Of Minds And Souls | ONC 2021

18| Of Surprises And Truth

Documents lay scattered across my desk. Pages and pages of ledgers and dated information all coded and unrelated to each other. I scrape my chair back, clenching my hair as I stand.

The lights of the tall buildings flicker through the glass windows. Some things remain, defiantly, the same. Even when you're questioning everything and on the verge of collapsing or screaming or going absolutely crazy, the rest of the world just carries on.

I take a deep breath. Inhale, exhale and then sit back at my desk. Mother's letter to me is propped up at the edge of the table and my eyes rests on it.

I stand up again and face the window before walking back to the desk. I fumble with the opening of the envelope and take out the letter and read it again.

-

Dear Daughter, Astraea Flynn Asgard,

If you have come across this letter, it only means one thing. I am dead. I am sorry that I will have to tell you things in this letter and not in person. I am sorry that I did not tell you the truth when I was alive, and I am sorry that I will give you a burden you did not ask for.

Astraea, my real name is Iris Dante. I am granddaughter to King Rhodes and the true heir of the throne of Psyedon. This news may come as a shock to you, but I am sure now that I have told you, you will connect the dots of my behaviour to see it true.

My father, eldest son of king Rhodes was murdered by a group of people who left behind the symbol of RafiQue. I have spent a lot of time trying to find my father's killers and had always overlooked the symbol of RafiQue in related documents. Overlooked it till you mentioned it. They day you mentioned it was the first day I made the connection.

As I write this, I am aware that I will be killed as a means to threaten you but all I want more than anything is the truth. I want to put these people down forever and I want revenge for my family.

I regret nothing in this life. I may be a bad person at heart, and I may have killed many people but when I die, I will be happy. I will die with an heir worthy of carrying the burden of Psyedon and I will die knowing that she is in the care of a man who truly loves her.

The tiara, I gave you a couple days ago, is a gift my Grandmother gave me when I was a child. If the people see it they will listen to you as Queen. I tell you this in the hope you will reclaim the throne in my name.

However, I will not force you to do so. If you deem Lo'zde as capable, let him continue. You will now ask me of my opinion and that is, I do not trust him, but I trust your judgement. Remember all I want is for Psyedon to be successful and for its people to be happy.

As I sign off, I must tell you that you mean the world to me. Though it was never my intention to adopt you, it is the best decision I have made. Astraea Flynn Asgard, I hope you and Aiderall live a happy and long life together.

Your Mother, Skintas Dante.

-

I fold the letter again and put it back into the envelope. With a new surge of determination, I sit back at my desk and like a miracle my eyes capture a pattern, I hadn't noticed before, a regular amount of money deposited in a central account every 3rd day of the month. Though it is registered through different account numbers, the ending code remains the same.

I opened my laptop and type in all the account numbers before cross-referencing them. They all pass through Pearson's bank and so I check the receiving code.

Twenty minutes later of going through many lines of thought, an image of the owner of the receiver account pops up on my screen. No name or further information accompanies the image.

The man looks in his early 20's and has an ordinary enough appearance yet I can't seem to close the picture. There is something uniquely familiar about him.

Something about the shape of his face and the look in his eyes stimulate a memory. And then with disbelief it clicks, he looks like Yuxon.

I save the image and scour further pages for information. As I look for it, I come across a reoccurring ID number. As the whole process involves a lot of encrypted data, I become sure of how well-established the organisation is. I send the ID number to one of Mother's men to find out his identity and then tur back to the laptop and continue searching for the name of the man in the image.

I find it a couple minutes later, X'olin Bower. Underneath his name, lists some personal information and his contact number.

I dial it into my phone and as it rings, wonder how to start the conversation.

"Hello," I say as the call connects.

"Hello," he responds, "who is it."

"I am Agent Astraea Flynn Asgard," I say. If he is really related to Yuxon, he would know who I am and if he doesn't recognise the name, I could proceed with the conversation differently.

There is a silence, and I can hear him take a deep breath.

"You finally found out," he says.

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