Chapter 419: A Gentle Reminder
Call Mom.
The obvious answer staring me in the face that somehow I couldn’t see. A speed dial away, the solution to this whole predicament just shuffling about in my pants pocket.
Why didn’t I think of it? Really, I should have been the one to suggest the idea, considering circumstances... and yet, I didn’t once consider to even think of her. Why didn’t I?
“Terestra...” Irene glanced at me, a distinct, palpable weight to her stare. “Calling your mother, it’s... it’s an idea, but, if she couldn’t help us with the Blight before, then surely, for this, well,” She looked uncertain about the prospect. “Could she?”
That’s right. There’s a reason she couldn’t just magic away all our inconveniences with a quick simple flick of her wrist.
Magic means noise, and noise means attention – and the last thing she wanted for herself, for her whole family, was attention – particularly from beings otherworldly that I’ve yet to still wrap my head around. A family reunion that undoubtedly wouldn’t end well.
But... for this... I mean, this wasn’t Blight, this wasn’t big, this wasn’t a potential world-ending catastrophe that needed strength beyond strength to overcome, this was – this was small time compared to that, wasn’t it? Literally, a fragment, a fraction of what came before, so... maybe this wouldn’t even count, maybe, maybe she could.
.....
Could she?
Ring-around back to the same question Irene just asked, but as for the answer to that question, well...
“I’ll ask her.”
Almost too aware of it, I felt a finger at a time reach into my pocket, and pull my phone out in a numbing grip.
I guess it was kind of a testament to her legacy, that bringing up her name alone could plunge the room to an eerie, deafening quiet.
Well, almost to a quiet.
“Trying again?” Harry asked, cocking his head at me like a curious child. “I’m starting to think you do want me alive.”
He went ignored, and I began to tap and swipe my way over to her, and to my momentary surprise, there she was sitting at the top of my call history, as one of the names recently contacted.
Oh yeah, we did already talk to each other just yesterday, didn’t we?
Me sitting there in that corner cubicle, talking about Sammy. It wasn’t even that long ago, but yet some part of me felt as if I hadn’t actually spoken with her that time, that I had been speaking with someone else... someone that wasn’t actually my mother.
Must be a really asshole-y, conceited prick that small piece of me was to be even thinking that shit in the first place.
Without hesitating for another second, I had the phone against my ear, and every passing beep of the dial tone had my hearing straining more and more acutely, and it certainly didn’t help that Adalia and Amelia were both in complete unison with their gazes, they wouldn’t stop looking at me, looking at my phone.
I wonder when was the last time they’ve even talked to each other since then... Terestra and them.
A sharp click abruptly cut the beeping short, and the next moment, I heard that same gentle tone I’ve come to know for all my life, still the same, never having been someone else, always her same loving voice greeting me first, “Good morning! Sleep well, sleepyhead?”
Waking up at home, and shambling to the kitchen, it was the same morning ‘hello’ she’d always used, and like clockwork, I’d always answer back, voice as gruff as can be, “Well as I could.”
She’d always smile at that, and even right then, I could hear that same smile present in the sound of her voice, “This is unexpected, another phone call so soon after the last? Well, I can’t say I’m not pleased by it... but what’s happened? Feeling homesick already, dear?”
Hearing her so carefree somehow in turn made everything else feel not as bad as they seem. A mother’s voice, I suppose... the most powerful magical spell of all.
“No, that’s not... um...” I just realized it was hard having a conversation with her when you got four unblinking pairs of eyes on you scrutinizing your every word, but I tried my best anyway. “Listen, I have a problem that I need your help with.”
“A problem,” At once, her nonchalance turned to great concern. “Is Samantha okay over there? You didn’t – ?”
“Sammy’s fine, it’s not that kind of problem,” I said. “It’s another kind of problem, you know the kind.”
She did. Immediately, she did.
“Ah, I see...” there was a sound of a chair scraping nearby. “I suppose it’s a good thing I made my morning coffee first. Fill me in, why don’t you? I’ll try and help you in any way I can.”
No doubt the hardest part about the whole conversation was just figuring out where to start with everything, starting over, rephrasing, backtracking, stammering, my explanation had it all – and it was an absolute miracle Mom even managed to keep up with me at all.
When I was finally done, everybody in unison seemed to kinda lean in just a little bit closer, especially the twins, actually mostly the twins... just that eager to hear her solution, or maybe they just wanted to hear her voice in general...
Maybe they should, really... after all this time.
