CHAPTER 532: BACK FROM A LONG SLEEP

After Liam had jolted awake from his long, suffocating slumber, Mabel needed several seconds just to collect herself. Her heart was still pounding, her thoughts scattered, but once she steadied her breathing, she forced her hand to reach for the comm-rune at her wrist. With a swift pulse of myst, she contacted Queen Lucy and relayed the message she had been waiting six months to deliver: Liam was awake.

The reaction on the other end had been immediate. The moment Mabel’s words reached queenly ears, Lucy didn’t waste a heartbeat. She summoned Mystica, Magnus, and—most urgently—Galen. Mabel didn’t know what Lucy had said to compel them so quickly, but whatever it was, it worked. Mystica responded instantly, Magnus abandoned whatever mischief or task he had been tangled in, and Galen—who was notoriously impossible to track down on any given day—arrived with surprising ease, as if he had been waiting for this exact moment.

Within minutes, the four of them left behind everything they were doing and converged on Veridn’s underground chamber. The heavy stone door opened without hesitation as they stepped in together, their footsteps echoing through the dim-lit cavern.

The first thing they saw was Liam.

The boy didn’t even lift his head to acknowledge their arrival. His entire attention was fixed on the mountain of food placed before him. Instead of the composed young man they were accustomed to, they found someone devouring meal after meal with an almost feral hunger. He tore into the dishes relentlessly, moving from plate to plate like a man recovering from starvation—and in truth, that wasn’t far from reality.

During the six months he lay unconscious, he had survived on nothing but liquefied, myst-enriched sustenance fed directly into his mouth to keep him alive. It kept him stable, but it never satisfied a single craving or sense of fullness. Now awake, his body was claiming every grain of nourishment it had been denied.

Halfway through ripping apart an entire roasted beef shank, Liam finally paused. A prickle of awareness crawled up his spine, and he lifted his head. His crimson eyes flickered toward the group standing at the entrance, watching him with a blend of awe, amusement, and disbelief.

He blinked at them once, still chewing. "What?" he muttered, bits of food muffling the word.

"Oh, nothing, kid," Magnus replied with his usual spirited tone, waving a hand as if this were all perfectly normal. "It’s not every day we get to see you inhale food like a wild animal. Don’t mind us—really, take your time."

Liam stared at him for a long beat, eyebrow raised just slightly. He wasn’t sure if Magnus intended that as praise or mockery, and frankly, he didn’t care enough to ask. With a small roll of his eyes, he returned to eating.

Beside Magnus, Mystica cut him a sharp sideways look, her purple eyes glinting with judgment and faint amusement. "You truly need to learn when not to speak," she murmured, her tone light but edged.

"What?!" Magnus raised both hands in exaggerated defense. "I just said what everyone else was thinking. How does that suddenly make me the villain? Really now, you all can’t tell me it’s not a spectacle seeing the little brat eat like a scavenger who hasn’t seen daylight in a decade."

Before he could continue, Lucy shot him a glance—a single, steady look with those piercing emerald eyes of hers, the kind that carried every ounce of a queen’s authority and every ounce of a mother’s silent reprimand.

Magnus swallowed instantly. Whatever quip he had ready died on his tongue. He turned away like a scolded child, muttering under his breath, "Yeah... guess not."

Lucy paid him no mind. She stepped forward, her expression softening as she looked at Liam, the sharpness in her eyes melting into something warm and steady.

"Take your time, Liam," she said gently. "We’ll stay right here and wait for you."

Galen shot her a dry, unimpressed look from the side. Magnus mirrored him dramatically, eyebrows raised in exaggerated disbelief. But Lucy ignored both of them, her attention fixed solely on the boy who had finally returned to them.

After a long while, Liam finally pushed away the last emptied platter, feeling the weight of a mountain of meals settle inside him. He tipped back a full cup of water, draining it in one go just to force the remaining food down. When he set the cup aside, a quiet knock sounded at the threshold and a maid stepped in, swiftly collecting the stacked trays before slipping out again.

They gave him space—long enough for the ache in his stomach to ease, long enough for his pulse to settle from the voracious rhythm it had held moments ago. Only when the silence felt steady again did Liam lift his head and meet the room properly.

He took in each figure at his own pace. Queen Lucy sat with effortless poise on one of the pristine couches, her regal presence somehow softened by the gentle concern threaded through her gaze. Mystica lounged nearby, amusement flickering openly in her violet eyes. Magnus, sprawled upside down on another couch with his legs hooked over the backrest, gave Liam a mock-serious stare as though he were studying a rare creature. And Galen, leaning against the wall with his arms folded, carried that detached, unreadable look he wore like second skin.

Last, Liam’s eyes settled on Mabel, still standing guard by the door, her posture unwavering, her attention fixed on him alone.

He exhaled, lifting a hand to rake it back through his overgrown hair which fell over his face in unruly strands before he pushed it behind his ears.

"So," he began, his tone steady yet blunt, "it’s obvious you all want to throw a hundred questions at me, and maybe—if you’re lucky—I’ll have the right answers. But I’m honestly not interested in listening to all of you talk right now. So I’ll spare us the trouble and just explain everything that happened while I was unconscious. Fair enough?"

His straightforwardness silenced the room for a heartbeat. Lucy and Mystica exchanged brief glances, both slightly caught off guard; they had expected him to have nothing prepared, yet he seemed more ready than any of them.

"Sweet, good by me," Magnus said immediately, flipping onto his stomach and peering at Liam with heightened interest.

"Same here," Mystica agreed, voice soft but intrigued.

Lucy gave a single calm nod. "Please, do as you wish." She then shifted her attention to the door. "Mabel, would you excuse us for a moment?"

Mabel stiffened—only subtly—but enough to betray her surprise. She recovered quickly, bowing her head. "Of course, Your Majesty." She reached for the handle, but Liam’s voice cut through the room before she could step out.

"Not to overrule your command, Your Majesty," he said, maintaining a rare note of respectful restraint, "but I want Mabel to stay. It wouldn’t be fair for her, as my protector, to remain unaware of the truth about the person she’s guarding. So I... request that she stays."

The chamber fell into a still pocket of silence. Lucy, Mystica, and Mabel all stared at him—each with varying shades of surprise and curiosity—while Magnus’ lips curved into a wickedly entertained grin.

After a long moment, Lucy’s expression eased into an amused smirk. "If you insist," she said softly. "Mabel, you may stay."

Mabel paused, then turned back toward the room, her gaze settling on Liam once more. Though her face was half-hidden beneath her mask, there was a subtle glint of pleased warmth in her eyes.

"Wow," Magnus drawled. "Isn’t that adorable. The brooding little brat actually knows how to care about people. Fascinating world we live in."

Liam shot him a brief, disinterested glance before dismissing him entirely.

"Anyway," he continued, "since everyone’s agreed, I’ll start talking."

Just as he prepared to speak, Galen’s calm voice cut across the room.

"Before you begin," he said, pushing off the wall slightly, "there’s something you should know."

Liam blinked once. Then a faint, knowing look crossed his eyes. "Oh, I already know. You don’t need to explain it to me. I lived through their memories."

The words stopped Galen cold. His brows drew together in genuine confusion. "What?"

"Just let me speak," Liam replied, tone quiet but firm. "Everything will make sense."

Galen studied him for a long stretch, searching those identical crimson eyes for any hint of deception or instability. But he found nothing. Eventually, he nodded once.

"Alright then," he said, voice low. "Go on."