Gloria's eyes narrowed as she asked the question, and her posture grew tenser — if that was even possible — as if she expected to be attacked immediately. The thought made me chuckle out loud.
"Relax. If I knew, I'd be there strangling him for the headaches he's given me these past years. Don't believe me? Put a Truthteller on me."
I held my arms out towards her, wrists put together. The way she looked at them, I'm sure she was considering it. But in the end, she just shook her head.
"I believe you…"
"Now then... " I pointed at her with a smile. "I answered your questions. Now it's your turn to answer mine."
Gloria sighed loudly, her shoulders slumping down.
"Look, Vivian... I don't know what you want me to say. I'm really honoured that you trusted me enough to call. But I...I just can't. Letting that boy attend the Academy is a calamity waiting to happen."
I scoffed loudly, shaking my head at her words.
"Calamity, huh? How fitting you would use that word. You know, I remember a certain calamity about to happen some.... 18 years ago."
"Come on, Vivian, that's not fair..." Gloria's hands clenched into fists, her stern expression cracking, morphing into one of shame.
"You owe me, Gloria. I saved you from shattering that day, and with that, the entire city — cities probably. Tens of thousands of lives that would have perished because of you. What's more, I didn't kill you either. So you owe me twice."
"And what?!" Gloria stood up abruptly, her chair falling backwards. Her dark eyes glimmered, like sparks were swimming in them. "You expect me to just... throw everything aside and put every other student I have into danger?!"
Her grip on the table tightened, the wood groaning. A copper glow surrounded her body.
"You yourself are a ticking time bomb waiting to go off! But that son of yours? He is a spitting image of his father! The moment his true identity is revealed, it will spread like wildfire! And then what? We will have an army of raging Scions, hungry for revenge at our doorstep. Why the hell are you even here?!"
"Because I have nowhere else to go!" I snapped. My reply sounded pitiful in comparison. I had no aura of power to back it up after all.
"Look at me, Gloria." I spread my arms open. "I'm a husk of what I was. Useless. I used to hunt monsters that could snap you in two like a twig. Now I'm stuck here."
"Do you have any idea what it's like? And the best part is, I can't even get out of the city now. I'm like a fucking magnet for Shards."
The stronger the Scion, the more likely it was for them to attract Shards that resonate with their powers. Sadly, Shards in the wild are not in their pure form, but in mutated states. Monsters, anomalies, twisted amalgamations. And now that I was this weak, but still had all my own Shards inside me — inactive and useless as they may be to me — I was like a free meal for them.
While I was out, I could temporarily evade their gaze, but now? Now that I was here for a while, getting out was hardly an option. Not without some sort of solution. Something I'm yet to find.
"I might cause the death of my children just by being near them..." I muttered in a hushed tone. "I can't protect them. Neither from others, nor from myself."
"So… Go ahead. Report me. I know it crossed your mind. My face might not be known, but I'm wanted too, aren't I? I bet you would earn a pretty sum for apprehending the Rose Angel."
Gods, I hate that nickname…
Roses I love, but angels…
"But can you live with yourself after that? People would soon put two and two together. Or what? You think my children would be safe then? Don't kid yourself."
I know what I was doing was… dirty. But what else can I do?
Taking a deep breath, Gloria composed herself. Her eyes gradually returned to normal. She stood her chair back up and sat back down.
I let out a breath — one I didn't realise I was holding.
Thank the Gods. It seems like she's still a bleeding heart.
"There are people in this world who would wage war with Luminis just to get that boy and have a chance of getting to his father. Hell, some might just kill your son, hoping it will cause pain to Lucas."
"That's why I brought him here, Gloria... At least here he's relatively safe."
I looked down at my empty mug. There were still some thicker remnants of my drink sticking to the bottom.
Should have brought another bottle.
"You know… he lost his memories at the same time his father disappeared."
Just remembering that night, the 2nd horrible night of my life, made my stomach churn.
"I wasn't there, so I don't know the details. We were camping in the Silent Mountains. I was on my way back to camp when I chanced upon some hunters. One of them was bringing Alex into their camp, laughing like a maniac. He bragged about how much he could sell the kid for, how the son of Weissmann would earn him a fortune."
I wiped my mouth with my sleeve, biting back a curse as I noticed it left a bloodstain on it.
"How he got there or how the hunters recognised him, I have no idea."
"I mean... Isn't it pretty obvious? As far as I know, only your husband and son have those weird, creepy eyes."
"That's the thing, Gloria. Alex wasn't born with his father's eyes. He had red ones like me until that day."
The room fell silent after that.
"Alex...He.." I began to speak in a soft tone. "He didn't remember anything at all."
