New Era’s Mould Finale – A Good Life [Lee POV]

“Lee, can you hear me?”

The young Fateweaver’s eyelids fluttered open. Exhaustion from constant mana use filled her with a kind of fatigue that was similar and yet entirely different to burning too much energy. She felt languid, so much so that her arms were too heavy to lift. “Dad?” she muttered, eyes fixating on the screen held in front of her.

So close, the phone display filled her entire field of view. She saw her parents seated on a bench on a porch somewhere. She saw her siblings in the corner, their own phone cameras showing their faces. Magnus was covered in dirt and grime, his face a stone mask even sterner than usual. Stefanie stared ahead, her dark hair falling in gorgeous curls. Lee had always thought her older sister was prettier.

“Thank Gaia,” her father sighed. Something about his tone jolted her as awake as her state allowed. He sounded… **** in a way that she had never heard him before, in a way that she did not even conceive her father could talk. “I wouldn’t want to leave one of you out of my last goodbye.”

Lee snatched the phone out of the hand of whoever was holding it and bowed over it. “What are you saying?!” she shouted. A nearby sound of battle had her look up for a short moment. She suddenly realized she was in the middle of a battlefield. Nathalia stomped down, erecting tall walls of obsidian around her, shielding her from the sounds and clashes of Lorylim and beloved partners.

Her brown eyes snapped right back down, finding Magoi and Mabirl smiling at the camera. Her parents were tranquil, peaceful, and yet appeared full of grief.

“Get out of there!” Lee demanded.

“We can’t,” her mother answered. “We have made our decision.”

Magnus weighed in, the oldest sibling’s voice hard and heavy with **** control, “It’s too late now, Lee. Please… Dad… tell us what you…” Magnus could not finish the sentence, too busy keeping his composure.

“Tell us what you need to,” Stefania finished, her tone a miserable croak.

Lee felt the tears streaming down her cheeks already. This had to be a horrible dream.

“It is not what I need to, it is the privilege of what I get to say,” Magnus spoke and put his arm around his wife. He tilted his head, resting the side of his head on the top of hers. Both of them smiled at their children. “I have never appreciated modern technology more than right now. I couldn’t ask for more than to see my children in my final minutes.”

“Dad…” Lee sobbed.

“I have lived a long life.” Magoi’s eyes lifted to the sky beyond the screen. “An often foolish life, filled with hasty and unwise decisions. Sometimes I made the right call and bit by bit that paid off. I did things for my own sake and the sake of others. At times, I was a cold-hearted businessman, at others I moved for charity alone. I have lived a long life… and in it I have made no better decision than to marry your mother and to raise you three.”

“Magnus, we’re so proud of you,” Mabirl picked up when her husband swallowed back tears. “We couldn’t have asked for a better son. Always diligent, always doing your best. That was always good enough for us. I want you to know that.”

“Mom…” Magnus’ mask cracked, a single tear rolling down his cheek.

Magoi continued after gathering himself, “Stefanie, you never had to be conscious about not getting into the family business. We love you all the same. You’re our beautiful little princess and we know you are living the best life you could have chosen for yourself.”

The middle-child had no words. She buried her face in her hands for a moment, before looking up again.

“Lee…” Magoi started, then sniffed.

“Lee, we never expected to be blessed with a third child… but we are so happy with how you turned out,” Mabirl said. “You finally found what makes you happy and we could ask for nothing more. All of your other achievements are secondary to that, in our hearts. The moment you started smiling every day was the moment our hearts sang.”

Lee pushed out a word. At least she thought she did. She was barely able to comprehend anything beyond the tunnel vision she had on the screen.

“I have lived a long… and satisfying life,” Magoi said once more. “I have more I want to say to all of you, so many things you three deserve to hear, but even if I had years to tell you, it wouldn’t be enough. Please, forgive your old man the selfishness to leave you with so much unsaid.”

“And forgive your mother for leaving her children to be with her husband,” Mabirl added, as sincere as only a caring parent could be.

Magoi focused entirely on the camera. He had never looked older than in that moment. The scars on his aged skin stood out, white, often healed badly, stripes and tears in already pale skin. There were next to no hairs on him. Yet, his dark eyes had never been more awake.

“I am old,” her father said. “I feel it every day when I wake up. I would have more years to exist, but my life I have lived. My torch, I have passed on months ago. I’m a relic of a different time and although this is not how I would have wished to pass on… I cannot say that I am sad to have it be this way. I want you all to hold this in your heart when you remember this, when you look back at this, that this sacrifice was made willingly. I would rather preserve the life of one than to hold on for what years I have left.”

