Chapter 5: Lady Sif (III)

"Dear son of mine." The woman started. "Your footsteps feel heavy." 

The watering can in her hand slipped and dropped down on the pebbly ground below. She turned around, the long frock twirling.

A familiar pair of pale grey eyes met my own. Her eyes narrowed at me, before widening like a full moon and then returned to normal.

"You have grown so much, my little baby boy. In just three years!" She exclaimed.

There was a glimmer, an unsettling glimmer in her eyes. Her soft hands cupped my face into her palms and raised them up. Her touch was warm. Yet it made a frigid tremble run down my spine. Standing at about 163 cm, she smiled.

A smile that didn't quite reach the hollow voids that were her eyes. 

"I did hit a growth spurt." I replied, casually. I could feel a tether. A tether of something intangible inside my mind. Like a soft thread stuck inside the squishy white matter of my brain. 

I pushed it back. 

Pushed back any thought of defiance or wariness and buried it. Buried it into the deepest pits of my subconsciousness, as if they had never existed. "

You look just as beautiful as ever, Lady Sif." Her long nails dug subtly into my cheeks. "Mother."

The words that came out of my own mouth felt like toxic thorns being forcefully rubbed against my tongue, dripping with an unhidden venom and mockery.

And despite the obviousness, I could only see her smile more brightly at me. As if she expected love to be as convoluted and venomous as this. 

Once again, the endless voids flicked from my eyes to my nose, my lips and then down at me, before meeting my gaze, petrifying me.

An intangible, smooth slither—akin to the touch of a slim finger seemed to poke inside my brain itself. 

As soon as she removed her hands from my face, the meek interference of something probing my brain vanished in an instant, leaving behind nothing but a faint sense of bile pushing against the back of my throat.

Biting back any discomfort, I straightened my back. 

"You have developed a silver tongue, my dear son." She spoke with glee. "I suppose this is what being with a girl does to you." Her voice dropped to a barely detectable murmur. "Even you." As she looked down, the wind blew her locks over her face.

With a quick motion of her hand, she raised them up and used the small purple band on her wrist to tie them up. "So?"

"So?"

I reiterated after her, not entirely sure where she wants me to begin. I had left the house three years ago to live alone. 

It was after I was able to perform a 「Phase 2」 application of the Olvasens' inherited 「Arcane Arts. 」 The only reason she allowed me—the heir—to leave the main house was because she wanted to know about the outside world via me.

Since she herself, for her own good, is not allowed outside the premises of this house. Mostly, since nothing can stop her from sneaking outside every now and then.

The reason behind letting me out on my own was still shrouded behind a thick veil of precarious unknowns.

It could be anything. Knowing her, it was entirely possible that even now I was inside the palm of her hand. However…

"Let's talk about your school first." Contrary to my tumultuous thoughts, she talked about something entirely different. "How is it?"

"Heirs are homeschooled."

"You are different." She replied, taking a big step towards the huge bed of flowers. She curled her index finger in and out a few times, motioning for me to follow her. "Besides, I gave you free will. As a direct order. I am sure you took quite some advantage of it." 

I stayed silent for a while. Taking in a whiff, I could smell the plethora of aromas—prickly strong and mellowingly faint—invade my senses. The ambient Arcanum in place, this house— no, this garden in particular was so, so rich. Almost intoxicating.

I felt my senses spin in a round circle before consolidating onto a coherent path.

"It's good." I replied. 

"Semantics." She let out a laugh as her arm was extended to the side, feeling the petals of the flowers without looking back. "Oh Art, you know what I mean, don't you?" She then suddenly looked back. "Or is it your father's influence? But no, influence would be the wrong word." She pondered over something for a second. "Are you developing your father's oversight of words?"

"Am I?" Rhetorically, I touched after the same flowers as she did. "That would be unfortunate."

"Haha~ It sure would be." She nodded her head. "So?"

"I find it useless." I admitted, and for the first time I could see her eyes gain a subtle shine. "Most probably it is because of the knowledge I was able to gain at a young age. I wonder if it would stay the same if I was born as a norma—"

Her head snapped towards me. "Do not entertain yourself with such vile thoughts." Once again, I felt the meek tether into my mind. But this time, instead of probing for something, it felt as if someone was trying to pluck a part of me out. I pushed against it, however, the Arcanum seemed to refuse to obey me. A rare occurrence. Then, as if nothing had happened, the sensation subsided. "That was immature of me."

"Not at all." I replied, clinging on to my suppressed thoughts like a drowning man catching at straws. Once I had them under my control. "I won't be responsible for what happens if you were to slip up again."

"Well." She let out a disappointed sigh. "It would seem like your viewpoint on things has changed quite a bit. Not for the best, might I add." She spoke, the words devoid of any real emotion that she tried to convey. "But well, you reap what you sow." She added. In her eyes, everything was a mere consequence of action. She was not the one to brood over consequences. 

