Chapter 21: Illusion I
"You!!" Pointing her fingers on his face, she glared at him, her face burning with anger.
She spun around on her tiny feet, sprinting toward a beautiful middle-aged lady who was sharing tea with her friend—another equally elegant woman. Clinging onto her mother's waist, Anna scrunched up her face in an exaggerated pout, pointing dramatically at Cassian as if he had committed a heinous cri.
"Mom, he's saying an things about !" she whined.
Cassian, unfazed by her antics, approached the two won with a calm deanor. Bowing slightly, he greeted them with impeccable politeness. "Good morning, Aunt Rebecca."
"Good morning, Mom."
His composed manners earned him a pair of approving smiles from both ladies.
"Cassian, we were just talking about you," Rebecca said warmly, gesturing to an empty chair. "Co join us." She then looked down at Anna and playfully smiled at her.
She lifted Anna with ease, placing her right beside Cassian.
"Hmph." Anna stuck out her tongue at him, turning away with a childish sulk.
Cassian rely smirked, resting his chin on his hand as he watched her antics. He had known her for almost five years and knew almost everything about her by now. Her acting won't work on him and he too was sensible enough not to truly hurt her feelings.
"Stupid," she muttered under her breath.
The ladies chatted with eachother while the kids were in their own world. Sotis, Anna would poke at him, trying to play so pranks on him. Sadly, her pranks failed each ti, causing her to glare at him in frustration.
Watching the kid's shenanigans, Rebecca grasped the mont and leaned slightly toward Seraphina.
"Hey Sera, I have a wonderful idea," Rebecca remarked, facing Seraphina's gaze.
"Go on." She muttered, with a curious look.
"Should we engage both of them? They look so good around each other. They will be the perfect husband and wife." She continued, her eyes twinkling with playfulness.
She had already planned the idea of engaging both of them and was just waiting for the right mont. Seraphina was her best friend and she knew, her friend too had a similar idea.
They were just testing to see if their children were compatible with each other and decided based on the observation.
"Hmm...Why do I feel you were planning this from the beginning?" She raised her brows with a questioning look.
Rebecca feigned innocence. "Is it that obvious?"
Sensing the suspicious gaze from Seraphina's eyes. She nodded her head in approval, "I can't hide anything from you."
"You sure can't, I have known you since we were just a little child."
Seraphina sighed. "You've never been subtle."
Rebecca only grinned. "So? What do you say?"
Seraphina took a slow sip of her tea, her gaze flickering to the two children. Anna was still pouting, while Cassian rely observed her with the patience of soone who had long accepted her dramatics.
A small smile tugged at her lips. "Alright."
Her gaze fell on Rebecca, who was smiling ear to ear with happiness. 'You already knew the answer anyway.' Her mind wondered, thinking about her friend's promise.
"Mom," Anna suddenly piped up, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. "Why are you smiling like that?"
Her senses were telling her that they were talking about sothing related to her.
"Nothing, dear," Seraphina replied smoothly, patting her daughter's head. "You'll find out soon enough."
'You might fool everyone but you can't fool , dear. I already know you have so feelings for him.'
She thought, watching her daughter's interaction with Cassian.
The afternoon sun painted the sky in hues of gold and crimson, casting long shadows across the garden terrace where laughter had once filled the air. But as ti passed, sothing began to feel... off.
Cassian had always been sensitive to shifts in the atmosphere, and now, an unsettling stillness crept into his senses like a whisper in the wind.
Then he saw it.
His mother—Seraphina—sat eerily still, her teacup held mid-air as though frozen in ti. Her long, delicate fingers trembled slightly.
"Mom." Cassian got up from his seat and approached Seraphina, his face solemn and scared.
"Yes, dear."
"Why are you crying?" Cassian's breath caught in his throat, his tone slowly morphing from confusion to sheer horror. He gaped at the sight before him, an utterly grotesque sight beyond anything he'd ever seen.
In front of him, Seraphina lay on the chair, her face bent down to match his gaze. Her smile stretched from one end of her cheek to another. But it wasn't the kind of smile that ward his heart. It wasn't the soft, knowing look she gave him when he did well. It wasn't the proud curve of her lips when he exceeded expectations. No, this smile was different.
It was stretched too wide, unnatural.
Her round blue eyes, instead of emitting a calm, peaceful aura, emitted a malicious, bloody aura. They shed tears of darkness, pitch-black liquid dripped down from her eyes and ears, radiating an intense cursed energy.
The cursed energy slowly enveloped Cassian's body like a thick cocoon, trying to suffocate him to death. Feeling the abyss-like darkness around him, he gritted his teeth, trying to move, trying to breathe. His golden eyes flickered, burning against the creeping abyss that threatened to consu him.
A sharp pulse ran through his veins, igniting sothing deep within him. His eyes, reflecting the pure, divine sun inside them burned brightly and a golden light erupted from his body. The sacred light intertwined with the darkness and cleansed them from the filth. The suffocating darkness recoiled, shrieking as tendrils of light lashed against it like divine chains breaking through the abyss.
Cassian gasped for air, his mind clearing the black fog around him.
His face morphed from pure horror a minute ago, to relief and calm. He glared at the entity before him and asked, "Who are you?"
"..."
It stared at him with those abyss-like eyes, scrutinizing the golden light that had managed to pierce through its darkness.
Matching its eyes with Cassian's, it slowly opened its mouth.
"Are you the Apostle of the Ancient Sun?" The entity spoke, its voice broken and almost incomprehensible to Cassian's ears. The voice scraped against his mind, distorted and fragnted, as if it ca from multiple mouths at once.
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