Road to Ruisea

❆ ❆ LXVIII. ALEXEI ❆ ❆

Alexei doesn't really known anything about his mother's family.

Except for what he heard when he listened in on Korol telling Jae all about them...

And that's when his father's story from not so long ago, and his mother's story from quite long ago, finally snap into place.

"You're the one who fell for the fairy tale princess," Alexei says. "One of the seven Cevalonian sisters."

"Seven sisters...?" Kumari gasps, voice teetering on the edge of full excitement. "My grandma was one of seven sisters, and she fell in love with a white-haired prince—!"

"Ah!" Alexei's great-uncle, the former prince of Ruisea, sighs. "Lovely Kuma. Oh, you do look so much like her..."

"I'm here too, you know," and the vision of Alexei's uncle shimmers, and next to him appears a beautiful woman — a woman who looks just like Kumari, if she were maybe ten or fifteen years older. But certainly similar to Kumari — the same tan skin, dark hair, brown eyes...

Well, Kumari's eyes are currently still pink.

Said princess seems to understand who this is immediately, "G-grandma...? Is that... Really you?"

"Spirits certainly are strange things, aren't they?" She sighs, then laughs. "Yes, little flame. It's me."

Kumari has nothing more to say after that though, as she immediately starts crying.

"Aww," the woman comes over, ghosting a hand over Kumari's cheek. Quite literally — the hand passes clean through Kumari's face, as if it were nothing but mist. "Don't cry."

"I missed you," is Kumari's soft whisper in return. Alexei can't help but to put an arm around her shoulder, squeezing her close.

"Would you look at that," the man chuckles. "Kuma, if you'd married me, these two really would be family, instead of the makeshift bunch they are now."

"Perhaps," Kuma hummed. "Or perhaps they wouldn't have existed at all. At the time I met you, I had no interest in having children."

"I suppose neither did I," he laughs.

"This is all well and great," Jae says, spreading his hands. "But like. What the hell is going on?"

The other prince raises an eyebrow, "Mind your language, boy! Don't forget, I'm your great-uncle too. Back in my day, we treated our elders with respect..."

Jae lets out a breathy chuckle, "Amazing."

"I will answer your question however," he continues with a grin. "Remember my poem?"

Alexei can see Chiro and Kumari looking at each other, confused.

"Poem?" Kumari whispers, panicked. "Is there going to be a quiz? I didn't study!"

"Very funny," Chiro says, but his voice sounds just as nervous.

"You guys weren't there," Jae brushes aside. "Don't worry about it."

"I was there, though," Alexei nods. "The poem. The one that leads to the fix for the Cevalonian curse."

"Can we back it up a second?" Chiro demands, putting his arms up. "I have no idea what's going on. Okay, so, this is the guy Kumari's grandma fell in love with, when she went to Ruisea and then came back and told Kumari about snow and inspired her to want to come here—"

Jae makes a rolling motion with his hand, as if to say speed it up a little!

And Chiro does, "And now we're here! So uh, mister prince that's not Alexei... Could you please tell us your name, and why you cursed Cevalon, apparently...? Also, whatever this poem is that we don't know?"