Holding a soft ice pack against her cheek, Peony remained quiet as she gazed at the full moon in silence. An entire day has passed since their meeting and they were now greeted with the night of the full moon. Seeing this, the soft pain of her cheek ebbed away greatly.
Her teacher sighed in dismay and took the soft ice pack from her hand, "That's enough. Any more and you'll exacerbate the poison. Maisey, give me a hand and treat her cheek with magic while I get a balm."
"Senior sister Zigvolt, do you think I'm cold today?" Peony questioned quietly as she allowed Maisey to appear from her ring to treat her red cheek with magic.
The two paused in surprise before Lady Zigvolt shook her head, "No. You were stating facts and, for many, stating facts only seems cold but is not. Do not worry. Your progress has not affected your personality much. In fact, I doubt if you really have grown stronger. You have been powerful from the start according to my father."
"I wonder how the conversation is going between them..." Peony frowned, "Master was never one to use electronics of any kind."
"This is my father you are talking about." Lady Zigvolt shook her head, "Naturally, you know what he's like hence you ask that he remain to help send that human back. More importantly, why did you decide to let him hit you?"
"Allow-?! Why did you do that, Princess?!" Maisey cried out in disbelief and horror.
Peony sighed, "If I were the one who was left in a place to feel pain for years, what would you have done if you find my life in someone else's hands literally?"
"That would make me angry of course! No one should handle the princess's life so carelessly! Everyone would be upset."
"If it makes you angry, then it would also make father and mother angry too." She nodded, "Not only did father and mother raised me carefully, Maisey and everyone was also by my side for a long time since I was a child. Naturally, for many it would be more than just disatisfaction to see me in a similar position. While he's the head of a powerful family, he's also a father. Seeing me holding what could be the life of his son is sure to spark fury in him. Ortho should now know just how important he is to his parents, by now."
"Someone that cold could actually care that much?"
"It is because they are cold that they care that much. Unlike what some think, the family is not cold if they can produce so much blot to sustain themselves."
"Blot?" Lady Zigvolt raised a brow in surprise.
"When I looked into his soul for a way to sustain it, I found something very interesting. The blue flame of the family is sustained by blot. This means that it becomes harder for them to overblot. However, if there is no blot available, it would start to consume their magic." Peony explained, "Seeing that it runs in the family, you'd think the blue fire hair is hereditary, but it's really the result of a curse powerful enough to be imprinted into the family line. It's a strong one at that too and, for Ortho, it's particularly stronger than his father's side. To create blot requires negative emotions and immense use of magic. However, to understand these negative emotions, you also need to understand positive ones. Although the head is powerful, he is still human by the end of the day. It would be far stranger if he didn't do such a thing, like slap me."
"Let me guess, you were imagining the consequences to be much worse." Lady Zigvolt sighed, "Next time just bring him in using something else aside from a hand."
"That would be impossible. As you've seen, Ortho requires magic and blot to survive right now. He had been inhabiting the body of a robot during his sleep for years. It would require a great deal of magic to keep him from disappearing." Peony sighed, "If we want to stabilize the situation, he need to reemerge with with the other half."
"But, where is the other half?" Maisey wondered in confusion.
"Could it be at the Tartarus that you mentioned?" Her teacher exclaimed in disbelief, "Is that why you're telling him this? For access to that place?!"
"What exactly is this Tartarus?" Maisey raised a brow in confusion, "Isn't that place where some really bad guys were locked up millions of years ago?"
"That's right. However, it is also known as the inescapable prison of the titans." Peony explained, "In the Isle of Lament, there is a prison of metal so powerful and deep that it can imprison the strongest overblots from creating chaos across the world. It was given the name after the legendary prison of a million years in hopes that it would continue to keep these overblots locked up and, for years, it has succeeded in doing so."
"But you want to go to such a place in search of the other half-!" Her teacher gasped in horror, "You don't mean-!"
"That's right." Peony nodded, "At one point in time, the son, Ortho, vanished without a trace. But, we can't forget that Tartarus is under the control of the Shroud family. There's only one place and one reason for his disappearance."
"A child overblotted?" Lady Zigvolt frowned.
"If he overblotted, then it would make no sense why his soul was split into two. Rather than overblot, I suspect that he was dragged into a massive amount of blot and inflicted damage to his soul. When you're in a facility of overblot, almost anything can happen. Even now, there is still a small portion of the soul stuck in the mechanic body his brother built. If I take all of it out, his soul would've suffered unknown repercussions ranging from loss of emotions to loss of memories. Quite unusual as it would've happened often if it was the soul was further split. If not for the curse, I would not have had to do this. Doing this weakens the curse and allows me and Idia to keep both sides from disappearing. When he recharges the mechanic body, he is also fueling the soul without knowing it."
"Once the souls are remerged, what would happen to the body?" Her teacher frowned, "Would it require a vessel?"
Peony nodded, "It would require a vessel. However, that can be fixed easily compared to what the problem is now. Remerging the souls will require time."
"These things..." Lady Zigvolt shook her head with a sigh, "Your sisters are scary..."
Peony huffed a laugh, "Power and knowledge can make one seem intimidating. This is what makes them so powerful. Scary as they may sound, they are still reasonable people and kind. However, the places they are in does not allow them to act as they please all the time."
Seeing her say this, Lady Zigvolt could not help but feel as though this child was rather sad. Perhaps memories of the past triggered memories for her? Sad ones?
"Shall we talk more about you attending school with his highness?"
Peony raised a brow curiously having only just recalled some nice memories. Though annoyed, she decided to just go along with it as she can always find time to reminisce on her own.
.....
"Everything is prepared..." Idia heaved a heavy sigh as he shook his head trying to dispel the headache, "Finally. Ortho?"
Hearing this, the robot quickly hurried after the dorm leader now dressed in a similar robe as their father.
"Big Brother! Look at this! The flower finally bloomed!" Ortho hurried over with a shiny blue lycoris flower.
"It's bloomed already?" Idia shook with a look of bewilderment across his face, "It's only been a few weeks. Just what sort of flower did Lotus gave Ortho?"
The flower bloomed fully and without any blemish. More buds were shown and it displayed signs that it would also bloom soon. Idia frowned in confusion. Could it be a good thing or a bad thing? It was mesmerizing for sure, but he can't say for certain if it was good.
"Lotus is knowledgeable about these things, huh?" Idia frowned, "Could it be something bad? Ortho, can I study the flower? Since the other flowers are blooming soon, would it be all right?"
Although Ortho was a robot he designed, he can still throw a tantrum about like a child. When he sees him like this, he sometimes feels the need to treat him as an actual child. However, he also needs a sample of the flower. Something about this flower just isn't right!
"Huh? But... But..." Ortho stammered dejectedly.
As he thought, it would be difficult to do so. Idia shook his head and sighed, "If you don't want to, then we can put it on hold. We can talk about this later, then. I wonder just what sort of flower this is. It shines like a jewel too."
Lotus has always been a busy one and a mysterious one, but it's also because of this that he is unsure if he can trust her. After all, he doesn't know what goes on in her head either.