The Land Below our Feet II (Unleashed) COMPLETE

CATATONIA

Souna´s footsteps echoed all through the corridors as she paced decidedly towards the silent wing where the dormitories were. She held Axe’s hand firmly while she led him forward, the bundle containing her sleeping daughter fastened against her chest as they reached the heavy doors guarded by one of Ussiariah´s soldiers.

-How is he doing today? – She asked as she halted before the warrior and scanned his inscrutable face.

-Well… He ate his breakfast for a change – The grave man simply informed her, turning the knob and opening the wooden plate, letting her walk inside.

The room was dark and quiet. The stale air saturating the ambiance and making it perpetually oppressive.

-Dad – Souna mumbled, slowly approaching the edge of the chamber, where a modest bed sat. The man sitting on it blankly staring at the slightly open window, as he peeked through the curtains´ gap – Are you feeling any better today?

It had been too long since King Ahau had fallen into that deplorable state for anyone to harbor any real expectations of improvement at that point.

Yet, Souna kept coming back to his bedroom almost every single day, in hopes that she could somehow awake something inside him that would finally drag him out of his stupor.

She mostly just sat there, by his side, talking to him about her daily activities or any other petty thing that crossed her mind. At the beginning, she had tried reasoning with him, she'd explained to him what she had learned about her origins and had urged him to give her some kind of explanation.

But the former king had remained silent, or simply uttered a chain of unintelligible rubbish, before going back to stare at the window again.

Alahina and the medics had all concurred that he'd fallen into some sort of catatonic state, triggered by the deep trauma that he had endured during the taking of his city.

-It seems it was too much for his brain to process – They had simply told her. And with that, the King had been left to wither away inside that gloomy white room.

He was regularly bathed, changed and forced to eat. But the fact that he basically needed help for almost every daily activity had turned him into another inanimate object inside the palace. His usual silent demeanor only disrupted when he snapped and fluctuated into a completely restless mood, often resulting in a rambunctious attempt to escape.

-I believe that he sometimes thinks he's still being kept prisoner by Njál´s men – Ussi had told her once, after he'd had to intervene when the soldier posted at the former monarch’s door had been incapable of containing him.

The enraged ruler had once been a proud, strong man. So, even when he had grown considerably weaker through all those stagnant months of mostly null activity, it had still been relatively easy for him to break the window and climb out of it in his manic state.

He had hurt himself in the process of trying to run away aimlessly, slitting his leg with a large chunk of broken glass as he tried to escape from the guard chasing him around the gardens. Thankfully, Ussi had been close enough to outrun him and tackle him to the ground. Submitting him under his relentless grip.

But the fact that the warrior was as white as his captors had once been hadn’t helped one bit to calm him down. By the time he was escorted back to his room, he was in total hysterics.

So now, a sturdy set of bars prevented this incident from happening again. The irony of it only making Souna feel sadder about it all. Because even if he wasn't being kept hostage by the invaders in those dungeons anymore, he was still imprisoned by his own kind.

So, no matter how hard she told herself that they were doing it for his own good, she could not help but think that they were making him as miserable as those monsters had… And this filled her with remorse.

But, apart from the guilt that she experienced, she was also invaded by an unstoppable need to finally get some answers.

So many secrets had been kept from them throughout the years, that she was irremediably bitter about the whole ordeal that she and her sister had been forced to endure.

Her entire life had pretty much been nothing but a lie until the moment Anam had found her and made her go look for the Yahurian Order.

They’d let her live this fake story, in a false household, and surrounded by strangers all those years… So, lately she had started to believe that they’d also let her cruelly have this false happiness in a marriage that was doomed by fate from the very beginning.

Because they had known what her destiny was all those years… And they had allowed everything to happen the way it did just the same.

It was not that she was unhappy with her current life or anything. The Gods knew that she couldn’t be more fortunate, considering how things had resulted in the end.

She loved Ussi very much, much more than she'd ever thought she would ever be capable of, after what she had been through. She loved her children, she loved being who she was… And yet, she couldn’t stop thinking that it had all been so unfair.

Kabil´s life had recklessly gone to waste for some alleged greater good, and that infuriated her. Whose decision had that been to make?

Pahoka-Xe had assured her that they’d had powerful reasons to do what they did, and Souna knew she was genuine about it. After all, she could not lie. But she could still keep a hell lot of secrets, and those were just as harmful, if not worse… So, at this point, she needed answers, nonetheless.

Tired of being drip-fed reveal after reveal, she was set to find out the whole truth this time, and she was convinced that King Ahau was the key to achieving her goal.

That was the main reason she kept visiting her mentally ill father, and fruitlessly trying to get any sane response out of him.

But today she had deviated from her usual routine and included a factor that she hadn't tried yet.

-Dad...– Souna sighed, taking another step inside, giving the timid toddler clutching at her skirt a gentle push forward, and gesturing to the bundle in her arms – There are some people I want to introduce to you… These are my children.

She let the silence linger between her and the grey-haired man that had barely looked at her, before gathering her wits and walking towards him. Carefully placing the baby on his lap and studying his reaction. Her shoulders noticeably relaxing when she caught the glimpse of a smile stretching on the corners of the man's mouth.

-This is Skhana – She explained, picking the boy up next and placing him on the bed as well – And this is Axe… I thought you would like to meet your grandchildren.

The wild, glassy eyes of the former regent landed on the blue-haired child as soon as he felt his weight shift beside him, a glint of curiosity igniting inside them as he suddenly reached for the boy's tiny hand and tentatively grazed it. A savage scream erupting from him once his skin made contact with the infant's limb. Axe yelling in unison with him, clearly startled and visibly terrified.

-Agh! Mom! It burns! – He shrieked, his eyes turning imploringly all around with fright, making Souna instantly pounce forward and yank the toddler away from the hysterical man, forcefully struggling to separate them, even if the man was evidently not applying any real force at all around the child's arm.

Her muscles straining considerably before finally managing to snatch him out of the invisible grip, tumbling backwards and hitting her head on a wall.

When she regained consciousness a second later, she jolted up, frantically holding the bawling child up and inspecting his slightly reddened wrist. The outburst of the door being ripped open by the guard briefly caught her attention, before Ahau´s voice made her head snap in his direction with surprised eyes.

-Souna… - She heard him coo, and she remembered all of a sudden that her daughter was still on his lap.

Her initial reaction of getting her baby immediately out of that loony’s hands suddenly dampened when she noticed that, even when he had pronounced her name, he was not talking to her at all… As his eyes remained glued to the bundle in his arms, addressing it with a loving sparkle shining inside them.

-Souna, my beautiful princess – She heard him mutter, his lips brushing her daughter’s forehead delicately, tears rolling copiously down his face – I'm sorry baby, but I must let mom take you now.