Chapter 83

“You’ve… grown.” There was a long bout of silence.

I felt that if I spoke first, it might give the faery queen some excuse to try to attack me, so I made sure to wait patiently until she spoke first. I still kept my mouth shut, giving a deliberate nod of my head instead.

“Has your tongue been cut out, speak!” She stood up and screamed.

I took a step back, shocked at her sudden outburst. She was staring at me like she wanted to jump across the room and tear me apart. I had to admit that it was somewhat frightening. After a second, she smoothed out her skirt and then sat back down on the throne, acting like she didn’t just scream. I decided to use that moment to ask. I theorized since she had an outburst, that she would be more restrained at this moment, not wanting another one. Thus, it seemed like the best moment to ask.

“What did you do with my mother?”

As soon as the words were out, I felt a vibration in the room. The woman closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them again. I could see her hand gripping the arm of her chair tightly as if she was trying to control herself. Was it so difficult? Perhaps I had miscalculated things a bit. My mind worked furiously trying to figure out how to get out of this in one piece. Already, I was beginning to doubt that an alliance would be possible. As I thought furiously, the faery queen began to speak.

“She is not your mother. I am.” Her voice came out coldly this time, although there was a strain to it like she was trying to force herself to remain cool-headed.

“She is the one who raised me,” I answered cautiously. “I would like to know if she is safe.”

“What if she isn’t?” She demanded. “What would it matter? I created her. I am her.”

“You are not her…”

“I created her from myself. We have the same appearance, the same personality. How am I different?”

I wasn’t sure where this woman was going with her questioning. I would strongly question the assessment that they had the same personality, but even ignoring that, this wasn’t a difficult question to answer.

“I believe that it is the experiences that make people who they are. The experiences that I have had with her cannot be manufactured. She is Mother because she is the one who has been there for me, and as a result, she cannot be replaced. From the moment you created her, she has gone on to live her own life and become her person.

“Every day the two of you lived in a different world, you continued to deviate from each other. She lived a difficult life. She was seen by the entire castle as a pale imitation.”

“She is a pale imitation.”

“Mother has fought to keep me safe. No one did her any favors, yet she had to use her cunning and her wits to get by. While you lived the life of a queen here, she had to protect me, someone who is hated by everyone. Whether it be assassins, usurpers, or xenophobes, she did everything in her power to keep me safe. It is only through her efforts that I can stand before you today. A pale imitation? I don’t see it that way. You only wish you could be her.”

As soon as I said those last words, I felt a sudden cold. I realized instantly that I had spoken too far. I didn’t intend to become so impassioned, but it was perhaps her dismissal that I had caused me to speak out.

“Wish I could be her?” Her words came in a completely deadpan voice. “Why would I want to be a dead woman?”

Her words hung in the air for a moment. I had heard what she said, and I wasn’t the kind of person who would pretend I didn’t hear something because it was too horrible. It was quite the opposite. I felt a rising pain and anger in my chest. It felt every bit as powerful to me as whatever she was using to pressure me.

“You killed her?” I asked.

She slowly stood up, and then lifted her chin. “What if I did?”

“Heh…”

That was the only word that I got out as I lunged across the room. I never expected to reach the woman. I couldn’t even really say what was going through my mind. I usually wasn’t so impulsive, but when it came to that woman, I couldn’t control myself. The thought that she was dead, just like that, taken from right in front of me and unceremoniously killed by the very person who made her, was far too laughable. I had come so far in this world and had so much more I needed to do, but I threw all of my planning away as I attacked.

I didn’t even think to pull my sword, although they hadn’t taken it from me when they restrained me earlier. Perhaps, they didn’t think I’d be able to use it in those restraints, but I was so furious that I couldn’t even think about such a weapon. I didn’t know who was more surprised, the faery queen, or me as I reached her and she still hadn’t tossed me back with magic. Her body that should have seemed as frightening as a monster suddenly felt as light as air.

She fell back, or perhaps it was more accurate to say that I fell on top of her. We slammed to the side of the throne, my hands wrapping around her neck. Her eyes were wide open, but that didn’t hold any fear. Was she just toying with me? Was she letting me get this close to harming her just so that she could pull the victory away from me and taunt me with how ineffectual I was?

My hand began to tighten on her neck, and still, she stared up at me, her eyes filled with neither hate nor fear. I might have been strangling a porcelain doll for all the effect it was having on her. However, I could feel her airway being blocked. It was only when wet drops fell on her face that I realized I was crying, and it was only when I felt the pain in my throat that I realized I had been screaming.

“You killed her! You killed her!” Those were the hoarse words still flying out my mouth.

Her eyes started to close. I tightened my grip even harder. It was at that moment I felt someone grab me from behind. Even if I was being stabbed with a sword, I wouldn’t have stopped, but I heard a voice next to my ear, and it was so shocking that my grip instantly released.

