Diah, shaken to her core by her mother’s unexpected embrace, felt time come to a standstill. Wyrna’s frigid exterior seemed to melt away. For the briefest of moments, Diah questioned her own reality.
‘Surely, I must be dreaming,’ She thought and awaited a response from the mental version of her mother that had plagued her for days. There wasn’t one. The silence was an additional dose of unexpected bliss in the situation that developed around her.
“I’m so thankful you’re here safely,” Wyrna said quietly between them. Her grip tightened. “I genuinely thought I had lost you forever, and now here you are.”
Diah fought the urge to settle into Wyrna’s embrace. It was too sudden to believe that any of it was real. A part of her hoped it was, though. No matter how many horrid things Wyrna did, Diah’s heart stubbornly refused to give up on her mother.
Diah pulled away from Wyrna and extended an arm out to her friends. “Mother, this is Sky and Balakus. They’re just two of the group that worked to get me back home safely. The others are headed to Flightline Omega.”
Wyrna’s eyes widened as she took in what Diah had said. She gave a pleasant smile to her companions and offered a formal bow. “My many thanks to my daughter’s helpers. I owe you two, and the rest, the absolute best the Chyl can offer.” Wyrna inspected Balakus from top to bottom. “Especially you, who so bravely betrayed his own kind.”
Balakus met Wyrna’s eyes and stood his ground as she approached, the first time Diah had witnessed such an act. She struggled to read his face. It was stone-like in more ways than one.
“Hm, indeed,” Balakus grumbled in response. “You know, they say Kunar loyalty is much like the Chyl’s - we just follow whoever lives at the highest elevation.”
Wyrna let out a forced laugh and a beaming smile, then turned back to Diah. “I look forward to hearing more about your journey, so let’s head up to the suite. The Alis are scheduled to convene tonight and I’m sure you could use a rest before then.”
“Food and rest sound ideal, mother,” She agreed.
“It’s settled then!” Wyrna shouted with a wave of her arms. The guards shuffled around her. “Your friends can join us as well.”
“And the Aurora?” Sky questioned.
“I’ll see that it’s heavily guarded,” Wyrna answered.
She rotated on the balls of her feet, the most energetic Diah had ever seen her, and led the way up the familiar capitol steps. Diah noticed the eyes of the capitol staff affixed to them as they ascended. It was different, to say the least. She reflected on when she had run down the steps, invisible to those around her, in order to find and save herself. Now, seen by all, she ran up them in an attempt to save Vensha.
“Is everything here so posh?” Sky wondered aloud as she took in the interior of the capitol.
“It’s a far cry from what Yara looks like,” Balakus added. “Well, except for Regal’s chambers. That would fit in with everything here, no problem.”
“Maybe your Lord Regal took inspiration from our architecture and refused to make it public knowledge,” Wyrna offered. Balakus didn’t respond.
Diah looked down the hallway that led to Wyrna’s office. “Are we not using your office, mother?”
“No, my dear. We’re going home,” Wyrna stated.
‘Home,’ Diah repeated to herself. ‘It’s so strange to think of that awful penthouse as such.’
The group collected onto one of the capitol’s central lifts before Wyrna waved her palm across the buttons. It hummed then shot into the bronze tunnel above as it ascended to the top. Sky wobbled slightly from the speed. The lift dinged and its doors slid open to the boxed entryway of the Nollak’s suite. As they entered, Diah was greeted by the abhorrent sight of overwhelmingly white and yellow furniture.
“Sky, Balakus, please make yourselves at home wherever you would like. The balcony has a particularly pleasant view at this time of day. There’s plenty of food in the various storages as well, or you can have something brought up. They’ll know to bill me once you give them the floor number: one-fifty-seven,” Wyrna explained to them. She faced her daughter. “Diah, will you be alright if we convene in my quarters?”
The thought sent a spiked chill through Diah’s body. Wyrna’s home office was where some of the more serious conversations between the two took place. There was a lot of Diah’s pain and sorrow packed into that room. That said, she knew if her mother brought it up, it also meant that whatever they needed to discuss was for them - and them only.
“That’s fine,” Diah managed to eek out in response. She ran her hands through her hair and glanced toward her friends. “I’ll be right back,” She told them. Sky gave her a look of concern, then wandered off into the maze of hallways. Balakus walked down a couple of steps and sat on a couch that was too small for his body. Diah followed her mother into her home office and stood at the end of the desk. Years of bad memories poured out from her mind and into her barely-recovered soul.
Wyrna sat at the table’s other end. The sun blazed in the window behind her and gave the room an almost ethereal glow. “Would you like to sit down, Diah?”
Diah shook her head. “No, it’s fine, mother. I’m used to standing here.”
“If you insist,” Wyrna replied. She swiped up a couple of holo-screens and enabled their dual-view so Diah could see as well. Wyrna had pulled up a number of charts and star maps.
“To start with the most pertinent matter, our intelligence officers have made us aware of potential plans for invasion by the Kunar forces,” Wyrna informed Diah as they walked through the charts together. Small X’s blipped across one of the star maps. “As a result, we’ve decided to place beacons at various points in the system. If the Kunar pass by, it automatically triggers a warning response to us and we have a few hours to evacuate civilians and key individuals to safe locations while our military forces assemble a frontline assault.”
