Many hours passed since Tein and Lilia had left, giving Shui some alone time with his sleeping mother. He was always one to be curious, always thinking and always coming up with creative ideas, but at this time his mind was blank. He simply stared at her face that lacked the liveliness she always showed him.
No thoughts could come to his head, neither refusal to believe, nor ideas to cure her. She didn't have long left, his instincts supported these words. It wasn't just a guess either, it was supported by the facts he had learnt while studying the human body.
While watching her, he noticed the small twitch of her eyelid and immediately stood up.
"Mom."
"Oh...Shui. You're back."
"Yeah, are you hungry?"
He wanted to ask if she was okay, but Shui also didn't want to touch on that topic more than necessary.
Suiri looked at him through her half-opened eyes, at his effeminate features and short black hair. Though she wanted to watch him grow up for a bit longer, she knew her own body. Even staying awake was the most she could accomplish.
"I'm sorry."
"..."
Shui couldn't respond, and he didn't want to either.
After that day, Suiri would only wake up for a few minutes at a time and Shui would always be there by her side. He made sure not to look any different from usual, but she could still see the fatigue he was accumulating from lack of sleep. Shui didn't want her to leave when he wasn't there, so he tried to always stay near her and was never away for too long. Even when Lilia offered to watch her, Shui refused to move. He would eat and relieve himself every once in a while, but would never move too far from the house. Since she understood the reason for his stubbornness, Lilia would bring food and wipe off Suiri's body.
Though Shui knew that he was grateful for this, it wasn't in his perception. After two weeks where no one except Lilia came to visit, Suiri looked at Shui by her side.
She normally saw him wide awake but this time, his head was down, facing the bed. She gently laid her hand on top of his head, and slowly swayed her hand back and forth.
"Shui, listen to your Aunt Lilia, don't give her too much trouble. You can keep up your training, but don't push yourself too far. Think about what you want to do in the future and make sure you like it. And if one day, you don't like what you're doing anymore then, you can find something else. I have some money in a bank in Cyrus, you can ask Jay at my shop for it. You probably shouldn't stay in the clan for too long, so try to leave once you're ready to work. I want you to marry a nice girl when you grow up. Kate would be a good choice but you're the one who'll decide. Whoever it is, make sure you love them. Even if your father's not here, he loved us. Even if you don't believe it, please remember that. Okay."
"...Yes, Mom."
Shui's voice was as shaky as his heart. There was only a little fragile wall stopping the tears, but he couldn't, he couldn't let her see such a face.
"So you're awake. Reach under the bed and take out the jewellery box."
Following what his mother said, Shui took out a silver box with a red gem in the center. When he gave it to Suiri, she stared at it nostalgically, and then opened it. In the box was a necklace with a shiny blue stone.
"This is something your father left us."
As his mother put the necklace on him, Shui bit his tongue as he continued to force back the tears.
'Not, yet.'
In Shui's eyes, Suiri had the same gentle smile he always remembered. Even now she seemed a bit too young, almost like a teenager. Her eyes were peaceful and her slender eye brows were relaxed, only her sunken cheeks proved that she was sick.
She lied on the bed, facing him, resting one hand on his cheeks.
"Shui, I hope that, you can go anywhere you want and do whatever you please. Please live freely for me, Shui. Take care of your,self..."
It was sudden, and yet not. Her hand that was on his cheek gently fell and he hastily grabbed it.
"Mo, Mom?"
She never said another word. In that despairful silence, Shui finally cried.
The funeral was the following week. Cruz was long gone so there were no outsiders present. For the funeral, Lilia dressed up Suiri's body with the best clothes and styled her hair. It was common belief that the dead would go to the afterlife in the appearance they were buried in. Though she wasn't very liked, Suiri's grave was still near the centre of their deceased sanctum(a graveyard inside a one storey building), the area where the previous Patriarchs were.
In their clan, prior to lowering the body into the grave, the entire clan would pay their respect however, very few did that this time. In the first place, many of them didn't want to and after Nalos surprisingly came to pay his respects, no one else would dare be brash enough to do so after him.
After she was buried, everyone other than close family members was to disperse from the sanctum. At this time, many heard Elder Eclos say, "Finally, the bitch is gone. If only the bastard went with her."
Lilia and Kate were very angry at him but Bartos held them back. Even if he was a piece of trash, he was still an elder with a name ending with 'los'. And so, the two only glared at him as he smirked.
Shui also heard him, however no one but his mother was worth any attention on that day. Still, he remembered these words.
However, what Eclos didn't know was that his words offended someone else. Later that night, when the funeral was over and Shui was still by his mother's grave, Eclos was arrested by the Patriarch.
"What, why are you doing this?!"
"Why? You should know that you've done enough things in secret to easily land you the death penalty. Shouldn't you be grateful I'm only going to seal you up?"
As an Earth Realm cultivator, Eclos could live for up to 300 years, but having to spend so much time in a dark room with barely enough resources to keep him alive, would be cruel torture.
"No, no, please! Don't, don't!"
Eclos was desperate. With this threat, Nalos could make him work like a dog for the clan, but he didn't care. Once he decided to act against Eclos there would be no one who dared to even mention his name anymore. For just this day, he acted as a father and not the Patriarch.