Chapter 44
Nyline
Weightless Nyline felt as though her body was slowly being lowered downwards. Then, the music started upright as she touched the cool polished floor. The music hummed around her, only she couldn't feel the people who were normally dancing. No, everything was silent except for the music. There was no laughing of the children or chatting of the adults. Just the music in the background that played the same song that she'd been listening to since she could remember. She was in the ballroom memory, which means she'd passed out. One of her hands raised and pressed it against her eye, feeling the wet there as it ran down the side of her face and dripped from her ear. At least in this memory, she couldn't feel the pain, no it seems she'd disconnected from that.
"Good lord child," An elder man's voice started, I've been waiting for you to fall as--" The man's voice suddenly cut off and there was a sharp intake of air. "Child?" There was a moment and then someone was next to her. "Child what happened?" A soft hand landed on her cheek and she could feel the memory being pulled from her mind. She tried to fight it, tried to grasp onto it but it seemed despite her not being in pain, she was still sluggish "Shhh, child, I will return it."
Nyline only shook her head as she opened her good eye and looked up into the face of her grandfather. His glowing green orbs looked at her with concern.
"What are you doing here?" She mumbled, not sure if she was making any sense or even speaking loud enough for him to hear.
"Looking for you," His voice was slightly sharper, but it still held kindness, which contradicted with the last time she'd spoken to him. "And it's a good thing I was. Hold on." He muttered and with her good eye, she saw him turn as if speaking to someone behind him. "Go find Nori."
"Don't bring him here," Nyline spoke sharply as she rubbed her face several times, but it seemed as if her grandfather wasn't listening to her.
"No, just find him and throw him in here. Quickly." He spoke to the unseen person once more before he turned his attention back onto Nyline. Who shoved herself up into a sitting position with effort.
"I don't want to see him," She gritted out glaring at her grandfather.
"Well, that is unfortunate for you right now child. He, and only he, has the abilities to help you right now. So, he's coming whether you like it or not." All Nyline did was shake her head a few times feeling resentful towards her sperm donor. "Child, what did you do?" She glanced sideways at her grandfather as a hand landed on her shoulder, forcing her to continue sitting. He was sitting cross-legged right next to her, and the warmth from his hand started to spread around her shoulder and down her back and arm.
"You saw the memory." She only mumbled before she looked away. Her mood only seemed to darken as she thought back on it.
"I only saw what happened to your eye, I have no idea what you did to get in this state." He said in what she thought was the tone of an annoyed parent, possibly a tone that Nicholas might take with her. She wasn't sure since only Uncle John had ever taken any type of tone with her and it wasn't one that she thought her grandfather or Nicholas would use.
"I was only trying to help…" She whispered, refusing to look at him. A silence fell between the two of them that was filled by the soft music playing in the background.
"Child, who were you trying to help?" He asked finally but she shook her head.
"They're not my stories to tell… I just wanted to help… they were making a mistake and… and… I just wanted to help… but I ruined everything…" Nyline ran her hand through her hair several times, feeling the true weight of the burden that she'd taken on when she'd made that decision.
Nyline heard her grandfather take a very long breath in before he let it out very slowly. It was as if he were trying to ground himself.
"Father? What is going on?" There was a long pause. "Aurea?... Aurea?! What in all the worlds happened?" A hand landed on her other shoulder. "What happened?" She turned her good eye on him and glared before she shook it off. "What happened?" Nori spoke once more but she knew it wasn't directed at her and she was grateful. She just wanted him to leave. At the moment she didn't have the energy to face him.
"What happened to her?" Her grandfather's voice held much more anger when speaking to his son than he'd used when speaking with her. "This is what happens when you tamper with bloodlines, this is what happens when you take away a soul stone, this is what happens when you make your daughter live away from us all and grow up as a human. She grows up knowing nothing of her abilities and we are completely in the dark on what she is capable of." He was shouting by the end of it and Nyline could feel tiny flecks of spit landing on the side of her face. She didn't look at either of them but just continued to glare at the floor as she turned the event over and over in her mind.
"That doesn't tell me what happened." Nori's voice was low and controlled, but Nyline could feel the anger seeping out of him.
"She tried to help." Her grandfather spoke through clenched teeth. There was a long pause.
"But that rule only applies to you?" Nori sounded beyond confused.
"Apparently not."
"This is why you should have left her with us."
"Should've, could've, didn't. Stop it already. We didn't have time and you know that." Someone growled behind her and she had a sneaking suspicion it was her grandfather.
"That's enough you two, stop bickering over my grandbaby. None of this is helping." A smooth female voice spoke behind Nyline. Instead of turning to see who the new woman was, she buried her face into her knees and just closed her eyes. "What are her injuries?" There was a rustling of clothing and a third hand landed on the back of her neck. This one was smaller than her father and grandfather's though. It was slightly cold to the touch, but the skin was soft.
"She popped her bloody eye." Her grandfather spoke in a hard tone.
