Ch18: Searching For Rei P2

Chapter 18: Searching For Rei P2

~18.2~

*****

Alethea rarely left the garden. She only went inside to use the restroom, and she was barely eating. She would walk around the garden when she had the energy for it, but sat down on a bench when she was tired, though she only slept when she got the point of passing out. Astarte watched her closely and always covered her with a blanket.

At sunset, she sat down on the closest bench and began her long wait to fall asleep. Not even a minute after she sat down, Atalante walked up and joined her. "Alethea?" She didn't as much as blink in response. "Sweetheart, this isn't healthy. I want you to come inside and sleep in a bed."

"..."

Atalante frowned and reached for Alethea's shoulder to shake her. As soon as her hand touched, it was repelled by white mana. "Please don't make me force you."

"..."

"Sweetheart, please! I'm so worried about you."

"..."

"I know your daughter is missing, but this slow acting suicide isn't going to help! Don't you know that? You have far more life experience than even I do! You must know this isn't the way!"

"I've never experienced this kind of pain before," she finally spoke. "I... I don't know how to process it. My little girl... Don't speak as if you understand it. I don't even understand it."

Atalante waited a moment to respond, unsure if she wanted to say anything, but she eventually worked up the courage. "I do understand it."

"Really?" Alethea looked her in the eyes, her angry skepticism on full display. "How could you possibly understand? Your only child is sitting in front of you, and I've never been kidnapped after you took me in."

"No, you haven't, but my dear granddaughter has. I love that little girl no less dearly than I love you." She held a finger up when Alethea opened her mouth to argue. "And... you're not my only child. Rather, you're my only living child."

Alethea's eyes widened, and she gasped, showing the first bit of emotion other than grief since the day of the kidnapping. "My siblings. My mind has been so foggy that I forgot." It was as if a haze over her eyes was fading.

"I've told you the story before, but in case you're having trouble recalling it... I'll repeat it if that's okay." Alethea nodded and Atalante continued. "A long time ago, well before the dark age that ended with World War III, before the catastrophe that brought the empire to its knees thousands of years before... I was the Crown Princess, not the Empress. Your grandfather and grandmother were still alive, as were other members of our family. Your grandfather was the longest reigning emperor at the time."

"Athanasios and Andromeda Atlantis."

Atalante nodded. "I had a husband and three children. I was blessed with a daughter and two sons over the course of sixteen years. Your oldest sibling is Athanasia, and she would have been the Crown Princess during my reign. Your older brothers were named Alexandros and Artemios. And my husband's name was Atlan."

"I know they died, but did something else happen that you haven't told me?"

Atalante looked away, not wanting to finish the story, but she knew she had to. "Only your aunts know about this. Athanasia was a brilliant child. She was taken from me in her twelfth year. We found her two months later. Back then, the entire human population still lived on Terra, and there were only a few billion of us, so even with our more limited skills at the time, it only took two months to find her. I watched Athy like a hawk after that, and Alex and Arty when they were born. But it was only another sixteen years when the catastrophe happened."

"What happened in the catastrophe? The history books don't specify, and there are no online resources, since it happened before World War III. I know it was an asteroid shower, but why did only you and your sisters survive? Not my siblings or any others in the family?"

"We were more technological than magical back then, and we had dozens of floating cities. Atlantis was our capital even then, but there were many more. The shower destroyed every single one of them except Atlantis. My sisters and I stayed behind on Atlantis, expecting to die trying to save Atlantis City. My mother took your siblings to another island that was supposed to survive the shower. But the calculations were flawed, and it was not spared. We saw the destruction from Atlantis City. My father, grandparents, and great grandfather sacrificed their lives to erect a powerful enough barrier to protect Atlantis. Everyone survived there, and that's why I and my sisters are the only survivors from our family."

"To think that Athy was also kidnapped. No wonder you were so protective of me when I was younger. I wish I could have known them..." She smiled at her mother. "Perhaps we could see them through your memories. If you ever want that, we could do it."

Atalante shook her head, then patted Alethea's head with a tear in her eye. "Only if you want to see them. But not until after we recover your little girl."

*****

After their talk, Atalante got Alethea to go inside with her to eat and sleep. Once she fell asleep, Atalante and Astarte started discussing what to do next.

"How did you get through to her?" Astarte asked.

"I told her a story about her siblings," Atalante said. Astarte's eyes widened. "Do you remember when Athanasia was kidnapped?"

Astarte grimaced, recalling the memory against her will, "I would rather forget, but I remember it all too clearly. She was playing in the garden with a maid and a knight escorting her. In the maybe ten minutes when neither you, me, Astraia, nor Atlan were at the window watching, the maid killed the knight and took her. Our ability to manipulate mana wasn't nearly what it is now, but that maid was skilled. We still teleported from inside the palace to the scene of the crime because of the adrenaline rush. It took two months to track them down. You were very unstable in those two months and needed near constant supervision. Like mother like daughter, I suppose."

"She told me she had never experienced having a child kidnapped before." Atalante looked Astarte directly in the eyes. "Please tell me if she was lying. I know you know through your soul-bond with her."

Astarte nodded. "It's true. Nowhere in her soul is there the pain of losing a child that way. She's lost them to death, but never kidnapping before now. That's surprising considering the raw number of lives she's lived. The one that hurt her the most was Suzuka Sakaguchi." She sighed. "To think it would be the same child. Have these girls not suffered enough?"

Atalante blinked, unsure what Astarte meant.

Astarte raised an eyebrow. "You haven't thought about it? Astraia and I had a long discussion about Kye and Alethea last year. How clearly do you remember the pain from the deaths of your children, husband, and our parents?"

*****

Revision: 2024-6-26