Chapter 126
Chapter 126 – The Reaction No One Believes
POV: Liora
For several seconds after the twins spoke, I remained completely frozen, staring at them as though my mind had stopped functioning. Their tiny faces were peaceful, their silver eyes fixed on me with that same impossible awareness I had been trying to understand since the moment they were born, and yet neither of them seemed to realize that they had just shattered the last piece of normality I had been desperately holding onto.
I had heard them.
I knew I had.
There was no confusion about the words, no uncertainty about the sound, no possibility that I had misunderstood some meaningless noise. They had looked directly at me and spoken in perfect unison.
Hello, Mother.
I swallowed hard and forced myself to breathe.
My hands were trembling.
I looked at the door, then back at them, almost expecting someone to appear and tell me they had heard it too. Maybe one of the guards had been standing outside. Maybe a healer had returned. Maybe someone had been passing through the corridor and could confirm that what I had heard was real.
But the room remained empty.
It was only me and the twins.
The realization made my chest tighten.
"Kael."
I didn’t speak aloud.
The name formed inside my mind.
His presence responded almost immediately, warm and familiar beneath all the chaos.
"I’m here."
I closed my eyes.
For a moment, I couldn’t find the words.
How was I supposed to explain this?
How was I supposed to tell him that our newborn children had just spoken to me as though they had been waiting for an opportunity to do it?
"They spoke."
There was a pause.
"Who?"
I almost laughed from the absurdity of the question.
"The twins."
His presence became more focused.
"What did they say?"
I looked down at them.
They were still watching me.
"They said hello."
Another pause followed.
"Liora."
His tone carried a warning.
"I know how that sounds."
"Tell me exactly what happened."
I took a slow breath.
"I was talking to them. I asked if they knew who I was. I told them I was their mother, and then they looked at each other. After that, they looked back at me and..." I hesitated because even forming the words inside my mind made them feel more impossible. "They spoke."
"Spoke?"
"Yes."
"They made a sound?"
"No."
I looked at the boy.
"They spoke."
Kael went silent.
I could feel something moving through the bond between us, a mixture of disbelief, concern, and something dangerously close to fear.
"What did they say?"
I swallowed.
"They both said the same thing."
"What?"
My voice trembled inside my thoughts.
"Hello, Mother."
The silence that followed was so complete that I wondered whether the connection had disappeared.
Then I felt him.
Not physically, but emotionally.
His shock rushed through the bond so strongly that my own chest tightened in response.
"You’re certain?"
"Yes."
"You heard both of them?"
"Yes."
"They spoke clearly?"
"Kael, I know what I heard."
The frustration in my response surprised even me.
I wasn’t angry with him.
I was angry because part of me desperately wanted someone else to confirm it, yet another part of me feared that confirmation because it would mean this was real.
Kael’s presence softened.
"I believe you."
I stared at the twins.
"You haven’t even seen them."
"I don’t need to."
His answer came without hesitation.
"I felt your reaction."
My eyes burned.
"What if I imagined it?"
He didn’t answer immediately.
"You didn’t."
"How do you know?"
"Because I was there."
I froze.
"What do you mean?"
"When they spoke, I felt something through you."
I looked down at the twins again.
"What did you feel?"
His answer came slowly.
"Awareness."
The word settled heavily inside me.
"Not instinct. Not emotion. Awareness."
I stared at their tiny faces.
"That’s what I’ve been feeling."
"I know."
I closed my eyes.
"Then why am I the only one who heard them?"
Kael didn’t answer.
That was the question neither of us could solve.
A knock suddenly sounded at the door.
I flinched.
The twins didn’t.
I looked toward the entrance.
Another knock followed.
"My Lady?" a healer called from outside. "May we enter?"
I glanced at the twins.
Both children were still watching me.
My heart began pounding again.
"Yes."
The door opened.
Two healers entered with a servant carrying fresh water and food. Their expressions were cautious but ordinary, and neither seemed to notice anything unusual about the room.
The first healer approached the bed.
"How are you feeling?"
I stared at her.
My mind was still trying to catch up with reality.
"I’m fine."
The healer looked at the twins.
"They’re awake again."
I nodded slowly.
She smiled.
"That’s good."
I waited.
Nothing happened.
The twins didn’t speak.
They didn’t even make a sound.
They simply stared quietly at the ceiling and occasionally moved their fingers beneath the blankets.
