Alek went into the house and found her family still talking. She saw Kai and Bia talking to the twins. Looked like the awkwardness between cousins were gone.
They were chatting happily with their cousins, especially Bia. She was laughing at what Castor said and, they looked like they were best friends now.
Alek was happy to see her sister laughing carefully like that.
Kai, Pollux and Iris were in one group. Alek could see the two brothers, her father and uncle, talking with serious faces in the back of the room.
Alek heard her mom and her aunt talking in the kitchen. She was about to help them make lunch for the family when Mikoto called her.
"Alektrona, would you follow me?" Mikoto asked with a smile on her face.
Alek didn't know why her grandmother asked her to follow her but, she just said okay and followed her grandmother anyway.
Her grandmother was the only one who called people by their formal name.
The house was a big square and a courtyard with few trees and rocks in it.
The courtyard looked mystical and holy. Like the air surrounding the trees inside did not look like the ones that humans breathed.
They walked around the courtyard and went into the library located in the north. Mikoto entered first and, Alek closed the door behind her.
The library was tidy and filled with books. Alek never this part of the house because she and the rest of the kids were off-limits.
The sight of many books caused Alek's jaw to drop and look around in wonder and disbelief. Mikoto saw her granddaughters' reaction and smiled.
"The reason why I brought you here is that I wanted to give this book to you." Mikoto grabbed one of the books that had locks and gave it to Alek, who was staring at the book with curiosity.
"Think of it as a family heirloom. It is pretty important."
"Thank you, grandma. But if it's a family heirloom, why are you giving it to me? Shouldn't it stay with you in this house?"
Alek was confused when her grandmother said she's going to give it to her.
Especially a book that looked really old.
"It used to be mine. But it's time for me to pass it to the next generation, Alektrona. That's why I'm giving it to you. You'll be the one to lead the family, my dear." Mikoto told Alek with a serious gaze.
"But Jin and Rin are older than me. And also, mom, dad, Aunt Astraea and Unkle Lake are here. They look more suitable to be given the heirloom."
Alek told her grandmother with more confused eyes.
"I choose you, sweetheart. And others agreed to that. My time is running out, Alektrona. You are the one I chose."
Mikoto grabbed the shoulders of her granddaughter and stared at her beautiful eyes.
"You mean mom and dad know all about this? What do you mean your time is running out, grandma? Are you sick somewhere?" Alek looked at her grandmother, alarmed by what she said.
"I am not sick, sweetie." Mikoto didn't answer the first question. She knew this wasn't the time to tell her yet. Alek was not ready.
But before Alek could say anything, Mikoto grabbed her shoulders tightly, but not tight enough to hurt her.
"Alektrona, I want you to take the heirloom and lead the family after I'm gone. I choose you, I know you are the right person. You will understand why I chose you with time."
Mikoto told her granddaughter, who looked like she was about to cry. "Promise me you will take the book."
Alek saw many emotions in her grandmother's eyes. She couldn't say no!
"Yes, I promise. I will take care of the book and keep it safe. Please stop saying that your time is running out. I don't like it..." Alek gave a serious gaze back to her grandmother.
Mikoto sighed in relief when her granddaughter promised.
"Now, go back to everyone. For now, you can leave the book here. You can pick it up later when you're leaving. I have an errand to run, but it wouldn't take long. Besides, I'll be running the errand in this room."
"Okay." Alek opened the door behind her to leave when she realized one thing.
"The key. Where is the key for the book? You didn't give it to me, grandma."
"You already have it. You have to find it though."
Mikoto told her granddaughter with the you-didn't-know face.
Alek made the how-am-I-supposed-to-know-that face in return.
Mikoto looked at her granddaughter and laughed out loud. Alek laughed too.
They stood, laughing for some time before the laughter died down and, Alek went back to the living room.
Alek went into the kitchen instead of going to the living room to help the mothers prepare lunch. She found her mother and aunt already done with preparing lunch.
She started taking the plates to the living room. The girls noticed that Alek was bringing the utensils. They quickly left the chat and started helping Alek and their mothers.
They sat around the rectangle table with Mikoto's seat in the head. Panacea's family were on the right, Astraea's family on the left of Mikoto's side.
