Getting into the house, everyone seemed exhausted and glad to finally be home as they took off their jackets and outerwears, hanging them on the hangers, before resigning to the living room.
Miridald, Jenevive and Edward remained standing at the foyer, all three lost in their own thoughts, with a duffel bag containing Edward's stuff hanging from Miridald's arm.
Edward was wearing a different set of clothes now. The ones Jenevive had brought to the hospital for him. The ones amongst which he had left at her place.
Jenevive shook herself from whatever daze she was in suddenly and started toward the kitchen, whipping back at Edward to mutter: "Going to boil milk for you", before turning toward the kitchen again.
A grateful smile formed up on Edward's profile. Remaining with his mother in the small space, he turned to her.
Miridald started before he could. "I know darl- I mean, son-"
Edward waved it off. "Just call me darling."
Miridald gave a small smile. "I'm sorry I didn't explain earlier about why-"
"Mom..." Edward stopped her.
Everyone in the living room had now turned their attention to them.
"I don't need you apologising all the time. Okay? It's not your fault; what's happening. Right?"
Miridald nodded vigorously, struggling to hold back a tear.
Renee stared solemnly.
"Forgive my language, mother, but everything, or maybe at least most of it as I know it, is fucked up."
"Now, I know you also have your own fair share of trauma as Aunt Renee stated it, and reasons, maybe even horrifying ones, for why you zoned out and went into this kind of trance earlier while in the ward, so I won't put pressure on you. But... the truth is, I was hurt. I was really hurt, mom. About what I found out today. The most painful part not being the discoveries, but how I had to do them, and the lengths you were willing to go to counter that."
Miridald's eyes were glistening.
"I know as your son-" He put a hand on his chest. "Thankfully so too, that I should probably be asking about your life story. The one you never told me, or just omitted from the one that you did. But... for a very much itching need, I need to know, mom: What would you have done if you had succeeded with the memory erasure escapade? Hmm? What would you have told Mrs. Atieno?"
Miridald looked down, shame and guilt clouding her eyes.
"Mother," Edward put his hands on her arms and rubbed softly. "I'm not condemning you. Not now, not anymore."
Miridald looked up, eyes still glistening.
"I understand why you did it. At least the well-meaning part. I just wished you had been honest with me from the night that I blasted father towards the wall."
Everyone perked up.
"What?" Anita couldn't help but ask.
Edward turned to her. "I got my memories back. The reversal spell I did on mother's did it. It brought them back."
"You mean you've had your memories all this time?" Jenevive asked from near the kitchen entrance.
Everyone turned to her. They hadn't realised she was listening.
"Painfully vivid and altogether at first. Then vaguely and dreamlike once I had woken up from the blast," Edward explained. "And finally both coherent and clearly after I had woken up in the hospital."
He snapped back to his mother suddenly. "Mom, why did you guys take me to the hospital anyway?" He gazed between her and Renee.
Anita and everyone's else faces darkened.
"Come sit down, Edward," Miridald beckoned towards a sofa.
They sat down on the particular one in perfect, linear alignment with the TV and foyer. The one Renee was sitting on.
Facing each other.
Miridald set the bag on the carpet.
"Now, I need you to tell me what happened in that forest, Edward. I need you to tell me everything and in every detail as you recall."
Everyone in the room leaned forward in anticipation, pin-drop silence plaguing the atmosphere.
Miridald noticed. "Wait... You didn't tell them already?" She pointed to the trio.
"Nope," Jesse answered for him. "It was too much for him to bear."
It still was. Edward was visibly sweating and trembling.
"Hey. Hey," Miridald held his hands. "There's no rush. Okay? Only when you're ready."
"I'm sorry, Mom-"
"Don't apologise, now will you?" She placed a hand on his cheek and rubbed it gently with her thumb. "Aren't you the one who just told me not to myself? So please don't start going against your own word, okay?"
He nodded.
She pulled him into an embrace, his head resting on her chest. "I'm just so glad you're safe. That we got there in time. And rest assured that your friend Edric is okay. Okay?"
Edward looked up into her eyes. "Okay," he nodded, then retreated back into the embrace.
