Chapter 18 - Twisted resolve

The confusion and bewilderment that Mom and Dad were seemingly experiencing turned quickly into panic when their children, after taking their weapons back, had just huddled themselves together in a corner of the living room Lord Valince had welcomed us in, taking a somewhat similar structure that the one they had used to navigate the barrack, Vivianne in front, Crisnée just behind them and Noa last, with me in his arms protected behind his shield.

I was myself busy shedding silent tears, my mind lost in the pain of seeing my beloved siblings in this state, whispers echoing all around me as Psaï tried and failed to reach me.

From time to time, one of them would look toward the ceiling and, noting the absence of their Yiburis, they would get even closer from one another, as if they were not safe enough. In particular, Vivianne let some tears go each time she looked toward the ceiling.

As if moved by a united will, the three parents in the room looked at Ophelia in unison.

“””What happened?!””” They asked together and, surprised, they looked at one another but shrugged fast and quickly got their gaze back on the Shi master, that at this very moment felt very tiny.

“They were with Nicklass when the Yiburis started their attack and, seeing the savagery of it, he decided to hide the children in the depth of the barrack instead of taking the risk to escort them here. Then he got hurt fighting before he had given us this info, and we only learned about the children nearly two hours in the fight. Given the time, and seeing the state of their weapon, I think they fought at least once during this time, maybe more, but it’s only a speculation. I found them wandering the barrack, with those bloodied weapons on them and a Yiburis following them. When I tried to kill it, this one…” She pointed toward Vivianne. “...interposed herself and tried to stop my attack. She got lucky that I hadn’t gone all-out and that I stopped my attack in the nick of time, or she really would have died. After that, I took them here, and that’s all.” She seemed at loss about why we were reacting like that.

“Should I go take a look in the barrack to see if I can find something about that?” You could see that she felt bad for us and really wanted to help.

“Do so, please.” Answered the city lord in a soft voice.

“Yes milord.” Ophelia made a quick curtsey and backed away, feeling the atmosphere of the room sinking faster by the second.

Once she was gone, Mom started approaching us. Her eyes… you could see her smiling, giving her all to not let her sorrow appear in her eyes.

“Vivianne?”

My sister’s gaze refocused on Mom, snapping out of her daydream (nightmare?).

“Mom?”

“Can you give me your spear?” Mom tried to disarm Vi, to no avail, the little girl curling around her weapon in a defensive fashion.

“You’re safe here sweety.” Intervened dad, putting a kiss on her forehead.

“You’re sure?” She asked them both, a thousand miles away from believing them.

“Yes. Give me your spear and go hug your mom sweaty.” Dad smiled brightly at her, indeed giving her a somewhat safe feeling.

“...” She finally gave her weapon to her Dad. ”You keep it for now.” She said when her weapon left her hand, as if implying that she would get it back at some point.

Seeing that, Crisnée followed and gave her weapon to dad, alongside a gaze that was saying more or less the same thing as Vivianne, that she was only parting temporarily with her sword, and nestled herself in her dad’s embrace.

You could see, however, that she wasn’t taking that much solace in it, and Lord Valince’s gaze was as dead as ever.

No, maybe emotionally exhausted was more accurate this time, but still, Crisnée did not find the warm she needed.

This, I must say, did not help my crying problem, as I had attached myself quite a bit to her over time.

Noa was the last to give up his arm, his shield, and was surprised when Mom tried to take me out of his hands. He first griped me before letting me go, realising what he was doing.

Guess it’s hard to let go of someone you protected with everything you had.

A long and slow moment followed, where Mom and Dad hugged us and tried to calm us down, with Mom starting feeding me in the middle of it, which calmed me a little.

Food and the warmth of your loved ones could help with pain and sorrow, after all.

When the children seemed calm enough, after a loooooong time, Mom and Dad decided to go back home, but another problem emerged.

Well. Problem was a big word. Most like another bewilderment for all the adult of the room.

Crisnée, Vivianne and Noa refused to be separated. When Noa and Vivianne were taken away by Mom and Dad, she came along, silent as she could be, and when Lord Valince hugged her to keep her with him, Noa and Vivianne stopped and went back at her.

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“Crisnée, do you want to go with Noa and Vivianne?” Had asked Mom, to which, of course, the young lady had answered positively.

“Don’t bother about me, tiny angel, go with your friend.” Was what the Lord said to Crisnée when she asked him if she could go, even if he seemingly lost another piece of his soul answering so.

***

Amidst all those troubled events, a tiny ray of sun shone on us. Ironic, since it happened during the night.

Mom and Dad had moved Vivianne’s bed in Noa’s bedroom, as they knew all children would end up sleeping together regardless of what they did, and so I, along Crisnée, Noa and Vivianne went to bed after an exquisite meal. (Why am I A BABY?! Gimme that sweet Dad cooking already!)

