…" she sobbed, now that he was standing across her, she somehow had problems talking. Go figure. Another reason why she had wanted Arette here - she never had problems with speaking up.

"What, you've been yelling at me for nine hours and now you can't even speak up?" he asked wearily, a bitter smile playing on the corners of his lips.

Liz took a deep, trembling breath and then stood up, trying to stand straight and confident as she'd seen Arette do.

"Elea doesn't hate you. She's being threatened and she's going to bond with the guy who has been blackmailing her for months and it's not going to be a lover's bond," she spoke as fast as she could, wanting to get it out as quick as possible, "He wants to force her into a slave bond by threatening to kill her brother, who was crippled in the attack five years ago. That's why she rejected you - because she knew you would stop her from bonding with him and that would put her brother's life in danger."

She gasped for breath at the end of her hurried speech as relief flooded over her. Finally, she'd been able to tell him. After so much screaming, she'd almost already given up on ever convincing him.

Zenon looked at her with doubt in his eyes, clearly not ready to believe her. She understood it, somehow - he'd just been hurt horribly and was trying to shield himself from it.

"Liz, don't lie to me to make me interrupt the ceremony or whatever crazy plan Arette has hatched now. Please, don't lie to me," he slumped against the door, completely drained.

She pressed her lips together, frowning at him.

"Do you really think we would lie about something so important? Elea said that she would be willing to give you another chance if she didn't have to worry about her brother. So Arette is in Gera right now, saving him. She probably won't make it back in time, though, so we have to stop the ceremony. Which is happening in twenty minutes, by the way. If you don't do this, Elea will be enslaved to this guy for the rest of her life. I can't save her on my own. Please, we need to go."

He looked visibly shaken by her words, but not yet completely convinced. Liz felt impatience and nervous panic building in her stomach with every second they wasted.

"Besides, what do you have to lose?" she challenged, urgency now overruling her usual hesitation, "She already rejected you - she can't do anything more than do it again. And if you don't go and what I say is true then you'll lose the woman you love forever. Can you really risk that?"

His eyes were softening as he realized how frantic she was.

"But…" he put up resistance again, but Liz just about had it with his moping.

"Zenon, I am not lying. Now hurry up or she'll be bonded to him and you'll be alone for the rest of your life!"

That got him into motion, finally. He nodded and grabbed the sword he'd leaned against his door.

"Alright, I'm going to believe you. Even if she hates me, I can't just let her become a slave. Not her. Never her," he seethed and grit his teeth, ready to act.

Liz breathed a sigh of relief and tugged on his sleeve. Together, they ran as fast as they could, out of the inn and towards the central square of the small village where such ceremonies were usually held.

Liz had talked to Elea for a bit after Arette had left and found out that the Harker guy wanted to appear righteous, so he staged it as if they were lovers, but in reality had been pissed off by her numerous rejections that he was now using her brother to push her into a slave bond.

He was a despicable man. Liz rarely felt hate for someone, tried to push it down because negative feelings usually made her cause a disaster of some kind, but now she couldn't help it.

Promptly, Zenon next to her tripped over a stone and fell to the floor, scraping open his knee. He cursed as he stood back up and the wound almost immediately healed, but Liz felt bad nonetheless.

"I'm so sorry," she fumbled for words all while still dragging them towards the square.

"No worries," Zenon grumbled, "I'm already surprised we actually made it here with your power problems."

Liz gulped at that and looked at the floor, unable to rebuke. She'd been a lot better ever since she was friends with Arette, mostly because Arette always pointed out to her when she was about to cause misfortune and so far, she'd even got a slight feeling of her own power.

Nonetheless, she was still a disaster on two legs.

But alas, none of that mattered right now. Elea mattered.

They arrived when the ceremony had only just begun. There were Harker and Elea, standing right in front of the fountain, surrounded by a ring of flowers and, with only a narrow path left free, the entirety of villagers gushing around them.

Zenon stopped dead in his tracks and stared at his soul companion with wide eyes. Liz tugged at his sleeve, urging him on, but he stood there like a stone.

