CHAPTER 258: THE EMPEROR’S REGRET

They both walked back toward Soren’s chambers through palace halls still echoing with council session chaos. Nobles scattered like leaves before winter wind, whispers following in their wake... speculation, fear, calculation about what had just transpired.

Eris took one step. Then another. Her legs trembled from exhaustion barely noticeable to anyone watching, but Soren noticed everything.

He saw the little tremor in her knee, the slight hitch in her breathing, the way her hand pressed almost imperceptibly against the wall for balance she’d never admit needing.

The moment they stepped from council chamber into corridor, he swept her up into his arms without warning.

"Soren!" Eris protested immediately, voice sharp despite fatigue. "Put me down. I can walk."

He ignored her, adjusting his grip to carry her more comfortably, and kept walking. Guards followed at respectful distance, Ryse trailing behind with a knowing smirk playing at his lips... the commander had served Soren long enough to recognize this particular brand of stubborn care.

"I’m fine," Eris insisted, though her voice betrayed her with slight tremor. "This is unnecessary. People will talk. It looks... "

Soren looked down at her, expression firm but gentle in ways that made her arguments dissolve. "No, you’re not fine. I know you’ve been barely hanging on since we left that mountain altar. You look like you’re about to faint any moment."

"I’m not... "

"You don’t need to act fine anymore. Not with me." His voice softened further. "You can relax Your Majesty."

Eris opened her mouth to argue more, pride warring with exhaustion, but finally sighed in surrender. She rested her head against his shoulder, allowing herself this small weakness she’d never show anyone else.

"Fine," she muttered. "But only because you’re being annoyingly persistent."

As he carried her, Soren felt the heat radiating from her body through layers of expensive fabric.

Her core was unstable, Pyronox’s power still humming inside her while the seal reformed too slowly.

Her temperature was dangerously high. Getting more concerning with each step.

Taking her to the River of Aenithra was out of the question... too far, too risky given Vetra’s barely contained coup attempt.

"Ryse," Soren called without breaking stride. "tell the maids to prepare a bath. Now."

The commander understood urgency in that tone, had heard it enough times in battle. He disappeared ahead without question to carry out orders.

While waiting for the bath, Soren carried Eris to a large chair positioned by windows overlooking snow-covered gardens. He sat with her in his lap rather than setting her down separately.

"I can sit by myself," she protested, but weakly now, exhaustion stealing fire from her arguments.

He ignored her, keeping his arms around her waist. One hand went to her forehead, ice magic flowing as he tried to cool her down.

But he struggled... her temperature was too high, and his power was partially depleted from the council display, from barriers maintained for hours, from everything he’d spent defending her.

His concern grew as he felt the dragon faintly inside her. Not dormant exactly, but settling, the dragon’s presence like banked coals rather than raging inferno.

Minutes stretched. Eris’s breathing remained shallow, rapid. Heat continued building despite his attempts to contain it.

Finally, Ryse returned. "Ready, Your Majesty."

The bathing chamber was magnificent... a sunken pool carved from single piece of ancient ice that never melted, large enough for several people, filled now with water and massive chunks of the white ice that looked like captured clouds. Steam rose where heat from the room met frigid water, creating ghostly patterns in air.

Soren carried Eris inside and set her down gently on a marble bench beside the bath’s edge.

"I need to undress you," he said matter-of-factly, though his eyes asked permission, asked if she trusted him .

Eris nodded, too tired for modesty she’d normally guard fiercely. "Go ahead."

His fingers worked carefully at the laces of her gown, sliding expensive fabric off her shoulders and arms until it pooled at her feet in waterfall of silk.

The corset beneath came next, unlaced with practiced efficiency that suggested he’d done this before... though reader, whether for himself or others, one could only speculate.

This revealed the thin silk chemise underneath, clinging to her curves from sweat and heat.

He swallowed hard, focusing on the task as medical necessity, not... other things his mind wanted to wander toward. The chemise stayed. The small cloth undergarments stayed. One layer, barely, but enough for modesty.

Eris surprised him by speaking, small smile despite exhaustion: "Your turn. You can’t carry me into the bath in full imperial robes."

He nodded and began removing his ice-blue ceremonial layers... the heavy outer robes embroidered with silver, the formal vest beneath, the dress shirt under that.

