I turned to face Ardrin, who'd surprised me with his question just before I left the meeting room.
"What is it, uncle?" I asked with a small hint of sarcasm in my use of his title. I noticed he was accompanied by Kalia, Siraye, Ysevel, Aurae, and Taegin, although I couldn't understand why everyone else had been excluded from the conversation. "Shouldn't Bernar be here for this? I asked, confused as to why he'd continued walking with Leona.
"He has other things to worry about right now," Taegin said, waving a hand dismissively. "What do you mean?" I asked with visible confusion. "Didn't you notice what happened to her when she consumed the Authority?" Mom asked with a wry grin as if she already knew what was happening. "N-Not really?" I raised an eyebrow.
Mom chuckled briefly and shook her head. "Well, there's still a lot for you to learn. You might have spent a decade training with Kalia, but there's much about the world you've yet to see for yourself," she said cryptically. What the fuck is that supposed to mean? I sent her, but she'd blocked out my connection to her core momentarily to prevent me from digging around. "Fine. Fine! I'll just be in the dark yet again," I sighed as I rolled my eyes.
"So, what was it you wanted to talk about?" I asked Ardrin, who glanced at Taegin and my mother momentarily, to get an approving nod. "Thoma, there's something about the seal on your core that we believe not even Erumon was aware of," he began with a strange look of concern on his face, causing my stomach to drop.
"Was there anything you remember about that night that you noticed was strange about the man who did it?" he asked, though I couldn't determine why. I put a finger on my chin as I tried to recall the events of that fateful night. "He was old, weathered, and had a scraggly beard. His face was covered with a white sheet of cloth, though there were slits cut out for his eyes," I began to recall, causing Taegin and Mom to shift uncomfortably, but they didn't say anything.
"When I woke up, I was tied by my hands and feet, but there was something about the old man that didn't sit right with me. The way he moved was strange for such an old man, and the way he looked at me with those strange eyes didn't help ease my discomfort either. They were pale green with black tendrils swirling within them, not unlike the Tyrant mana Erumon just showed us," I explained, but as I did so, Ardrin was the one who seemed the most bothered by it.
"Then my suspicions have been confirmed," he said gravely. "Thoma, I think the person you met that night was under Mideia's influence, or worse, possession," he said gravely, making my stomach drop even more. "W-What?" I asked breathlessly. "It's true. The day I left you was to go hunt him down and kill him myself, but by the time I arrived, there was no sign of him present in the old man's eyes," Mom said, making me take a brief step back.
Wait, wait, wait. What? I thought, trying to understand what I was hearing.
"Do you remember the first expedition we took you on to Coltend Castle, and the old farmer we saved?" Taegin asked, making my eyes widen in realization. "N-No. That's impossible. Jehn Boone? The old farmer who was also sending ravens to the castle?" I recalled the name, to which he simply nodded.
"He was the one I found where your father told me he took you," my mother said dejectedly, shaking her head down and away from me. "So, you're saying Mideia might have possessed him to get to me? Why? Why go through the trouble of sealing my core like that?" I asked, but deep down, I felt I already knew the answer.
There were several things he said to me that night that started slowly coming back, but the memories were patchy at best. "I think it was more out of precaution than anything else," Kalia began, surprising everyone else present. "If what you're all saying is true, then it would make sense that he would do something like that," she said, taking a step toward me.
"If what Erumon said about the Authority and the slaughter of the Wraithborn is true, then it would make sense why he would want to cripple your potential, as a young Wraithborn who has the Authority would essentially be a god-killer in the making," she said gravely, putting a hand on my shoulder.
I didn't want to say or transmit anything just then, but I knew she was right, especially after everything that happened when I was fighting Nexis. If there was anything that made sense about my seal, it was that whoever ultimately did it wanted me gone, whether it was Mideia or not.
I could tell Ysevel noticed my inner turmoil when she gently tugged on our connection, as if trying to pull me out of my own head. "S-Sorry, I'm just…" I trailed off, shaking my head and putting on a fake smile. "It's fine, Thoma," Ardrin began as he stepped toward me, prompting me to look up at him.
"We understand it's a lot to take in, but right now, we have our own missions to accomplish. Yours in the Gramm Isles, while Taegin and I will head to Valdis in search of answers, as I have centuries' worth of records untainted by royal families," he said with an obvious reference to Athar's story.
