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jamil viper woke up as if he just got out of a very deep sleep that he was sucked into. he was heaving like he ran for miles, and is slowly regaining his vision. head heavy, body almost numb, and the pain that makes him so sure he won’t be moving for days.
he could remember ink.
lots of them.
azul, and the tweels…
grim, the prefect…
kalim…
kalim.
right.
he overblotted.
“you’re awake.” azul ashengrotto, in the flesh, has stated. he closed his book, placing it on the night stand next to the bed that jamil is lying in.
he’s in one of the infirmary’s private rooms it seems. tubes were stuck to him, some iv fluids, a machine with a ringing beep in his ears and silence.
jamil didn’t speak. his eyes only wandered. seeing azul there, and a step behind his right is jade as always.
“it’s been weeks, since your overblot.” azul spoke. probably not appreciating jamil’s lack of response.
as if taking it as a challenge, azul had a mischievous glint in his eyes. normally jamil would only be wary, but for some reason jamil felt horrific.
“it’s already the first day of school, a new semester.” azul continues. jamil took a deep breath.
“the overblot incident are under the wraps, the most who knew were the students involved and us. as well as a few close friends of the prefect. so far, they’ve been doing well on keeping the event under the wraps.” jamil’s eyebrows furrowed, he’s still missing something. but he can’t.
but he knows he shouldn’t ask.
“kalim al-asim dropped out of night raven college. publicly, he claimed that the heir seat needs him. but everyone knows it has been peaceful ever since he transferred here.” azul finally said.
but more than the octavinelle housewarden’s reaction, jamil is stunned by the sudden fact that…
kalim…?
“jamil, please, just stop! you can have whatever you want! you can be housewarden! i’ll go home to my family!”
kalim, he… left him alone?
“congratulations, jamil viper. you will be the new housewarden of scarabia. just like how you wanted.” azul dealt the final blow that was more than enough to shake the newly woken jamil.
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“jamil.”
“jamil!”
“JAMIL—!!” najma, though usually more agile than her brother especially when she was made known that he’s still recovering from his overblot, struggles to keep up with jamil as he sped-walk in the halls of the asim palace.
“jamil, you need to listen to me before you—!” najma halted at the sight almost immediately, and so did jamil.
this is what she’s fearing.
kalim al-asim went home suddenly during the winter break despite saying he won’t be going home. but what shocks the family the most is that he expresses his desire to drop out of night raven college. without any hesitations in his voice, nor decision.
najma looked over to jamil who seems to be going through a lot as he sees the scene in front of them.
kalim is surrounded by three men, all tending differently to him. one stands similarly to how the tweels do to azul ashengrotto. like a bodyguard, a few steps behind on kalim’s left. the other was just beside kalim, holding quite the sizable stack of papers while kalim was reading some in his hands intently. and the final one, another person, on kalim’s other side, holding a few valued pieces. all focusing on the heir.
jamil’s heart sunk.
his place…
oddly enough.
his place beside kalim, it’s all occupied.
immediately spotting both najma and jamil; the man behind kalim, almost too comfortably, hovered over the heir for a bit before leaning to whisper in kalim’s ear. mostly announcing the viper siblings’ presence.
kalim, in his nonchalance, raised a hand to dismiss the guard’s notice. the very same man nodded, despite the heir’s back turned against him, and he steps back as if he was falling back into his place.
the heir hands the paper back to the other man holding the stack, then turns to the expectant retainer holding items. they were speaking for what felt like years on end, and then finally. kalim’s interactions with them ended.
and finally, kalim has laid his eyes on them.
on him.
jamil meets eyes with kalim, as the heir at long last, starts to walk to leave. the heir did, however, just walk past him and najma.
phlegmatic.
detached.
indifferent.
has he been cast aside?
like he… like jamil wanted?
“jamil,” najma called out to him, hand on his shoulder. comforting. or at least, trying to.
“this is why i was asking you stop and talk.” najma added, worried.
the vipers are still the closest to the asim’s, it seems. but kalim, after coming back from the college, requested a new group of retainers from his father. says he will be taking over some management work over a few ventures under his name. the patriarch allowed it, but jamil knows better. the patriarch probably knew that something was off.
and the patriarch probably knew almost immediately that jamil viper had defected.
after jamil has somehow recovered from the interaction, he then remembered. the three new retainers are people he knew only from stories. especially when they matched all the descriptions from the famed narrative.
though not a nobility, the asims are evidently known to be as prestigious as one. more so, at the same level as the royal family. and so, they also have the same level of influence and number of people serving them. the vipers are one of the too many families under servitude to the asims.
and the three people, those who had situated themselves nicely on what was jamil’s place, they are men of noble blood who had vowed their loyalty to the asims from hundreds of years ago. they were, and always had been, people who had done their duties as the asim household’s close allies.
he’d been cut off.
the messages. the letters. there weren’t any replies to all of those jamil has sent.
there wasn’t any need to, jamil has betrayed kalim. and that will always be their end; the moment that jamil had enacted the plan that led him to this.
so why.
why does jamil want to reach out to kalim?
is he really sorry?
or does he simply want his place in kalim’s life back?
the very same place that is now covered up in tall walls and thorns, and cold stares and indifference.
jamil brought this to himself.
which he now deeply regrets the most.