SHATTERED REALM: FORGOTTEN ECHOES-Chapter 72: Sisters, Wife, Sanity? Help Me.

"Well, since she wants to meet me that badly, I’ll have to consider her," Kesha spoke in her usual high tone.

"But you also want to meet her," Mozrael, walking beside her, said with a smile. She could tell that though the girl wanted to act big, she still had a soft side.

"Well, you could put it that way. She owes me her life, so why shouldn’t I want to meet her? I’m here savior after all."

As the footsteps approached, Aramith suppressed the urge to bolt.

Why do I feel like something is about to go wrong ... he sighed internally, feeling Kesa might do... something.

The door opened, and Aramith whispered to Lia. "Here she comes."

Lia’s smile bloomed some more as the footsteps drew closer.

"Thank you very much, I owe you," Lia said.

"Eh?" Mozrael was startled. And Kesha frowned a little.

"I’m the one who saved you, not Mozrael," Kesha wanted to be seen.

"Oh, I was just coming to you," Lia gave an embarrassed smile before turning to face Kesha. "Sorry, I just wanted to thank Mozrael for bringing you here before I came to you."

Kesha smirked. "Well, that’s acceptable."

"Mhm," Lia replied.

"So, you already know my name, and I, yours. Now, the reason why I have to grace you with my presence is that I saved your life when everyone else failed to." Kesha folded her hands, still smirking.

"I thank you for that and wish to repay you," Lia said politely.

"Oh, you don’t have to worry about that. I already named and have my price. As you can see, I have-" She moved swiftly and grabbed Aramith’s arm.

When Kesha grabbed his arm, he flinched but didn’t fight back, not because he agreed, but because fighting Kesha always somehow escalated into more chaos.

He shot Mozrael a pleading look. Mozrael only smiled apologetically, her eyes clearly saying, I don’t know how to deal with her.

Lia realized that and tried to grab her brother, but Kesha was too fast, leaving her to grasp at thin air.

When Kesha grabbed his arm, he flinched but didn’t fight back—not because he agreed, but because fighting Kesha always somehow escalated into more chaos.

"-him," Kesha finished with a grin, hugging Aramith’s arm tighter.

"No!" Lia shot back defiantly.

"What? Even your parents approve of us." Kesha spoke gently.

Aramith sighed. "I’m not property... but apparently nobody explained things to her."

He was ignored.

He subtly tried to pry her fingers off, but Kesha latched on tighter.

"Well, I don’t approve. And he doesn’t seem to accept you as well," Lia pointed out.

Finally, someone said it! Aramith had someone who strongly supported his cause now.

"Him?" Kesha looked at an Aramith who tried to gently ease himself from her grasp.

"He loves me dearly," Kesha cooed. He shuddered, then shot Mozrael a pleading look. Mozrael looked away this time.

"You...Who do you think you are?" Lia was not accepting this, dropping the nice act. Whether she saved her or not, this girl just couldn’t behave however she liked.

"Well, I’m his wife and your sister-in-law." Kesha smiled sweetly, gently brushing Aramith’s hair. "I love your silky hair," she whispered to him.

"Stop that," Aramith tried to push her away politely.

"I heard that!" Lia complained further.

"Well, we weren’t trying to hide our love. Though for the more private matters... We’ll have to be alone."

Once again, Aramith shuddered, but more violently this time.

Mozrael flushed. This was the one thing she didn’t like about Kesha. How she just...

Lia, on the other hand, wasn’t too pleased with how this chick was acting.

"You just walk in here from nowhere and-"

"From the Glacial Empire," Kesha corrected her, but Lia only spoke louder to drown out her words.

"-FROM NOWHERE AND TRY TO STEAL MY BROTHER!"

"Tut tut tut tut tut. I don’t understand your reasoning. He loves me as I love him, I’m not stealing him."

What’s going on...

Aramith had learned to be quiet and let things play out, knowing Kesha’s passive-aggressiveness and Lia’s energy, he would be attacked from all sides the moment he spoke.

