Chapter 6: Guilt of The Past

Booker's mother sits beside her daughter, still with her eyes closed, she gently strokes the top of Renata's head, staring at her with a gentle smile on her face.

Booker gazes at Alecia with a wide-eyed look. He takes a few stwps towards her.

"What?" He said with a frown.

"Why would you do that to yourself?"

"What do you expect?" Alecia said with a frown.

"That was the only way to help cure her."

Booker widens his eyes, and frowns.

"Why didn't you switch the virus to me?" He said, taking a step towards her.

"I barely even made it through with myself." She averting her eyes from him.

"It couldn't be done that way." She looks at her own hand and closes it and opens it slowly.

"Then why don't you give it to me now?" Booker said, gesturing his hsnd out.

Alecia looks at him with a glare.

"Don't be stupid." She lowers her hand to her side.

"Do you really want to do that to her? Have her living without her brother, because of a stupid decision like that?"

"What makes your decision any better?" Booker said, narrowing his eyes.

Alecia slowly steps towards him with a frownful gaze into his eyes.

"Remember..." She said, staring up at him.

"You're the one who brought me here, and I did you a huge favor." Her glare urges Booker to move his head back slightly.

"After what you caused, you can be lucky I even did you a favor at all."

"Booker." His mother whispered, which urges him to flick his eyes towards her, he walks past Alecia and walks to his mother.

"She's awake."

Booker steps towards Renata with his gaze now fixed on her face, only yo see her staring at him.

"Hey." He said, sitting down at the edge of her bed.

"How are you feeling?"

Renata slowly sits up from her bed.

"I feel so much better." She said, with a cheerful tone.

She looks at her mother.

"Hey, mom."

"Yes, sweetheart?" She said, moving a few strands of hair behind Renata's one ear.

Renata, looks at Alecia.

"Who is she?" She said, still with a tired look in her eyes.

"Her name is Alecia," her mother said, with a cheerful tone in her voice.

"She was the one who made you better."

"Oh?" Renata said, with a slight wide-eyed look, and turns her gaze to Alecia once more.

She pulls the blanket off herself and swings her legs off the bed.

"Renata?" Her mother said, grabbing her arm.

"You need to rest now."

"No thanks mom." Renata said, and looks at Alecia.

She stands on her bare feet, and slowly walks towards Alecia, while looking at her with a slight smile, which urges Alecia to widen her eyes a bit.

"Thank you." She steps in and gives her a tight hug.

Alecia holds her hands above Renata while looking down at her with a wide-eyed look.

She smiles slightly and wraps her one arm around her.

"I'm happy to help."

Renata pulls away, and looks at Alecia with a cheerful look on her face.

"Hey mom?" She said, looking over her shoulder.

"How long is she going to visit?"

"I don't know." Her mother said stepping towards her.

"Why don't you ask her?"

Renata turns to Alecia, and looks up at her.

"I..." Alecia pauses and looks at Renata's mother and Booker.

"I can't just intrude."

"Why would it be intruding?" The mother said, joining her hands together by her abdomen.

"You have saved my daughter's life..." she looks at Renata, and Alecia.

"I have to repay you back somehow. How about with a hot meal before you go?"

Alecia looks at Renata standing by her mother, and looks at Booker, only to see him staring at her.

"That sounds nice." She said looking at Booker's mother with a slight smile.

"Thank you."

Alecia, turns her the desk with photos on them, she walks towards it and picks up the one photo to look at it, only to see a recent photo of them standing in front of trees with a skyscraper glimmering behind.

The mother is dressed in formal clothing, Booker has a uniform with diamond patterns knitted along the torso and sleeves, with a yellow outline along the sleeves and along the middle of the torso.

"She has nowhere to go, mother." Booker said, standing near the window of the room.

"Oh?" His mother said turning her gaze to him, and looks at Alecia.

"Do you want to spend the night?"

Alecia, looks at her with stunned look on her face

"No I couldn't do that." She said, placing the photo back on the desk.

"I'll rent a room somewhere."

"You sure?" Booker said, standing with his arms crossed.

"Tomorrow is when the empress will arrive, we could all attend it together?"