"Owch… okay," Nori paused before he sighed. "I'll see what I can do. I've never fixed an eye before, but I know they're complicated." The soft hand that was on the back of her neck was removed and replaced by a larger one with more callouses.
"Nic and Alice got a healer for her. They're doing what they can to mend her eye from the physical side."
"Omega, she's the best…" Nyline whispered, and her heart clenched knowing that she'd left Omega and Pallsana at the training grounds when everything had gone down. "There was a pause.
"Who's Omega?" Nori asked sounding slightly surprised.
"My maid."
"You have maids?"
"Not now." The woman's voice said forcefully. "The two of you can catch up another time." Nyline pressed her lips together.
"No." She spoke forcefully. "I have no interest in getting to know him." The hand on the back of her neck squeezed slightly before it relaxed.
"Okay…. So, I'll send some healing energy from this end and it should speed up the process and hopefully save your eye. I can't be for sure though since I'm not physically with you."
"Don't worry, you never have been, so it makes no difference here." Her father's hand squeezed on her neck again as he let out a very soft sigh.
"Apart from that, it seems as though her energies are at a complete imbalance and that's what's causing the recoil from whatever she did worse."
"Of course, she does you twat." Her grandfather grumbled. There was a soft thumping noise that sounded like someone got smacked upside the head. "All I'm saying is that she's like that normally." He spoke quickly making Nyline feel as though the woman had been the one to smack her grandfather.
"Father if what your implying is true, then you're going to need to help as well. We'll level out her energies, and with that, it should stop putting pressure on her eye. It should counteract the recoil she's experiencing. Whatever the healer is doing on the other side should help her eye. The only thing is I wish that Stephany was here to provide aether," He paused, "But I guess we'll just have to make do with what we have." The hand was removed from the back of her neck as two different hands landed on her shoulders. "All right, so just a touch from you. After that, I'll use my power to try and balanced the aether and power in her system out so that it can regulate correctly."
"It won't regulate correctly." Her grandfather spoke in a harsh tone. "She doesn't produce power, so eventually it will just go back to what it is."
"All right," Her father sighed, "We'll do what we can and make the best of it." Nyline felt warmth coming from both of the hands as it wrapped itself into her chest, warmth spread from there and all the way down to her fingers. For a second she thought that she might be getting a fever because her body never felt this warm, but she realized that as the warmth coming from her father and grandfather ebbed, it was from them.
It only took a second for her to realize that the warmth in her chest wasn't just from what they'd given her, and her head snapped up.
"I knew it." She muttered as she jumped to her feet.
"Aurea," her father's hand landed on her arm and forced her back to the ground. Without thinking she placed her hand on the ground and shot some aether out, only she connected to her body, feeling the energy that was around her. Nic, Alice, and… she was ripped back from her body and thrown into the ballroom memory.
"Leave it for now." She turned her angry gaze onto her father.
"Leave it?" She just about shouted, "He came back and unless I go confront him now, he will leave again."
"Aurea,"
"Nyline," she completely rounded on him. "My name is Nyline, not Aurea. You'd know that if you'd bother to be around at all during my life. You'd know that I'm more scout than a princess. You'd know the problems with me, and you could have helped me." She said the last part in a whisper. "I've struggled my entire life and you always had the solutions, but you decided to leave me to struggle through them myself. Don't think for a second that I'm going to welcome you back into my life with open arms after everything."
"I don't," Nori spoke in a very soft voice, and his normally bright glowing green eyes were downcast, looking dimmer than normal.
"Good, now the man who actually raised me is in that room with me right now. My real dad, and I need to go talk to him before he gets knocked off another stupid cliff or vanishes into the night like a good little scout." She used air quotes with the most sarcastic voice she could muster.
"Child." A strong hand wrapped itself around her wrist and she turned to see her grandfather. "You and I need to talk before you can leave here. There is more to what's going on than you know, and you need that knowledge so that you don't kill yourself." Her shoulders fell.
"Can't I just come back and talk with you about this later?" Her nerves were jittery as she tried to return to her own mind, to remove herself from the memory, but she was completely stuck.
"Child, you don't sleep." His voice was hard. She swallowed. "I know you want to go catch him before he leaves but right now, this is more important." She only shook her head.
"No, he's more important." She could feel the tears starting to prick her eyes. "I will always choose him over anything else." Her grandfather's wizen face seemed to age as he watched her before he let out a short breath.
"Child, you know he's out there, if you don't take the time to learn now, we might not be able to save you the next time. Your healer might not be able to bring you back again. Your father, might not be able to fix the damage." Nyline took a step back and looked between her father, who seemed to be holding his breath, looking nervous. To her grandfather, his stern glowing green eyes watching her as if he would run after if he had to.
"Aur—Nyline… If you won't listen to me, please listen to my father. He holds more wisdom than I could ever acquire in a lifetime, and if he says this is life or death, it's serious." Nori spoke after a few minutes had passed and she could only look at him. Being in a memory, she couldn't hear his thoughts and he knew that.
All Nyline could do was press her lips together in a thin line as she looked at her grandfather and waited.