“We came to this land as an opportunity. We stay because we believe in it,” Mabirl added.

“If anyone must die, let it be the old so that the young will thrive.” Magoi flashed them the final smile. “I… really, really, love all of you. Let that be my last words. Magnus, Stef, Lee, I love you.”

“We love you.” Mabirl smiled, together with her husband.

“I love you too, Mom, Dad,” Magnus muttered.

“I…” Stef sniffed and showed a broad smile, “…thank you. For everything.”

“…I love you!” Lee shouted, not sure what else she could do, what could even be done. She wanted to beg for them to not go. She wanted to reject reality as a whole. She wanted to reach across space and yank them back. She tried to. She earnestly tried to push past all that she had been able to do.

There were limits to everything.

And so, with their last words spoken, Magoi and Mabirl Magus disappeared. The video call ended with an unceremonious click. Lee screamed in desperation, grief and rage at the world around her. She tried to stand up, to find an outlet for all of this somewhere.

Then she passed out again.

__________________________________________________________________________

Lee came to in a soft bed.

Confusion hit her like a crashing wave, then relief. ‘That was the worst dream ever,’ she thought and wiped the tears out of the corners of her burning eyes. She still felt weak. When had she even gone to bed? Must have been after they had told John about the vacation. Were they going to leave today?

Smiling that she was back in warm reality, she snuggled the pillow for a few more moments. Then she languidly got out of the bed. She must have forgotten to eat the last three meals. That was the only explanation for why she felt so famished and slow.

“Morning!” she said chirpily when stepping into the living room.

She was met with slow stares of the other people in the room. The dressed members of the harem beheld her with varying degrees of confusion. Lee felt something knot up inside her, but kept smiling.

“So, are we leaving soon?” she asked. “Got planes to catch and all of that, yeah?”

“Lee…” John’s voice was tired, so terribly tired. The whole Hypercrush thing really had gotten to him. “…It… wasn’t a dream.”

Lee burst out laughing. That was a ridiculous notion. “That’s not funny!” she laughed. “That’s not funny at all!” she screeched. She hadn’t even known she could sound like that. High-pitched, unstable, shoulders trembling without amusement. “That’s… that’s…” Tears fell from her face while she was still laughing.

Nia had gotten up. She directed her best friend to the Couch, to sit by John. No one had more than consoling glances to offer to her. The laughter slowly stopped, leaving only the sorrow in its place.

“It’s not fair… it’s… John… what about...?” She could not finish her question. She saw the answer on his face. The hurt reflected in his eyes was not that of one who merely understood. They had lost the same thing.

They embraced each other cautiously. Lee had never felt him to be this fragile. She had never felt this fragile in turn. It wasn’t the presence of his arms that she feared would break her, but their absence. His and theirs – the manifold embrace of the people that mattered most in her life. Her second family, her chosen family, all around her, offering whatever consolidation they could squeeze into the limited space they had.

“It’s not fair,” Lee kept muttering. “They were good people… they were…”

“I know,” John whispered back to her. They disentangled reluctantly. Lee did not want to let go. She followed his lead and was glad to have done so when she met his reassuring, dark eyes. He was hurt, every bit as hurt as she was, but he still was there. She sniffed and tried to match his willpower.

Her parents would not have wanted her to break.

“What… what do we do now?” she asked.

“We do everything we can to make sure as few people as possible suffer this.” He held her face between his strong hands, put his forehead to hers, and whispered, “We… we need to do this.”

“Yeah,” Lee agreed. She kissed him. It was the least enticing kiss of her life. His lips tasted of salt. The skin was rough and dry. It was the most necessary kiss of her life. It made her feel like she could move on. It made her know that, even if she fell, she would be given the help to stand again. She would give the same help to all of them.

Lee pulled back and blinked back her remaining tears.

“I want to grieve,” she croaked. “I really do… but I’ll be strong.”

“Good,” Nia said softly. No false assurance that she did not have to be strong, no constant care, just a simple and straight approval. Lee preferred it this way. To be coddled at a time like this would have made it all that much worse.

She took a deep breath. She steadied herself as best she could and looked around. She was halfway prepared to find a face missing in the crowd. The only ones that weren’t present were Lu Zhi and Lydia, the usual two.

“What did I miss?” she then asked.