Chapter 36 - What Still Burns

(Caring Mother)

*

She lay there, so still, so pale,
A breath, a thread, a whispered tale.
The fire that once shook stone and sky
Now quieted with no goodbye.

I held her close, my fiercest fight—
Not war, but keeping her in light.
No spell I cast, no power earned,
Could heal the way my heart had burned.

She is my dawn, my storm, my flame,
The reason why I ever came.
And though the world may twist and turn,
She is my child—
And what still burns.

*

---

The silence was the first thing she noticed.

Not the oppressive kind that follows disaster, nor the tense quiet of unshed storms. This one was softer. Fragile, like breath held too long. Like the world itself waited.

Adonis blinked as her eyes fluttered open.

The ceiling above her was familiar—painted ivory with faint golden patterns, the kind only visible when light caught at just the right angle. Her breath caught in her throat. For a moment, she didn’t remember where she was. She blinked again, slow and groggy. The air no longer trembled with the weight of her magic. The pain—the raw tearing sensation in her chest—was gone, smoothed over by something gentle and familiar.

She turned her head to the left, a slow, aching motion, and saw her.

There, seated in a high-backed velvet chair, was her mother. Her crimson robes spilled around her like coiled silk.

Freya.

The elder magus.

The most powerful woman in the empire—who now looked more like a mother than a legend. Her posture was tense, arms folded, brows drawn together in a line carved by hours of silent waiting. But it was her eyes that struck Adonis most—eyes usually sharp as a blade, now dulled by worry, shadowed by sleeplessness, and locked onto her daughter with an intensity that made the breath in Adonis’s lungs feel too shallow.

Neither of them spoke.

They just stared.

One with quiet remorse. The other with unspoken fury.

Then Freya rose.

Her heels clicked softly against the stone floor as she approached the bed, not like a teacher but like a storm bracing to break. Her voice came low, but every syllable carried the weight of grief, fury, and unbearable relief.

“Do you have any idea,” she said slowly, “how reckless that was?”

Adonis didn’t answer. She only listened, because something in her mother’s voice had changed. It wasn’t scolding. It wasn’t anger alone. It was fear—deep and raw, like something clawed out of her ribs.

Freya stood beside the bed now, her arms folded tightly across her chest. Her eyes shimmered—not with magic, but unshed emotion.

“You shattered all six artifacts,” she hissed. “Do you know how rare they are? How long it took me to create them? Each one built to suppress a different strand of your flame so it wouldn’t kill you. And you destroyed them in a heartbeat.”

Still, Adonis said nothing.

“You unleashed your power in front of the Emperor. You set the royal chamber on fire.

Her voice cracked.

“You could’ve burned yourself from the inside out—”

“I know,” Adonis said.

A single breath of silence followed.

Freya’s mouth hung open slightly, caught off-guard by the simple confession. Not defiant. Not dismissive. Just… honest.

“You knew,” Freya repeated, stepping closer. Her voice rose. “You knew what would happen, and you still did it?”

Adonis looked at her mother now, truly looked—saw the glint of tears at the edges of her eyes, the exhaustion swimming beneath her fury.

“Yes.”

The word dropped like a stone between them.

Freya’s expression twisted, incredulous. “Why? Was she really worth it, Adonis? Was Bellatrix really worth all of that?”

Adonis didn’t hesitate.

“She’s worth that,” Adonis said, her voice hoarse but steady, “and more.”

That was the truth.

There was no need to dress it in flowery words. No speech about love or duty or guilt. Just that quiet, brutal truth.

Freya stared at her. And for a long time, she said nothing.

She didn’t need to.

Because something in her, the last strand of her fury, simply… unraveled.

Finally, Freya let out a deep sigh. Her hands loosened. Her shoulders dropped as if the weight of her daughter’s answer had broken something inside.

And then… she moved.

With a speed Adonis didn’t expect, Freya crossed the distance and sank to her knees at the edge of the bed. Her arms wrapped around her daughter, pulling her close until Adonis’s head rested against her chest.

Freya trembled. Her fingers threaded through Adonis’s hair, clutching her like something precious and lost. Her voice cracked on the inhale.

“You… you damn fool,” she whispered. “You scared me. I thought… I thought I was going to lose you.”

Adonis didn’t speak.

She couldn’t.

Not when her mother’s voice was breaking. Not when the heartbeat she could feel against her ear was frantic and unsteady. Not when her mother, who had faced a thousand battlefields without flinching, was crying.

“I saw you burning,” Freya murmured, pressing her lips to her daughter’s hair. “You wouldn’t stop. You wouldn’t listen. Gods, I thought you were going to tear yourself apart just to strike him.”

She squeezed her tighter. “You’re all I have left.”

“I don’t care how strong you are, how bright your flame burns—I’m still your mother. And when you broke those artifacts, when you summoned that phoenix, I thought… I thought that was it.”

Her voice cracked again.

“You can’t do that to me,” she whispered, trembling. “I can’t survive losing you, too.”

Adonis felt something twist in her chest. Guilt. Grief. Love. It all surged to the surface.

Her hands moved slowly, with effort. She wrapped them around her mother and held on.

“I’m sorry,” she said, and the words sounded so small in that moment. “I didn’t want to make you worry.”

Freya laughed, wet and bitter. “You call this worry?”

But she didn’t pull away.

She held her tighter. For the first time in a long while, Freya let the tears fall.

