Mother

The gates were opened before the end of the afternoon.

The Queen’s order had spread through Lumeris far faster than a change of that scale could possibly be organized. Guards moved through estates, workshops, and living quarters carrying the same decree, while officials tried to gather names, undo records, and determine how many people were scattered throughout the city under contracts that, only hours earlier, had still defined them as property.

Nino imagined it would take days before everyone was found. For Alicia and Tenshi, that meant waiting.

They remained near one of the large courtyards where the freed slaves were being gathered. People arrived in small groups, some accompanied by guards, others by Lumerian officials. There were men still wearing their work clothes, women carrying the few belongings they had in their arms, and children too confused to understand why they had been taken from the places where they lived.

Some celebrated. Others simply walked through the gates and stood there.

Nino remained a short distance away with Three. Ever since they had arrived, Tenshi had barely been able to stay in one place. He would walk a few steps, search every new group, then return to his sister. Alicia remained with both hands clasped in front of her, listening.

“How many are left?” Tenshi asked.

Three looked at the line still forming beyond the gates.

“A lot.”

He exhaled and went back to searching. Alicia gently tugged on his sleeve.

“She’ll be here.”

Tenshi looked at his sister.

“I know.”

The answer came too quickly. Alicia noticed.

“Are you scared?”

He took a moment.

“I am.”

“Of what?”

Tenshi looked back toward the gate.

“I don’t know.”

Alicia fell silent.

“You don’t have to be scared. She’ll be here, and we’ll all be together again,” Alicia said.

Nino heard her without saying anything. More people passed through the gates. Tenshi searched among them.

A tall man. Two women. A family with a small child. An elderly man leaning on the shoulder of someone younger.

Then he stopped.

Nino noticed the change before he even knew why.

Tenshi didn’t run. For a few seconds, he didn’t even breathe.

A woman had just walked through the gates.

Her clothes were simple and worn from work. Her hair, longer than Tenshi remembered, was tied behind her head, with a few loose strands around her face. She was thinner. More tired. There were marks that had never existed in his memories.

Even so, it was her. Tenshi’s lips parted.

“Mom?”

The woman stopped. Alicia immediately raised her head.

The movement around them continued. People passed between the three of them, officials called out names, and someone was crying a few yards away. For Tenshi, all of it disappeared when the woman turned toward them.

She dropped the small bundle she was carrying.

“Tenshi?”

The voice reached Alicia. Her fingers opened. Raysa brought one hand to her mouth.

“Tenshi...”

He ran.

Every fear of not recognizing her disappeared with the first step. Raysa rushed forward at the same time, and Tenshi practically crashed into her. His mother’s arms wrapped around him before he could say anything.

Tenshi buried his face against her shoulder.

“Mom...”

Raysa held her son tightly against her. One hand moved into his hair, and she began to cry before she could even answer.

“My son... my son...”

Alicia remained where she was. She was smiling, tears already running down her face. Raysa opened her eyes over Tenshi’s shoulder and finally found her.

Her entire body seemed to lose its strength.

“Alicia?”

The girl made a small sound when she heard her name in that voice.

“Mommy?”

Tenshi moved aside just enough for Raysa to pass him.

This time, Alicia was the one who ran. She knew the direction. She knew the voice. She needed nothing else.

Raysa dropped to her knees before her daughter reached her and caught her in her arms. Alicia wrapped herself around her mother’s neck so tightly that she nearly knocked her off balance.

“Mommy...”

Raysa tried to answer, but her voice failed. Alicia began crying against her shoulder and, between one breath and the next, tried to tell her everything at once. She told her that she had found Tenshi, that Nino had taken her across the mountains, that they were adventurers now, and that she had so much to tell her that the words began tumbling over one another.

“And I found you.”

Raysa held her daughter even tighter against her chest.

“I’m here.”

“I found you...”

“I’m here, my love.”

Alicia repeated it once more, as though she needed to hear herself say the words to believe them. Raysa held the back of her head and kissed her hair again and again.

Tenshi knelt beside them. Raysa reached one arm toward him without letting go of Alicia.

The three remained that way for some time, until Raysa managed to pull away enough to look at her children again. She ran her hands through Tenshi’s hair, then over Alicia’s shoulders, as though she still needed to make sure they were truly standing in front of her.

“How did you get here?”

Tenshi looked toward Nino.

“Because of him.”

Raysa followed his gaze. Nino remained where he was, a few steps behind them, beside Three.

“He found Alicia,” Tenshi continued. “Then he found me too. He brought us all the way here.”

Alicia quickly shook her head.

“I found him first.”

Tenshi looked at his sister.

“You were trapped in a cage.”

“But I talked to him first.”

Raysa let out a laugh that was still wet with tears. For the first time since she had walked through the gates, her eyes met Nino’s.

There were many questions in that look. Nino also noticed the moment she recognized the black sword on his back and the man she had probably already heard stories about.

Raysa simply lowered her head.

“Thank you!”

Nino took a moment before answering.

“They’re the ones who made it here.”

Alicia frowned.

“You carried me the whole time.”

Three covered her mouth to hide a smile. Nino looked at Alicia.

“That didn’t need to be mentioned.”

“But it happened. And look at this blindfold.” She pointed toward her eyes. “It makes me look like an adventurer.”

Raysa smiled, then pulled her children into another embrace.

Nino looked away for a few seconds. Three stood quietly beside him. This time, neither of them had anything to add.

After a while, Alicia pulled back only a few inches. Her hands found her mother’s face.

Raysa remained still.

Alicia slowly ran her fingers over her cheeks, found her nose, her forehead, and then her hair. She touched every part with the care of someone trying to rebuild something she had kept inside her for a very long time.

Raysa took one of her hands and kissed it.

“You’re different.”

Alicia laughed through her tears.

“You too.”

Tenshi let out a short laugh.

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“I know.”

Raysa laughed as well. It was a small sound, still broken by tears.

Alicia continued touching her face.

For a few moments, her smile remained exactly the same. Then her fingers stopped against her mother’s cheek.

“Tenshi?”

“Hmm?”

“Mom didn’t have this scar.”

He looked at Raysa.

There was so much he could have said. After all, slaves suffered. Even so, when she looked at the two of them, Tenshi found something that had remained exactly as it always had been.

Alicia smiled.

“She’s still beautiful, right? Like always.”

Raysa closed her eyes.

Tenshi had to swallow before answering.

“She is.”

Alicia nodded, satisfied, and hugged her mother again.

Nino remained there, watching the three of them.

Alicia had crossed mountains without ever knowing what the path ahead of her looked like. She had been carried when she could no longer keep going, guided by voices, footsteps, and hands she had learned to recognize. Now she was finally with the person she had been searching for all that time.

She could hear her voice. She could touch her face. She could hold her.

And yet, she had never seen her own mother.

Nino watched them for a few more seconds. Then he lowered his head, deep in thought.

“Nino.”

He raised his head. One of the officials who had been with the Queen was approaching them across the courtyard.

“Her Majesty asked me to come get you.”

Three looked at the man.

“Did something happen?”

The official stopped in front of them.

“After what you told us about Solvar, there is something in Lumeris the Queen believes you need to see.”

Nino narrowed his eyes.

“What?”

The man hesitated for a moment.

“I don’t have permission to say.”