This banter between Lia and Kesha claiming ownership of Aramith kept going for almost an hour before they stopped and-

"Who’s a better person to you?!"

"Who’s a better person to you?!"

The simultaneous question hit him like a physical slap.

His mind blanked.

I swear the gods are laughing at me.

Aramith threw his hands up, taking a step back. "Nope. Not answering that. I like living."

’What’s that supposed to mean?" Lia folded her arms.

"I’m not a prize. And if either of you thinks I’m going to choose between a glacial storm and a wildfire... you’re both wrong."

Lia squinted. "That wasn’t a nice thing to say."

"I didn’t mean it like-"

"Ah, there you are!" Henndar suddenly walked in, drawing all attention, and allowing Aramith to breathe.

Aramith felt the hand of salvation itself.

Thank you, blessed father...

Henndar continued, secretly winking at Aramith. "I hope all of you are perfectly well?"

That wink was what made Aramith worry. This man could be up to something, anything.

"A truly strange question to ask..." Kesha spoke up before anyone else could utter a word.

Strange, yes, since Henndar had met with them not too long ago, so this was a strange question indeed.

Henndar chuckled as he approached them, stopping by Lia to ruffle her hair, which made her let out a light giggle.

"I need to borrow your brother for a bit," he knelt before her. She pouted, looking not at him, but over his shoulder at Aramith.

After a moment’s thought, she let out a soft sigh. "Fine, but I also want to talk to him too."

Henndar smiled. "Well, of course, little firefly," he got up and walked to Aramith, hooking the boy by the neck and gently dragging him off.

"I’m thirsty," Lia said out of the blue. The nearest maid quickly got her a glass of fruit juice on a tray. She approached Lia with it, but Lia didn’t pick it up. She just kept her hand raised and open to hold the glass. Noticing that, the maid carefully picked up the drink and placed it in her hand.

Though Lia didn’t look at her, she thanked the maid, her eyes still focused on the door where Henndar was exiting with Aramith. It was like she didn’t want them out of her sight.

She took a sip, then another. But when she decided to place it on the table, it slipped through her hand and fell to the floor with a loud crash.

Everyone reacted quickly, Lia apologizing, Mozrael stepping in with worry etched on her face, the maids rushing to clean the mess, and Kesha observing the whole incident with a small crease on her forehead. Aramith and Henndar, on the other hand, were long gone.

They cleaned the mess quickly and set another glass on the table for Lia. She thanked them and rested her arm on the table a few centimeters from the glass. It seemed she wanted to pick it up, but didn’t want to at the same time, with only her fingers touching the glass. Maybe she was worried she might drop this one as well.

Walking down the corridor, Henndar glanced at Aramith, who was a step behind him.

"First of all, I saved you from a sudden disaster from those two white-robed troublers," Henndar breathed through his nose at his little joke about Lia and Kesha.

Aramith smiled. It had been a while since he could hear his father talk about Lia like that without pain in his eyes or voice, but then he quickly noticed what Henndar called them.

They wouldn’t be too happy if they heard that. Especially Lia.

"The second reason why I dragged you out of there is because of..." He took a letter from a soldier who stood before his study room. "...this." He pointed at the letter, his voice turning sharper, more like a King rather than a father.

"It was hard on you initially, but since all is well, I now need you to let me know all you can remember about the night of Lia’s and your birthday."

As they walked, Aramith felt the weight shift back onto his shoulders—the weight he hadn’t carried in a while. The weight of duty.

Henndar continued. "Some people have been causing trouble elsewhere, and I suspect they may have something to do with the events of that night."

Aramith nodded, inhaling the fresh scent of his father’s study as they entered.

They both sat down, and in all seriousness, Aramith recounted the horrible night that had haunted him and left him with nothing but guilt.

Meanwhile, Lia and Kesha were finding it difficult to get along, and poor Mozrael was just panicking the whole time, especially since, in a way, she was the one who introduced Kesha to Lia.

