Her ears perked up at the slow screech, eyes widening in disbelief. Her grey eyes flickered over to the door, devoid of any emotion. At her empty gaze, they flinched but did not move any further. Their eyes were stern; she thought they were looking to see if her muscles tensed even slightly. Grey hair caught her interest, a weird thought simply existing in her mind. Out of the entire group, his grey eyes stirred something within her.
She wanted to reach out for a moment, her fantasized child overlapping with his figure. Noticing the woman's longing gaze, he blinked slowly in response. He tried to remain collected, but memories from his childhood resurfaced.
Mother?!
Without putting much thought into it, his uplifted foot lightly brushed the red carpet. His eyes widened in realization, and he moved no more. Observing the now frozen boy, her lips curved into a captivating smile.
"Such wonderful children you have. I didn't think it was possible—."
Before she could finish her sentence, the room shivered as Kaien's breath hitched. An overbearing weight pressed against him as he failed to maintain his footing. The experience was otherworldly, unlike anything he had ever felt. Now he understood how aura could be so intimidating in the anime he watched.
"I told you not to mention anything marriage-related, Cleria." Mei's words carried poison that could knock out goliaths.
Her smile broke into a wry one. She didn't understand how someone so young acted like she carried a thousand-year burden. Still, she could understand, since they both would wish for the same thing to a shooting star.
"Pardon me. I was really elated, to be honest." Her eyes landed on the statue of a boy, trailing a tear on his left cheek. She could make sense of what he was feeling, but it was a matter of why, not what he was thinking. She couldn't pierce through that ironclad defense; she could only see his psyche on a surface level. His composure was well maintained, which made her wonder what kind of upbringing he had to endure. If it weren't for his arm occasionally shaking like a twig, she would have thought he had nerves of steel. This implied a deep-seated trauma.
"Now you're scaring the poor kid," Cleria said with a frown.
As if on cue, the disturbing pressure receded as instantly as her expression shifted. Her eyes softened as she finally noticed what the kid was going through. Her eyes glanced at Cleria—Kaien's current object of attention. Her shadow engulfed him, but her looming presence went unnoticed. Only when she placed a hand on his shoulder was he finally pulled out of his pile of neverending thoughts.
"Does he always act that way around new people?" the grey-haired woman asked, her tone laced with curiosity.
Mei shook her head in dismay because every answer she found exaggerated the matter. In a turbulent war of truths, only one was the most promising.
"This has to be something else. Your hair is almost the same shade of grey, so he must have confused you with—"
Cleria nodded with a stoic expression, grimly accepting the message she didn't want Mei to finish.
She walked by the boy who seemed so frail, and yet she knew he would stand on top of the mountains one day. She was tempted to offer him to join her peerage, but at the corner of her eye, she saw his grey orbs focusing on him—untainted and lively. In the end, she just wasn't strong enough.
"I'll pay you a visit later then."
After she left the room, she proceeded down the lavish corridor. It was clean, and the decor boasted royalty over mediocrity, but she had no desire to admire it a second time. After striding through the glass door, the buzz and beeps of speeding cars was all she could hear. Within moments, though, the noise drowned to mild silence. It was still there, but she filtered through the necessary sound.
As she gazed up at the gloomy clouds, blue light stirred within them. Everything else was unimportant, except for the only person she wanted to see. The only person she had to comprehend.
"It's nice of you to give me the pleasure of meeting him, very well played. And to think you were just staying behind to make a call."
Cleria gave a cheeky smile as she watched the woman—eerily similar to her in appearance—drop her head in indignation. The pang in her heart lingered because she had intentionally pulled the wool over her eyes. She insisted she stayed only so her master would be the one to have a look. She cowered in a corner she couldn't put into words.
Of course, passersby never really caught the gist of what was being said. Some thought it had something to do with a mistake the older one made. They were more interested in their almost identical appearance—grey hair and eyes, hair, skin—yet their facial features were quite different. Both were beautiful, but unique in their own right. One would mistake the two for sisters.
"I couldn't gather the courage to see him... after all that's happened."
...
Any hopes to avoid the inevitable silence crumbled, her own will barely enough to hold her head up. The thundering echoes further chipped at her resolve. She knew something was being slowly eroded, but whether she would find it before it's gone was questionable.
A flash of blue light from the otherwise dark cloud seemed to wake her from her pondering. Something cold trickled down her cheek, then her forehead. She saw clearly a droplet of water descending to her feet, splashing on her polished dress shoes.
Seeing Aihana lost in the rain, she knew that deciding to stay was actually eating away at her. She had just recruited her, yet she felt tempted to hold her hand. She wanted to offer support as much as possible, the guilt was too much to handle alone. But she sighed because she chose to fracture her heart needlessly. She was new to the other side of this world. As a senior, sure there was no one better to guide her, right?
Her lips parted, but her voice was soft and low.
"Is he your son?"
She wasn't given an answer, but something within Aihana fell apart with the question. The silence persisted, louder than beads of rain. Moments passed, but it would be surprising if she chose not to respond. Finally, she gave a meek "Yes," and that was all she got from her. Small, but at least it did not escape the storm with a surge of restrained emotion.
A raindrop fell, then another. Each one was harder than the last, but she stood firm. Despite what she tried to project on the surface, nothing stopped the memories from collapsing on her. His cries were the only thing she could remember; she was unable to recall what happened after. His face wet with tears was the last thing she saw, and the stain of blood on his grey shirt was the last thing she saw. Then, she slowly drifted away to a painless abyss as the world drowned in its darkness.
"You want to see him again, don't you? His reaction to me showed just how much you mean to him."
On cue, the rain came as heavy as her own burden. Side by side, the two would bear whatever came their way. Cleria thought of her as family, and families are there to share their troubles when no one else can.
Aihana trembled, not because she was feeling cold but because it was something else. She didn't want to leave just yet, not when she was so close.
"I know you've been skipping out on duties lately."
Cleria was caught off guard when she heard her sobs becoming more discernible. No matter how much she tried to contain them, it wouldn't last long.
With teary eyes, she smiled to herself as she recalled that day. The day she pledged an oath that binds her till this day, but now it was tearing her apart.
"I promised myself I would protect him from the day I gave birth to him. If I were to involve him with the supernatural world, I'd feel terrible."
If only she knew…