Both Aric and Liora stared at him, shock visible on their faces. Liora’s hand covered her mouth, as though the revelation had physically struck her. “Not born… then why?” she asked, her voice trembling.

Cedric’s voice softened, though it held an unyielding resolve. “Your blindness… was something I did to protect you. From the day you were born, you carried a gift—an unusual gift of sight. Your eyes held the very essence of the universe within them, and as a young child, you began seeing things, glimpses of places, of futures, of… horrors no child should ever see. At first, they were just dreams, visions in the night. But as you grew, they became stronger, relentless.”

He closed his eyes briefly, as if remembering the torment that plagued his young daughter. “You were only five when you began having visions of things that hadn’t happened yet. Of destruction, of lives lost. And as you witnessed these horrors, you began to… break. You’d scream in the night, you’d cry until you were too weak to even speak. Your mother and I… we were terrified of what this gift would do to you.”

Aric remained silent, though a faint flicker of sympathy crossed his face as he observed his sister, who stood in silence, her hand pressed against her chest as if trying to hold herself together.

“Your mother and I were left with an impossible choice,” Cedric continued, his voice now strained with remorse. “The only way we knew to protect you… was to sever the connection your eyes had with mana, to block your visions. It was a temporary solution, meant to buy you time. I would have taken away your eyes entirely, as some urged me to do.” He swallowed, looking away briefly. “But I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Instead, I removed mana’s influence over them and severed the pathways, leaving you blind.”

Liora’s face twisted with shock and betrayal. “So… you made me blind, you took away my sight?” She stumbled back, tears welling up as she tried to comprehend it. “You never told me… you never gave me a choice!”

Cedric reached out, his voice thick with regret. “Liora, it was never about taking anything from you. It was about saving you. You were so young, and the things you saw… no child could bear them. You needed time to grow, to become strong enough to face them. And now… the seal I placed is breaking. Your dreams are returning, not as they were before, but slowly.”

Liora shook her head, as though trying to process his words. “But… but I don’t want to see those things. I don’t want this ‘gift.’ I never asked for it!”

Cedric’s face softened with sorrow. “I know, my dear. I know. But this is something beyond my control now. The mana I used to seal your sight is weakening. Your dreams are only glimpses, fragments of what is to come. Soon, the seal will fully break, and your sight will return. You will see everything—exactly as it is, every vision, every horror, in its full, unfiltered intensity.”

She fell silent, her body trembling. Aric placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, his gaze cool but understanding. “And the attack on our estate… that was because of her sight, wasn’t it?” he asked, cutting through the silence with his calm, measured tone.

Cedric nodded, his expression turning grave. “Yes. There were those who knew of her gift and saw her as a tool for power. They tried to abduct Liora, hoping to use her visions for their own gain.”

Aric’s face tightened, his gaze sharpening. “So this family, this lineage, carries a curse and a power that others would kill for.” He looked directly at Cedric, his voice low but firm. “Our entire family has suffered for this legacy.”

Cedric sighed, his eyes burdened with the weight of years spent guarding these secrets. “There is one more truth… something neither of you know.”

Aric’s expression remained calm, though his gaze sharpened as he listened, sensing the gravity of what was to come.

Cedric hesitated, his eyes moving between his children before he finally spoke. “It’s about your older brother… the one who died at birth.”

The silence that followed was broken by Liora’s anguished cry. “How many things have you hidden from us, Father?” Her voice trembled, echoing off the walls, demanding the truth he had kept from them for so long. “You lied about Mother, you lied about my blindness, and now… now you kept the truth about our brother from us, too? All this time, we thought we knew, thought he died peacefully… and now there’s more?”

Cedric closed his eyes, his face lined with pain. “I did what I thought was best, Liora. To protect you both.”

“Protect us?” she echoed, her voice breaking with barely restrained anger. “How is lying to us protecting us? I grew up thinking I was born blind, thinking I was somehow… broken. Do you know what that did to me?” She clenched her fists, fighting back tears. “And now… now you say it was all a lie?”

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Cedric tried to reach for her, but she pulled away, her eyes filled with hurt and fury. “You had no right,” she continued, her voice thick with betrayal. “No right to decide what we should know about our own family, our own lives. You kept us in the dark, and now it’s… it’s too much.” Her voice quivered, and she looked away, struggling to contain the emotions that threatened to overwhelm her.

Aric, who had been silent, looked at his father with a steady, penetrating gaze. “Tell us everything, Father. No more half-truths.”

Cedric sighed, his voice heavy. “He wasn’t born frail or sick, as I led you to believe. Your brother was born with an affinity to mana unlike any I have ever seen. The sheer power radiating from him was overwhelming. His very existence sent ripples through the fabric of magic itself. And on the day he was born…” Cedric’s voice cracked. “The Veil trembled. The entities beyond sensed him and tried to reach through him to our world. In that moment, your mother… made the ultimate sacrifice to sever the connection and protect us all and he passed away.”

