Episode-986
Chapter : 1971
The room was warm and smelled faintly of lavender and old books. A fire was crackling softly in the fireplace, casting a gentle glow over the furniture. Mina was sitting in a large, comfortable armchair by the window. She had a blanket draped over her legs and a book resting on her growing stomach.
She looked up as he entered. Her face lit up with a smile that was so open and kind it made Lloyd’s chest ache.
"You're back early," Mina said, closing her book. "I thought you would be at the Academy until late tonight. Did something happen?"
Lloyd closed the door behind him. He didn't walk further into the room. He just stood there, holding his coat in his hands like a shield.
"I need to talk to you," Lloyd said.
His voice was serious. Too serious.
Mina’s smile faded slightly. She sat up straighter, her hand instinctively moving to protect her stomach. She looked at him with sharp, intelligent eyes. She wasn't just a kind woman; she was a Siddik. She knew how to read people.
"Is it the war?" she asked quietly. "Has the Fire Fly Corporation attacked again? Is everyone safe?"
"No," Lloyd said quickly. "It's not the war. Everyone is safe. The borders are quiet. The factory is running fine."
Mina relaxed a little, but her eyes were still searching his face. "Then what is it? You look like you're carrying a heavy stone on your back, Lloyd. Come. Sit down."
Lloyd walked over and sat on the ottoman in front of her chair. He was close enough to touch her, close enough to see the worry lines around her eyes.
"It’s about me," Lloyd said. "It’s about us."
He looked down at his hands.
"Today, I spoke to someone," he began. "Someone I have been watching for a long time. Someone I have been... keeping a secret."
Mina didn't say anything. She just waited.
"Her name is Airin," Lloyd said.
He looked up to see her reaction. Mina didn't flinch. She didn't look surprised. In fact, a strange look passed over her face—something like relief?
"The scholar?" Mina asked softly. "The girl who looks like the woman from your past?"
Lloyd froze. "You knew?"
"Lloyd," Mina said gently, a small smile returning to her lips. "I am your wife. I watch you. I see where your eyes go when we are in the city. I see how you freeze whenever someone mentions the scholarship students. And I know about the drawings Faria found."
Lloyd felt his face get hot. He thought he had been so careful. He thought he was the master spy, the man who moved in the shadows. But apparently, he was an open book to the women in his life.
"I didn't want to hurt you," Lloyd said. "I didn't want you to think that... that you weren't enough. I love you, Mina. I love our family. But Airin..."
He struggled to find the words. How could he explain that Airin wasn't new? That she was the oldest thing in his heart?
"She remembers," Lloyd said. "She started having dreams. Dreams of a different world. Dreams of rain and metal and a man named Evan. She came to me today. She told me everything."
He took Mina’s hand. Her skin was warm and soft.
"I couldn't send her away," Lloyd admitted. "When she looked at me... it wasn't just a student looking at a teacher. It was her. It was the partner I lost eighty years ago. And I... I told her she could stay. I told her I would protect her. I told her I wanted her by my side."
He squeezed Mina’s hand, bracing himself for anger. Bracing himself for tears.
"I am selfish," Lloyd said, his voice rough. "I know that. I am greedy. I want to keep you, and I want to keep her. I want to build a house where we all fit. But I know that might be impossible. I know I might be breaking your heart right now."
He stopped speaking. The silence returned to the room. The fire popped and hissed in the grate.
Lloyd waited. He waited for her to yell. He waited for her to tell him to get out. He waited for the end of the peace he had found with her.
But Mina didn't pull her hand away.
Instead, she let out a long, slow breath. Her shoulders dropped. The tension that had been in her body since he walked in seemed to melt away.
Chapter : 1972
She looked at him, and her eyes were shining. Not with sadness. With happiness.
"Oh, Lloyd," she whispered. "Finally."
Lloyd blinked. "Finally?"
"I have been waiting for you to say her name for months," Mina said. She laughed, a soft, wet sound. "Do you think I’m blind? Do you think I don't feel the ghosts you carry around?"
She reached out and touched his face.
"I love you," she said. "I love the man you are. But I have always known that there was a part of you that was locked away. A part of you that was cold and sad and lonely. A room inside your heart that I couldn't enter, no matter how hard I tried."
She looked deep into his eyes.
"I tried to fill that room," she admitted. "Rosa tried to fill it, in her own way. Faria tried to burn the door down. Amina tried to unlock it with logic. But none of us could do it. Because that room didn't belong to us. It belonged to her."
Mina smiled, and it was the most generous thing Lloyd had ever seen.
"I don't want a husband who is only half-alive," she said. "I don't want a partner who is always looking over his shoulder at a ghost. If this girl... if Airin is the key... if she is the one who makes you whole... then bring her home."
Lloyd stared at her. He felt like his heart was expanding in his chest, getting too big for his ribs.
"You aren't angry?" he asked, his voice shaking.
"Why would I be angry?" Mina asked. "Because you have a big heart? Because you are loyal? Because you found something precious?"
She placed his hand on her stomach, where their child was growing.
"We are building a family, Lloyd," she said. "Families are messy. They are complicated. But they are strong. If Airin is part of your soul, then she is part of this family. We will make room. We have plenty of chairs."
Lloyd felt tears prick his eyes. He leaned forward and rested his forehead against hers.
"Thank you," he whispered. "Thank you for being better than I deserve."
"You're welcome," Mina whispered back. "Now, tell me. Is she nice? Does she like tea? Because if she's going to deal with Faria and Amina, she's going to need a lot of tea."
________________________________________
The fire in the fireplace had burned down to glowing embers, casting a deep red light across the room. Lloyd and Mina were still sitting close together, the heavy conversation finished, replaced by a comfortable, easy planning session.
Mina held a cup of warm milk in her hands. She looked thoughtful, her mind already working on the logistics of the situation.
"It makes sense," Mina said, nodding to herself. "It actually makes perfect sense."
"What does?" Lloyd asked. He felt lighter than he had in years. The secret was out, and the world hadn't ended.
"The balance," Mina said. She looked at him with a clever glint in her eyes. "Think about it, Lloyd. Look at the people in this house."
She held up one finger.
"First, there is you," she said. "You are the center. But what are you? You are Cold Steel. You are logic and metal and war. You are protective, yes, but you are hard. You have to be, to fight the things you fight."
She held up a second finger.
"Then there is Rosa," she said. Her voice was sad for a moment when she mentioned her sister, but she continued. "Rosa is the Ice Sovereign. She is winter. She is cold and beautiful and distant. Even when she loves, she loves like a blizzard. She freezes things to keep them safe."
Mina looked at Lloyd.
"You and Rosa... you are too similar," she said. "Steel and Ice. Hard and Cold. When you are together, the house feels like a fortress in the middle of a snowstorm. There is no warmth. There is no light."
Lloyd nodded slowly. She was right. That was exactly why he and Rosa had struggled. They were both survivors who built walls. When two walls meet, they don't hug; they just crash.
"Then there are the others," Mina continued. "Faria is Fire. She is passion and anger and art. She burns bright, but fire consumes. Fire needs fuel. And Amina... Amina is Wind. She is intellect and strategy. She moves things, she changes things, but she is cool and detached."
Mina smiled and pointed to herself.