33 Risen#re - Chapter 362

With that It was done Althea gave up on her stubbornness, she thought that it foolish and that her actions could result in the death of her entire family.

But knowing that she would be the cause of her mother’s death is she refused, it was too much for her heart to bear, in the end she relented and obediently followed behind Lirian.

She was surprised by the smoothness of the trip, they simply went through the corridors, without slowing down, if she didn’t know better, she would have thought that Lirian was the master of the keep from the way he arrogantly strutted about.

When they came to the end of a corridor Lirian pushed open the window and jumped through pulling her along, and they landed gently in the gardens.

The gardens were clear of the crimson fog, the high walls surrounding the keep made it hard for any fog to build up, it acted as a powerful barrier.

Althea wondered how they were going to leave the walls, from what she could see the gate was sealed shut, and it required multiple people to open it, not to mention that it would alert the entire keep.

But strangely she found Lirian walking to the wall without any hurry, when they reached the wall she looked at Lirian strangely there was no method for them to escape, no secret passage through the wall, no secret tunnel undermining the wall, it was a dead end.

‘Is this just some sick twisted joke?’ she wondered with suspicion, it was then that Lirian chose to speak.

“Hold on and don’t make a sound,” Lirian said and wrapped a hand around her waist.

Althea wondered what he was up to when suddenly she felt her feet leave the ground.

She looked down and almost gasped in shock as the ground grew further away, the only thing stopping her from making a sound was Lirian’s hand that covered her mouth.

‘By Mitalas himself, is this not the power of gods?’ she thought as they continued to move up at a slow pace.

In the stories Mitalas was said to be able to fly, he could traverse over The Bastion Mountains, and he could fly across the seas from the eastern tip of the world to the western tip of the world.

There was no place beyond Mitalas’s reach, not in all the lands nor in the deepest depths of the furthest sea, all of that was because of his ability to fly.

Currently that was exactly what was happening, she unconsciously gripped tightly onto Lirian and watched as the ground grew further away.

For a long time she imagined what it would be like to leave the cell in the dungeon, she dreamt of one day feeling the warmth of the sun again, and breathing in fresh air, but this was like she was in a dream.

To fly through the sky and see the world from above, she feared that any second she would wake up from the dream, for so long she kept all he emotions locked away and suddenly she got to experience this it was like liberation.

As they reached the top of the walls she saw the monstrous siege engines, built to bring only death and destruction.

But the weapons couldn’t hold her attention for long, because in the next moment she was able to see beyond the wall and a deadly stench rushed to her nose, as she looked upon the crimson mist, that reeked of death.

“What hap…” she started to say but Lirian pressed a hand against her mouth to shut it, he couldn’t allow for any noise.

Lirian quickly moved over the wall with haste and raced down into the crimson mist to gain its cover.

He could feel the panicking Althea in his hands but he kept flying through the mist, he located Liberia with ‘God’s Gaze’ and flew to the House Marshall manor.

There was a gloominess to the occupants of the manor, they had received far too many casualties that night.

According to the laws stipulated by the royals, a minor noble house was not allowed to possess more than a hundred novices, but they were free to conscript as many regular soldiers as they wished.

However raising one hundred novices was no easy feat with the resources available to the minor nobles and as a result it was rare that a minor noble house would possess more than fifty novices, because when they split the resources between a hundred people, it would create them a hundred novices.

But the novice’s quality wouldn’t be all that great, it was better to place more resources on a single person and get a great combatant than to have a hundred weak combatants.

House Marshall as the strongest of the minor nobles, was able to place a small taxation fee on the other minor nobles that existed in close proximity to their territories, it was declared a protection fee and house Marshall would take some of their cultivation resources as the fee.

Thus House Marshall was the strongest of the minor nobles, they possessed 60 novices in their ranks all of which were considered to be of elite status amongst other novices.

Of that number only twenty were currently stationed in the city, the rest were tending to House Marshalls territories.

Of those twenty that were stationed in the city, eleven were killed in a single night.

Each of these novices were people who were raised and invested in for decades, and in a single night they lost eleven such members.

It would take decades to refill the hole their deaths left on House Marshall, naturally such loss left the people in the pits of despair.

Lirian saw that Lady Liberia was alone in her study, he flew down and pushed the sealed window open with telekinesis and flew in with Althea in hand.

Liberia jumped, as the window opened and a gust of wind flooded the room, she was just about to attack but then she saw who it was that fell through the window and landed on the floor.

Without even thinking she rushed to her daughter who fell on the ground in her study and she pulled her into a tight hug.

Her heart was racing as she looked her daughter up and down, to make sure that it wasn’t a dream.

“Mother,” Althea said in whimper as she felt like she was being crushed by the force of the hug, “My baby girl,” Liberia sobbed as she buried Althea’s head in her bosom and held her firmly almost strangling the life out of her.

Lirian flew to the roof for a moment to give the mother and daughter a moment for their reunion, it wasn’t long before the the crying stopped and they started to speak to each other, then more tears were shed between their every word.

As Lirian sat on the roof, he gave them all the time they needed, and wound up lost in thoughts of his own, “It hasn’t been that long since we last talked but it feels like forever… mother,” Lirian whispered into the night.

Even now he found it strange to be able to say the word mother, and feel the emotions it carried, emotions he never thought he’d ever feel.

‘You are mine!’ he remembered what Taliyah said to him before he walked through the portal that brought him to this world.

“I am yours,” Lirian whispered to the stars.

As Lirian looked down at the mother and daughter in the room, he couldn’t help but compare them to himself and Taliyah.

A loving mother who would do anything for their child and an emotionally broken child with scars unseen, and not easily healed.