Laxita - The Mage's Awakening

16 - Guilt

Laxita's POV

These two kids are my cousins...WOW! I never even knew about their existence.

"I apologize for their behaviour. Please come inside. Let's talk comfortably in my room. Revati, prepare something for her to eat. Come dear"

I nodded and followed her and the twins. I was still amazed by this place. It's so beautiful. I had never seen anything like this before. Non mages were not permitted to enter unless they had special permissions. This place was huge and it's crawling with mages of all ages. Really fascinating!!!

"Yahan aakar baitho beta," she said

("Sit here, dear")

I sat with her and she started patting my head. Honestly, her touch felt warm and I smiled.

"I don't know after how long I am seeing you...Subhadra always mentioned about you in the letters and told me that we will meet soon. But before that she..."

A lone tear slipped from her eyes and became wistful.

"But dear, what are you doing out here? So far away from your home? Is everything alright?"

I remembered everything which happened after their death and my expression changed from happy to angry.

"Actually, it's a long story..."

I told her everything and she was shocked. She had no idea about what went down in my life.

"I am so sorry dear. I should have never left you. I was there at their funeral and I thought that Vijesh would take care of you. I foolishly assumed that. I didn't even know that he had that kind of a reputation as I had never met him before. I am really sorry. How can I earn your forgiveness?"

"It's fine. It is not your fault."

"No, it is my fault and I will do everything in my power to make it upto you. After Subhadra's death, I drowned myself in more work and didn't even think what it must be like for you. I thought he was family. He acted so nice and reliable in front of everyone that I was fooled."

She started crying and I didn't know what to do. The twins were looking at me with sympathy in their eyes. But I really was alright now. To calm her down, I showed her my mother's letter, the pendant and the book.

She read the letter and immediately more tears welled up in her eyes. And then she started crying again. All of us tried to calm her down. I hugged her to tell her that it's alright. After she calmed down a bit, she took the pendant in her hands.

"Your mother made this pendant. It's a high-level artifact"

"She made this?"

"Only high-level mages can make such artifacts. That's why they are rare."

"Wow. But how does it work? I mean it is quite handful."

"It can be used in a specific manner. You have to learn it in order to use it."

"Ohhh"

"And this book...."

"This book is locked with some kind of magic or spells. I can't open it."

She inspected the book for a bit and then realized something.

"I will take this book to our researchers. It is locked with complicated magic. They will investigate this book. We will know, what is in there that she didn't want people to find."

"Alright."

There was still so much that I wanted to ask her.

"Can you tell me the reason as to why my mother never told me about you or why she hid that she was a mage? She mentioned in the letter that something dangerous was looming around us."