At Astrum's villa, Serenity was seated next to Ash, watching her phone. Even though the live had ended, her face was focused on the screen for a long time ,lost in deep thoughts.
-step...step...step-
Belladonna noticed footsteps coming from the second floor so she instantly turned to look at the stairs,
"Oh…welcome back."
Astrum was walking down but with a troubled expression not even bothered to answer,
"..."
Bella got possed hearing no response and started complaining,
"Fuck...the silent treatment again. Why the hell are you standing there?"
Syrous picked up on her base and joined in teasing him,but he raised his voice which annoyed her,
"Cat got your tongue?...why aren't you saying anything?"
Bella shoved food into his mouth to stop him from going any further,
"Stop talking, will you?"
He spat out the food from his mouth with teary eyes,
"Cough...cough...from all the ways you could say it, you actually choose to suffocate me with food, really?"
Bella didn't know what to say and simply turned her head the other way,
"Erm...th...that..."
Syrous got pissed by her actions but remembering ash was sitting behind he held it in,
"No comment?...sigh...forget it…"
Belladonna got up and headed towards Astrum urging him to come down. "Can you please be quick on your feet? We are all waiting for you, you know?"
Astrum still didn't response ,not even looking her way,
"…"
Seeing his gaze seemed to be fixed on something, too unbothered to even look at her, she got angry, turning around,
"The fuck are you even looking at?...huh?"
He was looking in Serenity's direction, and she was staring back at him. She misunderstood the situation as him being overprotective of Ash.
She blocked his eyesight and urged him even further,
"The fuck are you looking at?...Hey, you sister fanatic, hurry up and come down; we still got business to discuss in here."
'I really don't know if what i am about to do is the right thing or not and honestly iam still afraid of what might come next...but if mom was right and serenity really awakened powers from both her and dad then .....' Astrum had no choice but to come down; he was still unsure if he could share his information with her or not.
"Sight ... I am coming." He said
Bella stood behind as he passed by her, seeing his current behavior as not so like him,
"What does that sight mean?"
"It means you are annoying," Astrum said.
"Ooh" she smiled as if finally understood but in less than a second her brain processed what he just said and burst out from anger ,"...Huh?!...Who is annoying whom in here, huh?"
Syrous started mocking her for her late reaction ,
"Wow... you suddenly realized he is talking to you,. Who else but you, airhead?"
"Wait a second... Are you saying I am an idiot?" She askex
Syrous had a smug smile on his face as he said ,"I didn't say...you did."
She souted back at him ,"I didn't…you're the one who said I am an airhead. "
Syrous covered his head acting surprised,
"So you're an airhead; I didn't know that."
Bella switched to curse instantly ,"Fuck you!"
He teased her saying ,"Learn a new one; this one is old."
Beeing as speechless as she is her words just refused to come out ,"Y...Y…YOU"
"You?... Yes, I"
"You are done for."
"Who?!"
"You"
Syrous's provocations made Belladonna snap her last bit of sanity, and started running after him like a mad woman.
"Come here, you motherfucker. I am not going to let it slide this time."
He took shelter behind astrum trying to avoid her wrath,
"Hey ...calm down...I didn't say anything."
Bella snatched the pillows on the sofa and started throwing them at him one after another,but she was careful not to hit Astrum in the process,
"Calm my ass... iam already angry god have gifted you to me at just the right time"
Bella ran out of pillows and quickly grabbed his hair with a creepy smile on her face; he got scared.
"Eh...w…what are you going to do?" He asked
"You guess?"
The look in her eyes confirmed one thing he is in for a beating today for sure,
"Shit!"
Syrous had a really bad feeling; if someone didn't interfere, he would be in real danger, so he turned his head at Astrum with an expression saying "SOS," but he turned his head the other way.
Stressed he shouted ,"What does the 'you are on your own' expression mean, huh?"
"Exactly what it is" astrum calmly said he was clearly not in the mood to hrear anything from anyone,
Syrous tried to guilt trip him into helping him theough but all in vain ,
"The fuck, man...I am your buddy here."