"I suppose so." 

"Well, to the main topic." She tip-toed and twirled around before facing me. "As you would know your father is the head, but everything is controlled by me. The fact that the family head is not allowed to look over matters of this importance should be self-explanatory to you by now why I have called you."

I raised my shoulder in a subtle shrug, not meaning to be disrespectful. "You hold me in a high regard, Lady Sif." I paused for a while, measuring every word. "Often superseding."

"You have the right to flatter yourself, Arthur." She crouched down and her hands dug into the soft soil beneath. The tempestuous winds had almost uprooted a plant, making it bend and almost touch the ground. Carefully, avoiding the thorns, she supported it back up and pressed it down. The soil around it gave in, digging deep back into the soil. "You inherited the full extent of what this bloodline has to offer." She spoke, seemingly… patting? the plant. 

"Full extent." I reiterated after her. Biting back an uncondescending scoff, I parted my lips to speak. "That is a crude metric to weigh an heir. I am not sure what you did to me, but I can rememb--"

The words seemed to hang still in the air, as if caught in a time halting phenomenon. The same instant I felt the metallic clang of something ripping apart before slashing at my cheek, just underneath my eyes. 

"You are not in Hammerfest, Arthur dear." She spoke, her voice a low rumble. "Are you accusing your mother?"

"...no. Not at all."

The sensation of the blood trailing down my cheek before lining against my jawline and dripping down my chin was warm, the metallic tang of it infiltrating my nose.

I stood there, silent, without a word.

However, my own Arcanum was flaring and hovering near her, like a sword in an executioner's hand, ready to be swung at a moment's notice.

Despite the force field around me becoming alive with a crackling intensity, popping like small crackers, I stood still, devoid of any thought of defiance, despite the Arcanum that swelled like an over-inflated balloon underneath the layer of composure. 

"Hahhh— don't make your mom work up so much." She sighed and the high level Arcanum in the air dissipated. She flicked her head back. "You never had another sibling other than your older brother. That is a memory you have instilled in your mind. It would be better if you could delete it by yourself." The hollow, grey voids never left my own. "For your own sake."

"You initiated it." I spoke, walking closer. "Ask away. About whatever you called me here for. I have an exam in 2 days. Every second spent here is a loss."

She frowned, her lips curving down. "Hearing you talk like this breaks my heart." She placed her hand on her chest.

"Well, not really." She then scoffed. "Anyways, all I have to ask is one thing."

I steadied myself.

"The Seven Syndicates. Do you think the other six are necessary?" She asked, the eyes that were devoid of any emotion suddenly flaring like a forest fire, a devilish, evil glint in them. 

I took a steady breath. "Ideally, no." I replied. 

She tilted her head. "Ideally, you say?"

"Hmm. Ideally, in a way—sense, that if the seal separating Earth and Eden was never weakening, removing the others would've been the correct course of action." I paused, letting the words sink in. "However, realistically, with Eden moving closer to the 「Merger」 we need all forces to maintain law and order. To avoid chaos. We need them."

The same tether as before poked my mind. Searching for lies, any wrong intent. "You should embrace the chaos, my son. There is nothing wrong with it."

"Because chaos is more organised than order itself?"

"You have been learning, I see."

A brief moment of silence—eerily comforting—ensued. 

"Let's go with the idealistic approach." A small smile tugged at her thin lips. "What if I order you to kill the heirs of the Seven Syndicates?"

"I'd refuse, of course." I replied, almost mechanically. "It's against the first commandment established by Goddess Hestia."

"Commandments this, commandments that." She spat, her demeanour taking a sudden shift. The words seemed to be laced with venom. "Let me ask you again, Arthur." She hissed my name through clenched teeth this time. "Do you have the ability to kill the heirs?"

"Except for Michael and Maria, I am quite confident."

She regarded me for a moment, and then smiled again. Her show of expressions had left a jarring impression. Even before I had left home, she was always like this. The only person I can't read. She did not have any personality. Like an object being forcefully moulded into each shape, she took the role of everything perfectly, yet with so many flaws. 

Nothing ever felt natural about her. As if she and her words were fleeting illusions. 

"Hehe! I was just kidding!" She tapped my shoulder. Her grip was ironclad. I could feel it sink into my skin and put a considerable pressure on my bones. "Although, you are not going anywhere."

I felt my eyes burn, glowing in a brightened hue. 

"You and your little toy- Astrid, was her name? Well, whatever, you are staying here for the foreseeable future. Your long time of being away from home ends today." As she spoke, the smile never left her face. "Your room has been redecorated already. Tell your little… attendant to help you settle in."

This can't be good. It would seem like I am in quite a lot of trouble. Quashing a hasty impulse, I nodded my head. As soon as I did, a light pierced my eyes, like being reflected off a mirror, blinding my vision. And then she was gone. 

Spectrum Illusion…