Finding Contentus

Chapter 135: The Inheritance of Parenthood

"I foresaw her feistiness before her demise. It's why I had Salih and Ziyad adopt her into our Jibade family, when her birth parents, Aanchal and Kalash of the Vamagi clan gave their daughter up to us and instructed Aaravi to watch over her sister in the background. It's why Kesi supported Kami's efforts as she became more influential until she caught Ramsis's attention."

Genesia nodded. "She never feared death, she only feared not living life to the fullest."

"She completed her mission, spearheading my plans into motion. The plans I was able to plot, thanks to your mother's guiding tracks." Nephthery looked at her master. "Brightey, I am forever in your debt."

Bantii cocked a brow. "Haow. You still call me that?"

"I'd prefer to be the only one that calls you Brightey. With your permission," she humbly asked.

"Helang, after all this time and you're still so formal." Bantii clicked her tongue. "Fine, fine, you have my permission. Sooner or later you'll call me by name." She rested her hand on Nephthery's shoulder and gave it a soft squeeze.

"Maybe. Maybe not. You said you like surprises." Nephthery squeezed her hand back.

"Point received." Bantii conceded, gesturing towards her twins.

Nephthery approached Genesia and Neosa, placing one hand over his forehead and the other hand over her forehead, feeling the temperatures of their contractual scars like she was trying to heal them from sickening fevers. "You have been through so much, and you have been connected to so much sin, too much..."

Nephthery thought of the hell all her children had gone through, all the hell she had to watch from start to finish. All she could do was be a bystander, watching and crying in muffled silence, praying that her eyes would continue to protect them in ways that were invisible to the naked eye, to Ra's eyes.

Genesia and Neosa weren't going to deny her honesty. "Ah, we have been through the ringer." They placed their hands over hers.

"And you'll continue to see the rings through, Nephy. You'll see the rainbow that comes after the rainstorm. We will make it known. We will make it visible. We will nourish the fields from your plots. A mother's duty is to shield her children in the ways she can, regardless of the repercussions she'll face. Our duty is to be the shrouds of your twins. We are the tools that will overwhelm their fusions to the eyes of Ra with the genomes of Gene and the neons of Neo."

Nephthery brought them in closer, touching their heads with her own, inhaling their rich scents. Just from smelling them, she could feel how impossible it was for Ramela and Ramoth to resist them.

"Genie. Neokie," she whispered. "The laws of Brightey have bound us like a lock that fastens our forest of a family together. You are right. I will continue to see it through. My gratitude to you is... infinite, as is my thanks, for all you've put up with, and all you've done thus far for my twins. Really... I have no words to match my tears in any tongue. Except this."

She moved back, grinning at Neosa like a jewel. "You have no idea how much I wanted to slap that stupid man's egghead as you did, Neokie. For each year he humiliated me, relishing in my misery."

She gave Genesia a measured grin. "Or how I wanted to get Ramiya to say the things you wrote for her when you orchestrated his concealment, Genie. Seeing that gave me more joy than you could possibly imagine."

"What about Lovouta and Ayata?" They asked.

"Alla hai. My sweetheart and my honeydiamond. I can't wait to see..." Nephthery didn't continue, instead she glanced at Bantii who tapped her wrist. She nodded and gave a fading smile to the twins. "I can't wait to see what you'll come to see."