Chapter 30: Mother Knows

The formidable Duchess Rythundeir stood still, her commanding posture unyielding despite the silent tears slipping down her cheeks.

The entire training arena watched the emotional breakdown in stunned, suffocating silence. Nobody present had ever seen the legendary noblewoman display such an unguarded, deeply human expression in public.

She was, after all, a transcendent 3S Guide of the Empire. She was a powerful noble matriarch and a respected military figure whose name alone commanded instant authority across the capital star sector.

Yet at this exact moment, she looked nothing like the untouchable Duchess Rythundeir. She looked simply like a mother who had finally found her youngest daughter after believing she had been permanently lost to the void.

Rhaevia felt her chest tighten unexpectedly at the sight.

"Mother..." she called out quietly, her clear voice cutting through the stillness.

That single word seemed to instantly break the Duchess’s remaining emotional restraint. She crossed the distance between them with swift, trembling strides and pulled Rhaevia tightly into her arms.

Rhaevia stiffened slightly against the sudden physical contact. She was an old-world commander, completely unaccustomed to being embraced with such overwhelming, raw emotion.

Her mother’s arms tightened fiercely around her slender body.

"You’re alive," the Duchess whispered, her voice breaking on the final word.

Rhaevia hesitated for a fraction of a second before her fingers slowly curled against the fine fabric of her mother’s coat.

"I’m fine, Mother," she stated smoothly.

"I know... I know," her mother breathed, pulling back just enough to examine her face, shoulders, arms, and hands.

The Duchess’s tear-filled eyes finally settled on the faint, purple bruise darkening the pale skin around Rhaevia’s wrist. Her soft expression changed instantly, her jaw setting into a dangerous line.

"Who did this to you?" the Duchess demanded, her tone dropping an octave.

Rhaevia let out a soft sigh, trying to pull her hand back slightly. "Mother, it is truly nothing worth mentioning."

"Nothing?" The Duchess’s eyes flashed with immediate, fiery indignation.

Her formidable 3S mental energy unconsciously surged outward across the arena floor. The surrounding air visibly trembled under the heavy electromagnetic pressure, forcing several nearby academy instructors to immediately lower their heads.

Rhaevia blinked at the sudden pressure wave, her own instincts flaring.

"Mother," she warned gently.

The Duchess caught herself and immediately restrained her overflowing energy.

"I am sorry, sweetheart," she murmured softly.

She gently touched the purple mark on Rhaevia’s wrist with her fingertips. The second her skin made contact with the injury, her face shifted. Her dark eyes widened in genuine shock. Rhaevia noticed the subtle reaction immediately.

"What is wrong?" Rhaevia asked, her gaze locking onto her mother’s face.

Her mother did not offer a verbal answer right away. Instead, she closed her eyes and focused her mind.

A faint, highly refined thread of 3S mental energy flowed directly from her fingertips into Rhaevia’s active Guide pathways. For several long seconds, absolute quiet hung between them as the diagnostic probe ran its course.

Then, the Duchess abruptly withdrew her hand as if she had been burned. Her face had become extraordinarily, intensely serious.

"Rhaevia," her mother said, her voice dropping into a firm, commanding register.

"Yes?" Rhaevia responded calmly.

"Come with me right now," the Duchess ordered, leaving absolutely zero room for argument.

Rhaevia glanced toward her three imposing brothers standing nearby. All three men immediately nodded in synchronized agreement, their expressions grim. They followed closely behind as their mother led the way out of the arena.

A private, heavily shielded medical suite was secured within the academy within minutes. The three brothers posted themselves outside the reinforced blast doors as guards, while Rhaevia and her mother sat opposite each other at a polished metal table.

The Duchess looked at her daughter for a long, silent time, searching her eyes.

"What you awakened on that planet isn’t ordinary mental energy," her mother revealed quietly.

Rhaevia’s expression remained perfectly composed.

"I assumed as much after the diagnostic machines failed," she noted.

"No, Rhaevia," her mother interrupted, shaking her head. "You don’t understand the gravity of this."

She leaned forward over the table, bringing her face closer.

"I have been a 3S Guide for most of my adult life," the Duchess explained softly. "I know what ordinary Guide awakening feels like, and I know what a natural rank breakthrough feels like."

Her elegant fingers tightened around the metal edge of the table.

"What is sitting inside your mental pathways right now is entirely different," her mother stated flatly.

Rhaevia narrowed her dark eyes into sharp slits. "Different in what way?"

"I cannot completely identify its origin," the Duchess admitted, a rare admission of uncertainty.