"Yeah, son. He's okay. He will be okay. And you're gonna see him again."
"After all," she added playfully, though a bittersweet look on her face. "Terramics aren't as easy to get rid of. They are as tough and relentless as the substance they terr... They are."
"And we don't just expect you to be flippant about what you went through in that varda," Jenevive seconded, stepping into the room with a steaming, aromatic mug of cappuccino in her hands.
She set it on the coffee table, close to Edward, and sat down on the couch Anita was on, posture as elegant as ever, and legs crossed. Her hands rested, clasped on her knee.
Edward retreated back into an upright posture slowly, looking between the mug and Jenevive.
"Oh, just a steaming cup of hot cappuccino-ed milk. With two spoons of sugar as you like it," Jenevive explained delightfully. "And a smack-"
"What do you mean by 'varda'?" Edward interrupted her.
"Exactly what I'd like to know too," Mdachi added in complaint from beside Jesse.
Jesse gave him a disappointed look.
"A varda-"
"Is a magically sealed or hidden place like the part of forest you were found in," Anita intercepted her mother.
Jenevive let her carry on.
"It's normally aided by some astronomical cycles or natural occurrences strong enough to draw power from, and fortify the concealment, like: solar solstices, moon cycles, or just the mere, but strong enough, monsoon winds."
"...What?"
"Exactly what he said," Mdachi remarked. "What?"
"I me-"
"Wait, wait, wait, wait," Mdachi halted Anita from speaking.
He faced the entire room.
"Since now I can ask, and considering there's much to ask about; you're telling me... that apart from these eerily unique terminologies in the magical world: ktsin, ktsi... naja-"
"Nazjha," Anita corrected.
"Yeah, that," Mdachi waved off. "And stuff." He continued. "There's also logic to magic? I mean, drawing power from astronomical cycles and meteorological patterns? To hide a place? How does that work - in deeper logical? And did I mention how sick hiding the place is in the first place?"
"Hold your horses cowboy," Renee calmed down. "One thing at a time."
"Sorry," Mdachi peeped.
"No need to apologise," Renee assured hastily. "The curiosity is normal. Especially for normies like you. You are a normie, are you not?"
"If by normie you mean not affiliated, or connected, with the supernatural in whatsoever way apart from my best friends? Then yeah. I am a normie. I mean, I had two sleepless nights this week rummaging through my family history, and things I helped my mother sort out in the attic last Saturday, just to make sure I was indeed a normal, simple person with no hidden supernatural lineage. Plus, I tested my mom, and myself - secretly, with that tea sample Edward and Anita served you yesterday?"
"It wasn't actually a school project," Mdachi explained contritely. "Nor was it normal tea-"
"We know, Mdachi," Renee cut him short.
Everyone apart from Miridald looked shocked.
"We realised shortly after we had taken it. Mchawi Majani is a pretty strong herb with a memorable taste and fragrance. We just didn't dare to think that you knew what you were doing, and therefore assumed it must have been some twisted mind-play, by the anonymous mangly pack-"
She turned slowly toward Edward. He sat right beside her. "After Edward. And responsible for Hallington's demise." She said the last part looking up at everyone.
"Holy. Shit!" Mdachi couldn't help but remark.
Jesse sighed, as if he couldn't possibly hear anything worse at the time.
Anita froze wide-eyed. She had suspected it. But saying it out loud completely changed things.
"How did you know?" Edward asked suddenly, turning to Renee.
"Wait! You knew?" Anita prompted, clearly more appalled.
"We've been doing our own investigation of everything, Edward. And some things in that forest when we found you confirmed our suspicions."
"Hellooo," Anita complained, waving her arms in the air. "Still in limbo here."
"I knew when the deranged maniac who had kidnapped me mentioned it right when he was about to slice Edric's head off with his claws," Edward answered in one breath.
Everyone's eyes went wide.
Mdachi blinked HARD.
Miridald stared into space.
Anita stumbled, at a loss of words. "Oh... I... I'm so sorry. I should've never asked that. Not now." She sounded terribly sorry.
