New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

The revelation slammed into Ulrick's mind like a sledgehammer. She was dying?

Since when? Why did she look so healthy if she was ill?

It made no sense.

"My lady? Surely you jest. How could someone so powerful and young be on the verge of death's door?"

Selena sighed, patting the bed next to her.

"Come. Sit down. I will explain all to you. But this need not leave this room. Understood?"

"Of course, my love," Ulrick said, feeling his heart tug.

He sat down, and as she spoke to him, his eyes filled with tears.

***

On the western side of the manor, in the guardian wing, Astaroth was finally waking up from his partial coma. His head was ringing, and his body felt like it was covered in a blanket of lead.

He opened his eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling, for the umpteenth time in the last months, and sighed in annoyance.

"When will this stop happening?" he grumbled, causing Phoenix, who was a few feet away, to jump to her feet and rush to his side.

"Finally, you are awake. You had us worried."

Her eyes looked relieved that he was okay. But they still contained traces of worry.

"What happened? How did I get here? Is Rodney fine?" Astaroth asked, as his memories of what happened before he collapsed came back to him.

"Yes, Rodney is fine. He just left the room, seeking an audience with the Matriarch. Something about paying his dues. As for what happened, you will have to fill us in, because we have no idea. What did you do, and better yet, how did you do it?"

Astaroth frowned at her, unsure of what she meant. Then it clicked.

He had brought Rodney back from death. Although priests could perform this, if they were strong enough, it was unheard of from a person with no divine patron.

"I'm… Not sure? It's kind of hazy," Astaroth said, scratching the side of his head.

He dived into himself, trying to see if the soul shard of Geminae was still present next to his, and saw it floating peacefully, orbiting his, along with the others. But something was odd.

It had grown.

Where it had been no bigger than the size of a bead, before, it now took up the same space as Luna's soul. But were souls supposed to grow?

He pushed that line of questioning for later since he had no answers himself. He would have to ask someone more proficient in the matter.

Either Solomon, or better yet, Nemus.

But that could wait.

For now, they needed to leave this darned place. It seemed the longer they stayed in Themiscus, the more their problems piled up.

"Let's just call it instinct, in the meantime, and come back to that. First, we need to get our shit and get the fuck away from here. I feel like the longer we stay, the more the council will try to fault us."

Phoenix giggled at his words. It certainly did feel this way.

"Alright. Tell me when you are ready to get up, and I'll have Rodney fetched for us. Then we can regroup with the two parties and leave this accursed place. I hate it here anyway," Phoenix said, grimacing.

It went to say a lot, for a woman to hate a place ruled by women. But he could understand her.

So many things felt wrong in their way of handling things.

"I'll be fine in an hour? Maybe. Let's give Rodney the time he needs with his mother, and we can go from there."

Phoenix nodded. She could agree to that.

***

Toward the center of the manor, not too far from the interior courtyard they had been in, Rodney was waiting in a side room, which looked somewhat like the ones they had in Stellar Woodlands, where they would receive dignitaries.

He had asked for an audience with the Matriarch, and after confirming she would see him, they had brought him here to wait.

But he had been waiting for fifteen minutes now, and still no news of when she would see him.

As Rodney got up to ask the guards outside when she could see him, a knock at the door interrupted his movements. Immediately following the knock, the door opened, and three people came in.

The first one was Ulrick, his father, followed closely by the Matriarch, Selena, his mother.

But the third person, he hadn't expected to see. It was his younger half-sister, Claudia.

She smiled so warmly when she saw him and was tempted to run out from behind the Matriarch and rush into Rodney's arms.

Even though they were from different fathers, Claudia had been somewhat of an outcast herself, back when he was still in the manor, and she had only him to befriend. This had made them as close, if not closer, than true siblings.

For her, Rodney barely looked different, aside from his larger stature, as he had gained much muscle mass since she last saw him. But for him, the shock was much bigger.

Last he had seen Claudia, she was six. And that was fifteen years ago.

She now looked sublime, and all traces of her once skinny and malnourished body had disappeared. Her body was finely built, but showed no trace of abuse or mistreatment.

Rodney couldn't help but feel tears going up in his eyes, but he pushed them back down. Now was not the time to show weakness.

Looking back at his mother, Rodney bowed and spoke up.

"Matriarch Lorhen. It has been some time. How fare you?"

The woman looked at him with a stony gaze as the guards closed the doors. Once the doors were closed, and they were left alone, her gaze softened a bit, taking Rodney by surprise.

"Rodney. My son. It has been fifteen years, I know. But can you not call me mother?"

Rodney almost stumbled to his ass, wondering who this woman before him was. It certainly wasn't the cold and distant mother he remembered.

"I… Uh… My apologies, Matr—Mother. It was my understanding that you preferred your kids to stay formal."

The Matriarch giggled lightly.

"I do, when people are around that can hear. But we are alone and undisturbed here. Ahh. You have grown so much, my boy. My first born. You make me proud. You prove that our ways need to change, and that they can."

Rodney stared at her with wide eyes.

'What the fuck is happening?!' he shouted in his mind.