The room crackled with tension as Lilly faced the stern gazes of the higher-ups of the Resistance. Accusations hung in the air like ominous storm clouds.
"You were reckless, Lilly! Negligent!" one of them admonished, his voice filled with a mix of anger and disappointment.
"Your actions cost us dearly," another added, eyes drilling into Lilly.
The weight of their words bore down on Lilly's shoulders. She had suspected the worst, but hearing the explicit blame was a bitter pill to swallow. Her subordinates, her comrades, the people she had led into danger, were gone. The losses were immeasurable.
In the silence that followed, Lilly's thoughts echoed in her mind. I should have known. No one responded to my calls. I sensed their absence, their silence. I knew...
Her admission hung in the air as a heavy acknowledgment of her failure.
"We've lost good people, Lilly," a third voice chimed in, softer but equally accusatory.
A heavy sigh escaped Lilly's lips. "I accept any punishment you deem fit. I should have been more cautious."
The elders exchanged glances, and the atmosphere remained charged with unresolved tension. Lilly steeled herself for whatever consequences awaited her.
As she exited the room, the weight of guilt and loss pressed upon her. The corridor seemed endless as her thoughts swirled in turmoil. How should she feel about those she had lost? How could she face their families, their memories?
In the midst of her contemplation, Lilly encountered Alaric, Matthew, and Theodore. Alaric's gaze bore into her, curious and concerned. "How did the elders grill you?" he inquired.
Lilly sighed, offering a brief yet expressive response. "They blamed me for the losses, and they're right. I failed them."
Theodore, however, wasted no time. "What does the Resistance want with us? Why are we here?"
Lilly looked into Theodore's eyes, recognizing the urgency in his question. "You two are here because you're connected to something bigger than you realize. Something that might just change the course of this conflict."
Matthew's skepticism was palpable. "Change the course? How? What makes us so special?"
Lilly hesitated for a moment, contemplating how much she should reveal. "You both possess unique abilities, dormant gifts that have the potential to tip the scales in our favor. The Resistance needs you, now more than ever."
As the truth hung in the air, Lilly couldn't help but wonder if this revelation would be a source of hope or an additional burden for the two young men standing before her.
Isabella's arrival was a timely interruption, breaking the tension in the corridor. "Brunch is ready," she announced with a warm smile, ignoring the palpable tension in the atmosphere.
Lilly nodded, her gaze lingering on Matthew, Theodore, and Alaric. "Let's continue this over food. I won't keep anything from you this time."
As they settled around the brunch table, the atmosphere remained charged. The clinking of cutlery against porcelain seemed to underscore the weight of the revelations that awaited.
Matthew, his eyes fixed on Lilly, couldn't shake the discomfort that crawled beneath his skin. The idea of hidden abilities felt like a coil tightening around him. "So, what you're saying is, we're some kind of superhuman with powers we never knew about?" His skepticism was palpable, a shield he wielded against the uncertainty that loomed.
Lilly sighed, attempting to bridge the gap between truth and incredulity. "Not superhumans, Matthew. But individuals with dormant gifts that have surfaced now."
"Gifts?" Matthew's laugh held a bitter edge. "Sounds more like a curse, especially when it comes with a one-way ticket into this Resistance mess."
'Moreover, her way of speaking has changed once again… it's different from the way she articulated her words on the train after she woke up.' Matthew noticed.
"Why do you sound different once again? You were more secretive and poetic on the train." He pointed out.
Lilly sighed when she heard him ask this. She was a bit embarrassed that they got to see that side of her. Alaric watched all of this as a bystander, taking a sip of tea out of his cup with a smile on his face.
"That's one of the backlashes of using my ability; my way of speech gets screwed up… let's not talk about me, ask some other questions," Lilly responded lightly.
Theodore, meanwhile, sat silent, eyes flickering between the faces at the table. His mind buzzed with questions, the most prominent being, 'How can I have abilities and never know about them?' The mystery both fascinated and unsettled him.
Lilly, sensing the skepticism, delved into the details. "Are you wondering how it is exactly that you possess abilities that you weren't aware of?" She asked, looking at Theodore.