"No need," Edward said with a light shrug. "I killed them anyway. Exploded them."
"Okay!" Jenevive shot up to her feet. "That's enough of that for today. Anyone wanna help me out with dinner?"
She looked around. Everyone apart from Edward, Miridald, and Renee, were in utter shock.
"Excuse me?" Jesse finally managed to blurt out at Edward.
"As Jenevive has said: that's enough of that today," Miridald announced, standing up. "We'll... talk more about things tomorrow. Yeah?"
She squatted back down to Edward, hands on her knees. "Edward-"
"Don't worry, Mom." He looked into her eyes. "I don't think it bothers me. Not at all."
Miridald didn't know whether to be more concerned or worried.
Her thoughts drifted off.
Renee placed a hand on Edward's shoulder.
Edward turned to her over his shoulder. A look of sheer concern was all over her face.
"Like I said, Aunt Renee," Edward began. "It doesn't bother me... at all. And if you're worried about me losing control of my powers..."
He lifted his hands, studying them for a minute before turning back to Renee with full resolve.
"Then don't be. I don't feel them anymore." He gave another shrug. "Not that I know how they really work - especially the new one. But ever since I was injected with Mchawi Majani, I haven't felt my magic. I don't know if I have even ever felt like this before I started using it. It's like a part of me has been locked away - firmly."
New one? What was Edward talking about?
The trio's minds couldn't stop reeling.
Miridald's phone suddenly buzzed.
It began ringing.
She snapped out of her daze and picked it up.
"Hey, Heart," she began, trying to freshen her thoughts. "What's up?"
"I called like twenty minutes ago to inform you that I had arrived home as you practically ordered, but I haven't seen you or my sister-in-law back yet. Kwani what's up with Edward? Is there something wrong?"
"What? No... No. There's nothing wrong."
"Then what's up? You ladies have been there for quite some time. I'm just worried I might finish cooking before you get here." Sizzling could be heard from his end of the line. "I wouldn't want you to eat cold food. Even if there's a microwave." He chuckled.
Miridald faked a bemused scoff. "Yeah. Neither would we." She turned to Renee. "We were actually on our way out now, honey. So just give us ten minutes max."
"Ten minutes?... Well okay. Just don't exceed that. Okay?"
"Yeah. Sure, Heart. Let us get on with it."
"Okay. See you soon. Love you."
"Love you too. Mwah!"
She hung up.
With his chin resting on his hand, elbow pressing into his thigh, Edward stared at his mother.
"What's got him in such a good mood?" He asked suddenly. "He's even cooking?"
Miridald couldn't get over how flippant Edward was being with things at the moment. For Christ's sake the boy had just fessed up about killing and being okay with it. Who does that - on their first time?
Miridald opened her mouth.
"Mom, I swear if you start being all sentimental or moral at me right now for what I said earlier... I am not going to sleep well tonight."
"As you've rightfully assumed, I'll be spending the night here again." He turned to Jenevive. "But of course with your permi-"
"You needn't ask," Jenevive cut him short. "For as long as you need. This is your home too."
Edward smiled in gratitude. "Thanks."
Anita felt something warm in her chest as she smiled at the exchange.
Jenevive suddenly turned to Mdachi. "And yours too."
Mdachi nodded in gratitude. "Thank you, ma'am."
"Now with me spending the night here," Edward continued, tone still peculiarly calm. "And avoiding stories of that freaked-up forest - and my so terrifying abductors." His voice cracked a bit. "I ought, or rather hope, to have a sliver of a good night's rest."
"Who knows," he said with open arms. "Maybe my 'so expected, soul-crushing guilt for what I did in that forest' isn't there because of the MM juice I was injected with. I mean, the migraines - whew - that I was having before it, just seemed to disappear after the injection. I gotta say, all this magic and supernatural stuff is really taking a toll on me," he added lightly - almost like a whine.
"Edward," Miridald placed her hands on his shoulders. "I didn't mean it as a judgement. I'm just looking out for you - everyone is. Not judging you."