"Fine, but does he have to stay?" She only glared at her father whose face deepened in a frown.
"Nori, go away," Grandfather spoke sounding harsh.
"Please, let me stay a little longer." His voice was a whisper, and he was just looking at Nyline.
"She doesn't want you here," He turned to look at Nori who sighed. "I'd like to remind you that these are your decisions, you made them, now you have to deal with the consequences."
"I know that, but" His eyes turned back to Nyline, "Just let me stay here for a little longer. I won't say anything, I'll just sit over here. I didn't get to spend your childhood with you, your right, it's something I regret every day, but can't I make that up to you?" Nyline felt her heart drop slightly.
"If you truly regrated it, then you would have come found me sooner."
"Nyline, life isn't as black and white as that. Your mother and I both wanted to see you grow up and to be there for you. I made the sacrifice so that she, at least, would get that. Those were the terms I left under and have understood for all these years. I had no idea she never made it to you."
"You would have known if you'd checked." Nyline gritted her teeth as she breathed through her nose trying to calm down. "You could hav--"
"I can't be physically around you," Nori spoke in a rush. "If I were with you, they would have found you. My energies are too strong, and I needed to lead them elsewhere. They knew my energy because I was the one who--" His words were cut off sharply as his nose dripped blood. He paused pressing the sleeve of his kimono to his face before he sighed and diverted his eyes.
"What. Did. You. Steal." Nyline spoke through gritted teeth as she advanced on him.
"You know I can't tell you." He whispered.
"Child," Her grandfather placed his hand on her shoulder, and she turned to look at him. "I understand that this is a burning question for you. However," he squeezed ever so slightly, "The answer is going to turn your entire life upside down."
"I already know it has something to do with me. Shouldn't I know?"
"Oh, you will know, but today just isn't a good day for this discussion," She locked eyes with him. "You just got back to the aether world. You just found your mate and are working on building a relationship. You're working on making friends and living how you should have done all along. So why don't you put off this question? Because the answer isn't going to be what you want to hear."
"But it's something that I need to hear." She said looking down at her hands. "Everything is my fault, and I know it."
"None of this is your fault." Nyline's head shot up as she looked between her father and grandfather as they spoke at the exact same time.
"Aurea, sorry Nyline, you were a part of this, but none of the decisions were on your shoulders. Nothing that you could have done at the time would have changed anything." Her father spoke in a very serious voice. "Thaul was mine and Stephaney's responsibility, Vaccoon and Gabriel are Nic and Alice's. There is nothing in this entire equation that is your fault. If anything, you're a victim here too." Nyline felt her spine straighten at the word victim, it made her feel weak and powerless, but a squeeze from her grandfather had her looking at him again as he spoke.
"This is on all of us, not you." Nyline's face fell.
"You had a hand in all of this too?" She whispered. "What was your punishment?" Her grandfather just shook his head.
"They can't punish me. I am above them." Nyline blinked a couple of times.
"What does that even mean?"
"It means that whereas I am above them, my son is not." He sighed. "Child, we need to discuss what happened tonight. Nori, I think it would be best if you just headed back for now." Nyline could only nod a few times, knowing full well that the conversation had been closed. She looked over her shoulder at him and felt a twinge in her heart at the look he was giving her. It was filled with so much sadness and she could almost feel the want to just hold her in his arms that emitted from him.
"If that is what you wish." He mumbled, "I love you Nyline." And then he vanished. Nyline could only look at the place where he used to be. Why did she feel like crying?
"Your father," He sighed deeply, "My son, would move mountains for you if you let him." Nyline just looked at him. "Nori has done some really messed up things in his life, but when it comes down to it. He did everything for his family, and he isn't a horrible person."
"He's been alive this entire time," Nyline's anger burst from her in a rush, "And he never tried to see me once. Not one birthday or Christmas. No cards. Nothing. I thought he was dead until he just randomly showed up in Vaccoon. If he'd cared, he would have been around." She whispered the last part. One of his strong wizen hands landed on her shoulder and squeezed gently.
"Just as your father said life is never as black and white as we want it to be. People are no different. He did what he thought was best for the time, and now is dealing with the fall out of everything. He doesn't regret his decision, none of those fools do, the results mean too much to them. Even if this entire thing turned into a massive mess."
"Is that what this is? A massive mess?" Her grandfather just chuckled.
"Oh, this is a shit show, make no mistake of that." Nyline just stared at her grandfather, who was so much different than the last time she'd seen him. Last time he'd been cold and aggressive, and this time he was warm and welcoming. She wasn't sure what changed but deep down she hoped that he'd stay the way he was right now. Somewhere inside herself, she knew that she was enjoying this interaction with this man.
"Now, how much do you know about the kitsune clan?" He smiled at her and his old wizen face showed the wrinkles of his age.
"Are we talking about Japanese mythology Kitsune, daemon kitsune from books, or other ones? What is the context of this question?" Nyline stopped speaking suddenly as she saw him visibly take a deep breath to calm himself.
