Okayyyy! Update - finally! With school and work and life and family and crap, I will *NOT* be updating regularly. Sorry. This is a hobby, which means it doesn't even make my to-do list during the school year XD
bianagirl1020: thanks so much! I appreciate your support!
shygirl: thanks! Love the username
DaBeanieGurl: So, this chapter is for you because you commented three times and, if I'm being real, I wouldn't have updated if you hadn't commented recently and reminded me to get on it :) So thanks! 3
"When we were young souls
On the junkyard
Now we are stunned minds
Full of junk-goods..."
-Flashed Junk Mind, Milky Chance
The streets of Mysterium were wide and winding, lined with sprawling shops and restaurants, where elves of all ages, skin colors, and genders lined up to scan their little cubes in exchange for weird foods and extremely elaborate clothing. The darkening night was offset by the little glinting lights that looked suspiciously like gems embedded in the smooth stones under Aeron's feet, and the swarms of glowing butterflies that wound their way through the streets.
Reese pulled her hand out of Aeron's as if it had burned her, and she made a show of wiping it off on her jeans as Biana tucked her pathfinder into the pocket of her gown. "Mom, can we pick up a nexus for Aeron while we're here? So I don't have to do that ever again."
Biana suppressed a smile. "It's nothing personal, Aeron. Reese is generally averse to holding hands with-"
"Mom, you've got it wrong." Reese eyed Aeron. "It's definitely personal. It's exceedingly personal. Do you know how sweaty his hands get when he's concentrating?"
Aeron flushed and discreetly wiped his hands on his jeans. Reese giggled. "Don't worry. My Uncle Fitz's hands used to sweat uncontrollably-"
"Only around Sophie," Biana muttered.
"And he's still got tons of girls flinging themselves at him. It won't ruin your chances."
Aeron scowled, his face completely scarlet. "Yuck."
"But your breath might-" Reese continued, rubbing her chin.
"That's enough, Reese," Biana scolded, leading the way down the street.
Reese grinned at Aeron. "If you say so," she retorted, flipping her curls over her shoulder and winking at Aeron before hurrying after Biana.
Aeron strode after them, trying to control his out-of-control blush.
As they made their way down the street, multiple elves stopped Biana, making pleasant conversation. The look on their faces was more than just pleasant, however - there was a sort of fevered excitement in their eyes that resembled a fan meeting their idol. The farther they walked, the more elves came up, until Biana had a small crowd around her. Aeron dropped back further and further, making space for the mob of people separating him from his guide.
Reese noticed him lagging behind and dropped her conversation with one of the elves to go walk with him.
"Biana's pretty famous," she explained matter-of-factly, tucking her hands into her pockets.
Aeron kept his mouth shut, thinking that "Why" would sound pretty stupid.
"It was the war, you know," Reese continued. "It made some people super famous and a lot more people infamous. And mom and dad were some of the famous ones."
"What did they do?" asked Aeron, intrigued.
"Well, mom was like, an epic spy. She worked with Uncle Tam a lot. But she spent most of her time on strategy with your mom and Maruca. And dad, well… you'd have to talk to him about it, because I'm only just learning. But he was the head Technopath and, along with Sophie and my mom and Maruca, one of the head strategists. He pretty much single-handedly devised the strategy for the final battle, where they stormed the Neverseen's last hideout. Of course, Uncle Tam tipped them off, because Marella told him, because they'd kidnapped Aunt Linh, but dad still was in charge of pretty much the whole operation -"
"Hold on!" Aeron protested, because now she was rambling. "You're saying my mom was, well - what was she?"
A sudden realization lit in Reese's eyes, and she bit her lip. "Um, so, I'm sorry, but I'm kind of under strictest orders not to, um, mention your parents or anything until Marella had a chance to talk to you first, so I'm sorry for bringing this up-"
"Reese! That was before I knew about all the elf stuff." Aeron heaved an exasperated breath. "And Marella has had a chance to talk to me! She didn't tell me a single thing about Sophie, and she's my mom. Why wouldn't you be allowed to tell me now?"
Reese glanced at her mom, walking ahead of them and considered Aeron's argument.
"...Fine," she decided after a brief pause.
They had slackened pace, and now Reese sped up, as if to shorten the amount of time Aeron could question her. "Sophie was, well, the driving force behind the Black Swan for a long time. She was pretty much their mascot, but unlike a mascot, she also had to lead and support everybody. And it was too much."
"So?" Aeron prompted.
Reese hesitated again. "I really don't know if I'm supposed to…"
"Reese, please." Aeron grabbed her shoulder, jerking her to a stop. "Please," he repeated, his voice pleading.
Reese shook him off and continued down the street. "...She kind of went crazy," she said in a low voice, so Aeron had to strain to hear her.
"What?"
