Chapter 1.5: The Father's Fear
The echoes of the golden light were still searing Seraphina's retinas when her bedroom door was thrown open.
She was tangled in her silk sheets, her body vibrating with a scream she hadn't realized she had unleashed. Her fingernails were clawing at her own mattress, searching for the rough stone of the dungeon.
"Seraphina! My star! My darling girl!"
The voice was like a thunderclap of warmth. Duke Astra rushed into the room, his night-robe fluttering behind him. He looked exactly as she remembered—the broad shoulders, the kind eyes, the smell of cedarwood and old paper. Behind him, the servants hovered in the doorway, their faces pale with gossip.
"She woke up screaming and crying at once," she heard a maid whisper. "Like a madwoman..."
The Duke ignored them. He was at her bedside in a heartbeat, his large, warm hands hovering over her trembling shoulders.
"Father," Seraphina gasped, her voice breaking. "You're... you're alive. You're not—"
"Of course I am alive! What a terrible thing to say!" Duke Astra cried, his face twisted with a mixture of terror and overwhelming love. He sat on the edge of the bed and pulled her into a fierce, suffocating embrace. "The servants said you were hysterical. They said you were screaming about 'the Emperor' and 'Sir Killian' My love, you are burning up."
Seraphina buried her face in his chest, sobbing so hard she couldn't breathe. In her last life, this man had been slaughtered by bandits while fixing a dispute by the border. His death had been the beginning of her end.
"I had a nightmare," she choked out, clutching his sleeves. "A nightmare that lasted a thousand years. Please... please don't leave me."
Duke Astra pulled back, his emerald eyes—identical to hers—searching her face with a heart-wrenching intensity. He saw the damaged look in her pupils, the hollow gaze of a woman who had seen the bottom of a grave.
"I am right here," he whispered, wiping her tears with a shaking hand. "I'm not going anywhere. But look at you... you're skin and bones. We will have the blessing tomorrow. The Saintess and the Golden Knight are already in the city. They will pray for your peace."
He stayed with her for hours, stroking her hair until her sobs turned into exhausted hitches. He didn't see a the villainess the Empire made her out to be." He saw his only child, his greatest treasure, seemingly losing her mind to a grief he couldn't name.