Alecia, turns to face him, and gives a downcast look with her eyes flickering.

"Okay then." She said, looking up at him, and turns her gaze to his mother. "I'll accept." She gives a alight smile.

"We have a spare room that you can use." Renata said, walking past Alecia.

"Come, I'll show you."

"Renata..." her mother said, with a stern tone in her voice.

"I just want to show her where it is, mom." Renata said, walking backwards in front of Alecia, only to turn around to face forward once more.

Alecia follows her down the orange painted passage, until they reach the one doorway.

They enter the spare-room, only for Alecia to find another single bed, a bookshelf against the wall on the left, and on the other side is pages stuck on the wall which has a verity of drawings on them.

Most of them have sketches of strange patterns while others have detailed sketches of people's faces.

"And these drawings?" Alecia said, staring at the one with a detailed sketch of a woman's face with her long fringe hanging over her one eye.

"Oh, when I'm bored I..." Renata said, stepping towards Alecia. She moves strands of hair over her ear.

"You know, I draw."

"This one is very good." Alecia said, gently holding the page.

"Was this out of your head, or...?" She looks at Renata.

"Most of them I got from my dreams." Renata said, flickering her eyes at each of her drawings.

"So I try and draw them to look like the ones I dream, but I hardly ever do it." She chuckles.

"Why are they here instead of your room?" Alecia said, looking at her.

Renata sighs with a downcast look and looks up.

"My mother didn't want it to clash with the photos." Renata said, looking at her with a slight smile.

"Oh..." Alecia said, looking up at the sketches once more, only to see a sketch of a ship which is large in scope compare to the small city below.

The enormous ship long and wide in shape, pillars of different sizes hang underneath, each pillar is equal to the size of a single building.

Alecia's eyes widen with a slight gasp.

"And this?" she looks at Renata with her leaning on the page.

"Is this what I think it is?"

"Yes." Renata said, looking at where Alecia's finger is.

"That's a ship."

Alecia widens her eyes for a moment while she slowly brings her hand away from the picture.

"It isn't just any ship." She said, turning her gaze to the sketch once more.

"You're right." Renata said, scanning her eyes across her drawings with a smile on her face.

"It's massive isn't it."

"It's the ship of the seraphims Alecia said, and slightly tilts her head.

"Was this in one of your dreams as well?"

"That one?" Renata said, looking at it.

"No, this one isn't."

"Oh?" Alecia said, looking at her with a frown.

"Then how do you know of it?"

"I read it in a book." Renata said, looking at her with a slight smile.

"I sketched the ship from the descriptions I read."

"That's really impressive." Alecia said, widening her eyes slightly.

"So you sketched it based on descriptions alone?"

"Not really." Renata said, with a calm tone in her voice.

"I speculated the rest."

"So what is this book?" Alecia said, with a curious look in her eyes.

"Do you have it?"

"Yes." Renata said turning around, and walks towards the bookshelf, with Alecia's gaze locked on her as she steps towards it.

She moves her finger across the books for a moment.

"Here it is." She said, moving a green book out, and takes it.

Alecia walks towards her, and stares at the book

"Want to read?" Renata handa it to her.

Alecia reads the title. 'What Are The Seraphims

She, opens the book.

"I have made the conclusion." Alecia begins read the book.

"Seraphims a thousand years more advanced than us. I am scared to think that they're a lot more. It's been decades since there has been any sighting of them, but the descriptions of their ship can basically be described to be massive in size. It makes me wonder why there wouldn't be more reports about the sightings, but I know for sure that it's unlike anything I could imagine. It has a large rectangle-like structure, the sides of it has a strange uneven struggle, underneath it I could describe what it looks like to be an upside-down city, because of how huge the thing is. That's the only way I could describe the sighting's reports, now as for the seraphims themselves, no one has seen what they loo-"

"Renata!" A woman's voice is heard from outside the room.

Alecia, looks up feom the book.

"Yes?" Renata said walking towards the doorway and steps out.

The muffling of both her and her mother's voices can be heard.

"Hey, Alecia." She steps into the room. "I'm just going with my mom quickly."

Alecia nods with a smile.