And for the first time in years, they simply held each other.

No magic.

No empire.

Just mother and daughter.

…

Adonis wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that—wrapped in silence, in tears, in the gravity of everything that had almost been lost.

But eventually, the moment passed.

Freya loosened her hold, just slightly, enough to lean back and brush her thumbs gently across her daughter’s cheeks. The tears had come quietly, sometime during the embrace. Adonis hadn’t even noticed them falling. They clung to her lashes now, warm and unshed, a softness she rarely allowed herself to feel.

“You’re crying,” she murmured.

Adonis laughed softly, breathless. “So are you.”

They parted slowly, still close, but with a little space between them. Freya reached for the handkerchief tucked into her sleeve and handed it to Adonis, who took it with a nod, dabbing at her eyes, her breath steadying.

Freya was the first to speak again.

“I spoke to the Emperor,” she said quietly. “While you were asleep.”

Adonis’s head snapped up.

Freya held her gaze, calm but firm. “He gave me his word. Bellatrix is safe. Galahad will not be allowed near her again.”

Adonis’s eyes widened, a spark of hope lighting her face. “You’re serious?”

Freya nodded.

A shaky breath escaped Adonis, and she reached out, wrapping her arms around her mother again—but this time with more joy than desperation. “Thank you… thank you.”

But Freya didn’t return the embrace fully. She held her gently by the shoulders and pulled back.

“There’s more,” she said, her tone softening—not out of leniency, but love.

Adonis blinked. “What?”

“You won’t be seeing her,” Freya continued, “not until you can control your power. Completely.”

The joy drained from Adonis’s face, replaced by stunned silence.

“I’m not saying this to punish you,” Freya said gently, before her daughter could speak. “I’m saying it because I saw what nearly happened. You almost died, Adonis. And if you had let your grief spiral any further… you might’ve taken others with you. Do you understand?”

Adonis opened her mouth—to protest, to beg—but she stopped.

She remembered the pain, the fire, the way her own magic had tried to consume her. She remembered the Emperor’s hand on her forehead, her body finally going still, and the terror in her mother’s eyes.

She nodded, slowly.

“I understand,” she whispered.

Freya exhaled, visibly relieved. “Good. Because starting tomorrow, we begin your training. Day and night. Until that phoenix answers to your will alone.”

Adonis let out a breathless laugh, half-resigned, half-grateful. “Of course you’d throw me back into training the second I wake up.”

Freya smirked. “Be glad I let you rest at all.”

They shared a quiet moment. Then Freya’s expression changed—something unreadable flickering behind her eyes.

“There’s something else,” she said, voice lower now.

Adonis tilted her head. “What is it?”

Freya hesitated, her fingers tightening around her daughter’s hands. “While you were unconscious… I went to see Bellatrix.”

Adonis’s breath hitched. Her eyes searched her mother’s face, the growing silence like a held breath between them.

“She’s with child.”

The words hit her like a wave.

Adonis’s mouth parted, but no sound came. “She’s…?”

“She’s with child,” Freya said softly. “Barely noticeable, but the signs are there. And the child is healthy.”

Adonis’s mouth opened again. Her breath hitched.

Pregnant.

Bellatrix. With child.

His child.

“She’s going to be a mother again…” she murmured.

“She already was,” Freya said gently. “Even if the world tried to take that from her.”

Adonis didn’t speak. Her eyes brimmed with something fragile—something beyond tears. Gratitude. Ache. A kind of reverent silence that only came when you realized just how much someone else had lost, and how fiercely they still endured.

“I’ve made arrangements,” Freya added after a long pause. “She’ll be taken care of. Somewhere safe, far from all this. Until you’re ready. Ten years, Adonis. That’s how long it may take before your control is absolute.”

Adonis didn’t argue.

She didn’t protest.

She simply nodded, eyes still wet, her voice barely a whisper.

“Then I’ll train. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

Freya cupped her daughter’s face again, brushing her thumbs over her cheeks. “Good.”

Freya reached out again, gently wrapping her arms around Adonis and pulling her back into a warm embrace. Her touch was softer this time—no urgency. Just a mother holding her child close, shielding her from the harsh world.

She rested her chin atop Adonis’s head, her voice barely above a whisper.

Adonis leaned back into her mother’s embrace, quietly letting the silence stretch between them. Freya held her gently, her fingers stroking through her hair with a tenderness that reached back through years of discipline, through battle and grief and loss.

Eventually, Freya spoke—her voice soft, low, and warm like the light spilling in from the tall windows.

“The Emperor made one more promise. Something I didn’t tell you earlier.”

Adonis looked up, curiosity flickering in her tired eyes.

Freya’s arms tightened around her daughter, pulling her gently back to her chest.

“He said he’ll help with the search. For Bellatrix’s son.”

Adonis stilled, trembling.

“We just need to be patient,” Freya said, gently brushing Adonis’s hair behind her ear. “When the time is right… we’ll bring him back. And until then, we do everything we can to be ready.”

Adonis didn’t say anything at first. She simply closed her eyes again, the tension in her shoulders slowly giving way. A small nod followed, full of quiet gratitude.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

Outside, the sun hung low in the sky, casting long shadows that stretched across the floor like reaching hands. The city buzzed faintly beyond the window—distant, warm, alive.

Freya watched the golden light settle on her daughter’s face.

The storm had not passed—but for now, there was peace.

And that was enough.