There's this madness we only hear in the silence, it's called the madness of nothing because surrounding this madness is so much silence that will stun you.
It's a kind of madness that drags you down the abyss, and you just let it. Not because you've no freewill, but because it feels good to surrender your freewill for once.
What does it mean to be captivated and enchanted? And what will it mean to have such a spell irrevocably broken? Will one still remain the same? Or will one be reborn again?
Vinnandra felt the bond between her, Astrid, and Xander complete. A trifecta bond. She was hyper aware of the other two, and she knew they were also hyper aware of her. But it wasn't just the bond, besides it something else was happening to her. It was like she was chained before, but now those chains were falling away, clattering to the floor.
Overwhelmed with all the emotions in the world, she looked at Xander, but in a different way than how she would normally do. And it was in that moment that Vinn saw the stark difference between her and the man whom her heart once stupidly beat for. She saw how foolish she had been… how irrelevant her crush had been.
Where she was a girl confused of her place in the world, this twenty year old man was a man going against the world, nary having the time to care about blending in.
Vinn had always been complacent, even in her resolution to become something, but Xander was ice waiting to harden. She never understood it before, how one could be so single minded without sparing the world around him a thought. How he seemed so driven without saying a word about it.
But now she understood it…what it means to be obsessed. Obsession means being self aware that you are not the best… that you're scarred and broken, and yet, trying to make something out of all those broken pieces.
She knew nothing of his dreams, or his ambitions, all she knew was what she had to do at that moment.
"Who is Pratia?" She asked him, remembering the conversation he had with Xylan, whom she later understood to be his foster brother and cousin. Weird family relations, but it was a story for another day.
"She is a dragon egg whom I once groomed."
"Why is Xylan bonded to her instead of you then? I hear she is now a very powerful dragon, and is Xylan's second bonded."
"Does it matter?" Xander quipped back, his face not betraying any emotion.
"Before it didn't, but now it does. Xander, I've just realised that we're both alike." Vinn said, her voice hoarse from all the emotions she had just experienced. Her mind raced with thousands of thoughts, but only one managed to make sense.
"How so?" Xander smiled in that cruel way that would normally have goosebumps racing down her body. But now, she revelled in its cruelty.
"Our families, they're terrible people."
"Terrible families are hardly scarce." He quipped like it was nothing, all the while, Astrid was observing them doing their thing.
"True, they're not scarce. Neither are broken people that scarce."
"Oh Vinn, you're not broken. In need of polishing here and there you definitely are, but broken you hardly are."
"What about you? What are you?"
He smiled in that way that says 'I know something you don't', "also not broken. I guess I am in need of polishing here and there."
Xander faced Vinn squarely, his hands casually tucked in the pocket of his leather pants. The man almost only wore leather, she observed. She knew what he was about to say was serious, so she braced herself for it.
"I won't ask you what it is that made you so scared that you chose to forget it. But I will ask, are you resolute now?"
The thought of the memory she unburied from eight years ago scared her. The staggering reality that she had lived all those years in ignorance of what she did to her mother, almost shook her. But she will not shake again, neither will she waver again. If anything, she had to take her mothers last advice to her.
Do not waver. This is a cruel world, and from now on they will see you as a cruel person.
Indeed, it was a cruel world. Vinn now knew the reason why she survived all those years ago. She had rendered an unmatched service in Dragonia by personally executing a witch-spy, how could they not spare the life of the hateful?
At the same time, she understood now the true extent of Lord Albridge's hatred for her. Vinn had killed the poor man's wife, how could he not despise and hate her?
If Vinn could see herself in the mirror, she knew what she would see. A pale, unsmiling face with dead eyes. She could hardly muster any emotion, not anger, not even hatred. Just the simmering of something inside her that was boiling steadily.
"Yes, I am." She replied, and she was proud at how steady she held her voice where everything inside her was rattling. "Xander, I don't know much about you but I think I know enough to know that I want to be your ally, just as much as I want you to be mine.
Before I left Albridge I made a vow, I thought it would be my last but here I find that I need to make another vow."
Xander didn't say anything, he didn't need to as he only stared at her, his silver eyes willing her light blue ones to say what it is that she wanted to say.
With unyielding resolve etched into every fibre of her being and reflected in her stance, she declared, "Hear me, all of Dragonia. I pledge my unwavering loyalty to this divine bond bestowed upon me today. I pledge my allegiance to Xander Lenklock, for as long as his loyalty to me remains equally as steadfast… and I pledge to be his staunchest ally."
Xander smiled, his silver eyes locking onto her blue ones, holding them captive. "I too pledge my loyalty and allegiance to Vinnadra the hateful."
In that inexplicable moment, Vinnandra felt wholly complete for the first time in eight years.
"What's our next move?" she asked eagerly.
Xander smirked devilishly, withdrawing his hands from his pockets and striding toward Astrid.
"Now, we convene a council meeting. We'll demand the revocation of your status as an official slave on the grounds of our bond and watch as chaos unfolds."
The idea thrilled Vinnandra. The anticipated objections from the council members only fueled her excitement, knowing she would have to fight even harder for her freedom.