You could really see that Dad had tried his best to cheer us up, and it actually worked a bit, as during the dinner Noa had talked a bit about what happened, mostly impressions and emotions, and Vi with Cris had smiled a bit at some of Dad’s joke.

Ah, the bath also helped. Bath we took, of course, together with Mom and Dad.

And so, if our day had been quite the challenge, our evening ended up being peaceful and relaxing.

The nice thingy happened during the night as I said.

Something had entered our room with extreme caution, but not extreme enough that all the spells I had planted wouldn’t detect it.

A Yiburis.

As if feeling something amiss, Vivianne woke up too and, looking around to find what had awakened her, she saw the Yiburis, and smiled.

Ah, so it’s ours.

Seems so. We should really start monitoring all the people of our tiny group, this monster included.

Yup. I don’t want to have another surprise like when Vi made fangs pop out of nowhere.

Right. Should I start thinking about it?

Please. Thanks for all your help, as always.

You’re welcome, silly.

In the meantime, Vi had walked toward the Yiburis and started petting its head. She seemed really happy.

Suddenly, an idea seemed to flash in her head and she smiled. She ordered her pet to stay there and walked back to her bed, where she awakened Noa.

My brother nearly screamed out of fear when he saw the monster, but instantly relaxed when his grogginess disappeared and he realised it was his sister’s pet.

The Yiburis even started cuddling with him and Vivianne, which took them by surprise but had quite a good effect on their morale overall.

Finally, they woke up Crisnée, who reacted calmly and took me in her arms, as to let me say hello to the monster too.

What a strange sight, three children and a baby cuddling with a deadly monster in the middle of the night.

Bah, strange never stopped me from searching happiness, and it wasn’t today that would start.

When we went back to bed, the Yirubis followed us, climbing on top of us and taking a strange sleeping position, where it had extended all its legs entirely to cover us all, as if taking us in a large protective embrace using its own body to shield us.

This thing was weirdly loyal in my opinion, but who am I to judge it?

***

By tomorrow, when we woke up, during a short moment, we all freaked out a bit when we realised the Yiburis wasn’t there anymore, only to relax directly when Vivianne saw it in a corner of the ceiling and showed us where it was.

We stayed in bed, enjoying its warmth and cuddling together, until Mom opened the door a little and, seeing that we were awake, said that Dad was making pancakes for breakfast before taking me so she could feed me. Vivianne's pet was so well hidden that Mom did not even see it, in its corner, and I breathed again, worries draining away from me.

It hid purposedly to not be seen by Mom.

It seems indeed.

Clever.

Nothing really happened that day, apart from the fact that the four of us stuck together even more than usual.

That night, however, when Mom and Dad had put us to bed, the three children did not fall asleep directly. They waited to be sure that their parents were to bed too, and sat in the bed cross-legged, Vivianne taking me between her legs and playing with me as they started talking.

“That won’t do.” Surprisingly, it was Crisnée that started talking.

“I don’t want to hide next time.” That was Vivianne.

“Maybe, if we had left earlier… the lady, we could have saved her?” And Noa, caring as always.

“We need to train.” Crisnée’s voice had an unhealthy twist into it.

“We need to be able to fight.” An obsessive need.

“We need to protect people, and kill the bad guys.” A fundamental will.

“Tomorrow, we’ll start training our Shi and our weapons for real.” Not good.

“No more fancy Shi exercises. We need to learn to kill.” Not good at all.

“And to survive.”

Fuck. My 7 years-old siblings are already taking the twisted heroic route.

They felt powerless. They could barely fight, they were hidden like fragile flowers, and they suffered because of both. They crave control over their life. So young.

Fuck. Why. No, they need to live a correct childhood.

Too late. Look at their gazes, look at their eyes. They’re the same as the Heroes. That’s the look of someone that will not stop before dying.

...They won’t stop, will they?

No. We’ll need to be there and stop them, open their eyes and show them that life isn’t only training and battle.

I don’t want them missing out life because of what happened yesterday.

We’ll be there to be sure that doesn’t happen. Look, even you got something else from your life than endless battle and, if I may say, you weren’t really the favourite to bet on, right?

That’s right. Making friends, building things, seeing things. Getting married…

An acute pain exploded in my mind. Memories I rejected, pain and sorrow and wound and sadness and-

Morgana!

...Urgh. Sorry. My bad.

No, it’s mine. I shouldn’t have made you think about it.

After their… interesting… talk, the children went to bed, fist clenched and soul determined. The Yiburis covering them made them relax a bit and, soon, they were all asleep.

Letting go of my own bad thoughts, I closed my eyes to let myself go in the arms of Morpheus.