Chapter 46: Veyr family

Chapter 46: Chapter 46: Veyr family

After leaving Liora’s cell, Felix walked the familiar corridors toward Seraphina’s, her confiscated books already back in place, since he’d specifically told the guards to return them when he collected Liora’s console.

He’d brought her something new as well, tucked under his arm, chosen with her in mind.

The guard unlocked her door, and it slid open.

He’d expected to find her mid-book, probably close to finishing whatever he’d left her last.

Instead she sat on the edge of the bed with her books beside her, untouched, hands loose in her lap, staring straight at the door.

He paused. *Why’s she staring at the door?*

Then he caught her eyes properly, she’d been waiting for him.

"Good afternoon, Seraphina."

"Good afternoon."

He pulled the chair closer. "How are you feeling today?"

"Felix." He stopped. "Come sit here." She gestured to the space beside her on the bed.

He studied her for a second, her expression wasn’t usual. This was serious. "Okay."

He crossed over and sat, and she turned to face him properly. Neither spoke for a moment.

"Were you waiting for me?" he asked.

"Yes."

"We don’t have a session today, though."

"I know." No hesitation at all.

"Then why wait?"

"I knew you’d come."

Absolute certainty in her voice. He smiled. "You know me too well."

"I know," she said, and then the softness dropped out of her expression, something more serious settling in its place. "That’s why I want to tell you something. Something I haven’t told anyone else in this world."

His smile faded. "Seraphina, you don’t have to—"

"I want to." She cut him off cleanly, no hesitation. He studied her a moment longer, then nodded.

"Okay."

She took a slow breath, fingers tightening in the fabric of her clothes. "I want to tell you about my family."

He said nothing. He just listened.

---

"My father’s name was Lucian Veyr. My mother’s, Marielle." She paused. "You’ve heard the name Veyr before."

"I have."

"We weren’t one of the great awakened families," she said, eyes lowered. "But we weren’t ordinary either."

The Veyr household had been respected for generations: not powerful enough to sit among the Federation’s legendary bloodlines, but wealthy and well-connected enough to have real standing across several regional Association branches.

Lucian had a Stone affinity, Marielle a Wind affinity, neither one particularly rare, but both had worked their way up to B-rank through sheer effort and built a comfortable, respected life out of it.

They’d wanted more than comfortable, though.

"They wanted their child to be stronger than they were," Seraphina said quietly. "They didn’t have me because they wanted a daughter. They wanted a successor."

Felix’s eyes narrowed slightly.

"When I was little, they took care of me: food, clothes, toys, tutors, everything I needed." Her gaze dropped to the floor. "But they never played with me. My father never once took me outside just to have fun. My mother never sat down and asked how my day went. They never smiled at me because they were happy to see me." She swallowed. "They were always calculating something."

Felix’s jaw tightened, and she kept going, quieter now.

"Even my food was measured. Protein, mana-rich vegetables, mana-infused fruit, supplements, everything had a purpose behind it. They wanted my body in the best possible condition before I awakened. My mother used to say children from good bloodlines had to prepare themselves properly." A small, humorless smile crossed her face.

"They wanted me to awaken into something powerful, so they spent years on it; the food, the tutors, tracking every bit of my physical development, even keeping records of exactly how much mana I’d been exposed to over the years."

She looked at him. "They wanted a miracle."

He didn’t interrupt.

"And eventually, that day came." Her voice dropped further. "I was sixteen. The day I awakened." The room seemed to go quieter around her, her expression going distant, like she was watching the memory play out somewhere behind him rather than sitting here in the cell at all.

"They’d been waiting for that day my whole life. They thought I was finally going to become everything they’d been building toward."

Her eyes lifted to his. "But when I awakened—"

She stopped.

He waited. Her fingers trembled slightly against her lap.

"Everything changed. My whole life changed that day."

A long silence stretched out after that. He didn’t rush her. He just stayed where he was, beside her.

"Because the thing inside me wasn’t what they expected," she finally whispered, eyes closing.

"And after that day, everything was different."

Felix said nothing, and waited.

The story had only just begun.