Some time after the meeting, Jamie was waiting in Jessica and William's home, playing with their daughter, Hilda. He was shooting out a controlled burst of Xan that looked like a flame and making it fly around her as she danced. His control was stupendous, with the flame not showing any signs of instability despite the speed at which it moved.
Their little dance session was stopped by the opening of the front door and the rush of footsteps. Footsteps headed directly towards Jamie.
A mass of tan skin and ginger hair slammed into him, hugging him tightly. Maria lifted her head to meet her surprised son, revealing a face he had never seen before. His mother was crying. She hadn't even cried when her husband died.
"Did she suffer?" Was all she managed to choke out between her sobs.
Jamie could not lie to her. Tearing up himself, he nodded slowly. "Ten days. It took ten days. Her strength was what let her last that long." He lifted his covered arm. "If only I had listened to that man's warning." He was assured by Zerrin it wasn't because of that curse, but he still felt that it played a part.
"No Jamie. It wasn't your fault. You know she wouldn't lie to you. That curse was removed by her. It wasn't your fault. It happens." Maria could not let her son start to doubt or despair. She knew full well that Jamie's curse was dispelled in its entirety by the Scattered Stars sect leader. "The stronger a cultivator is the more likely a Nexus break is to occur. It was natural. I can assure you. You know I would know this sort of thing."
"Maybe, but I can't help but think that way."
"James. I will tell you as someone who knew her body very well, her Nexus was prone to breaking. She had a major imbalance. I'm sure you know that very well." Jessica had enough of his moping, even though he had barely done so. "I think we should consider you lucky that child did not die with her. He will grow up to be powerful. Possibly even more powerful than you."
This information about Marlev having an imbalance in her Nexus was as new to Jamie as Jessica's assurance that his son would be strong. He knew his sister often healed her in the past, that was her forte, but he always assumed the Nexus to be a forbidden zone even for her, arrogant as she may be.
"She had a deviation? And she didn't tell me? What's this about Arc being strong? Why do I feel like I know less the more I learn." He was angry, confused, and depressed all at once. His head felt like it was spinning as he felt his body temperature rise. "Tell me. Tell me please. Why did my Marlev die like that." Despite his torrent of emotions, his expression and tone showed only a deathly calm.
Seeing this, William, who had so far been sitting in the corner chair observing, ushered Hilda back to her room and grabbed his sword. Every time he had seen this side of James blood was drawn.
His interference was unnecessary as the Matriarch slapped him across the face hard enough to knock him over. "Calm down. Don't do something you will regret." Such a powerful slap from such close range was a testament to her power. It was clear just how much control she had. "I will tell you everything you would know if you had only listened all those years ago. Everything she would have been able to tell you if you didn't have such an erratic personality."
James, with a bloody nose and a handprint on his cheek in the colors of black and blue, slowly got up and sat himself cross legged with his back to the fireplace. He was quiet, but no longer ready to kill.
His mother started to tell him something he should have been told years ago as it applied to him. "I will start off with the subject matter of my grandson. I should have told you this earlier in your life, but any child who survives their mother's Nexus breaking during childbirth is bound to become a powerhouse regardless of whether or not the mother lives or dies. We have extensive knowledge over the matter thanks to our history, so you would have been unlikely to find out elsewhere. I should have told you long ago, but you too were the result of my Nexus cracking. I was lucky that woman was in our sect at the time, otherwise I certainly would have died."
Jamie didn't say anything, but he knew exactly who she was talking about.
"In regards to Marlev, she probably never told you because even she would not be able to tell how you would react. It is equally as likely that she didn't care and wanted to live life without worrying you about it." She paused to let it sink in. "I suspected for a very long time that she was also the result of a Nexus break, it would explain her orphan status despite her high level of power. That imbalance could also have been the result of her birth, the remnant energy from her mother's Nexus taking hold in her body, making her growth and power tremendous, but the result was a certain fragility and lack of control. I'm sure you noticed how odd it was that she would always require a large amount of time to heal her injuries, and that she would easily find weak spots but could never target them properly. That deviation was as much a curse as it was a blessing. I'm sure she knew the risks when trying for a child, she was smart. She loved you."
All Jamie could do was sigh and droop his shoulders as he moved to go up the stairs to a guest room. Maria wanted to comfort him today, but instead she found she had just ended up making him feel worse instead. She hated how reactive her family was, never able to work through their problems.
If Marlev was here she would have helped mediate this type of thing.
But if Marlev was here this wouldn't have happened.