Chapter 844: Mother's gift
’What was that?’ Layla tried to think, yet her heart was beating fast enough to make her worry it would jump out of her chest.
’She had her hand around his face... were the two of them about to kiss?!’
Layla had only seen a glimpse of the two of them, and they had been standing far away, yet her mind was turmoil. Her imagination tricked herself into believing that she had seen Erin with her hand around Quinn’s cheek, with Layla coming in at just the perfect moment to interrupt something important.
’Those two... well they would suit each other, I mean she’s a special compared to me. What have I even done for Quinn lately?’ She sulked, and soon she felt something running down her cheek. Wiping it away she tried hard to compose herself.
Suddenly, the sliding doors behind her opened and she lost her footing falling backwards, but she felt someone grab her just before hitting the floor.
"Hey, easy there Layla! So you WERE the one we just saw."’ Quinn stated as he propped her back up on her feat.
Erin, who was also there, walked past and while doing so punched her on the shoulder.
"I have no interest in him, so go for it." She whispered into the other girl’s ear and continued walking away.
’Why would she say that? Didn’t these two..’
"Did you want to see me?" Quinn asked, as he had never seen Layla before in the training room. What’s even more surprising was the fact that Cia, who was usually stuck at her hip, was nowhere to be seen.
Honestly, Quinn and Layla used to be a lot closer since the Cia incident, unfortunately he just didn’t feel too comfortable around Layla’s new BFF, which had resulted in him approaching Layla a lot less recently.
"Yeah." She replied, twirling her hair. She thought it would make her less nervous as long as she had something to play with. "I... I saw that the incident earlier got you down ! So... So I thought you might need someone to talk to."
"Was it that obvious?" Quinn sulked. "Thanks for worrying about me. Actually, Erin came to me to give me a pep talk. Well, her version of it, anyway. Don’t worry, I won’t lose focus. However, since you’re already here, why don’t the two of us have a little talk? It’s been a bit since our last chat.." Although Quinn suggested this quite naturally, there was another reason he had been avoiding Layla.
And he thought what better time to speak to her about it than now.
After Quinn suggested to go somewhere else, Layla started following him. However, since it seemed like he was about to head to one of the bedrooms, she quickly suggested going to the dining hall. Layla was worried it would be quite strange to just have a boy and girl in a room, and the way her mind was acting right now, she just wouldn’t have been able to handle something like that.
The dining hall was completely empty, as it was already quite late at night. Most of the others would be sleeping by now. The two of them sat opposite each other across a large rectangle table.
At first the conversation was quite nice, it was more of a catch up with how the two of them were feeling, but then they started to talk about the past and the old times. During this conversation it made her realise what was on her mind.
"What happened to Vorden? He doesn’t really seem like himself?" She asked Quinn.
"It’s a bit complicated. I’m sorry that I haven’t had the time to go through all the details with you yet. You were away, and then we suddenly met at that duel..." Quinn paused for a brief second, then continued to fill her in about the story with the Blades.
"That’s so sad, do you think we’ll be able to get the old him back?"
"I haven’t given up on it. Someone once told me that abilities never die out. If someone with an ability dies, then that ability can reappear again somewhere else. Whether this is true or not, who knows, and maybe it’s something that takes hundreds of years to manifest, or everyone with the ability needs to die but we have to try, right? Just like I’m doing now."
Layla nodded and agreed, but hearing about what happened to Vorden, it was the second time this day that she felt a stabbing pain in her heart. Even her stomach was starting to feel a little queasy.
"How come, you haven’t come to me? Surely that one question must have been on your mind for a long time now." Quinn suddenly blurted out.
Layla looked down, and started to dwindle her fingers, because she knew what he was getting at.
"I guess I just wasn’t ready yet. After speaking to Cia, and the way she’s been acting I can pretty much figure out what happened. You know, the first night I figured it out, I couldn’t stop crying. My mother... she wasn’t like other mothers. We never really did things together, and whenever we did talk, it was always just be about Pure."
"She sacrificed her life to save you. She really did care for you, Layla. Maybe she didn’t show it, but at least her last moments were dedicated to you."
