by JC Dameron
"Vesta, calm down," I said, realizing that both Aaron and Lucas would be in danger if I couldn't calm her down. "Vesta, look at me," I pleaded, watching as the tears which flowed down her face began to rise from the force of her Ether. "Vesta!" I screamed as I reached for her, to get her attention, but my hand was repelled by the aura which surrounded her. I quickly moved in front of her, and I saw that her eyes had become black, the same eyes that I had seen the day that she arrived. "Vesta, we are in the UTF headquarters. If you manifest an invocation here, you'll kill hundreds of people.” I could only hope that my words were penetrating her fear.
I heard a voice begin to chant, and I recognized it as the same voice that I had heard before Vesta invoked the spell which killed the mob of casters who had killed her mother. "Aegrae Invisus," the voice said.
Vesta waved her hand, and I was thrown into the table by the force of her Ether.
"Aegrae," She began to chant.
I didn't know the invocation that she was manifesting, but any invocation allowed to manifest with the amount of Ether that she possessed would destroy the entire building, if not the whole block.
"Amplificationem Corporalis," I chanted aloud, invoking my physical enhancement. I quickly stood to my feet and smacked Vesta in the face, using all of my enhanced physical strength to strike through the aura enveloping her. As my hand struck her face, the aura faded and she stopped chanting. I kneeled down and embraced her, placing my head on her shoulder.
"Why did you hit me, Aunt Vel?" She asked, tears in her eyes as if she hadn't been aware of what she was doing.
"You were about to kill everyone here, Vesta," I explained.
"No, Aunt Vel," she replied. "I asked my mom to help me stop them from fighting, and then you slapped me," she said, confused.
I stood to my feet, unsure how I could explain to her what had happened. I looked to Aaron, who's eyes were full of fear as his body quaked. Lucas began to come to, and as he stood to his feet, Aaron held out his hand to Lucas.
"What do you want, you won," Lucas said snidely, holding his nose to control the bleeding.
"No Lucas, nobody won here today," Aaron said, looking to the crying girl in my arms. "I shouldn't have attacked you, and I'm sorry."
"Fair enough," Lucas said, as he shook Aaron's hand. "We'll call it a tie, but only because you hit like a girl," Lucas replied, causing both of them to burst into laughter.
"Let's get you to the clinic and have that nose looked at," Aaron said, wrapping his arm around Lucas's shoulder to help him walk out of the lab.
Felix walked over and bent down beside Vesta.
"See Vesta, everything is okay," he said, smiling. "Sometimes young men just need to figure things out their own way, even if it doesn't make a lot of sense."
"I bet that when you were a young man, you could have beaten them both!" Vesta smiled, taking Felix's hand as her tears turned to laughter, and she looked up to me. "I'm sorry, Aunt Vel, I should have trusted you rather than going to my mom for help, she told me to trust you after all," Vesta said, pulling me close to hug me tighter.
I embraced the girl who had been entrusted to me, but I knew deep down that there was something more going on. I heard that voice from the battle where we had found her again today, and it had been prompting her to manifest another invocation that could have killed many people, and I was very troubled by the whole damn thing.
"Felix," I said, as I stood to my feet. "The reason that I came here was to see if Lucas could find a way to access footage from some street cameras in Russia, near a location that we were sent to today. Is that within your range of expertise?" I asked, praying he would be able to help.
"Russian surveillance is a tough nut to crack, but I'll give it a whirl," he said, moving to a computer near the table next to us. "I can pull the port logs from today, to see where you ported in, and I can work from there." He started typing away at a console near us. Felix paused and looked at Vesta and then nodded to me, as he realized that the footage he would find may not be suitable for Vesta to see. "This will probably take a few hours, even if Lucas were here to help. In the meantime, why don't you take Vesta and get some dinner? I'll have my dinner brought to me, here," he said, patting Vesta on the head.
"Thank you, Felix," I said, grabbing Vesta's wheelchair.