"I'm talking about the Daemon Kitsune clan, your father's bloodline." She just stared at him for several moments before she started thinking of every book that she'd read up until this point. Had she read anything that involved the Kitsune daemons? After a little more searching of her mind she just shook her head and her grandfather let out a long sigh. "Kitsunes are much like the mythology on the human side, they are the closest alignment since they are based on us. Do you know anything about that?"
"Yeah, I've read a book or two about Japanese mythology, but most of those were just some romance novels I enjoyed." Her grandfather took a deep breath as if to steady himself.
"We've been reduced to romance novels," he muttered under his breath and Nyline only glanced sideways at him. She didn't think that he'd meant for her to hear that. He refocused on her. "And from those, what do you know about us?"
"Mainly just physical appearances, but I think in most everything that I've read there some type of messenger. Some I think they steal children, maybe women, I think that there's myth was they needed them for brides. I honestly haven't looked into the matter that much."
"Yes, yes, well at least they still got that part right. Kitsune are the messengers for the gods and are even revered as gods in some cultures. It is our job to listen to the wishes of the creatures that the gods watch over and take those wishes directly to the gods so that they can decide what to do with them. However, the worlds are old, and the gods have since lost interest in what their creation's wishes are. For the most part, they have turned their back on the worlds to deal with their own problems. With this, most of the Kitsune lost their abilities to hear and take messages to the gods and we simply became a race that settled down in the daemon world."
"So, you guys are technically not daemons then?"
"Yes and no, for a majority of the clan they have absorbed enough of the daemon world's energy that they are no longer part of the ethereal world,"
"But?" Nyline prompted looking at him with interest, "There has to be a but at the end of that sentence." Her grandfather's face cracked the smallest of smiles before he shook his head.
"But my bloodline is different., your bloodline. We are the original Kitsunes, the first of us to be created. Whereas a good portion of my bloodline just ends up being the strongest of Kitsunes, I will always be different. No matter what happens with the gods or within the worlds, I will always be the original messenger and therefore I cannot ever just be a daemon." Nyline raised a brow at him.
"What exactly does that entail?"
"That is not something I'm going into right now. Personally, I'm not ready to tell you that, and to put it frankly child you aren't ready to hear it." Nyline took a breath in as if she were going to speak but he just shook his head. "Right now, all that matters is the basics, who you are, where your family is from, and why we are different." The cane that he had the first time that they'd met appeared in his hands and he just looked at her for a few heartbeats before he tapped it onto the ground.
Nyline felt all of the breath leave her lungs in a rush as she looked around the space that had once been the ballroom but now was completely different. It was as if night had fallen all around her as the darkness started to press against her vision, but then the small, white dots started to appear. She stared at them as some of them stayed alone, whereas others were connected to another dot. She paused as she saw two dots that were connected to many dots and she walked over towards them. Lifting her hand, she went to touch the dots but stopped. She knew who those dots belonged to without even having to ask. She knew on a base level that she was looking at the minds and possibly souls of people. The lines that linked them were the mate bonds and there were only two people that she knew that had six people connected to their minds. Nic and Alice.
She set her jaw as she reached over and touched one of the small white dots and closed her eyes. She could hear them speaking softly as if they were whispering down a hallway at her. She could only tell that they were speaking, not exactly what they were saying.
A warm hand wrapped around hers and pulled it away from the dot. She turned and looked at her grandfather who was looking at the two sets of dots with a blank expression on his face.
"You used a lot of your energies on them earlier?" He asked before his bright, green glowing orbs looked down at her.
"Did I?" She muttered trying to think of what exactly had happened. She couldn't remember through the pain. She knew that the queen had appeared with all of the scouts, it was so loud and… She let out a breath. "I did, on accident." She breathed and felt her heart falling. How had she allowed her influence to cause such harm to people that she cared about.
"Influence?" Her grandfather looked at her and she nodded.
"Everything was just so loud…" She muttered as she pulled her hand away from his and she just rubbed her arm. "I didn't mean to, but that still doesn't make it okay. I shouldn't have done that." He raised a brow at her.
"I will never understand the emotions of humans or darkling's for that matter," he scoffed. "You were losing a lot of energy and the voices that you heard were only making it worse. Your instincts took over and you protected yourself. Now, it looks as though someone had released the influence enough for them to be able to speak a little. Only you will be able to completely release them to the point where they will be normal again." She sighed deeply as she reached over and touched the small white dots once more, she could feel her energy seeped into it. Her energy started to return to her own body as she filtered her own energy back into her body. When she was done with Nic she turned to Alice's dot and touched it as well. With Nic and Alice being attached to their scouts, it made it easy to simply pull the energy down their bonds. After a little, she took a step back and looked at her grandfather who was just watching her with a calculated expression.
"Do you know where we are?" He asked without breaking eye contact and she shrugged. "But you know how to use it?" She nodded which made him nod his head a couple of times. "How many times have you been here?"
