Chapter 63

**Thyrion**

The first thing that rushed through my mind when I felt Merianna jolt in my arms and I saw a small trickle of blood escaping her nose, was that I was losing her all over again. That thought alone sent my adrenaline shooting through my system faster than ever before. I only reminded myself that the spell had been broken and this was probably just a side effect of her body adapting to her magic, when I skidded to a halt in front of the infirmary’s doors.

Turning sideways I shoved the heavy wooden doors open with my shoulder. “Nelia!”

Nelia’s head quickly popped out from a corner along with Helga, Olga and Hilda. “What’s wrong? Is she okay?” she rushed over to me and quickly scooped Merianna out from my arms and laid her down on one of the nearby beds.

“We were interrogating Orbus and something must have triggered her, is this her magic adjusting again?” I asked worriedly.

Nelia quickly checked her over and breathed a sigh of relief. “She’s fine. It is definitely her body adapting to her magic again. Looks like whatever triggered her memories or emotions brought up the surge of more latent energies. She should be fine after a bit of rest.”

I heaved a sigh of relief and slumped into a nearby chair as my nerves all suddenly relaxed all at once. It was a massive relief to know that Merianna was indeed fine. Numbly I wondered if I was actually suffering from some PTSD.

After Nelia checked Merianna thoroughly, making sure that her body was responding appropriately and not over working itself, she started to relax again. Then she turned to me and grinned darkly. “So you guys finally managed to get Orbus?”

“About high time that man was caught and spilled some answers.” Olga said with a similar grin. Helga and Hilda both seemed just as interested in what the results were even though they had come closer to eye Merianna curiously.

“Well, for one thing, we were able to confirm that Orbus was definitely in cahoots with Dermon.” I offered with a shrug.

“We did somewhat expect this, but it’s good to know for sure. I suppose Orbus was a scapegoat?” Nelia asked with a raised eyebrow.

I nodded. “Just like his ancestors 2000 years ago. That’s the problem with broken generational lines. Any and all warnings that could have come from older generations just get completely lost.”

“I don’t know if any warnings would even have worked seeing as how reincarnated witches always end up having different bodies in each lifetime. Well… maybe if they had mentioned ‘be wary of magical individuals with demons as helpers’ it might have worked.” Nelia gave a shrug herself. “Anything else?”

“Just the same old spiel that he’s trying to summon the Warlock Deity Denaue to rule over this mortal realm, and that he is supposedly being helped by Dermon who is translating ancient texts for him in exchange of him taking over the spell Dermon had originally cast on Merianna.” I said darkly as I reflexively took hold of Merianna’s hand.

Nelia frowned. “So it was Dermon that had originally cast that spell.”

“It seems so. And now that the spell is broken, we don’t know what to expect from Dermon’s side. We don’t know if he might have had a small active link to the spell that would allow him to feel when it got broken or not. We also don’t know when he is expected to check up on Orbus again.” I hated that we still had information gaps even though we had captured our main target. I hated it even more that Dermon was still hanging around and scheming underneath the radar.

Nelia heaved a big frustrated sigh as she probably seemed to feel the same way I did about the situation. Glancing over at the Ga’s, I raised an eyebrow.

“Why on earth are the three of you hovering over my wife like vultures?” I asked suspiciously.

“What? We aren’t allowed to be curious?” Asked Helga.

“We aren’t doing anything suspicious.” Olga chimed in.

“She’s an intriguing specimen. Could you blame us for being curious?” Hilda quipped.

“Plus we weren’t here when you guys were getting the soul spell off of her. So we’d at least want to study any lingering side effects.” Helga explained.

“And the more we study the side effects the more we’d be able to help in an emergency.” Olga supplemented.

“Not to mention one of said side effects seem to be taking hold already.” Hilda observed while pointing down to Merianna’s head.

I frowned worriedly and looked over at her face. “What do you mean? I don’t see anything.”

Hilda proceeded to part some of Merianna’s hair, and at first I had no idea what on earth I was supposed to be looking at until I noticed the very faint tint of black hair peeking out at her roots. “Oh wow.” I muttered.

Nelia chuckled close by. “At least now when she wakes up, we can tell her that she won’t need to learn that hair colour changing spell from Noch.” 

I found myself grinning as I remembered her mentioning how much she missed her black hair, even though back in the day her natural hair colour was also still blonde. “Do you think her magic is adjusting her body in ways that she subconsciously prefers along with adjusting it physically in order to acclimate better?”

Nelia gave a shrug while the Ga’s seemed to find this theory exceptionally intriguing.

“It could be. She did always hate it whenever the blonde roots grew back.” She chuckled.

“Or it could be possible that she actually did have black hair in one of her past lives.” Olga theorized.

“I hadn’t thought of that, but that could very well be the cause.” Helga hummed thoughtfully.

“So fascinating.” Hilda whispered while tilting her head thoughtfully.

A sudden twitch from Merriana’s hand drew my attention back to her. Her face was slowly changing from being relaxed to frowning, like she was confused and worried about something.

“Do you think she might be dreaming?” I asked worriedly.

“Highly likely. Whenever her energy forcibly adjusts her body, it won’t be impossible for it to also bring more memories to the surface. Noch might have stabilized her memories and rooted her more to the present, but that doesn’t mean that nothing can surface on its own anymore.” Nelia shrugged.

“Hopefully it’s nothing too painful.” I muttered as I brought her hand up to my lips for a kiss.

“Sadly we have no way of really knowing.” Nelia looked worried about that. “Her memories suddenly include everything from before the Cataclysm, to everything in between while she was stuck with that spell. Who knows what she might have gone through during all those times…”

“Anything is possible.” I muttered. I had previously thought I knew everything there was to know about Merianna. Even she thought that she was nothing but a newblood during her time in the Order. But that was fine, we had enough time now and in our foreseeable futures together, for us to talk and for her to share whatever she wanted to get off her chest. I didn’t care about who she might have been in her past lives, be it a deity or a peddler, she was still the same fiery Merianna through and through.

“My Lady will be fine.”

I whipped my head around and was surprised to see Hezerial casually standing by the foot of the bed, looking down at Merianna with knowing eyes.

“What are you doing here?” I asked curiously. Usually he only really pops up whenever Merianna was in danger or when she needed him.

Hezerial’s eyes narrowed with a hint of sadness. “She called out for me.” He said softly as he watched her sleep.

Worry crept into my chest at the implication of her calling out to him in her dreams. She must be having a nightmare, or one of her memories was currently playing out as a nightmare.