Catapulted
Catapulted
She had gotten the information on Ariel's whereabouts from one of the shopkeepers of Wyverndale who had served lunch to Ariel and the others.
So, she teleported to the coastal area of Brenalia to find her niece. And if she got the courage, she wanted to introduce herself to Ariel and try to be on her good side.
At the moment, Irene was disguised in the form of a white dove.
"This is a peaceful place to be in," she thought to herself as she flew in the foggy sky of Brenalia. "That man said that she was traveling with the Crown Prince of Brenalia. That means, she must be in his castle. Yes, let's check there first."
After flying for a while, she located the isolated tall castle of Brenalia. And she delightfully thought to herself, "Here I come."
As she got closer and closer to the tower of Drayston Castle, she was getting more and more restless. "Am I even doing the right thing? Shouldn't I meet Theodore first and then let him introduce his family to me rather than doing this the other way around?"
She couldn't help but shake the feeling that she was about to make Theodore angrier by meeting his daughter in secret. "I just hope that everything will go as per my imagination. I don't want my brother to hate me more than he already does."
Irene pushed her nervousness aside and kept on heading towards the tower in view.
However, when she got close enough for her vision to see the aurae, she was utterly confused. "What? Why can I see two distinct aurae? And why are both on almost the same level of power?"
Irene had thought that it would be an easy task to find her niece. Given that she was Theodore's daughter, she had thought that Ariel would be the only one to emit the strongest aura. And Nathaniel had also told her that Ariel had Theodore's eyes.
But since the aurae were coming from within the tower, Irene suddenly stopped getting closer to the castle, and instead, she began to circle the chilly sky.
"I wasn't told that there was another entity here," Irene thought to herself. She even tried to recall if she had missed any kind of warning from Nathaniel. But she was sure that he didn't mention anything of that sort.
She looked down at those aurae again and tried to guess which one belonged to Ariel. However, she was unable to do so just by looking at them from afar.
"I will have to get closer than this. Maybe then I will feel something. Or maybe I can simply check on the sources of those aurae from the windows. I should be able to recognize my niece even though I have never seen her before."
By keeping that in mind, Irene started to descend towards the castle.
She kept on flying down while thinking to herself, "I won't linger around for much longer and evade their privacy. I will simply confirm which one is Ariel and I will meet her later… or meet her some other day."
Just when she thought that no more problems would arise, her head got slammed hard on some invisible wall and her tiny body got catapulted away from the vicinity of the castle.
"Whoa! What in the name of Heaven was that?" Irene thought after regaining her balance in the air. "A barrier? I think it was a barrier... But why? Did Theodore put it up to protect his daughter?"
She kept on hovering while contemplating whether to investigate that barrier or whether to take it as a sign and give up.
However, she couldn't help but think, "What if it's not there to protect her but to harm her instead?"
With that in mind, she flew closer to the castle again. This time, she flew very slowly so that she could stop before she hit the barrier, trigger it, and get thrown away again.
And when she felt that invisible force getting stronger, she hovered in the air and carefully stared ahead of her. She could see some distortion in the air between her and the castle.
She instantly recognized that barrier as the work of her mother.
"Why would she… Does our mother think of me as a threat to Ariel?"
Irene had no idea that Ariel grew up inside a hundred times more powerful barrier than this one. Nathaniel and Michael obviously kept her in the dark.
And because of that, Irene believed that her mother thought of her as someone unworthy to be around Ariel.
"If that is our mother's wish, then I don't want to upset her."
She didn't want to go against her mother's wishes. So she turned around and flew away thinking that it was for the better.
But then again, as she kept on flying towards the forest, she felt that this would be the only time she would come this close to her niece. She didn't want to miss the opportunity to see what her brother's child looked like. So she thought of seeing Ariel, even if it was from far away.
Irene's dove form descended towards the wet ground of the forest. She made sure that no one was around to see what she was about to do next. And she turned into an old woman the second her claws touched the land.
"Let's head towards the castle and wait to see if Ariel comes out of there."
Irene began walking out of the forest by taking her own sweet time. After all, she was now an old woman. So she was acting like one.
It seemed like luck was on her side.
Before she had to walk for longer in her new disguise, she heard the sound of several hooves. She was almost out of the forest when she heard the galloping noises.
"Is it her?"
Sure enough, the aurae soon reached her line of sight.
Irene started to pick up the pace so that she wouldn't miss the only chance to see Ariel, even though she would have to do so from afar.
Thankfully for her, she found a lot of people gathered near what looked like a farmhouse.
Irene keenly looked at the sources of those two powerful aurae. One belonged to a boy while the other belonged to a girl.
"Ariel…" she whispered as her eyes got glued on the young and enthusiastic girl.
Irene's heart was almost instantly filled with immense love and affection towards her niece who resembled her brother so much.
"Nathaniel was right. She has the eyes of Theodore."