Bella gave him a sympathized look saying,
"Wow...your friend is as thick as a stone."
He gave her a strange look mocking her as if she didn't know ,
"You bet?"
Bella smiled to his face which made him so freaked out, "I feel sorry for you, but...where have we left off?"
"Sorry, my ass." He said and was about ready to be beaten untill ash's deep voice sounded and they had to instantly obey.
"Noisy"
Once they heard Ash's deep voice they shut it down in less than a second
"Good " serenity said
"Things was starting to get annoying anyway" She calmly got up from her chair, advancing towards Astrum while asking,
"Astrum...are you really that unhappy about me being here?"
"That..." He lowered his head; his gaze was fixed on the ground. He really didn't know what to say.
'I know Mother said to just tell her, but Mother had no idea what we are dealing with...just the thought of my little sister knowing about them completely terrified me...what if they hurt her in the past?...Then someone I know nothing about tried to—no, he did hurt her...what if they come after her again?...What if she gets hurt because of me?' His thoughts were like a black hole that kept pulling him in deeper and deeper making him out of breath to the point of suffocating
Serenity reached out to hug Astrum instantly pulling him out of his inner conflicts, patting his back while saying,
"It's okay; I am here ... nobody is going to hurt me...iam safe okay"
Hearing his sister's calm voice, he finally felt at ease and felt the weight on his chest going a little lighter ; he felt truely greatfull upon hearing her voice that only two words appeared in his mind ,'thank you'
After calming down, he placed a hand lightly on her head. With a gentle smile, he stroke her hair saying,
"I am okay now; sorry to have scared you."
Only after hearing his voice back to normal did Serenity let go.
Bella leaned her head on Syrous's shoulders feeling so touched,
"Wow, that was emotional,"
"Tell me about it also...did you ever know he is capable of showing such a face?!" Syrous asked driven by pure curiosity but unintentionally made Bella angry again.
She grabbed his head under her arms pressing on him while saying,
"Are you seriously asking me?...It's not me who's been raised with him since childhood, you know!"
"I am just asking, not like I expected any useful answer from you." He said but maybe it was best if he didn't
"You?!"
Astrum turned their side, saying with cold robotic voice , "You can argue later; let's start our work."
Syrous and Belladonna stood steady in an instant replying in one voice, "Okay."
"Let's sit down first, then— "
Serenity stopped Astrum mid-talking and asked to go out,
"Actually, I need to go."
all those present in the room felt stunned by her request, except for ash who didn't even flinch,
"Huh?!"
"What?!...why??" Belladonna asked; she was just like the rest, surprised by her words. Just a few minutes ago, she almost begged them to take her with them, but now she's the one who wants to leave.
Astrum looked at her with concern clearly written all over his face.
"Don't give me that face." She said
"Then why do you suddenly want to leave?" He asked with a face that looked wronged
Serenity released a heavy sigh before saying,
"Sight...and do you really want me to stay?"
Hearing Serenity ask him that question directly, he hesitated to answer since he himself didn't know if allowing her to stay was right or wrong.
"Th…that..."
"See, hesitation is an answer in itself. "
Bella suddenly threw herself between both of them
"Wai...wai...wait...just wait a second,"
Bella interrupted them mid-talking, giving Astrum a fierce gaze. "You seem to have forgotten about something very important here...what about the information she had on the craniom?"
Syrous added to Bella's words "She's right the fact that lady serenity knows about them is also quiet suspicious, don't you think?"
Astrum didn't know what to say, but he just looked at his sister, waiting for her answer.
"..."
Serenity removed her glasses and started cleaning them under their watchfull eyes while answering with a voice deprived of emotions as cold as thick ice,
"First of all the answer is ; No, I am not with them. Don't give me that look ever again., or belive me you will die not knowing how..."
Syrous chickened the moment he got in contact with her eyes amd quickly lowered his voice apologizing on the spot.
"Sorry."
Syrous touched his neck felling absolutely terrified ,'why do i feel like my neck was sliced ,no magic ,no weapon not even using killing intent yet she could make every cell in my body scream from fear.....just who the hell is his sister?!'