"Just the once and of course now." He raised a brow at her as he watched her face, his eyes glowed brighter for several seconds and she felt as though he was looking into her soul and not just at her. "Whose memories did you manage to steal that had this place inside of it?" Nyline let out a small nervous chuckle.
"Who knows? I don't have the physical memory anymore, whoever I got it from fought me for it, and I guess they won, but I was able to make a small copy of it. It's fragmented but I can still get the gist." There was a long pause.
"Child, how many memories have you stolen from me?" Nyline just felt her face twist up into a smirk. "Because I can assure you that the only person who you'd be able to steal a memory from regarding this place is me. You only traveled through this space with me once and you weren't even a physical being at that time." He stopped talking suddenly and his face fell before he just scrubbed his hands over his face in what seemed like frustration.
"What… what did you just figure out?" Nyline asked tentatively.
"The truth." He said in a harsh voice. Nyline just raised a brow at him.
"The truth about what?" He didn't look at her but glanced to the side.
"Did you deliver it?" He asked and Nyline only looked at the space that he was speaking to. "Well, yes that will have to be good enough for now." He paused as if listening. "That's interesting. She tried to fight you?" He spoke in disbelief as he cut his eyes to Nyline for a brief moment. "Well, that's good that you were able to resolve it. Did you bring him back with you?" He paused once more. "Good, I will be back once I finish up." He turned his attention back to Nyline.
"What was that about?"
"Nothing you need to worry yourself about now child." He dismissed her without a second thought, and she knew that even if she asked what he'd figured out, he wouldn't tell her, so she just gritted her teeth as he continued. "You know a little about this place but let me explain more. This is the network of minds that connects to every single person in our universe. These are the messages, the voices, the thoughts that you hear every day, but child, we are but messengers." Nyline looked at him her face going blank. "We are only the messengers; it is not our job to fix things. However, when we do finally snap and try and do what we think is right we are punished." Nyline's hand went to her eye as she just stared at her grandfather.
"What do you mean?"
"How many mate bonds did you snap in order to speak to the person you contacted?" Nyline deadpanned and when her Grandfather realized that she wasn't going to answer him he continued. "Breaking bonds between mates, even disconnected mates, is extremely dangerous. Connecting your mind to one of those mates after snapping the connection, damages yourself. So, all the things that you did caused you damage, but the reason it was magnified to the point that you might have lost your eye is because you tried to directly interfere in matters that didn't concern you."
"But,"
"No buts, even if you feel as though it is your fault. You cannot act on the silent voices. You cannot fulfill the requests that are not spoken aloud. You cannot try to fix things that do not directly relate to you. This is our curse, yours and mine." He gestured between the two of them.
"Not Dad?" He shook his head.
"No, your father isn't exactly the same as us. It skipped him, he can still hear the voices, but it's not as clear and he has to focus. We can just hear them."
"But why?"
"Because we are more other than the rest of them." Nyline just looked at him for what felt like forever before she finally breathed her next words.
"How do you deal with that?"
"It isn't hard for me to turn them down to the point where I can almost not hear them, but they are always in the back of my mind. Our memory manipulation is so precise because we can simply take the words directly to the gods to listen so that they can fix the problem as they see fit."
"How do I do it?" She reached out and grabbed his hand, her voice almost frantic. "Can you stand in a room full of people without feeling like your mind is being stabbed with needles? Or your skull cracked open? How do I tune them down? How?" His hand landed on hers.
"The people around already have those answers. Your father mentioned it when you saw him, and your mate has started to figure it out slowly. The reason the voices are so bad for you and you are unable to control them is because you are not whole. Despite being a daemon, you contain no daemon energy. All of it is aether." He pointed a finger directly at her chest and a small white orb appeared before it floated over to her and sunk into her skin. "You and me though, we require a third energy that you cannot get from any land, your body cannot regulate any of its energies without it. There has been a small amount of it inside your body for most of your life, but you used it when you went into the network. Something that will help you at this point is exchanging energies with your mate. Give him your aether and take his power in return. This will balance out your mind and will help you control the voices."
"But why do I not produce the energies on my own? What's wrong with me?" Her voice cracked slightly, and her grandfather's face turned down.
"Daemon energy is extremely easy to track in a newborn, not to mention our own special energy. It was a beacon for those who would have wanted to harm you. So, it was removed from your body before your soul was placed into the vessel."
"Who was tracking me?" He shook his head. "Why will no one tell me these things. They pertain to me and my life." His eyes softened as he touched his cane to the ground once more and the ballroom reappeared.
"Granddaughter, you are still so young, in daemon terms you have yet to even leave infancy. You need to start learning how to control the energy that you have, your aether. Once you are able to manipulate it and not just do reckless actions, then we can talk more, but for the time being, why don't you just enjoy being a child for a little longer."
"I'm not a child," Nyline growled, "I have experienced things that no one my age should be able to. I'm not some innocent little girl that knows nothing of the world. It's not fair that so much is kept from me."
