Mama Xylia
~~
"Did you say a green qi, Blue?!" Atticus, filled with utmost delight, almost choked on the cup of coffee he had in his mouth.
Xylia replied for her daughter instead, "Yes, Atticus. Our baby Blue has a green qi which has leveled up to the ninth stage of attaining a red qi," she provided as she took the remote control of the TV, switching over the channels just in case there was news concerning the interview.
"Mama Xylia, I already told you we have to wait for a week before the results are released," she heard Afina protest as she already knew the reason for her turning the TV set on.
Oh, that smart daughter of hers!
Atticus was in no mood to get cut in their mother-and-daughter argument. All he wanted to know was how Afina got the green qi.
"But how can our daughter have a green qi? We barely cultivate. Only the wealthy ones can afford to level up so fast," Atticus interjected.
There was Atticus and his ludicrous statements again. Without mentioning it, could he not connect the dots already?
Why was he acting as though he did not know about the mysteries surrounding Afina? The mysteries that led them to have to leave their own line for another line?
Unlike every other ordinary divine person across all seven lines, Afina was different. She knew it, Atticus knew it too.
Already getting irritated by her husband's words, she cut in before he arouses Afina's suspicion even more. "Our daughter might have a natural green qi and cultivating on holy grounds must have worked well for her to level up to the ninth stage," she tried to sound casual, even though her anger had begun to spring to life.
Atticus left the dining seat to join her on the sofa in the sitting room. Not that the dining room was in a separate room anyway. They used the sofas in demarcating a space wide enough to settle the three dining chairs and a small piece of furniture they use for the dining table.
The house was not too small but just big enough to be fairly comfortable for their small family of three.
"Why do you speak as if leveling up is an easy thing to attain, Xylia? Cultivating on tens of holy grounds barely helps in adding an ounce to the ambiance of a strong-willed qi," Atticus countered her again.
There, she's had enough. If the man was going to keep on behaving like a child, she would rather her daughter was not around to listen.
"Atticus!" she fired at him, getting up on her feet with eyes reddened with fury.
Her husband's clueless eyes interlocked with hers. Almost immediately, a knowing glint flashed across his eyes as though he understood already.
Afina rushed to her after hearing the stern pitch her voice reached when she yelled at Atticus just now. "Mother, I think your knees are hurting again. You only get paranoid when it hurts. Where is your balm? I will help massage the pain away," she was asking and at the same time scrutinizing around the sitting room for any sign of the balm.
Her fury melted just with that innocent act of Afina's. Her daughter was her all, and her life would be meaningless without Afina in it.
"It's inside my bedroom closet, baby blue," she reminded her forgetful daughter.
Afina clasped her hands together. "Right, the closet!" she jeered before dashing into the room.
That girl needs to stop running around everywhere now if she was to stay in the high house after a week.
The high house, her stomach knotted. It meant Afina would be leaving soon.
Under her proud smile whenever Afina gets an appraisal for being amongst the maidens who have applied for the post in the high house was a saddened mother who knew her daughter would be leaving home soon.
Regardless, she had to push Afina into applying for the post and even quit her job in the high house because she wanted a brighter future for her daughter. She would have died a regretful death whenever it was her time to die if she hadn't set Afina on a path to becoming a greater divine person. After all, she hadn't left for her any legacy at all.
The high house would provide her with quality training on how to become one of the patricians and also be more educated.
It was all she ever wished for her daughter.
"Time must have passed so much that I have forgotten about our secret and also keeping it safe, Xylia. I'm sorry," Atticus whispered to her, sending her thoughts off.
She took her seat beside him again. "If you love Afina so much, you shouldn't, Atticus. Don't plant a seed of doubt about herself in her mind. She needs to have the philosophy that she is just an ordinary girl of the flameline. Don't push it!" she was whispering too, but the weight her words carried was felt by her husband fully.
"I won't, Xylia. I won't," Atticus placed his hand on hers reassuringly. It was about all the warmth and assurance she needed.
Afina's loud voice rang from inside the room. "Found it!"
And before she could bat an eyelid, her daughter was back in the sitting room with the balm in her right palm.
"Let me massage the pain away now," she rolled the sleeve of her blouse and sat on the floor before applying the contents of the balm to her mother's legs.
Like a pro, she began to massage the knee like she had been doing it all her life. Well, she had, at least since she was smart enough to start wearing her clothes herself without help.
The warmth and ease Xylia felt from Afina's mere touch were magic. Her Afina, she was her blue fairy.
Staring into the ocean blueness of her daughter's hair, Xylia's emotional eyes traveled back to the day that was the best day of her life – the day that led to the events of their running away from the flameline.
It was eighteen years ago...