Blessed by Night

344  Public View

Morgan was up and feeling better than ever before.

Ever since arising from bed a few days ago, his body was practically singing to him with every step he took.

Saying that he felt more powerful would be be quite the inept description.

A better way to put it would be to say that he felt like his own man. Like every action and cause would be because of his own decisions, not because he was being pulled by the metaphorical strings of a higher power.

Some might've considered this to be a relatively frightening turn of events, but not Morgan.

He loved this freedom. This responsibility.

And when taken into account with the promising future facing them, he felt like he was walking on air.

The world felt like it was singing.

"Baby I'm preying on you tonight~

Hunt you down eat you aliveee~

Just like animals! Animals! Like animals-mals! Baby I'm-"

"What the hell are you doing..?"

Morgan had barely realized that he'd broken out into song and dance in the middle of the hallway.

Thank god his wives hadn't seen it. That would've been embarrassing.

"I was just stricken with a fit of soulful joy, my friend." Morgan smiled as he boisterously threw his arm around Arias' shoulder. "Doesn't the day feel full of promise and hope?"

"I… sure." Arias could no longer do anything but shrug at this point.

Unlike everyone else who seemed to be having a grand time with their newfound powers, Arias alone was in a rather downtrodden mood.

It had been a while since he had cracked an undignified joke or made a comment that sounded like thinly veiled harassment.

Morgan was perhaps a day away from becoming truly concerned.

"Well, it's no business of mine, I guess…" Arias pushed his golden hair aside in a melancholic manner. "If you're fine embarrassing yourself in front of our citizens, then far be it from me to get in the way of that."

Scratch that. Morgan was plenty concerned now.

The pair were walking through the hallway of the new nightfall base in pursuit of their third member.

What should have been a relatively light hearted walk was somehow more of a depressing stroll.

Morgan had a hard time figuring Arias out.

He was unlikable sometimes, that much was true.

He had also done terrible things to people in the name of hate, and Morgan didn't know if he could ever forget that.

But Morgan had also watched him actively try to be a leader in the country they aspired to build, and the community they currently had.

He was a leader who was not obsessed with flowery raise and sentiments for himself and instead focused on using that energy in the pursuit of making the world better for people who were tired of the earth as it was before.

Should Morgan feel empathy towards this man, in spite of all that he was and may very well still be?

It was a question that he and many others were tired of having to ask themselves.

And yet, he was doing it again as they walked down the hall in silence.

The citizens liked to think of Malachi, Morgan, and Arias like a trio of dependable brothers who put aside their differences to work towards a better future for everyone.

And while that wasn't far from the truth, the tone behind it was a whole lot different from what they were thinking.

"Mrs. Saint."

Morgan snapped alert when he realized that he and Arias had arrived in front of Sei at some point.

She was busy helping a member deal with a bout of insomnia, but almost completely forgot about it when she heard Arias call her by her preferred name.

"Oh, you! Hehehe..!" She giggled uncharacteristically.

Arias put on a half smile.

"Is your fiancé around? The two of us have something we need to discuss with him."

"Well yea, he's…" Sei's words suddenly trailed off as she seemed to stare at the two men in a different light.

Her eyes seemed to require little to no further context to decipher the meaning behind their unexpected visit today.

"No… not this soon." Sei winced like she was developing a migraine.

Arias put on a genuinely sympathetic expression. "It is for the best. We still have those that we haven't rescued in the clutches of some very nasty facilities. I'm sure you understand why I am placing such an importance on this…"

She had only recently gotten to the point where she was comfortable not having him in direct sight.

Granted, he wasn't going to the realm of the gods this time, but Sei was a worrier at heart. It was pretty much a chronic condition when you raise a kid that gets into everything like Serana.

She met Morgan's gaze with a pleading look that could have melted even the most hardened of criminals.

"Are you taking anyone else..?"

Morgan wished he could've lied, but doing that to Sei in this state would have felt like committing a crime.

"…Any who want to go are welcome to."

Sei's headache worsened. That basically meant Anna and Jo would be going too. Possibly even Bianca and Nadine.

So now instead of worrying about just one member of her family, Sei would have to stress over multiple.

She would never get used to this part. Loving people meant inevitably having to worry over their wellbeing, and with three of them having been taken from her once before already, it was no surprise that she could feel a knot forming in her stomach.

"Mrs. Saint."

Arias ventured to place a hand on Sei's shoulder and stared into her concerned eyes with his own.

"I promise you. After this is done your family can be done with fieldwork. I even have a little venture in mind that I think you all might like. It would give you all some time away."

Sei was naturally curious about what sort of escapade Arias could've been about to send them on, but she declined to ask him about it that day for reasons that were unknown to her.

"Now, Malachi?" He asked again with a smile.

"Oh, right." Sei closed her eyes and the duo knew that she was contacting him telepathically.

While they waited, Morgan couldn't help but stare at Arias out of the corner of his eye.

Yet again, he was having to ask himself the same old question.

How should I treat this man..? Just what kind of person is he really..?

I am just here to say that I do not let go of grudges. the only place I let shit go is the toilet AnathaShesha