The healer leaned closer to the boy.
"Hello, little one."
The boy looked at her.
He didn’t respond.
The healer smiled and gently touched his cheek.
He remained silent.
I stared at him.
My stomach tightened.
"Did you..."
I stopped.
The healer looked at me.
"Did I what?"
I opened my mouth.
Nothing came.
How could I explain it?
How could I tell her that the child she was now treating like an ordinary newborn had spoken to me minutes earlier?
I looked at the girl.
She was silent too.
Completely normal.
If I hadn’t heard them myself, I would have believed nothing unusual had happened.
The healer checked their breathing, their temperature, their pulse, and their reactions. Everything appeared normal.
"Healthy," she said with a relieved smile. "Both of them."
I nodded.
"Good."
She glanced at me.
"You look pale."
"I’m tired."
"You should rest."
I forced a smile.
"I will."
The healer continued talking while arranging the blankets, but I barely heard her. My attention remained fixed on the twins.
They were behaving normally.
Too normally.
The boy stretched his tiny fingers.
The girl turned her head toward the window.
Neither looked at me.
Neither spoke.
A terrible thought entered my mind.
Maybe I had imagined it.
Maybe exhaustion had finally broken something inside me.
Maybe the memories, the souls, the White Wolf, Kael’s presence inside me, the pregnancy, the birth, and everything else had pushed my mind beyond its limits.
Maybe I had wanted them to speak so badly that my mind had created the sound.
The possibility made my chest ache.
I had been so certain.
Yet now, with the healers standing around me and the twins behaving like ordinary newborns, certainty began slipping through my fingers.
When the healers finally left, I remained silent.
The door closed.
The room became quiet again.
I stared at the twins.
They stared back.
Neither spoke.
I waited.
Nothing.
"Hello."
My voice sounded strange.
Neither reacted.
I tried again.
"Can you hear me?"
Nothing.
I felt ridiculous.
I rubbed my forehead.
"Maybe I’m losing my mind."
Kael’s presence immediately sharpened.
"Don’t say that."
I closed my eyes.
"What else am I supposed to think?"
"Think about what you know."
"I know they spoke."
"Exactly."
"Then why won’t they do it again?"
There was silence.
I opened my eyes.
The twins were watching me.
"Maybe they only speak when no one else is here."
The thought made me shiver.
"Why?"
"I don’t know."
I stared at them for a long moment.
"What if they knew no one else would believe me?"
Kael’s presence grew heavier.
"Then they knew exactly what they were doing."
My breath caught.
That possibility was far more frightening than the idea that I had imagined everything.
Because if they had deliberately chosen that moment to speak, then they had understood something about the situation before I did.
They had known we were alone.
They had known I was their mother.
They had known I would listen.
And they had chosen to reveal themselves.
I slowly reached for the boy’s hand.
His fingers wrapped around mine.
The girl watched.
I whispered, "Did you really say it?"
Nothing.
I looked at the boy.
"Hello, Mother?"
Still nothing.
I swallowed.
"Was that you?"
The silence continued.
My eyes filled with tears.
I didn’t know whether I wanted them to answer or remain silent.
I didn’t know which possibility frightened me more.
I lowered my head.
"Kael, what if I’m wrong?"
His answer came immediately.
"You’re not."
"You can’t know that."
"I can feel the difference between your memories and reality."
I went still.
"What difference?"
"Your memories come with distance. They’re images, emotions, fragments. When something is real, you feel it differently."
I looked at the twins.
"And this?"
His voice became firm.
"This was real."
A tear finally slipped down my cheek.
I wiped it away.
For the first time since the twins had spoken, I allowed myself to breathe.
Maybe I hadn’t imagined it.
Maybe my mind wasn’t breaking.
Maybe the reason nobody else believed what had happened wasn’t because it hadn’t happened.
Maybe it was because the twins hadn’t wanted anyone else to hear.
I looked at them again.
The boy’s eyes remained fixed on mine.
The girl slowly turned her head toward me.
Neither spoke.
But something in their expressions had changed.
It was subtle.
Almost impossible to describe.
Yet I felt it.
Recognition.
They knew I had understood.
They knew I was afraid.
And somewhere deep inside me, I felt Kael’s presence settle beside my thoughts, steady and unwavering.
"You didn’t imagine it, Liora."
I closed my eyes.
His voice came again, firmer this time, leaving no room for doubt.
"You didn’t imagine it."