Chapter 72 #2
“Whenever we returned to the walls, I'd ask her where she'd been, what she was plotting, and if I could help somehow.
Your mother would say it was still a work in progress and she couldn't tell me yet.
We'd fight. She'd ask me to trust her, and I, blinded by love, did.
I didn't have the courage to enter her mind, because that was the rule that held our relationship together: never invade each other's minds…” He stopped again and stared at the ring for a few seconds.
“Over the years, our numbers grew, and the Interions started to resent the growing population.
They didn't want us inside the walls because we were children of the enemy.
Back then, there were 120 refugees inside these walls, and soon two children were born.
With their birth, more Interions revolted.
The provocations, once silent, grew into shouts and open hostility.
Our people were never known for patience or backing down.
To avoid conflicts that would make things worse, I ordered the descendants not to react to provocations—just to call me to resolve things before they turned into a war.
But one night, when Ravena and I were in the forests with our squads, the descendants' camp was attacked by the first anti-Drutes movement.
The men were in the forests; only women and children remained.
They separated mothers from children, saying that if they cooperated, they wouldn't hurt the little ones.
The women didn't fight back because those were my orders, and they were held captive all night…”
Serguei fell silent and took a deep breath.
“And what happened?” the general asked.
The pain of the memories was so intense that his empathic power absorbed it in great waves.
“At dawn, when they were released, they found their children’s tiny bodies burned to the bone in the center of the camp.”
“I’ve never stopped thinking about Daena and Itiria’s grief.” The Sonar shook his head, lost in his memories.
“Why are there no records of this massacre?” Zion didn’t even know what to say. It was so revolting it turned his stomach.
“Interion didn’t care, so they burned the records of that episode.
” Serguei looked up at his son. “That was the spark that set everything in motion. When we learned what had happened, Ravena and I fought. She was frightened and fed up with staying in Interion, but I still hadn’t given up.
We called an urgent meeting with Elaizer about the situation, and he promised a better, safer place for our people.
He even created a law stating that a descendant could retaliate against and kill anyone who violated our rights as citizens.
He gave us the freedom to seek justice for our children. ”
Serguei clenched his hands into fists and continued, his voice dripping with bitterness:
“That night, Ravena argued with the king. She said words wouldn’t protect us, and that Interion should clean up its own trash because we weren’t going to dirty our hands with them.
When we got home, we got into another argument, but this one was different.
She was hysterical, wouldn’t listen to me, and refused any compromise.
She said she would take our people and lead them away.
But lead them where? Out there, we wouldn’t be safe!
If we weren’t hunted by soldiers, we’d be hunted by lamias.
I tried to calm her down, but it was useless: your mother turned against me, and what had been an outside problem ended up destroying our marriage.
She said she couldn’t stand beside someone who couldn’t even protect our children, and I said I wouldn’t drag 120 people into the forest to die.
That day, Ravena left the house to clear her head and never came back. ”
“I must say she wasn’t wrong,” the seer murmured quietly, as if he didn’t want to be heard.
“While all this was happening, where were you, Julius?” Zion asked, arching an eyebrow.
The Sonar turned toward the horizon without a word.
“After two years,” Serguei continued, “she reached out and said she’d returned to the walls and we needed to talk. I was far away, but I came back as quickly as I could. When I arrived, the city was in chaos and under attack. Her squadron had stormed the palace and carried out a massacre.”
“Another scene I’ll never forget,” Julius interjected.
“The king was beheaded on his throne, and Elitium was already arriving, coordinating a counterattack. He ordered the descendant district surrounded. Amenadiel, Lea, Luanda, and I were trapped by a blocking barrier and taken to the main square. There, Elitium gave us a choice: make a blood pact swearing loyalty as his Pillar, or die. And if we died, the entire district would go with us.” Serguei interrupted the Sonar, who had also been forced to make a difficult choice that night.
“To avoid a civil war, we agreed to the pact and swore loyalty to the new monarch. It was a temporary bargain to save the descendants. Then he brought some guards from Ravena’s squadron and told us she had been the one to set up the ambush.
I didn’t believe it. Your mother didn’t like Interion, but I was certain she wouldn’t commit such an atrocity.
Seeing my reluctance, Elitium forced me to enter those men’s minds, breaking the mental barriers Ravena had created to protect the information there.
In their memories, I found the proof I needed.
There were images of Ravena negotiating with the king of Drutes.
There were also scenes of the camps she had found and of descendants being led blindfolded down an unknown path.
Elitium forced me to relay the images to him and declared a death sentence on Ravena.
Then he made another blood pact and ordered me to kill her.
He promised before the entire nation that if I did this, there would be no bloodshed.
He would release the descendant district to live freely outside the walls, but he wouldn’t tolerate our kind living among his people.
However, if I refused, he swore to hunt down and kill any descendant who tried to fight. ”
“You had the strength and power to fight back. Why didn’t you?” Zion asked.
“Back then, we believed in peace, Zion. We didn’t want to be seen as murderers.
We were already battling one nation; we couldn’t go to war with Interion too.
Everything pointed to Ravena having planned the attack, because there was no other explanation.
And as leader, I felt obligated to repair the damage.
It was my duty to wash away that stain, and I had to agree for the good of our people.
I hunted Ravena through the city and found her in the abandoned tunnels, then pursued and cornered her.
My plan was to kill her and then take my own life.
But things didn’t go as planned. When I killed her, she did what we call a ‘consciousness transfer,’ passing her memories and her entire life’s information to me.
I discovered we had a son. I saw everything hidden in her mind, and I saw the mistake I’d made. ”
Serguei looked at his son, and tears streamed down his cheeks.
“It was too late, Zion. She hid the pregnancy, afraid I’d want to keep you here and you’d be killed like the other children.
Ravena was already pregnant when the attack happened and became hysterical thinking it could have been her own child.
Even back then, she’d maintained contact with the king of Drutes, but she was deceiving him, playing a double game where she pretended to pass information when she was actually gathering intelligence on him.
The king wanted her to retrieve a stone from Interion.
He told your mother everything he knew and why it was so important.
In exchange for her service, he promised to end the breeding camps.
Ravena and her squadron accepted; she knew it was a lie, but she had her own interest in the stones and was manipulating the king too.
After years of this game, she grew tired and made her final move.
She stole the stone the Drutes king was guarding and fled somewhere he couldn’t find her.
But your mother’s squadron was truly loyal to Drutes and returned to Interion, now with objectives and orders the red king had given them. ”
“In the years she spent away, I thought she was running from me.
But in truth, she was running from the king of Drutes and keeping you safe.
Ravena hid in the city she was building because that was her grand plan—the reason for all the disappearances during expeditions.
She was secretly taking descendants there while pretending to fight for Interion.
Your mother's city grew the whole time. It became impenetrable because she trained all the inhabitants with the same discipline the Night Squadron had received. The city was protected by magical barriers and camouflaged in territory no one wanted to set foot in.”
“That must be where all the refugees I send northwest end up. The city where I was born. Ravena's nation,” the general surmised, absorbing all the information that had always been kept from him.