The room fell into silence after his words. Ubel just found out he lost his mistress to his son. She did not have a Companion, but it should not have been that easy. His wife was silent so that meant he must have been saying the truth that was what she was trying to cover up. That must have been the reason why they acted strangely today.
'How long had they been planning this? It must have been for a period of time that gave Zephyr a good amount of time to build courage to carry out the act as he was least attached.' Ubel thought as he looked at Zephyr more attentively.
He stared at Zephyr with shock written all over his expression. He did not look like the scared boy that he knew. He still trembled, but that was not out of fear; he was looking at Ubel straight in his eyes, trying to read his expression despite his body signaling him to stop all work. And there was a tinge of madness in his eyes.
'What happened this few days?' Ubel could not help to ask himself. It was too much of a change in personality for the boy in such an amount of time.
"The one I despised turned out to be a Mistral." Ubel stared as he stood upright and his facial expression changed from shock to his neutral resting face and resigned from a fighting stance as he could not help but look at Zephyr with a look he had never given him all his life. A look of Respect.
Zephyr did not know how to interpret what just happened. Had his father acknowledged him for the first time after mentioning his reaction to the death of his mistress, whom he valued over his wife, who was the bone holding the family together?
The first time he stood up to his dad and he backed down? Or was there another catch to it? He did not know how to feel. Should he be proud of ending someone's life? Why did he say what he said? Why did he react that way after losing a loved one?
"Did I need to take a life to get your attention?" Zephyr could not help but ask if he had been given an audience he wanted to talk to all his life, it might as well be the time.
'Did I need to take a life for your attention?' Ubel repeated in his mind as he looked at him. He could see what was wrong. Zephyr looked extremely pale and thin, and he could see his jawbones from the other end of the large room. He looked sick.
A wave of disgust overtook him again as he stared at his unspeakable state. 'It was just the Taming Ritual, why did they have to go this extreme? I don't remember mine being so demanding. This surely was to be the work of that bastard!' He thought as he turned to look at Mistral, who was comfortably sitting staring at the two of them.
'You just had to wait for me to leave before you removed that mask of yours.' He thought as he looked at Willow and the cold look she had in her eyes, cold enough to feel that icecles formed the immense stare.
Zephyr could not help the tears that were forming in his eyes. He thought he could push his luck but it seemed today was not his day. All he wanted to do right now was to sleep; the nine days that were supposed to have been a recovery period were instead a period of survival, fighting for one's life in what God knows best.
Zephyr had many questions he wanted to ask his dad, but he could not bring himself to ask him; he was too tired, and it seemed his father had not warned him after one single act of acknowledgment, not so soon after all the years of trauma accumulation.
"Prepare, you will be going to Necroforce Academy," Ubel stated like that had been the most evident thing to do at the moment.
"What do you mean?" Willow asked, questioning the sudden decision.
"He was successfully binder to an Entity; it is common sense to go to the academy where they will teach him everything he needs to know to be a man in Metropolis, a well-respected man than you will ever learn within these walls," Ubel said as he started going out.
"But he is still weak, he just woke up. He needs to recover a little strength before leaving." Willow added.
"He has missed resumption and is missing a lot of valuable knowledge and relationships as we speak so he is to leave immediately. The driver will be back here in five minutes." Ubel ordered and left the room, giving no room for feedback.
Zephyr slumped to the floor as he stared at his mom, he was very tired.
"The cook has made your meals already; you will eat on your way there; it is a very long journey, which I know you are already aware of. So you would have eaten and have rested well by the time you arrive." Willow said in a cold tone as she looked at his thin and pale frame of long bones.
'Is she trying to hide her emotions, or was she not affected by what happened earlier?' Zephyr asked himself as he tried to understand what happened earlier.
'Why not just ask her?' Kaelan answered with a hiss.
"Are you okay?" Zephyr asked but her expression did not change as she stared coldly at him as if questioning the audacity to ask such a question.
"How will I not be after all these years? You are on your own now." Willow said as she walked elegantly out of the room leaving Zephyr in his dark room that he would miss for a while at the Academy.
'It is either everyone has some loose screws in their head, or they have been replaced with their clones which are doing a bad job at playing them.' Zephyr thought as they were all behaving strangely