Chapter 4: Relative Candles: Chapter 3-1
"Happy Birthday!!"
Anna and Reginald shouted in unison as Holley blows the candles on his white cake; The candles flicker into smoke and the white icing of the cake flows throughout its body, showing Holley's name as it moves. The number 11 embedded on the cake turns into 12, then Anna runs up to Holley, hugging him lovingly, "Happy Birthday, My sweet baby boy!"
"Hehe, thank you mother," said Holley, wrapping his arms around his mother's waist, hugging her back as she smiles softly.
"Now, time for presents!" shouted Reginald as he carries a large stack of gift-wrapped presents into the room, then placed them down near the end of the table.
Holley jumps on his feet and runs towards the stack of presents, hugging Reginald's waist before going down on his knees and opening the presents gently one by one. Reginald takes a step back and stands beside Anna, watching with her as Holley carefully makes sure that the wrapper is unharmed; They share a faint chuckle by watching him.
"Is Jared going to come?" asks Reginald.
"Surprisingly, he will," said Anna, "Even though he's been quite busy being a throne, he does want to meet Holley, and for him to meet his children too".
"That's great! I didn't expect him to turn his mind away from the seraph," said Reginald ecstatically, "And I didn't expect him to stop swooning over his wife's hand all the time".
Anna lets out a soft giggle as she sees the thought, "Well, love can make you do that sometimes; It's a never-ending loop, even if some choose to act like how Jared does".
"But for him, it's always the case; Cyril has blessed his heart far too much, I fear for the man. One time when I visited their house during Cyrimast, I saw Jared and his wife dancing on the rooftop; ah, the look on their children's faces when their mother almost slipped".
While Reginald and Anna chatted, Holley kept opening his presents; carefully untying the knot to not damage the wrapper; it is one of the things his mother taught him, to not waste anything that can still be used. Most of the gifts were clothes sewed by his mother, the white and yellow fabric perfectly fitted Holley as he tries them on; the rest of the gifts were books and decorations, mostly about Cyril and their history: Study of Divinetology by Perri Alves, The Teachings and Testaments of Cyril no. 3, Record of the sun by Ryker Calum, and finally, Understanding Divine Nature by Lefaye Ravaris.
"Divine Nature, hmm?" said Holley to himself while looking at the cover of the book: A picture of a figure with sharp long ears scribbling on a desk, while a green vine touches their head, "Hmm, wonder who this is." Holley stands up with the book in hand, then goes to Reginald and hands him the book.
"Grandpa, who is that in the cover? It doesn't look like an angel," asks Holley.
Reginald looks at the cover with the engraving, "Well, it's a woman that is sitting on a desk writing about plants".
"I know that! What I mean is: what kind of person is the woman? I haven't seen an angel with long ears before," said Holley as he scowls at Reginald.
"Oh, why didn't you say so?" said Reginald, while Holley gives him another scowl.
Reginald grips the book with both hands, chanting a spell, "Emerpic," and after Reginald speaks out the last letter, the cover of the book sips out a bright light that illuminated the room for a few seconds after dimming down. Holley blocks the blinding light with his elbow, but both Reginald and Anna remained unfazed as the light slowly dims down; as Holley puts his elbow away, he sees the dimming light forming into figures, which he realizes that it was the woman scribbling on her desk while plants surrounded her, but now brought to life by the light of the book.
"Wow!" Holley gasps as he walks around the woman excitingly, examining her looks: soft white skin that glowed like pearls, and eyes as green as the plants surrounding her; she had a skinny but hard stature, signifying her hardships from studying the plants. Holley thought only of the word 'Amazing' as he keeps gazing at the woman's beauty, but there was one thing that caught his attention: the woman's sharp long ears. Curious about the discerning feature, Holley turns back to Reginald, "Why does she have those?" asks Holley.
Reginald's eyes went wide open as he looks at Holley confused, "Y-you mean ears?" said Reginald as he stutters, "U-um, w-well, listen Holley… those are called ears, we both have those, even your mother has a pair; we use them to hear soun-"
"I KNOW THAT!" shouted Holley.
Anna walks up behind Reginald and puts her hand on his shoulder, "He's asking about the elves, Reginald," Anna corrected.
"Oh! Why didn't you say so my boy?" said Reginald as he laughs at the misunderstanding, while Holley scowls and facepalms again, now with a loud slap on his forehead.
Anna steps forward in front of the projection and looks at Holley, "Her name is Lefaye Ravaris, and you are correct, she is not an angel, but an elf," said Anna as she snaps her finger, replacing the projection with another.
Now it shows a sphere of light showing a picture of what seems to be people similar to the woman: Some of them were walking down a street of plants and flowers, holding either baskets full of vegetables or their children's hands as they walk down the green pathway smiling. Their long ears waved slightly as they talked; Some of them were growing the greenest of plants with just a touch of a finger. Holley stood there admiring the people as they go on with their daily lives, fascinated and bewildered; He did not know that there were other species in their world.
"I apologize for not telling you this sooner Holley, I forgot that you don't know much about our world," said Anna as she closes her hand and the sphere of light closes and goes back inside the book.
"And I still don't know how you do that projection divine," said Reginald as he scratches his head, "I haven't seen anyone else do that except you, Anna".