That answer immediately captured Rhaevia’s full tactical attention. Her mother was one of the premier energy users in the Empire, yet she could not classify the power.

Her mother continued speaking in a hurried whisper. "Your mental energy is extraordinarily dense, but that isn’t even the strangest part of your neural signature."

"Then what is?" Rhaevia pressed.

"It feels..." The Duchess hesitated, searching for the proper terminology. "...It feels ancient."

Rhaevia went completely still. The single word struck something deep and dark inside her memory banks. Sudden flashes of images rushed through her mind in a chaotic storm.

She remembered the smooth black crystal half-buried in the alien dirt. She remembered the subterranean black metal of the ancient facility. She remembered the floating glowing text of the sovereign system interface.

She remembered the pale creature inside the freezing stasis pod, and the raspy voice whispering through the glass: My Lord...

Her mother’s eyes remained fixed on her face, noting the subtle shift in her posture.

"Your awakening isn’t complete, Rhaevia," the Duchess declared solemnly.

Rhaevia’s dark pupils contracted sharply into tiny points. "Not complete?"

The Duchess slowly shook her head. "What happened during your diagnostic tests aboard the flagship was only the initial breakthrough. Your primary mental pathways opened, but something massive inside your core is still heavily sealed."

Rhaevia’s fingers curled tightly into her palms beneath the table. She remembered the emergency scanner’s glowing readout. She remembered the ultimate classification that had appeared before her eyes in the subterranean complex.

[SOVEREIGN-CLASS COMPATIBILITY CONFIRMED.]

Her mother reached across the table and placed her warm hand over Rhaevia’s knuckles.

"Whatever happens next in your life, you must be extraordinarily careful," her mother warned.

"Are you telling me this because of the sheer magnitude of my power?" Rhaevia asked flatly.

"No," her mother replied instantly. "Because of the people who will inevitably try to claim it."

Her mother’s regal expression became painfully, deeply solemn.

"Power like yours will draw the immediate attention of monsters," the Duchess explained. "Factions who will want to control you, study your genetics, weaponize your mind, or use you for their own political ascension."

Rhaevia’s gaze hardened into pure, battle-tested steel. "Someone already tried to eliminate me before I could awaken," she remarked coldly.

"I know," her mother answered, her dark eyes filling with a quiet, terrifying fury. "And that is precisely why you will never have to face those bastards alone again."

The heavy medical door slid open with a pneumatic hiss, interrupting the private conversation.

Her three tall brothers entered the room in single file, their postures rigid and their faces dark.

The eldest brother stepped forward, his military uniform immaculately straight.

"We’ve already discussed the immediate protocol outside," he stated, his voice grim.

Rhaevia looked at the three of them suspiciously. "Discussed what?"

The broad second brother crossed his heavy arms over his chest. "Your personal security detail."

"No," Rhaevia stated without missing a beat.

The youngest brother immediately threw his hands up in vocal protest. "You haven’t even heard our security arrangement yet!"

"I don’t need to hear it," Rhaevia countered flatly.

Her eldest brother let out a soft sigh, his stern expression softening slightly. "Rhaevia, we aren’t asking you to surrender your personal independence or give up your academy status."

"Then what are you doing?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We are promising that if anyone comes after you again, they will have to go through all three of us first," he answered firmly.

The second brother nodded heavily, his knuckles popping. "Academy officials, corrupt military command, rival noble houses... it doesn’t matter who they are."

The youngest brother clenched his fist, his eyes burning with intensity. "Nobody touches our little sister ever again."

Rhaevia stared silently at the three towering men standing before her.

For some strange, unexplainable reason, her throat felt unexpectedly tight. She quickly looked away toward the far wall to hide her expression.

"...You are all ridiculously overprotective," she muttered under her breath.

Her eldest brother’s lips curved into a faint, rare smile.

"We know," he admitted easily.

The Duchess reached out and gently brushed a stray strand of hair away from Rhaevia’s face. Then, her mother’s physical posture suddenly froze. Her eyes became intensely focused, searching Rhaevia’s features with breathtaking scrutiny.

"Rhaevia," her mother whispered, her voice dropping into a barely audible register.

Rhaevia looked back into her mother’s eyes, sensing the sudden shift in the room’s energy. "What is it?"

Her mother’s next question hung heavily in the air like an impending storm.

"Did you hear an ancient voice speaking inside your mind the exact moment you awakened?" her mother asked softly.

Rhaevia froze as she stared into her mother’s eyes.