Chapter 9: The First Read

"Vica, is that you?" Gwen's voice echoed through the opened door of the private comfort room since she was still checking what was new to herself from the vanity mirror.

"Did you check on him yet?" she still asked since Slavica didn't answer the first one and was about to stare closer at the vanity mirror when Slavica finally decided to respond.

"I brought him here." Slavica answered as she went closer to the couch where she sat earlier and sit there again.

"Oh…" Gwen quickly took a peek when she heard Slavica's response. She looked carefully around the room and she wasn't surprised to see the same faces again apart from the wary strange man.

The man was standing like a very old man but his facial features; he was like just around in his fifties with a beard and he looked like a stray man due to his appearance. Gwen suddenly felt bad seeing his figure when Irina and the rest of Slavica's team came as well inside her hospital private room.

"You're the one he's looking for." Irina informed Gwen who looked confused but glared over the man as if she digging holes over his head before she speaks.

"Do I know you?" Gwen asked in her firm and commanding voice that caught the attention of very especially Slavica. She was familiar with that commanding voice.

"No, but I had a message for you." the man's voice started to quiver once again while shaking his head.

Gwen gave him a quiet stare like she was digging something inside the wary and nervous man before her. She even went closer to the man as if she was not badly injured which made Slavica's team surprised to see her move smoothly - normally toward the man. When she was just a few steps away from the man, she leaned closer and the man gulped. Gwen's eyes turned into something far from the usual and burned bright to the soul of the man.

"Speak from whom the message came from." Gwen's voice was totally serious as she leaned away from staring at the old man. But the man shivered as the cold and imperious wrapped around Gwen's commanding voice as if she owns everything around her.

"I don't know t-the name…b-but he t-told me once y-you heard h-his message y-you'll u-understand." The man stuttered from the powerful voice coming from Gwen who was now heading to her bed to rest her legs and feet. She still couldn't stay up for too long since her knees weren't a hundred percent yet.

"Let's hear it then." Gwen released a sigh as she settled back on the hospital bed where Slavica was waiting patiently over the couch beside the bed.

"Stars from all realms watch my beloved wife even into the next. Bestow her power to conquer every struggle that she'll ever face. And let her be filled with love that matched her heart." The man stated the message in the calm voice that he could muster.

But upon hearing it, something hit Slavica since she knew well who sent that message then looked very worried and pained over Gwen's sudden deep thought. She saw the same air she saw earlier but this one has something revolving around it. Something she knew very well.

"Tell Merlin, I'm alright, and no need for him to worry since I'm bound to wake something in this lady. Now, you can leave." Gwen's voice might be the same but there was some different pitch on how it was delivered – imperious voice.

The man jolted and automatically bowed before he quickly bolted. He left the hospital room by jumping through the window which made Yui and Tacker looked if the man was alright and he was. But the air that was revolving around Gwen was totally different and the three didn't have any clue what was happening to her and who owns that voice.

"Boss, what's happening to Gwen?" Yui worried about the status of Gwen.

"I am not sure." Slavica looked over Gwen carefully while she was in her deep thought since no one could read her mind.

"Ishnovishki?" Gwen suddenly spoked the old family name of Slavica that made her eyes go wide from hearing that.

"My queen." Slavica mumbled because there's only one person who dares to call her by her family name ever since she became a knight.

"Why do you keep calling me your queen?" Gwen chuckled as if she didn't say anything out of the blue.

"Well, you just called her Ishnovishki." Tacker answered with curiosity in his tone as well.

"Was that your name?" Gwen turned to ask Slavica who was still in a little bit daze because of what she heard from her.

"My old family name." She sounded like she was being poured by a very cold barrel of ice blocks.

"Oh…I just heard it." Gwen has no idea what she just said which made Slavica's team wondered where she heard it.

"From whom?" Irina wondered as she was trying to read the air that was swirling around her.

"Secret?" Gwen tried to wave it off and just let it be.

"Gwen." Irina firmly told her because she really saw this air was totally not coming from Gwen but with something else – a spirit or a soul.

"Alright, it came from my dream. I recalled something from my dream when that man say the exact thing that a fallen king said to his wise man named Merlin. That's why I said that…did I say something wrong?" Gwen explained but then asked if her words were hit the wrong buttons. They just shook their heads before looking at Slavica.

But somewhere in between those words of Gwen, she wondered about what she just regarding waking up something inside of her. It was a bit puzzling to her mind but she didn't dwell on it much since Slavica was in her thoughts. She was thinking about what Gwen just said as well the imperious air around her. It was familiar yet it was immediately gone in a blink of an eye. It was like it wasn't there radiating around Gwen but Slavica knew that it was still there.

"Something was indeed waking up inside of her which I am bound to see soon." Slavica thought to herself when Gwen's reaction caught her attention now.

"Please tell me if I said something wrong." Gwen's voice sounded broken which alarmed Slavica and quickly looked at Gwen's sad and worried face.

Gwen might not be able to see Slavica's reaction because of the mask that she was wearing but she still could see the care and longing in her eyes which hit her heart. She quickly averted her eyes from meeting Slavica's wondered but cold gaze fixed on her.

"You didn't say anything wrong." Slavica just answered with a sad expression in her eyes and she didn't realize that Gwen could read them like an open book.

"Then why you looked sad?" Gwen was totally worried over the sadness that she could see from Slavica's orbs.

"How can you tell the boss is sad when she's wearing her mask?" Yui took notice of what Gwen just asked their boss.

"I don't know. I just feel it." Gwen shrugged her shoulders as she answered Yui.