The two had three major things in common; first was their love for the color white, second was how they did whatever they wanted, and no one could stop them when they set their minds on it. The third...they hadn’t realized it yet, but if they did, it would diffuse their differences as it would soon enough.

About an hour or two later, when the two polar bears didn’t seem to calm down, Aramith finally returned, hearing their voices before he was near the doors. This made him hurry, which led to him banging his head against the door frame.

"I leave them alone for ten minutes... and this is what I come back to," Aramith muttered just as—

THUD.

His forehead met the doorframe.

A grunt escaped his lips as stars exploded in his vision. "Fantastic. Now the architecture’s against my peace."

"No matter what you say, you can’t change-"

Thud!

The dull sound of Aramith’s forehead meeting the doorframe, followed by his grunt, made Kesha stop mid-sentence.

Everyone froze, then watched a hurt Aramith walk into the room. Kesha was the first to reach him, trying to console her ’husband’.

"Why, what happened?" Lia asked.

Mozrael quickly realized Kesha had been blocking Lia’s view, so she didn’t know exactly what happened.

"Aramith banged his head against the doorframe. He was in a hurry, I think," Mozrael quickly explained. She would have been the first to go to his side, but she didn’t want to get in Kesha’s way.

Lia was more worried about him than her arguments with Kesha; she forgot all about that and joined Kesha to help Aramith, though all she could say was sorry.

No one knew where Lia pulled the medic box from, but there it was—clutched in her lap like she’d planned this moment her entire life. She carefully bandaged Aramith’s head, wrapping it up as if he had a gaping hole in his skull. Mozrael noticed and wanted her to reduce the bandage, but Kesha threatened to add more, which made her stop. Even when the healers approached to help, Kesha and Lia sent them off.

"He needs to be protected at all costs," Kesha said, ignoring Aramith’s pained expression and the confusion on the faces of the healers.

At this point, I’m not sure if Dad saved me or if this was part of his plan, he thought painfully. It didn’t make sense that Henndar made him hit his head, but how could he be sure?

Mozrael understood Kesha and Lia. She also cared for him, but putting a kilogram of bandages on a person’s head didn’t seem to be the best thing to do.

The maids watching pitied Mozrael, understanding a lot just by her expression, but the way Kesha and Lia teamed up in this matter didn’t favor her at all. There was no way she could convince them to do otherwise.

It was embarrassing, but no matter how Aramith tried, he had to accept being taken care of, keeping a pyramid of bandages on his head.

Some people pitied him, and a few found it funny, especially Henndar, who spat out his tea and burst into laughter the moment he saw Aramith, but had to quickly lie about what he was laughing at, so Lia wouldn’t get offended. He wished Kethra were around to see that, but she was off to meet with a small kingdom they had adopted some time back.

Strangest of all was how suddenly, Kesha and Lia were fine with each other. They had come to an agreement to ’keep Armamith safe’.

When evening came, the two argued once again but agreed that Aramith should not be disturbed and allowed to sleep. No one was to interrupt his rest. Aramith was more than grateful for the chance to take off the bandages the moment he entered his room.

Never thought freedom would come in the form of peeling a kilo of cloth off my skull...

As he lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling, the day’s activities replayed in his head. They’d had him paraded, fought over, and forced to carry a tower on his head.

He suddenly felt a shudder as thoughts of Kesha’s possessiveness ran through his mind.

"I’m thirteen. Just thirteen," Aramith muttered, rubbing his face.

But Kesha seemed to have no ill intentions. Was this the price of having people who cared?

His heart softened a bit. Maybe it was.

Kesha had saved Lia’s life. Mozrael had done everything to make her happy. And Lia... Lia was back. Alive, loud, stubborn, still Lia. That alone was worth the madness.

He kept thinking of how Lia was better by the day, even starting to get along with Kesha. He found it amazing how Kesha managed to get along with them all so well. It was even scary that someone like that existed, almost as if all circumstances were in her favor.

As the night settled, rest claimed them, but not all. Lia was seated in her wheelchair with her eyes closed, deep in thought.

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