CHAPTER 18: SEARCHING FOR REI P5
~18.5~
*****
“STOP TORTURING MY DAUGHTER!” She stood up and threw an aether infused punch at nothing, but her fist landed on her own barrier and heavily cracked it. She collapsed to her knees again with tears falling to the ground. “Leave my baby alone...” She pounded the ground with one hand. “She’s only three years old. This is too much for her!”
Alethea cried as she watched Kye writhing in anger and sadness, Adele and Michelle trying to comfort her. Luma was frantically trying to cast healing magic on Kye, but the barrier nullified everything she did. She had to break the barrier to make any progress. Allison, Layla, James, and Hannah showed up soon after, but even all of them together couldn’t safely restrain Kye. Alfia had to do it, though she was dangerously close to needing restrained herself.
Atalante left the scene, but returned only a few minutes later with Evelyn in tow. Evelyn placed her hand on Kye’s forehand. The blonde tried to fight the restraints, but she couldn’t fight Alfia’s magic, even with her silvery white mana at full power under aether drive.
“REEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!”
After several minutes, Evelyn managed to calm her to the point that she no longer tried to fight them. Instead, she cried, and Layla held her tightly. She cried until she passed out from grief and exhaustion.
“In all my ten million years, I’ve never seen a breakdown even close to this in severity,” Hannah said. “To be honest, I’m at a loss at what to do about this. What even triggered it? What were you talking about before it happened?”
“It’s... not our place to say,” Michelle said hesitantly.
“I’ll say it,” Atalante said bluntly.
“““No, you can’t!””” came Michelle, Adele, and Alethea.
Atalante shook her head. “No, everyone here needs to know.”
“I agree,” Alfia said in monotone. “Go ahead, Lanti.”
She took a deep breath and just let it rip. “She hears every prayer in the entirety of Elysium. Every single prayer offered to Goddess Elysia - if the person knows her name or not. Put yourselves in her shoes. Imagine you are forced to hear the prayers of your desperate and frightened child and you can’t save her.”
Michelle was shocked. “How do you know that much? She only said that she could hear her. She didn’t-”
“The lot of you aren’t the only anomalies in this world,” Atalante said, her seriousness on full display. “From your perspective, I’m a mortal born with Radiance.” She paused for a moment and looked toward the door on the far side of the chamber. “Once everyone was gathered, I was planning to take you down below.”
“What are you talking about? How the hell could a mortal be born with Radiance?” Adele said. “The only way a mortal can gain Radiance is by being blessed by one of us or Eve. It’s outright impossible!”
“I was also born with Radiance,” Allison added matter-of-factly. “Think about it, Adele. Who am I? You didn’t know I was Seris until I told you. From your perspective, I also would have been a mortal born with Radiance.”
“I know about the prayers because I hear them, too,” Atalante continued. “When Lady Eve appeared to us long ago, she secretly assigned me that responsibility, and I have governed this empire ever since, knowing what the people prayed for. I am filling my appointed role as Governor of Atlantis. Those of you from the old world know what that means. I am in the same position as Iris Atlas, Noah Oceanus, Adaal Olympus, Nephele Erytheia, and Orion Orthrys.”
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“You are speaking names in the presence of people that-” Michelle said, but Alfia interrupted her.
“It’s fine, Adara,” Alfia said. “The existence of the other satellites is no secret. Every soul in Athas knew. Atlantis was meant to be the sixth satellite and Atalante was meant to become its governor, long before either was created or born.”
“Yes. As such, I hear prayers in the ten realms. Anyway, the issue here is that the prayers she hears from Rei are causing her an immense amount of pain. The longer this goes on, the worse it’s going to get. We have one advantage at the minimum with the prayers. Both Kye and I know what the place looks like where Rei is being held.”
“I know as well. I hear all prayers like Eli does,” Alfia said.
“However, it’s surrounded by a powerful, black-colored barrier. I don’t recognize the estate, so it’s somewhere I either have not laid eyes on or have not previously seen through prayer.”
“Well then, that narrows down the search!” Michelle exclaimed. “You should have brought this up right away!”
Atalante sighed. “Maybe so, but it’s not entirely helpful information. The problem is that I have laid eyes on every inch of my empire. There is no location across the thousands of planets under my rule that I have not seen, and since this incident began, I have been using world magic to visually watch over every planet. I admit I can’t perform the spell as well as Alethea did on Alcanus. My use of Eye of Providence isn’t good enough to allow me to examine mana across an entire planet, but it grants me the sight to view everything under my name.”
“What about the Void?” James asked, as if it was the obvious solution.
“The Void is purple and black, no? The estate she is being held within resembles any normal place. It’s full of color.”
“We should consult with Aliana,” Alethea said, her own confidence returned. “If there is a way to manipulate the color of the Void, then she may be able to confirm it. She’ll be at the Void Palace.”
“Of course...” Alfia muttered.
“Hannah, Astraia, may we trust Kye to you for now?” Alethea asked.
Astraia exited her weapon form and nodded together with Hannah.
“Thank you. I... want to be there when she comes to, but I also want to find good news to share with her as fast as possible.”
“Yes,” Alfia said. The white-haired girl unsheathed her sword and slashed the air, creating a portal to the void.
“You can create portals to the void?” Adele asked.
Alfia nodded and stepped through the portal.
*****
A few hours after Kye had her episode, she came to in bed in Atlantis Palace. She raised up and clutched her head. “Ugh. Headache.”
She felt a hand on her forehead and instinctively tried to jerk back, but there was a hand behind her, too. “Stay still.” She looked up and saw her grandmother applying healing magic to ease the headache.
“How am I here?”
Once Hannah finished, she helped Kye sit up properly. “Based on what everyone has told me, you have been in a constant state of mental breakdown since you found out about the kidnapping.”
“...”
“How are you feeling now?”
“Until now, it felt as though there was somebody else in my head controlling most of my movements, but now it’s like that other person is gone. It’s the first time I’ve been able to think clearly in the past two-ish weeks.” Kye closed her eyes and concentrated. “Give me a minute to collect my thoughts. I haven’t really been processing what was happening.”
Hannah sat next to her and watched closely. After the initial prayer from Alethea casting Eye of Providence, she teleported from Elea in Realm 7 to Icarus in Realm 2. From there, she scanned the entire planet and systematically scanned every planet in its celestial neighborhood. Her mental state was already degraded significantly when she arrived on Icarus, and it only got worse. She avoided other people and didn’t respond to messages. The only one that could find her was Alfia, but Alfia was just as desperate to find Rei as Kye was. As her anger grew, she slowed down on checking planets and started spending time on Daemonheim, deep in demon beast territory, fighting near constantly. Then, she received the message from Atalante about her plan and went to gather everyone and had to be restrained by Alfia once her poor mental state was on plain display to everyone.
“Thanks,” she said.
“Hmm?”
“For getting me out of that... state. Before coming here, I never would have thought the magic here had developed to the point that healing magic could affect one’s mental state, especially a breakdown as bad as what I had.”
“I’m just glad you’re feeling better, sweetie. We were all so worried about you.”
*****
Revision: 2024-7-3