"Yes, I find that hard to believe; my reality isn't what I thought it to be." He replied.
"I understand… I told you boys about the Gifted and the Blessed back in Araya, but that's not all. Gifted and Blessed mystics are just the first and second on the scale; there are others above them, and in your boys' case, you are what we call Miracles." Lilly pointed out.
"Huh?' Matthew blurted out.
Theodore's confusion deepened, but a spark of curiosity glimmered within.
"Just as the name suggests, you boys are nothing short of a miracle."
"But how? Why? And since when?" Theodore asked, the more Lilly revealed, the more confused he got.
"Have you ever wondered who your parents were? Or why you know nothing about them? What were their names?"
Matthew and Theodore looked at themselves, thinking the same thing. 'Could we possibly be related by blood?' They both dismissed the thought shortly when they couldn't see any resemblance in their features.
"Were our parents… members of this Resistance organization?" Matthew asked. If their parents were members of the organization, he would understand why they were being treated nicely here, but he hoped that it wasn't the case.
"While I wish that they were, it is not far off that the organization that they were in isn't that different from the Resistance. Your parents were freedom fighters, while they didn't fight against the churches, they were civilians that opposed the tyrannical ways of the aristocrats. They fought for the oppressed and liberated the fallen. They were a group of brave men and women that had little to no skills." Lilly smiled when she mentioned that last part; she used to admire the freedom fighters.
"Wait, you are not referring to the Liberty Forge freedom fighters, are you?" Theodore got up, surprised to hear something about his parents.
The thought of who they were used to cross his mind at times, but to spare himself the sadness, he was always quick to dismiss it.
"Isn't that the organization that the Emperor ordered to be killed?" Matthew, although not well-versed in the history of the Iron Empire, was aware of a few things.
"Yes, it is that organization, and yeah, the Emperor ordered that they be destroyed as they questioned his power several times. However, here is the part that isn't taught to the public; the Church of Knowledge asked the Emperor's permission and interfered. Rather than killing the freedom fighters, they wanted to purchase them as slaves and prisoners that they could use to fuel a mass ritual." Lilly stated, pausing to see the boys' reaction to such information.
Both Matthew and Theodore weren't pleased to hear that their parents were most likely murdered after the Emperor put out a kill order on them, and they were more displeased to find out that their parents were purchased like slaves and used as fuel for a ritual.
Despite never knowing their parents, the two of them were somewhat infuriated by this information. Matthew clenched his jaw, holding a frown on his face, while Theodore's palms were already bleeding from how much he had clenched his fist under the table.
Lilly continued, "The Church of Knowledge was permitted to purchase the lives of the members of Liberty Forge, and also the lives of their family, whether they were a part of the organization or not. Emperor Lucius didn't want another Freedom fighter to emerge from the aggrieved families of the former one. So to deal with the issue completely, he decided to pull the root out."
"Outrageous!" Theodore bellowed, angry at the way this story was going. He knew that the Aristocrats didn't think much of Lower-Class men like them; however, to sell innocent lives to devil worshippers because you feared the resurrection of a nuisance from their family was plain wickedness.
Seconds passed by and even Theodore was surprised by his own outburst.
Matthew remained in his thoughts. Unlike Theodore, he had thought about his parents a lot, and what they might have been like. He sometimes daydreamed about his parents and what would have been with them.
He even concluded many times that his parents abandoned him because they didn't have enough money to take care of themselves and him. He loved this alternative rather than the thought of them being dead, hoping that he could find them one day when he's become rich and give them a piece of his mind and heart.
However, the story that Lilly was giving eluded that his parents were dead… the thought of this crushed Matthew's heart, and for the first time in his life, he felt extreme hate for the Emperor of the Iron Empire and hate towards the Church of Knowledge.
'Matthew and I might not be blood-related, but our past is connected in many ways.' Theodore reasoned. 'Now, what begs the question is, how old were we when all of this happened, and what does this have to do with us being the ones to turn the tables in this conflict?' Theodore felt as if many things still weren't adding up.
'For all we know, she might be lying. What evidence does she have?' Theodore thought.
To him, it felt as if Lilly was trying to manipulate them…