Walking down the hallway, he smiled fondly as he recalled the reluctance of Nana to part with him when he dropped her home.
She wanted him to stay over, but Keith refused her request, and since it was pretty late, he did not come inside to see her mother as well. However, he did promise to pick her up in the morning to take her to the University.
He frowned slightly as he realzied that he had missed the entire week, and probably had a couple of assignments pending.
Keith took out his phone, and found a few messages from Qingyue.
She had sent him pictures of her Calligraphy Works, and he stopped and looked at them to appreciate how good her skills were.
"You are brilliant!" He replied to her, and then put in a smug emoji. "But I will catch up to you and better you one day." He sent her another text.
He was about to open the chat of one of his friends to ask him about the pending assignments when he received a few new texts.
"Thank you!" Qingyue replied and then sent him the same smug emoji. "Bring it on!" And then there was another text. "I am looking forward to our next game of Chess."
"Want to lose so badly?" He smirked and replied.
"No, I want to beat you so badly at it." She honestly replied. "Have you completed your weekly assignments?"
"No. I was just about to ask a friend to tell me about it."
"There's one on International Trade and I have written two essays for it. If you want, I can put your name on the other and submit it in your stead." She replied. "The second assignment is of Accoutning and Finance. Professor assigned different questions to everyone, and you must prepare a Cash Flow statement, a Trial Balance, and then a Balanace Sheet. That's all for the last week."
"Thank you!" He replied to her. "I will take that second essay of yours. And as for the Accounting and Finance Assignment, I will check the question on the LMS and then finish it in the morning."
"Don't take it lightly. It will take some time to finish." She immediately responded. "And no worries about the essay. I will submit it in a few minutes and then send you a copy of it."
"Thanks again!" He said and then sent her another next. "I will see you tomorrow, Qingyue. Good Night!"
"Good Night, Keith!"
Keith glanced at the notification of her reply and and then put the cellphone back in his pocket.
He was surprised to find out that Yingying was not present outside his door where she stood at guard all night.
He opened the door to his room, and when he looked at the bed, he understood why that was so.
There was a beautiful lady in floral silk pajamas sitting cross-legged with a large book in her lap, fondly smiling at what she was looking at.
Venessa was going through a photo album, which contained all the photos of him and her since his childhood to his adulthood. And she only briefly glanced at him when he entered the room before returning to what she had been doing.
His heart warmed up when he saw her smile and he sighed inwardly before heading inside the dressing room to pick up his sleepwear.
Keith returned to the room after he freshened up and changed into his sleepwear, and headed straight for the bed.
"You took your time dropping off your love bird." Venessa lightly smiled at him when he sat by her side.
"We went to the movies." He told her and then chuckled when he glanced at the picture that was open in the album. "Milo was so cute back then."
It was a picture of him and the lazy mountain lion playing inside the pool. The big cat loved swimming when it was a cub, but now it just wanted to stay away from water as much as possible.
"So were you." She smirked and said.
"Hey!" He complained. "I am still just as cute."
"No you are not." Venessa vehemently shook her head. "You never kept secrets from me as a child."
Keith felt a sharp pang of guilt in his heart and he lowered his eyes apologetically.
Silence reigned over them for the next few minutes, as the mother kept scrolling through the Album, and her child drowned in even more guilt.
"Do you think I would ever harm you?" She suddenly asked, and even if she had asked it casually, Keith could sense her apprehension.
"No." He shook his head. "No one could ever love me more than you, Mother. You would never harm me."
Her body trembled slightly at his words, and Keith wrapped his arms around her.
"Then why, Keith?" She softly asked. "Do you know how much it hurts a mother when her child hides things from her that are capable of jeopardising their lives and happiness?"
"I am not doing it for any other reason than to keep you safe and free of those burdens, Mother." He pressed his lips on her head and squeezed her in his arms. "I love you, and I want to keep you safe and happy."
"That's not how things work, Keith." Venessa smiled at his words and leaned in his embrace. "Secrets hurt, my Love."
