Chapter Nineteen: Incomprehensible Feelings

It will be difficult for her to cope with this awkward sensation. She just realized that one day, she'll meet someone she can't seem to get along well with. She stiffened her gaze and looked at Caleb, and his eyes met hers. 

It's a long story, after she enters the oval where Mica had guided her. She didn't realize that she wasn't alone, or she's not the only one invited, unfamiliar faces appear in front of her both looking like Caleb and a woman with an intimidating look. 

She didn't like the starting of the woman, she only stared back and didn't mind her manners before seating beside her father whom she's familiar with. It could be Caleb, but he's seating next to the woman and two of his childrens. 

Caleb fakes a cough. "I do hope you know why you are here, Valerie?"

She shook her head and she strengthened her seat. "No, master!" 

"Err, no need for that anymore, Valerie."

He was startled when she said those in a high tone, he forgot to tell her that she didn't need to be formal with him any more. This behavior made the woman flinch. 

Valerie knew that hobbits die harder anyways.  She couldn't get used to not saying it, she's too serious about how she addresses Lyrica, nor her comrades as well as the master of Valkyries. 

"Why do you call Caleb, master?" Ares confusingly asked. To think a demigod will think of a mortal as a master—doesn't feel right at all. 

Valerie looked at him and she shifted back. "Before the master rescued me, I was used to calling the scientist master because they forced me to call them. If I don't, I'll get injected with a painful serum and suffer a long hour of being unable to see. I got used to it and started calling him master, I guess it was natural after that."

It was a memory no one wants to remember. The guilt might have gotten pretty deep on Ares' wounds, to think he left his beautiful daughter in the hand of vengeful and vile humans, it was a regret he'll never be able to change.

Even if he repents as much as he can, those suffering and experiences will remain a trauma. It's a psychological trauma, and the treatment hasn't been issued. 

If only he were able to go there, he swore those humans will live the day of his rage, and none will escape his wrath—but it already happens. He looked down with his hand against his forehead, and he bit his lips. 

It's known by many that the rage of a God of War is different to having lightning all over the skies. No, the skies will cover the south north in bloody color, making it more like a living hell than a lighting growling all over the skies. 

That happens probably when he's in rage, the change of the sky was seen outside their windows, it made Caleb startled and he marched up. "Dear God, Ares! Pull yourself together! Calm down, you'll bring disaster to this kingdom!"

Caleb's voice did only bring Ares back, and he snapped. His eyes looked at the sky widened, he didn't intentionally do it. He held his forehead and glared back to Valerie who was shocked while her eyes were looking at the windows where the red skies were slowly disappearing. 

"I—I just didn't like it, I'm so sorry. If only I was there, you wouldn't have suffered, I—" the change of his soft and kind voice suddenly turned vividly dark, it's like he doesn't have any control of his emotions. "Those humans will have to perish, if I was there, they would burn in rage of hell."

It's coming back, those red clouds, Valerie didn't know what to do. She didn't have any experience but she understands that if Ares were to become a beast, and started to wage war, it will affect Armenia and maybe even Athena will have control over him. 

She doesn't have a choice, it's like she needed to stop him, and it doesn't feel right.

She only spent a day with him, she doesn't have any affections for him. Yet for some unknown reason, someone is trying to whisper in her ears, to stop Ares, and move quickly.

A voice? She doesn't know. It's a voice coming from the soft and low tune of a voice, like a girl in a dream like, it doesn't have a form, nor gender so she couldn't tell. It's a random voice which is hard to identify.

It's telling her to "quickly help"... 

She stood up and put her hands against her fathers head. It's like her body knew what was happening, hence she didn't complain. 

"I am fine," she said and looked at him. The next thing she knew, she was hugging him like a 10 year old cuddling her teddy bear.  

This might have taken effect of Ares' system, he didn't know she'd hug him—the same God she said that she couldn't forget. The red clouds now faded, it's like the long hour of suffering went back to tartarus, and now it becomes clearer. 

She carefully looked outside and breathed out. "I am not expecting you to do it anyways, so don't worry, I am used to it."

"You say cold things, my dear child, it makes this father of yours cry."

She patted his back and snored. It seemed surreal for her to do this, but she couldn't help it. Caleb and his wife watch as the scene in front becomes calm, he never saw Ares this pissed off. Ares was a calm and patient God, he never did something to make the sky turn red. 

However, what really surprised him more than a God, was the daughter herself. To think Valerie would comfort someone—and not only just anyone, but her father, Ares, whom she hated the most. 

She held a grudge against her father, she never thought that one day, her words would soon backlash. She always tells them that she hated him, beyond control, and if she saw him, it wouldn't be a unification but rather war. 

He clicked his tongue and smiled. She took back what she said after all. She must be curious and wants to understand it, even though her actions show something she doesn't understand, it doesn't mean she didn't want to learn it. 

He sat back and he looked at his wife. Camille had an interesting feature, although big, she's beautiful, with a very fair skin, nickel eyes, a big curly braided long blond hair, a sharp nose and a pearly lips like that of a rose, it's tempting and white. 

Camille might look like an intimidating person, but she's not always like that. "I've never learned of their situation," Camille whispers to Caleb, and smiles. 

"It's because Ares was hiding his daughter, remember?" Camille looks at him confused before she lifts her fingers on her chin and laughs. 

"Can't remember, I have a bad memory after all," said Camille. 

Caleb chuckled. "Because you fell asleep hearing his story, so you didn't know the situation, wifey."

It's not usually that Camille forgets something important, she just chooses to forget it and never to remember. It's always the phase of her independent side, and Caleb would never hate her for such a personality.

She's a free duchess, she doesn't need to do anything a duchess would do, she is free to do whatever she wants to do. 

"She seems nice, but cold," she mumbles while looking at Valerie who was busy comforting her crying father, Ares. 

"Valerie was actually found as an abused child, when we found her, she's not treated fairly and well, she didn't even have a childhood to remember. It's like you, wifey, remember the time you told me about being kidnapped? That child experiences everything that she shouldn't."

Camille shifted her gaze and daze. She never knew it, a story similar to her, and to her experience. "She's an abused child?" she stopped before she shook her head. "A God saved me, and I was freed from a terrible Aria, however my experience isn't the same as her, isn't it?"

Caleb nodded. "She had bullet scars all around, filled with holes and cuts all over her body, her eyes were pale, her lips were dry, and even though I took her in, she never put her guard down, even when I taught her, or even when Lyrica was friendly to her, she remain cold and empty."

Camille's eyes widen and turn her glare on her husband's quiet eyes. "Empty?"

"There is stuff that she doesn't understand, neither comprehend, like emotions and free will. Sometimes she asks me for a mission, because she said that she doesn't know what to do without one. Her free will had been cut off, and she was always obeying orders, however, it wasn't an easy path. The drugs that she was fed during her time being abused had taken effect, that child couldn't even feel pain, and her Aria had lost control."

It's an information Caleb didn't want to tell anyone, even the Valkyrie was tasked to make sure that they will keep it a secret regardless of that topic. Even Lukas, and other Armenians who came with them. It was for Valerie's safety, if Athena knew that Ares daughter couldn't control her Aria, she will use this opportunity to plunge her influence into Valerie's body.

Caleb trusted his wife to keep it a secret, and he knew his wife better than anyone. She's not someone who spreads secret news, and wouldn't betray the trust she built up, he has seen her commitment and pride so he knows she will not say anything.