"You better own to your words..." Then she turned at Belladonna, saying, "As for my connection to them, none whatsoever. I only just met one of them before and happened to hear the name 'craniom' from her. I honestly have no idea what that even means since this meeting took less than five minutes. "
Bella gave her a strange look clearly doubts the authenticity of her words,
"Really?!"
Serenity nodded saying,
"Umm…and it's been years since then; I never expected to hear that name again till I heard you say it at the stadium garden today."
Syrous asked, still suspicious of her, "That doesn't make any sense if it's just a passerby. How can you be so sure they were in the stadium and more than one at that?...Are you taking us for fools?!"
"That's right, explain yourself." Bella was in agreement with Syrous for once. Although his words were harsh, he has a point.
"Because I did feel them—about ten of them were divided over the stadium in pairs," Serenity said. Those words and Astrum, who was watching everything unfold, finally confirmed that his sister did regain her memories.
Bella asked ,"How?"
"Because those people have a special scent stuck to their mana; once you feel it, you can never forget it, which makes it actually quite easy to detect." Serenity explained but her explaining didn't seem to pass for them.
Syrous asked feeling pissed mistaken it for her making a fool out of them ,
"And you expect me to believe that?"
Serenity wore her glasses and said ,"I never lie; believe it or not, it's completely up to you."
"Huh?!"
Syrous kept pressing on her, which made Astrum feel uncomfortable.
"That's enough, Syrous; this is not an interrogation, and she is not a suspect." Astrum said
Syrous recalled that look in her eyes and fell silent on the spot but that wasn't the case for bella,as she kept pressing the matter
"Right now she is"
"Never a suspect"
She walked back pointing at serenity ,"Then explain this to me: how can she say she can detect them throughout their mana when the stadium has a mana sensor? If someone used mana, they would be grounded in less than five seconds."
"Her senses are stronger than the average person." That was the explanation Astrum provided which clearly wasn't enough.
Bella's eyes couldn't hide her anger any longer as she glared at him,
"Huh?...what's that supposed to mean?"
"It is what it is." After saying that, Astrum turned to his sister. "Serenity, you can go on your way now if you want.... nobody is going to stop you."
"Okay"
Astrum seemed to have remembered something so he turned around saying,
"Oh !....right!.... welcome back younger sister"
" see you when I see you," Serenity said waving her hand not even stopping to take a look and left them to what they were doing.
After hearing the sound of the door being shut, Syrous's intense gaze didn't leave Astrum for a second.
"I believe there's an explanation you ought to provide, right?" Belladonna asked.
"she can't lie," Astrum replied with those simple wordsmaking them stunned.
"Pardon?!"Syrous was actually surprised from his answer, he couldn't really understand, the astrum he know would never defend someone this much even if it was his father.
"Just what i said" with these words coming out of astrum's mouth syrous simply started douting his friend's intelligence
"Why do you believe her that much?...I know she's your sister and all, but...you know what I mean, right?" Syrous said, knowing that in their line of work, showing weakness toward anyone, family or not, is a taboo that results only in death.
Astrum shoke him off by saying ,"I know what you're worried about, but Serenity is the only one in this world who, when she says she's worried about you, really means it that way."
Syrous turned the other way feeling utterly defeated ,"That's pullshit....with that look in her eyes iam sure she killed a few people at least "
"Still the truth—no matter what, I will always believe her." Seeing how Astrum was still hang onto his answer they just didn't know what to do.
Bella started mocking him or herself, "Just half his confidence when dealing with my shitty family, and I will rule the world."
Syrous seemed to have noticed something so he stopped bella from talking any further and asked ,
"How do you trust she is not going to lie to you? Mostly people never say what they truly mean, so why?"
Syrous asked in concern for his friend. Astrum upon seeing him like that, he didn't want him to worry, so he started explaining.
"I already told you she can't lie, literally can't, not even if she wanted...if she didn't want to say something, she would just keep silent and wouldn't talk about it; that's the only way to know something is off. She's a crowned royal snow elf, and crowned elves can never lie."