Each piece came off until only simple white linen under-tunic remained. He removed that too, going bare-chested with faint silver marks still lingering on his skin from the tran transformation... divine power leaving its signature.

He kept only loose trousers, matching her modesty.

As Eris stepped toward the water, her supposed pride slipped faster than she could hold on to. She questioned him: "is it really necessary for you to join me?"

"I need to be present to help tame the fire inside you," Soren answered with a weak smile. "My ice magic works better in direct contact. Besides the moment you step inside that water, it’ll turn hot within a second so what would be the point then?"

Reader, as logical as he sounded, it was also clearly just excuse to maintain proximity, but she didn’t argue. Couldn’t argue. Was too tired and too warm and too aware of how his presence somehow made everything more bearable.

Soren helped Eris step into the sunken bath first, then followed.

The moment her feet touched water, she gasped sharply.

Steam exploded violently where her body met frigid water... hissing, boiling for several seconds as extreme temperatures collided. Massive clouds filled the chamber briefly, obscuring everything in white mist before dissipating as temperatures began equalizing.

Her divine heat warmed the water rapidly. Ice chunks melted around her, transforming from solid to liquid in moments.

Soren immediately activated his magic consciously, amplifying the cold beyond natural limits. Divine cold flowed through him into the water, keeping it boiling cold but not frozen... maintaining temperature that would cool Eris from outside.

It helped. He felt her fire begin to calm, felt the dangerous heat receding toward manageable levels.

Feeling better already, Eris slid forward in the bath away from Soren, putting several feet of water and floating ice chunks between them. She moved to the far end, creating distance.

Now acknowledging her feelings for him, she felt awfully aware of Soren in ways she wasn’t before.

This shyness was unexpected even to herself... she wasn’t normally shy about bodies or proximity.

She was once married to Caelen after all. So definitely this wasn’t her first time half-naked with a man in intimate space.

But somehow this was different.

Soren was different.

He made her feel things different... vulnerable and safe simultaneously, exposed and protected, like standing too close to flame but wanting to burn anyway.

Soren watched her retreat and called her name low, commanding, but gentle in ways that made it impossible to ignore. "Eris."

She looked up, eyes meeting his across the water and floating ice.

"Come here." Not quite a request, not quite an order. Something between that left no room for refusal while still offering choice.

She hesitated, shaking her head slightly. "I’m fine over here." Her voice came out small, unlike her usual fire.

He smiled slightly, sadly. "I’m not."

Then he stood in the water and walked across the bath toward her, water sloshing around his waist, ice chunks moving aside like subjects parting for their king. Inevitable.

Unstoppable.

Eris’s eyes widened. "Soren... don’t... "

But he kept coming.

Reaching her, his hands grasped her arms gently but firmly and pulled her up, water to her waist, to his waist, face to face finally. His voice came out rough, almost broken: "I told you to come here Your Majesty."

Then he pulled her against him with no space between their bodies. Wet silk chemise pressed against bare skin, heat meeting cold, fire meeting ice.

She gasped. He exhaled sharply. Both feeling everything.

Everything they couldn’t say to each other.

I missed you.

I was scared for you.

I thought I’d never see you again.

"If you don’t want to see my face then..."

He turned her around so her back pressed against his chest, then sat again and pulled her down with him into the water, positioning her between his legs with his arms wrapped around her waist from behind, enveloping her completely, tightly, secure and possessive.

There was no escape. Not that she wanted one anymore as she melted into him despite her earlier hesitations.

Soren was satisfied either way. As long as Eris was breathing, as long as her heart kept beating, as long as she remained alive... that was all that mattered.

Feeling the intensity of her heat wrap over him, relief crashed over him in waves stronger than any tide.

He’d feared he’d never see her again. That the god residing inside her would claim her completely, would consume mortal vessel and walk the earth wearing her corpse.

He’d felt the seal split during the demon attack, felt Pyronox’s presence surge through her with power that should have destroyed her entirely.

But she’d never transformed. Never fully shifted into something other than human despite divine fire burning through her veins. And now the seal was repairing itself... impossible, unprecedented, absurd as everything else in their realm.

