The Aura is With Us

Chapter 19: Curled Around a Cold Fire

Sir Aaron sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose. The head-ache that he had been nursing for the past few hours was slow fading, but the pill the Inn-keeper Joy had given him helped somewhat. But it wasn't nearly enough to be comfortable. With a quiet growl, he rubbed his forehead, dissipating the throbbing pain with a few strokes to his own soul.

The herbal smell of the steaming tea in front of him, no longer stabbed at him, but instead was comforting. Taking a sip and a deep breath, the knight looked around the rather large inn room they were allow to occupy at the Pokemon center. There were four beds (two bunks), and a small couch and table on one side, the other being something the children called a kitchenette. The boys had taken to sleeping in the top bunks. Lucario and Riolu were curled up together in a mound of blankets on the sofa. And finally, Amanda rested in the bottom bunk.

The past 24 hours were probably on the high end of the most stressful time of his life list. Far too much was revealed, far too much was learned, and there was far too much to grieve to sleep that night. The Temple, the land of Arceus's birth, the home of his chosen people, was nothing but a hallow grave now. That horrid fact was like chains entangling the knight's mind, and he wanted nothing more then to struggle and break from them, but he couldn't.

Because with the chains came the conviction. Sir Aaron was, and forever would be, the last survivor of the Guild. The only child of the old Guild, Arceus' people, to live through the slaughter.

Well, not technically the last...But Anwir was more of a traitor then a brother now.

Sir Aaron sighed deeply. Anwir had been his youngest brother. Born of his father's second wife. Just two years after Sir Aaron's mother was declared barren. He could still hear his father's words the day of the wedding.

"The house of Arlon is one that must continue on with strong aura gifted heirs. That can not happen with only one gifted son, and scorned wretch of a daughter. Pricella will give me those heirs."

Mother had been devastated. Any affection that she was supposed to give to Sir Aaron's father as wife, was lost the moment he made vows to another woman half her age. She focused solely on her children. And by children, it usually meant Emily. Their mother's misery spread to her daughter, as she became more desperate to marry off Emily to a noble family, and hopefully bare aura children.

Sir Aaron knew that his mother had felt great shame after his father's second marriage, and Emily was forced to pay the price with her own unborn children in a twisted way to prove that their mother was not rotten fruit. Still in the end, mother did get the last laugh in the end.

Anwir was born three years after the marriage, and his mother's life ended as his began. Father got what he desired, another aura gifted son, but the cost was great.

Anwir the youngest child. Anwir his brother. Anwir the monster who used forbidden practices with a gleeful smile. On their own niece no less!

Where had it gone wrong? Anwir had always been a little bit of an outsider in the family. Mother had wanted nothing to do with him, but even Anwir himself understood why once he was old enough. Father was as interested as he had been in Sir Aaron as he was his youngest son. Sir Aaron tried to forged a bond with his brother but there was never much time. Emily had been the only one that ever truly love him in a way.

Yet, he still chose to torture their sister's grandchild, whom shared her face.

What had happened? What could've possibly happened to his brother to turn him to such dark crafts? How did he even learn such a tainted trade? Sir Aaron only learned of the outlawed practice of soul puppeteering by rumor and even then, no one was allowed to ever read the tomes on it.

That headache was coming back will full force now.

Sir Aaron swallowed his tea, now growing cold. Questions of the past could not be answered, so to distract himself he turned to issues of the present.

His eyes immediately darted to the children. Specifically, Amanda. His niece was just like her great grandmother. Emily was prone to keeping secrets as well. Though clearly that trait had gotten far more powerful through the generations of Emily descendants, as where Sir Aaron could usually sniff out his sister's treasures, Amanda had completely kept everything about herself under lock and key. Only the times that Sir Aaron genuinely learned something about her was when the girl would slip up and make a mistake. Which wasn't often, and when it was, he found that the skeletons his niece kept were not happy ones.

Amanda was deaf. His niece lived in a world without noise, voices, and song. Or she would've if it wasn't for the miracle of future healers, and who ever invented the hearing aid.

And he had no idea.

"She used to be a singer," Goh had said, "Then she vanished. I guess we know why now."

From all the little that Sir Aaron knew of Amanda, he knew she loved music. Far too many times had he'd seen her wear that odd had she had called, "headphones". And while her face remained blank, her eyes sparkled a little when ever she put them on. Then she would bite her tongue before fully embracing the song.

Curiosity once driven the Knight to look up some of her performances on the laptop (a process he had to ask Ren to help him with), and he found himself questioning if this was the same girl as his niece. The girl in the videos was youthful but not in the terms of looking young. Youthful as in full of life. This girl's eyes were always smiling, her expression passionate with joy, and her voice was so loud, so clear, so alive. His niece really had been gifted even before her aura began to burn.

The girl in front of him. Sleeping on the bed mere a few paces away from him. She looked ill. Like she had been fighting fever for far too many winters. Her face pale, cheeks hollow, eyes vacant. And her aura...Amanda was dying. It was simple as that. Something was killing her. Something that had been slowly eating her live.

When it was revealed, that she was deaf...Shame had rolled off her soul in waves. Fear and anger were also mixed in, but they were just small parts of the storm that was his niece. Hope made an appearance when Lucario found the group, calling out with telepathy. However, that hope was swiftly replaced with heartbreak, as telepathy couldn't be heard, only felt. He had tried to find that book about mind sicknesses, but that would mean getting her laptop away from his niece and operating it properly. That was a task nearly impossible.

What had happened to Amanda?

What had happened to his brother?

Sadly though, answers and solutions were farther then ever.

A/N:

I'm so sorry, this is late. I had to drive out this weekend to meet with family and I got home way to late to post, and I've been a zombie all day.