The Sight Beyond The Haze

Chapter 40: Descending the Stairs on Cocytus' Domain

I did hear a mouthful from Leigh after he found out what I did.

Eris was by his side, like a big sister who would nod along their parents while the mentioned parents berated the younger siblings. But despite that, Eris had an apologetic smile on her face behind Leigh's back. Cocytus, however, was lounging on a love seat on the drawing room and just watched me being scolded over.

I could see that I truly and completely aggravated Leigh. If he were a human being, I think he might have already pop a nerve or two but since he was a Deity then I won't have to worry about that matter.

"And what will happen if the Thirtheen Noble Families on the Seats hear of this matter?" he asked me. It was the same question he asked me for at least four times now. "I know that Deo never wants you to meddle in the political field of Dalcanoraz, me neither to be honest. But, Seraphin, for the love of everyone's heart, have some mercy and be more mindful of your actions. You might think that this was only a small matter between schoolmates over a play of ball, but the other people of the magical lands would not be so forgiving."

I accepted the scolding. It was wrong of me and a mere apology through words would not suffice, I knew that. And so, I was prepared to accept this scolding and even any punishment given to me.

"Zachriel Legrand is not just someone who inherited a Noble Seat from his notable father," Leigh said. He was pacing back and forth in front of me who was sitting on a chair, sipping my tea. "He is the one in a million Weaver. You might not think that it was nothing, but even you, the one who was chosen by the Deity of Light, could never learn to become a Weaver. It is an innate talent that cannot be learn even you spend your whole life into it. Though the kid is a prominent political figure, I do appreciate his skills and abilities. And it is not just me who appreciates his innate talent. Why do you think your mother, my impudent prodigal godchild, would assign the kid to work on your precious memories, the memories of the child of both Haefen and Eirini? It was because someone with that kind of ability of his would not appear for another three or four hundred of years."

I nodded, letting his words seep into my skin and ears. I was not even offended by the fact that Leigh just casually brought up about my mother and the manipulation that transpired between Zachriel, my mother, and me.

"You could have decapitated him," Cocytus interrupted suddenly, still lounging annoyingly on his love seat without a lover. "But you didn't, shame on you."

"Cocytus!" Leigh scolded at the boy which made me smirk. His attention diverted to his foster son. "We are not done yet, young miss," he immediately warned me after having a small glimpse of my triumphant smirk. "We will deal with that kind of attitude and also the proper way of controlling your strength. You are not, absolutely not," he even emphasized, "allowed to flaunt your powers like that. You know that you are stronger than him yet you did that."

I saw Cocytus stealthily get up from his love seat. I picked up a candied almond and flicked it over to his direction. He deflected it with his hand, slapping it away.

"Cocytus, no!" Eris shouted, her eyes held a horrified expression but Leigh was the only one who looked back at her while I was only watching.

Unfortunately for Cocytus, the candied almond went directly to a fragile little tea cup and it shattered into four main pieces because of the force he used and the momentum it gained, its content scattered on the table and the tea stained the beautiful tablecloth. Not wanting him to escape, I even pointed at the impudent escapee.

"Cocytus is trying to go," I said in a very matter-of-factly tone. "And we are not done yet," I even added which put a frown on Cocytus' face.

"Cocytus!" Leigh and Eris both said, their voices held a different kind of anger in them.

Eris immediately went towards the shattered tea cup and the stained tablecloth. I visibly saw her eyes turned red and it was actually quite the scary scene. Her hair whipped to Cocytus and she stomped her feet, her wrath was evident.

"So this is how we do his then?" Leigh demanded. "We'll just trash the place when we'd like to? Cocytus!" he barked at him which made Cocytus went back to his seat frkm earlier. When I thought that I was triumphant, Leigh also vent his anger at me. "Seraphin!" The smirk I had on faded and I sipped more of my tea.

"My tablecloth!" Eris wailed, her eyes brimming with tears while looking at the stained part. "My porcelain tea set! You two!" Eris then whirled around to glare at us. "I would never find the same cup from another set!"

The beratement did not stop right on that time. Leigh went on for a whole meal about the importance of being gentle to fragile people or those who were weaker than us. He also mentioned that Deo might get disappointed with what I did to that young boy, speaking as though Zachriel was a child. When I voiced out what I thought, Cocytus spoke up in defense of Leigh.

