Galaxy of Hyperion: Mystic Heir

Chapter Forty-Three: Mother and Son

"I mean, last time that something like this happened when we had to be gone, there were Mind mages who were able to cover for us. Remember that?" Jayler asked. "There were a bunch of Mind mages that worked together to erase the memories of anybody who had heard that we were gone, and that allowed us to come back home and return to normal life relatively painlessly. Of course, I don't know if that's going to be an option here..."

"I can say for sure that I'm not exactly ready to do something like that," Ocean announced. "I don't know if I ever would be ready to do something like that to my parents or anybody else that I knew, even if I knew it was for the best... This whole situation is just so hard for us to deal with."

"Even if we have our excuse, there's a lot more that goes into our preparations than that. We have to lie about what we're going to do and pray that nobody catches on and calls out our inevitable nervous cues. I hope you're all good at falsifying the truth," Gemini snorted as she took yet another drink of her water. 

Jayler sighed and nodded. He had certainly lied to his mother a fair share of times since all of this had started. It wasn't as if he could just get away from her questions when she questioned him on why he came home so late. Normally, he just said that he was out studying with friends or spending time with the new companions he had found at school. Michelle usually just hugged him and kissed his forehead the same affectionate way that she always did, but Jayler could still see the worry and sadness in her eyes. She was upset that he wasn't home more often, and she felt as if there was more to it than he was letting on. It wasn't a matter of trust there; she was worried because that was what parents did regardless of how trustworthy and honest their children were. 

"After this, life should go back to normal for at least a short while though," Xia pointed out. "I mean, we don't know when the next Lakinya is going to resurface, and if all goes well, it'll be a while. I don't know about all of you, but I need a little bit of time being a normal obnoxious teenager before I'm willing to go back to saving the world. The magic is nice, but it's all so high-stress when something like this happened. Remember when we were setting up the castle to be a hub for all Hanilia? I like that a whole lot better."

"I never would have taken you for someone so averse to combat," Luke admitted. When Xia raised an eyebrow at him, he shook his head violently before waving his hands to try and cover for himself. "I-I didn't mean that it's a bad thing! It's just... You're normally so forward when it comes to confrontation. You never let anything or anybody get in your way, and the fact that you're so passive about this... I don't know. I guess it's a little bit strange for me to see."

Xia's shoulders went slack as she let out a heavy sigh. "It's a lot of pressure to constantly be living your life on the line that way. I do want to help people, but... The fear and paranoia is something else. I want it gone for a while before I'll be ready to do anything else dangerous in Hyperion," she admitted softly. 

"The... The paranoia?" Lex asked, phrasing the syllables carefully, almost as if she was afraid of them. There was something in her eyes that was confused, but deeper than that, there was understanding. She knew exactly what Xia was referring to whether she chose to admit it or not. 

"The fear of just waiting for Alba to show up again!" Xia cried out, a sobering laugh breaking free of her lips. "Every single time that we're in the castle, I keep feeling like they're going to come out of the shadows to try and freeze us all to death again! It happened once, and then, it happened again while we were gone! I know that they're not going to come up and fight back against us out of nowhere, but I can't just tell my brain to turn off its fight or flight response just because I'm sick of being paranoid and anxious!"

Jayler almost flinched at how terrified Xia was beneath the biting tone of her words. She was right regardless of if he wanted to confess it openly. He hadn't been feeling the sting of the anxiety as much as other members of the group, but he would have been lying if he claimed that it wasn't there. They all knew what Alba was capable of, and letting their guard down was a mistake that could have very easily proven fatal. Alba was terrifying through and through, and they were all intimately aware of such a fact.