Chapter Fifty-Four

                                    

                                          
It would have been nice to be able to pretend to believe my mom was resting here. Soothing, even, if I could be ignorant to her unrest. My knowledge eroded the ability to believe. She isn't here.
I leaned forward and rested my elbows on my thighs, clasping my hands together. Staring forward, I tried to clear my mind. Instead, my thoughts traveled to the only other family member I'd met in hopes of finding some direction—or at least confirmation that the path I'd decided to take didn't suck.
The mist in front of me began to group together. It coalesced, the mist gathering. As it traveled forward, it rose. Five steps away, it fully solidified. A human form emerged, stepping out as though appearing mid-stride.
I sat straight and unclasped my hands. "Hera."
Her features became defined, the mist fading. Hera looked down at me from where she stood a foot away. "Why have you summoned me?"
"I..." My brow furrowed. "I didn't summon you. I was thinking of you, hoping to receive direction."
"That sounds like a summons, and I do not appreciate it."
"You wouldn't have come if you didn't want to. You said I was the first descendent you met. I'm not stupid. I bet someone has tried summoning you, so you don't appear unless it is by choice." I raised an eyebrow. "All I wanted was a char or... I don't know? A sense of heading in the right direction."
"Since I'm not a spirit, I can only appear," she said. "I can't speak to you in your head."
"No?"
"Not without effort."
"And what does it take to visit compared to that?" I laughed, then carried on without a response. "Sorry. It's not like you are really here. I figure if you can do that, you could just speak to me or something. You are resting. You can keep doing that. Not everyone in your family has that luxury. Doesn't that bother you?"
Hera looked at me for a moment, then nodded. She looked down, then sat beside me and lifted her gaze to meet mine. "Sure, it does, but what can I do? If I interfered to help each of my descendents, they would never be capable of protecting themselves. Our kind of power is sought out, even when we try to remain reclusive as your mother did, and it wouldn't be fair to remain in the Kingdom."
I snorted. "Stay isolated? How would anyone meet someone? I doubt Zach is willing to help continue the family line because... Well, no. It's just ew."
"Exactly. If you ever meet the creatures the Kingdom protects humans from, you'll realize offspring from incestuous affairs are not leadership material. Not even the tests created for our family would help because the only way they would pass is through trickery."
"I was joking. That's... horrible. I thought they were foolproof."
"Everything has a loophole, Nora." She shrugged. "Joke or not, it is what would happen."
"Okay, so we are being very literal." I sighed and turned my head to stare ahead again. "I literally didn't ask for you to appear, Hera. You've never visited anyone before. I've seen you twice. Why?"
"I am feeling restless." I saw her shrug but smile from the corner of my eye. "I attribute that to the fact that the fuel for the Kingdom is becoming tenuous."
"What do you mean?" I turned my head to look at Hera again.
"The more balance is skewed, the less magic can help sustain the Kingdom—or that which keeps the creatures away from mortals. Our magic is already supplementing it. No rest when that happens."