Aurora's Mother (2)

Aurora looked like a statue as she seemed to just blink rapidly with surprise. In fact, Leon could tell she was breathing very rapidly. She continued to look surprised as Radiant Light continued.

He then started to explain what was on the scroll.

"If you have any doubts, you can take a look at this scroll. Although our technology may not be on par as the Coalitions or Partha's, we still have our ways of capturing an image."

Leon looked surprised as the scroll contained an almost perfect capture of an image like the one he had of his parents, however, the quality was still a little subpar.

But, he took a look at where Radiant Light was pointing at on the scroll and saw an extremely beautiful woman who looked almost exactly like Aurora, but she looked a lot more mature and elegant.

Radiant Light gave a smile that expressed his nostalgic feelings.

"You look almost exactly like your mother, Aurora. That's why the moment you stepped into the council, I already had some inkling of who you were. It was because you were the spitting image of Adsila"

It had almost been a minute since Aurora had spaced out as the shock completely overwhelmed her, but eventually, she looked up with her eyes watering.

"Then you are...my grandpa?"

Radiant Light nodded and Aurora went over to hug him. They shared a heartfelt moment as tears streamed down Aurora's face, while even the elder looked emotional and started to tear up.

Leon didn't say anything and let the two reunited family members take a long-deserved hug. After a while, Radiant Light finally let go and grimaced as he thought about his daughter and looked at Aurora.

"How is Adsila doing now?"

Suddenly, the entire tent went quiet as Leon knew that Aurora's mother had already passed on. Aurora was apprehensive about saying anything until Radiant Light looked at the reaction of the two and guessed what had happened.

"Just tell me, Aurora... I-I can handle it."

Aurora could only comply as she winced about what she was about to say.

"Mother… mother passed away six years ago."

Once again, an ice-cold silence blanketed the heavy atmosphere in the tent. Radiant Light had already come to a similar conclusion but hoped maybe he was wrong. However, his fears were confirmed and he suddenly felt like the world had dropped on him.

With his lips trembling, Radiant Light could barely get the words out.

"Oh…"

After a few minutes, Aurora gently asked a question to probe her grandfather's current state of mind.

"Grandpa, why did mother leave here and not mention anything about you and this place?"

Even though he felt incredibly sad, Radiant Light had a composure unlike anyone Leon had ever met and his voiced had managed to return to normal.

"Your mother didn't exactly leave on the greatest of terms."

Radiant Light sighed as he reflected on the past.

"Before your mother left. She was a well-respected warrior advanced in the ways of magic. She had even earned her title and was called Bright Blossom, but one fateful day sixteen years ago. Things started to go downhill."

Both Aurora and Leon intently listened to the old man speaking.

"That day, she met your father who just so happened to be touring the border, where he bumped into your mother who had gone hunting. From that day, she continued to meet with your father for months until they realized they loved each other."

Radiant Light continued to look off into space.

"However, leaving the tribe is something that's frowned upon. When the council found out that your mother wanted to run away with a foreigner, there was already uproar. What made it even worse was the fact that they found out the foreigner was the grand-duke of our enemy."

Clenching his fist with anger, Radiant Light's brows suddenly scrunched up.

"They wanted to execute your mother, but luckily with my influence, I managed to fight off execution. But that was as much as I could do and she eventually was exiled and left the tribe forever."

Leon felt his heart throb with sadness as he listened to the story, where an almost forbidden loved forced the kind, old man, away from his daughter.

Eventually, Radiant Light's fists unclenched as he gave a little smile towards Aurora.

"I knew that I'd probably never see your mother again and it left a huge hole in my heart. But then one day when I had already given up on the idea, I saw a young little girl who looked exactly like her."

Hearing the old man, even Leon felt a tear start to run down his cheek as he listened to the sad story. Radiant Light stood up and gave a kiss on Aurora's forehead.

"I was planning on doing something else, but let's move it to tomorrow morning. I...I still need to process things."

Radiant Light helped Aurora stand up, while Leon stood up with a little stretch. Eventually, they said their goodbyes and Radiant Light had someone show them their tents which were right next to the elders.

Before he slept, someone delivered food to his tent which he gladly finished and slowly fell asleep on the sleeping bag-like bed that sat in the middle of the tent.

The next day came around in a blink of an eye as someone woke up Leon and gave him some food before he was lead towards Radiant Light's tent again. When he entered through the front flap, he could see that Aurora was already sitting down and talking with the elder.

When Aurora saw Leon enter, she gestured for him to come over.

"Big bro Leon! Come sit down, grandpa was about to help me with something."

Leon sat down on the pillow next to Aurora and looked on the carpet in front of them, which had a bunch of jade-like of varying sizes spread out on the cloth. He noticed that the rocks were almost see-through like a slightly murky piece of glass, but the texture was more akin to a smoothed jade.

With both of them here, Radiant Light sat down opposite of the pair and smiled.

"Let's get started shall we."