Someone Has To Explain
POV: Alexandra
I thought I had just heard Benalia tell me that I am not fully pyrio but that was impossible because I was the daughter of Reginald Batiste, a pyrio, and Talia Esperanza, a pyrio, which would make me a full blooded pyrio. Benalia sighed, “I am sorry to say that you are perhaps not the daughter of the man that you called father all of your life.” I heard someone jolt up behind Benalia, “My sister was pure and has never cheated on Reggie. How dare you?!” Benalia turned around and shrugged, “I can only tell you what I see, I think you both need to question Talia Batiste if you want answers. Now I hate to drop bad news and run but I need to report back to General Lartisse.” Talon was still glaring at her as she walked towards the door but she turned as she was about to leave, “Oh! I almost forgot; the General requested your presence if I cleared you.” She looked at Derek, “You may take the shackles off of General Talon now. He is cleared. Make sure you escort him to the Headmaster’s tower using the passage tonight at 8.”
She left the room quickly and I stood there staring at the door as Derek took the shackles off my uncle. I felt arms around me and my head buried in a chest shortly after that. I had assumed it was Derek but he was opening the door. I looked up to see my uncle’s concerned face looking down at me and I hugged him back. After a short embrace, he pulled away, “We need to go talk to your mother.” I shook my head, “We need to get you cleaned up first. If you presented yourself to her right now and she knew you were able to clean yourself up first, she might kill us both before we have a chance to ask her what the hell is going on.” He laughed, “You’ve got a very valid point there, little rose. She would skin both of us alive.” I led him up the stairs to the room my mother had told me she always kept as his because she had always been in denial that he died. She had to accept what others told her and outwardly acted like it was so but, in her heart, she had always thought he was alive somewhere. That was the incredible connection that twins had that no one else could ever understand. This was why she was not too shocked when I told her that her brother was alive. The only thing that shocked her was that he was sent as my would-be assassin. It was a very cruel thing to do to someone, to have them unknowingly murder his own niece. He went into his room to wash up and change but promised he would come fetch me once he was ready.
I walked into my room to take care of another task that I needed to get since I would need Mordred’s presence here as soon as possible. I wrote to Lucien the following:
Lucien,
I am sorry that I haven’t written in a long time but with everything going on, it has been far too chaotic to even think about leisurely things like writing someone. I hate to write you out of necessity but I implore you to grant the request for Mordred. My uncle has a condition that requires that I touch him often so he won’t constantly pass out. With this condition, I am afraid that I will not be able to attend the retreat or I would have to bring him along. Mordred is known to have a cure for this particular ailment so I really need him here in Vellum. I wouldn’t ask this of you if it wasn’t important and I think you know that. Anyhow, I hope you are well and I look forward to hanging out again.
Your friend,
Alexandra”
I looked at the letter and read it over a few times to make sure it didn’t sound too demanding. I asked Dana to have someone deliver it to Lucien. As Dana left the room, Talon came in and took a deep breath, “Ready?” I nodded and got out of my chair and we made our way over to my mother’s room on the other wing. I knocked on her door and she answered. She smiled seeing her brother cleaned up in fresh clothing. She stopped smiling when she saw that we were not smiling back. She stepped aside and waved us in, “It looks like you two need to talk to me about something. Let’s have a seat at my tea table.” We all sat down at the table and looked at each other in silence, neither my uncle or I knew how to broach the subject. I sighed, “Mom, a psyche from the Citadel came by to clear Uncle Talon of suspicion. She asked about an ability I found I recently had from my discussion with Grand Pretre. It is something Grand Pretre says I will need to help him heal and it is the only ability that can. She told me that pyrios can only possess one power. Is that true?” She nodded, “Our bodies cannot handle the power of multiple abilities. We used to be able to in primitive times but that required a lot of blood. We ascended beyond all of that but sacrificed all but one ability per pyrio.” I looked down, “Well I have three that I know of. How do you suppose I came to have that ability to do that?” She shrugged, “Who knows?” Talon grunted, “Alexandra, you are beating about the bush. Sister, the psyche told her that she wasn’t a pure blood pyrio.” My mother furrowed her brow and gasped, “I don’t understand. She is Reggie’s daughter. Is the accusation that I was unfaithful?” I sighed, “She didn’t explicitly say that no. She merely said that the reason that I can have multiple abilities is because I wasn’t purely pyrio.” She scowled, “I don’t know what to tell you, Xan. I have never cheated on your father and I’ve never been with anyone but him.”
Talon sat back and crossed his arms, “There could be the possibility that that psyche was just causing trouble.” I shook my head, “I don’t think so. I believe she was being genuine. There must be another way to explain what is going on here.” Suddenly a purple light came into the room, “I believe I can explain that.” Aphrodite appeared and my mother jolt up out of her chair and gasped. Aphrodite smiled at her, “Talia, it so good to see you.” My mother was hyperventilating which was kind of funny because it was hard to make my mother flustered the way she was. I was stifling a small giggle but I found that I wasn’t alone. I looked over at my uncle who had his hand over his mouth and his face was turning red. My mother shot us both a glare and both sat up straight. She rolled her eyes, “I am sorry. These two are just alike in so many ways.” Aphrodite smiled at my mother, “You needn’t apologize, I find them endearing. I am here to answer the question but I don’t have much time.” She turned to look at me, “You are my soul child so, of course, you are not fully pyrio. Your body is fully pyrio born of Reginald and Talia Batiste but your soul is fully goddess born of Aphrodite and Apollo.” My eyes widened, “Wait…Apollo? How did I not know this?” She shrugged, “Apollo likes to take a hands-off approach to his soul children. All Mighty is not thrilled about that but he promised us a long time ago that he would only interfere in our parenting if he felt it to be a dire situation. I must go now but I didn’t want you to fret about your parentage.”
Just as quickly as she came in, she left and the silence set in the room as all were left to ponder what Aphrodite had said. Uncle Talon was the first to break the silence, “Are we going to talk about the fact that a Goddess manifested in front of us?” My mother rolled her eyes, “Maybe if some people weren’t laughing at me earlier, I would be more in the mood to talk about it.” She crossed her arms on her chest and did a pout. I sighed, “Mom, it just threw us off that you were so flustered when you’re always so straight-faced and put together.” The wrinkle between her brows eased up a bit and her arms relaxed. Talon’s eyes widened and then he looked at me as if I was a unicorn. She started to laugh at the look on his face, “Anyhow, it was really something to see the one who made your soul, Xan. I really thought that we would never meet.” Talon was still staring at me but his face relaxed, “Does she appear before you often?” I shook my head, “This is only the second time ever, she only shows up when I really need an answer.” I heard a low chuckle in the room that was not from any of us, “I must say, you work very fast little one.”
