“I'm fine,” I muttered into the King's chest. “He's being overly protective.”
“I heard you were injured, but what happened?”
“Someone sabotaged my lab and tried to kill me.”
“What?!”
“The Master Alchemist is recovering from saving the city. He needs his rest.” The King turned and strode away.
I chuckled. “Is he still watching us?”
Falken glanced back. “Yes. With his mouth hanging open.”
I laughed harder.
“I can't wait until the lifters work again.” The King passed the lifter door, still cordoned off, and climbed the stairs that led to the fourth and fifth floors.
“It's your fault for living on the top floor.” I hid my smile against his chest.
“That's where the royal apartments are. I didn't put them there.”
Despite his complaint, Falken made it to his apartments in less than five minutes. And he wasn't even out of breath.He went past the knights guarding the fifth-floor entrance, and one of them hurried ahead of us to open the door to the King's apartments. Nodding at the knight, Falken went in, and the knight closed the door behind us.
“Who was that?” I asked.
“Who was who?”
I rolled my eyes. “The knight who opened the door for us.”
“Why do you want to know his name?”
“Oh, for fuck's sake. I've been here for over a week, and I still don't know any of their names. It's rather rude of me.”
“Oh.” He went up to his bed, and lay me down upon it. “His name is Thaven.”
I immediately sat up.
“Do not move from that bed.” He pointed at me.
“I'm not an invalid. I just have some burns.” I shifted to sit on the edge of the bed.
Falken sighed and grimaced as he stood over me. “What are we going to do now?”
“Now that I know the source of the Silver Rot, I believe I can inject a purging reagent into the origin point, and it will spread through the rot. The purging reagent won’t reach items moved from their original infection points, but once we round up those items, I can apply the reagent to them too. Then it's only a matter of cleaning up and rebuilding.”
Falken pinched the bridge of his nose briefly. “Yes, that sounds good, but I was asking about our relationship.”
I looked away. “I don't know.”
“Will you stay after you administer the purging reagent?”
I considered it, delving deep into places I don't normally look. Those places were full of feeling for the Dragon King.
“Sevarin?”
I lifted my head. “If I stay, what will I be?”
Falken frowned. “To me or the city?”
