Chapter 415: Stryg… hm?

“You aren’t just his First Mother, are you…? Stryg is your son,” Plum said with careful conviction.

“You don’t know what you speak of,” Aurelia muttered, unable to meet her gaze.

“Is that so? Then why are you crying?”

“...” Aurelia shifted her focus to her hands and the white healing spell swirling over Stryg’s injured chest.

Plum shook her head in disbelief, “I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner. You look like him, or he looks like you, I guess. And it’s not just the hair. You both have the same button nose and the way you grow quiet and your eyes narrow ever so slightly when you’re about to kill someone like right now.”

Aurelia clenched her jaw but said nothing, though she looked at Plum from the corner of her eye.

“...Are you planning to kill me?” Plum asked with a steady voice.

“I’m debating it.”

“To keep your secret hidden. I understand. Though, if I die, Stryg won’t ever forgive—”

“—He’ll never know I was the one who took your life. I could easily make it seem as if it was one of the frost trolls.”

“You misunderstand me. This isn’t about you. If I die Stryg won’t ever forgive himself. He sent me to find you and the others. He’ll blame himself, not you.”

“...You really thought this through,” Aurelia noted coldly.

“Not really. I’m still coming to grips with it all.”

“Yet you seem quite calm. I never thought the scared little drow would be so calm in the face of her own death.”

Plum narrowed her eyes, “I’m not calm. I’m furious.”

“You? Why? This has nothing to do with you. You are an outsider,” Aurelia growled. “I should never have let Stryg drag you along.”

“You’re right… To the Sylvan, I am an outsider, but to Stryg I am his friend. We were once best friends. He used to tell me stories about his time in his tribe. Of how he was treated as different, of how they whispered behind his back.” Plum clenched her fists, “He told me of how mother was weak and she died giving birth to him. I saw how her death weighed on him… So imagine my shock when I find out his mother still lives.”

“If you so much as speak a word of any of this to Stryg, I will—”

“—I want to know why. Give me a good reason why I should lie to my friend about you.”

“You don’t deserve any answers,” Aurelia snapped.

“But Stryg does.”

Aurelia chuckled bitterly, “Rarely does anyone get what they deserve.”

“I don’t get it. From where I sit I’d say you love your son, but I don’t think there has ever been anyone who has hurt as much as you have.”

“Silence, you know nothing!” Aurelia bared her fangs and hissed angrily. “I have protected him since he was born and you, you’ve known him for what? A few years? And you think you have the right to judge me? You are but an ignorant child stumbling through the dark, unaware of the dangers standing in front of her.”

Plum bit her lip, “You’re right, I am ignorant but I still remember the stories Stryg told me, of his goals, his dreams. He wanted to meet his parents, he wanted to know why he was different… He’d never dare say it but I saw it in his eyes. He wanted to know that it was okay to be different, that he was loved anyway.”

“You’re wrong about him. Stryg doesn’t need such things. He is a Sylvan. I raised him to be strong. He is beyond such simple desires,” Aurelia said firmly.

“Simple desires like power? He’s told me of his dreams to become the greatest mage alive. To be so powerful none can dare challenge him.”

Aurelia sighed, “Stryg doesn’t care about power so much as he craves glory. He has always chased after the legends of the great Sylvans of the past. He wishes to be like them, so much so that it sometimes blinds him. It’s his one major fault.”

Plum frowned, “Gods, you still don’t see it, do you? Stryg has never cared about glory. He doesn’t like being the center of attention, he never has. Stryg only wanted to be a great Sylvan because he wanted to make the Blood Fang tribe proud. He wanted to make you proud. You, the person he admires most. He craves your approval more than anything, but you never gave it to him. His own mother. Why?”

“He doesn’t need my approval,” Aurelia muttered. “He has done just fine without me, hasn’t he? The champion of the Great Cities Tourney. The realm’s Ebon Aspirant. What more could he need from me?”

“Do you really believe that…? I’ve seen the way Stryg looks at you. I heard the way he stood up to the Lunar Elect for you. He adores you. You’re his mother, whether you’ve told him or not, that is how he sees you. He needs you.”

“He doesn’t need me!” Aurelia suddenly screamed.

Plum flinched and fell back.

Aurelia bowed her head and stared at Stryg’s pale face. Blood dripped from the corners of his mouth. His breathing was faint. She had never seen him so weak, so still, so frail, not since the day he was born.

Aurelia’s hands trembled and she closed her eyes tight, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Stryg doesn’t need me… I don’t deserve him.”

