The Sight Beyond The Haze

Chapter 77: Plans of Leaving

"Not right away, of course," Idris scoffed at me. "As soon as your wound heals then we can go."

I nodded, pursing my lips while thinking.

"Would it only be just the two of us?"

Idris shrugged her shoulders again. There was a false pretense of nonchalance on her shoulders that told me she was anxious about our impending journey too.

"I'm not really that sure actually," Idris responded. I saw her tried to shrug off the tension that was building up on her shoulders only to fail. She looked at me with awkwardness when she sensed that I was watching her closely. "Great Uncle Leigh just mentioned it to me but I don't think that there's a concrete plan. Don't worry though, I'll be sure to get you inside the Dalcanorian Territories. Eris said that it's imperative that I should be the one who get you to Dalcanoraz."

I nodded.

"Thank you for doing this for me," I told Idris. "I have never been a sister to you, but you are treating me in such a kind way. I do not deserve this."

"Nah, you're not like our mother," she said, completely out of topic and shook her head, I was just uncertain if she was shaking her head towards me or towards herself. Maybe it was both really. "You're not heartless which she is. Not even power hungry like what our mother has become. Do you want to hear stories about her though?"

"About Lady Erina Alaric?"

Idris chuckled at which I addressed our birth mother which ended up in a scoff at me.

"I guess we have been reduced into this huh?" she said, a faraway look came into her gaze which ended almost immediately. "Just tools that she could use though we are persons ourselves. I shouldn't have been surprised, should I?"

"I honestly do not know how to address her," I admitted, "so I spoke of her very formally which is what her position and rank demanded of me, of anyone actually. What stories do you know about her anyway?"

Idris leaned towards me and spoke in a whisper. My brows immediately met in the middle with how she was acting like she was telling a gossip or a hearsay.

I knew this would be chaotic and maybe I should have stop her being explicitly telling me everything she knew.

"I heard that our mother, the great Erina Alaric, is a heartbreaker!" she started. "Rows of men lined up to court her. Maybe it's for her position as the head of the Eirini, maybe she has a certain charisma that really appealed to everyone, or maybe it's actually both, but then everyone's going on about how she has an affair with Lord Legrand, Zachriel's father and she got knocked up but the baby went to the elves!"

"This is our mother you are talking about, right?" I asked with uncertainty.

With the way Idris was talking, I would think that she was speaking about the neighbor's affairs instead of our own mother who gave birth to us both. But she nodded earnestly and continued with her story.

"I also heard that Mother married Father because they wanted to unite the two mainlands of Denora and Alcaraz," she then continued, "and when she was younger, she was a pirate! A pirate, Seraphin!" she repated as though I have not heard her the first time round. "I once got aboard this ship where I met this dude who was claiming that Mother used to be his crewmate way back in the day. Not that I'm saying that Mother's old now, or maybe she is, but you know what I mean, right?"

I nodded with reluctance.

"And then?"

"They went pirating!" Idris exclaimed happily, even clapping her hands together in amusement. "I swear, Mother has it all when she was younger. There was even that story that she's actually supposed to be the queen now because the magical energy's potency was a little diluted on the current monarch's so I heard that they wanted to elect her as the royal family's head. Can you believe that? We could have been princesses! Admittedly though, we are quite the powerful generation through our mother. Even me as a Warrior could use decent magic, never as good as a high level Mage though, but decent as decent."

Her stories were quite the outrageous, getting more and more so as she told me one after another.

Who would have thought that this kid would have so much experience in the world? But like earlier there was some words she said that did not escaped from my ears even as they were spoken offhandedly as they were like that.

"What do you mean aboard a ship of pirates?" I then asked, a menace hiding beneath the coolness of my tone. "And what streets of the Dalcanorian Territories have you gotten yourself into to hear such outrageously scandalous rumors about Lady Erina having different affairs and even being appointed as potential monarch?"

I saw Idris visibly flinched, knowing full well that there was a certain degree of movement she could make after being so reckless and liberated in front of me.

"How old are you again?" I asked her yet again even when she has not answered my other questions still. "You are still fourteen this year, you said, did you not? Still wet behind the ears, yet so brave as to venture out on your own?" I demanded.

Idris' face easily crumpled like a thin and crisp paper. Her head bent down slightly, hiding behind her brown hair. There was even regret on that expression that suggested she was terribly feeling sorry for herself for telling me of such things.

"I see that you two are faring well?" a familiar baritone voice resounded throughout my room.

Idris and I both looked at the threshold of the room, our sighr welcoming the very fresh and handsome great uncle of ours. Behind him was Cocytus whose middle finger was up and pointing at Idris contentedly.

"Hello, Leigh," I greeted and tried to nod. He went to my side and helped me to elevate my head without causing any wave of movements to my abdominal part.

"How are you, my dear?" he asked me gently, tucking a loose hair behind my ear. "I heard that you saved your sister by the hands of Apollyon Hart Aldovia, you are very—"

"Very dumb and stupid for doing so," Cocytus cut on his foster father. He walked inside the room, standing behind his father and having a staring contest with Idris who was on my other side, also sitting on a chair beside me like how Leigh was positioned right now. "Seraphin should have let you be pierced by that sword."

