Chapter 610: Reunion [Part 2]
"No, no, we should have done everything in our power to find you. How are you here? Have you found your father?"
Northern looked around the dark room for a moment before answering her.
"This place belongs to me. It's sort of like a pseudo-world of my own. I will explain all of that later. But yes, I have met Father, and I'm about to take you to him."
Northern's eyes slowly drifted to the baby in the cradle.
Eisha followed his gaze, then moved closer to the cradle. She gently lifted the infant, wrapped in wooly white apparel, and brought her to Northern.
The child was wide awake, with red eyes and black hair curling on its head.
"Here's your sister... Silver."
The child seemed to chuckle as her name was called. Eisha slowly handed her to Northern, who received her with blank but subtly narrowed eyes.
A life was in his hands.
A newborn baby, an existence that had just fully come into being, was in his hands.
Northern didn't know why, but these were the thoughts that kept coming forth in his mind.
He stared into her eyes for a moment, the child's pure scarlet eyes reflecting in the depths of his blue ones.
His sister. The one he had given the name to.
Silver.
That living being was in his hands right now, he was looking at her right now, and yet... there was nothing.
It was difficult to explain, but he felt like he was holding any other child unrelated to him.
He could feel vividly the void in his heart; since the last time he'd noticed, it had grown even larger and more hollow.
He was looking at his own sister and couldn't feel anything. He wanted his heart to writhe in pain at the fact that he could not feel anything.
But it was all the same.
At the very least, he had mastered the art of releasing a pleasing and delightful smile.
His lips curled to reveal it. Unlike before, the smile seemed to be getting familiar with his face and was less ugly, now more normal.
Although Eisha could perceive a certain emptiness through it.
She didn't expect her son to be exactly as she had left him, so she didn't even complain.
In fact, she was glad he could at least still manage to smile.
"We have a lot to catch up on, don't we?"
Northern removed his gaze from the baby and stared for a few seconds before nodding. Then he added, "But we need to meet with Father first. There are also some questions regarding the guy that tried to kidnap you that I'm curious about, and about your homeland too."
Eisha frowned for a bit, then her eyes slowly widened.
"You know..."
Northern shrugged nonchalantly. "Well, being in the dark continent and the few rifts that I have been in has given me certain experiences that have not only revolutionized my entity but also opened my eyes to some truths of this world. Of course, I still remain on a journey of discovery towards it all... whatever discussion I will have with you will also contribute to that journey."
From the few words her son said, it was almost like Eisha could glimpse the extent to which he had changed. And it was far more than she had ever expected or anticipated.
She looked down with a somber gaze and later looked at Northern, her countenance broken. "I guess it is fine. I can always answer whatever questions you ask, my son." Northern smiled and looked at the child in his hands before giving her back to Eisha. Then he waved his hand.
In a flash, the scenery changed and they were back in the familiar underground.
The government staff and military personnel there had reduced from before; even the few that remained were running around, packing up and cleaning the place.
Shin's eyes narrowed as he saw a subtle and disappearing shimmer of bluish-black flame appear from nothing and materialize his son and wife faster than a blink could be completed.
His eyes widened as he saw Eisha-her familiar brown hair and golden eyes, her olive skin and gentle gaze, the beautiful features of her face that made her look like an angel in rags. Everything was still the same as when she had suddenly disappeared a few months ago. Only now, her belly bump had gone down completely, and there was a child in her arms. Hands trembling and eyes widening so much they could tear apart, Shin staggeredly ran forward. He couldn't hold himself up because his entire body suddenly felt weak and tired.
He fell at her feet, his eyes a bleeding waterfall, sadness cracking the visage of his face like fissures through rock.
He wanted to speak, but the words were too heavy. Eisha, seeing him like this, also knelt down gently with the baby in her arms.
Shin's eyes drifted towards the baby.
"She's beautiful. Our child. She's very beautiful..."
Those were the first words that came out of his mouth.
"Yes, she is... she is very beautiful. Our child is."
Both couples sobbed as they held each other by the head, their foreheads touching in the moment of heartbreaking reunion.
Shin wanted to say more, but he just could not stop the tears.
He wanted to stop crying and say something, but it was hard-harder than worn-out hands lifting a sword that could cleave the world in two.
He wanted to apologize to her for that argument. For not telling her everything despite how open she was with him.
He wanted to apologize for how wayward he had been. The choices of life he chose as a younger child, as a teenager.
He wanted to tell her how much he wished he had met her earlier, how much he wished he was never born in that accursed family.
He wanted to tell her how wretched his life would be without her, how nothing but hopelessness and damnation would be what he represented as a living being.
He wanted to thank her for meeting him, loving him, and marrying him.
All those words tingled heavily at the tip of his tongue, and yet nothing could be heard but a groaning wail like the sad tone of thunder that had lost its lightning.
Everyone who stood in the scene, even the staff and personnel, had paused for a minute to watch the sorrowful scene unfold.
Ryan watched with a bitter taste in his mouth, his eyes lowered and trying to avoid looking at
the couple.
Thalen and Alystren were also like that, but they watched, their eyes carrying sympathetic sorrow for what was happening before them.
Everyone resonated with the scene one way or another. Everyone except Northern.
He had taken several steps apart and was watching with no feeling or ache in his chest. Because of this, Northern made sure to keep his mind on whatever was going on.
He was so empty that he felt if he should let his mind sway away from what was happening right now, not only would he be just empty, but also incapable of empathy and deprived of
morals.
And he was scared of what kind of person that Northern would be.
Of course, there was little he could do to save what was eventually bound to happen as long as Void and Chaos continued to live in him.
And perhaps soon, the void would eat so deep into his soul that dispositions like this would
not matter- he wouldn't even be that thoughtful.
Because emptiness had corroded his entire soul.
There was a price to his power after all. A price that Northern did not yet know how heavy it would be to bear.
After a while, the cohort made it to the harbor, where they boarded the private citadel ship.
Northern stood at the rim of the ship and watched as Arcadia sank into the ground.
Luckily for the city, the disaster of the rift had only affected the cathedral. The other
devastated place was the governor's house.
The shambles it was left in marked the city with a grotesque scar.
It was not just about the scenery but the loss of the governor itself had ushered a melancholy
air into the city.
One that Northern, as he watched, couldn't quite understand.
'Unless a governor was so loving, caring, and great, why would the people mourn him?'
He had always thought things like the death of governors don't usually bother a
constitutionally led people.
Seeing this made him see things differently and also made him realize how big of a disaster was coming in the future.
He looked into the sky as the ship flew away, then narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth.
"Lieutenant Dante... you really thought hard and well before deceiving me, didn't you?"
Lieutenant Dante definitely wasn't thinking about friendship when he asked for that one wish. Northern had thought that he was, although there were suspicion but he wouldn't deny that he had ultimately believed that they could be friends. "Anyways, going to the academy really would be a good choice for now."