ATN: THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY

FAMILY TIME IN ATN

We walked into the restaurant with tension inside all of us. I surely didn't have any idea of what I would say. I didn't think anyone else did either. I looked around. The restaurant had bright lights, paintings of different ancient Greek heroes on lemon yellow coloured walls, and the tables and chairs were made of wood. There were many people inside. We chose a large table, ordered pizza, and sat to talk. 

"Could you forgive us for keeping you in the dark?" Aunt Kia began.

"We don't want to, but you guys are all we have, isn't it?" Riya said.

"Why?" Dad said, "You have the gods now. Your divine parents."

"Dad, come on." I said, "They are gods, way more superior to us humans. They must have had a ton of demigod kids."

"You are the only one of your mother."

"I am?"

"Yes."

"I don't know about Aphrodite though, she does have tons of kids." Uncle Sankalp said, making a face. Clearly, he wasn't in love with the goddess anymore.

"Dad, you don't fancy her?" Abhro asked.

"Once I did." Uncle Sankalp said, "Not anymore. She left me just a note. 'I gotta go, problems at Olympus.' Didn't say goodbye. She left me alone and lost with two small kids."

"Were we trouble back then?" Dadai asked.

"A whole lot of trouble. But I managed. I raised you alone, I raised you well, didn't I? I certainly didn't need her help."

Dadai's expression said that his newly found mother hadn't made the best first impression. Not at least to him. I didn't get Abhro much. He was busy with his pizza slice. But the youngest of us all, Hiya listened with full intent. 

The pizza felt tasteless, as I had so much in my mind. Aunt Kia was busy describing Triton to the girls. Dad, then, said to me, "You got that book?"

"Yes, found it under your bed." I said, "Never saw anything under your bed. Perhaps, it was meant to be found there?"

"True." he said, "Your mother asked me to give it to you when you show signs of sorcery the first time. She had authored that book only for you."

"So you knew?"

"Yes, I knew that the window glass breaking was your first sign of sorcery. I contacted your uncle and aunt the next day. But your cousins never showed any signs. So I waited. Then three months later, all of them had shown signs. That's when we planned to bring you here."

"Why?"

Dad gave me a smile, and addressed all of us. Then, he spoke, "Children, we brought you here for a reason. Hecate told me before she left that demigods are safer only with their brethren. Due to a lot of life risks, monster attacks, and many more things, they don't make it long enough. There are only a few of you left. So, when you all show your first signs of powers, she asked me to bring you here, for this is the Great Land. Here, you will stay, go to school, join the army, train, learn to fight, and be with people like you. This is your world. You have to stay here to learn to survive."

"But, you guys are also our world." Riya said.

"We are." Aunt Kia said, "We are a part of this world of yours. But with us, you aren't safe. And we love all of you."

"So we have to stay away from you?" Abhro asked.

"To survive, yes. We would have to make a sacrifice. It won't be easy to survive. But Atlantis is the safest place on Earth for demigods."

"Yes," Uncle Sankalp said, "your grandfather" He pointed to Riya and Hiya, "asked Iris to look after the demigods here, make it a safe place."

"If you are here," Dad said, "we will know you are safe. That's all we want, for you to be safe." Then he whispered to me, "And for you to make friends with Tina. She is lovely when you meet her, but absolutely vicious in a battle. You better have her on your side."

"But we don't want to stay away from you." Hiya said. To that, we all nodded our head.

"I know, honeys." Aunt Kia, "But we will be almost here. Just talk to Iris whenever you want to communicate us. She'll send you to us. She is a very nice goddess."

We agreed, finally. We had to. If this was our fate, we had to face it. I wondered about my dreams. Was that my mother talking to me in those dreams? And who was it in the other dream? He had mentioned the great land. If Atlantis was the great land, was it in trouble? There were questions I needed answers to. But for now, I and my cousins had to say goodbye to our parents, as they would enter an Iris-portal and get back to India, leaving us here, for how long, we won't know.