Chapter 20
Melissa awoke in her mother’s bed on the small platform. She rubbed her eyes, and walked out to see her mother bent over her idelfada.
“I’m sorry, dear one,” said Esoica. “I only had strength enough to save you.”
“Toby? Asil?”
She solemnly shook her head. “The Freilux had recovered when you passed out, and worked to free Xisa. I only had strength to pull you through a ribbon -- no more.”
Melissa leaned back and moaned. “So many people lost, and dead, for failure?”
“Is it failure?” Esoica knelt by her side, and kissed her softly on her cheek. “Sometimes a victory is achieved by gaining knowledge; knowledge that may be used to ultimately win the war.”
“But . . . I am so done with fighting, and killing.” She threw her arms around Esoica. “I just want to feel safe.”
Esoica hugged her back strongly, and wept into her shoulder. “You are safe, my love.”
Melissa leaned back on the pillow, for the first time in a long time feeling utterly relieved and calm.
Her mother sat back and asked; “was she a lot like me; my idelfada?”
“Yes, for the brief time I knew her. Xisa imbued her skillfully.”
Melissa watched as her mother levitated the body, and cast it off the platform.
“I used to think all idelfada were evil, until I met you. You are what I wish my true daughter had become.”
Melissa was overcome with sentiment, and began to cry. Esoica embraced her, and wiped her eyes.
“Do you think there is any hope for her?”
Esoica sighed deeply. “I don’t know.” She held the thin, tan book in her hands. “I see you held onto this book.”
“Yes. Somehow, I felt I was meant to keep it, and though I can’t read it, I feel like it will be important to me.”
“It already is. Xisa needed to train you, so she instructed my idelfada to have all those books for you to read, and to give you a reason to read them. This book,” she said, holding it up, “is my doing. When you and my idelfada visited me, I could tell immediately you both were idelfada. For that to be, both of us must die, and while I can accept death, I was beginning to understand that Xisa was something different and darker. So, I parceled aside a kernel of my memory, and hid this book in it. If my memories were copied and inserted into an idelfada, I wanted to see in an imperative would go with it. Your possession of this book confirms that.”
Applause came from the living room.
“What’s that?”
Esoica sighed. “The end of something good.”
Esoica helped Melissa into the living room, where they sat on a couch in front of a visual stalk. An image of the Freilux preened under it with Xisa at his side and Toby in bonds, and thousands upon thousands of Imathrins standing behind, cheering. Asil knelt nearby in chains, next to the two hlenna. Melissa buried her head in her hands, wailing.
“We must rescue them!”
“We can’t, now. Your original is too powerful, and the Freilux still holds the Sphere.”
“For the crime of insurrection,” cried the Freilux with glee, “I sentence this man do death!”
Melissa and her mother watched as Toby was executed to the cheers of the crowd. When Xisa reached up to kiss the Freilux, Esoica turned it off.
Melissa moaned and cried, and Esoica held her tightly long into the night. They had a small memorial for Toby, and once Melissa was calm again, they sat at the small kitchen table, looking out the window onto where Toby once trained with his soldiers.
“Is this all my family is?” muttered Esoica. “How did it all go wrong?”
Melissa took a deep breath and held back tears, feeling anger replace the unending sadness. “One day, we will bring Toby back. I will get Asil back. One day, we will kill the Freilux, and perhaps without his influence, Xisa will remember how much she loves her mother.”
Her mother scoffed. “How do you know she loves me?”
“Because I do,” said Melissa, as she kissed Esoica’s cheek.
THE END
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