"You feel it…that's interesting." Tacker looked thoughtful when he mentioned that which didn't escape from Gwen's hearing. It was slowly turning to be sensitive.

"Why?" she curiously asked and Tacker looked at her surprised since he didn't intend for her to hear them.

"No one got close to our boss." Yui just saved Tacker from answering instead. Mates.

"She's hard to crack even though we took some time to adjust on how to work with her." Tacker finally added what his mate started.

"She's reckless and a risk taker whenever we're doing hard tasks." Irina went to the point where Gwen looked over Slavica as soon as heard that.

"You did not want to be a superhero, do you?" Gwen wanted to make sure that Slavica wasn't looking for a way to kill herself on the spot.

"Superhero isn't my last name but I am a hero to one person alone." Slaivca answered flatly.

"Care to tell who that special one is?" Gwen challenged her with some tone of jealousy beneath it.

"Intrigue or jealous which one should I take?" Slavica took notice of the tone that Gwen just hid when she asked her. She also wanted to know if there was something in Gwen that couldn't be compared to her late queen.

"Is she always like this?" Gwen couldn't believe what she just heard and just asked her teammates.

"Nope. Just around you." Tacker answered honestly.

"And it's cute to watch." Yui was totally grinning while her both thumbs were up.

"Now we're a sitcom." Irina commented which made Gwen's gaze widen and automatically looked away from Slavica's teammates, particularly from the knowing look that Irina was giving her.

"Both." Gwen sighed before giving her honest answer to Slavica's question while playing with the comforter on her lap.

The team of Slavica just looked at her in silence yet they are smiling in such relief that there was someone who had the guts to feel something from their boss. Gwen didn't know what to say anymore and just kept her head down and played with the comforter until she felt Slavica move. She glanced at where she went but Gwen shouldn't turn to look since their faces were just an inch close to each other.

"Don't be jealous. You're you and…" Slavica looked deeply into Gwen's eyes and there she saw a very powerful and bright morning star of triquetra beating from inside of her.

Gwen didn't know what to say over it and just waited for Slavica to finish her sentence. Slavica sighed and decided to remove her mask while she was too close to Gwen's steady gaze at her.

"…don't be intrigued because that person was already gone. My queen died a very long time ago yet her soul seems to come back to trigger something which I am not sure what it was." Slavica continued before she caressed gently Gwen's face she was not sure why she had to do that.

"That's why you've been calling me queen?" Gwen looked gently at Slavica as she sensed the gentleness of her savior's touch.

"I think she knew you're bound into something that only she could wake up." Slavica sat on the bed as she didn't divert her attention from staring at Gwen's orbs.

"If that was the case, are you going to be there not because of your past connection to her or me?" she went direct and asked curiously that making Slavica to chuckled a little.

"Blunt." Slavica smirked.

"Just being honest since you deserve it." Slavica was a little bit taken aback when she heard that from Gwen.

Slavica smiled and went closer to lean her forehead against Gwen. Gwen smiled as she closed her and just to feel the sincerity in her tone and something else that Slavica was sending there. Then all of the sudden, Gwen smiled as she giggled which caught Slavica's attention.

"What is it?" Slavica wondered as she distanced herself from being close to Gwen's face.

"My heart is ringing through my ears and not because of fear from my nightmares." Gwen answered with a smile as she pulled Slavica's forehead back to its place over hers.

"Is that good?" Slavica wondered.

"Never been better." Gwen chuckled slightly which was warming the heart of Slavica. She was glad that she could make Gwen happy.

"Good. Now, I want you to feel the energy coming from me. Tell me about them." Slavica suddenly began to change the subject and instructed Gwen again.

It didn't take too long for Gwen to be able to do what Slavica just instructed her to do and it surprised the three witnesses inside the room with them.

"Alright, let's see…from what I could see, they were bloody from all of your battles from then to now and that's already explained through your battle scars. There's some darkness as a cold night but they were serene like no harm will come in the way; yet, there were some unspeakable sorrows and broken…" Gwen was ecstatic when she started to tell what she could read to Slavica's energy but it also quickly turned sour. She gasped and wavered as if she felt something painful that she couldn't name it.

"Broken what?" Yui curiously asked.

"What can you see?" Tacker was also curious about what she could read about their boss's energy since it was totally uptight and guarded.

Gwen didn't answer any of their questions but she lightly pushed Slavica before she looked directly into her eyes. There's sorrow and the brokenness of the knight that she dreamed of but there was something else hidden from all of it and that's what Gwen saw. She looked pained over Slavica's gaze which made her cup Gwen's face out of the blue and acted like a worried lover. Gwen just shook her head and detached her hands around her face before she went to the comfort room within her hospital room without saying another word.

"Boss, what happened?" Tacker wondered about the sudden silence of Gwen as she headed to the comfort room. But Slavica just watched her back vanished behind the closed door of the comfort room.

"Did we ask the wrong question?" Yui worriedly asked which made Tacker make a soothing motion on his mate's back.

"No." Slavica only managed to answer. Even she could not find any answer to that question.

"Then what is it, boss?" Yui was totally worried but Irina's hand over her shoulder stopped her from asking more.

"Enough. It's their problem that they need to resolve on their own." Irina stopped them from pressing more out of them.

"Got anything for me?" Slavica turned her attention to the case that Irina was holding.

"In fact, there is but it could wait till tomorrow." Irina answered as she took notice of the note that she was holding.

"Let me see." Slavica said in her blank voice that sent shivers down their spine but Irina shook it off before handing the note that she gathered from working outside.