Unprompted, I placed my phone onto the desk, switched it to loudspeaker, and made sure the volume was all the way up. Now everyone could hear her. Amelia gave a look, Adalia did too, confused – but then all was made clear to them a moment right after.
“Oh, you sound very troubled by all this, don’t you?” Mom’s gentle voice rang in the air. “I really do wish you didn’t have to be dealing with all this all the time.”
Both the vampires held their breath, I could physically see the way their gazes soften and their bodies tense just by the sound of her voice alone. There was certainly a story there somewhere, but now wasn’t the time to delve into it just yet.
“I just want this over with as quick as possible,” I said, exasperated beyond belief. “And we’ve exhausted all our other options here.”
“And that’s where I come in, I see,” She said a little wryly. “Very well, I can see that you’re very desperate, aren’t you? You normally never ask for help, even with financial problems.”
“Mother?” A voice, Harry leaned out from his chair still retaining that childlike curiosity, and Irene made instantly for his direction. “Is that your mother on the phone? Hello, mother! Are you there? Can you hear me speaking to – mmph!”
“Be quiet!” Irene hissed, pressing her hand against his mouth in a claw-like grip.
“Oh? Was that the parasite speaking just now?” Mom asked nonchalantly. “My, he really does sound like one, doesn’t he? It’s been so long since I’ve heard one – why, hello, yes, I can hear you speak! It’s nice to meet you! Can you hear me too?”
I was momentarily stunned – it just wouldn’t register in my head no matter how many times it’s battered into me... that my mother has been a long-time part of this bizarre new world I found myself in. Of course, this was all trivial to her... just as much as a morning coffee was.
“Yes, I can hear you!” Harry replied, wriggling his face and lips free from Irene’s grip. “Your son is very talented by the way, very magical. I’ve been told he has a very good potential to be a high threat to our plans. Whatever that means.”
Mom chuckled. “Why, thank you. You’re very kind to say that.”
“Is it you?” He continued to ask, not a single one of us seemingly wanting to stop him. “Is it because of you he’s like this?”
“Well, I can hardly take all the credit. After all it takes two for a labor of love, doesn’t it?”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“It’s okay,” She responded lightly. “You won’t stay long enough in that body to have to know.”
“Oh,” Harry tilted his eyes, nudging himself just a little bit closer to my phone. “Are you the one that’s going to get rid of me?”
“It seems I am, yes,” She said, pausing in-between her words to take a sip. “After all, my son did ask me for my help... how am I ever to say no to that?”
That’s when I decided to step in again, make myself be heard, “So there’s a way?”
“Of course there’s a way, silly.”
It was like a weight had just been lifted off my shoulder, like a balloon was swelling in my chest, growing larger and larger. A hope, a way out...
“Alright,” I said, nodding attentively. “So what’s the – ?”
“Kill him.”
I... I think I misheard. She said it so gently, so politely... I must have misheard. I had to... so I asked again, slower this time, “What’s the way?”
“You’ve already had the right idea all along, dear,” She said, and I felt that balloon slowly deflating, that weight again gradually crushing. “A fused soul – you can’t split them apart, you can only destroy it.”
“But you can, you can!” I said at once, hearing the urgency, the panic, returning in my voice. “Can’t you?”
“With my magic, you mean? Then, of course.”
“Then why – ?”
“Oh, I’m sure you already know why, dear... there’s no way that you don’t.”
I clenched my teeth. “But if it’s only a little...”
“A little is still a risk,” She interjected, her voice staying its soft, gentle tone. “And it is a risk that I am not willing to take. He is only a man – a lovely, caring man, I’m sure, and it is unfortunate what has happened to him, but above all else, you and your sister are what matters to me most, your father would say the same.”
It was slipping, the situation was slipping out of my grasp. This wasn’t making any sense to me at all. Who the hell was the one that told me to help others? To be kind? To be good? To always do what’s right?
“You could try, couldn’t you?”
“Perhaps, yes,” She replied. “Maybe things would work out fine, maybe I could be just concerned over nothing, and maybe it wouldn’t be enough magic to cause a stir, maybe. But why should I risk that for someone I do not care about?”
Why was she saying the wrong things now?
“It’s the right thing to do, Mom!”
“Not to me.”
I heaved a breath. “I told you he has a family, didn’t I? A daughter, a son?”
“Yes, and so do I. And I’ll do anything to protect them both.”
“Even if it means letting an innocent person die?” I spoke this into the receiver, without thought, without sense, and apparently, it seems I’ve completely forgotten who exactly it was that I was speaking to.
“Of course I would,” Terestra said. “After all, I’ve done it many countless times before, haven’t I?”
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