"Do you want me to stab you with that sword?" Idris asked sarcastically at Cocytus. The two exchanged some more sarcastic animosity before being told off by Leigh.

"Stop it, you two," he snapped at them both and threw a glare at them that shut their mouths. "Yto, give Seraphin the sword Deo prepared."

Hidden behind him, Cocytus produced a long broadsword, a basket hilted one, with an elegant leather sheath that gleamed with the reflection of the light above us and the sun's shine. It was elegant and very simple. Holding the sheath out of Cocytus' grasp, I unsheathed the broadsword and looked at it with marvel.

"As you can see the scabbard is a new addition while your body's a feature that we opted to get subtracted from it. Deo made that out of the cocoons of the light butterflies," Cocytus explained to me. "Disgusting, I know, but those yucky substance is apparently very strong. Like them." His eyes glided along the golden light butterflies that were flying around the room.

This was the weapon that almost pierce me into two halves but the craftsmanship was extremely very good. It was sturdy without being a heavyweight, and it was balanced well enough without being too light. It was a perfect sword for me. The hilt was also excellently made.

Made out of a golden substance, the hilt swirled around my hand, seemingly protecting my own hand.

"My bow is also one of my spoils in my battles," Idris said, also examining the broadsword on my hand. "Spoils of wars, they often made us remember the bad parts of the battle and are often obtained out of blood but this is a very good sword with your built. It is only just that you have to make it your own. Like the spear you have grown close to."

I nodded and sheathed the sword yet again with its scabbard. It made a clear shing! sound which was very pleasing in the ears. Leigh's hands were already waiting for me to hand over the sword which was then handed over to Cocytus.

"Thank you for taking care of it."

Leigh shook his head, denying themselves of that statement.

"It was Deo who wanted to gift it to you," Leigh explained, "originally, I wanted to throw that thing away. That weapon almost killed you and has tasted your blood. It has already stained itself and I was afraid that you would have difficulty on wielding it."

"Father is thinking that maybe you would find it hard to bond with," Cocytus continued for his foster father. "Considering with your not so pleasant first meeting with it, we thought that you won't be able to accept it and won't like anything that has to do in regards of the sword."

I shook my head at Cocytus and looked at the sword from afar. They did not let me touch it again in fear that I would only irritate my wound with the weight of it and I did not push them let me take it any further.

"Idris, I did not know that you have such an extravagant way of living outside of the Alcaraz," Leigh said, there was a hint of warning and threat on his voice and even to his eyes that Idris' complexion positively paled with the sight of it. "Pirates and gossips?" Leigh demanded which made Idris' head bowed lower than before, her chin almost touching her collarbones. "How vulgar and liberated, my favorite niece."

"So now I'm your favorite?" Idris asked mockingly.

I smiled at that, but there was a certain seriousness that hung low on the air. It was thick and tensed, no one wanted to addressed it. I sighed, my intake and exhalation of air could be heard throughout the whole room.

"What happens now?" I finally asked, anxiety was evident on my tone and I held my breath as I waited for Leigh's answer.

Idris flinched with that question while Cocytus looked at his foster father, also asking the same question and waiting for the answer that Leigh would give to us. Only Leigh was at peace and calm as he face that straight on.

"You must leave the Middle Ground as soon as possible," Leigh answered solemnly. He took a deep breath, his red eyes were gazing at me ever so intently. "The Imbert clan has become a symbol of heroism after the ambush in Paris. Now that their daughter, Lady Haziel Imbert and the Duchess of Irminbehrt, has changed sides they would doubt your power and your ability to lead them."

"I never wanted to lead them," I contradicted. "I just want this to end here."

"But they don't know that," Cocytus intervened. "Even if you tell them, promise them, that you aren't interested in the least about Eirini, they would take it as empty words." I looked at Idris, wanting to explain that my words were not empty just as Cocytus has said but she only shook her head and smiled, that kind of reassured me of her trust.

"You are young," Leigh continued to explain then, "just the right age to still progress your skills, and besides those you are a hybrid yourself which is a rare sight even nowadays. They would doubt you now that Haziel Imbert, the daughter of the former Duke and Duchess Irminbehrt, has threatened your life."

"And what is better than a dead hero?" Cocytus asked. We all looked at him. "A rising hero."

"But Eris told me that we could help each other out," I protested. "We can work together."

"That is years from now, Seraphin," Leigh explained, "and that won't matter if you are dead already."

"So you're telling me that the Dalcanorian children here would betray my sister, the whole organization, just because of that b***h?" Idris summed up, but Leigh and my voice reverberated through the room.

"Language!" we both said at the same time.

Idris only looked at us quizzically, amused of us two.

"They would see that you did the mortals a great service," Leigh then continued, "but they are mortals, random people from different places, and not your people."

And they would feel abandoned that I chose to save those mortals, lending help to them first, and persecuted the one person that has been with them this whole time, Haziel Imbert.

They would lose their trust on me because of that, thus the main reason why I had to get out of the Academia Amitiel before they strike me.