"I am glad that you learned the truth about me, I am glad that I do not have to hide my true self from you any longer and most of all if you still want me after this I would be the happiest person in the world if you still want to get to know me as your son that you raised, because even if you think that I'm lying the truth is that I will always need you no matter who I was or who I become that will always remain true."
It was his turn to wait for her and he stood respectfully but he couldn't hide that small tremble in his legs and the anxiety in his eyes.
Taliyah fell silent and minutes passed as she collected her thoughts, the seriousness with which Lirian was speaking made his sincerity clear and she felt as if he had aged a thousand years before her very eyes as the immature and slight childishness vanished from him.
It made her realise that currently she was the adult and he was the child he might have once been a god but currently he was the one without any cultivation and she was a partial immortal and it was about time that she acted like the adult.
"I can't say that things will go back to normal Lirian, but if you would like we can work on it, so long as you can answer one question for me!"
Lirian perked up and waited with batted breath, "Do understand the real reason why I was, no why I am so angry at you?"
Lirian nodded his head with a guilty expression, "It isn't because I kept everything a secret, it's because I didn't trust you enough to tell you the truth by myself."
Taliyah nodded, "Good, now go to your room and do your homework, I'll be sure to set aside some time in my schedule so that we can talk and catch up in the future."
He nodded his head and followed her instructions, he thought that fighting gods was draining but this definitely took the cake, he felt more fatigued than ever before, just as he reached the door a thought occurred to him, "Mom you told me that you made a wish before I arrived in the gardens of the great pyramid!"
Taliyah nodded simply and looked at him curiously wondering why he brought up that topic all of a sudden.
"Can you tell me exactly what you wished for?" his eyes were focused with a seriousness she hadn't seen before.
"I wished for a child that could survive the tribulations of the candidates' trials," she said in a sorrowful voice, those trials were what took all of her children and it was what she feared most in this world.
A heavyweight seemed to fall on Lirian as he forced Samsara's Vision to activate for a second and he confirmed his thoughts.
"Is something wrong Lirian?" Taliyah asked as she noticed his face was tied up into a tight frown.
Realising his mistake, he eased up his face and shook his head, "No it's just curious, very curious," he lied, he didn't want to lie to her anymore but with what he was thinking he didn't have a choice, whether he was right or wrong about his speculation it was bound to drag up old wounds for her and he didn't want to be responsible for that.
He turned around and left quickly, when he looked at his mother's fate particles, it was very low, due to this civilisation having such an extensive reach over the universe the people of the empire had a lot more fate particles than normal, an ordinary seventh-grader would usually have about a 1 billion fate particles and someone like a king would have about 1 trillion, but here he found that an aide like Anya held about 100 trillion fate particles which is equivalent to an incredible third-grade immortal or a bottom of the barrel fourth-grade immortal.
For Taliyah as the empress she should easily have about 10 quadrillion but her fate particles were just barely double Anya's when he checked, if he was assuming correctly then when he got rewritten into the Clovis Empire's great garden, it wasn't merely his usage of fate but it was also her wish pulling him there, it was a special property of fate, that allowed it to grant a wish in exchange for fate particles, the problem with it is that it acts at random, and even a fate spinner would find it impossible to use fate to create a wish, and amongst diviners, there was the saying, 'Be careful what you wish for.' because sometimes fate would grant your wish but if you didn't have enough fate particles it would burn your fate string and kill you.
What he truly found curious was the details of the wish, 'I wished for a child that could survive the tribulations of the candidates' trials,'
While the death rate of the candidate being so high it wouldn't have been too surprising if she found some once in a millennium genius, but the fact that the wish chose him and pulled him meant that it was something only he could handle, and that is what made no sense to him.
While casualties were high in the trial, there were many people that survived, and not that he wanted to brag, but if other mortals could survive it, he most certainly could.
The only thing that made sense to him was that someone was targeting the empress's children during the trial specifically and it was so unfavorable that he was probably the only person that could have a chance at surviving it.
At that moment a notification suddenly popped up on the system.
[Fate applauds your deductive abilities and rewards you +1 billion fate particles]
He watched as the particles multiplied by ten and let out a sigh of relief, he was glad that his conjecture was accurate but it also made him nervous, the only relief he had was that he still had nine years to figure out who it was, but he couldn't let his mother know about it, it would only cause her more stress and fear.
It was even possible that she would disown him, just so that she could protect him from her enemies, but he was not going to allow that to happen, he had to play by the other party's rules if he wanted to catch them in the act and get proof.
It was still early in the day but he felt exhausted when he reached his room, he slumped down onto his bed and gave a quick glance at the display case on the side there was one new thing to his collection in there, it was his old sling that he wore when he started his school year.
When it came time for him to take it off his entire class signed their names onto it and so did all the candidates with the exception of Indra, she avoided him like the plague.
---
Taliyah was pretty distracted after Lirian left and she was glad to have a few minutes of peace before the storm continued.
She noticed that Lirians cheeseburger was sitting on the table in a half-eaten state, she glanced around the room carefully, to make sure no one was watching and she picked it up gently and bit straight into it.
She hummed in satisfaction as she got to dine on something so simple and ordinary, she was so used to those perfect meals made by the chefs that she had forgotten that common food could taste so good, despite its disproportionate layering of flavours, she inhaled the food in no time and sighed in regret as it got finished so quickly.
Knowing Lirian he probably left it on purpose to tempt her, she couldn't help but chuckle at his attempt to make her feel normal.
It was then that she realised something important that she had overlooked, 'How did Lirian get past her guards stationed at the doors?'
She snuck up to doors and peeked outside and was surprised to see her guards standing there as if nothing happened, "Would the two of you care to explain how Lirian snuck past the both of you and got into my study?"
The two of them glanced at each other thoughtfully and had a moment of realisation, they found that Anya was acting rather strange earlier as she spoke to them and they just assumed that she was drunk, they quickly told Taliyah about it and a few minutes later Anya came in dragging her legs like a guilty convict.
"I admit guilty," she said grumpily, "I'll accept whatever punishment her majesty says is necessary."
'This had better be worth it,' she thoughts silently.