novelraw Chapter 114 : When the Water Breaks
Chapter 114 : When the Water Breaks
(Elara POV)
The world was quiet again.
Too quiet.
The frogs had stopped croaking, the insects refused to sing. Even the pond — the one Rooga always sat beside — looked still, like it was holding its breath with me.
The moonlight shimmered across the surface, fractured and uneven, just like the thoughts in my head.
I knelt by the water’s edge, gripping my arms so tightly my nails dug into my sleeves.
Rooga’s blood had already been washed from my hands.
But it still felt like it was there.
Behind me, I heard footsteps — soft ones, careful not to startle.
“Elara,” Edmond said quietly.
Seris was beside him, arms folded, her expression unreadable in the dark.
Neither spoke at first.
They didn’t need to.
The silence between us said everything — the kind of silence that follows a storm too heavy to name.
“I didn’t mean to,” I whispered.
My voice cracked.
“I didn’t mean to hurt him.”
Edmond moved closer, crouching beside me. “We know.”
“No, you don’t.” I turned toward him, tears already burning my eyes. “You didn’t see his face. You didn’t hear the sound when the sword hit him—”
My words died, replaced by a choked sob.
Seris’s voice was softer than I’d ever heard it. “Elara…”
I pressed my palms to my face, trembling. “Mother looked at me like I wasn’t her daughter anymore.”
A sob escaped before I could stop it. “I wanted to show him what it means to be a Valemont. I wanted him to see—to understand—”
My voice broke entirely.
“And all I did was almost kill him.”
The words came out raw, ugly. The kind of crying that doesn’t look graceful — the kind that shakes your whole body.
“I hurt my brother. I made my mother hate me. And Father—” I shuddered, “Father didn’t even defend me. He just stood there. Because he knows I’m right. Because I don’t deserve to be part of this family anymore.”
Edmond hesitated, then reached out, placing a hand on my shoulder. “You’re wrong.”
“Am I?” I spat, then winced at myself. “Sorry. I just—”
He shook his head. “No. You’re allowed to break, Elara. You’re allowed to feel this.”
Seris knelt beside me, her voice barely above a whisper. “You think Rooga wouldn’t forgive you? He’s a fool with a heart too big for this world. The moment he opens his eyes, he’ll smile at you first.”
I looked up at her — at both of them — and the dam I’d been holding all week finally burst.
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It wasn’t graceful.
It wasn’t quiet.
I screamed into my hands.
The kind of cry that shakes the ground, the kind that feels like it tears out everything inside you.
The pond rippled from my sobs, the water catching my reflection — swollen eyes, red cheeks, and a face that looked nothing like a proud Valemont heir.
I didn’t care anymore.
Seris wrapped an arm around me. Edmond leaned in close, silent, steady.
For the first time, I didn’t try to act strong.
I didn’t try to stand tall or speak proudly.
I just cried — until the moonlight blurred and the world spun, until all that was left was exhaustion and guilt.
And when I finally had no tears left, Seris spoke softly.
“You can’t change what happened,” she said. “But you can be there when he wakes up.”
Edmond nodded. “He’ll need his sister. The one who taught him to swing, not the one who broke him.”
The wind stirred the pond, ripples catching the stars.
I wiped my face with shaking hands, still hiccuping softly. “I just want him to open his eyes.”
“He will,” Seris said. “And when he does, make sure he sees his sister, not her guilt.”
I nodded weakly.
The three of us sat there by the pond in silence, the world around us whispering again.
For the first time since that day, I felt something small — fragile, but real.
Hope.
(Lyra POV)
Thirteen days.
It had been thirteen long, sunless days since Rooga was carried into the great tree.
The wound had closed — Maori’s healing always did that — but the boy still slept.
No breath of mana came from him, no whisper from the forest said his spirit had returned.
Only the faint heartbeat of the tree, slow and sorrowful, told us he was still alive.
And Selene…
Selene had not smiled once.
Each morning she came to the clearing.
She would kneel before the tree, fingers trembling over the roots that hid her son, whispering things no one else could hear.
Sometimes prayers.
Sometimes apologies.
Sometimes only his name.
When she looked at him — when she looked at the bark that held him — her eyes would soften, the ghost of light flickering within them.
But the moment she turned away, it vanished.
The warmth drained out of her like the last ember of a dying fire, leaving behind a woman made of stone and silence.
She moved through the house like a shadow — no expression, no voice.
The Selene Valemont who once lit every room with laughter was gone, and all that remained was the hollow echo of her grief.
Elara tried.
She tried every day.
Each time, I watched her approach her mother — hesitant, guilty, hopeful.
And each time, Selene’s reaction grew worse.
The first few days, she turned away without a word.
Then she began to shake, her voice breaking into shouts.
And today—
“Stay away from me!
” Selene’s voice had cracked through the hall like a whip. “Don’t you dare come near me!”Elara froze. Her eyes filled, her lips trembling, but she didn’t speak.
Darius was there in a breath, his hand catching Selene’s arm before the next wave of mana flared.
“Selene,” he said softly, “enough.”
But the woman who turned toward him wasn’t his wife.
Her eyes were wide, trembling — wild with pain she couldn’t name.
Then she saw Rooga’s absence through the window, and everything in her fell silent again.
Her shoulders sank.
Her face turned empty.
And Darius just held her until the storm inside her stilled.
That evening, I made my way to Maori’s grove.
The forest had grown dense, quiet, almost reverent. Even the birds didn’t sing near the roots anymore.
Elandra was there, standing guard before the tree’s hollow, her armor faintly glowing in the dim light.
“I need to see him,” I said.
Her gaze didn’t move. “You can’t.”
“Elandra, he’s been in there nearly two weeks. Maori should have stabilized him by now—”
“It’s not time yet.”
Her tone wasn’t harsh, but it was final.
And the mana around her left no doubt: if I took another step, she would stop me.
I exhaled slowly, looking past her toward the bark that glowed faintly with golden veins.
“Is he suffering?”
Elandra didn’t answer.
But the faint tremor in her hands told me she didn’t know either.
When I returned to the house, the air felt heavier than before.
The workers in the fields moved slower. The animals stayed near the fences.
Even the wind sounded tired, like it didn’t want to disturb the silence hanging over the Valemont land.
People didn’t talk about it, but everyone felt it.
Selene’s sorrow had seeped into the soil itself — into the mana of the land Darius once made bloom.
The trees drooped. The crops dulled. The forest sang low and mournful.
Valemont, once a place of growth, had become a home in mourning.
And every night, when the sun fell and the wind blew through the open windows, you could almost hear it —
the sound of a mother’s quiet crying echoing through the halls,
and the whisper of a goddess’s weeping carried by the roots of her tree.