“What…?” Plum whispered.

“Second Mother told you, didn’t she? Of what happened that night Stryg was born.”

“I… I, uh…”

“You don’t have to lie. I already figured out she spoke with you,” Aurelia sighed.

Plum nodded reluctantly, “She told me that when Stryg was born the other Mothers wanted to kill him, because he was sickly. They didn’t think he was going to survive the night. So in order to protect him, Second Mother and Jahn fought off the guards and the other Sylvan Mothers, while you took Stryg and ran off into the forest.”

Aurelia smiled painfully, “Not quite… I was once the most promising mage in Evenfall, in line to become the Mother Elect or perhaps the Silver Mother high priestess of the Sylvan. Then suddenly I was nothing, just a stupid woman who had broken her sacred vows and fallen in love with an outsider, a man who had abandoned me. I felt so foolish and alone.”

Aurelia closed her eyes as she recalled the night…

~~~

20 years ago…

The growls of beasts in the underbrush and the screeching cries of dire vultures in the trees echoed through the scarlet forest. A small figure ran through the trees, her feet bare and bleeding as she rushed past the underbrush.

Every step Aurelia took sent pangs of pain through her waist. Blood dripped down her legs as agony burned between her thighs. She had cast a healing spell to stem the bleeding and numb the pain but its effects were failing. Brown mana coursed through her muscles and gave her strength, yet each labored breath seemed to sap away what little strength she had left.

The autumn winds howled through the trees and sent shivers down her spine. The cold had never bothered her much before, but now she felt weak, frail. She wore only a simple white robe. And though it was too dark to see, she knew it was dyed red with her own dried blood.

Aurelia looked up past the red canopy, hoping to see the silver face of her goddess hanging in the sky, but there was no moon. The sky was ebon dark, there was no moonlight to grace the land. A birth on the new moon was an ill omen. It was as if Lunae herself was rejecting her.

She dragged her feet across the fallen leaves and tried to find a path with what little starlight filtered through the canopy.

But there was no path. Where could she go? She had run away from Evenfall for fear of her pregnancy being discovered. She had come home, hoping her mother the chieftain might be able to do something, anything. But her mother was sick, bedridden, and no amount of magic in the world could heal her.

Aurelia had left Jahn and Sixth behind, battling for their lives against her fellow Mothers and the hunters her own mother had placed in charge of the birthing room. If the chieftain was awake this would never have happened, but she was asleep, her illness taking hold of her a little more every day.

Everything was falling apart and Aurelia could do nothing to stop it.

“Waaah, waah!”

All because of the newborn child in her arms. He was a small little thing. His cheeks were a dark blue and the little wisp of hair on his round pudgy head was silver-white like her own. He cried incessantly from the moment he was born. Each little breath was labored and he coughed without rest.

Perhaps the other Sylvan Mothers were right. He wouldn’t survive the night. She had run out from the lodge in a panic, without thinking. But now as she stared at the small little face all Aurelia could feel was resentment.

Such a small little creature had cost her everything. Her station, her honor, her dreams… all were gone like the cinders of a flame.

Aurelia’s foot tripped over a tree root hidden underneath the fallen leaves. She cried out in surprise as she stumbled and fell to the ground. She instinctively turned her back and held the baby close to her chest as she fell. The hard uneven ground slammed into her back with a heavy thud. Pain shot through her waist, but she held in her voice for fear of attracting predators.

And still, the baby’s cries echoed throughout the forest.

“What are you crying for?” Aurelia frowned tiredly. “You’re alright, aren’t you? I’m the one who fell and hurt her back. I should be the one crying…”

The baby opened his pale lilac eyes and cried even louder.

“Why… Why can’t you just SHUT UP!!!” Aurelia screamed. Her brown magic failed her and she broke down in tears as the pain flooded her body. She had had enough.

But the baby’s cries didn’t stop.

“I hate you,” Aurelia mumbled through her tears. “It’s all your fault.”

“This is not what you envisioned for your life, is it?” a deep voice rumbled.

Aurelia sat up in shock and looked around worriedly as frost-mist began to rise all around her. “W-Who’s there!?”

“You know who I am, child.” The frost-mist slowly melted away and revealed a giant frost wolf towering over her. The wolf had a snow-white coat and deep scarlet eyes that seemed to bore right through her.

