ACACIUS

It had been days since he had visited the old crone but he still couldn't get her words off his mind. Even in his sleep, he had tried to interpret the words she had spoken in her raspy voice wondering what she could have meant. Seers often spoke in riddles but this one was beyond him. What could she have meant, he thought by asking him to look within, if he knew the answer would he have had to seek out a wizened old woman whose true name no one still alive remembered, they all just called her Ophelia which meant helper because she was considered a mouthpiece of the goddess amongst them.

Even now in his waking moment perched on a railing above the old council meeting place, he pondered her words. She had asked him to search within himself for the answer he had gone to her for. He had always hated seers, one had come to him as a young angel while he healed under Brian's roof. She had told him of a coming weakness, she had asked him to get rid of the weakness or to forfeit the power that he so craved. He had looked at her red hair and voluptuous curves and pronounced her a liar. She had laughed the way the crone had laughed too and had called him an old soul who had finally learned caution in another life.

After that visit, he had pondered as much as he had done now until Ethan's girl had been born and his problems had begun. The girl had been harmless on her own but whenever she was in close proximity to him, he seemed incapable of doing even the easiest of things for a paranormal; healing. When she had been born, his wounds had stopped healing as they should, weapons that shouldn't have been able to penetrate his skin could suddenly do and leave fatal wounds behind.

He had approached Ethan and had made his concerns about what his enemies could do with his daughter known to him. Acacius had thought the elder wolf and his chameleon elder wife would understand but they had accused him and asked him to leave. Acacius didn't back off though, he went to their home asking them to reconsider but they had thrown him out. He had lashed out in anger and had struck Ethan, the girl had run before he could defend his actions.

He had given chase, who would have thought he would be running after his weakness but he had. He had run after her to tell her there was no reason to be afraid but he had under-estimated the wit of a half-wolf, half chameleon. She had escaped him because he didn't have his wings at the time, he was just recovering after all and the healing had not been going well since her arrival at Ailonopolis.

He wondered for perhaps the millionth time why he was suddenly thinking about her again. He remembered the Ambroses's maid, she reminded him of the child who had been foretold as his weakness. Thinking back now, he realized the girl's reaction upon seeing him wasn't completely normal. She had run as if she had seen a nightmare come to life. Could she be his Aurora? he thought even as he realized that he hadn't heard the Ambroses say her name.

Looking around and realizing it had gotten dark while he was lost in thought, he resolved to pay another visit to Warrior's peak. He needed more information about the maid and surely the Ambroses would be the best people to ask. He jumped off the railing and flew home with the strength of one who had been doing it all his life.

AMBROSE

"If you do not come down, we would be late, Freyja" Brian shouted from the bottom of the stairs to his wife who was still getting ready upstairs. Freyja had a pattern of making Brian late to almost every meeting she accompanied him to. She always insisted on looking her best for such outings and in a bid to look her best, she always made them late.

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It had become the norm in their relationship even if Brian never understood why she fussed so much. The fade's beauty already transcended that of her peers, he thought as he shook his head in frustration. "I would be down soon", she shouted back. I should bring the car around, he thought to himself.

As he opened the door and looked up, he found himself staring back at the eyes of the one man he had been fairly sure he would never see again as anger arose like a storm on the inside of him. Before he could speak, Acacius held up both hands and said "please, listen to me, I have come in peace, I just want to know something and it's very important you tell me the truth" he managed to get out.

"Okay....., I guess you could come on in then and tell me what's wrong, you look like you have been through hell," Brian said as he moved out of the way. Freyja who had come down during the conversation went on the defensive on seeing who it was but was forced to calm down as Brian held up his hand. She turned to Aurora, "you can leave us". However, their guest disagreed "no, she can't, this matter concerns her".

Brian knit his brows in confusion as Freyja said "oh, stay then". Aurora looked as if she had been electrocuted as Acacius turned to her and said "what is your name?".

Aurora's eyes grew wide at the question. She looked around in fear looking for a means of escape as Brian said "he asked you a question, girl". She whispered her reply but with paranormal hearing, they all heard her.

As Acacius heard her reply, he crumpled unto the sitting room sofa as the Ambroses looked between them. Brian moved closer to Acacius as the latter started murmuring, his words were slurred and he went back and forth about a weakness, about searching and running, a crone, and dreams. His words made no sense, he just kept mumbling.

Freyja who had never taken to Acacius and should have reveled in seeing Acacius so dejected was confused about all that just happened. They had gone from her making them late for the council meeting to having a crazy immortal weeping on their couch.

"Acacius, son, you have to talk to us, we can't understand you right now," Brian said as he turned to Aurora warning her with just a look to not even move an inch. Acacius opened his mouth to speak but no coherent words would come. Freyja shook her head in frustration and turned to their maid "then you tell us, how does he know you, why did he want to know your name?". Aurora stammered her answer "I don't know...".

Acacius jumped to his feet and pointed his finger at her "You do, don't you remember me?", he said as he pointed two fingers at his chest. "I haven't grown much older since you last saw me,". He pulled at her hands, asking "do you not recognize me?" as his hosts looked between them wondering what connection a girl with no history or background could have with their long-lost ward. This went on for several moments until aurora grew tired of the glares from her host and the ramblings from her parents' murderer. "How could I forget you?" she asked, "you have haunted my dreams for years, every time I close my eyes, I see them again, of course, I remember you" she screamed as her tears fell and her hosts tried to make sense of what she too was saying.

"The two of you aren't making sense right now, Aurora sit down and tell us how you know our guest," Freyja demanded. At the mention of her name Acacius jumped to his feet and said the name over and over again as if he was trying to roll it over his tongue "Aurora, Aurora, Aurora...." While the girl in question just stood there letting all the grief she hadn't let herself feel for a long time rush all over her now.

The Ambroses couldn't get anything out of them so the husband and the wife shared a knowing look and Freyja wove a spell causing both Acacius and Aurora to fall asleep.

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