Chapter 122: Celestia

Chapter 122: Chapter 122: Celestia

...stial?"

The girl immediately turned toward him, her body responding to the sound of his voice before her mind had fully registered what she had heard. Her expression changed in an instant, the tension in her features giving way to something far more vulnerable as concern flashed across her face like lightning splitting a dark sky. She hurried toward the bed, her movements quick and purposeful, and her voice broke the silence with a desperate urgency that seemed to fill the entire room.

"Theon!"

The sudden movement startled him, and he instinctively tried to pull himself away from her approaching figure. His body reacted before his mind could catch up, driven by instincts honed through years of survival and combat. He pushed himself upright in a desperate attempt to create distance between them, and immediately regretted the decision as pain shot through his head with the force of a thunderclap. His vision swayed dangerously, the room tilting and spinning around him like a ship caught in a violent storm, and he nearly fell back onto the bed as his strength abandoned him completely.

Celestial caught his hand before he could collapse, her fingers wrapping around his with a grip that was gentle yet firm, steadying him in more ways than one. Her touch was warm against his skin, and for a moment, the spinning world seemed to slow just enough for him to find his bearings.

"Easy."

Theon stared at her, his breathing uneven and ragged as he struggled to regain control of his own body. His chest rose and fell with labored effort, and he could feel his heart pounding against his ribs like a caged animal desperate for freedom. Celestial tightened her grip around his hand, her thumb tracing small circles against his palm in a gesture that was surprisingly tender.

"How are you feeling?"

He didn’t answer. The words seemed to stick in his throat, caught somewhere between his mind and his mouth, unable to find their way out. She searched his face with those unusual eyes of hers, crimson and sapphire-blue, looking for something that she might have missed.

"Theon, are you all right?"

He looked at her, still trying to understand why she was here, why she was holding his hand with such desperate intensity, why her voice carried the weight of calmness that she had never before allowed him to see. Celestial’s voice trembled when she spoke again, and he noticed how exhausted she truly appeared, how the shadows beneath her eyes spoke of sleepless nights and endless worry.

"You’ve been unconscious for over a week."

Theon’s expression froze, his mind struggling to process the words that had just left her lips. The statement hung in the air between them like a physical presence, heavy and impossible to ignore.

"A week...?"

She nodded, and the simple gesture carried more weight than any words could have. Her eyes never left his face, watching for his reaction with an intensity that made him feel exposed and vulnerable.

"We weren’t sure when you would wake up."

Her voice grew quieter with each word, diminishing until it was barely more than a whisper.

"It was a miracle that you survived."

Theon stared at her, and the words seemed distant somehow, as though they were being spoken from the other side of a vast chasm rather than from the girl sitting beside him. A week. He had been unconscious for a week. The concept refused to settle properly in his mind, slipping through his thoughts like water through open fingers. He had lost seven days, seven entire days of his life that he would never get back, seven days where the world had continued moving while he had been trapped somewhere between life and death.

Celestial’s eyes glistened with emotion, unshed tears catching the light and making them shimmer like precious gems.

"Please..."

She squeezed his hand, her grip tightening with an almost desperate quality.

"Just say something."

Theon opened his mouth, but nothing came out. The words simply would not come, no matter how hard he tried to summon them. His head still hurt, a dull ache that throbbed behind his eyes and made thinking feel like wading through thick mud, and his thoughts were still trying to catch up with reality, still attempting to piece together the fragments of what had happened and how much time had passed.

Then his gaze drifted toward the room, and in that moment, he truly took in his surroundings. The chamber was spacious but unfamiliar, decorated in soft colors and furnished with pieces that spoke of true royalty. Sunlight streamed through tall windows, casting warm golden patterns across the floor and walls. And as his eyes traveled across his own body, he noticed something that made his breath catch in his throat.

The injuries he remembered carrying were gone.

He slowly raised one hand, holding it before his eyes and examining it with growing disbelief. The bruises that had covered his skin, the cuts and scrapes that had marked him after the battle, the wounds that should have taken weeks to heal properly had all disappeared. There wasn’t even a trace of them remaining, no scars, no discoloration, nothing to suggest that he had ever been hurt at all.

He touched his arm, running his fingers across the smooth skin where deep gashes had once been.

