Finding Contentus

Chapter 150: I AM...

The airship came to an abrupt standstill in the deserted sky. The gravitational pressure should have sent the damn thing plummeting if not for the thermal gas that kept it afloat. The wind whirled noisily like an approaching storm on the hunt for its next feeble target.

No one said a word for what felt like eons, long enough that the sky turned from navy to pitch-black, matching the darkness that yearned to swallow them whole.

The osmosis of suspicion was always there. How could it not be? But sometimes it was easier to assume rather than to confirm, sometimes it was safer to remain in a suspicious bubble than to pop that bubble unceremoniously.

After all, there was a difference between being knowledgeable of a thing and being prepared to know the ramifications of said thing. For it wasn't the overwhelming evidence of the revelation that shocked them. It was the array of implications that stunned the airship at full force like pelting rain rushing in to hammer their collective skulls.

Genesia and Neosa jolted without warning, furrowing their brows. "Wait a minute. That's not right." Ferocious. Ferrous.

"Ferrou is Renero," they amended, accentuating the subtle shift in pronunciation.

Genesia pressed his temples like he was pressuring his hippocampus to remember prior statements that took on new meanings. Glass beads ripped through him. He thought of the reminiscent atmosphere of distress when Ramsis invaded Petora and how his mind went straight to his nemesis returning. He thought of how Ra referred to his foe as his ultimate will that granted his wish for new beginnings. The Winged Lion of Ra, when in actuality—

"He's the corrupted manifestation of what would be Papa's astral self. Except his personality, philosophy and ideology is more like an artificial hybrid. The Winged Lion of Renero, Ramsis and Ra," Neosa stressed, appearing lusterless before their eyes. "That's why he doesn't feel like he's human, primal, or Racaan. His demoralizing voice is unidentifiable. He doesn't have a scent that we can detect. Not to mention his eyes. Ramsis—"

"Renero's Primalstasis eyes were the same back then as they are today. Red like glowing blood," Ramsis confirmed plainly.

"No Racaan has glowing white eyes in Primalstasis. Or black Amandla flames." Genesia thought of who came closest. Mpho. White Amandla flames and glowing silver eyes.

"There's the distinction. That's why Ferrou is the Black Sun. He's our father born in Death," he said grimly, utilizing the resonance of his voice. His shoulders slumped. "Asemi. No wonder Kakara threatened to kill me on Mad Scar when I confessed my fixation of becoming greater than him when I should have focused on you, Papa."

He flung a gleaming gaze at his father who elevated his head to face his son. Ancestors above, they looked so alike.

"Ha,eh. That deadbeat is not our father who raised us," Neosa snapped back, amplifying her orotund voice. "Papa is right there." She lifted her left foot, extending her big toe to point straight at him. "Alive. Born in the Life he gave us from the lives we... exchanged." She retracted her foot like a snail retreating to its shell.

Renero gnawed on his bottom lip. "My girl—"

"Aachi! Is Chrystal our mother that showered us with imperishable love?" She cut her father off like a woodchopper, voice crackling, ire flourishing, teeth shining. "No. Is she our mother that wiped our tears? No. Is she our mother that sprinkled our faces with kisses? No. Is she our mother that pampered us with Warmth despite being born in Ice? No. Is she our mother that bound us to the first light when the ash clouds of hopelessness crowned our heads? No! Maro! Am I right?"

"You're right Neokie!" Ramoth crafted a fake bee that buzzed at Neosa's tally of points in the argument. It faded to powder once the match was set and done.