"When I was a kid, I never thought that I would be taller than my foster father to be honest," Cocytus said matter of factly, his manner was nonchalant and too relaxed. "So I'm certain that Zachriel's age, including yours and mine, was just a small number compared to his. We are a bunch of children and that's a fact."

"You think you're off, Yto?" Leigh asked Cocytus who quickly righted his posture and filled his mouth to the brim with food. "When have I ever told you to be a bloodthirsty animal, huh? You think you're so cool coming up with that kind of sentences. For heaven's sake, Eris!" He then rotated his full attention to a wailing Eris who was still lamenting over her shattered tea cup and the stained tableclot. "You can buy more! You are worse than Deo when it comes to this kind of things. It's an object, you can buy more."

Eris was still frowning, her eyes were bloodshot and they were directed to Cocytus and me.

"I apologized, Eris," I said sincerely, even standing up and bowing to her to show my genuine feelings. "I did not thought of the consequences. I will try to be mindful next time. Also, Leigh." I directed my eyes to Leigh who has his chin up in an arrogant and aggravated way as though he was the one whom we wronged so terribly. "I have already apologized to Lord Legrand. I told him that he could hit me back as a payment to what I did to him."

Cocytus laughed sharply, and he almost choke on his steak. His hand quickly went for the glass of water in front of him and looked incredulously at me as though I have grown another head or as though I have grown mental.

"Who would hit you back, Lady Alaric Elliot?" Cocytus asked me mockingly. I reached for the fork located on my unfinished plate, attempting to stab Cocytus even if we were in front of his beloved foster father.

"Stop teasing her, Cocytus," Leigh berated him again. "And stop trying to kill everyone, Seraphin. Children these days are very violent."

"What? I didn't say anything wrong, 'Pa!" Cocytus complained and stabbed the slab of meat on his plate despite his eyes being on me maybe he was imagining himself stabbing me instead of that edible thing in front of him. "I jusy said a fact. Who in the world would be brave enough to actually hit the Seraphin Alaric Elliot? Definitely not the person who owed her."

I sat down, my eyes were still glaring at Cocytus.

We all settled down, but Leigh feed us more with his words of wisdom. I was not exactly certain how old was the Deities. Eris was, of course, a year older than Cocytus and me. The Seer was the only one who has the ability to pass on their clairvoyance Sight powers to another, thus, making them only mortals, very unlike of the other Deities.

It was unclear to me, and maybe even to Cocytus, how old Leigh was. Leigh never told us anything about his birth which, I assumed, was a long time ago. What I knew from what I heard directly from him and my observations was that Leigh had probably a wife and a couple of children. Maybe that was a long time ago, but I saw no signs of family aside from Cocytus that would indicate as such.

Meanwhile, Deo was still a mystery to me. Leigh and Eris never told me anything about the Deity who bestowed his attention to me and trained me for the past months.

"Cocytus," I called out to the boy in front of me. "Would you mind if I drop by on your room later?" I asked him.

"No," he responded easily, "I'll be out anyway doing the patrols with Leigh so feel free to roam around."

Normally, I would also definitely go and gear up so we can survey the area surrounding the academy but Leigh said that he wanted alone time with Cocytus. Maybe to bond or to talk, but about what? I do not have the faintest idea since I do not remember any of my times with my father.

My father, Adonai Elliot, was another mystery to me. When I think of him, I can only think of a blurry image of him. The memories do not bother me any longer, they kept on coming but only of those times that I have lived as a mortal. The memories of my childhood, probably the most important ones and most delicate ones, were yet to come back to me.

Eris told me to be patient since Deo was not here to coax me around if my mind fail me. And I'd like to think that I have been actually patient.

And so I went ahead to look at Cocytus' room just as he asked to me.

This was the second time that I would enter his room. Since he was not around, all the lights have been turned off and the drapes of his massive windows were all drawn together to a close, not permitting any of the moon's light to go through. Comfortingly, the golden butterflies flew near me, providing light so I could switch the lights on.

On the door, there was a note taped on the wood saying that I should go to the bookshelf around the corner of the second floor and push a certain book. The note even stated how he thought it was cool and all.

I rolled my eyes at Cocytus.

Show off, I thought but did as the note said. Suprisingly, the bookshelf did not opened up but there was a trapdoor that opened instead. I was mildy surprised since this was, after all, the second floor. I looked at the little railing his bedroom has and gazed at the first floor which consisted of a little video room and a small library.

I pursed my lips and decided that I could try and find out what this was all about so I descended the stairs down the trapdoor, the butterflies were close behind me.

