"Gods above, I thought I'd lost you," she said, visibly relieved, though being a little more cryptic than I had expected. "Lost me?" I asked looking down to see if there were any major changes to my body. "How could you have lo-..." I cut myself off, noticing a lock of steel-colored hair falling in front of my eyes.
"What the…?" I said, reaching up to it to make sure that the lock of hair was my own. I had generally kept the sides of my hair short, with the top being a little longer so I could comb it over if I wanted to. My bangs had always been just long enough to reach down in front of my eyes, but this color wasn't my own.
Or, at least, I don't think it's my own, I thought.
After a moment of careful consideration, I recalled what I felt during my mother's push of mana. My head had changed, and, with my hair being a different color, I immediately reached for my face. That's when I felt it. "Heh, pointed ears. Who would've thought?" I asked no one in particular.
"Clearly I, as well as your brother, would've thought so. Perhaps even your grandfather, had he not been such a stingy bastard with all of his little secrets about us being members of the Arwydus clan," Siraye said, moving out from in front of me, revealing my brother. "Oh, what the actual fuck?!" I exclaimed as she moved out of my line of sight, revealing my brother.
He had the same, steel-colored hair as my own, and pointed ears just like my mothers. He was also holding a pendant that looked like a small grouping of vines wrapping around a sphere of mana dangling between his fingers. I'd only ever seen its chain around his neck once or twice, so I never thought much of it.
That is, until he swung it gently as if he were playing with a kitten or a toddler.
"Who the hell are you, and what have you done with my brother? Oooh, you-know-who's going to flip her shit when she sees you," I said, stifling a laugh. "She'll likely never see me like this, but I swear on all that you hold dear, if you tell her about this…" he trailed off. I quickly held up my hands in surrender. "Alright, alright. I get it. But what happened to me? What did you and her majesty do to me?" I asked, turning to my mother.
She looked at me with such endearment, I thought my heart was going to melt. "Thoma, when your father took you to that man in the hut, he sealed away my features that passed down to you and your brother. He hated the fact that the two of you looked so much like me, and so he had a pendant made that could suppress those features," she began.
That explains why he had tar-black hair while mine was brown, I guess, I thought.
"I already knew he didn't like the fact that Bernar shared my features, but when you were born, your features were too much for him to bear. When I heard what he had done to Bernar with the pendant, I tried to destroy it, but the sealing magic placed on it prevented me from destroying it without hurting him, which isn't usually how seals like this work," she continued, her brows furrowed in frustration.
"I warned him that if another pendant was made, that I would annihilate him and his side of the family. Realizing I meant what I said, he swore to never make another pendant. What I failed to realize, is that that same, suppressing enchantment could be placed on someone's core, which is what he did shortly after I left you two to come here," she continued.
So that's why everything hurt so badly, I thought.
"When your brother came here to train with me and your grandfather all those years ago, he and I performed numerous experiments on the pendant, eventually finding a way to break the seal. However, we reasoned that it would be too much of a shock and reveal some information about our family that shouldn't be public knowledge," she said, giving me a knowing look.
I'd understood what she meant. Having it known that the Master, Bernar, and I were related might have caused a bit of suspicion, especially given our family history of being Pelantyrs.
"And so, you remade the seal, but this time, you removed the part that would hurt him if he ever took it off," I surmised. She nodded her head in agreement. "Heh, it's like you read my mind," my mother said with a slight chuckle.
"There's one thing I don't understand, though," I began, turning to look at Aurae, who had been standing nearby silently, peering at me with her mismatched eyes. "How does your majesty come into play?" I asked, trying to be as respectful as I could, but I could feel the utter confusion reigning the tone of my voice.
"How do I explain this…?" she said, her thoughts trailing off as if caught off-guard by my question. "Let's just say that I'm a deviant in the realm of mana manipulation," she replied, letting her words hang.
She's not going to tell me everything is she? Is she like Ren, who has a different kind of control, or perhaps interpretation of mana? I thought, trying to piece it together in my head.
