"Mother?" Hex blurted at last. The shock of seeing her, that too here, got his tongue for so ti. "Why are you here?"
He, or rather Sterling’s spies, had been searching for her whereabouts. There were questions that needed answers.
"I followed you, of course," dina, still possessing Cyantha, said. Her warm smile lted so of his wariness away.
’Be alert. Even if she isn’t her corrupted self right now, she soon will be.’ He warned himself. Repeatedly.
"Why?" He asked. Her presence alard him. Not only because it was unexpected, but also due to her ability to hide from him. Surely, after his recent refinents and growth, his senses should have improved. And...she was supposed to be under observation.
"That’s what I wanne know. Why? Why are your spies searching for ? Are you in trouble?"
Her concerned voice and worried look nearly disard him. It took an irritating inside voice to remain alert. The warmth welling up inside him was beyond suppression, though.
’Wait. She knows I am looking for her.’ He had not expected her to discover the spies before being spotted but then again, she was the Witch. His mother was known to hide and cover her tracks. Not even the best people in the world had been able to outwit her. A few hopeless, nosey people would certainly not fare better.
She looked at him, worried and curious. Hex contemplated his options. Lying and hopefully preventing her from turning into her awful self. Or to be honest, so he could dispel the doubts clouding his mind ever since he went through the books and scrolls.
"I went to the library." Before he could explain, he stopped. Her reaction put him on alert. dina’s smile faltered as soon as she heard him ntion the library. An ordinary one wouldn’t be worth ntioning.
’If she is worried about the things I have read, things that happened after she left Wrixia, does that an...?’ His thoughts trailed off.
"You rembered everything? Or...your mories weren’t missing at all?" Hex asked, feeling...hurt. Their brief encounters, her calling him son, assuring him that she would be there to have his back if things went bad during their journey, all felt shallow. And like a joke.
She didn’t reply imdiately. Her silence weighed heavily, making his breath slow. Her gaze remained fixed on him. Why was she staring at him? It struck him suddenly. She was contemplating which version to tell him, just like he had done.
"They were never my mories to start with," dina said, after what had felt like a long ti, but perhaps had been a few seconds.
"What do you an? And could you be a bit more direct? All these vague replies with many unsaid things are working on my patience lately. Look. My words are direct. Please, for once, be too." He wasn’t exaggerating. Every new bit of information ca wrapped in doubts.
"Very well," dina said. She even chuckled a little. "If I may point out, though, you were not as direct at the start. You could have asked what you wished to know imdiately."
"True," Hex confessed. "Let be direct, then. When did you regain your mories...no, you say they aren’t your mories, so what are they? What are you? And can you explain your plans to ? At least, things connected directly to ?"
There were many more questions swirling in his mind, but these were the rather important ones. He had to know these. Suddenly, he sensed sothing changed. Startled, he looked up. Nothing seed to have changed, but they were cut off from the environnt.
"Don’t worry," dina said, smiling back again. "So things are not spoken out loud for even the leaves might hear you."
That...made sense. They were in a place where everything was part of a Taboo.
His mother guessed his thoughts. "He isn’t able to do as he pleases. Not yet. If His plans work out, He will be free soon enough. But we don’t have much ti. He is, after all, still able to sense abnormalities."
Hex perked up. Despite his improvents and insights, he fell short against his mother. Her application of the Veil of Death mixed with space-related abilities escaped his comprehension. A quick glance, as there was little ti, still inspired him a lot. He would have to ponder these newfound ideas. But not now. Now he listened.
"Much of what you have read and heard up to the point of my leaving Wrixia is correct. I followed my sister out of this place, for here I might never have grown beyond what He allowed. As a Cursed, I didn’t even have Blessings to count on." She looked up. "Do you know what it ans to be a Cursed?"
"Cursed are those who aren’t Blessed," Hex repeated what he had learned. Only now, as he said it out loud, knowing what he knew, his mind churned further. "Blessings were the ans through which deities harvested their powers. But they are no more. The heavens gave those Blessings. And those, like you, who didn’t get, were deed unworthy of such?"
The last was conjecture.
"Almost correct. Indeed, the gods are no more. But their Will remains. Their rules and desire to persist beyond death perated through Heaven’s creation, becoming one with it. Cursed are people whose Strings of Fate have been altered not to receive Blessings. The reason: they are all descendants of a group that angered the deities in the Third Age."
"What did they do?" Hex asked. They had been sidetracked, and there was little ti. Yet, he couldn’t help but ask more. The concept of Cursed had dominated much of his life...and of his mother.
"They dared to seek to unravel the mysteries behind the Blessings. They researched it and even managed to replicate many of those powers. Their progress scared and therefore angered the deities. But being deities, their goal was to use the reverence of humans to harvest more power – they couldn’t just eliminate them. They wanted to. But they feared losing followers above their fear of so humans understanding their abilities.
To that end, they just weaved a new Law, preventing those researchers and their offspring from gaining Blessings. With ti, the Laws fused and bent. Why else would Sister gain her Blessings, but the remnants of those powers lingered. Now and then, it resulted in people like . While most, actually everyone aside from , accepted it as fate, I wasn’t willing to. As such, I beca a Witch, a person capable of wielding Blessings while being a Cursed."
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