Reader, Soren was beginning to suspect their world operated on rules that didn’t make sense, that perhaps Eris was connected to the absurdity of everything, that maybe nothing was quite what it seemed.

But above his curiosity, above his questions and confusion and need to understand... he was grateful.

Grateful she hadn’t succumbed. Hadn’t been consumed. Was still her.

Then the weight of everything crashed down.

Soren tightened his embrace around Eris, sinking his face into the curve where her neck met shoulder, breathing in the scent of her... fire and ash and something uniquely Eris beneath the magic.

He realized what he’d brought her into. The silent war of his empire, the political maneuvering, the attempts on her life disguised as justice. He’d asked for her help when he could have handled Vetra alone, could have dealt with the power struggle without dragging anyone else into danger.

But he’d been selfish. Had wanted her presence, her strength, her fire to balance his ice.

And now she was tangled in situation that could harm her. Because of her presence here, Vetra had sacrificed citizen’s lives that were lost as collateral damage in power struggle that had nothing to do with demons and everything to do with politics.

The weight of losing the people under his protection filled him with despair beyond measure.

But worse than that... worse than the names he’d have to memorize, worse than the families destroyed, worse than the districts reduced to ash... was the knowledge buried deep inside him.

He hated that he couldn’t stop the attack.

Hated that despite knowing something lived inside him, something that could have crawled its way up and stopped everything without Eris needing to step in, he’d been useless. He’d felt it during the battle... that presence, that power coiled in depths he couldn’t access, waiting for something he didn’t understand.

Years. He’d sensed it for years now, ever since something inside him had shifted, had woken slightly, had whispered of power he couldn’t quite grasp. And still, after all this time, he didn’t know how to manifest it properly. Didn’t know how to call it forth when it mattered most.

He felt weak.

Worse than weak... inadequate. Insufficient. A failure as emperor, as protector, as the man who’d promised to keep her safe.

He hated himself for making Eris wear herself out like this. For letting her burn through her own life force to save his people because he couldn’t access whatever divine power slept inside him. She’d nearly died. Had cracked apart under godhood’s weight while he watched, powerless to help.

And for what? So she could take a throne?

He hated himself for selfishly offering her something she never asked for. She’d wanted freedom... had abdicated her own throne, had walked away from power and responsibility and the crushing weight of ruling. And what had he done? Trapped her in another empire’s politics, another crown’s burden, another set of chains just prettier than the ones she’d escaped.

Maybe he wasn’t so different from Caelen after all.

Or from her father.

Taking what he wanted without asking what she wanted. Binding her to him through marriage and alliance and political necessity rather than genuine choice. Dressing up possession as partnership.

Did she regret it? Saying yes to him, accepting his proposal in that garden what felt like lifetime ago? Perhaps she hated him for trapping her in this nightmare. Perhaps she wanted to leave but didn’t know how to tell him yet, didn’t want to hurt him or cause more political chaos.

Perhaps she lay awake at night planning escape routes.

And he... gods, he hated himself most for this... he didn’t want to let go. Despite everything, despite knowing she might be happier without him, despite understanding that loving him meant danger and politics and never truly being free...

He wanted her to stay.

Wanted her to be happy with him.

But maybe she’d be happier without him entirely.

As Soren spiraled mentally, his body responded to turmoil without conscious direction. He clung tighter to Eris, arms wrapping around her waist with desperate strength, pulling her back flush against his chest. He closed his eyes and drowned in the physical reality of her... the touch of her skin against his, the scent of fire and ash and something uniquely her that made his chest ache.

More cold radiated from him in response to his emotional state. Ice magic answering despair, flowing unchecked into the water around them. The temperature dropped further, frigid enough now that steam stopped rising entirely, that the water’s surface began forming thin sheets of ice despite Eris’s heat.

He buried his face deeper into the curve of her neck and shoulder, breathing her in, holding on like she might disappear if he loosened his grip even slightly.

Then Soren began kissing her gently, her shoulder first, bare skin above the chemise, then her neck, the side of her throat, her pulse point where he felt life beating strong and steady beneath his lips.

His mouth trailed everywhere, not demanding, just worshipping. Just grateful. Just relieved that she was here, alive, breathing, his.

His hands stayed splayed across her stomach, holding her against him tight, feeling her warmth seep into his cold.