The revelation left a heavy silence in the room, each of them reeling from the truths they had unearthed.

Cedric cut through the silence, his voice barely audible. “I wanted to spare you both that truth, that… weight. The Oswin lineage has always been different. You and Aric both possess gifts and burdens far beyond what most can comprehend. I tried to shield you from them, to give you a chance at something closer to a normal life.”

Liora shook her head, her voice choked with grief. “But you’ve only made us feel isolated, Father. As if we’re strangers to our own lives. I can’t even trust my memories anymore.” She looked at Aric, her expression pleading, as if searching for a way to make sense of the fractured reality she now faced.

Aric met her gaze, a flicker of empathy passing through his otherwise stoic expression. But he returned his attention to Cedric, his voice steely. “What’s done is done, Father. But if there’s anything else—any other secrets you haven’t told us—now is the time.”

Cedric’s shoulders slumped, and he nodded solemnly. “I swear to you, there’s nothing more I’ll keep hidden. The legacy of our family is both a gift and a curse, and I was wrong to believe I could protect you from its cost.”

As Cedric’s words sank in, the room grew quiet. Liora’s face was filled with anguish and betrayal, and Aric’s expression held a steady resolve, a newfound understanding of the family legacy they’d been bound to their whole lives—its power, its sacrifices, and the devastation it had wrought.

...

I stood silently, letting Cedric’s words settle like dust in the dim room, though the weight of my father’s revelations gnawed at me. Why now? Why had he chosen this moment to unravel our lives, to tear down the walls of lies he’d built for years? War was indeed nearing, a dark storm on the horizon—I knew that well. But something told me that Cedric could have handled this differently, could have prepared us with a measure of care.

As I looked at him, a sharp suspicion pricked at me. Was it guilt that had driven him to confess all of this? Did the conversation he’d overheard between me and Liora finally stir something in him?

I clenched my fists, hiding the tension from my face. I had always known Cedric to be a man of strategy, each move calculated, each word measured. This sudden outpouring felt almost... desperate. Or perhaps he had realized, after witnessing his children’s anguish, that his secrets had done more harm than good. Maybe he feared losing our loyalty now, at a time when every ally mattered.

But even now, as he laid bare the truth of our mother’s death, Liora’s blindness, our lost brother—I wondered if there were more. If secrets ran so deep within the Oswin family, what else lay beneath the surface? I was familiar with the way his mind worked, how he concealed truths and distorted details to protect, yes—but also to control.

A surge of frustration twisted inside me. He could have chosen any other time, could have woven these truths into our lives gently, rather than dropping them into a single, overwhelming storm. Yet guilt alone didn’t seem like enough for a man like him. What had truly changed?

I glanced at Liora, whose eyes were downcast, her face shadowed with a mixture of grief and anger. She had trusted him in ways I hadn’t for years.

Whatever the reasons, we couldn’t turn back now. The truth was here, raw and painful, and though Cedric might still hold onto more secrets, I knew I’d have to pick up the pieces and move forward. And despite his flawed motives, I would ensure that we, not Cedric, would decide how to face the future.

My thoughts turned cold and calculating, parsing Cedric’s motives even as I processed the implications of our family’s legacy. I had known for years that we were bound to something dangerous, but now I glimpsed the depths of it, the gifts—or rather, curses—woven into our lineage.

And what of Cedric himself? My father was far from ordinary, even by Oswin standards. Though I was the new Relic Bearer, it was Cedric who still held the title of Patriarch, his skill earning him a place among the Four Pillars of Aeloria’s elite. But his reputation went beyond the Oswin name; he was a Veilwalker of rare talent, one of Aeloria’s few Veilmasters—a rank attained by only a handful across the entire continent.

What gifts—or burdens—does he carry that we don’t know about? Cedric was also known as one of Aeloria’s finest swordsmen, a master among the Order of Silver Vanguard, holding the rank of Knight Commander, an honor given to those capable of commanding both Veil and blade. Only a rare few had reached that level, blending Veil and physical prowess as seamlessly as he did.

If our family’s power comes with such steep costs, then what price has he paid to reach that level? My eyes narrowed slightly, pondering the sacrifices Cedric might have made to hold such titles and command respect from the most formidable fighters in Aeloria. And if he’s hiding this much now, how many more secrets could he have yet to reveal?

No matter the motives behind his decision, I understood one thing with chilling clarity: Whether he meant to prepare us or merely salve his conscience, he’s left us with a fractured legacy to uphold. And from here, I would ensure the future—mine and Liora’s—would not be shaped by his secrets alone.

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