The Heir

Chapter 11: Time to Fix it

"Start."

He took a breath. "As you know, our mother predicted everything. Like, absolutely everything." She nodded.

"So, for things to fall into place correctly, I've had to... do things without reason."

"... How did you know then?"

Tyler took another deep breath and took a sip of tea. "... I had some sort of journal I think. It told me everything. Everything I had to learn and everything I had to teach you."

Terra didn't say anything.

"That's why... I had to... yeah."

"Okay," she muttered.

"It also instructed me to... tell you all this. To tell you everything one by one."

She thought for a bit. "So you had a reason. But you weren't allowed to... tell me?"

"Yeah. Not till we were seventeen."

"Okay then." She took a sip of tea. "Tell me a random fact mentioned in it I can use against you."

Tyler immediately thought of something but knew of the consequences if he said it.

"You're... a few minutes older than me."

She hesitantly chuckled. Then she started laughing. "Don't let it get to your head," he said, smiling.

"Too late Ty. Too late," she said, smiling back. "You're forgiven."

He lightly nodded, turning his head away. His tea was less hot than before, and he drank it. "Good night then," he said, before walking to the couch, where he slept.

Ivan took the long route home. He figured it was almost six in the evening when he reached the borders. Something didn't sit right with him like he was about to vomit out his insides.

He used the passage Maria showed him long ago, when they were thirteen, to get back inside Sarcovarus. The outskirts of Sarcovarus looked precisely like the forest, but the trees were less dense.

He needed some answers. Actually, he knew the answers to everything. He just needed some of them from the right person. So he continued step by step, the proper escape velocity needed to get home. There was one person with all the answers, a person who probably fabricated everything.

Ivan reached his neighbourhood, then his street, and he found himself standing in front of his door like a book character who looked to apologize. And that almost explained it; he'd run off many times. Then his mother opened the door, lamp light cast on her blonde hair. That was when his shame wore off.

"I need answers," he said. "Now."

In response, she sighed, then motioned for him to come inside.

"I get it. You're mad, but I know you know I had a perfectly good reason to do so. So what exactly do you want to know," Sierra explained calmly.

"This... Protena stuff? You know what I mean." He was usually quiet, but he was now louder than he had ever spoken. His mother sat down in her chair behind the desk of her study.

"Yeah... we're technically priests-"

"I know that. Why would I be asking then?" he interrupted.

"Just... yeah. I'm half-protena, while you are complete. It's recessive." Ivan nodded his head. "Your father is of the Onarus. He knows, but he's never mentioned it."

He slumped against a bookshelf on the left wall. "So, didn't I deserve the right to know?" he asked her.

"See, the whole reason behind Sarcovarus is to let go of the need for magic, and you know that. Protena are people who don't often use it but can. So, the best way to focus on that, is to leave the future generations in ignorance," she explained.

He nodded slightly in agreement, but visibly had another point to make. "What's wrong with magic? I know it doesn't have specified limits, but, have you ever really met someone who wants to misuse it?"

She didn't speak for a few moments. Then something struck her. "I haven't actually. But, I know you have," she said, looking him in the eye.

He didn't understand for a moment, then recognised what she meant. He'd known that person all along.

"I see."

She exhaled deeply, then stood up from her chair. "Well, now you know. There's no going back," she said, walking forward. "Go to bed. You've had a rough few days. Trust me." She walked out of the room after saying that. But he still stood there.

Ivan let go of that follow-up question and headed to sleep.

Maria sat on her bed. For the first time in ages, she didn't want to pick up that book lying on her bedside table. It was the same book, where the main character had only one good friend.

She thought she related to it at thirteen, but she didn't. She related to the one best friend. She always had. Although, the friends did end up falling in love by the end of the book.

She wondered if she'd ever find someone; to fall in love with. Or had she already? She never wanted to answer that question.

Maria slumped back to lie down but didn't sleep. She realised she was the main character all along, but now she wasn't. This wasn't a book series.

The next four months would go by, with moonlight shining through her window, just waiting for that fateful day. Then she would go back, to see she was never necessary.

There was a knock on the door. Her father opened it. "Here's some hot chocolate. For a reason, I know you won't be getting sleep for a while."

"Thanks," she muttered, barely above a whisper. For some time, just for a moment, she wanted to shut her mind up to drink the hot chocolate.

Riben stared at his ceiling. It was abnormally cold that night.

All the days were starting to blur together. He had a lot of questions, but he answered none. Although, would restoring the government by helping, be his life's goal? He was seventeen, an adult, and felt like he always was.

He couldn't understand what was going on in his own life.