"An elf!?...Astrum, my dear friend, do you see me as an idiot?..or am i blind? Your sister is a human, not an elf." Syrous lost his patience, demanding answers from him, and Belladonna suddenly remembered something that seemed to change her view of things.
Bella suddenly started to connect the dots ,"Shit... I completely forgot about it she is a Voldemort in reality . Since Queen Luna is her mother, then she is also your mother you're considered half-elf as well. Does that mean you also…"
Syrous's jaw dropped from the overload of informations all at once, while bella on the other hand was full of expectations, but Astrum had to shut her down completely.
"I am not...among us only Serenity has the strongest blood affinity to the crowned elves. I and Aries didn't inherit it; you already know my bloodline ability It's mostly because of the influence on my mother's side , and Aries inherited Father's bloodline magic, 'Vox' that's why he is the next heir to the Alkana. Anything else?"
Belladonna raised her hand excitedly, asking, "I do have a very important thing I want to know... your brother inherited his father's magic. Foxes are considered demons, you know, and according to you, she has a natural affinity with elves. Your magic can't exactly be called divine; you're more on the demonic side, not to mention the age gab, you three aren't...you get me right?!."
Astrum smiled while saying, "Are you asking how come the three of us are triplets?"
"Yes, your sister, an elf born from nature under divine protection, was born alongside two people whose existence comes from destruction and chaos magic, even if it's just one twin and we excluded you...there's no way you're telling me there was no divine punishment?"
Astrum suddenly thought about his situation in the family tree and he himself felt something was off ,'i as born royal male elf awakened the dragon inheritance. In elf's culture when a crowned royal elf is born a dragon will be born with the sole purpose of protecting that crown ....if not for the fact that we have Avalor blood running through our veins ,i wouldn't have gone to Avalor but stayed as my sister's personal guard'
Astrum looked reluctant to say anything but he asked them anyway ,
"You really want to know?"
Bella nodded with eyes filled with excitement, "Yes, i really want to know."
Syrous seeing the worried look on his buddy's face he assured him,
"Don't worry; whatever you say won't be known by an extra person."
Belladonna joined him too,"i also promise you , if i break my promise i will die a horrible death"
And to assure him even more they made a magical vow,
[Promissum inanitiati, me morte horribili moriturum esse si umquam frangam]
Both Syrous and Belladonna were waiting anxiously for his answer.
Maybe seeing them make a vow actually assured him a little bit ,"Haah....You actually guessed right; there really was a divine punishment."
"I knew it; divine and demonic can never settle in one place," Belladonna said as a matter of fact. Nobody can actually survive both demonic and divine no matter how strong, and she added, "Is it okay if you tell me about the punishment?"
"It's not like I don't want to, but I absolutely have no idea about it; it was later that we discovered that there was one."he said
"More details ..is it related to her human form" Belladonna said, feeling even more excited waiting to hear what's next
Astrum felt angry upon the mention of her human form, "It's not, and don't ask about this matter again."
"My friend, to be honest, I have never met a family full of inside stories like yours, a new story hidden in every corner" Syrous said meant for it to be a joke but ended up making him even more troubled
"Tell me about it." Astrum appeared to be so done with his life and for the first time his friends realised how much does he really have.
"I still don't know what happened to the divine punishment?" Belladonna was seriously dying to know about it. 'Astrum's experience with his siblings is one of a kind; it's actually super thrilling.'
"You won't like my answer, I am telling you." He said as a warning
Bella didn'tcare and only wanted to listen ,"Whatever, just tell me already."
"Sight..." Astrum shook his head and crashed on the sofa, saying bitterly,
"My little sister the apple of our family is actually blind"
Both Belladonna and Syrous shocked said it in one sownd
"What??"
His words didn't make any sense after all; Serenity was moving just fine in front of them,even scared Syrous half to death by only her eyes ,but what Astrum said next took them totally off guard. It was totally unexpected.