"Interesting line of thought you've got going on, but I'll let her tell you that herself, eventually," Siraye interrupted the cacophony of my thoughts. "Did you just…?" I trailed off. "Read your mind? Meh, it's not that hard to do to an unprotected and untrained mind. Also, who's Ren?" she cut me off, shrugging her shoulders as if what she had just said didn't just blow my mind.
"Rennyr Virie, one of the elves we summoned prior to our counter attack on Coltend Castle. He… helped my best friend with his core, but I'm not entirely sure what he did nor how he did it. I do know he used mana, however," I explained briefly. "Another deviant, you say? What color were his eyes?" Aurae asked, her interest peaking as she took a step closer to me, visibly excited.
For the first time, I actually looked into her stunning eyes. At this point, it felt difficult to tear my own away from hers.
"Red, though both of his are, unlike your beautifully mismatched ones, your majesty," I said, adding the flattery to the end of my sentence to not sound disrespectful. Her eyes opened wide in excitement. "I would very much like to meet him someday," she said, a pensive smile growing on her fine features.
Elhael cleared his throat from a few paces behind her. "Well, this has truly been an eventful day, what with the revelations and all, but I'm sure you two are exhausted from your journey," he stated. My mother wrapped her well-toned arm around my shoulder.
"Don't worry, your majesty, I'll make sure these two are well taken care of, just as I will handle the majority of Thoma's training while he's here," she said in a much more friendly tone than I had expected. After having seen her interaction with Aurae, however, I quickly realized that she held much more influence here than I could ever imagine.
"Very well. Join us for supper, you two. After you've washed up and had a change of clothes, which my servants will provide for you, I will send someone to fetch you," the king said with a curt nod. Bernar and I bowed, thanking him for the offer as we took our leave, escorted by our mother who rubbed her knuckles on my scalp as she tucked my head under her arm.
"When the hell were you going to tell me you knew about what that bastard of a father you two have had done to my sweet boy?" she asked Bernar as we walked down the naturally formed halls of the palace. "More specifically, when the fuck were you going to tell me I even had a seal on my core?" I chimed in.
"Hey, two versus one isn't exactly fair," he raised his hands placatingly. "Grandfather told me not to say anything to either of you until you two met. He said he would leave it up to your best judgment, mother," he continued explaining, the retort my mother gave in response was merely a curt scoff.
"That old bat should've gotten rid of it himself," she said frustratedly. "He could've done that?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "Of course he fucking could've, but for whatever gods-forsaken reason, he chose not to, leaving it to me to find out the hard way that my son's core, appearance, and physical capabilities had been tampered with," she said, seething with the last few words.
I could tell she was exceedingly angry at my father. To be fair, both Bernar and I never really liked the fucker, but his blood still ran through our veins nevertheless.
"Well, now that the cat's out of the bag, what do you think of your real appearance?" she asked after letting out a sigh. "It's going to take some getting used to, but I can feel my entire body has changed somehow. Like there was a heavy ball and chain I'd been dragging around all of my life suddenly being detached from my body," I said, trying to explain the levity of how my body now felt after the seal had been broken.
Both Bernar and my mother grinned wryly. "You've made it to the second stage with that handicap on you; an impressive feat for any species, half-elf or otherwise. I can't wait to see what you'll be able to do when we start training you in earnest," my mother said, an eagerness in her voice letting me know I was in for a world of hurt.
I wonder how much different it will be to train without a restriction I didn't know I had, I thought.
You'll see just how much faster you'll grow without it, my mother sent to me mentally, catching me off-guard as her soothing voice resounded in my head. My expression certainly gave me away, as she was looking at me with mild amusement at this new development.
Without the handicap, you might even surpass me one day, but not anytime soon, my brother chimed in, transmitting his thoughts for the first time. You could also read my thoughts the whole fucking time? I asked, shooting him a blatantly pissed-off stare.
Surprise, asshole! he sent back with a shit-eating grin on his face.