"Not crazy, per se," she quickly amended. "She just, well, cracked under the pressure. On top of all the pressure of leading, she'd just gotten into a huge fight with the Black Swan because she'd finally destroyed one of their hideouts after trying to get the upper hand for years."
"What the heck was wrong with that?"
Reese rolled her eyes. "Apparently Grady and Forkle thought that she'd done something super dangerous, which was supposedly a huge issue-"
Aeron snorted. "Wait, wasn't she supposed to be the leader? So why did it matter what they-"
"And," Reese pushed on, "they essentially blamed her for starting a war that would have global implications."
"Hold on. I thought the - whatever they're called - started it?"
"The Neverseen," Reese filled in. "And…yeah. They'd already killed several important people and almost fatally wounded pretty much all of the Black Swan members you've met."
Aeron frowned. "So… basically these leaders didn't know what they were doing and were afraid of fighting, so they decided to blame everything on my mom even though they're the ones who made her the leader in the first place? … How does that make any sense?"
Reese shrugged.
"So basically these hypocritical jerks decided to shunt all the guilt of leadership onto Mom, plus some extra, and she couldn't take it anymore?" Aeron clarified.
Reese grimaced. "Yeah. And also - please try to be kind of polite, at least. You're talking about people I'm friends with."
Aeron frowned. "Why are you friends with those-" he bit his lip and found a better word "-people?"
Reese gave him an odd look. "You really don't know anything, do you?"
Aeron resisted the childish urge to stick out his tongue. "Please, tell me everything I don't know and then rub it in my face," he said sarcastically.
Reese bit her tongue. "Aeron," she said carefully, "Mr. Forkle is the head of the Black Swan, which, bad policies aside, did win the war against the Neverseen. And Grady, well - he's your grandfather."
Aeron laughed. "No, that's not his name. My grandparents are William and Emma Foster…" He trailed off, and he stopped as he realized what she was saying.
Reese winced, anticipating his reaction.
"William and Emma Foster… they're my grandparents. Right?" he asked, hushed.
"Aeron," she began slowly, "You know you're an elf. So…"
"So they're elves too?" Aeron exclaimed. "Why didn't they ever tell me?" And to think that all that time I was hiding my ability so they wouldn't find out!
Reese frowned. "Not…exactly-"
"What do you mean, not exactly?" Aeron demanded.
She rolled her eyes and gave up on subtlety. "No, Aeron, they're not your real grandparents. Your mom was adopted by humans as an embryo."
His expression was so horrified that she hurried to amend her statement. "Oh no, that's not what I meant… I mean, they were having trouble having kids, so Forkle, in disguise as a doctor…" she trailed off as his expression worsened. "Look, Aeron, some freaky stuff went on with your mom, OK, I'll admit it, but it's not like it sounds-"
But by this time the majority of the crowd had dispersed, and Biana finally got wind of what they were talking about. She hurried over and gave Reese her most ominous "we'll talk about this later" look. Reese immediately shut up and gave Aeron a dirty look, since it was clearly his fault she was talking about this at all.
Biana led them through the streets for a few minutes of awkward silence, standing between them to deter any attempted conversation. She seemed to be trying to compose herself.
"Well, here we are," she finally said, stopping and pointing across the street. She turned to Aeron, a weary look in her eyes. "Well, what do you think?"
Reese nudged Aeron, stirring him out of his reverie. He turned where Biana was pointing and was suddenly speechless.
Before him stood an eyesore of eyesores, a row of hideous buildings six stories tall, proudly displaying their garishness. The block flashed all different colors of the rainbow, their loud neon lights reflecting off of buildings three blocks away, standing in stark contrast to their smaller, more tasteful neighbors. The roof was one massive jungle gym, boasting three-story slides, swinging bridges that hung over the streets between buildings, and loudspeakers that blasted music with heavy beats and incoherent lyrics. And, spanning the entire row of buildings, there hung seventeen gargantuan letters that read "SLURPS AND BURPS INC."
This final, ominous picture was made complete as someone's child, yelling incoherently, launched themselves over the edge of the roof (there was no railing). Aeron screamed, but the parents in the crowd around him simply sighed and exchanged exasperated looks.
Seconds before he hit the pavement, the child disappeared with a pop. After a minute, the child appeared at the edge of the roof again, laughing. He waved for his friends to join him and jumped off the roof again, once again disappearing with a little pop right before he hit the pavement.
Aeron slowly unclenched his fists and took a breath. Biana nudged him and tried to smile, her expression strained. "Try to relax," she said softly. "Remember, you're in the Lost Cities now."
With that final, less-than-reassuring reminder, Biana headed toward the main entrance, Reese and Aeron in tow.
As they approached the main doors, Aeron found himself hoping that whatever he found inside would be somewhat less startling. But, like Biana said, he was in the Lost Cities now, which meant that anything was possible.