"Because I and Aries are of opposite affinities from her. When we were still in our mother's womb, we actually started devouring her life."
The shock from hearing the truth froze them on the spot; even words couldn't come out like they usually do. Since it was all in the past, all they could do was keep listening to Astrum.
"Because of the unusual power struggle, Serenity was trying to save herself, which forced our mother into an extremely preterm birth. Both I and Aries were born just fine, but Serenity was born without a sound, pale white skin just like the dead. They had to put her in the water of life. Lucky enough, our mother was the granddaughter of the queen elf in the celestial realm; she provided us with it when she learned about her pregnancy."
Astrum moved twards the sofa saying,
"Father said it was a miracle she awakened after nearly two hours with no breath; her hands actually started moving."
"Oh, thank God," Belladonna said, feeling relieved, although Serenity was with them a moment ago; "it still felt terrible hearing she was about to die before she was even born."
"Then how did she go blind ?" Syrous asked.
"Divine tribulation" those two words were the tre shoke to their ears
"What the fuck? A kid can never go through something like that!" Bella said
Astrum leaned on the back of the sofa and continued with the story ,
"Belive it or not purple lightning struck her from the sky almost four times , thank god grandmother reached in time and protected her but ended up gravely wonded after that , everyone was actually scared at the time ,because even if the tribulation came it should have hit our mother not her ,but turns out serenity awakend her ice physique when she was at mother's womb but the water of life caused it to weaken so it absorbed the divinity summoning the devine tribulation"
Bella thought about that event for a while and reached a conclusion,
"A physique awakened to facilitate her birth ...but using the water of life actually blow it all of, just in case she one day told you she felt it that day ; i tell you belive her.maybe her conciousness really awakened early on, some cases i know had the same experience where they remember their birth day"
Astrum bewildered by the informations said ,
"If that truely is the case then she saved the four of them including herself"
astrum brushed it off by saying, "if she really remembers she wouldn't have treated us the way she does knowing we tried to kill her"
Half beliving bella nodded ,"It's a point but keep what i said in mind"
Astrum continued saying ," when we examind serenity afterward we found her eyes lifeless , because of her unstable physique at the time she stayed at the selestial tower to learn how to control it, while both grandmas did their absolute best to find materials to make an artificial eye for sister ,she turned three by the time they finished it" astrum turned at Syrous meaning those words to him,"now i suppose you understand why i told you her senses are strong, right?"
Syrous slammed the table with a hard fist, saying as if he was finally enlightened,
"No wonder she said she felt them instead of seeing...That's a lot of things to go through just to be born, don't you think? "
In truth he actually respected her mindset ,' indeed three years with no vision are indeed enough to sharpen other senses to the max , even with vision restored habits cannot be forgotten that easily'
Belladonna felt genuine sadness hearing this story from the past.
"Poor kid, she's been through a lot."
Seeing them like that, Astrum said, "I am not telling you about this to make you pity her. I am telling you to never look down on my sister she's actually the strongest person i have ever known if given enough time she could go head on with his majesty.....you were suspecting my sister, and I had to defend her; that's all."
"No wonder you are a sisteraholic ...wait, is your brother the same?" Belladonna asked.
"In my family, we're pretty much the same; touch serenity, and you're dead in more ways than you can imagine." Astrum said it as if he was giving them a warning for the future
"Got it...i mean no offense but you're basically a family full of lunatics." Belladonna felt a shiver down her spine as she heard his words following his family tree: 'Hurting serenity equals being a joint enemy for half the universe. Till now they brought up Voldemort, Alkana even the selestial realm ,god knows if there is still more behind the scene. Who's stupid enough to do such a thing?'
Syrous felt that they'd forgotten about something important; while talking, he looked around him and quickly jumped from the shouting at the top of his lungs .
"Where is he?"
Bella jolted from her seat to the ground startled by his sudden energy,
"Who?".
He looked at them with a troubled and terrified face asking with a trembling voice
"Ash...where is ash?"
A moment of silence covered the whole place , after realising they actually lost a living person
"Huh!"