CHAPTER 269: CHAPTER 269: THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

Two months passed.

And Aeris never remembered.

Liora watched her from the quiet spaces within, like a ghost tethered to a mind that had buried its truth. Aeris laughed. She trained. She ate. She danced in the rain one evening when the showers hit the southern barracks, spinning in the yard with her face tilted to the sky like nothing had ever broken her.

Aeris’s life had returned to... normal.

That was the part Liora couldn’t bear.

She watched helplessly, an invisible passenger who once raged and howled—but now could only sit silently as her warnings faded into static.

Each day without a trace of Kazren didn’t feel like a blessing. It felt like a countdown. Like silence before the storm.

What did he do to her? What did he really want? Did he finish his experiment? Did he succeed? Or is this still part of his plan...?

She didn’t have a single answer. Not one. Only memories burned into her bones—of sedation, bruises, and twisted smiles.

And after that day in the hospital... Liora never saw Kazren again.

Not once.

Not in the corridors of the Spire. Not in Aeris’s routines. Not even in the distance, watching from the shadows like a typical villain might.

It was like he had vanished.

And maybe that should’ve brought peace. Maybe Liora should’ve breathed a sigh of relief and believed it was finally over.

But she didn’t.

Because Aeris was happy now. And that terrified her more than anything.

She smiled so easily beside Xu Kai. Teased him during drills and walked with him after hours beneath the star-speckled dome of Sector Twelve’s simulation sky. They sparred together in the gym and split rations during field assignments like an old married couple. She even let him win sometimes.

Everything was perfect.

On weekends, Aeris would visit home, where her father—gruff and proud—waited with little Eli clinging to his leg like a koala cub. The boy had grown fast. At only two years old, he was talking, laughing, and constantly dragging a toy starship around with him like it was his treasure.

"Ahh, Eli, don’t chew on that!" Aeris laughed one day, gently prying the starship from his drool-covered hands. "Your teeth are weapons of mass destruction."

The boy just blinked up at her with his huge eyes and promptly clung to her leg instead.

He was two now. A bright-eyed boy with soft hair and a stubborn mouth that matched his grandfather’s.

"Gran’pa!" He always squealed, flinging himself at the old man’s legs.

Eli was a good boy. He clung to his grandfather like a shadow, always eager to help even though his hands were still too small. He watered the garden. He chased insects with a stick. He asked for stories.

And Aeris adored him.

She played with him for hours—reading books, chasing him in the yard, and letting him fall asleep on her lap as the sun dipped below the horizon. There were moments when Liora felt a strange warmth in Aeris’s chest, one that didn’t come from duty or genetics.

It came from love.

But not everything was as warm.

Because sometimes, her brother would show up.

Only for a few hours. Always unannounced.

Atlas.

He came and went like a phantom, never staying long. His figure was still sharp, still commanding, but his face... it looked different now. Haggard. Hollowed by something no one could name.

The first time Aeris saw him again after the hospital, she froze.

"...Brother?"

He looked at her. Smiled. Ruffled her hair like old times.

"What’s with the face?" he teased. "You look like you saw a ghost."

"I haven’t seen you in months," she replied. "Where were you? You could’ve messaged."

Atlas shrugged. "Didn’t feel like being scolded."

"You look... sick," Aeris said softly, her brows creasing. "Is everything okay?"

He just scoffed.

"When did you grow up enough to worry about me, huh? Do I look like I need a kiddo’s help?"

But Aeris didn’t laugh. She stared at him, noticing how his eyes were darker and how his movements had lost that familiar steadiness.

And then, as if to distract her, he turned toward Eli and tickled him until the child shrieked with laughter.

Moments later, Atlas left again.

No one knew when he’d return.

Their father didn’t even try to stop him anymore. He’d exhausted all tactics—threats, bribes, promises of legacy. But Atlas never bent. Never agreed to inherit the clan responsibilities. Never stayed long enough to help.

In this regard Aeris was also similar to her brother; she also did not want to inherit the clan title. She didn’t want the throne either. Leadership, politics, internal affairs—it wasn’t her dream.

All Aeris wanted was freedom. A life beyond the clan, beyond the Spire. A future with Xu Kai. To travel to far-off planets and forgotten galaxies. Explore ruins, write her name in cosmic dust.

So their father gave up on both of them.

And poured all his energy into Eli.

His grandson. The clan’s only hope now.

At least that was something Atlas had done right—giving birth to Eli. But even that joy was tinged with mystery.

Because no one knew who the child’s mother was.

Liora often wondered what kind of pain that would become later—when Eli grew up and asked why his mother never came for him. Why she had left. Why she never loved him.

Aeris never said it aloud, but Liora felt it burning in her: the desperate wish that the boy wouldn’t feel abandoned.

That he wouldn’t grow up like they had.

But time passed. The warm days slipped by.

And then one weekend...

Aeris had just returned from another quiet weekend at home. She’d played tag with Eli until sundown. Helped him paint stars on his wall. Laughed when he fell asleep face-first in his dinner.

But as soon as she got back to the military compound, something felt... off.

Her stomach twisted.

At first, she blamed the food.

She skipped dinner.

But by midnight, she was curled over the toilet, vomiting everything she’d eaten. Her hands shook. Her skin felt hot.

"What the hell..." she whispered, breathless.

Liora reeled inside her. Alarm bells blared across her senses.

The next morning, Aeris checked herself into the military hospital.

Standard protocol.

A soft-voiced robot with blinking green eyes greeted her and performed a scan with a gentle hum.

Aeris sat on the sterile cot, eyes half-shut from fatigue. Liora paced in circles within her mind, tense and worried.

Then the screen blinked.

Test Complete.

Analyzing...

Result: Positive.

The robot turned toward her with a chirp of joy.

"Congratulations, Miss Aeris. You are pregnant."

Aeris stared.

Liora screamed.

"WHAT?!" they shouted at the same time...one aloud, one inside.

Aeris’s face went white. "P-pregnant?! That’s not... No, that can’t be...there must be a mistake!"

The robot tilted its head carefully. "No mistake. Conception occurred approximately five weeks ago. Would you like to hear the fetal heartbeat?"

"NO!"

She stumbled off the cot. Her breath came in shallow gasps. "I...I need a moment..."

The robot merely nodded and wheeled away.

Aeris turned, hands clutching her coat as her steps swayed slightly. She felt her hand shaking with nervousness.