Nothing.

His gaze lowered toward his body, and he pulled back the collar of his shirt to examine his chest and torso. There wasn’t even a trace of the wounds that should have remained, no evidence of the violence he had endured, no reminder of how close he had come to dying.

A memory surfaced from somewhere deep within his consciousness, rising to the surface like a bubble in still water. Green light, soft and ethereal, surrounding a figure whose presence he could still feel lingering somewhere in the depths of his mind. The Spirit Sovereign, standing within that endless darkness, her voice echoing with words that had seemed so cryptic at the time.

* "When you awaken, an amulet shall find you" *

Theon’s eyes narrowed slightly as the memory settled into place, fitting together with everything else like a piece of a puzzle he hadn’t realized was incomplete.

She healed me.

He said nothing, keeping the realization to himself for now. There would be time to question that later, time to wonder about the Spirit Sovereign’s motives and the strange gift she had apparently given him. Right now, he needed to understand what had happened while he was gone, how the world had changed during the week he had spent suspended between life and death.

And judging from the worried expression on Celestial’s face, from the concern that practically radiated from her entire being, a great deal had happened.

He turned his attention back to her, and for a moment, he simply studied her face. The exhaustion, the fear, the relief that warred with lingering anxiety in her eyes. She had been carrying this burden alone for days, waiting by his side while he lay unconscious and unresponsive, never knowing if he would ever open his eyes again.

"How long have you been here?"

The question came out as barely more than a rasp, his voice hoarse from disuse. Celestial seemed to startle at the sound, as though she had been expecting him to remain silent forever.

"What?"

"How long have you been waiting?"

She hesitated, and something flickered in her eyes that he couldn’t quite identify.

"Since the first day."

Theon frowned slightly.

"You stayed the entire time?"

"I tried to."

She looked down at their hands, still joined together.

"Ifrith wouldn’t let me in most days, but I kept coming back anyway. I had to know if you were going to wake up."

Her voice cracked on the last word, and Theon felt something tighten in his chest at the sound. He had known her for only a short time, had interacted with her only sparingly, and yet here she was, exhausted and emotional because of him.

"You shouldn’t have worried so much."

Celestial looked up at him sharply, and for a moment, he thought he saw a flash of anger in her eyes.

"Don’t tell me what I should or shouldn’t do."

The response was immediate, her voice carrying a strength that belied her exhausted appearance. Theon blinked, caught off guard by the sudden intensity.

"You nearly died while fighting something that should have killed you, something far beyond your level, and you still somehow managed to survive. The healers said you shouldn’t have made it, that there was no reason for you to still be alive given the extent of your injuries."

She paused, and her grip on his hand tightened almost painfully.

"So don’t tell me that I shouldn’t have worried."

Theon was silent for a long moment, processing her words and the emotion behind them. He looked at their joined hands, at the way her fingers intertwined with his, and something shifted inside him, some understanding that he hadn’t possessed before.

"You’re right."

Celestial seemed surprised by his easy acceptance, her expression softening slightly.

"I’m sorry."

"You don’t need to apologize."

"No, I do."

She shook her head.

"I shouldn’t have snapped at you. You just woke up after being unconscious for over a week. You’re probably confused and disoriented and the last thing you need is me yelling at you."

Theon almost smiled at that.

"You weren’t yelling."

"I was close to it."

"I’ve had worse."

Celestial stared at him for a moment, and then something broke through her exhausted expression, a faint smile that transformed her features and made her look almost ethereal in the morning light.

"There you are."

Theon raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Nothing "

He considered her words for a moment, then gave a small nod.

"I suppose I’ve been a bit distracted."

"A bit?"

The smile widened slightly.

"You’ve been unconscious for seven days. I think you’re allowed to be distracted."

Theon looked at her, really looked at her, taking in the disheveled hair and the dark circles beneath her eyes and the way she still held onto his hand as though she was afraid he might disappear if she let go.

"Thank you."

Celestial blinked.

"For what?"

"For staying."

She was quiet for a moment, and then her expression softened into something almost tender.

"You don’t have to thank me for that."

"I know."

He met her eyes, and for a moment, the rest of the world seemed to fade away, leaving just the two of them in that sunlit room.

"BUT....