“The wish I want?” wondered Jeza.
“Yes. If it’s information on what exactly happened to your brother then I can get it for you.” Zilan then paused as he waited for Jeza to react.
“Thank you…I…_”
“Wait!” stopping her from continuing, Zilan then resumed speaking.
“If that is what you want then it will be done however, once that’s over with my debt will be settled and we will go our separate ways. Your problems will remain yours and only yours!”
Looking into the cold, resolute and indifferent eyes of Zilan, Jeza could tell that he was absolutely serious. But if that was all he had to say, then why mention it now. From his tone, she gathered that there was probably more to it.
So she waited and just as she predicted Zilan continued.
“But if you help me and are willing to wait, then as long as your brother is alive I will reunite the two of you.”
Jeza’s body slightly trembled and her teeth clenched when she heard him speak of, “waiting”.
Zilan clearly noticed this so he decided to add on,
“The choice is yours. All I can say is that you’re strength and mine are roughly the same, even if you do get the information you’re looking for I doubt you will be able to handle the situation. From you’re words, you’re brother seems to be quite strong and if he was captured then….you have no hope of doing anything by yourself. “
With those words, Zilan had touched on a soft spot. Jeza was no idiot, she had already thought about the “what then?” situation. Even if she somehow got the details of what happened to her brother, “what then?”
“You said it yourself, we have roughly the same strength. What can you do about it then?” growled Jeza as tears could be seen forming from the corner of her eyes.
“It’s true we have the same strength but it took you years to get to where you are while it took only a few days for me to get to this point.” Replied Zilan calmly.
Jeza wanted to immediately question his words however after thinking about it, it slowly started to make sense. Without even mentioning his abilities, the first time they met he had no spiritual power running through his meridians and then back at the inn she suddenly felt a dangerous feeling coming from him.
Although, she couldn’t quite put all the pieces together Jeza was smart enough to understand Zilan’s words might not be as empty as they appeared.
“Days? How? No…can you do it again?”
Zilan slowly shook his head,
“The same effect can’t be replicated but my speed of advancement, I can guarantee it will be faster than yours. Now, make your choice!”
A number of emotions flashed through her as questions upon questions kept pilling up in her mind. What would happen if she trusted him and in the end it happened to be all a lie? Or what if this was her only chance of freeing her brother and her turning it down led to unwanted consequences?
“What should I do?”
She secretly took a secret glance at Zilan who genuinely seemed to not care about Jeza’s situation. In fact, he was actually taking out a few things from his voidless sack and placing them on the floor one at a time.
He then suddenly turned toward Jeza who quickly averted her gaze.
“The agreement was enough explosives to blow up a city gate, yes?”
“Eh?”
“I asked if the term of the agreement was_..”
“I will help you!” without hesitating, Jeza had made her decision.
“Was there another person she knew who could casually talk about explosives capable of destroying a city gate, the same way one would do when conversing about the weather?” was all she needed to ask herself before she made the decision.
This didn’t mean she wholeheartedly believed in Zilan, it just meant that logically speaking she had a higher chance of succeeding with Zilan than without. Besides, it wasn’t like she had been chained to him, if ever the time came when this arrangement proved to be poisonous then the option of departing was always there.
Her only risk and greatest fear was that she’d run out of time. Nearly a month had already passed since the capture of her brother.
“How long do I have to wait?”
“I don’t know. The time taken will depend on many things, the first of which being how the meeting with your Lieutenant goes.”
“What do you mean by that?”
A smile formed on Zilan’s face after softly sighing. He didn’t know why but a strange feeling of shackles loosening around his heart and mind could be felt.
“Wait…this isn’t good!”
Zilan could feel something welling up from inside him. Whatever was holding it back before seemed to now be slowly fading away and it was only a matter of time before an eruption occurred.
Faint feelings of panic, worry, fear, rage, despair, love and a plethora of other emotions were slowly enveloping him and clouding his mind.
Jeza could feel something was not right with Zilan.
“Re…strain…me.”
He clutched his head in attempt to shake away whatever was trying to take hold of him.
“The second level is wearing off! Could these feelings be the ones it was holding back? They’re all going to come out at once?… Not good! ”
“Jeza, hurry up and restrain me. I’m losing control, HURRY!………I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to shout………F*cking do it or I’ll kill you…” strange expressions and tones escaped from Zilan’s lips with every minute that passed by.
All the feelings that the Gift of love had been suppressing were on the verge of surfacing and exploding all at the same time.
Jeza didn’t dawdle any longer, quickly taking out some special rope and tying Zilan up. Even going as far as to gag him.
………………..
Morning Dew City.
Hertic came hobbling out of a dark room, icy mist trailing behind him. His complexion was anything but healthy with deathly pale skin that was so thin that the outline of his bones could be seen.
“Is she alright?” asked Jibral as he stood in the middle of the room.
Hertic only glared at him but didn’t say anything else. He might be of higher standing than Jibral but when it came down to it, he lacked strength. Unless he was surrounded by his people, there was no way he was going to reprimand Jibral.
“Are they coming?” Hertic didn’t wish to speak with Jibral but this question, he felt obligated to answer.
“There’s no escape this time. I will survive but that doesn’t mean I won’t suffer. As for you….they’ll want to speak with you!”
Jibral frowned. This time things were going to get out of hand, a son of the Holy North was slaughtered under his watch.
No longer paying any attention to Jibral, Hertic quickly made his way out of the room and into a small hall.
“Is he back?”
A black robed man swiftly attended to Hertic,
“Yes. Should I send him in?”
“Mm!”
Moments later, none other than Senior Chai, the person who gave Zilan the ginseng, was being escorted into the hall.
Up until now, Hertic had yet to speak to Chai. The reason? Because Chai was one of the first people to head out in search for Zilan. He knew that he would be the first suspect after all, he was the one tasked with delivering the item therefore his first thought was to go and capture the only person capable of clearing his name….Zilan.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to dodge High Priest Hertic’s order any longer.
“Explain to me how the boy appeared when you saw him.” Hertic stared at Chai with the eyes that formerly belonged to Velman. Four stars instantly appeared in his pupils.
“You can leave out his physical appearance, that information is useless. Tell me, about everything else!”
