The Devil's Cursed Witch

Morpheus' body burned for more, his raging desires threatening to ignite whatever is left of his sanity.

The guestroom was filled with Ember's sweet scent, and it was so strong that he himself was like a man being intoxicated. If he wanted to keep his wits with him, he needed to get out of that room fast.

Morpheus almost ran to the yard, and as soon as he stepped out of the thatched house, he took a big gulp of fresh air. The cold breeze carrying the scent of the flowers on the valley somewhat helped to calm his nerves.

Baruel saw him from the window of the kitchen. "The Commander is out."

"Good. The antidote is ready as well so we can give it to Lady Ember."

"I will inform the Commander."

Baruel went out to where Morpheus was standing with his eyes closed. The elf felt hesitant to disturb the Commander who looked unusually calm on the surface. The Divine Eagle's body was giving off a sense of restlessness, exposing the chaos in his mind, and Baruel was having second thoughts on approaching him.

In the end, he went to him.

"Commander? The antidote has been prepared."

"Thank you for your hard work," was all Morpheus said and Baruel understood that it was a sort of dismissal. Baruel tactfully excused himself and returned to his wife.

Reese brought the freshly prepared potion to the guest room and roused Ember for a short moment to feed it to her, before getting her to return to sleep. Once she was done, she came out of the thatched house to inform Morpheus.

From the moment Baruel approached him up till when Reese found him, Morpheus was like a statue, quietly standing in one place while staring at the flower field with a faraway gaze.

"Commander, I have fed the antidote to Lady Ember. We need to let her rest for at least an hour for the effects of the Glass Mist Flower to be completely eliminated."

"Hmm, let her continue resting then. I...I need to go somewhere but will be back shortly. Till then take care of her," he instructed, and the next moment, Reese saw the majestic pair of gray wings stretched out behind him.

"Yes, Commander," the elf woman answered and she watched Morpheus fly away from the valley.

Morpheus flew high in the sky at the speed of wind, cutting through the air like a sharp knife, no one--not even him--knew where he was heading. He was simply flying for the sake of flying, enjoying the feel of the wind on his skin.

He tried to calm himself while standing outside the cottage but it didn't work. This time, what he was feeling was beyond what he could control. He dared not stay in the room as Ember as he knew he would end up doing something bad with her.

With his eyes closed, not knowing where he was going, he simply continued to fly towards the clouds. He wanted to go as high as he could,  somewhere so high that, perhaps, his mind would stop thinking about her and her scent and those delicious lips of hers.

'Stop. Thinking!'

He was hot and bothered, and nothing seemed to work on him this time.

Even the cold wind and the strain of flying relentlessly seemed useless, and he didn't know what more he should do. His normal way to calm himself was staying by Ember's side, but that was not the case today.

High up in the sky, a couple of patrols from the feathered race noticed someone approaching at a high speed. Even with their keen eyesights, they almost did not recognize who or what it was.

The familiar aura made them realize it was Morpheus and wondered what happened to him.

"Did something happen? Why is the Commander rushing? Are we under attack--"

"Are you silly? The Commander is flying upwards. Do you feel that there's a fight somewhere among the clouds?"

The other winged man shook his head. "I wonder what is wrong with Commander Morpheus then..."

"Earlier..."

"Hmm?"

The winged man coughed before lowering his voice. "Don't let others know, but remember how I was a little late for our patrol? On my way, I saw the Commander carrying a female...well, His Majesty's mate in his arms some time ago," he said hesitantly.

"You mean His Majesty's mate and Commander Morpheus..."

"Maybe. Or have you seen the Commander pay this much attention to a female?"

Agartha might be a kingdom with a small population, but all its residents were supernatural beings. They could see more and hear more than a human, and as many of them were long-lived races, most of them knew each other's affairs like the back of their hands.

Morpheus had never been close to any females outside of his family. Yet ever since the human girl arrived in the kingdom, Morpheus could be seen either frequenting the palace or sightseeing with her.

As fellow beings from the feathered race, they could guess his mood--the fact he was flying so haphazardly had everything to do with him being visibly distressed.

"Only a potential mate can make a beastman behave like this."

"So, does that mean that our commander sees that human girl as his potential mate?"

"Can't deny it. I have never seen him treat females the way he treats Lady Ember. Well, the Commander also treats Lady Isa well, but we all know he treats her nothing more than a little sister."

"Whatever it is, I am happy that the Commander will have someone to cherish in the future."

"But... to think he has to share a mate with the King...it's a little..."

"Doesn't matter as long as he has a mate. I thought we would never get to see the Commander have an offspring, but now, the child he will have with that human will carry his divine blood. I see that in the next few years, we will get a powerful gray eagle--or if the spirits bless us, maybe the Lady will give birth to a golden one?"

"I agree. We want more strong warriors like our commander to keep our kingdom safe. We have  Lord Aureus now, but he is quite young so it will be good to have a new generation of strong warriors to serve him."

"Lady Ember survived the marking of a dragon that means she is the female in the kingdom most likely to give birth to a divine beast's descendant. That means if the Commander marked her, there is no chance for it to fail. Our kingdom will soon have another dragon and divine eagle."

"Yes, but the best thing is the possibility that the Commander's child would be another pureblood, a golden eagle."

"We should share such good news with others."

"No, no, are you daft? Do not even think about it if you don't want to be in trouble with Commander Morpheus. This is still his private affair so only the Commander himself has the right to tell others."

"That makes sense."

"Also she is already mated to HIs Majesty the Dragon. If I guess right, Lady Ember taking Commander as her second mate is not yet set in stone. We don't know how His Majesty would react once he hears of this prematurely. We can not ruin it for the Commander even before he gets to start properly."

"Let's hope our commander will mark Lady Ember  soon then."

Morpheus continued to fly through the clouds, his large gray wings disturbing that sea of whiteness as he passed through them. When he could no longer go higher as the air had become almost non-existent, he let himself plummet downwards.

With his wings folded around his body, Morpheus plunged headfirst at a speed twice, no, thrice as fast as when he was flying upwards.

As he continued to fall towards the ground, not even once did he open his eyes and let himself remained immersed in the thrill of that fall.

Once again, the patrols in that region saw Morpheus and wondered what their commander was up to. Still, no one bothered to approach as they knew nothing much would happen to their commander. At most, he would suffer some superficial cuts and bruises.

When Morpheus was just a few feet away from the ground, his wings opened and his body, which had its back facing towards the ground, turned around. He swiftly landed at the front yard of Baruel's thatched house.

He had no idea how long It's been since he left, but from the movement of the sun, it seemed that almost an hour had passed. Though it didn't help him much in ridding him of inappropriate thoughts, he was at least sure he could stand having Ember around him.

Baruel and his wife greeted him at the door.

"How is she now?" Morpheus asked.

"Lady Ember is still sleeping, but do not worry, I checked her pulse just now and it has gotten better."

Morpheus went towards the guest room and saw the human  still sleeping soundly, unaware of what kind of storm she had almost brought on herself.

Should he wake her up? Staring at her face, he shook the thought away. He approached the bed and lifted her in his arms. 'I need to take her back to the palace before she pulls more troubles towards her.'

He stepped out of the cottage and informed, "We will be leaving. Thank you for your hospitality, Baruel, Reese."

"Take care, Commander."

Baruel and his wife bowed to him and watched the pair fly away.

"Commander Morpheus cares for Lady Ember a lot. He stayed away from her so he won't end up hurting her," Baruel commented as he watched the figures that were getting smaller from his view.

"Isn't that a given,  a male treating his chosen female well?" Reese said as she followed her husband's gaze. "What a fortunate human being to have such amazing males as her mates."