Jason looked over at Talum and Gruwen with an intense stare, and he spoke up seriously.
"If it were up to me, you two would be dead already, so for your own sake, I hope we won’t be having any problems with you two."
The two soldiers immediately shook their heads, and Jason was surprised when Talum even bowed his head to Jason and Riyala!
"Not at all, Kingslayer! Our loyalty is to the Priestess above all else! We would lay down our lives and die if she asked it of us! We have no excuses for our actions against the people of Radagan, but we are truly grateful that the priestess saw us as worthy enough to be shown mercy!"
Gruwen followed Talum’s lead and bowed as well, and she spoke in a tone that was just as sincere!
"We have sworn on our fire to never raise a hand against the priestess or any of her allies for any reason. If we turn back on those words, may our fires consume us till we are nothing but ash."
Jason hummed as he listened to all this. There was still an aura of distrust around Jason as he watched them, and Jason wasn’t completely convinced even after hearing their declaration. Riyala could sense the distrust in Jason’s mind, and she leaned up to Jason and asked him to come down so she could whisper into his ear. Jason raised a brow at Riyala, but Jason still came down and listened as she spoke softly.
"I had a vision from Rumunaga asking me to bring the both of them out of prison and make them work together with me. Their son is destined to become the next king of Radagan."
Jason raised a brow, and he turned to the two soldiers with a curious expression on his face. They both looked extremely tense, and Jason could tell that romance would be the last thing on their minds right now. Does Riyala really think that they would have any time to think about having children? Jason let out a quiet sigh as he decided that he would just accept this. Jason had no idea how this prophecy thing actually worked, so he wasn’t going to bother trying to figure it out. Jason whispered back to Riyala.
"If they try to hurt you, I’ll kill them."
Riyala hit Jason’s shoulder.
"What? Don’t kill them. That’ll be bad! What about the prophecy?"
"You can find someone else to be the king."
"Jason! That’s not how it works."
Riyala couldn’t help but laugh at Jason’s protectiveness, and from the look on his face, Riyala knew that Jason was dead serious about killing them if they went out of line! But Riyala knew that Talum and Gruwen wouldn’t try anything. Riyala had watched their past, present, and potential future through the eyes of Rumunaga, and she knew that the only reason each of them joined the Sovereign was to protect the other person from getting hurt. Both Talum and Gruwen loved each other, but they were just too uptight to say anything first. Riyala decided that she would watch over them and see what future the dragon gods had in store for them.
At the side, the soldiers were all surprised as they watched Riyala interacting with Jason. From what the soldiers remembered about Riyala back in Radagan, they didn’t think that she was the sort of person who could laugh and joke like this. Whenever Riyala carried out her duties, she always had a stoic, no-nonsense expression chiselled into her face! There was nothing that could make her lose her cool, and she just did what she had to do as the mouthpiece of Rumunaga! So seeing the same stoic woman acting so playful and happy in front of Jason threw them for an insane loop!
"I guess the rumours were true. The Kingslayer is in a relationship with the priestess."
Gruwen spoke up with a small smile as she watched the two of them, but Talum put his hand to his chin and hummed.
"But I thought the Kingslayer was in a relationship with the mistress of wind that almost killed us. I believe her name was Gina, yes? Do earthlings practise the same polygamy laws as Radagan?"
Gruwen’s face soured as she was reminded of the fight that they had against Gina, and she shook her head.
"Don’t talk about her. I don’t even want to remember that fight."
Talum bumped Gruwen’s shoulder with his own.
"Oh, come on, Gruwen, we lost fair and square. She was just too powerful for us to handle. Are you too scared to even say her name now?"
"I said I don’t want to talk about it. Besides, we wouldn’t have lost if she hadn’t created the tornado. What were we supposed to do against something like that?"
"Quiet, you two."
Jallen spoke up from behind the two soldiers, and they both snapped into attention and went silent! Jallen was one of the members of the Royal Army who had been put in prison by the Sovereign for refusing to join his coup! Most soldiers who refused the Sovereign had been killed for insubordination, but the Sovereign refused to kill Jallen because of how powerful Jallen was. When it came down to raw fighting power, Jallen was only behind the Sovereign and Jaraht! So if either Talum or Gruwen went rogue, then Jallen had more than enough power to kill them for their insubordination!
"Jason, you left your phone upstairs again. You have like twenty-five missed calls from Juliet! I think she’s losing her mind —Riyala? Oh my god, I haven’t seen you in weeks!"
Gina exclaimed when she saw Riyala, and Riyala happily moved towards Gina and hugged her sister-wife! Gina smiled down at the shorter woman and spoke happily.
"What are you doing here? I thought you were packed with work in Radagan?"
Gina watched as Riyala’s excited expression slowly dropped into a more serious one, and Gina realised that Riyala wasn’t just here for some random visit. Gina looked towards the three soldiers standing at the door, and her eyes narrowed when she recognised two of the soldiers as the same ones that she had fought in the final battle in Radagan. The soldiers looked away from Gina with some level of embarrassment, and Gina was a little shocked that Jason allowed them to come into the house at all, but Gina knew that Jason wouldn’t have allowed them in here unless he trusted them, so she ignored them and asked Riyala.
"What’s wrong? Did something happen?"
Riyala put her hands in front of her, and she looked at both Jason and Gina as she spoke seriously.
"We received another missive from the King of the Machina this morning. The council has decided that our hearing will be held three days from now in the Hall of Fallen Heroes within the Stone Catacombs."
Jason narrowed his eyes when he heard the location, and he immediately asked the system where that was.
[The Stone Catacombs is a completely neutral world that exists in the central regions of the Primordial Expanse. It exists within a time-dilation bubble that makes time flow much quicker within this world compared to the majority of the Primordial Expanse, and it was decided during the signing of the treaty centuries ago that this world would serve as the Seat of the Council of Nine and One. Within the borders of this world, no physical, magical, mental, psychological, or any other form of attack is permitted. This is the one and only True Neutral Zone in the Primordial Expanse.]
Jaosn hummed internally when he read through this! At least they wouldn’t have to worry about being attacked.