Liz sighed and walked right in front of him, looking up at him as well as she could.

With a slight smile, she tugged him down to her height and ruffled his hair up a bit.

"What the-" he started, but stopped when he saw her lips curving upwards.

"You need to look dashing for your big entrance, don't you?" she laughed and pinched his cheeks in a futile try to make him look a little less ghastly.

He gave her a tight-lipped smile and then looked away to Elea again. His jaw tensed as the determination grew stronger in his eyes.

"Arette has saved her brother, you say?" he reassured himself in a low voice.

Liz affirmed, "There should at most be a Sovereign guarding him. She'll manage, don't worry about her end."

Zenon gave her only a blink as acknowledgment and then finally a decisive nod.

"Now go," Liz urged and pushed him into the direction of the congregation.

He cleared his throat and stepped forwards.

If Zenon thought he was nervous before, he'd had no idea. It was one thing to meet the person you love after five years without knowing their reaction and entirely another to go up to a person that just broke your heart into pieces and tell her something you had no right to be telling her.

But Liz wouldn't lie to him about this. And, even if he didn't like to admit it with his anger still going strong, neither would Arette. And he couldn't let Elea be bonded - into a slave bond at that - to a man she didn't love.

So he straightened his back and summoned all his courage as an Ascendant of Power and walked onto the town square, straight through the masses and to the flower-surrounded couple. The asshole that wanted to put a claim to his soul companion was speaking.

"With all love and respect, I hereby pronounce you my companion," he said while holding Elea's hand up. Zenon walked faster but they hadn't seen him yet. "As it is my honor, I am hereby giving you a name. Your new name shall be- "

"Her name is Elea you bastard!"

He screamed at them as he finally reached the couple. Both of them turned around to him, Elea with fear and Harker with fury. Well, his fury would never match Zenon's. "What do you think you're doing…?" the asshole began but was swiftly cut off by Zenon's advance.

"No, what do you think you're doing? I wouldn't care if you loved her but if you try to force my soul companion into a slave bond, I'll tell you, that won't happen in your lifetime!"

He almost growled at him, voice deadly low and it took all he got to hold himself back from strangling the guy on the spot. Red flooded his vision.

Harker paled as he heard the words ‘soul companion' but quickly recovered with a guffaw.

"Slave bond? I'm obviously only initiating a lover's bond and you have no business interfering. Or is there something you didn't tell me, my love?" Harker hissed the last bit at Elea, whose panicking eyes darted between Harker and Zenon.

"N-no, of course not," she stuttered and turned to Zenon, her lip trembling as it always did when she was afraid.

He balled his hands into fists, ready to pounce at the guy at any opportunity. But Elea didn't say the words he wanted to hear.

"Zenon, you need to leave. You can't be here now," she whispered, but he saw the tears in her eyes.

His vision turned even hazier with rage.

That bastard was the cause of her tears. He wouldn't let him hurt Elea - not in this world or any other. He might've screwed up in protecting her once, but this time he wouldn't fail.

"You heard what my lover said. With you putting up this act, I'm worried about my dear lover's brother, whose constitution is so frail, he surely won't be able to put up with it. Unless you want to worsen this, I suggest you scam."

Harker's eyes never left Zenon's, filled with spite and disgust. His words made Elea recoil, now trembling all over, and they were just what pushed Zenon over the edge.

"Bastard," he growled and stepped forward to deliver a sound punch to his face.

Harker stumbled backward, spitting out blood with a baffled expression.

"You dare…" he began and spread his aura outwards. But all he could do was make Zenon laugh as the weak pressure of an Emperor tried to intimidate him.

He scoffed and spread out his own soul, the power of an Ascendant immediately assaulting him with all the force Zenon found in him. Harker stumbled back another step, coughing and wheezing under the pressure.

"No, Zenon, you need to stop, if you hurt him, my brother will…" Elea tugged on his arm and stared up at him with light like golden eyes, so incredibly beautiful.

He turned to her and was lost in her orbs again, unable to tear away.

"Your brother is safe. Arette freed him, you don't need to worry anymore. You don't owe this worm anything." He spat at Harker, who had managed to get up by now, which was quite the impressive feat considering the power he was pressured by.