Unlike what I was anticipating, the stairs were not something out of a goth horror movie but out of a science fiction book. Each steps were smooth and a had a blue light lining. As soon as I stepped inside, the lights swtiched on and I was led to a very steep and narrow stairs that only leads downwards. At the very end of the stairs was open space but I could not really make it out yet since I was still fairly up.

I jogged a little down the stairs, finding the inscriptions and mural on the wall really interesting. I had thought at first that I would find what Bluebeard's wife have found on the basement of her husband, that changed, of course, when I saw that I was not really going down below the earth.

Besides that, Cocytus was not even married to anyone so murdering a wife would be impossible for him.

I did equipped myself with weapons and that was to say I did prepared some sort of weapons— pretty weapons or, in short, I brought Deo's light butterflies. Even with that, I was still cautious. I have never seen Deo's butterflies being defeated, but to be fair I have never really seen them in actual battle so I could never be sure. Their immense power was great and I was certain that they could certainly hold their own.

My curious eyes swept over the interior of the secret room. What I saw inside the secret room of Cocytus' space was something, someone actually, that I did not know I would see here.

Tansy.

My eyes were wide and I almost staggered down because of shock. Abruptly, I asked myself internally why I put off on going to Cocytus' room. I did not want to exude any emotion. That would be irrational considering that Cocytus has been an ally, and, yes I hated to admit, a family member. He has become more of a family to me than my mother and father. Beside that point, Cocytus was the one who invited me inside of this room. I did not snuck around, behind his back, so I guess he has been meaning to tell me for some time.

I took a deep breath.

Then I took another.

There was something floating around her head, a golden cloth-like object that was almost transparent. Tansy was lying on a comfortable bed that was fairly-sized, her lids were over her eyes. White blanket was draped over to her body and there was a paleness on her skin that almost made it look like she was death-like.

I swallowed and stepped forward, towards the body. She was not dead, I remarked from the rising and falling of her chest but it was still eerie to look at her like this. So still she was that she could be mistaken as a dead body.

The golden cloth-like object floating above her head was extremely familiar. It was as though I have seen it in my dreams.

I shook my head at that thought.

No, not dreams exactly.

Memories. I have seen that thing on my memories, the object that Weavers like Zachriel use to manipulate the mind of a person. I do not deny that I do not have a lot of knowledge about being a Weaver.

Similar to what Leigh said at dinner, it takes an innate and great talent ingrained through bloodline and born with oneself to be a Weaver— the manipulator of the mind.

The Mage could come up with spells, seals, jinxes, and some other things, but all of those could be taught by a master or just a simple teacher. A Warrior can train for days to months and years to be able to incoporate magic on their moves and be familiar with their weapons. It takes practice for a warrior to deflect the most powerful of spells thrown at them by a mage and circulate magical energy throughout their bodies, similar to how Haziel, Caspian, Hermes, and I did on that dodgeball battle.

But being a Weaver, understanding how the mind works and the flow of thoughts and memories through the head of a person was something that can never be taught. Even Leigh and Deo admitted of not being able to master the manipulation of the mind, thus the reason why Deo was afraid of pulling the threads within my mind to right my memories though he was perfectly able.

Every person has a different way of thinking, not one was alike to another. It was similar to how a formula of a mathematical equation might be. There would be a general way of doing it, but it won't be the same for every equation or, in this case, for every person.

I can try to emulate how Weavers would work on a mind but I would sacrifice the sanity of another person.

I looked at Tansy, still breathing shallowly, and I also stared at her mind opened like a book. As a half-Mage and half-Warrior myself, I cannot do anything that would remedy her mind and not even close it so it would not be exposed to anyone like this.

"You are in Cocytus' secret chamber," I whispered. My words were meant for this girl but since she could not hear it, there was only me who would listen to myself. "You should be fine, Miss Adams."

With her in our custody, would we be able to solve this mystery? Or would she prove my suspicions against Apollyon Hart?

Since there was nothing I could do with her situation, I decided to finally go up the stairs, back to the real world. This chamber seemed to be so removed from the outside. It was quite expansive and large, and I have no idea how this would fit within the house so I guess Cocytus made an extension for it though the ceiling was bit too low.

I sighed and finally made my way back.

I knew only one Weaver in my entire life. The one who manipulated my own mind and placed false memories within me. In this time, even how much I wanted to avoid this kind of situation, I knew that I have bring Zachriel Legrand here.

Is that what Cocytus wanted me to do?