"The world is not fair to anyone." Her grandfather spoke in a stern, the subject is closed voice. Nyline went to open her mouth once more but he held up a hand. "I understand that your life has not been easy, I know that you've overcome more obstacles than anyone else your age. However, when are you going to stop surviving and start living? When are you going to start trusting people? Letting people take care of you? When are you going to stop fighting everything that is thrown at you and start accepting the things that are right in front of your face? You are surrounded by people who love and care for you, not only the halflings but also by me and Yuki. Your father may not be right in front of you, but he would do anything for you and your mother, she's also watching. I can tell you without a doubt in my mind that I speak for every single parent figure that is in your life; that everyone wants you to be happy. They want you to accept yourself and stop fighting against everyone so that you can grow as a person. Growth happens in many ways and whereas you've grown a lot as a person on your own, there is only so much that you can do by yourself. You have to have people around you; they will help you grow, and that growth is so important. Learning to deal with people, learning to love, and being able to look to people when you need help are all important life skills." Nyline crossed her arms and turned away from him.
"I don't need other people." She whispered softly.
"I think you do." There was a pause as her grandfather took a very long breath in. "That maid of yours, the one that is also your medic," Nyline's ears pricked as he spoke about Omega and she looked at him. She felt protective over Omega but also afraid of his next words. Had something happened? Why would he bring her up now? "She actually tried to fight Yuki when she showed up to speak with the halflings." Nyline raised a brow at him.
"What?" He rubbed his chin.
"I sent Yukie to speak to the halflings, and when your medic showed back up, she told her to get away from you and actually tried to fight her," He paused, "Or more, she called on her mate and stood in her way so that she could not leave. She was ready to lay down her life for you, to protect you from an unknown source. All daemons know when they are facing a royal rank daemon and so she knew that she would most likely not make it out alive."
"Is she okay?" Nyline growled and she felt herself pause as her anger bubbled up to the surface which only made him smile.
"Yes, she is fine. The halflings royals were in the cabin with Yukie and explained the situation." He walked over to her and placed a finger on her chest. "You feel that anger, that fear for the life of someone you care about? The willingness to rip anyone apart who would even lay a finger on them?" Nyline didn't speak but just looked at him with narrowed eyes. "That is what it means to truly love someone. Those emotions are what will help you grow as a person and start to understand the world better. You may not like these emotions. They may be uncomfortable and make you want to run away, but that discomfort is what will help you understand the world better, and you my dear granddaughter need to understand the world better before you can move forward in knowing anything more."
Deep down, Nyline knew what he was talking about because it had been along the same lines as what Alice had tried to tell her when she demanded that she get scouts. She knew, on a surface level, that everyone cared for her, she just didn't know what to do with it. She didn't understand why anyone would want to lay down their lives for her but at the same time, she knew that if the roles had been switched that she would have ripped anyone apart without thinking who even attempted to lay hands on Omega, and Pallsana as well.
"Get the halfling queen to teach you about your aether, start learning how to actually manipulate what you're doing, and stop just doing whatever you want. Aether isn't something that is endless and whereas you can do more than you realize, it will drain you further since you do not have any other energies. The more you drain your energies the worse the recoil will be." She refocused on her grandfather who was speaking to her in a stern voice as if he were scolding her.
"You need to seriously think about connecting your mind to your mate permanently. I can assure you that you made a lot of people angry when you snapped those connections. He is no different. You will need to have the ability to be mobile in what you can and can't do, you need to make sure that you don't lose him. Whereas you may think that you don't need that connection and that he needs it more, it's actually reversed. You need the connection to your mate more than he needs your mind. Realize that and stop being a child about it." Nyline opened her mouth as if she were going to speak but he continued.
"Finally, I need you to promise me that you will not use the network and that you will not act on any of the silent voices that you hear. Unless they ask you for help, or you offer, and they accept. You cannot, and I can't stress this enough, you cannot help anyone."
"I've never helped anyone before in my life," The words burst from her. "I don't get involved in people's lives for this exact reason. You want to tote that I need more people that I care about. Well, this is what happened. I got close to people, I cared for them, and I ended up fucking it all up in the end. This is the first and only time I've ever even thought of helping anyone before and that's because they were making a mistake. A mistake that I knew that they would regret later." She took a deep breath in and set her jaw and her grandfather looked slightly shocked at her outburst. She spoke in a softer voice. "They both deserve to be happy and the fact that they haven't been able to do that until now is all on me and whatever happened. I know the punishments were spread wide. I may not know who was punished or exactly why, but their part of this as well and this entire situation comes down to one main problem and that's me."
"None of this is your--"
"All of you can tell me that until your blue in the face but I'm not stupid. I know that all of this happened because of me. I might not have had a say or known what exactly went down, but I know that it's all on my shoulders. I've known that for most of my life. I stole the memories from Uncle John, he took them back by force," Grandfather's eyebrows shot up even further, "but I know. I know that everything happened because of me and the punishments that everyone has suffered is also on me."