"We'll be back just now." Renata said before walking out the room, as the sound of her footsteps become muffled out.

Alecia looks at open book once more.

Her stare becomes blank with her eyes flickering.

She closes the book, and looks at the floor with a calm look on her face.

"Angelica," she said, looking up with a saddened gaze.

"Why are they still doing this?"

Just then, muffling of Booker's voice is heard from outside the room.

Alecia walks towards the doorway while holding the book beside her.

She exits the room and sees Booker standing on the balcony, while holding a device by his ear.

"Alright, it sounds good." He said, turning slightly and looks ahead with his eyes flickering in thought.

"Thanks, we'll be there tomorrow." He brings the device away from his ear only to see Alecia standing in the living room.

"Hey." He said, placing the device in his pocket.

"Hey." Alecia said, stepping towards him with a smile.

"Who were you talking to?" She steps on the balcony with him, only to be greeted by ships flying to and fro in the distance, with their engines barely being heard from where she is.

"Just my friend." He said, with a slight smile and steps towards her.

"She's got four invitations for us, so now we can go to the empress' celebration tomorrow."

"Oh that's good." Alecia said, with a slight smile, while she clips one of the sleeves of her top.

"Tell me about it." Booker said, turning around ftom her and steps towards the railing of the balcony.

He leans his elbows, and stares in the distance.

Alecia stands still, and stares at him for a moment. Her eyes hardly shows emotion in them. She looks at the floor and flickers her eyes in thought only for her to look up.

"I'm the fourth one?" She said, walking towards him.

"Excuse me?" Booker said, turning his head, and watches as Alecia stands next to him with her eyes staring into his.

"She doesn't know me." Alecia said with a calm tone in her voice.

"I'm only but a stranger, unless you made a request for a fourth invitation."

"No not really." Booker said, looking ahead which urges her to do the same.

"I have a friend who stays with us, but it looks like she forgot that they were away for the month."

"I see." Alecia said with a downcast look.

"Are you excited for tomorrow?" She looks at him with a curious gaze.

"A bit, yeah." He said, with a chuckle.

"How about you?"

"Nervous." Alecia said, with a cheerful tone while her eyes locks on a specific ship flying in the distance among the others tailing behind it.

"Why?" Booker said, turning his gaze to her with a frownful look.

"Is it got to do with your sister you mentioned?"

"Yeah." She said, and gives a downcast look.

"I just hope she'll forgive me." With her hand on the railing, her thumb slowly rubs the surface of it as the tip of it whitens.

"What do you mean, forgive you?" He said, with a curious tone in his voice.

"Did something happen?"

Alecia turns her head to look at him with a saddened gaze, only for her to look ahead once more.

"When I was younger..." she said, with the tone of her voice calming.

"My mother was no longer there for us. I of course thought it was best that I didn't need anyone, I didn't want her close to me, I didn't want anyone looking over my shoulder all the time, until a group caught me trying to break into their home..." She gives a downcast look

"I then found out that, they were just like me, they didn't need their family either. We loved each other as we love ourselves, like a real family. I saw my sister a few times, and visited her, she didn't like how I was or the group I was with for that matter." Alecia pauses for a moment. She looks ahead of herself.

"After that. So much has happened on our journey, for the better and for the worst." She sighs.

"But it was a very long time ago."

Booker slightly widens his eyes and stares at her with a deep thought in his eyes.

"Considering that you became a priestess," Booker said, with a cakm tone.

"It shows you're not the same person as you once were."

Alecia chuckles.

"I try my best." She said, and turns her gaze to Booker, which urges him to look her way with a slight smile.

The two of them stare at each other for a brief moment until Alecia breaks her eye contact and looks ahead once more.

"Do you think if I ask for my sister's forgiveness, will she forgive me?" she said staring ahead for a moment.

"Don't worry, I'm sure she will." He said, leaning off the rail.

"I think she'll ne happy to see you again."

Alecia looks at him with a slight smile.

"I hope so." She said, looking ahead once more.

"Tomorrow, we'll just have to wait and see." He said with a calm look on his face as he watches the ships in the distance.

Alecia clears her throat and stands up straight with her hands still on the rails. Only to have a blank stare ahead.