33 Risen#re

'Like me and Anya,' she thought in silence wondering if Lirian thought that she and Anya were friends, it even cracked her up a little.

"They are your friends?" she asked hesitantly, they seemed more like enemies in that place and she remembered that look of terror in Lirians eyes.

Lirian nodded silently, "I don't think friends should say such things to each other, maybe they weren't really your friends?" she said hopelessly.

Lirian sighed and dropped his head, he was asking for too much, there was no way she could understand the situation and what they meant to him.

As that despondent look crept back onto Lirians face Taliyah felt like a failure, she couldn't be certain but she felt like that world had a deeper meaning to it than she could possibly imagine, he was a god child and there was bound to be several mysteries about him, her only guess was that, that world was somehow linked to his godly parents and it was also possibly part of the reason why he was sent to the mortal realm.

"You know I used to have other children before you," she spoke after some time had passed, ", I only ever got to have 12, as the empress I couldn't have as many as I'd liked to have, only one at a time, it's a rule to prevent the leaders from getting too distracted."

"Sometimes I would get into arguments with them, you see as my children it is an obligation of theirs to become a prince or princess candidate, it was something that they couldn't understand and they didn't want to do, so I was hard on them, always making them study and train so that they could survive their trials, but I failed to realise what they really needed, it was just someone to be there for them when they felt pressured and scared."

"It always clawed at my heart when I lost a child and it ate at my conscious, this one question would play on repeat in my head, what could I have done better to ensure that they came home to me, even to this day I ask myself that question because even now I don't know the right answer.", the more she spoke the more it sounded like she was talking to herself.

"The only thing that I learned I could do is, give them the best first twenty years off their life before their trial begins, I may not know how to help you little one, but I can promise you one thing if you ever need me, I will be there for you no matter what happens."

"Those people that you showed me, maybe they aren't your friends but if they really are then one day, I'm sure that if you keep trying to make-up with them as I did with my children one day it will pay off, and they will come back to you."

Lirian could make out her implied meaning, she was desperately hoping that this time she would get to see her child return to her safe and sound.

With that said Taliyah put Lirian on his own two feet and let him hold on to her fingers, "Do you remember the promise you made with mommy?"

Lirian nodded, when they left, he promised not to walk until, he saw her again he slowly raised his legs to stretch them out, his muscles were still tight and it would take a bit of practice before he could break them in.

He released Taliyah's hands and took a shaky step forward, he carefully moved one foot in front of the other and after eight steps he lost his balance and fell, that was better than I expected for a first attempt he thought happily, without realising it his mood had improved if only a little bit.

Taliyah watched on happily, as Lirian climbed back up and walked, fell, and got back up repeatedly, when he finally stopped he had been able to walk across the room from one end to the other and back without falling.

Finally, he rolled over on the floor and heaved heavy breaths of relief, and allowed his sweat to roll down his face, Taliyah picked him up from the floor and smiled at seeing how hard he was trying, "Since you worked so hard, it's time for you to have a good meal?"

Due to his quick development, he was a very hungry baby and he was glad to find that he had four wet nurses always waiting on him, milk was a baby's life and he had four sources, there was a slight difference in the taste of their milk, so he made sure to rotate between his different suppliers.

A month quickly passed and he had finally been able to walk steadily around his home, it was unfortunately very big and it could take him entire hours to get from one end to the other, today was also the day that his first goal was accomplished.

Gone were his days of shameful pooping himself, he had done it, the toilets were now within his reach, of course, there was the added difficulty of climbing it as his head could barely reach the pan he had to grapple the seat and pull himself up, then there was the other problem, he was so tiny that it was difficult to do his business without falling in, it was at this point that he forced his new body to learn how to do splits so that he could get it done without going splash in the toilet.

At six months he was used to strutting around in the corridors, by now everyone was familiar with Lirians antiques, his bathroom splits were a source of constant conversation, and the source was his mother, she had been both insanely proud and amused when she found out, and the news spread to even the servants and if he wasn't wrong, they seemed to have pictures, the source of those could have only ever been Anya.

From all the aides of his mother, he spent a little time with all of them but Anya had made frequent visits to him, a month after they arrived his mother had started to get busy again, just because she was no longer on the home-world didn't mean that all her work had vanished and she frequently had to deal with ambassadors and foreign nationals.

This left Lirian with tons of free time to explore the mansion by himself, of course at all times there would be someone following him around for his safety.

Today he had a very special task as he stepped up to his room doors, a little biscuit sat in hand which he continuously nibbled on with his first two teeth that had just poked their way out of his gums.

He placed the biscuit on a pedestal and dragged a chair to the door, it took him a full ten minutes to move the chair, the bad thing about having good furniture was its heavy weight.

After climbing the chair, he pulled the handle and pushed the doors apart, as he got off the chair, he looked at the spot where the chair belonged, I'll just leave it to the adults to put it back in place he shrugged and picked up his half-eaten biscuit.

In truth, he wasn't supposed to be eating anything solid yet, but when no one was looking he would sneak biscuits from the kitchen and place them in his clothes and he would later hide them in his cot.

He had grown tired of only milk and his baby food was almost flavorless, he needed new flavors and he had what was definitely the best kitchen on the planet in his home, there was no way he would miss the opportunity.

He skipped his meeting with the wet nurses, he had important matters to attend to, those pictures of him needed to stop and the perfect opportunity had arrived.

Apparently, the manor was lagging behind in the current fashion trends of Xelia, his mother was all too happy to do a big scale renovation of the manor and the renovation included all the bathrooms.

Today he walked with purpose through the halls, the servants all nodded politely or smiled at him, some even offered to carry him around but today was not a day for such things as he cut across the atrium and found the plumbers.

He walked up to a burly man in a long-sleeved red-check shirt, and a tool belt wrapped around his waist, a group surrounded him as he pointed at a drawing and explained what they were doing. Soon he felt something on his shin but didn't think much of it, but soon the constant taps were annoying and he turned around to see what it was.

At first, he saw nothing then he lowered his gaze slowly until he saw a child that could barely even reach his knees. It took him by surprise to see such a small child and seeing how adorable the child looked raising her head to meet his gaze, his heart melted.

Lirian had wanted to look firmly at the man and give him his new task, but his intimidation plan failed as he could only meet the man's shin with a level gaze, and as he slowly tilted his head further and further, he felt like he lost all his authority as he had to hold his head at an almost 90-degree angle just to see his face.