A somewhat awkward silence descended over the spacious study for a short while until Alicia broke the stillness again.
"When you stabbed Abigail…" she started and then paused with a slight narrowing of her eyes at Zeke. "Were you certain that she would not have stayed dead? Had you some kind of guarantee or proof that Abi will rise again after you killed her? You said the only thing the prophetess saw was you killing Abi and the dragons disappearing." Alicia was relentless in her pursuit of questioning Zeke, leaving no grounds unturned.
Ezekiel glanced at Alex and Abi before he returned his gaze to Alicia. "No. I was not certain." He replied – answer short and to the point.
The air suddenly turned chilly and everyone already knew that the frosty aura blasting out was coming from Alex. Abi immediately faced her husband, but she eventually relaxed because despite the grim look and the darkness clearly evident on Alex's face, he was calm.
"I was not certain about anything." But he held up his hands in a show of surrender before Alicia could rip into him verbally – and Alex would do the same literally – to get that pause. "But I did wait for a sign." Zeke added.
"A sign?"
"The mist. When I was approaching Abigail, the mists didn't come to protect her. The dragons and Alex didn't come either. I deliberately give them a moment to come. But no one came, not even the mists. The mists and the dragons, especially Alex, were supposed to sense any possible kind of danger befalling Abigail. But no one seemed to sense it, even the mists. I took that as the signal that Abigail's death was really meant to happen – temporary or permanent. I knew it was a gamble. I knew that its useless to kill the dragons if Abigail will die. But I've been having a theory for a long time since, which I believe will be proven true once the prophecy is fulfilled."
"Theory?" it was Abigail who spoke next.
Zeke looked at her, nonchalantly resting his chin on his knuckles.
"I've been thinking about how long you can stay beside Alexander, Abigail." Zeke said, meeting Abigail's eyes. "Even if you're the incarnation of the last dragon keeper, you're still a human. You will eventually grow old, get sick and die. There was never a prophecy about Alex dying so I presumed he will forever be an immortal. Once you die…" he trailed off and averted his gaze to Alex. "I can't even imagine what this guy will do."
A lazy sigh then escaped Zeke's lips and continued. "My theory was that Abigail had to die for the second time around so that she could become immortal. I believe that Abigail was about to become immortal when she remembered the memories of her past self – and that was the other sign I was looking out for."
Everyone looked at Zeke with probing eyes, wanting to know more about what he will say next. "I believed that the necklace the late witch queen gave her was extracted from the dead body of the original dragon Alex had killed. You saw it was the same golden particles that came out from Dinah when she disappeared. I can only presume that a witch must've gathered those golden particles back then. However, it seemed that wasn't enough to complete the process. I believe the immortality that was bestowed to Dinah was transferred to Abigail when Dinah died – through the transfer of those particles. We can never know if that's really the truth behind it all, but I couldn't think of any other plausible explanation that made sense other than that." He ended with an elegant shrug of his shoulders.
No one spoke. They all thought that there was indeed no other better explanation that what was said by Ezekiel. Those yellow golden lights that came from the necklace was really the same from what came out from Dinah at that time.
"So, you're saying that I am… that I am immortal now?" Abi stammered. She initially thought that Zeke must have asked some witch to put spells on her so she wouldn't die. She never thought about the possibility of her becoming immortal.
"Yes. Why would you still be alive right now if you're still a mortal?" Zeke replied, his voice remained flat.
Abi's head snapped at Alex. She didn't know what to feel or how to react.
But Alex smiled at her and pulled her in his embrace and then kissed her forehead, showing her how pleased he was about this news.
"How about Zeres? Is he still an immortal?" Alicia piped in and everyone's eyes fell to the silver-haired man seated next to Alicia.
"Why don't you try slashing his throat like what you did to him when you two first met?" Zeke drawled dryly, causing Alicia to fire up almost instantly. Instead, she bit down on her bottom lip and took a deep calming breath as she expressed her anger by glaring at Zeke for not taking her question seriously.
Zeke smirked. "He's still a white dragon Alicia, so his immortality is still with him."
Alicia creased her brows. "But he almost died by the poison. He was dying."
"Yes. He was dying but he'll certainly rise again. He'll just be tortured by the pain to his core. Abigail didn't claim his immortality, am I right? White dragon?"
Zeres glared at Zeke. He really didn't like that he's calling him 'white dragon'. But then, he averted his gaze as he looked at his own palms. Zeres knew that the man was right. He could still feel it inside him. He still had it, the dragon's blood within him.
"So? Are we done?" Zeke said, almost like a tyrant who wanted the boring interview to finally end when a soft knock sounded at the door.
The intricately carved, heavy double doors slowly swung open, showing a figure dressed in elegant military formalities – standing at attention. The king's own personal guard entered and apologetically bowed.
"I am sorry for the intrusion, Your Highness, but the king is expecting you to go to him immediately. It's urgent."
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[There will be an announcement this 25th. Please stay tuned hellbounders ^^]
