The Reunion

"Pa, you are here?" Archie saw the face of someone familiar. He was instantly at ease.

"I am sorry; I think you have mistaken me for someone else." The elderly man said it politely.

"Your holiness, I, Aurelia Lance, am humbled to grace your presence. Archie, this is Athanasius Blaise, the high priest of our phoenix tribe and a member of God's Folk." Aurelia bowed and nudged Archie in the elbow to do the same.

Archie, who was still sitting on his bed, gave a slight bow and looked at the elderly man intensely before him.

'The resemblance striking yet their characters were distinct as night and day.' Archie thought as he intensely inspected the older man.

He was a spitting image of his grandfather, except he exuded an aura of authority and command.

The high priest stood tall and straight, with his posture upright, unlike his fat and plump grandfather, whose posture slightly stooped with his eyes often twinkling with mischief and humor.

"You looked exactly like Amos Blaise." Archie blurted out, unable to contain the number of mysteries that kept piling up ever since he arrived at Elysium. This was one subject that he was determined to get straight.

The high priest's eyes widened in surprise to hear the name; he thought he would never hear them again.

He quickly recovered his composure, but his response was enough to indicate that he knew the name that Archie mentioned.

"I never thought I would hear that name again." Athanasius muttered softly, enough for Archie to catch his response.

"So you knew my grandfather?" Archie jolted up while hurting his back for moving carelessly and quickly. He could not contain the excitement that he had a relative in this realm.

"Of course, I am his younger twin. Call me Athan." The high priest gave him a gentle smile; his expression reminded Archie of his grandfather's tenderness and care.

As the elderly man raised his hands out for a brief shake, Archie took it and he had a quick flashback to the day his family was taken from him.

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The black fog subsided around the House of Rivers and it slowly revealed the desolated area.

The surge of mana that poured out and produced a sizable cyclone completely destroyed the house.

The innocent lives of the people on the housing estate were sacrificed.

As the authorities came to the scene, they were perplexed at the scale of destruction that looked like a natural disaster had destroyed the place, but no one can explain the little boy who stayed alive, holding two dead bodies of his deceased parents, whose bodies were still intact.

"We have two fatalities and one survivor over here. It is a young boy clinging onto his parents in shock, and he won't let them go."

"That's unfortunate; we need to get him to the ambulance and treat his injuries. Can you calm him down and pry him off?"

"I will try. Hey, little guy, can you hear me? I am here to help you right now, okay? You are safe now. Can you tell me your name?"

"Mummy! Daddy! Please, come back. Don't leave me."

"I am sorry, little one. Your mommy and daddy love you very much, but they can't talk to you right now. You are hurt and we are here to fix it. Can you let go of them and come with me?"

"No. Leave me alone. Leave us alone. I am staying here. Mum and dad are cold and they need me to keep them warm."

"We do not have time for this; we need to inspect his body for serious injuries."

"I am not injured. I am fine."

The paramedics were shocked to see that the little boy was indeed unscathed. Upon looking closer at the corpse, they weren't physically hurt anywhere either. This left the paramedics perplexed.

"We need to bring the bodies to CSI forensics for them to do the autopsy and figure out what actually happened here."

"Don't try to scare him. Let me try one more thing. Look, little buddy, here is a teddy bear and it is lonely and hurting now. It wants to hug you and make you feel better. Can you hug him for me?"

"I may be nine, but I know once I let go, the coroners will take my parents' corpse for investigation and I will never see them again."

The paramedics looked at each other and were shocked to see that the little boy was very eloquent.

"But we still have to treat you, and their bodies needed to be inspected anyway. So, why don't you stop whining and start to cooperate? You wouldn't want your deceased parents to see you like this, not listening to reason and disrupting healthcare workers on the job, do you?"

"Stop it; you are being harsh. He is still a boy."

The harsh-sounding paramedic took a great deal to separate the little boy, who was tightly clinging to his parents' corpse. He didn't have the patience to continue this nonsense anymore.

"No! No! You can't force me!

"It is alright; we can handle it from here."

Two men wearing paramedic uniforms approached the boy and the first pair of paramedics were trying to pry him away from his parents.

"Sir, we can try harder and..."

"It is fine; we can take it from here and tend to the boy."

"What makes you think I will listen to you?"

"We are not from the paramedics; we just dressed up so they thought we were."

"Who are you?"

"The one who is going to give you answers as to what really happened here."

"I am your grandfather, Amos Blaise, and this is your granduncle, Athan Blaise."

"I don't believe you; my grandparents were all dead."

"No, they are all well and alive. I am here to take over your parents' place and raise you. This may be the first time we meet, but I know Lucia will be happy if I take over and raise you here for now."

"Someone is hunting your mother down because she possesses something that they want."

"What is that?"

"This." It was an antique timepiece made of gold with diamond studs representing the numbers. The hands were black dauphines and the straps were made of leather. Much like the one he was wearing today, just that the current one he had was weathered and torn.

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The scene switched back as both Archie and Athan knocked out of their reverie, revealing a shared memory that they had together. 

Athan quickly retracted his hand from Archie and said,

"Perhaps we can discuss this over a meal. I will meet you at the dining hall. Aurelia, please escort him."

Archie could not recover his composure, yet his head automatically nodded and Aurelia bowed to show her sign of respect. The high priest once again transformed into a phoenix and flew away from the shaded balcony where Archie and Aurelia stood.

Archie could later feel the breeze that brushed his cheeks with another whisper: "Beware."

Archie barely heard the warning and was wondering if Sid was warning him about the elderly priest. Besides, he did not forget the poisonous Chinese buns his grandfather gave him the morning before he arrived in Elysium.