Music for today:
A playlist to be alone with everything you're feeling..
https://youtu.be/8Z09G5o4F6M
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Chapter 481: Reality
Late Morning - Early Summer : Year 39 : The Cabinet | 'Bahamut'
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The next several days passed like a breeze. Constant conversation, planning, and communication with others to adjust Hera and Krystallo's schedules led us to dedicate our time to getting me up to speed on the currently pressing matters, and what Hera and Krystallo were currently up to.
But.. while I already knew they had a lot on their plates, it wasn't even the tip of the iceberg.
From travelling halfway around the world for a different meeting every few days, to needing to constantly look over huge volumes of research and intelligence information, they never had an idle moment.. and truthfully, it was too much for the two of them.
Repeatedly going six months or more with little to no rest, they were forcing themselves to constantly meet with world leaders, military generals, lead researchers, influential guilds, and merchant groups alike, to guide everyone around issues they may not be seeing or properly resolving.
They were practically micromanaging half the world...
But, it was working. Despite the Holy Kingdom completely steam rolling every nation they touched for some time, after Hera and Krystallo's direct involvement, the advance had slowed significantly.
And while the meeting to be held in the Cabinet in a few days wasn't any different—a gathering between Leander, Myles, Amphitrite, and the thunderbird leader Chamrosh, to discuss and forge a new plan for the coming weeks—my arrival forced a change of plans.
Not just in the rescheduling of the upcoming meeting, but of dozens over the course of the next week.
But truthfully.. I wasn't sure why...
Having spoken about the current world matters quite extensively, it was clear I would benefit from simply accompanying them to their meetings.
But instead... -Where in the world are we going..?- Warping to the thunderbird roost in Emporio, and then taking to the skies to fly west, we passed over the city, across the north isle of Atlas, and eventually into the iceberg-riddled sea beyond, with nothing but confusion decorating my face.
-Why would we be going toward the mountains..?- Glancing toward the southern horizon, where the edge of the glaciers could be seen, I couldn't help but give Hera a puzzled look. "I thought you said there was nothing left of Nkremo?"
In our talks, she had made it extremely clear that the city was reduced to less than rubble, with the entire mountain range buried under so much ice that practically nothing was even salvageable. But despite that, we were headed straight for it.
Though, Krystallo was the only to actually give me an answer. "We're headed to where mom and dad are."
-What?- It didn't make me any less confused though. -If she's in a coma.. why would she be in the middle of nowhere like this..?- I had been expecting her to be in Siratha, or even Emporio or Akri where security could be maintained. -Does she need the cold?-
But that didn't seem to be the case either.
Eventually glancing toward the northern horizon, Hera turned to me with a slightly playful look. "You remember when I borrowed 'a few' royal gold from you?"
I felt my head tilt with a puzzle as I recalled her mentioning something about it in the Library of Eternity several years prior. "What about it..?"
Punching through a wall of clouds, her smirk thickened. "Well, we're headed to the place I sank that money into."
-Excuse me..?- An ominous shiver passed down my spine almost instantly. -What piece of land could have possibly cost that much..?- Originally amounting to over a dozen royal gold, at the time she spent it, it was enough money to buy half a mountain range.
But that was when we started banking north, and it clicked. -Huh?- It wasn't just any bit of land she had bought... "You didn't..."
But seeing my reaction only made her smile brighten, even if it remained reserved. "I really wanted to surprise you with this after it was done—when we could finally settle down.. but..."
*Woosh* Breaking through the final wall of clouds that seemed no different from any other, my eyes were dragged to the ground by a vast sea of green.
"In my search for a place we could one day call home.. I bought Poseidon." The most historic, and priceless piece of land in the world.
Her words simply took the air out of my lungs.
It was a large island, northeast of Nkremo, surrounded by shallow reefs and decorated with old ruins, forest, and most of all, the peak of a mountain that had sprouted up from the depths of what was once open ocean.
But while certainly large, it wasn't its beauty, location, or size that made it as unreasonably expensive as it was.
It was it's history.
Used as a military installment during the fight against the Acardi, the island was the center of the draconic continent's military might for the entirety of Bahamut's reign, left abandoned and eventually inherited by the Chalastís family after his death.
