Page 1047 -- CXX.

Chapter One Hundred Twenty: ‘O, coveted children...’
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Ibai Blackburn rubbed his mouth and chin as he stared at the floor. He applied enough pressure to distort his own face in turns--scrunched, elongated, then scrunched again.

He couldn’t figure it out. He’d been playing the scene back in his head over and over again. He was sure the body hadn’t been there when he’d teleported, but he had seen someone. A soul. One which simply disappeared as soon as he arrived. By now, he was at least certain of that much.

Beyond that, though, he couldn’t understand what had happened.

And of course, everyone thought he did it. Even his family, it seemed. He told them it was some kind of misunderstanding, but he saw the looks on their faces. They clearly feared the worst.

But they still intended to protect him. They’d kept him confined to his room, but his father hadn’t left his side even once, continually reassuring him that everything would be fine, that they wouldn’t let any harm come to him.

Ibai wasn’t so sure about that.

If the other Rainlords found evidence against him, he honestly didn’t know what his family would do. Sure, they’d tried to protect him before, but they hadn’t believed he was a murderer then.

Or maybe they had? He wasn’t too sure about that, either, now that he was thinking about it.

Regardless, he didn’t much care for this sitting around and waiting for judgment. Though, to be fair, he didn’t much care for sitting around period. He was supposed to be on an adventure, and this didn’t feel very adventurous.

Naturally, Papa was trying to keep him distracted while they waited, but Ibai was wise to his tricks. Or maybe the man was just too exhausted to put his heart into it. Ibai could see the toll that everything had taken on him.