Chapter 210 - Saintly Liars And Honest Devils (2/2)
Reed awkwardly chuckled and said, ”You might have been sleeping. I didn't want to wake you up if that was the case.”
He slipped into the room and presented to her a bouquet, which only made Lu'um even harder, much to her distress. Her wounds had not yet completely healed, so she grimaced a little bit as she pointed at the flowers and said, ”You've become even more gentlemanly since I've last seen you, dear.”
The instant Lu'um saw the flowers, she knew that Reed had stolen them from the royal family's botanical garden, probably because no one was working there at the moment because of the funeral.
Reed sheepishly shrugged his shoulders and said, ”Who's going to miss a couple of flowers anyway? Not as if I took a tree from the garden. Besides, I brought something else for you, something I thought you might have missed.”
He pulled a small box of chocolates from inside his cloak with the label ”Choconium.” A tiny chocolate mascot in the shape of an atom beamed happily in an art style reminiscent of a comic book, almost as if it was trying to jump out of the box into the real world.
For some reason, Lu'um loved these particular chocolates to death, enough that it had worried Reed initially. She had practically gorged herself on them the first week she found about them until Reed had called her out on it... and the weight scale at home had given her a terrifying number.
When Lu'um squealed like a little girl, Reed smiled and said, ”Don't finish the box in one go, okay?”
After the fight, Lu'um and Shaali had been taken to the royal lifeweavers and given emergency medical treatment.
In the end, more than half of Lu'um ribs had been broken, her hands had been mangled, she had lost an eye, one of her lungs had been punctured, her skull had broken in five different places, her jaw had been shattered, and her face had been beaten into nigh-unrecognizable, disfigured shape.
This was, of course, not including the fact that she had bled out approximately sixty percent of her blood.
It was a minor miracle that the royal lifeweavers had put her back together so well, even with their technology. Then again, they had also put Reed back together after he had been turned into a charred stump of a thing back when the Infestation had nearly killed him.
Shaali, on the other hand, had... died. Though her injuries were equally as severe, she could have been resurrected, but in the end, the elders of the royal family decided that they would not revive her.
To do so would be a betrayal of Shaali's resolve, commitment, and honor to the terms of that bloody duel, even if they still disapproved of it. That, and the fact that if they revived her, she would most likely kill herself immediately to make amends for their interference.
There would be no undoing of what had transpired that night. What was done was done.
Reed was troubled. Very, very troubled. After all, who did one even begin to broach such a heavy topic as... killing one's mother in combat? He had fought much more terrifying Infested and troublesome problems restructuring Mulia than his current predicament.
”...”
”...”
An awkward air hung about the room for a minute or two before Lu'um gawked at Reed with an annoyed expression and said, ”Get it out your system once and for all, for both our sakes. Say what you need to say. I can take it.”
”Should I hug you and comfort you? Should I congratulate you? Should I scold you? Or should I ignore the fact you committed matricide and never bring the subject up ever again? I am, quite literally this time, at a total loss for words. Needless to say, you've blown my mind to pieces.”
What did it say about Reed that he had actually helped Lu'um kill her mother? He may not have killed Shaali himself, but he certainly aided in her murder by stopping everyone that night. It violated everything he stood for, and yet he had done it all the same.
There was blood on his hands, even if they weren't the bloodiest out of the two of them. That was on him.
He could have tried to reason with Lu'um and Shaali. Try to convince them to make amends, give each other a second chance.
Reed always believed that there was an alternative to violence and murder. That was the very reason he had not killed the Dreaming Council, even after all they had done. It was why he had desperately worked to have them tried in a legal court for their crimes than to have them brutally executed by an angry mob after the Eventide.
And yet, Reed had done nothing this time. If anything, he had assisted the very thing he sought to end.
”I think... my love for you blindsided me,” said Reed as he finally grasped what he had done.
He gazed at Lu'um with a distraught expression and said, ”I should have stopped you. But I let my love for you cloud my judgment. I basked in your rage, your d.e.s.i.r.e for revenge because I felt... sympathetic to your circ.u.mstances. And I feared the consequences if I acted against you. It paralyzed me.”
I failed her. I gave what she wanted... not what she really needed. And in failing her, I have failed myself...
Lu'um shook her head and said, ”Our relationship was irreconcilable, beloved. It was a thing that died thousands of years ago. There was nothing that anyone could have done to repair it. That fight we had; that was our reconciliation — a way for both of us to find peace, once and for all. I realize that you will probably never understand our reasoning, but I want you to know that this was a long time coming and that neither she nor I would have or will ever blame you for your actions.”
”To make it clear, it is your idealism, your capacity for forgiveness, and your stubborn adherence to solving problems without violence that I love most about you. In a world of darkness, you are akin to a beacon of light. You constantly doubt yourself and your worth, unaware of how invaluable your strength of character and moral integrity are in these desperate times.”
”They are your greatest strengths, not your ability to command Anima or whatever it is you're capable of doing now with these new abilities of yours. They are what attract people to you and why they place so much faith in you,” said Lu'um, driving the point forward.
Lu'um smiled and said, ”That is why my family cares so much about you. Why they are so interested in you. You are the most remarkable out of all of us because...”
She paused for a moment and chuckled at the absurdity of it all. How pitiful her family was...
”You can evoke tremendous faith in people without having to lie...”