Chapter 231 - Mists Dismissed

"You…?! You changed your mind?!" Alexa's mind went through a state of confusion, amused disbelief, because he could only be kidding. Then shock, to realize that Alexander was not kidding. Again incredulity and confusion, and finally, anger.

Yes, anger. "What are you saying, Alexander? You can't play around with that. You know what happened. You know it's not possible. You know that…"

Tying the straps on his shirt, he approached Alexa, as if he were very calm and in control,

"Alexa! Calm down. The inconstancy of life should excite your spirit. It's quite different from the immobility of death ... from which we rarely escape."

"Bullshit! Don't pour philosophy on me. Why are you doing this?! Have you gone crazy? You were the first to say I could ... No! You said I should! And that a piece of paper was nothing to us!" her voice was squeaky and trembling, and Alexa was so shocked and upset that she wished to punch Alexander.

"And it's not, Alexa. I'm not unable to see that you and Magnus needed to do that. And you would, with or without my consent. But... You can come to conclusions on your own, if you can't see that I'm doing the best for us..."

"I don't know if I can reach the same conclusions as you! You changed! You… You are no longer the sweet person I met, whom I married!" she exclaimed, feeling that her head was going to explode.

"Well, you married a sleeping person… In many ways, Alexa. How could you know me? And who am I? Who are you? I'm not the only one here with many facets. Does everyone have to be just one thing? Does Balbo have to be just one thing? Cordelia? My dad? Your brothers? Mags? No, Alexa, we are much more than just a single face, which never changes. You have been several things and will become others soon."

"No! I said it already! No rambling! I want direct answers, Alexander! Why are you doing this?!" A fear took over Alexa's mind little by little, like a fog enveloping her little by little.

Alexander stared at her for a moment and then said,

"I woke up Alexa. The spell is finally over." And turning to the window, he said,

"Narses, come in at once. Your sister needs you now. I need to leave and prepare a lot of things tonight."

Alexa blinked, dumbfounded. Not only were they being spied on. It was Narses. And did Alexander know that Narses was there all along?!

After a few moments, Narses revealed himself and jumped in, taking the hood off his face. He didn't look happy, and came to his sister's side. Alexa glanced at her brother's face, looking for some clue as to what was going on, but Narses kept his serious eye on Alexander.

The Prince Regent looked at them both, and went to the bed to get the jacket and cloak that were there.

"We are going to have to leave some things unresolved, since the problem of the living is more urgent than the problem of the dead. We are in war. This is easy to understand, isn't it?"

Alexa was gritting her teeth in anger.

"You can't just ignore what happened!"

"I know I don't. But all in good time. And tonight, I need to join an army."

"I'll go with you!"

"You are not going. I would rather, I really wish you were with me, but you can't. "

"Why not?!"

"You are expecting a baby."

"...!"

"...!"

Alexa looked at her own hands, because they were shaking with the news. Alexander left, closing the door behind him, and only after a few moments Alexa came to her senses, and ran after him.

"HEY! COME BACK HERE! COME BACK HERE! YOU HAVE NO WAY OF KNOWING THAT!" she shouted in the hall. The guards pretended not to see or hear anything, unmoved.

"Are you sure?" he turned over his shoulder, with an amused smile. At the end of the corridor, high-ranking warriors were waiting for him.

"Come back here! We're not done yet! ALEXANDER!!!"

"I will be back, Alexa. We will talk later!" he responded in the same way, joining the warriors. Alexa kicked the carpet, fists clenched in frustration, and ran back to Alexander's room.

"Narses ...!"

"Alexa!" her brother was as astonished as she was, and he hugged her. "Are you expecting a baby?"

"How could I know?" She was frightened, frustrated, confused, and buried her face in her brother's chest. Narses patted her back.

"Hey listen. So that's how you guys talked?"

"Don't look at me like that! We were canceling the wedding. He even…" Her outrage at the changes in plans that Alexander had taken the best of her, and she released her brother and went to the window, trying to contain tears of anger from falling. "Why is he doing this?!"

"Because he likes you. Isn't it obvious?"