"Like... of recent years? Or perhaps his earlier years? I know his basic knowledge that's lacking so-"
I interrupted Gloria with a laugh. It was a pitiful one, full of...what? Regret? Self-pity?
What a joke.
"Anything. He didn't remember anything. He had trouble walking; he couldn't speak or even understand me. He didn't know who I was. Who he was. Nothing. Like a notebook that had all its pages torn out.'"
It took Gloria a good minute to speak again.
"He's... doing good, considering everything then..."
"Heh. It wasn't like that for long. He didn't regain his memories, but he learned — relearned — things fast. Abnormally fast."
"Inheritance?"
Children born of Scions often inherit some sort of... boon based on what Path their parents were from.
Lucas's Path was Knowledge.
Mine was Corruption.
I nodded. "That's my best guess. Rapid learning and high intelligence are common for children of Scholars."
Scholar was the name for those on the Path of Knowledge. Though that wasn't entirely correct. It was only for the first 3 stages, but people still used it later because of habit.
"And Lucas is perhaps the strongest Scholar in history." I added.
"But not at his age…" Gloria said, putting a hand to her chin, "Whatever happened to him triggered the effect again."
She tapped her fingers on the table.
"Both of you must have undergone testing and check-ups to get a citizenship, as any refugee would."
"I already had a citizenship. So did Alex."
"How the-" Her face cycled through a multitude of emotions. "…You know what… I don't want to know…"
I chuckled at that.
"Did they say nothing about his condition? Did you even mention it?"
"Of course I did!"
A loud crack rang across the room. Looking down, I realised I had squeezed the mug in my hand so hard that it had broken.
"Anything if it meant they could help. But they didn't find anything wrong with Alex. No charms, spells or curses, no signs of possession, nothing physical, nothing with his soul. Trauma. That's all they could say. But hey! At least I learned I was pregnant! One last gift from Lucas..."
Picking up the pieces, I put them into an empty bowl from the kitchen counter.
"And you still want him to become a Scion? To enter the Academy?"
I looked down, my lips pulling into a faint, bittersweet smile.
"When we got here, one of the doctors who examined Alex taught him how to play Fates. He became obsessed with it. Learned everything he could and spent 3 months just practising alone. I had to take away his cards just to make him sleep. Once something gets him hooked, there's no way to stop him. Reminds you of someone?"
Gloria let out a sigh.
"Let me put it this way for you, Gloria. Would you want him out there, doing Gods know what, unsupervised, growing unchecked? Or would you want to have him in your sight, perhaps even guide his development a bit? You know, nudge him in the right direction?"
Gloria took up her mug to take a sip. Halfway through the motion, she realised it was empty and put it down with a sour expression.
"And the dangers? With his condition… Do you really want him to be a Scion?"
I scoffed loudly.
"Do I want it? Of course not. Being a Scion is dangerous beyond imagination. Insanity, death, and being possessed, those are the best of the bad endings. I don't want to...I can't lose my son again. I can't lose an-"
I stopped myself halfway through that sentence, biting my lip.
"If this is what he wants, the best I can do is support him any way possible. In the Academy, he will have better chances." A tired sigh slipped from my mouth. "He was easier to deal with as a child..."
I chuckled at the memory.
"He was this... little ball of sunshine. Lucas and I would wonder who he got it from, because he wasn't like either of us as children. Must be one of our parents who he resembled. Well, besides my mother..."
"Would have made my work easier if he had stayed like that." Gloria leaned back in her chair. "Your husband was a menace as a student. Half the Academy's rules had to be modified because of him."
I let out a short chuckle.
"Yeah, I heard that. It was one of the first things I checked when we moved here."
Gloria tapped her fingers on the surface of the mug.
"I do have my doubts, Vivian, but I will help you. Your son won't be getting special treatment, though. I will help keep his identity hidden while he is one of my students, but that's it. No special treatment. He gets what every other student gets."
"That's all I'm asking for."
I stood up from the table, grabbing the bottles in front of me, and then the mug from Gloria.
"Now then... Want something to drink? I still have quite a few delicacies from adventuring all over the continent."
I could see the edges of Gloria's mouth curve upwards.
"Won't say no if you are offering. Though I hope this isn't a ploy to squeeze more out of me."
"Hm... Guess I should try better next time."
I started to walk from the table to the kitchen, but stopped in my tracks halfway there.
"He resembles Lucas and me now. Didn't before he lost his memories, but does now."
I turned back towards Gloria.
"He's just as curious and smart as his father, has the same look when he's planning something, the same light in his eyes when he finds something to ponder over. He's also prone to swearing when his emotions get the better of him, like Lucas. And gets restless when he's bored, like me."
"Should be a fun 3 years for you."
"Oh joy…"