Athea and Rio exchanged glances and hesitantly look towards Rhea who was staring at me, trying to process what I had just said, I assume. She looked at me as if she was thinking deeply. I stared at her too. From top to bottom. I know I've only not seen her for a couple of weeks but she seemed thinner. Not that it's obvious but I could see her body a tiny bit smaller than it was before, but maybe it's just me though.
"Who are they?" Rhea finally broke the silence after what felt like a long time. The silence was making me anxious as to what she would say if I'm honest. "They are Kyra, Max, and Bree," I answered truthfully. Come to think about it, I don't know what they would do when they get out.
Rhea nodded slightly and continued to stare at me blankly. What is she thinking about? Is she worried about them not being able to fit in or something? "So, can we save them?" I asked again. "I think you should heal up completely first, Arran," Rio advised, "you're still weak."
From the corner of my eyes, I could see Athea trying to snap Rhea out. "I'll escort her back to her room, this isn't the first time she zoned out during random conversations," the lady in white sighed in sympathy, "she'll be alright in a few weeks or so, I'll try to find out more about why she's like this so I can hopefully help her out of it sooner."
I took a glance towards Rhea. Worry flushes all over my face. Why has she started to zone out? Was it because she was tortured way too much? Was it because she encountered something? The man beside me cleared his throat to catch my attention, "Athea and I are suspecting that she's zoning out due to the amount of electricity that she had to go through his body, and it's mostly collected in her organs."
I hung my head low, "oh..." I replied slowly. I'm glad she didn't fade. At least she didn't fade, at the very least, she didn't. I felt a few pats land themselves on my back, "It's okay Arran. If you want to go save your friends, we could help you but not right now. You need to heal and get stronger so you can go save them without getting caught."
"I've promised them we'd escape together..." I said softly. My mind is still pre-occupied with Rhea's condition. I heard Rio sigh beside me, "I know, Arran. You want to go save them and let them start a new life. But how will you do that when you can barely even support your own bodyweight?"
I know he's right. I know but I don't care about all that. I'm just really worried about Rhea. I pulled the blanket on my leg off of me and turned my leg to the side, trying to get up. However, my arm was pulled back, causing my body to fall back. "Don't go anywhere, just rest so you'll heal quicker.'
It's true, I still feel slightly weak. Actually no, I feel extremely weak and exhausted, I'm pretty sure it's because I've been sleeping for a really long time. "Can I go to the garden?" I asked him. He looked at me as if it was a no. Then it hit me, "where are we anyway?"
"We're in a little hut not too far away from my mansion. That son of a giant, Victor tore it down to look for Rhea," he informed in frustration. Did he take the whole building down? The building which was probably there for thousands of years and he took it down just for a spirit who blessed a human?
"Do not worry as the sprites have already started to rebuild it. It will unfortunately not be the same as it was before. It will be newer and slightly modernized," he stated with a tiny hint of sadness in his tone. Who wouldn't be sad over it? I mean, he practically spent his whole lifeguarding the forest and well, that building too and it just got destroyed.
Speaking of which, where did Crys go? I thought I saw him earlier. I looked around the room and I couldn't even see the bridge of his nose pop up anywhere. "Rio, where did Crystal go?" I asked. Rio turned to me with disbelief written on his face. "Did you not see him follow Athea to escort Rhea back to her room?" he asked. Oh... so there's where Crys has gone. I choked out a nervous laugh, "no, not really..."
He shook his head. "Arran, I know you're young and in love but please, do not treat Crystal badly," he said. I widen my eyes towards him, "I did not treat him badly! And what do you mean in love?"
He shook his head again with a slight grin, "Arran, I might be old but I know love when I see it. You have fallen in love with Rhea and you don't know it," he pointed out, "why else would you look forward to seeing her? Why would you cry when you see her get tortured? Why would you immediately agree to Athea when she said she has a way of saving her? Why would you agree to let Athea control your body and have your soul out of your body if it wasn't because you care and love her?" he questioned.
Geez, I didn't know he's a busy body... Athea must've told him all those too. However, his questions, what are my answers? Do I even have answers to them? I could feel my face heat up slightly. "I just owe her a lot for saving my life before, that's all!" I said, trying to defend myself and also to deny the fact that he had just justified a moment ago.
The old man chuckled, "whatever you say, boy. Take your time and heal up, don't think too much of what I have spoken, it may disturb your peace," he teased while giving my back a few more pats before turning to leave. I watched as his back is turned against me and his figure slowly leaving this small room. The door opened and shut quickly, leaving me all alone in this space.
Have I really fallen for her? I adjusted myself to lay on the bed. I stared at the empty ceiling. Maybe I shouldn't think about it. It's still too early for me to think about love... I think.