“I’m okay, sweetie.”

“M-mom?” I turned, to see another woman standing right behind me, her hands on my shoulders and a slightly awkward smile on her face.

She had a larger chest and a shapelier body. She also lacked the typical features of a faery. Otherwise, she looked exactly like the faery queen.

I couldn’t stop myself from stumbling back. Blood was still pumping through my ears and confusion crested my face. As soon as I got off of the queen, she scrambled on her hands and knees away. She immediately fled behind the chair. I reached out to Mom, feeling like perhaps I was seeing a mirage, but she stood up and walked past me, heading behind the chair.

“It’s okay! It’s okay, Aurica…” Mom was focused entirely on the woman I had just been choking.

Feeling extremely confused, I slowly crawled around the platform that the throne-like chair was sitting on, slowly unveiling the faery queen. She was huddled behind the chair, her arms wrapped around her legs and holding them as she rocked back and forth.

“He touched me… he touched me… I felt his skin.” She spoke in a barely inaudible whining voice.

“Good job… kind of… I mean… physical contact, right?” Mom looked extremely awkward as she put her hands out in the soothing gesture, although she didn’t touch the other woman.

“It took my breath away…” The faery queen panted.

“It’s cause he was choking you…”

“I don’t mind… he can choke me all he wants… does he choke you?”

“Not even once…” Mom’s voice sounded disappointed.

“What the hell is going on?” I finally couldn’t stop myself from asking.

Both women turned to look at me, almost like they had forgotten I was there. The faery queen let out a squeak, and then started crawling around the chair, hiding behind it again. After a moment, her head poked out the side, and she started to silently watch me.

“Baby… didn’t you go a bit too far jumping on her like that? You overstimulated your other mother.”

I frowned. “She said you were dead.”

“Hmm? Dead?” Mom threw a bewildered look in the direction of the faery queen.

“Death and life are only illusions. What is dead can’t be alive, and what is alive can’t be dead.” The faery queen responded in a confused matter.

“That doesn’t answer anything.” I snapped back, causing the woman to hide her head behind the throne again.

“Sweetie, calm down.” Mother turned to me. “It’s alright. This is just your mother. This is her.”

“You’re my mother!”

Mom smiled at me. “To think, you would get so upset over thinking I’m dead. Is it wrong that I’m a little happy?”

“Mom…”

She walked behind the chair and then reached down. I tensed, but as she whispered into the other woman’s ear, and then slowly stood her up, she looked over at me again. Clinging to her, trying to hide behind her, was the faery queen. I thought when I first saw her that she was elegant, powerful, and beautiful. However, now she appeared jittery, weak, and broken. The contrast was far too much, but Mother’s next words were enough to cause me to grow cold.

“We’re your mother.” She declared.

“I… don’t understand.”

“I think you do…” She stroked the faery queen gently. “I think you understand too well.”

I closed my eyes for a moment, letting out a long sigh, and then opened them again. “How?”

“Only the gods can create life. Even the Celestials never figured it out.”

“They created faerys, didn’t they?” I asked. “Baba told me that they knew the gods.”

“Even with the knowledge of the gods, there were limits to what they could do. Rather than make the faerys, they put faerys together. Faerys were created from an assortment of other creatures.” Mom explained. “They are closer to chimera than a truly unique species.”

“This is why when they breed with humans, they create so many offshoot species!” I immediately jumped to the logical conclusion.

Mom nodded. “Beastkin, elves, dwarves, and devils, or at least a part of them, were the products of failed weapons. The celestials managed to find a way to use those parts to create the faery. What they never anticipated was that mixing human blood with those other traits would cause so many stable offshoot species. Each offshoot species has a trait of faerys. The beastkin got their strength and ferociousness. The elves got their magical strength and agility. The dwarves got their creativity and intelligence. The devils…”

“The addictive blood? The bonding? That’s a trait the faery have?” I frowned. “Does that mean that the faery are immune to devil blood?”

“Not exactly,” She made a face. “The traits were amplified in each of the species. Faerys have a hypnotic presence for anyone around them. Whether it is their smell, their taste, or their appearance, they are considered incredibly attractive and nearly irresistible to humans. It’s one of the reasons faeries remain separated from the human race and cover themselves when out in public.”

I considered her words carefully. “I admit they are a bit more attractive than normal, but I wouldn’t say they were particularly beautiful.”

I had read such things as well about faerys. They were described mostly for their beauty and seeming perfection. However, I had met several faery by now, and they had never impressed me. I had concluded that the writings were either from someone who was only passing tales, or perhaps a fanboy. Either way, I had treated the entire situation as an exaggeration.