"No! It's not obvious! Why would it be obvious?! He made me believe he liked someone else. He sent me to Magnus..."

"Ahhhh, a man's heart is not something a woman can understand..." pondered her brother, placing himself beside her by the window. "But you were almost there. Try to understand, as he said. Make an effort to put yourself in his shoes... And remember. He's not a man anymore."

"What are you saying..." As always, absorbed by superficial things, Alexa knew she was pushing the truth behind a curtain, where she wanted it to stay until it was no longer true. She ran her hands through her hair in exasperation.

"Narses ... Magnus told me he killed him when Alexander was a child ..." She took a deep breath, looking out the window at the stars and the rough sea. His brother put his elbows on the par.a.p.et, thoughtfully,

"Hmmm… You have a guess of the amount of power needed for a soul to stay in a body, haven't you? You mean…"

Alexa realized that she would have no alternative but to reveal Magnus' secret.

"In short, in the past a woman came to Holstein intending to wake up Orcaius and becoming his servant or his queen. At least the first position was already occupied by Gisela. The two started a dispute that neither won... Both were chained to their regrets and tasks as ghosts. And on top of it, haunting the monarch who had the misfortune to fall in love with them, successively… This Gutard has such a bad taste for women..." Narses put the narrative in order so he could understand, extracting the essence from everything Alexa revealed. His sister nodded,

"Yes, and the firstborn, Magnus, was killed by accident. Desperate, Prince Gutard asked Gisela for help. She resurrected Magnus using a heart of stone ... A lich's heart. For that, she offered me, a Light Bearer, for the lich. Some time later, she connected me to her son, Alexander, by magic."

"The Firstborn, out of jealousy and supposedly hearing voices, kills his younger brother. But his baby brother does not die."

"It doesn't fit." Alexa didn't want to focus on the terrible crime Magnus committed. She knew he tried to atone for his sins, but it was a crime the same. "Magnus would not carry all the guilt he does if he had simply discovered that Alexander is immortal…"

At the same time that Alexa said this, she remembered the first time the First Prince brought the subject of immortality up. "Wait! Magnus probably never thought it because he thought he was the one who resurrected Alexander. Using his magic blood!"

"Yeah, that makes sense," Narses pondered, in an unimpressed tone. Alexa however was hyper excited, biting the side of the fingers as her habit.

"He may have found out it could keep Alexander alive. And he must have done it several more times, to know that his blood needed to be taken at regular intervals to keep Alexander's life… And Alexander in his body..."

Narses mused, "Basically what we know of an upir. Perhaps the heart in Magnus's body would give him that power. At least, that was what he believed. Even so, it was a power of limited effect ... Alexander must never have been entirely normal. In fact, even the fact that he could have grown up impresses me... I am not Iacintho and I was never interested in these aspects of death. But it's fascinating."

Alexa nodded, that was her own feeling too. Perhaps the fact that she and Alexander were connected in some way was a factor that influenced them both? He was not an upir ... At least not a normal upir. What did he feed on? It was clear that he had little appetite, unlike Alexa, who was always hungry.

"But when half of your life was donated to Alexander's magically animated body, it made all the difference. And I can tell you, I hadn't seen a soul as unique as Alexander's before. It's bright and awe inducing… When I saw it, I thought an angel was talking to me!" continued Narses, lowering his voice to little more than a whisper. "Except… Maybe Alexander wasn't really influenced by Magnus's blood… But he might be a powerful person himself. Someone who was looking to escape a curse and needed several things for it. A new body. And the Light to see the way..."

Alexa put her hand on her chest, feeling it hurt.

"Are you basically telling me Alexander never existed?"

"Of course he did. You know that an existence is an existence. He lived and thought as Alexander. Like Alexios, my favorite brother_ he also existed for me, and for many people."

"What's up with you guys tonight? I don't want to think in depth! I need answers!"

"Only he could tell you for sure, Alexa. In case he wants to. But that Prince is no ordinary person. He's powerful and unique. I fear that he's in fact…"

"Orcaius!" Alexa completed, feeling that she needed to speak the name aloud to stop denying what everything pointed to.