"I know, but there are things that must stay secret for no other reason than that they are meant to be kept as secrets." He chuckled and replied. "What do you want to know mother?"
Venessa fornwed at his words and stayed silent for a while.
"When did you start Cultivating?"
"Friday morning, nine days ago." He answered without hesitation.
"What?!" Venessa jolted out of his embrace and turned to look at him with a shocked expression. "How?"
"I got my hands of something that helped me complete the Foundation Profound Realm in one go." He said and looked her right in her eyes.
She could see that he was telling her the truth, and she knew that he was not telling her everything.
"Did you do something irredeemable?"
"No, Mother." He smiled at her. "I don't take my life lightly."
"And just like that you got your hands on a Medicinal Inheritance?" She narrowed her eyes at him.
"And just like that I got my hands on this as well." He turned her attention to his right hand, and then to her amazement, a strange band-like ring appeard on his ring finger.
The strange runes on the ring stared blinking and then wisps of darkness were released from his hand eventually taking form of a black flame.
"What is this?" She asked as she kept staring at the darkness.
"Darkness. One of the Elements of Nature, and the Primal Element of Chaos." He told her. "And the Ring is called a God Stone. As the name suggests, it has something to do with the Gods."
"Gods?"
"Mhm" He nodded to her. "This one is the legacy of the God of Darkness, Erebus."
"The Primordial Diety of the Greek Pantheon?!" She exclaimed.
"Myths hold some truth as well. But the truth is far more than that." He smiled at her.
"I am the Inheritor of the Original Erebus. Which means that he no longer exists in the sense we define any living existence." He said to her. "There are more people out there, who are the Inheritors of the other Gods. And needless to say, I have unknown enemies and friends out there as well because of my status."
Venessa tensed at his words and then her brows furrowed.
"I want you to stay by my side forever, Mother. And by Forever, I mean Forever." He seriously told her. "We will be leaving this world in ten years."
"You are not in any immediate danger, are you?" She asked and looked him in the eyes.
To her relief, he shook his head.
"No."
"I won't let anyone take you away from me, Keith." She seriously said. "Not even the Gods."
Keith chuckled at her audacious words, but knew that it was her conviction as his mother. His heart was filled with warmth for her, and he leaned in to kiss her on the lips.
"No one shall take me away from you, not even the Gods." He promised.
"Show me your hand." She demanded after their lips separated.
"Mother..." He hesitated at her words.
"Show me!" She demanded again, and he helplessly drew his hand forward to her.
Venessa carefully took off his glove, and then she started unwrapping his bandages. Her hands trembled a little when the finally layer was taken off, and her beautiful deep brown eyes turned misty.
There were two scars, one, right in the middle of his palm, and the other running across his fingers. Both the scars were properly scabbed, and it could be seen that they had nearly healed. However, her heart was hurting as she looked at them.
"Did it hurt?" She softly asked.
"A little, but it was just an irritation." He smiled at her. "I promise you. The scars won't stay."
"They better not or I will put them on my hand too." She glared at him.
Even though Keith knew that she was scaring him, he couldn't help but be scared about her words. He knew her, and he knew that she was crazy when it came to him.
"If you do any such thing, I won't speak to you again, Mother." He threatened her coldly, with his eyes boring into hers.
"Heh..." She just scoffed at his words and then lunged at him, hugging him tightly as she pulled him to lay with her. "I want to hold you to sleep tonight." She said, and it wasn't a request.
Keith let her do as she pleased and found his face burying into her bosom as she locked him in her arms.
The warmth of her body was too comforting for him and his eyes drooped down as sleep lulled in his ears.
He could feel her planting kisses on his head from time to time, and a sense of relief and safety washed over him.
There was no other place where he felt safer than in his Mother's embrace, and Keith lovingly planted a kiss on her soft and supple breast.
"I love you!" He whispered to her, and felt her heart skip a beat in happiness.
"I love you more than you can ever love me, my Love." She whispered back to him.
Even though there were things that he would never tell her about, which included his Dream and the existence of the System, he promised himself to not hide anything from her that she could handle.
