"Valen!"
I stopped on my track and looking back, blinking in surprise. "Natha?" I turned back happily, and was about to run back to the house when I heard his voice again.
"Valen!"
It sounded...scary. Like he was angry and... on the verge of breaking something. Like the time he was so mad at the Lord of Lust. The cold was blasting all the way from the house to the garden.
And it wasn't the kind of cold that made the winter flowers grow vibrant.
Panne and the guards also seemed to be surprised by the tone, to the point that they even reflexively raised their defense around me. The spreading cold that was getting closer and closer rooted me in place for a few seconds, but Ignis finally flicked its flaming tail on my shoulder, and I gasped out of my stupor.
