Miseria rolled her eyes and kept pushing her mother away. "Would you stop that? I get it. Stop trying to break me and let me go!"
She looked around and saw Eric staring at her with a confused expression. "Brother? Are you ok? Did you get treatment? Is everyone else ok? What's going on?"
He stared down at her with a difficult expression. "I'm fine… Ria. Did you just…Have you had any blackouts again?"
Niathe stiffens and looks up with hateful eyes at the boy. "What did you just say?" Blackouts? Does he know something about this?
"Ria?"
"I mean, I fell asleep in the cave that you put me in." She makes a point of blaming Niathe.
"Then um…I think. Actually yeah. When I woke up again, I was already full and outside. Why does that keep happening? How did I get here, and why am I all wet? I hate wet socks..."
Is that a side effect of using too much magic?
[Possibly. I'll have to do some research.]
"What do you smell like to me?"
The sudden question catches me off guard."What?"
"Just tell me." Eric implores me, and I frown. Why is he being so demanding? Don't look at me like that. Why is everyone staring at me like that?
"Um…you said like fruits and something about vanilla. Oranges. Something like that."
"What did I read to you when you were little?" He towered over me with an unreadable expression. Is he scared of me?
"What's with the pop quiz? Rabbit jumps over the moon and The Purple Witch…"
Purple?
My eyebrows shot up. Maybe gems are the element that the book hadn't discovered. Maybe I can make crystals! I mumbled under my breath about the price of jewels in the capital, and Eric's expression eased.
Quietly, he put his blade back in its sheath. Niathe gave him a look that told him they would talk later.
Hypatia insisted that I return to the Noviate Dormitory with the other girls immediately and that she would be investigating the sudden landslide.
Regarding my appearance. No one knew what to make of it, and the girls swore they had no idea how it happened either.
Hypatia seemed suspicious, but the strangeness of the situation lent nothing to her currently. In fact…
"Hypatia…" Niathe called her name out, and Hypatia cautiously directed her gaze to the young woman. An old woman like me has been around for quite some time. Yet never had she seen such a powerful yet magicless bloodline.
Every single one of them was a beast in the best and worst ways possible.
Careful cross-breeding had resulted in such a defiant…Perhaps…Hypatia met her gaze head-on with such coldness that it made Niathe bristle. She rose to her full height, and white strands expanded from her pupils. Perhaps it's time.
The balance be…
Disrupted.
"What is it?"
"..."
Erichean played with a butter knife from his seat at the table. I was allowed to stay just one more night in the shared family dormitory house by Hypatia, so I could recover in peace…so that meant everyone was invited.
Especially Kissae. She was currently making spaghetti and meatballs with me in the kitchen while Eric stared at us. Mostly me. His eyes drilled a hole in the back of my head, and I crushed a meatball by accident.
That's it. I can't get into the zone while he's like this. I turned around and gave him a cursory look. "Need something?"
He didn't care to beat around the bush. "What happened in the cave?"
"..." I shifted from foot to foot and opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Honestly, I don't know. Vague flashes that I can't fully capture keep slipping away from me.
Truthfully, I have no idea, and I've been telling him that. Why doesn't he believe me? Penguin just said he handled it and took over, but he didn't go into specifics. "I'm not sure. I think it just collapsed, and we had to swim out."
He paused and asked in the same monotone voice he usually spoke in to others. That sharp look. Why is it directed at me? "Why are you—Why do you appear so much older?"
"..."
His eyes narrowed, and his voice took on a sharpness that made me feel like I was caught red-handed. "Miseria."
My face flushed with mortification, and I tried to breathe. Tried not to turn into stone."I don't know?"
"Why are you lying to me?"
"..." I'm not lying to you.
"Does it have to do with a certain bird?"
"..."
"Miseria."
His mouth kept moving as I sank slowly underwater. My vision blurred, and I tried not to let it show. It's all falling down now. I have to save this. I have to fix this. Just stop. Stop asking questions!
"Just drop it, okay!" The table rose and fell abruptly with my words. Erichean abruptly got up. No.
Wait.
"Don't leave!" I rushed out to block his way, and he looked confused. "Leave? Ria, I'm just hungry." He walked over to the wall next to the door. His bag was leaning against it, along with his shoes.
And mine. They're too small for me now. Everything is. Lowell is in my room, trying to alter something to fit me.
Anxious, I watched him take out a flask and drink its entire contents. Its smell, although not as appealing as Lucian's, made my mouth water.
My stomach grumbled, and I gulped.
"Brother?" Carefully, I tiptoed up to him, and he stared down at me. His golden hair hid his eyes. Windows that shone with betrayal that made me want to apologize and hide under a rock. Uncomfortable feelings wriggled under my skin and made me want to itch it.
He's not going to let this go, and I know he's just faking it now. He wouldn't have put on his shoes just to eat. He'll leave. He'll leave, and I won't get to fix it. He'll leave me and I'll be alone. I can't—
Out of breath from the sheer terror of my racing thoughts, I wheezed out."Can we go outside?"
He raised an eyebrow and looked at the door. He sighed and nodded before heading out.
[Ria, don't you dare.]
I have to do something. He's afraid of me or something. What if he avoids me?
Speechless from such an odd concern, Penguin took a moment before he formulated a response. [What would be so bad about that?]
He's—He's important. He's important to me.
[For what? We have enough gold now that we don't need him. It's enough if you maintain a shallow relationship so that you may call upon his assistance in the future.]
Tears drip down her face as she stands in the doorway. That's what I want, right? If I follow him out, I'll either have to lie about it all or I'll risk everything. My second chance at a family. At a life. Here, I have so much power and so many companions…Isn't it enough to just have them?
Isn't it?
No. No. I don't want that. I don't want to lose him. I don't want to lose anyone.
I want a real family. I want the weird jokes, secrets, hugs, and trust. I want a family too. It's not fair. This isn't fair. Why is it always me? Why can't I have what everyone else has? Why do I have to be alone? No, I have to fix this. I have to fix this.
[…]
"Are you coming?"
"..."
"Yes."