"Bye, Grandpa Felix!" Vesta shouted as we walked to the door.
I couldn’t see Felix's face, but I knew her words made him smile.
"Bye, dear," Felix said, waving his hand above his head, as we walked out of the room.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Results
I opened the doors to the Lounge, pushing Vesta's wheelchair through, and I noticed that Seles and Grimaldi had already been seated, and were waiting to be served. I pushed Vesta to the table where they sat, and I helped her position herself at the table and sat down beside her.
"Hey, Vel," Seles said, as Vesta and I sat across from Grimaldi and her.
"Hey guys," I replied, waiting for Vesta to chime in.
"Hello, Vesta," Grimaldi said, taking the initiative.
"Hello," Vesta replied, shyly.
Grimaldi, being the comedian he was, noticed Vesta's wheelchair and burst into laughter. He didn't laugh at her, though, rather, he brought her into the humor as a participant.
"Nice wheels, Vesta!" Grimaldi said, smiling.
Vesta smiled, blushing.
"Uncle Lucas got it for me because I was struggling with the crutches," Vesta declared.
"Uncle Lucas?" Seles said, looking at me with a smile.
"Yea, he says he'll marry me when I'm older, but he's just teasing me. He's really all eyes for Aunt Vel," Vesta said, innocently.
"Well, Seles looks like we need to start planning a wedding," Grimaldi jested, bursting into laughter alongside Seles.
"Very funny guys," I replied.
"To be honest with you, I'm not Lucas or Aaron's biggest fan right now," I declared.
"Do tell," Seles said, struggling to halt her laughter.
"They started a brawl right next to Vesta in the lab," I said, angrily telling the tale of their fight.
"Wow, Vel, a few days in this world and you already have men fighting over you," Seles said, playing the role of jester.
Leaha walked out of the kitchen, alongside a few agents, carrying plates. Leaha brought her and Vesta's plates, while the agents served the rest of us before sitting down themselves to enjoy their own meals. I looked at my plate ravenously. I hadn't realized how hungry I was, but now that my plate was before me and covered in wonderful looking food, it really hit me.
"The meat is chicken, breaded and seasoned Italian style. The vegetables are called green beans, and of course, we have mashed potato's to top it all off," Leaha explained, watching me as I prepared to feast.
"It looks wonderful!" I said, thanking Leaha and the agents before digging in.
Once I had finished eating, I realized that Ethan hadn't joined us for dinner, and I assumed that he was undoubtedly busy after the incident today.
"Where's Ethan?" I asked.
"He was summoned to meet with the President of this country to discuss today's operation," Leaha answered, smiling. "It's a rare honor to meet him these days," she said, proudly "Many years ago, the president was elected by the people, similar to how they do things in Russia, but after some questionable elections, the United States moved to an election by a representative process. The people elect officials for the other divisions of government still, but those officials now decide amongst themselves who becomes the next president, cycling every ten years. Personally, I think our system is better. Your family line is raised to rule and does so fully prepared to lead our land for their lifetime. The humans here used a similar system early on in their history; however, their history is filled with stories of corrupt rulers who ruled only for themselves, rather than their people," she concluded, taking the last bite of her chicken.
Having ruled, I could see how someone without a mind fo
r the people could easily become corrupt. If Astiel had been chosen as the successor to Leordia, it's possible that he would have ruled similarly to the human rulers Leaha spoke of.
"Why is it a rare honor to meet the president then? Isn't the UTF independent of any governmental body?" I asked, recounting what Ethan said.
Leaha wiped her face with her napkin before speaking.