“That’s because you’re a devil,” Mom responded. “The devil blood is far more potent than the faery blood. Anyone who has seemingly touched devil’s blood is no longer affected by their natural glamour.”

“So, there is more than one reason the devils are hated by the celestials…” I sighed. “They can’t be controlled by the faery. Furthermore, it seems all of the women I have been with have already been exposed to me and my blood. So, the reason they haven’t been acting confused is that they were all inoculated. I wonder about Captain Moar. He hasn’t been acting odd of late either, I wonder…”

“Baba slipped something into Captain Moar’s drink one night on our way here. She might have given him some of your blood.”

It would be like Baba to silently do things without ever explaining herself. I hadn’t even realized it, but we had walked right into a viper pit. Had any normal group walked in, they would have been taken away and overwhelmed by the beauty of the faeries. It was no wonder that they were so standoffish with my group. They were used to humans and other demihumans groveling at their feet. They weren’t used to being engaged on the same level. They had to have known that they had all been infected with my blood, and so they looked at us with disgust and trepidation. Mom watched me quietly as if waiting for my reaction.

I slowly shook my head. “This still doesn’t explain anything regarding that woman. How is she you?”

The woman I naturally meant was the faery queen, who was still crouching behind the throne, muttering to herself. Mom had said they were the same person, but I only had some theories, and what she said didn’t explain that. The celestials and the faery couldn’t create people. Wait! If someone couldn’t be created, then how was Mother made?

Mom seemed to recognize the flash in my eyes, and she gave a small smile. “Yes, Aurica ultimately lied. She claimed that she had used her magic, the same way the celestials lied and claimed they had made faerys. However, she didn’t have an inheritance from the gods of leftover and abandoned projects to pull from. She only had one thing she could pull from… do you know what that is?”

“Herself…” I responded, a tingly feeling shooting throughout my body.

Aurica cut out a piece of herself. She cut out her mind and her body, and then she put them into a human construct. She couldn’t create life, but she could divide what was already there. I’m not a copy of Aurica, I’m not her doppelganger. I’m the missing pieces.”

“I don’t…” I shook my head. “I don’t understand. If you’re my mother, then my mother hated me. She was driven insane with hatred upon my birth.”

“That’s not true,” Mom responded. “Your mother loved you. I know this because I love you. Actually, upon birth, her blood and your blood mixed. You know what happens when a devil child is born, don’t you?”

I went cold. “The mother… becomes compelled to take care of it. It’s like, she becomes obsessed with it. You’re not saying…”

“The birth was bad, and Aurica fell for you so hard, and loved you so much, that she knew that she would end up hurting you. That’s why she tore apart her own body and soul. She put a fraction of her love, just the parts that she knew could do the job, into me, and then she self-isolated herself until you were a grown man.”

As Mom spoke, my eyes went to Aurica, the faery queen. As soon as they met, she diverted her eyes again, hiding behind the throne. I had always thought the creation of Mother was an afterthought, a small bone a hateful woman threw to her son for her honor before casually taking off and abandoning him. In all of that time, it had never occurred to me that it would have been a sacrifice she had to make.

Aurica had become a broken lunatic, driven mad by her love for me. That also explained many other things. When Lucille ended up becoming obsessed with me, she was sent to the only woman who knew her pain and could help her cope with it. Everything I thought I had known about the woman had been torn apart.

“Mom…” I asked quietly, a serious expression on my face.

“Yes, my love?”

“If my sisters… If anyone else I’ve impregnated, if they have the children, will they be driven insane as well?”

“They will not.”

I turned to her. “What?”

“Do you think that we haven’t thought long and hard on this?” Mom asked. “We’ve created magic that will allow the baby to be born safely. However, it’s something only Aurica has the power to do. It must be used during birth.”

“This is why she is holding onto Olivia.”

Mom nodded. “As soon as she felt the baby in Olivia, she decided to allow its birth, just as she did for… ah!”

“Just as she did for… for what?” I asked.

“Sweetie, it’s probably not a good time for that. There is something more pressing.”

“More pressing? What do you mean, more pressing?”

“It’s the reason Aurica had you come so quickly. It can only happen once every ten years, and it just so happens that it will happen in two days.”

“What will happen?”

“An event that will allow us to fix what is broken.”

“Fix… Aurica?”

“In two days, we will become whole again.”

“What? Wh-why?” I realized as soon as I said it that it came off as kind of selfish.

Aurica, the other woman, had hurt herself substantially. Now that I am grown, why wouldn’t she take back the piece of her soul? Why wouldn’t she fix the damage to her mind and body? However, wouldn’t that mean my Mother would be gone? How could I allow that?

“Because you’re grown now…” The answer didn’t come from Mom, but from Aurica, who was wearing a dangerous smile on her face. “My son is now old enough to receive my love!”