"I'll stay behind and look after Vespera with Amily," Elara said after they returned to the villa. Her tone was calm but held an unshakeable finality. She settled Vespera into a guest room on the second floor, and then the door to that room closed firmly.
Although Cassian, Zephyr, and the others were curious about Vespera's sudden "illness" and Elara's reaction, out of courtesy and trust, they didn't disturb them. They simply arranged for the newly arrived researchers to get settled and began the task of moving and organizing supplies.
Seraph, however, seemed to have been spurred on by the brutal battle at the Research Institute and the powerful resilience Vespera had displayed, a strength far beyond her years. She didn't stay inside to rest but went out into the villa's courtyard alone and began to practice and push her fire abilities with a desperate intensity. Raging flames constantly shifted form in her hands, now a scorching fireball, now a dancing whip of fire, melting a large patch of snow in the courtyard and sending up clouds of white steam. She needed this outlet to vent the shock in her heart, and she needed this method to keep up with her companions' ever-quickening pace.
Inside the closed room, however, the atmosphere was somewhat oppressive.
Amily sat by the bed, looking at Vespera, whose little face was flushed with fever and whose breathing was rapid. Her heart was filled with apprehension and unease. She might not be intelligent or highly educated, but with a mother's deepest love and protective instinct for her daughter, she had faintly sensed that Elara had discovered the truth.
"It's okay, Amily," Elara said, breaking the silence first. Her voice was gentle, yet it carried a power that could soothe the heart. She walked to the bedside, looked at the sleeping Vespera, and said slowly, "In this world, there will always be some... rather special people, right? Vespera... has already had one ability to communicate with others taken from her by fate. So, as compensation, fate would naturally grant her a stronger will, and... another unique gift."
Elara's words were like a key, instantly unlocking the door in Amily's heart that had been bolted for so long.
Amily understood in an instant. She could no longer control her emotions, and her eyes immediately turned red. She extended a slightly trembling hand and, with infinite heartache, gently lifted Vespera's pant leg. There, on the slender, pale calf, were several healed but still gruesomely distinct... dark purple bite marks!
Amily bit her lip hard, trying not to cry out.
The memory of that desperate time flooded back like a tide.
Before they met Elara, on the day the apocalypse broke out, she had been with a young Vespera, constantly hiding, constantly running amidst the crowds of screaming, fleeing people. In the chaos, an already turned undead had lunged viciously at the mother and daughter…
"I… I tried so hard to protect her…" Amily finally broke, covering her face and letting out a suppressed sob.
But the situation at the time was too chaotic. As a weak woman, she was simply no match for the crazed undead. In the end, she had to watch helplessly as the undead sank its teeth viciously into Vespera's little leg.
In that moment, Amily felt as if her world had collapsed. She didn't know where she found the strength, but like a madwoman, she grabbed a small iron shovel from a flower shop on the roadside and, with all her might, smashed it again and again onto the undead's head until its brains were splattered and it could no longer move.
Holding her injured, blood-soaked daughter, Amily's heart was filled with endless despair and regret. She thought she was about to lose the only family she had in the world.
However, a miracle happened.
That night, the bitten Vespera did not turn into an undead like others did. After enduring a full night of high fever and convulsions, she miraculously… pulled through. Not only that, but she had also gained a special ability… to sense and influence those monsters.
"Ever since then, we've been hiding this secret…" Amily sobbed, her words broken. "I was scared… I was scared that others would see her as a monster, that they would hurt her…"
No wonder…
Understanding dawned on Elara. With the abilities Vespera had awakened at the time, her life in the apocalypse shouldn't have been so difficult, to the point of being bullied by other survivors. It was likely Amily, with a mother's most basic instinct, who had sensed the "otherness" of her daughter's power. She feared Vespera would be ostracized, feared, or even treated as a research subject because of it. It was this intense desire to protect that had made her keep Vespera's abilities hidden, not daring to let her stand out.
"It's alright, Amily," Elara said, reaching out and gently patting Amily's trembling shoulder. Her voice was gentle yet firm as she comforted her, "Look, what a strong child she is. She has already survived the hardest part a