"But it--"
"Stop coddling me! I'm not a small child and even if I were, I understand things at a much higher level than my age. I know what it means to take responsibility for my actions or actions that stem from me. I get it, I had no choice in what happened, but in the end… In the end, everything happened because of me and I get that." She gripped her hand in a fist on her chest. "I have a deep understanding that I made a decision that set off this chain of events, events that have been going on for centuries. That decision was a selfish one and I'm aware of it."
"No," Her grandfather spoke very softly as he gently took her hand in his and looked into her own green eyes. "That decision wasn't selfish, and you were within your right to make it. It wasn't your decision that caused any of this, but the decision of those who shouldn't be making those decisions, to begin with. They were the ones who messed up by not doing their jobs." She looked at him and just shook her head.
"I can't accept that." She muttered. "Shit like this happens every time and you know it." Nyline had no idea where those words had come from or even what they meant, but they resonated with her soul and she knew that they were true.
"It may, but that doesn't make any of it your fault." They stood there like that for a long moment. Nyline looked into her grandfather's glowing green eyes as if he held all the answers for her, and his soft eyes looked down into her matching set. After a while, her grandfather pulled away.
"Ask first," He said in a short tone, "If you want to help someone, then ask them first. If they accept then you can help them. If you don't want them to know that you know their thoughts then, a workaround is a riddle. You can give people clues in situations as long as you word things in such a way that they have to think on it and work it out on their own. So, promise me that you won't use the network, not right now." His eyes were set, and she could only nod. "No, I want you to say it."
"I won't use the network."
"For any reason." He pressed.
"For any reason." She parroted and he nodded a couple of times before the stern expression broke.
"I'm sorry that you weren't able to learn any of this growing up."
"If you had the network, why couldn't you find me?"
"If I'd tracked you, they would have found you as well. My energy signature is very specific as is Yukie's, as well as anyone that I would have sent to you. I don't trust anyone below a certain power level." He took a leveled breath, "When everything went down, it was absolute chaos. So many things went wrong in the exact same moment that everyone did what they thought was best for the situation. Stephaney ran to me for help, Noir went to the keepers and made a deal, Nori's guard grabbed you and vanished, everyone else scattered. In truth, everyone knew that Nori's guard was supposed to grab you if anything went wrong, but what actually happened was something no one expected. Or at least, none of us expected it to the degree that it deteriorated. I haven't spoken to him myself, but I know that he was just doing what he thought was best, I acknowledge that about the situation. It just pains me and Yuki greatly to know that you had all these problems, and we could have helped you." He paused as Nyline just watched him before she shook her head and looked away.
"Mom ran to you for help?" Nyline breathed and he nodded. "Did you help her?"
"I did." There was another long beat where Nyline just waited and when he didn't continue, she pressed.
"How?"
"Anytime there is serious energy manipulation there will always be a price. No matter how much you love that person or want to help them or even how pure the intent is. There is always a price that must be paid. There was a price that had to be paid for what I did for your mother and it was a steep one. One that I think will be best discussed at a different time. Just know that your mother is safe and she's alive." Nyline felt her mouth fall open.
"You know exactly where she is, don't you?" There was another long awkward moment where he just looked into her eyes as if he was begging her to figure it out on the inside, but in the end, he only sighed.
"Yes, I know where they are. However, you have to figure that out on your own, it's the only way that they will be set free."
"Set free?" Nyline felt her breath catch. "They? Who else has been caught up in this?" Her grandfather just looked at her with sadness.
"Everyone that had any connections with your parents were casualties in this, even if they had nothing to do with what actually happened."
"But that doesn't even make sense. Why would people who didn't have anything to do with this get punished?"
"Always remember, that your decisions will always affect the people that you rule over." Nyline felt her heart drop.
"Thaul…" She looked away from him. "All the people of Thaul got dragged into this as well, but..." She looked back at her grandfather who only shook his head.
"No buts." She shut her mouth and just looked at him before she pressed her lips together and looked away. There was a pause as her grandfather looked behind him and spoke to someone she couldn't see. "Child, I must go." He turned and looked at her with a somber expression. "But I will see you again." He paused before he let out a long breath. "I would advise you to look at the memories that those scouts collected of your father in that clearing." She gaped at him.
"How many memories did you steal from me while we've been in here?"
"I only viewed them not stole them. Watch that memory, and if it doesn't convince you that your father cares, then we will discuss this more the next time around."
"Wait!" She grabbed onto his arm. "One more question." He only raised a brow, and she took a breath in. "Why can mom hear the voices if she isn't a daemon? Why does her skill match ours so closely?"
"The royal family of Thaul are somewhat special when it comes to the aether world, but they have similar roots to Vaccoon. Only their blood was diluted before they moved from the human world and into the aether one."
"Are you saying that my mother's side of the family also has daemon blood?"
"Not exactly, well not anymore, it's far too diluted for them to count as anything daemon related anymore, however, it wasn't uncommon for members of your family to end up with some daemon traits."
"Then how did she survive? She wouldn't have daemon energy to regulate it." His face scrunched up.
