The Extra Wants Control

Awkward silce filled Verona's chambers, Three chairs, crafted tirely of shimmering ice, materialized a a small, ornately carved table. Valeriana perched on the edge of hers, her gaze fixed on Neveah with an intsity.

"Um… Um… Cough…" Valeriana cleared her throat, her voice barely a whisper. "I wanted to speak to you… I…" She faltered, her words catching in her throat.

Neveah, his face a mask of stoicism, kept his gaze trained on her. The silce stretched on, filled with unspok emotions and a growing sse of unease. Finally, with a sigh of exasperation, Verona interved.

"Hahh! This is getting annoying," she declared, her violet eyes flashing with irritation. "Neveah, she's your birth mother! I don't know why you're so nervous to tell him. You're an Empress, sheesh!"

Valeriana flinched at Verona's bluntness, a flicker of shame crossing her features. Empress or not, facing her son after years of neglect felt like an insurmountable task.

Neveah's head snapped towards Valeriana at the revelation, his eyes widing in shock. The word hung in the air, a bomb dropped into the carefully constructed reality he'd built for himself. He remained silt for a long momt, his expression unreadable, a storm of emotions brewing beath the surface.

Valeriana met his gaze, her eyes filled with a kaleidoscope of emotions – pain, regret, and a desperate plea for forgivess. She mustered up all her courage, forcing herself to hold his stare. But the apology that trembled on her lips remained unspok, choked by the weight of her past actions.

Neveah's face remained coldb. Here she was, the woman who'd giv him life, yet who had be abst for all of it.

The silce heavy and suffocating. It was a confrontation lad with years of unspok words, a mother's guilt laid bare before the son she had failed. As the minutes ticked by, the tsion in the room grew thicker, threating to implode. Valeriana's mind was a mess thinking, What would Neveah say? Would he accept her, or would he forever remain a stranger to the woman who bore him?

**********

[Nev POV]

"I need con and information about this situation." I said. Verona just said with a proud smile," sure."

My head spun. The orb of ergy slammed into my forehead, shoving memories from their conversation. I saw every emotions she made.

Valeriana, Empress or not, was a powerful woman. If I rejected her, where would she turn? Valeriana, desperate for a connection, could d up giving all those maternal feelings towards Azrael. I'm not powering up that person anymore. That's a form of giving myself a gre hat!

A bitter chuckle escaped my lips. It would be easy, so heartbreakingly easy, to succumb to the anger, to slam the door shut on this woman and her belated apologies. But I wasn't a child, throwing tantrums in the face of the troubles. I was Neveah amd I faced my problems head on

Both sides of me, the scarred and the calculating, were now forced to confront this unwelcome reality.

Older Rei, the part of me who'd se the harsh realities of the human world – underage mothers, desperate wom forced to give up their childr for a perceived better life (a life that oft turned out worse) – understood. He understood the desperation, the impossible choices, ev if he didn't condone them.

Little Rav, the abandoned child, the one left to fd for himself, felt a surge of raw, primal pain. It mirrored the abandonmt Rei felt at the hands of his own greedy relatives, the twisted use by my so-called "adopters." All the bad things, the betrayals, the manipulations – all fueled by greed.

But Rav's life, however unfortunate, had led him to Verona. Without the abandonmt, there would be no counter with the Que of the Vampire a, no training, no path to becoming the monster I was supposed to be. The past, however twisted, had brought me here.

I know deep down that I want this woman to suffer, feel the pain, Rav felt. It's easy to understand her situation that she was cursed and all but it's not easy to accept.

****************

"Well... Time to act," Neveah thought, steeling himself for what was to come. He lifted his head, his voice devoid of emotion as he spoke.

"There's a lot of hate," he began, each word heavy. "A well of anger that is in my heart, and I don't ev know where to begin to place it all or who to blame."

Valeriana flinched at his words, her gaze dropping to her lap. Shame stained her cheeks, a stark contrast to the regal bearing she usually held.

"I grew up feeling unwanted," Neveah continued, his voice a low rumble. " I couldn't ev recall your face, a face that should have brought comfort, but instead, it was a blank canvas where memories should have be."

A flicker of despair crossed Valeriana's features. "The curse," she rasped, her voice barely a whisper. "It took so much from you… from all of us."

Neveah shook his head, a bitter smile twisting his lips. "Memories may be lost, but the feelings remain. The feeling of abandonmt, that… that is a brand etched into me." Neveah pointed into his chest.

His voice harded as he continued. "Th there was a girl, maybe a sister, taunting me, her fists raining down for no reason I could understand. The cold shoulder from the mother whose face I couldn't remember, her presce ever distant. Ev from my own relatives, nothing but disdain.It was a life of isolation.

Th in Silvcrest which I don't know how I ev ded up there, there was a constant struggle for survival."

He paused, his voice dropping to a low growl. "Some nights, I slept hungry wh I was lucky I would maybe eat leftovers from restaurants, finding cigarettes in the food ... Or maybe worse things. And wh sickness gripped me, I still struggled to work to feed myself and keep a roof over my head, praying it would pass."

Valeriana's face crumpled, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I'm so sorry, sorry, sorry" she choked out, "So, so sorry. Don't blame your sister, she was just a child… she wouldn't didn't understand anything... She wrongfully placed her hate on you and that was unfair to you... I'm sorry." She knew apologies could fix nothing and that Neveah despite being a Royal, HER SON suffered so much...

But she had to try... It was the only thing she could do now.