She straightened up. "The state of power you went into earlier while facing me down was really dangerous and sacred for witches. I'll tell you more about it when I can, but for now, just don't try using much power after you have recovered them. You will recover them. The herb takes about eight to twelve hours to clear up from your system when injected."
"Edward, I don't know how you even managed to get into that state, as a newbie ktsi moreover, and use it to reverse my spell as you did - but it was really scary and rare."
"I'll come with some items tomorrow that should help you with fully recovering from that experience - but for now you're fine. The migraines you had were mostly because of your memories recovering, but you should be fine with some specific, herbal tea."
She turned toward Jenevive.
"I know which one," Jenevive answered before she could ask. "I have it. And I'll prepare it for him."
Miridald turned back to Edward, clasping her hands avidly. "Otherwise, son, you should be fine and have nothing to worry about. The ritual you found yourself in after waking up from the blast did most of the weight-lifting, and put you out of harm's way in relation to the pepo state crisis."
Edward narrowed his eyes.
Pepo state? Is that what they called it? What a funny name. And eerie.
"I've told you all of these things, Edward," Miridald continued, squatting down to him again to meet his eyes. "Because I need you to have the littlest bit of understanding of what is happening to you, or what happened. Okay? And how to prevent putting yourself in danger again."
"You have an unimaginable power, son. And I'll help you understand it. Control it. I just hope you'll allow me."
"Of course," Edward countered immediately. "Why wouldn't I, Mom?"
Something painful and heavy burned in Miridald's eyes. She nodded, straightening up.
"Oh, and your father told me to tell you that he loves you, and is there if you want to talk."
Edward smiled sarcastically. "Sure."
"Your father loves you, Edward," Miridald almost snapped. "He really does. I just hope that someday you'll be able to work out whatever went south between you guys."
She realised something. "Oh, and I forgot to mention that your arm will be okay too," she pointed at it. It lay concealed in the jumper. "It was partly why we took you to the hospital."
Edward stared at the arm for a moment.
Hastily, Miridald picked up the duffel bag from the floor and yanked Edward's phone out of it, flipping it to him.
"Now I wish we could talk more, son, but I promised your father ten minutes max. Everything else you need explanation of, or help with, I'll sort out tomorrow, okay?" She started toward the door.
Renee followed.
Mdachi too.
The room paused.
"What? I haven't told my mama that I'll be staying over here tonight, so I need to head back," Mdachi explained after noticing everyone's befuddled stares.
"Okay. Good," Miridald commented, quickly grabbing his wrist and tugging him along. "Then I actually need to tell you something. You're okay with me driving you home, aren't you?"
"Auntma... I am wary, and still very much in the dark about you. Not loathful. And I'm not a masochist either. Why would I walk home when my extra-extraordinary auntma is offering me a ride?"
Typical Mdachi.
Renee opened the door.
Miridald turned to Edward one last time. "Call me in case of anything, darling! Mwah!" She blew a kiss to him. "Love you!..." Her voice floated off as she grabbed her shoul from the hangers and made her way past the door - Mdachi behind her, his own jacket in hand, and still held in her grip.
"I'm driving. You know it helps me unwind," Renee could be heard saying as she closed the door.
From where Jenevive had been standing the whole time, she turned to the remaining trio. "So, about that question... Who wants to help me cook?"
------------
Back in the Ngong Road Forest. In the varda. As the crickets chirped, nocturnal creatures moved and rustled in the night, and the chilly breeze blew, a pale, huge, and built body lay unconscious on a metal table in the dimly lit basement of a relatively small, flat, concrete building.
The body was draped in a fancy blue three-piece suit, with the pair of trousers torn at the thighs.
The legs themselves seemed to have been sewn at the thighs - with obviously fresh sutures.
With a sudden violent convulsion, Mace flung his eyes open - his blue orbs both dazzling with the reflection of light, and hollow with the deprivation of strength.
A crimson colour quickly flashed across his eyes, and as if struck with a realisation, his eyes widened as he stared up at the room's ceiling.
"Liebling," he muttered weakly, though with a tinge of amusement in his voice - a sly, wicked smile forming at the side of his face.
He suddenly lost strength and passed out again.