Supreme Magus novel Chapter 1990

Chapter 1990 once More with Guests (Part 2)

If it wasn't just another attempt of his mind to create a fake reality to escape from the pain of the torture.

It was the reason Raaz liked the Greenhouse so much. The smell of the earth was so familiar to him that it washed away the illusion of blood. The weight of the farming tools allowed him to make sure he wore no chains.

Now, however, he felt like he had taken a step out of the invisible cage he had been trapped in for so long. The marriage was real. The pain of the young woman between his arms was real. The child growing in Elina's womb was real.

His offer to fill in for Kamila's father was but a small gesture, but to him, it meant to stop watching life from the sidelines and be more than a cracked vase everyone was afraid to touch.

It meant having finally found the strength to face his demons in order to help the people he loved.

"I guess I'll need to clean myself up." Raaz suddenly realized the pungent smell of his sweat to which his nose had been dumb to until that moment.

"Oh, that's for sure." Elina wiped a tear from her own cheek. "Also, you need a good shave."

"What's wrong with my beard? It's manly."

"A groomed beard is manly." She replied. "A one-month wild beard makes you look like a bear."

"Also, it tickles like crazy and makes you look like my grandfather." Kamila said, giggling every time Raaz's facial hair brushed against her skin.

"That's not tru- Great Mother almighty!" Raaz conjured a water mirror and stared at his reflection, refusing to believe his own eyes.

He did the same time every morning but this time he actually saw what he had become. The skin around his eyes was weathered, full of deep age lines. His unkempt beard along with the dirt covering his face and hands made him look like a war refugee.

Even back when he had almost fallen into poverty to pay for Tista's medical treatments, he had never let himself go so much.

"Why didn't you tell me to shave?" Raaz looked at Elina in shock. "How could you stay by my side for so long and endure this without saying a word?"

He waved at his sorry figure.

"I told you to shave more than once, it's just that you didn't listen." She replied. "There was nothing to endure, dear. You needed me and that was all that it mattered. Welcome back."

Those last two words struck at Raaz so hard that he had to take a step back. He looked at his wife, noticing all the pain and worry she had carried from the day their children had rescued him.

It was the second time that day that Raaz managed to look past his own suffering and empathize with that of someone else. It opened another crack in the fortress of fear and self-pity that he had built to protect himself from the outside world.

The crack was small, but it let the light in.

"I hope that Salaark accepts male customers as well because I need a heck of makeover." He said.

***

On the day of the ceremony, Lith and Kamila stood near the main Warp Gate of Salaark's palace, greeting their guests the moment they arrived. On Mogar there was no superstition about the groom seeing the bride before the ceremony.