"The Chalastís were not keen on selling it." Looking out over the genuinely stunning landscape, her gaze warmed. "Originally keeping it as a relic, and an occasional vacation spot, they mostly held onto it for preservation purposes, but with some 'negotiation', I managed to get a number and snag it from them." She spoke as if both proud, and anxious. "Since then, I've been trying to renovate it into an estate for us.. wanting to give it to you as a surprise when it was done... But with everything that's happened, construction slowed, and well..."
"We needed a safe place for mom to stay." Hearing Hera pause, Krystallo was quick to take over. "After the attacks, people burdened with the loss of family or children were searching for her and Grandmother with the intention of killing them... They wanted someone to blame.. any they believed taking their heads would be considered justice." Her voice wavered as her chest tightened. "At first it was manageable. We kept her in the Cabinet, and tried to continue our work to ease the chaos, but..."
"The Cabinet was attacked." Hera's tone fell.
-Ah...- Thinking back to large, burnt sections of the building, my posture fell.
"It was really bad... At one point, people had even been putting up bounties, and after news spread to Siratha, it was like she had the entire world hunting her..."
And so, they brought her to an island no one thought anything of...
An island that, from the air, looked totally undeveloped—blanketed in forest, lakes, and old ruins—with hidden public records of its transfer of ownership.
And thankfully, it worked.
Only allowing the most highly trusted individuals to come, and disbanding most of the construction efforts to hide her presence, she had been resting easy for over a decade.
However, hearing about it, and understanding it were two vastly different things, and it wasn't until we approached to land that it really began setting in...
My Mom, the one I held most dear in this life, had been resting on the edge of a blade for a decade...
At any moment, death could claim her, and yet it had been so long that Krystallo seemed to already be prepared for the day she fell.
To her, it was inevitable... Holding onto the hope of Mother waking had drained her more than I could fathom, and seeing the emptiness in her eyes as I let her down off my back only forced that reality down my throat...
Mother.. while alive.. was not in the condition I had hoped and imagined.. and as we walked in, stepping down the dark, empty, hallway with the scent of stale dust and still air making me grimace as if to brace, the silence only grew heavier...
Until eventually, as we finally stopped and tapped a door to be opened from the inside, a wave of cold washed over us, Krystallo and Hera closed their eyes.. and my aura flowed in to present me with the very sight my deepest horrors had culminated.
To say she was alive.. was a stretch...
No breath.. no heartbeat.. and no bloodflow...
Despite still being separated by wall, and the comforting smile of my father, the image of her deeper in the room, laying still, and frozen like a corpse caught in ice, the world simply went silent.
Hera didn't lie... Mother's mana was still active.. her aura filled the air with motion and activity as if she was trapped in a dream...
But her body.. wasn't in such a normal state...
In place of scales on her side, exposed ribs were hidden under nothing but bandages.. her broken neck, and exposed, frozen brain hidden no differently...
By any sane judgement, she was organically dead.. held on by a thread of willpower as if.. simply waiting for the right moment to let go...
However.. that was when I felt it...
Similar to Delphi's mana, the air moved to me.. a frosty chill rippling across my cheek as if by Mother's tail, and I realized.
That was it...
That was what she was waiting for...
Suddenly feeling memories of her flash through the front of my mind, I simply stood frozen.. unable to keep tears from welling in my eyes as the turbulence in the air slowed.. and her influence over it all was pulled back.
The others immediately erupted into panic, running inside as Hera hung her head, knowing what happened.
But I couldn't move...
As if by the chill of her aura, my paws had been frozen to the ground, and my eyes had been frozen on her.
Even as her aura thinned, and blended with the ambient flow, I couldn't walk any closer.. I couldn't see her with my eyes alone. I thought it would break me...
But standing on the opposite side of that wall, watching the mana in her reserve slow with the movement of her soul.. of her letting go.. I felt the world go dark.
That touch... That caress... Was her final farewell...
...She knew there was no return from what came next.. and so.. she held on just long enough to give her goodbyes...
And.. that fact killed me... Even as her mana burst with the ignition of a dragon sleep...
It was her final hail mary.. a swing for the fences that, even with my help.. held no chance of succeeding...
But nonetheless.. with a wince.. and a prayer.. I stepped in...
It was forty years too soon.. her body was in tatters.. her reserve was at its limit.. and her soul could barely hold itself together.
But I was going to try.. even if all it did was grant me one more moment...
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