Diah leaned in closer to get a better read of the maps. “Is that what happened when we came in? We pinged one of these beacons?”
“Yes, exactly,” Wyrna confirmed. “I had them code your MenXhip’s ID into the beacons in the event you passed by. It was like an emergency signal was set off, but only for me. Your arrival was going to cause a stir, but I wanted to delay word of it going out until the last possible moment.”
Diah thought back to their previous conversation on the Aurora. “You mentioned you were concerned there may be traitors in the Alis. What did you mean by that?”
Wyrna sighed. “I’ve made a lot of enemies in my life, Diah. The things that I’ve done have come back on me tenfold and, as a result, it sucked you in. I’m still working to find out who ordered your kidnapping, but heed me when I say that it will not end there. I don’t want any more attempts on your life. That’s why you’ll stay by my side until we can convene, and even during the meeting.”
“I understand, mother,” Diah acknowledged. Wyrna’s words had a tone of remorse layered throughout them. Diah’s chest relaxed the slightest bit, as if some of the poison she had built up from their relationship evaporated.
‘Maybe she really is just trying to start over,’ Diah pondered.
Wyrna swiped away the screens and put her hands together on top of her desk. “Diah, I need to know what happened. How you were kidnapped, where you went, and how you got here. All of it.”
Diah pulled a chair from the side of the room and sat down. “All of it?” She questioned, just to confirm.
Wyrna nodded and Diah spent the next couple of hours recounting her journey. Wyrna stayed quiet for the most part, listening intently, except for a few questions about the involvement of Areshia Divaris, the exact findings at the warehouse in Elontra and the personal pryings into her thoughts - and intentions - regarding Zaius. It was the closest to a normal mother-daughter conversation Diah had ever had with Wyrna, and Diah couldn’t deny that it felt good. As Diah finished, Wyrna leaned back into her seat.
“Obviously quite a lot has happened since you left Vensha, dear,” Wyrna reflected.
“It’s been such a blur, to be honest,” Diah added. “With the travel, I lost track of the days and nights I was away.”
“You were gone too long, Diah. Far too long. For that, I’m deeply sorry. I should have worked harder to find you and save you. That’s my responsibility as a mother, and I failed.”
Diah felt a sweeping sorrow from the look of pain on her mother’s face. Her body felt heavy, and tears fought to form at the corner of her eyes. “You were busy, mom. You had to lead the Alis. I never expected you to come for me. You taught me to fight my own battles, and I did just that.”
Wyrna stared at her desk. “Diah, I have to ask: do you have any regrets about the life that we’ve lived? I want your unbridled honesty.”
Diah felt her heart beat faster and her chest tighten once more. She had just started to see the walls Wyrna built crumble, and she didn’t want them to build back up. ‘But that’s not who I am anymore,’ She tried to convince herself. ‘I can’t be scared.’
“Yes, I do,” Diah answered truthfully. “I have so many.”
Suddenly, it was like the stopper was ripped from the pool of pain that had swelled inside her, and everything came out at once. Tears streamed freely down her face, and the weight of all the worlds she tried to carry on her shoulders came crashing down.
“I left because I couldn’t stand this life anymore,” Diah confessed. “I wanted to be free from you, one way or another. I wanted to cause you the worst possible pain and embarrassment you could feel, just so you knew what it was like to live in a day in my skin. I wanted you to suffer in front of everyone, and lose everything that you clawed your way towards. All these desires, and yet it all derailed when I was captured. I loathed you, mother. You made my life a cesspool of dark thoughts, emotional distress and a daily battle against loneliness. No one wanted to be friends with Wyrna Nollak’s daughter. They were just as scared of you as I was. The only person that saw past that, you personally murdered in cold blood. That broke me.”
Diah tried her hardest to fight back the sobs. “You made me hate you, but you also made me hate myself. You made me feel like I would never be good enough, never be strong enough. For what? A fancy suite and a powerful position? You took my own father away from me! Every day, I questioned if you truly thought it was worth it, and the saddest part of all was that you genuinely did. I was your daughter, not your pet or your prize!”
Wyrna looked away, as if to hide her shame.
“You know what the worst thing about this is? The fact that I want to believe you. I want to believe in you. I want us to start over because all I ever needed in my life was my mom. Not the clothes, or the wealth, or the power. I just needed my mom to hug me, and hold me, and talk me through my worst times. I needed my mom to tell me about love. I needed my mom to love me, because even after all of the horrible things you’ve done, I still love you.”
Diah’s chest heaved between sobs. She could feel the pressure building in her face and her eyelids swelling from the tears. Behind all of it, however, was an overwhelming sense of peace.
Wyrna stood and moved toward the window, hands clasped behind her back. Diah saw her reflection in the glass, a mixture of pain and frustration on her face. She inhaled deeply. Diah prepared for the worst.
“I… I love you too, Diah,” Wyrna said sorrowfully. “The world isn’t clear cut. People do terrifying things to protect the ones they love. I did everything I could to raise you to be strong. Stronger than me, even. My methods, unfortunately, were not the most humane. I thought you could handle it. I see now that I should never have subjected you to such pain. I can’t take any of that back, but I can try to make things right. After this meeting, I would like to take up your offer and rebuild from the ground up. Together."37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKPXzSBbodw
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