With trembling limbs and bated breath, Veya, no, Aletheia, watched me.
I kept silent, allowing the seconds to pass, and the minutes to turn. Striking grey eyes clashed against fiery red orbs as I absorbed the information that she had just told me.
Finally, after some time had passed, I spoke.
"You come from a Lower Noble House…that's how you knew I was high born." I spoke my thoughts aloud, watching as her head dipped lower. "But you also hate them…no, calling what you feel hatred seems almost dishonest. You despise them, don't you."
Mutely, she nodded.
"You used your mother's name, and you refer to yourself as a Mercury, instead of an Iron, as a slave instead of a high born." My eyes narrowed, and I ignored the System as it rang with notifications. "There's a reason you're a part of the Clan, and not the House."
I hummed aloud, watching her as she equally watched me. There was a spark of fear in her eyes, one that only grew the more I spoke. It was clear that she didn't want me to know the truth…but there was something more, something that I was missing.
I looked a little closer and…ah, there it was.
Aletheia's eyes didn't just hold fear within them, but a whole storm of emotions. I could see it all clearly. Anger, sadness, misery, bitterness…and shame. So much of it that I could probably drown from just the mere act of seeing it.
Realization dawned on me.
"You didn't have a choice in the matter, did you?" I asked, recalling one of our earlier conversations. "Before, when we spoke of the Alloys…you oddly didn't mention what happened when two people of different Alloys had a child."
Aletheia nodded her still bowed head, her voice nearly a whisper as she spoke. "It was intentional. I…Being found out that I am a high born in the Clan by anyone would only lead to my death and being part Mercury…" She took a shaky breath to steady herself. "…Banishment is a better alternative than living as a part of a House. My father was doing me a service."
"And yet, you hate him."
"Of course I hate him!" She surged to her feet, her voice raw with despair and anger. "I am his daughter as much as my sisters are! But I would have been the only one subjected to a life of slavery!"
Her chest heaved as she looked at me with clenched teeth. There was no proudful fire in her eyes this time. She looked defeated, as broken as the first time I saw her cry, not even a few hours before.
"I am a mistake! I am a slave who was born as a Risen! I come from two different worlds, yet I belong to neither of them!" She screamed, clutching at her shirt as if to physically try and hold her heart.
I gave her a moment to steady herself, watching as she took deep, ragged breaths, before I spoke.
"Is that why you're here? Your father sent you away to save you from a life of slavery?"
"My father," she growled the word out with barely restrained anger. "Didn't save shit. All he did was change the collar wrapped around my neck for another and labelled it as freedom."
"And your mother? You said her name was Delta, instead of Omega. Why change that?" I asked, tilting my head.
"Because she is not my mother."
I felt myself becoming confused again. "You'll have to explain that to me."
"Do you know what the Mercury's of Clan Delta are, Artorias?" She growled, her eyes narrowed. She didn't bother waiting for a response as she continued. "They work in pleasure houses, trying to get the wealthiest High Born to take them in as concubines."
'Ah, I can see where this is going.' I had to hide a grimace of my own, at the sheer vitriol that left Aletheia's mouth when she spoke next.
"A plank of wood would count as a better mother than that whore. She abandoned me the moment my father grew bored of her and had the gall to tell me that I was unwanted and to not seek her out!"
I didn't say anything then, wisely keeping my mouth shut as Aletheia didn't stop to take a breath and continued to curse at her mother for an entire minute. Honestly, I was a little impressed with the insults she had created specifically for her mother.
They were certainly not for the faint of heart to hear.
Finally, she came to a stop, her chest heaving as she finally breathed.
I used the chance presented to me. "And the Bloodline? What is it, and what does it have to do with all of this?"
"Right, that piece of shit." She huffed, glaring at the ground. "It's something that appears randomly in a member of a House. Really, it's just the crystallized remains of an ancestors Ethos being passed down, and granting a second ability for every Axion Core unlocked."
"Its valuable then." I guessed. Aletheia snorted at my words, though it lacked any humour.
"Calling it valuable is like calling water in a dessert a precious resource. It's not just valuable, it's lifesaving." She looked at me then, a broken smirk playing on her lips. "In a world where both Risen and Fallen Spawn are your enemies; versatility is your strongest asset."
'That sounds familiar.' I thought, remembering my own words from earlier.
"A Bloodline grants you nearly double the Ethos you would normally receive. As such, if your born with one, you become the most important person in the House."
"But you were banished." I said, furrowing my eyebrows.
"Funny thing about Bloodlines. They don't truly manifest until a person reaches their first majority." She gave a short laugh that was more akin to a bark. "When I was sixteen, mine appeared. Unfortunately, I wasn't as careful with it as I had planned to be, and one of my father's spies found out."
"You had spies on you?" I asked, wondering if maybe he did care about Aletheia. That idea was thrown out of the metaphorical window with her next words.
"For surveillance." She clarified, a hard edge in her eyes. "I carry my father's blood, after all, and whilst he would rather forget about my existence entirely, the odd chance that I might manifest a Bloodline made it necessary for him to keep an eye on me."
"There's more to this than just the Bloodline granting you extra Ethos, isn't there?"
"Got it in one." She smirked, though it looked entirely too fake to be real. "My fathers House has existed for nearly a century, and it has accumulated plenty of Bloodlines in that time. But, well…"
She sighed and looked up with a heavy expression.
"…its founders Bloodline has never manifested…until I came along, that is."