2026-08-17 22:40:18
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Chapter140:Since You Are My Wife
Nia retaliated by stealing his blanket.It was, by Wintervale standards, a measured response.That evening, the tower settled into the strange peace that came after too many wars. Yara occupied the guest room and pretended not to listen. The Sunstealer had vanished before Andrew could assign him paperwork. Avielle sent three letters in one hour, all of them containing advice Nia immediately burned.Elias sat on the edge of Nia's bed with his hands folded, trying to look respectful and failing because his thoughts were busy being reverent.This is real. She is here. Do not scare her. Do not rush. Do not make the past heavier than the present.Nia stood by the window, arms wrapped around herself."Your thoughts are behaving," she said."A rare achievement.""Suspicious.""Also fair."She turned. Moonlight caught in her hair."Elias. If I call myself your wife, will you think I am only becoming someone you lost?"The question
Chapter139:Your Name
The flowers bloomed after midnight.They opened across the ridge in waves of white, each petal catching moonlight until the hillside looked covered in fallen stars. Nia stopped wrestling Elias into the snow and stared."What are those?""Moonwake flowers," Elias said."I have never seen them here.""They only bloom under full moonlight. They fade before dawn. Very dramatic. I planted them years ago.""Why?"He sat up beside her, snow in his black hair, smile gentler than the night deserved."Because once, a dragon told me flowers were pointless if they vanished quickly. I said brief things could still be worth naming. She argued for three hours and accidentally memorized every bloom."Nia touched one petal.A memory opened.Not complete. Not sharp.A younger world. A coast under moonlight. A blue dragon crouched among flowers, too proud to admit she liked them. A man sitting nearby, injured, exhausted, smiling as if her cur
Chapter138:You Really Came Back
Elias had prepared himself for many possibilities.Nia rejecting the memories.Nia fearing them.Nia declaring that if a past-life husband expected special treatment, he could begin by washing dishes.He had not prepared for her to say the memories would bloom with such calm courage that his knees nearly forgot their profession."Elias?" she asked.He turned away too late.She saw the tears.For a woman who had faced gods recently, Nia reacted to those tears with complete panic."Wait. No. Do not do that. You are ancient. Ancient people are supposed to be emotionally weathered."He laughed badly and wiped his face. "That is propaganda invented by ancient people who cry in private.""Are you hurt?""No.""Then why-""Because you said you would try."The answer silenced her.Elias looked at the moonlit snow, eyes bright and helpless. "For a long time, I told myself I only needed a result. A resurrection. A
Chapter137:Do Not Say Strange Things
Elias had brought three slices of strawberry cake.This proved he understood crisis management.Nia announced that she would not eat any of them.This proved she was lying."Master," Elias said, opening the box, "this cake is for emotional recovery. Refusing it may delay healing.""My emotions are not injured.""You just confessed several frighteningly sincere things on a mountain.""That was tactical honesty.""A dangerous technique."He lifted a forkful toward her.Nia stared at it."I am not a child.""Correct. You are a terrifying adult archmage who can choose to eat cake with dignity."She considered this.Then ate the cake.The first bite made her shoulders relax.Elias hid a smile and offered another."Do not look smug," she warned. "I am permitting this because you carried it up a mountain. It would be wasteful not to eat it.""Wintervale thanks you for your responsible stewardship."
Chapter136:A Friendly Transaction
Andrew disliked demonology for the same reason he disliked unpaid invoices.Both promised useful results after terrible commitments.He placed three restricted books on Elias's desk with the grim care of a man handling venomous snakes."Your mentor has been studying these."Elias looked at the first title.A Courteous Mortal's Guide to Infernal Bargaining.He looked at the second.How Not to Lose Your Soul: A Practical Manual.He looked at the third.Seven Hundred Seals Demons Pretend Are Reasonable."Educational," he said.Andrew's eyebrow twitched. "Do not be clever.""That would make conversation difficult.""Can these books harm her?"Elias flipped through the third book, found a seal drawn with scholarly terror, and laughed."Oh. Varzeth.""You recognize it?""He owed me money."Andrew sat down with great slowness."Elias.""Allegedly.""Do not hide behind allegedly.""
Chapter135:Nia Works Very Hard
Nia Frostvale became productive.This alarmed Wintervale more than the loss of its sacred guardian.For three days, she arrived at the training field before dawn, after dawn, and once in a suspicious gray period that scholars later agreed might have been dawn if dawn had poor boundaries. She drilled ice arrays, mana compression, layered casting, battlefield footwork, and anti-divine resistance forms.Apprentices watched from a safe distance.Senior mages watched from a safer one.Andrew Greyfell watched from the air with the expression of a grandfather who was proud, touched, and convinced the world might be ending."Again!" Nia shouted.A ring of ice pillars rose around her, shattered, reformed into spears, broke into mist, and condensed into a shield so clear it reflected the morning sky.Then it cracked.Nia's brow tightened."Too slow.""That was a seventh-circle chained transformation performed without an array," Andrew said, descending. "Most Archons would call that excellent."
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