Chapter 374 - Her Mother

Heavy lids fluttered as she slowly came awake. In a few seconds, she's able lift them and open her eyes. The world was a colorful blur at the beginning, and she had to blink several times before she's able to focus. A familiar room welcomed her sight.

Urgh…

Alinea shifted on the futon, attempting to rise but nausea ȧssailed her. Her gut churned as a strong urge to hurl its contents came to her.

"Here," a soft voice said and she felt a firm but gentle hand guided her to turn to the side where a basin was waiting. She didn't care. She just retched until her stomach stabilized.

Sweat beaded her forehead, her hands cold and clammy. She couldn't remember when was the last time she'd felt such a bad case of motion sickness. It was awful, most especially since she hated vomiting.

"Are you okay now?"the soft voice asked again followed by a gentle kneading on her back.  

"Yeah," she answered shakily as she turned to her worried husband who sat next to the bed. "What happened?"

Ryuu studied her face for a while before answering. "Did you already forget?"

At his question, memories flashed in her mind and she blushed, embarrassed at her elementary mistake.

"I remember now," she answered, obviously depressed, and the light kneading on her back paused.

"Drink this," he coaxed and she followed.

The sweet water filled her mouth as she sipped and she was surprised.

"Sugar water?" she asked and he nodded.

"It's for your nausea," Ryuu answered making her smile sheepishly as she finished her drink.

There was no need to ask why she was feeling so awful. Severe motion sickness was a side effect of mishandling elemental power – that was IF the person who did it was lucky to survive. Most people just died after committing such error. She was lucky to be so protected by her husband during her training.

"You made my fire stronger?" she asked.

Again, Ryuu nodded. In order to suppress Stribog's power that she borrowed, Kresnik injected more of his divine energy on her so she wouldn't explode.

"Ah, I feel so stupid," she said woefully, making her husband smile.

"You'll get used to it. It was your first time," Ryuu consoled her. "Now that you know, you can be more cautious at practice."

"As if it's the easy,"Ara grumbled. She was still a bit depressed over her mistake. "How come I didn't have problems with my father's powers?"

"My love, if you didn't have Czernobog's spawn in you, you would have had your father's lightning ability. Your brothers had it."

"How can you be so sure? My brothers are all pure deities. I'm a demigod," she said.

"Then all the more you should have the lightning blessing,"Ryuu said. "With only one parent as a deity, you have a bigger chance to inherit his ability. If not lightning then it's his sealing ability."

Oh…

Alinea was quiet for a while. Sure enough demigods always had divine powers inherited from the deity parent. Since her mother was human, there was no surprise on her supposed ability. Unlike her brothers who had Fanya as their mother, she had no option for a different power in her genes.

Speaking of which…

"Ryuu?"she called softly and her husband gave her his full attention. "What were my brothers like?"

This was not the first time she had wondered about them. Her siblings with Fanya had been long gone before she was born as they opted to be mortals. She wanted to know about them even if she'd never seen them but didn't want to ask her father because she was afraid it would make her father sad.

Even if Perun and Fanya's relationship was disastrous, her father loved her brothers with all his heart.

"They're a tag-team. They're always together. Although Raiden was always the troublemaker he always protected his younger twin," Ryuu said in a nostalgic voice. "The little runts used to bother me a lot in my lair – just as their little sister did centuries after." He peered at her face with a teasing smile making her pout.

"Who bothered you? Huh?" she demanded. However, armed with her past memories, she couldn't refute that. After all, it was indeed Alencica who pursued the poor Fire God.

"You brought me chicken almost every day, remember?" Ryuu prompted making Alinea blush and they both laughed at the distant memories.

"You fell for it. Why are you complaining now?" she grumbled and Ryuu kissed the top of her head.

"I'm not complaining," he ȧssured her. "In fact, I'll be the one bringing you chicken if you want."

Alinea laughed at this. Ryuu was basically telling her that he would be doing everything to please her so she wouldn't leave his side.

"How about my mom? You've seen her too, right?" she asked. Just as she couldn't ask her father about her brothers, she also couldn't ask her about her mother.

Shitara was the greatest love of Perun's life. When she died, he grieved too much that he never looked at any other woman again.

Ryuu laughed this time. "Your mom was a sweet woman. She's just like you."

"What do you mean by that?"Alinea asked with a pout.

"She was so charming your father never had a chance,"Ryuu told Alinea with glitter in his eyes and she knew he was thinking of something funny.

"What did my mom do?" she asked suspiciously.

"What do you think?" he countered in amusement and Alinea ġrȯȧnėd. It seemed it was her mother who pursued her father just as she pursued Kresnik that he had no choice but give in to her.

She didn't want to know anymore. The image she had of her mother in her mind was a fragile, elegant woman who was sweet and charming. But if she was like her…

The gentle image of Shitara shattered into pieces in her mind.

Urgh…

Amazon lady. Her mama was an amazon lady.