"Mother does that all the time; she tells me the most wonderful stories using it, like how she told about the leaves just now," said Holley as he holds the book in his hands.
"It's elves Holley," corrected Anna but she smiles anyway, "Reginald, it is just a simple trick I learn back then, you do know that I have the power divinity, right?"
"Yes, of course, I know! I was there when you first took the Eucarist Ritual, but all I'm saying is that I haven't seen anyone else do what you did; It's almost like you're an ar- "
"Madam Vivienne!" shouted someone flying into the room, a small winged figure that resembled an angel, but it was different from one; it had curly brown hair, blue eyes, and wore a white long sleeve shirt and short white pants.
"Mam, Sir Jared Vivienne, and his family have arrived," said the creature.
"Thank you, Jeram; please let them in,".
"Yes, Mam!" The creature quickly flies out of the room and outside, heading towards the main gates of the mansion.
"Jared's here!" squeaked Anna with excitement, she slightly waves her finger and all the opened gifts and wraps floats towards the opened cupboards, folded and arranged, "Holley, do you have any dirt on your suit?" She examines Holley from front to back to see if there are any stains from the cake and the gifts.
"I'm clean, mother; just a little bit shocked," said Holley.
"Reginald, come on! Jared's coming!".
Reginald sighs, but lets off a smile, "Fine… Jared better stop worrying about the Seraph while he's here".
All three of them walk out of the dining room and into the main hall, standing in wait in the middle. After a few minutes, the large doors of the mansion get opened up by the winged creature earlier; what follows are the sounds of large footsteps made by someone running through the door.
"Anna!" a man shouted as she runs towards Anna while she extends her arms out, they hugged tightly as they share a few laughs.
"It's good to see you, Anna," said the man, breaking away from their hug, "I hope we're not late for the party".
"A little bit; Reginald and I just finished giving my dear boy gifts," said Anna.
"Reginald!" shouted the man as he jumps lightly and runs towards Reginald with his arms open for a hug, but Reginald uses a long white stick that appeared in his hand to keep Jared from doing so.
"I'm not doing those long welcome hugs with you again," shrugged Reginald as he extends the stick on the man's forehead, pushing him back.
"Come on! Even though you're an Arch and I'm a Throne, that doesn't mean we have to be so formal all the time!" squeaked the man as he dangles his arms.
Reginald sighs and lets go of the stick, making it dissipate into nothing more than sparks of light as it hits the ground. The man jumps in joy but is stopped by Reginald, "That doesn't mean I'm hugging you," said Reginald nonchalantly.
The man's wide smile turns into a deep-down frown, his eyes now sparkle from the tears building up; meanwhile, Anna keeps snickering from behind and giving low giggles as Reginald's face turn into a confused dog, not knowing what to do to stop Jared from bursting, then suddenly.
"HAH! You're not fun anymore, old man" pouted the man as he crosses his arms in disappointment.
"And you need to act older," added Reginald.
"Come on you two, stop fighting like children and let's enjoy the party," said Anna as she smiles at both of them with small tears still visible on her cheeks from the number of giggles she hid.
Holley however, stayed behind Anna after seeing the man; an unfamiliar face who just entered their doorstep. He took quick glances at him and Reginald as they fought like kids; well, at least he thought the man was. He takes another quick glance at him and Reginald talking about Jared not growing up, but as he does so.
"Now! Where is the birthday boy? I've been dying to meet him!" said the man with excitement.
As Holley hears his exciting cry, he quickly hides behind Anna again, burying his face on Anna's long skirt as he tries to hide from him, but Anna thought otherwise. She looks behind and sees Holley hiding which made her smile, she places her hand on Holley's hair and rubs it gently.
"Come on dear, don't be shy; go meet your Uncle Jared," said Anna.
Holley hesitates at first, but as he sees her mother's smile and Reginald nodding ever so slightly at him, he breaks away from Anna's skirt and walks beside Anna for Jared to see.
"H-hi, nice to meet yo- "
"Greetings!"
Jared jumps at Holley and hugs him tightly like he knew him his whole life. Jared kept hugging while Holley was almost suffocating from the tight hug.
"For Cyril's sake Jared, you'll hug the living air out of the boy," said Reginald worryingly.
Jared opens his eyes and realizes, quickly letting go of Holley as he apologizes for the sudden outburst, "I'm terribly sorry Holley, please forgive me; I was just excited to meet the one and only child of Anna Vivienne!"
Holley regains his standing and breaths to speak, "It's fine, really; I just didn't expect it, that's all," said Holley, giving him a weak smile.
"Oh, come on now, no need to be so formal." Jared extends his hand to Holley, "My name is Jared Vivienne, I'm a cousin of your mother if my last name didn't make it obvious."
Holley looks at Jared's hand for a moment before reaching out his to shake it, "Nice meet you, Uncle Jared, I'm Holley Vivienne"
"Oh, I already know who you are my dear boy, your mother told me all about you, but I guess not everything," said Jared, letting go of Holley's hand and turning his head towards Anna.
"Why didn't you tell him about me?! Am I not fit to be an uncle, Anna?!" said Jared, pouting at Anna.
"Oh, come on Jared; I didn't want him to have a pre impression of you when you meet him, hehe," said Anna.
"Speaking of meetings," said Reginald, "Where's your family? I thought they were here with you."
"Oh! I nearly forgot! Wait a moment".
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone