CHAPTER 22: IT’S OKAY! P7
~22.7~
*****
“So, dear daughter, what’s next?”
“Huh?” Kye blinked. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve had quite the year so far. You scare us one morning with this mysterious wave of silver aether, then you disappear, then we find you in Realm 7 and you were stuck there. You got knocked up again, your daughter got kidnapped, you gained a new power, you started reform in Realm 7, and now you’re back home. Everything seems to have calmed down. What’s next?”
“Oh...” Kye laughed dryly. “Well... I do have something I’d like to discuss with you...”
Layla was immediately suspicious. “Of all the things you’ve done, and knowing you are pregnant, what in the world could it be now?”
Kye eyed Evelyn, then Alethea, then turned back to Layla. “Shall we four talk in private?”
“We four?” She raised a curious eyebrow, looking at Evelyn. “Well, okay. Now?”
“Yes.” Kye stood up from the table and led the three into the next room. Once they were in there alone, Evelyn snapped her fingers, and the room transformed into her throne and platform.
“Wha-?” Layla was taken aback. Alfia was there, waiting for them. When Layla saw her, she recognized her immediately. “You’re...”
“Hello.”
“So, mom,” Kye said as she led Layla to Alfia. “Alfia has been around for a few years, since the field trip in my first year. You asked me about her, why she looks so much like me.”
“She’s your ancestral sibling,” Layla said with a nod. “I put that together already. She wields the same rare magic you do, and she fights like you. Nobody else does.”
Kye laughed dryly. “Well, that’s also what I believed until just recently.”
“Until recently?” Layla glanced between the two. “What does that mean?”
Kye quickly explained the truth of their identities.
Layla held a hand to her chin. “So, let me make sure I have this straight. Kye, whom I already know is Elysia Athas the creator of Elysium, and Alfia, whom I suspected to be Elysia’s sibling, are actually two halves of one soul. And before you split is when you created Elysium?”
Alfia nodded. “Yes. That is correct.”
“So why tell me this information now? It’s honestly not surprising, considering what I already know, but why mention it? This is too easy to be the main topic.” She eyed Alfia. “And you. What’s wrong with you? You are very pale.” Layla began to reach for Alfia.
“Well...” Kye said.
“I’m dead,” Alfia said bluntly. She held out her hand toward Layla, who tried to take it, but couldn’t touch her.
The look in Layla’s eyes changed dramatically. They quickly went from curiosity filled to dread filled. “No.” She clutched her chest and fell to her knees. “No.”
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“Mom?”
She looked up at Kye. “I...” Tears streamed from her eyes. “It feels like my heart was torn out.” She looked up at Alfia. “Sweetie...”
Alfia was taken aback. Layla was talking to her no differently than she treated Kye.
Layla suddenly felt a hand on her back and looked up at the source. It wasn’t Kye, but Eve. “What you are feeling right now is the loss of a child. You pieced together on your own that these two are siblings. Nevermind the part where they are one soul, they did in fact grow up as siblings. It’s a much more transcendent version of identical twins. The bond they have as siblings is real and strong, and you are a good mother. You picked up on that right away when you met Alfia and subconsciously started thinking of her as your daughter. That’s why hearing she is dead feels no different to you than if it was Kye that had died.”
“Can’t you fix it?” Layla cried. “You are the Primordial Goddess.”
Eve shook her head and began explaining. “This is something you need to know as the mortal mother of the creator. There are many divine titles and many members of our family.” She quickly explained about Zalen, Zaldin, Zane, Azriel, and Ezra. “The three highest titles are The Primordial, The Creator, and The Almighty. The latter belongs to **** Alexandria. She is the one true omnipotent being and the rest of us adhere to her law. I do not have the authority to revive a member of our family. If I try, it simply does not work. I cannot heal Alfia.”
“What did you say?” Kye asked. “Who Alexandria?”
“Nobody except The Creator and The Primordial has permission to hear her first name, so it should just sound like static to you. If you want to hear her name, you and Alfia must become one again.”
“I see.”
“Then...” Layla looked back at Alfia. “You can never come home?”
Kye knelled down and hugged Layla. “Mom, do you remember something I asked of you once?”
“Huh? What?”
“In the event I die, I asked if you would create another body for me.”
Her pupils dilated, and she turned back to Alfia, then to Eve. “Can I do that?”
“Either of us could, technically,” Eve said. “I could have another baby, and insert Alfia’s soul into it before one forms. But, I’m not exactly on speaking terms with their father, and there’s not exactly any other candidates to be the father. So, Kye’s idea was to ask you. It does not matter if you or I do it.”
“I... want to say yes right here and now. I have to talk to Zen.”
Alfia and Eve exchanged glanced, each smiling dryly.
“He’ll say yes,” Kye said matter-of-factly.
“Huh?” Layla looked at her quizzingly.
“He’ll say yes!”
That day, Layla thought she saw fire in Kye’s eyes.
*****
After their talk about Alfia, Eve returned them to the dining room with Alfia pouting as they left.
“So, Kye? Other topic aside, before I leave I dare ask again... anything else going on?”
Kye giggled as she took her seat. “I hope nothing. I think enough has happened this year. I’d like to take it easy for a while, teach my students, and care for my loved ones.”
“What about your mission?”
She shook her head. “I haven’t completed the mission. Lady Eve will confirm when it’s done, but I currently have no leads other than suspecting that the entity is the tyrant that was behind Rei’s kidnapping. It would make sense.” Kye was still eyeing Evelyn.
“That man certainly seems to be a candidate,” she said, agreeing that it made sense without giving her any hints. “From what you’ve told us, he is not the sort of man I’d approve of as a ruler.”
“Agreed,” Layla said with a round of nods from everyone else.
“OH!” Kye suddenly perked up. She grinned wryly at her mother. “Not to change the subject, BUUUUUT.”
“Buuuuut?”
“Did you know Zen has a girlfriend and Yami has a boyfriend?”
Layla’s eyes widened in an instant. “You wanna run that by me again?”
“Hehe, it’s true!”
Layla quickly and furiously typed up a message on her NeuraPhone and sent it to her other two children. It read, “Dinner. Kye’s place. NOW.”
Back at the academy, Yami read the message, and a chill went up her spine. Oh, goddess. She’s mad about something. What did I even do?
In the boy’s dorm, Zen had also just read the message. Tch.
Back at the palace, Kye smirked. Just you wait, my little siblings. Big sister knows everything you’ve been up to! And soon, mom will know, too! Hehehehehehe.
*****
Revision: 2024-8-7