Under The Crescent Veil

31. Adelia

Adelia never set foot in the packhouse until that day. She had walked past it the first time when she and the others went to the festival weeks ago. It almost felt like a lifetime. The second time was when she went to city hall to get her identification card. The building was enormous and felt like a presidential home. Only it wasn't of course.

Upon entering she saw it was a big office where, she assumed, pack matters were dealt with on different scales in the hierarchy. Busy men and women in offices taking calls, printing documents, handling emails and discussing with one another.

All the turmoil of the workers fell silent when Adelia heard the truth about her past. She couldn't hear the polite voices on the phone, the brustling of papers or the quick footsteps as she was guided by Silas out of the building into a car.

The world felt like a blur. Nothing seemed real, all just a big illusion. Adelia's brain couldn't comprehend what was told to her. Every fiber of her body knew it was the truth, the truth she finally got after so long. Her body knew something was wrong, she felt it all those years. How she couldn't remember anything of her childhood which was always down played as a trauma response.

But her mind, it had a hard time accepting the truth. How could one be so cruel to bestow this on someone? She kept thinking. How could The Major be so caring but wicked at the same time?

Adelia hated herself how she, as a young girl, crawled into The Major's bed everytime it thundered because she was scared or missed her parents. He wasn't a father figure, not even close to it, but he would offer comfort when she was young. Once she surpassed the age of twelve every little gesture he sometimes would make was gone.

While her mind was paralised and Adelia stared ahead, into the abyss, she was brought to Silas' home again. Gently he held her in place as they walked into the living room. He sat her down on the couch and crouched in front of her. Softly he asked, "What happened to your leg?"

When he didn't got an answer, he gently touched her arm. "Hey, are you still with me?"

The touch wakened Adelia, she shook her head and focused her eyes on Silas. "What?"

"I asked what happened to your leg?"

Adelia looked down. "Oh, uhm, a minor wound from-from, you know, the school accident." She had a hard time concentrating on forming sentences.

"Can I take a look?"

Adelia shrugged her shoulders.

Silas interpreted that as a yes, and carefully pulled the pantleg up. "Was it infected?" He could still see a lingering redness around the bandaged wound. She only nodded her head, too exhausted to speak.

A frown settled on Silas forhead as he put down the pantleg. "I will ask someone to take a look at it... How about we get you to bed?"

Once again Adelia only nodded her head. Silas picked her up from the couch and carried his mate to his bedroom, tucking her gently in and staying next to her. Within mere seconds Adelia had fallen asleep, dreaming of the meadow she grew up in and her loving parents.

***

Adelia slept through the whole day and night, waking up early the next morning. It took her a while to notice she was laying next to Silas, in what she assumed his bed in his room. She had never been there.

Carefully she got out of bed and tiptoed through the room. It was spacious, and at the top of the house, overlooking both the front and backyard at each side with beautiful big windows that were currently blocked by long, thick dark red curtains. The same color of the bed sheets.

The rest of the room was filled with brown tones of wood. There were two big plants, one on each side of the room and a big golden framed mirror in the middle of the wall that faced the bed. On each side of the mirror were doors, one led to a walk in closet and the other into a bathroom.

It was a beautiful and peaceful room, just like the rest of the house.

Adelia didn't want to wake Silas so she retreated to the garden in the backyard. She stayed there the whole morning under a tree, watching how the sun came up and the sky changed colors.

She enjoyed the silence with the exception of the melodies made by the birds that flew around her in the background. It was disrupted, however, by yelling in the background. Silas was up and couldn't find his mate, to say he was quite frantic was an understatement.

Adelia stood up and walked over to the sliding doors, leading into the backyard. "I am here, no reason to panic."

Silas whipped his head to her. A big sigh of relief escaped. "Don't scare me like that again." He walked over to her and engulfed her in a big hug.

When he let go he gave her a small kiss on Adelia's forehead and went on with making coffee and breakfast.

Adelia stood there rather perplexed. She knew that a part of her yearned for that comfort and softness, how she missed it during her weeks alone. But to get it all so suddenly without a proper talk or explanation to what happened just before she tried to run away it felt weird.

She couldn't dwell on it too much as she heard a gasp from none other than Nora. Adelia saw how the pregnancy had become more nocticable with her growing stomach and the glow on her skin was very prominent as well.

Nora literally glowed from her pregnancy and Adelia couldn't be happier to see her healthy and doing well. Tears burned in her eyes. She didn't know why, but she guessed it was because she had missed her big sister more than she thought she would.

"Thank the goddess that you are alright," She muttered and made her way over to Adelia hugging her as well.

Adelia hugged her back and held on tightly.

Letting go seemed harder than she thought. Reluctantly she stepped back from Nora. "My, my, look at you. Did you even eat while you were away? I was so happy you finally put on some weight shortly after your arrival here. What happened? I thought everything was taken care of..."

Nora looked at her brother and raised an eyebrow. "It was! I did make sure Nyx – I mean Adelia had everything she needed," He raised his hands in the air, defending himself.

"Right, Adelia," Nora said being distracted by the new name. She placed her hand on Adelia's cheek and softly carressed it with her thumb. "Adelia suits you way better than Nyx. It's a beautiful name," Nora smiled.

Now it really weired Adelia out that everyone was being so kind and patient with her. The last time she saw them they had disagreements every other day and they couldn't see eye to eye on anything.

***

"I want to go to the meadow Nora brought me to a couple of weeks ago," Adelia announced at the table, eating breakfast (her beloved yogurt and fruit).

Silas looked at Nora and then back at his plate. He stumbled over his words, "How-how about just staying in t-today? Somebody need-needs to look at your leg and it propably-"

Adelia sighed. "I was not allowed to leave my house for any unnecessary reasons for weeks, I am done staying inside. I would really like to go to the meadow... please."

The sibling looked at each other again and talked with their eyes to one another. "Fine, I will take you, if that is what you want," Silas finally agreed.

If they needed to talk, it was better to be surrounded by something beautiful to distract them from the ugly topics they needed to discuss.