Chapter 23: Moving On

With the secret alliance being made, General Logan repressed his reservation. “I need something else from you”. He told Sheldon.

“We are partners”, Sheldon looked at him with a friendly smile. “If it’s within my power and with reasonable effort, then do ask”.

“I need to communicate with someone on the outside using your Galactic Communicator”.

For a fraction of a second the gaze in Sheldon eyes turned thoughtful before again showing calm. “Very well”.

The lack of questions indicated another, silent agreement.

When he returned to his parents’ home, Zax was relieved to know that Ariel already explained to his and Anet’s parents the situation.

Anet was resting upon his arrival and their parents and Liz were too awestruck by getting to meet Ariel that it was hard to decipher whether they understood his explanation. Perhaps they decided to not mention the miscarriage, before the young couple would open up the subject themselves, and were just happy to know that Anet is fine. Either way, Zax was reluctant to accept consolations and preferred the atmosphere to stay concentrated on Ariel.

“Zax...” Anet voice was dry. Her eyes opened after her mouth as she gradually woke up, still somewhat weak.

She was lying on Liz’s bed and Zax sat on a chair by her side, alone with her in the room after asking Don to leave.

His vision focused on his face but quickly became blurry by tears. She felt the condition of her body and did not need others to tell her what happen, only why, but for the moment it did not matter.

She covered her eyes with the back of her hand, as the other was placed on her stomach, and she voicelessly cried.

Her grief mirrored powerlessness and loss he only remembered her ever showing him three times.

First was when they were children, after the ordeal at the Young Mist Users Conference, where they had been confronted by Martinez family’s young and old. It was a borderline traumatic experience for Zax and his pals and at the time he thought Anet ran and left them. It was only later, when they were invited to Fourchettes Et Couteaux, that they had a teary reconciliation.

Second occurrence was couple of years later. Zax returned from his training in Valgarel and sought his old friends. Anet was the first he met, and the events that arose by this reunion spelled the disastrous fall from grace of the Derneldar Family.

Third was, again, years later. Zax was assumed dead. His friends and family were devastated, but Anet ... her heart was emotionally full of cracks as if something heavy struck it, constantly on the verge of shattering, until it did. Luckily he returned right on time to amend it, otherwise she would have suffered an irreversible damage.

And now ... was the fourth.

No one interrupted the two in the days they spent shut in Liz’s room.

For those two nights and two days Anet had not said a thing after calling by his name when he first woke up and Zax, as he contemplated over the reason of this meaningless tragedy, he slowly recuperated from the emotional upheaval, ultimately being left with only a measure of sadness and a strong resolution to... “Never again!”

Time heals all wounds, and atop it paved the road to progress.

“Niel! Niel, wait! Stop running, you little pipsqueak! How can such a shorty be so fast?”

On the bustling streets beneath the blue sky, two boys were rushing for a certain destination and one was more restless to arrive than the other.

Unbeknownst to the young lads, several tens of meters behind them a rather unassuming young was trailing their steps, while perfectly blending in the metropolitan environment.

“Passing through! Passing through!” The lad named Niel shouted as he squeezed through the dense crowed of humans and beasts in either humanoid or human forms.

“Excuse me, pardon, err ... sorry!” The slightly older lad chasing apologized for both him and Niel.

The pair ran in a straight line for about three hundred meters, toward a fenced, open field with tight security all over.

Everyone who came made sure to stop three to five meters before the fence, but when the two lads showed up they did not even pay the tiniest attention to those scary looking, black uniformed security guards and brazenly entered what clearly was a restricted location.

Not just the two boys, but the young man who followed them also entered, albeit, he was a tad more discreet, without anyone of the outside spectators noticing, helping those helpless security guards to save some face.

There was a one storey building in the field and fifty meters from it was a marked landing spot.

The single entrance door to the building opened and a figure of a red headed middle aged woman walked out.

Seeing the short haired woman from afar, before she could make up a word or an expression in response to the unbridle advent of the pair, Niel opened his mouth and loudly declared.

“A promise is a promise!”

His voice resonated as suddenly an imposing streak flashed across his childish countenance. With the sound of the wind howling a black aura burst from the tiny pores of Niel’s small frame, along with both dark attribute and Beginner phase first level Core Master fluctuations.

“See that, grandma Don!” Niel laughed triumphantly.

An odd look momentarily manifested on Don’s face – yes, the same Don who once was the school principal of Eden Formation. Her jaw muscles bulged as she clenched her teeth; otherwise she feared her chin would drop.