"Yes, but we are similar to the UN, which is a conglomeration of nations, peacefully coming together for a purpose greater than any one countries desires," she said, pausing to take a drink of her water. "We are not bound as an organization to the United States President's orders or directives; however, we are guests on his soil, and so we report to him out of courtesy. Our reports generally run through the director of another organization, known as the Central Intelligence Agency, who acts as a liaison between the UTF and the US Government. Meeting with the President is an honor which, over time, has become reserved for private audiences only. During any given President's tenure in office, only a select number of people have that honor, so as to ensure the President's safety," she said, finishing her thought as she stood to her feet. "I'm going to run to the clinic to see if the results of your blood test have come back. Would you and Vesta like to join me?"
"Sure, I'd like to see the results as well, wouldn't you Vesta?" I said, looking to the child who had finished eating and was laughing with Grimaldi and Seles in their own conversation.
Vesta looked to me, regaining her composure before speaking. "Actually, if it's okay with you, Aunt Vel, I'd like to go to the training room with Seles and Grimaldi. I already know the results, mom told me."
I looked to Leaha, who gently nodded her head in approval.
"Okay, that's fine, as long as Seles and Grimaldi are okay with it," I said, looking to my captains as they laughed, Seles's hand on Grimaldi's arm.
"That's fine with us," Seles said, speaking through her laughter.
"Okay Vesta, listen to them and do as they say. I will come and find you later," I said, smiling at Vesta, who would have jumped for joy if she was able.
"Thank you, Aunt Vel! I will.”
I stood to my feet and followed Leaha as we walked from the lounge to the elevator, heading for the clinic on the third floor. As we walked, I considered how exciting it must be for Vesta to be here with us. Were we in Leordia, she would be the daughter of a peasant woman who may not ever have had the opportunity to meet us. Having the chance to train under my captains was a privilege that people in our military earned only after years of hard work and discipline, so to Vesta, it had to be a dream come true. Once we entered the lab, I found myself slightly saddened as I considered that, as great of a time as she was going to have training alongside Seles and Grimaldi, I wished she could have met Regali.
"Pull up a chair," Leaha said, sitting in the rolling chair in front of a computer.
After a few moments, the monitor flickered on and words and numbers flew across the screen before displaying a scene which, though obviously an artist's rendition, looked identical to Leordia City from a cliff side view. The rendition was breathtaking. In the image, I could see many of the features that I loved about Leordia City, from the bell in the cathedral to the great stairway which leads to the castle, as well as the death garden where nothing would grow as a result of my Grandfather's final Forbidden Spell.
"Isn't it beautiful?" Leaha asked, noticing my awe. "Sometimes when I'm down, I'll come in here just to look at this."
"It's perfect, Leaha," I replied, awestruck.
"Ethan created the rendition for me as our wedding gift," she said, smiling as she played with her wedding ring. "Over the course of many years, since my arrival and subsequent recruitment into the UTF, he would ask me about Leordia City. He often requested significantly detailed accounts of our homeland, and then on the day of our wedding, during the reception, he displayed this and handed me a notebook filled with the details I had given him. During our conversations about Leordia City, he would write in the notebook. I always assumed that he was asking so he could create an accurate description into the UTF database. When he handed me the notebook, he told me that he wanted me to be able to see my home and to hold it in my hands whenever I wanted, and so he created both just for me," she finished, trying not to cry while she remembered the moment. "To be honest, Vel, as much as I miss home when I see this picture, I couldn't imagine having never met Ethan, or worse yet, being drawn back to our world without him.”
Ethan never failed to impress me, whether he was present or not, and I nearly welled up alongside Leaha, whom I held dear.
"Onto the task at hand." Leaha quickly wiped her eyes before pulling up the images of DNA that she had shown me previously. After a few strokes on the keyboard, another DNA strand appeared near the three on the bottom. I examined it closely, trying to make out any differences between them, but it was beyond my understanding, so I waited patiently for Leaha to tell me what she saw. "Your DNA is twenty anagrams, the same as a non-caster human?" She said, puzzled. "I don't understand how that can be."
"So, Vesta isn't related to me then?" I asked, unsure how I would explain things to Vesta, or if I would just allow her to believe that I was her Aunt for her sake.
