The hivemind is conquering for me?

Chapter 257: The 'Curse'

"Hailey, we have a lot to talk about, but first. What did your father mean when he said your mother was cursed?"

Hailey sighed as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "Come on, I will explain as we head back to the party. I need a moment to compose myself." Hailey said as she began walking away. Elaine picked up her torch she had dropped while hugging Hailey and began to follow the woman, eager for answers.

They walked in silence for a short while. Just as the tension from not getting answers was about to boil over in Elaine, Hailey began speaking. "So, you do know why my last name Is Athena right?" Hailey asked rhetorically.

Elaine of course knew, but to cover all bases, she answered the question anyway. "Yes, because your mothers side of the family can trace their lineage all the way back to the founder, Athena the wise."

Hailey nodded her head and smiled, proud she was of her genetic lineage, more so than her extended family. "Yes exactly. Now, I am going to share a little family secret with you because we are now on the same boat with this heavy burden that is the truth behind my mothers death."

Hailey sighed as stress began to fill her being for saying what she was about to say. "Athena the founder, one of the greatest military strategists of our history, did not suffer the same fate as the other founders."

Elaine looked at Hailey and narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean? No one survived..." She proceeded to look around in the dark corridors, afraid of... what was she afraid of? "The incident." She whispered at a tone barely audible.

Hailey rolled her eyes at Elaine's cautiousness, though she understood why and was not looking forward to turning thirty with the knowledge she had. You don't have to be so shit scared of them, the Jailers aren't as 'mythological' as you all make them out to be."

"!!!" Elaine body stood on end as she stared at Hailey with wide eyes. "H-H-How D-Do you?" Hailey rolled her eyes once more. "I will get to that, so stop freaking out, they won't show up for something as trivial as this. Besides, I haven't gone under the 'brainwash' yet, so they won't know a thing."

Hailey could tell that she had seriously scared Elaine, she understood, a lot of powerful Psionic users were also afraid of the Jailers, so she got back into her explanation. "Anyways, you are right she did not survive the, ugh for fuck sake really? The incident, you satisfied? She did not survive it true, but she did learn about it beforehand and made some countermeasures."

"Almost all of her countermeasures failed of course, but one did not." Hailey almost looked proud as she began to say what she said next. "Being the genius she was, Athena began exploring the possibility of leaving engrams of herself that her should could inhabit once her mortal body expired, she knew it was an inevitability and it had to be done."

Elaine seemed to forget the fear she felt a moment ago as Hailey continued. "The timeline of her experimentations was cut short however, so she did something Spartari would consider barbaric, but we Athenians see as pure genius. She engramed her souls energy into the bloodline of her children. So if she died, she would one day take over a body that held her blood and come back."

Elaine was shocked. Taking over a persons soul? Elaine knew little about the founders, but one constant remained, they were savage in their practicians. "I cant even... Wait, is that what happened to your mother? Is that why Dickon said she was cursed? Did he find out about it?"

"I will get to that in a moment, first you need to understand how the process works." Hailey said before going over her words a moment to make them sound concise. "Ok, Athena was strong, incredibly strong. We know the only way her and the founders could have been 'beaten' was through a manner like the incident. As such, it takes an incredible amount of power on our side in order to be 'mantled' by Athena. Usually, by the time someone is able to mantle Athena, they are already extremely old. However, quite recently, there was an exception to the rule."

Elaine thought for a moment before her eyes went wide. "No... Hailey no." Hailey's face did turn a little sorrowful at this part, but she still saw it as a positive. "Bellona was only six months old when my mom mantled her. She was in shock. In hundreds of thousands of years, she had never been so young again. She did feel great sadness that she returned this new life to the cosmos before its time and vowed that instead of becoming Athena once more, that she would live as Bellona for the remainder of this life. Apparently she had a niece that went by Bellona as well when she was her true self, so it seemed fitting for her."

Elaine's head was spinning. This was a lot to process in such a short amount of time. To finding out her husband is a murderer to finding out a Founder still lives and was her partners ex wife... She had hundreds of questions that needed asking, but the main one was.

"Wait, you said that a person has to be strong in order for Athena to 'mantle' them. How was she able to become Bellona at such a young age?" Elaine asked, making Hailey sigh. "That was one of mommies greatest regrets. Apparently Bellona would have been a Psionic genius. Her Origin was borderline Omnikinetic, which I did not even know was a thing, and that she would have most likely have sent Spartari into a new golden age."

Hailey then sighed for the millionth time on this gloomy day that not long ago was a day from her dreams. She then continued. "However, when Mom mantled Bellona, her Origin was striped from the body as it returned to the cosmos with her little soul and mom took over and could only get stronger slowly overtime. It was obviously too slow however, and Dickon somehow found out about my mother and believed she was suddenly under a curse and had her killed."

"But why would he think she was suddenly cursed? That is what I don't understand." Elaine asked. Hailey did not know the real answer as it was something her and her mom never talked about in detail, but she had a good guess.

"This is just speculation here, but mom was really depressed. It was natural. She was a powerful entity in a body weaker than what she used to be and could barely wield the power she once had. Eventually she became queen to a man she did not even like and apparently the sex was rather dull, and she had been a virgin for all her past lives so I feel some pity for you if that is the case if my father could not even get a women with that much repressed sexuality off."

Elaine looked away embarrassed by where the conversation was going. "Your father is... Passionate... Look can we get back on track? I do not wish to discuss my love life with my step daughter." Hailey rolled her eyes. "Prude..." before she continued.

"So yeah, my mom was depressed for a long time until I came along. Athena had never been a mother before and instantly fell in love with me." Hailey then spotted a look that she once had on Elaine's face. "Don't think about it, She would not explain to even me how she had descendants when she never had kids. Times were different back then, Psionics were more powerful and more understood, making the impossible a lot more possible with greater ease."

She then continued "We spent all our time together and when I was old enough, she explained her past to me. She could not explain it all of course, she had left an extensive amount of journals to me in her Will that went over a lot of things. She was still depressed of course, but apparently me and her garden helped her keep trotting on. I think Father caught on to her depression when she started refusing to sleep with him any more. It was not long afterwards that he ordered the attack and now I will never get to see my mommy again."

There was a silence as the two continued walking. Elaine wanted to ask more questions, but a tension now lingered in the air. Eventually the two made their way back to the original room they entered from.

Elaine took a deep breath as Hailey was walking over towards a lever of the wall. "Hailey, what should I do with all this information? What you have told me... If people knew the truth-"

"-If people knew the truth, they would call me insane and side with the King. I would then suddenly 'disappear' under 'suspicious circumstances.' Just keep what we have talked about a secret. It is what I have been doing all these years, its not so hard after a while." Hailey said with a pained smile.

She then placed her hand on the lever and as she was about to pull on it, Elaine placed her hand on top of hers. Hailey gave Elaine a questioning look while the latter said. "Hailey, I know we were arguing earlier, but I feel like this horrible revelation about my husband has brought us closer together in a twisted way. I would like to give you a crystal communicator just like the one you had with your father, only it would only go to my communicator of course. I still have so many questions that need answering, but I am still slightly drunk and my head has been knocked around so many times by bomb after bomb and I cant think of them all right now. I would also just like to be there for you when you need to vent. You said you only had one mom. I respect that, though I could still be your friend if that is something you want?"

"What do you say?"