Aurelia had never seen such a large frost wolf before, it was easily twice the size of the others she had met.

No, this wasn’t a frost wolf. She had seen the mural hanging above the Celestial Shrine, she had stared at it for hours, marveling at its beauty. Yet it did not come close to the real being.

“Mother Moon…” Aurelia whispered in awe and fear. Despite the pain, she knelt down and bowed her head. “I… I am so sorry.”

Still, the baby cried, oblivious to the goddess in front of them. Aurelia wanted the earth to swallow them out of shame.

“Sorry?” Lunae repeated the word, as if tasting its meaning on her lips. “Do you understand what you have done?”

Aurelia nodded shamefully and she dared not look up and meet her goddess in the eye. “...I have broken my vows. When I chose to become one of your priestesses I swore to devote my all to you, but I betrayed you and I ran away from my duties… I know my words mean very little to you, but I know I made a mistake, I see that now. All I pray for is mercy for my tribe. They have done nothing wrong, please spare them.”

“I do not blame you for what happened, child.”

“What?” Aurelia mumbled, confused.

“This need not be the end for you, Aurelia of Blood Fang. I have taken a vested interest in you. So I offer you this, a chance to reclaim your dreams.”

Aurelia slowly looked up. “W-what do you mean?”

“You said it yourself. The child, it is the source of your problems. I will get rid of it. None shall ever mention the child’s existence again, you have my word. You will be able to return to your life in Evenfall and resume your training as a priestess and mage.”

“Y-You’re serious…?” Aurelia asked, a glimmer of hope in her yellow eyes.

“You will be able to forget about this whole ordeal. You are a mere 20 summers old. Your life has barely begun, do not waste it in these woods.”

Aurelia stared at the crying child in her arms. A minute ago her life was over and now… Now the Mother Moon herself was giving her a second chance.

“Thank you, my goddess,” Aurelia bowed her head over and over.

“Then let us be rid of it,” Lunae said calmly.

Frost-mist rose up from beneath Aurelia and pulled the crying baby into the air. Lunae opened her mouth, revealing a row of sharp pearl-white teeth the size of short swords.

“W-What are you doing?” Aurelia asked nervously.

“Eating it, obviously. There will be no trace left, I assure you. Come dawn you will be able to put this all behind you.”

“A-Ah, y-yes, of c-course,” she said shakily.

To go against the goddess’ kindness was madness.

Aurelia watched in a numb daze as the frost-mist carried the baby closer to Lunae’s open jaws. The baby wailed loudly and stretched out his little hand towards his mother.

“Wait!” Aurelia yelled in a panic. “I can’t do this! Stop!”

Lunae cocked her head to the side. “I thought you hated the babe? Do you not wish to be rid of it?”

“I was wrong! Please, spare him! I beg of you!” Aurelia threw herself to the ground.

“...It may hurt for a moment, but this will be better for you.”

“No, no, no!” Aurelia cried out in hysteria. “Don’t touch him, I’ll do anything! Take my life instead! Please, goddess, I beg you!” she screamed with tears in her eyes.

The frost-mist wrapped around Aurelia and held her to the ground, leaving her helpless to watch as her son floated closer to Lunae’s open maw.

“Do not worry, by morning you will have forgotten he even existed.”

“NO! I don’t want to forget! Spare my son, please! Please, Lunae, PLEASE, I’M BEGGING YOU, STOP!!!” Aurelia screamed a wretched noise at the top of her lungs.

The baby’s small body slowly spun through the air and reached Lunae’s jaws. The goddess stretched her mouth wide. The baby’s cries abruptly stopped as he met her iridescent scarlet eyes. He reached his pudgy hand out and touched her black nose.

Lunae paused, confused at the sudden interaction. The baby cooed softly and stretched out his little hands towards her. Lunae narrowed her eyes in annoyance and growled at him, a deep rumbling sound that shook the ground itself.

The baby giggled and hugged the goddess’ nose with his four small limbs. Lunae stared at him in mute surprise and for a brief moment a flicker of warmth crossed her eyes. She suddenly frowned and shook her head, sending the baby floating back into the frost-mist.

“Take him,” Lunae ordered, then turned to leave. “Do not speak to your tribe of this night.”

Free from her magical shackles, Aurelia scrambled to her feet and snatched her son from the air. She hugged him tightly and cried in relief.

Lunae glanced back at them. “Have you thought of a name?”

“I, uh,” Aurelia blinked, uncertain of what to say. “...Stryg… after my grandmother.”

“Stryg… hm?” Lunae muttered the name under her breath then walked away and faded into the frost-mist.