"No, Vel, she is definitely a descendant of your bloodline," Leaha said, turning to me. "The image shows that segments of each of your DNA are identical by descent, or IBD, which indicates common ancestry; however, your DNA is more similar to that of a non-caster human than a caster," she explained. "So, we have solved one mystery, in that we now know for sure that Vesta is of the Royal bloodline, but we have found two new mysteries in its place. Namely, how are you able to absorb and control Ether since your DNA is only twenty anagrams, and who was Vesta's grandmother?" She sounded just as confused as I was.
I wasn't able to fully grasp the details of Leaha's explanation on how my DNA resembled that of the humans of this world, but I did understand that Vesta was, in fact, my blood relative.
"How can this be, Leaha?" I asked rhetorically, drifting into my own thoughts.
When Astiel and I were around Vesta's age, our father took us on our first hunt, alongside Regali and some of the Royal Guard. Astiel was the one who asked about the truth of our mother's death. I had always believed it to be an accident, but Astiel was sure that the tales which we were told as small children were untrue. He demanded our father tell him the truth as if he knew that there was more to the story. On the third night of the hunt, our father brought Regali into our tent, and they explained how our mother had actually perished. Less than two months after we were born, our father noticed that our mother was acting strangely, sneaking out at night and returning just before dawn. He had her tailed on a number of occasions, but the trackers were unable to follow her. After a month of failed attempts, our father confronted our mother, assuming she was having an affair and questioned if we were actually his children. Our mother was outraged by his accusation, and in her rage, she manifested an invocation on Astiel which burnt his face on the left side. Our father noted that, had I not been born an eater, the invocation would likely have been powerful enough to kill Astiel outright; however, even as an infant, I absorbed enough Ether from the invocation to save his life.
In our world, among the many creatures which didn't appear to be native to this world, was a very rare creature known as a Basilisk. The Basilisk was the only creature known to absorb Ether. During the earliest periods of Leordia's history, many casters lost their lives to the creatures in the wild, and they were feared. However, when it was discovered that their scales could be used to permanently block the flow of Ether within a caster, the Basilisk were hunted down to the point of near extinction, and eventually, the only known Basilisk's were those bred in captivity for their scales. The scales were fashioned into a circlet, which was placed on a prisoner's head to prevent them from accessing their innate Ether to harm anyone or escape. Though the scales absorbed the Ether within the person on whom the circlet was placed, accomplished
by placing the surface of the scale upon the skull, the base of the scale did not possess the same absorption properties. Once a circlet had been put on a prisoner's head, a sealing invocation was placed onto a gem, called Runinite, which sat on top of the circlet and prevented it from being removed. Such a circlet had been placed on our mother after the incident with Astiel, and she was detained whilst she awaited trial, which was set to be presided over by The Council of Leordia. Before her trial, on the night of her death, our mother somehow broke free from the circlet and used her massive wellspring of Ether to create chaos in Leordia City. Amidst the chaos, our mother had managed to enter the castle and make her way to the nursery where Astiel and I slept. As she chanted an invocation to kill us, Regali arrived at the nursery and shielded us with his own body. Our father arrived immediately after, and though he was far less powerful than our mother, he was able to detain her once again with Regali's help, and she was executed on the spot by means of piercing her heart with a blade. Regali had been commissioned to dispose of her body, which he cast into The Great River Leothan, returning her to nature rather than burning her body as an offering to the gods. Upon hearing the truth, Astiel changed, he laughed maniacally and walked from the tent into the woods. That was the last day that I spent with Astiel as my brother and my friend. He became cynical, trusting in only himself, training in the woods alone, and abandoning me altogether as a friend or sibling.
"I don't know, Vel," I was jarred back from my thoughts by Leaha's voice. "Based on the number of segments you share, it is unlikely that it could be anyone except your mother."
"But...That would mean she would have had to have been alive after the incident," I said.