"I understand. I hope you can find what you're looking for," I said, giving him a short bow. "As do I, nephew," he said with a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth before heading out of the room with Taegin. As I watched them leave, Ysevel came and put a hand on my shoulder. "Let's go check on Devyr. I've heard from Athar that she was doing much better the last time he saw her," she said warmly, hoping to take my mind off the conversation we'd just had.
"He's gone to see her? Not even I was allowed in when I asked to see her," Kalia snarled frustratedly. "That's because you didn't go with me," Mom said playfully, taking Kalia's arm like they were about to walk into a formal gathering. "Come on. Let's go check on your daughter together," she said with a warm smile.
After walking down several halls, getting more than a few stares due to my mother's playful demeanor with Kalia, we made it to the infirmary, where Devyr had been recovering since our return. The pair of guards that stood at the front snapped to attention as we rounded the corner, and I could tell immediately that they were being extremely cautious with the way they spoke to my mother.
"B-But Commander, she's not allowed inside due to the patien-..." the guard cut himself off when Mom's demeanor shifted from playful to authoritative in the blink of an eye. "I'm saying she may enter. It's her daughter, for fuck's sake. Now, stand aside," she said forcefully. I could tell the glow in her eyes had flared due to the slight reflection of them in the guardsman's helmet.
"O-Of course, Commander. A-As you wish," he stammered, obviously uneasy due to the sudden shift back into her playful demeanor. See? I told you it would be alright, Mom sent Kalia and the rest of us, causing Ysevel to stifle a laugh. She managed to keep herself under control, as she still greeted the guards cordially.
Nice save, I noted. It would be unbecoming of me not to greet them with the respect they're due. Your mother just happens to have much more… How do I put this? Presence than I do, she mentally chuckled. Yeah, no denying that, I grinned, giving her a gentle nudge with my shoulder.
"Do you two always have side conversations like that?" Mom asked over her shoulder as we continued down the hall that led to the main room. "Most of the time. Though we've gotten close enough not to have to speak, only reading whatever comes through our cores' connection," I noted briefly, since I knew she was still getting used to having a nearly-perpetual link to us.
"Oh, I'm not complaining. It's just nice to know you two have gotten along so well. Just so you know, Aurae and I do expect grandchildren someday," she said with a shit-eating grin on her face. "M-Mom!" I stammered, feeling my face turn a bright shade of red. Ysevel, however, only laughed and patted me on the shoulder. "Maybe when this is all over," she said smugly, knowing all too well that we were in no position to consider that right now. "I know. I know. Just so long as you know, is all," Mom snorted indelicately.
We rounded the corner and came to a large room full of beds neatly dressed in white linen, with an attendant at every bedside that held a patient. Each one had a cage of roots over it that served as a conduit for the attendants to push mana into, allowing the mana to flow over the patient as one, practically engulfing them in it.
As I watched a scout's broken leg mend itself together before my eyes, I realized this was a much more advanced form of mana than what we used in Codrean. To be fair, they did have hundreds, if not thousands, of years to perfect their craft. Needless to say, it was impressive to watch.
"Egeshe marra!" Kalia suddenly broke away from my mother when she spotted Devyr sitting up as we approached. She wrapped her in a tight embrace, and I could tell from our connection that she was both relieved and ecstatic to see her daughter recovering.
"Mata dun in gruss tek mireba, Murra," Devyr said with a sense of relief in her use of the hegraphenian word for mother that was slightly muffled by Kalia's shoulder. "It's good to see you too, Devyr," I said as Ysevel and I both greeted her with a balled fist across our chests and a light bow.
"I apologize for my use of my native language," Devyr said bashfully. "Don't worry about it. I think I'd even like to learn some since I'll be working with Kalia a lot more," Mom waved dismissively. "Ah, you must be Commander Siraye Fayren. Athar's told me a great deal about you already. It's an honor to meet you, though I must say he was incorrect about you being terrifying," she said with visible confusion.
"Did he, now? What else did he say?" Mom's face shifted into a broken smile of desperate self-control. Don't even think about it, I sent her briefly with a chuckle. "That you were as kind as you were strong, but that for the most part, people tend to fear you when they first meet you," she said, putting a finger on her exposed chin. "I-I see. Well, he's not entirely wrong about that, but I'd like to prove otherwise and ask how you're doing," she said after clearing her throat.