The Eternal Flame

Chapter 18

       "What do you want?" Nix says as the rest of our family joins me in walking into her room. Luckily, Lach was already in the room so we didn't have to go looking for him as well.

The background behind her bed was beautiful. It was four full screens of a sunset just dipping into the horizon. Her bed was almost like mine, though I didn't have a cushion at the back of my bed to lean against, mine was just a wall. Her bed was also round like mine. It was fuller and rounder at the bottom. Her walls were a light blue with dozens and dozens of on them. Her closet was to the left of her bed and she also had a small writing table, chairs, and a large rug.

"We're here so that we can all stop avoiding each other and get our problem over with," I said smoothly as if I didn't hear her rude and hostile question. She gives me a look of pure loathing.

"I don't care what you all have to say. Now leave us alone." She snapped. I took a deep breath. I had thought a lot about what Flame had said just last night. He was right. We are a family; a family should not be divided. But Nix was making it painfully hard, not to hurt her right now.

"Why are you so angry with us, Nix? Is it because I asked about my mother?" My tone was gentle.

She laughed a sharp humorous laugh that shocked everyone in the room.

"No. I could care less about what you wanted to know about your mother." She said.

"Then what is the matter?" Hanasi asked her.

"Why are there no pictures of my mother?" Nix asked our father. Ignoring Hanasi completely. My father looked at her a little shocked. Then his face went completely blank.

"They aren't any pictures of Lunatris's mother either." He said smoothly.

"That's because her living picture is standing right there," she pointed at me.

"Better yet, how did our mother die?" Lach spoke for the first time since we entered. We all turned to him.

"It was assassination." Said our father. Ren and I looked at him shocked. Did he know the entire time? And by the looks of it, Ren and I were the last to know.

"Who killed her?" He asked.

"I don't-"

"Don't lie. We aren't children anymore." Lach said coldly. Stood up from the chair; I had a bad feeling about this. Our father didn't say anything.

"Do you really think we wouldn't find out that Lunatris had killed our mother?" Lach said, his voice rose a little, glaring at me with such hatred that I visibly flinched and balled my hands into fists.

"Why would I do something like that woman was like a second mother to me, aside from Hanasi. Besides, brother, I was only four when she died."

"Lies!" He hissed.

"At first, I didn't believe it, she was only four moons old. That was the same time, she had developed her powers, isn't it? At first, I didn't want to believe that a four-moon old child could kill my mother, but then I found this." Nix said as she took a Holomod out of her dresser drawer and threw it on the table in the middle of the room. A Holomod was like a holographic diary. The difference was that it was square.

It was old. Scratched and banged up, but without a doubt, I was sure it still worked perfectly fine.

No one moved. We all just stared at the device, not saying a word.

Ren, who had finally recovered from the shock, moved slowly toward the Holomod and tapped it gently in the center. A second later, a blue light appeared, and they're stood their mother, Queen Annaloka, dressed in a nightgown with her long wavy hair flowing down her back.