The mothers sat closest to Mikoto, followed by the fathers and children. The children sat in age order and, Alek sat across Castor. They needed to seiza because the floor was made of tatami.
They waited for Mikoto to start eating, but she didn't come out even after it has been thirty minutes since Alek left her.
Everyone got worried and, when Panacea was about to go fetch her, she finally showed up.
She didn't look different from when Alek left her so, Alek was relieved. She thought something had happened to her.
Mikoto apologized to everyone at the table and held up her glass.
"Thank you for gathering today. It has truly being a long time since this house was this full. I'm happy that we are all here." Mikoto looked at everyone at the table and settled her eye a little longer on Alek but eventually looked away and continued talking to everyone.
"As we all know, this is the day for everyone to gather and remember Aether. So let me tell you a story that happened in this house a long time ago.
There was a time when Aether got cut when he was climbing the tree in the garden to get Alektrona's hat. His cut was quite deep.
It must have been painful but, he didn't show it on his face because he didn't want to worry his sister."
Mikoto smiled a little towards Alek.
"So he hid his cut from everyone, especially from Alektrona and later that night after everyone was in their room, he came to my room.
He said he had already tucked his sister and he slowly showed me the cut like a scared kitten.
He had tied a handkerchief on the cut. I never thought a six-year-old had the brain to do that.
I removed the handkerchief from his cut and saw that it was pretty bad. It looked like he didn't wash the cut before he placed the handkerchief on, so the sight was nasty.
It was a little bit infected. I asked him why he hasn't washed it and he told because he didn't feel pain." Mikoto looked at Panacea and Robin.
"Yep. Your son tried to act okay even in front of me.
Anyway, I took him to the bathroom, washed the dirt off and started treating the cut with spirit. The whole time I treated him, he was grabbing his shirt tight because of the pain that the spirit caused him.
Tears were threatening to fall from his eyes but, they never fell from his eyes. He held his tears back.
When I was done bandaging him, he looked relieved. His pain was over now and I was really proud of my grandson who was able to hold back his tears." She then smiled softly at everyone at the table.
"He was a strong child with a strong mind. I think he was the brother to all you," now, looking at the children and continued talking. "I am glad I met Aether. He came into my life when I had a hard time and gave me hope.
There are many things I learnt from him and I think you do too have learnt something from him. I'm not saying that I am happy with him being gone.
But I am happy when I think that he's waiting somewhere far away from us and not gone. So here is to my grandson, Aether, for being in our lives."
Mikoto raised her glass with a smile and, everyone followed what she did.
It was only the mothers and Mikoto who had drunk alcohol because they needn't have to drive.
Alcohol made the mothers a little more chatty. They started talking with Mikoto about family, life and they left the children alone to themselves to figure out what to do.
Alek found it awkward, just sitting across Jin without talking. Then she remembered she had only said Hi to them before taking a walk with Iris.
Alek had looked to her right and found Bia and Kai casually chatting with Rin and Iris.
Looks like she didn't have the space to get in. So Alek turned back and focused her attention on the food on the table and concentrated on it.
When she was about to get the spring roll onto her plate, Castor's chopsticks brushed lightly against hers.
"Sorry."
"Sorry."
They said in unison and, it made them smile.
"So, I heard you and Rin made Iris's lamb. Why did you choose to make it for her?" Alek asked him a question that popped up in her mind.
"Did Iris tell you that?" Castor didn't know his sister had told Alek about that. Alek nodded at him, making him sigh.
"We made it because she watched this show about sheep and wanted a sheep but, obviously mom said no, she cried in front of the TV for a long time.
So we decided that we could make her a lamb, hoping she would be happy." He told her with blushes covering the tip of his ears.
"Aww, sweet. But you know you could have just bought a lamb and give it to her."
"Argh! We didn't have that thought in our heads at that time. We were fourteen, okay?" Castor told her with frustration and embarrassment.
Alek laughed at her cousin's troubled expression and, Jin laughed out too to his reaction. It was fun teasing her cousins this way.
After the laugh, they continued talking about random stuff in their life and laughed at their inside jokes. Alek even forgot to ask him if he remembered about that night with lights from the sunflowers.