"I know." She replied with a big grin on her face. "I can feel the energy that she passed down to me inside of me."
"Can I touch your hands for a second?" Quinn requested.
"What?!" Layla started to panic. When she saw him place his hands on the table, she hesitated for a bit, but ultimately placed hers on his and grabbed them.
Quinn then closed her eyes, and Layla did the same.
’What is he about to do? My heart! I can’t take this for long.’
"Done." Quinn told her after a moment and let go to her slight disappointment. "It appears that her Qi really is inside you. This must be her final gift to you. It might not be as strong as hers at her peak, since she used it to heal you, but it’s plenty strong. Say, what are you going to do after this? Do you plan to head back to Pure?" Quinn wondered.
"I intend to go to Pure, but I have no plans to stay there. My mother, she was one of the founders of Pure, but she never told me her reason. I hope by returning to them I might discover just why she hated ability users so much. Once in a while she would even look at me with hatred in her eyes. Once I’ve found that out...." Layla stopped there, because that’s when she realised, she hadn’t really thought about a future beyond that point.
In the past she had just followed her mother’s path for her in life, but with her now gone...
"You can figure that out later." Quinn advised her as he noticed her blank look. "Our priority should be to defeat the Dalki, or at least get out of this place. Otherwise there won’t be a future to worry about."
A few days had passed since their talk and their new family members were starting to get into the swing of things. Quinn was gaining reputation points daily, but he had stopped placing more towers for the moment.
He didn’t want to get even more attention to himself just yet, and thought the two at the front were fine for now. However, he had upgraded them to level three, making them stronger and more powerful than before.
As for the statue, that didn’t have a level, as it was unique in its own way.
One day, when Quinn was in the lab checking on Logan and Peter. One of the men that worked for Paul came to notify them that there was a visitor, namely one of the second family’s Vampire knights.
’So it’s finally started? If I remember correctly, the second family leader is Cindy, and she’s the one that might be able to get Cia’s memory back. It’s clear she wants something from me, but perhaps we can use them as well.’
"Let them in." Quinn ordered.
Quinn didn’t move from where he was. He didn’t want to make it seem like it was such a big deal that a knight had come to see him. Fortunately, as a family leader he outranked their guest, so he had the privilege to wait for them to come to him.
In the meantime he continued with what they were doing, in this case examining the new things Logan had created recently alongside Peter.
Eventually the female knight entered the room. She had short brown hair and big eyes. All three of them noticed the bag under her eyes. Vampires didn’t need much sleep in the first place, so it was rare for one to have them.
She gave a quick bow to Quinn as a sign of respect, and immediately went to deliver her message.
"The second family leader, Cindy Cha, invites you to a meeting in her castle, tonight at six PM. There will be several other leaders present, so she hopes you will join them. She promises that you won’t regret it."
She stood there as if waiting for an answer, but Quinn just waved her off, allowing her to leave.
’It’s just as Dwight predicted. Cindy must be trying to get me over to her side. I guess if I want to find out more of their plans that meeting will be the perfect place. Dwight did deliver on his promises, so time to return the favor.’
Peter, who was swinging a strange contraption in his hand, a tool Logan had created, waited for her to leave before warning Quinn. "I don’t like that bitch. They were having those meetings before you were here, so she is definitely planning to use you Quinn! If you ever need someone to give her a slap, I’ll be the first one to volunteer."
"Right..." Quinn replied awkwardly, he had actually heard what had happened between him and Cindy from Layla, a couple of days ago.
Half an hour before the meeting, Quinn decided that he would participate. He was sure that they wouldn’t attack him, after all they would want him on their side. Nevertheless, just in case they wanted to do something stupid, Quinn was confident enough to be able to escape via his shadow.
Leaving the castle, Quinn wore a hood to cover his face and made his way to the second castle. A short while later, another visitor arrived at the tenth castle.
Another Vampire knight.
Entering the castle, the first person she asked to meet wasn’t Quinn but Leo. One of the soldiers went to fetch him.
"I didn’t expect to meet you again so soon, did you come here for that duel?" Leo asked.
"Actually, I’m here to see my brother." Silver replied.
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