"Your underling will fail," Harker gave a sinister laugh just as Elea leaned into him and wanted to say something, "Her brother is guarded by a Sovereign of Pain with over a century of battle experience. A mere girl couldn't defeat him."

Harker laughed as if he had already won. Elea flinched and began to tremble again, visibly in fear for her brother again.

But Zenon only chuckled.

"Mere girl? You have no idea," he said, thinking about Arette. That spitfire would never be defeated by a mere Sovereign. He was about to turn back to Elea to reassure her when the voice of the very person sounded through the square.

"You can say that again!" Arette shouted and he could already hear the grin in her voice.

Shortly after the exclaim, the tall horned girl entered the circle, carrying a dark skinned, red haired man on her shoulders that he identified as Floric, one of Elea's brothers.

He'd always thought all her family died back then...but even if Floric looked at him with disdain, he couldn't be gladder to see that Liz had been right and one of them had survived.

"Flo!" Elea shouted as soon as she saw her brother and ran away from Zenon and Harker towards her brother.

Arette laughed and put the guy down, holding him upright while his distraught sister fell into his arms. Zenon sighed in relief to see both Arette and Elea's brother safe.

"Lea," Floric said with a bright grin and hugged her, even though Arette still held his shoulders to ensure he wouldn't fall with his legs unable to hold his weight.

Zenon smiled at the tearful reunion of the siblings, feeling incredibly glad that things had worked out.

"Sorry we're late," Arette said with a grin, "We actually got lost in the woods, else we would've been here earlier."

"You're right on time," Zenon assured before turning to Harker, who was clearly outnumbered and outplayed here. He had tried to flee but hadn't gotten far with Zenon still pressuring him.

"Now to you," he said with a grim smile and approached the man who tried to hurt his true soul companion, "Don't you dare think I'll let you get away with this, greedy bastard."

He snarled at him and delivered a kick to his chest to bring him on his knees. Anger boiled through every of his limbs, demanding death and torture and so much pain for this man who had hurt the woman he loved.

He delivered a few kicks to his stomach and was only getting started when Elea's voice interrupted him.

"No, don't. He's not worth dirtying your hands," she said softly, before shooting Harker a dirty look of her own.

Then, without warning, she took Zenon's sword from his sheath and pushed it straight into Harker's heart.

A gasp ran through the congregated crowd as Harker's body trembled and then stilled within seconds. Zenon looked from the corpse to his love and back again before snorting.

Yes, his Elea was no pushover. It hadn't been a coincidence that Phara had trusted given her a high position in the Renegade Clans back then - Elea might be quick to show feelings, but she wasn't one to show mercy to her enemies either. It was something they shared and something he loved about her.

It was something they shared and something he loved about her.

She turned around to him, apprehension in her eyes, but once she saw his reassuring smile, she gave him a hesitant one of her own.

For a moment, they only stared at him, the events from just now and her words from the last evening hanging between them heavily.

But before he could say something, Elea flung herself into his arms and began to cry.

And he just held her like that, feeling like the luckiest man in the Plane of Gods to be able to hold this woman in his arms again.

"I'm sorry for what I said yesterday," Elea murmured once her sobs had stopped, "I never stopped loving you."

Her words were like kisses to his heart, healing all the wounds that she had slashed into it yesterday with a single sentence. He took a small step back to look at her and couldn't resist placing a soft kiss on her mouth.

She leaned into him and for that moment, the world was complete. It was only then that he realized just how much he had missed her back then - more than he had ever missed anything else.

"I love you," he whispered into her ear, lacing every single letter with all the devotion he had.

Elea beamed up at him, now tears of happiness in her eyes.

"I'm still mad at you for leaving, though," she chided with a playfully scolding expression.

"I'm ready to spend my life making it up to you," he gave back but with nothing playful in his voice. He meant every single word.

"Thank you for coming back," she said almost inaudibly.

He smiled and pressed another kiss to her lips, swearing to himself that he would never again leave her - he was a fool for doing so, to begin with.