"There is a reason why Nori was drawn to her." He said shortly.
"But what about mom's real mate?" His face scrunched up even more.
"That is…" He sighed, "A story to have over tea. I have to go." With that, he simply vanished, and she was left staring at the space that he'd been. She sat down on the floor and ran her hand through her hair several times. That conversation had been all over the place and it only made more questions than answered anything.
"Why is everything so damned complicated?" She growled before she closed her eyes and returned to her body.
"Well, that was unexpected," A woman's voice spoke right as Einosuke reappeared and looked over at his wife. She hid her face behind a fan but flicked it closed as she continued to look at the place where her granddaughter had just vanished. She had soft blue eyes and plump red lips with long white hair that was thrown up into a bun on the top of her hair.
"You can say that again," Einosuke spoke as he crossed his arms. "How does she contain so much knowledge? Did she carry it over from her past life?"
"No, I don't think that's it," Yukie spoke as she crossed the room. "I think that it's just bleed through personality, that happens sometimes. You know how the souls work better than anyone."
"I do, but…" He paused as he took the moment to think. "Her last life was, what a halfling?" Yukie tapped her fan against her chin several times as she thought on it.
"You know, I think that was over six hundred years ago. That soul doesn't come back into the world often. However, that was when around the time that Vaccoon was originally founded, so even if it was a darkling, it would mean that it was one of the first ones birthed in the Aether world. We didn't have much contact with the Aether world at that time. If I'm remembering correctly, many of the darkling children died during that time due to mate sickness. It was very hard to keep any of them alive and took many tries before they would be able to create a way for them to survive."
"You would be correct. The early days of Vaccoon were a terrifying time, it's the reason why we kept our distance."
"But you didn't," Yukie spoke as a smile spread across her red-painted lips. "You took those messages to the gods yourself, don't lie. I know what you did for them." Einosuke raised a brow at her before he let out a breath.
"I'm aware, they deserved a fighting chance, but it wasn't my decision if they succeeded or not. It was up to the gods and their will. It's how I know that soul. I've met it so many times over the years and every time that soul decides to go back into the world, something always big changes. I've met it almost every time it's reentered the world of the living, but this time, it's different."
"Different how?" Yukie seemed surprised at his words the sly foxes smile falling from her face.
"Because now it isn't just human or daemon. It's in a vessel that is more like me, which means it has more power, more influence, and the ability to cause more rifts than ever before. Then, on top of that, it knows more, remembers more. It recognizes things like the risk of having people that it cares about and whereas Nyline doesn't understand on a base level why she is so wary of people, it makes sense. I know that soul and it's been betrayed more times than I can count by the ones it's held most close." Yukie took a moment as she tapped her fan against her palm as if in deep thought.
"Why didn't I see this coming?" She finally spoke before she opened her fan and looked into its folds, but Einosuke walked over and placed a hand on the fan making her lookup.
"Darlin' you can't expect to see everything, even your abilities are limited." She let out a breath.
"Then what do you think would be the best course of action?"
"We will keep a close eye on her. She is still young, there are still many ways that her personality could go at this point. Whether it ends up being for the greater good or if she's a world reset, we will just have to wait and see."
"You think that Aurea would have the capacity to reset the world?" Einosuke's face fell.
"The Aurea that I know today would never think about it, however, there are many ways for a personality to corrupt over the long years of life. As much as Aurea doesn't want to have people around her, we need to make sure it happens. She needs people to ground her to the world and the living, without that she will end up being a loose cannon without direction."
"What are your orders?"
"First, did you collect what I sent you to the Aether world to get?" She nodded, "That's a good start. Then, tell Tenki to prepare himself to go on an extended stay in the Aether world."
"Will he be interacting with Aurea? Or just observing?" Einosuke took a long moment to ponder.
"He can decide that on his own, but if he decides that he is going to interact with her, he must not influence her negatively. Send him with a message to the halfling royals. They need to be made more aware of the situation that they are currently in and the steps that need to be taken."
"Right away," She bowed her head slightly.
"Finally, go visit our son. He needs to be kept up to date on this entire situation."
"Of course."
"That is all for now." She bowed once more before she vanished from the memory. Einosuke took a moment to look around the ballroom before his eyes landed on the balcony that was set on one side of the room. A ghost of a figure was standing there looking down at him. "Watching, are we?" The ghost nodded. "Are you happy with what you see? Your decisions?" The ghost's shoulders slumped, and he knew that it had many regrets but would never voice any of them. "She's grown into a strong-willed person. Someone that you would be proud of, you know that?" It didn't move for a few moments before a gust of air whipped through the ballroom and the figure was standing directly in front of Einosuke. The white faded version of the red hair and bright green eyes were faint, but he could still make out the primary features.
"Watch over her, please, keep her safe." The faint voice whispered through his mind before the ghost vanished. Einosuke leaned on his cane for several moments before he sighed.
"I would have done that, even if you hadn't asked. She's my family too." He muttered before he vanished from the ballroom as well.