Metanoia Book 1

Chapter 11. A Family Visit and Small Memories

A few days have passed since the spies had left the camp and went back to Groydon. Nothing much to do, so everyone had chosen to take a day's break. On this day Heart and Lis had chosen to go and visit their aunt, who also lived in the town. Both walked through the street, greeting everyone with a bright smile. Lis had always been looking up to her older sister and her optimistic mindset, she always seems so happy. She could not even remember the last time she saw her angry or sad. Maybe she just can't feel bad emotions as Lis first thought, but she shrugs her shoulders, everyone has negative feelings in some kind of way, even my sister! They both continued on their way.

When they finally came to a familiar house, which was owned by their beloved aunt. Lis was so happy she couldn't even wait, and ran straight to the door and knocked. Shortly after a woman opened the door and looked down on Lis with a big smile, "My, well if it isn't my dear niece, Lis. What a surprise to have you here" the woman, Laila said and noticed Heart coming towards them. They all went inside the house, and talked a little. Laila walked towards the kitchen preparing some lunch for the three of them. Heart went to help her prepare it, while Lis was putting the dishes on the table. When suddenly she noticed a picture on a bookshelf. She walked to get a better look at it. She saw it was a picture of Laila who was hugging a child, probably Heart at the age of 8 and a woman that was holding a baby in her arms. She had long brown hair that faded to blond at the bottom, she had cyan blue eyes and blue ears. She was a pretty woman in Lis' eyes. Everyone was smiling, she could even see a little smile on the baby's face.

Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder, and she turned around to see her older sister looking concerned at her. "What are you looking at Lis?" Heart asked and noticed the small picture frame. She picked it up and gave a small smile. "It's been so long since this picture was taken, but it still brings back so many memories," she said with a small smile. Lis looked at the picture again, and pointed at the other woman in the picture, "who is that, and that baby is that me?" Lis asked with a confused expression. Heart sat the picture back down and looked at her younger sister, still with the same small smile, Of course she wouldn't remember anything, she was still so small back then... Heart thought. "The baby in the picture you see in the picture is indeed you Lis, you look like a cute little bean" she started and gave her little sister a hug. Lis gave a little mumbling sound clearly not amused with the little nickname. Heart giggled and went back to the explanation, "The woman you see in the picture is none other than our own mother, Celeste." she finished and noticed Lis's expression. She looked both shocked and understanding. This woman is our mother, but I don't remember anything about her... How come... Lis thought and gave a frown.

"...How about we sit at the table, and get something to eat, and we could look at some old pictures, while I explain everything" came a voice from behind them and they looked at their aunt holding a big plate with a pot with soup. Both looked at each other and nodded. Heart still remembered a lot from her childhood but was still happy to hear it all again. Meanwhile Lis, was very excited to hear about her family, Heart normally never wanted to talk about it, which was confusing for her.

They all sat at the table eating the soup. "I hope you all remember my famous chicken soup" Laila said with a smile, and both nodded happily while digging in. Laila has always loved making food for others, just seeing their faces made her extremely happy. Normally Laila is working at the city's scanning center, where they look after any bad people with bad abilities and auras. Laila's ability is called Ability Teller and gives her the ability to tell a person's ability and categorize that in colors from your aura. If your aura is green you are good to go with no problems, since you're not seen as a threat. If your aura is yellow you're not the biggest threat, but still not fully safe yet, though if you get the orange color you're more of a threat than being on the safe side, but it's not the most dangerous category, which is red. If your aura shows red it is a danger zone, and will be sent into isolation, until the higher ups have found a solution to let the person go around freely without being a threat. This ability is also the reason why she is wearing glasses. Overusing her ability also causes her eyes to get more and more blurry, and after one episode she ended up getting worse eyesight and had to wear glasses.