Chapter Text
Another day in Viscint, rebuilding was almost complete and people were finally starting to feel safe again after the incident. But elsewhere, on his balcony overlooking the citizens a red haired man sat still in disarray.
Dohalim could hardly look at himself these past few weeks, the shame was too hard to bare. He was lucky the citizens were all able to get away from the zeugles and there were no casualties, but the fact this happened right under his nose, and all because of his own failure to read a person he thought was trustworthy. Not to mention the fact his fighting instincts failed him and he fell for a rudimentary illusion act. And he couldn't even redeem himself against Ganabelt as his own students defeated him, a bunch of kids beat someone who beat him, so what does that say about him?
How could he face his students and people after such a cataclysmic failure? Even though from their perspective it was him and the guards of Menancia who handled everything because the students wanted to stay anonymous, it still felt terrible to take fake credit.After the incident, he was contacted by some of his family members. Who credited him with defeating Ganabelt and stopping a zeugle invasion, which he had to just accept with a false smile and gratitude.
He had been sulking about his estate for days now, only leaving when required and hadn't even been grooming himself as he should've. His hair looking unkept and messy. He stood to go back inside, poured himself a glass of wine and picked up a book, hoping to take his mind off his incompetence for a little bit. Just as he sat, he heard his door burst open and a stern voice yell at him.
"Dohalim! What are you doing?!"
He turned back to see a familiar hair of blonde hair who looked very angered.
"Kisara, what are you doing here? Who let you in?"
"Even your staff knew you needed a kick in the ass so I'm here, do you think you can wallow in your own self-pity forever? Viscint needs you. We need you."
"It is not that simple, I have responsibilities to tend to here."
"Like drinking wine and reading music books? Try to fool somebody else Dohalim"
He looked down at the ground and just sighed, while he wallowed Kisara took a seat across from him.
"Listen, I know why you're so torn up about this Dohalim, you failed, but it happens to everyone. Nobody expects you to be perfect at all times."
Dohalim sighed "There are levels to failure and this one is beyond any miniscule mistake."
"I am aware, but wallowing will do no good for anybody and especially not yourself."
He sat there speechless for a few minutes, having no kind of retort. So Kisara continued.
"Don't forget, all those years ago you were the one who helped me and my brother get settled back into society once we were free from the shackles that bound us in Ganath Haros. You helped teach us proper combat and years later you got us these jobs. And you didn't just help us, you've always helped a lot of people."
Dohalim opened his mouth to refute her claims, but shut it once again. He hated to be dishonest to her but he couldn't reveal the whole truth of things, not now. But her words did inspire some fire in him. Her tone stern yet soft.
"I don't want you to hold yourself down to what happened forever. There's still much more greatness we can achieve here and forget about this. You're not alone, you have me and Migal with you all the way." She gave him one of the warmest smiles he's ever seen and he couldn't help but smile back.
"Though I do have to ask one thing Dohalim, where is Kelzalik? I'm surprised he let you walk around in this disastrous state of yours with the way he cares so much about appearances."
"He is busy taking care of the damage reports and contacting other realms for supplies to replace our own damaged goods. I haven't seen him much these past days but I pay no mind to it, I trust he knows what he's doing without me."
"Haha, if you see say. That man is a worry-wart if I ever seen it."
Dohalim genuinely smiled for once "Indeed he is, but I don't know what I'd do without him."
Kisara returned the smile and stood up. "So, I take it you feel a bit better?"
"Thanks to your oh so stern talking to, yes. I will try my best to formulate a good public response for the students by the weeks end so we can be ready for opening again."
"Glad to hear, and Migal will feel the same. But if I find you're not doing as you just said. I will come here to give you an even worse tongue lashing."
"I would not expect anything less. Thank you, Kisara." He said with one more genuine smile.
He watched as she left then leaned back in his chair.
"I forget how splendid it is to have people who really care about me...I need to be better. To keep the peace for them...and for me."
He stood and walked to his office and opened a mini vault. Inside it sat the earth master core, once a relic of extreme power during war times was now simply a family heirloom passed down in the il Qaras family. Dormant power still rested deep inside it, but Dohalim knew better to try and release this power unless the situation was dire enough for it. Maybe if he had this during his battle with Ganabelt, he could've defeated him alone. But he rest the thought from his head as he closed the box.