“Vince,” Belamie said, shaking her head. “No one can double-cross him and get away with it. It’s one of the things I like best about him. He’ll go to the ends of the earth to make things right.”
Matt was too shocked to speak. His own mother was telling him that what had just happened to their family was just, deserved, even.
“Make things right?” Gaga said, disgusted. “Your Vince destroyed innocent people’s lives. He ruined an entire city and who knows how much of the rest of the world. He tore apart your own family, basically murdered your husband and children and altered your past so you don’t even know what’s happened to you!”
“First of all, no one is innocent,” Belamie said. “And anyway, that’s impossible. He can’t change the past. The Aeternum is the only thing that can really change timelines, and what do you mean he murdered my children?” Belamie asked. “I have other children in the future? More, supposedly, besides you?”
“You have twins,” Matt said.
“Twins!” Belamie exclaimed, clutching both her head and stomach.
“I know,” Haha said. “I was shocked when I met them too. But they’re really delightful. You’ll like . . . what are their names again?”
“Gordon and Riley,” Uncle Chuck said.
Matt frowned. “Corey and Ruby.”
“Oh, right. Sorry. My brain is a bit fuzzy.” Uncle Chuck shook his head.
“Ruby,” Belamie said a bit wistfully. Her eyes lit up at this name, a spark of recognition. Matt knew it was her middle name, and her own mother’s name.
“Ruby looks just like you,” Gaga said. “Acts like you too. She’s a fiery little thing.”
“Good with a sword too,” Matt said. “And Corey is funny. He always made you laugh.” Matt winced even as he said the words. Made you laugh. Past tense. He had no present now. And possibly no future.
“I was there the day they were born,” Gaga said, “and I’ve never seen so much love in anyone’s face as I saw in yours, Belamie.”
Belamie seemed to look inward, almost as if she were trying to picture her children in her mind. “But they’re gone now? What happened to them?”
“Vincent . . . took them away,” Matt said.
“How? He kidnapped them? Discarded them?”
“Something like that,” Matt said. He was tiptoeing around this now. They had convinced his mom that they knew where the Aeternum was. That was the leverage they had in getting her to cooperate with them. If they lost that, if she knew Vincent already had it, he didn’t know what would happen.
Matt glanced briefly at Albert who gazed back at him with a bored, indifferent look. Albert knew very well what had happened, perhaps even more than Matt did, but he didn’t say anything. He wondered how long that would last.
“Your father,” Belamie said. “The one I supposedly choose over Vince. What was his name again?”
“Mateo,” Gaga said.
“No, I’m Mateo,” Matt said.
“Oh. Yes,” Gaga said. “Sorry. I’m getting old.”
Matt frowned. He’d never thought of Gaga as old, and she’d never been forgetful. “His name is Matthew. Matthew . . .” Matt tried to say his last name but couldn’t for some reason. It was like it had suddenly slipped into a fog. He shook his head. “His name is Matthew . . .”
“Huh . . . Huh . . . ,” Uncle Chuck began but couldn’t seem to finish.
“Hurston,” Haha said. “Matthew Hurston. He’s my son.”
Hurston . . . Was that it? How on earth could he have forgotten his own last name?
The doors suddenly burst open, and Jia came out, her eyes sparkling, her cheeks flushed. Matt ran to her.
“It’s okay,” she said. “I spoke to my father. He has invited us to dine with him tonight! He has agreed to help us.”
“That’s great!” Matt said. “I knew you could do it.”
Jia beamed.
“Did you ask the emperor about the Aeternum?” Belamie asked.
Jia’s smile slid off her face. “Not quite,” she said, wincing a little. “It was a little difficult to explain things. Yinreng was there, the crown prince.”
“Would he be your brother, then?” Matt asked.
Jia nodded and shivered a little. “Half brother. I didn’t think it would be wise to give too many details. Yinreng is not trustworthy.”
Belamie looked a little skeptical. “But the emperor has invited all of us to dine with him tonight?”
“Yes,” Jia said. “His servants are preparing our quarters now. We’ll be very well taken care of.”
Just as she said these words, a servant approached and bowed to Jia. He addressed her as Gōngzhŭ and told them that their quarters were ready now and to follow him.
“Gōngzhŭ?” Matt questioned.
Jia blushed a little. “It means ‘princess.’”
Princess . . . yes, of course she was a princess. She was the daughter of an emperor.
“Well then,” he said, stepping back and holding out his arm, “after you, Gōngzhŭ.”
Matt thought Jia must have impressed her father quite a bit, because they were basically given a palace to stay in. It was an enormous house, richly furnished, with a spacious, open main room twice the size of Matt’s apartment, and many more rooms surrounding it, each with their own bathroom. Unsurprisingly, Jia noted right away how she would like to update the plumbing so they could have flushing toilets, but before she could get too far in her plans, a servant came and told her she needed to prepare for supper with the emperor. Another servant lifted her hair between two fingers and looked over her filthy state, frowning in particular at her bulky tool vest. “We have much work to do,” he said without any tact. Jia gave Matt an exasperated look as she was pulled away by both servants and disappeared into a room.
Jia wasn’t the only one who would have to endure a fair bit of grooming. They were each given their own servant to attend to them. One of the servants approached Chuck and stroked his long beard, chattering on about the different ways he could groom and fashion it.
“What’s he saying?” Uncle Chuck said.
“He likes your beard,” Matt said.
“Oh, why thank you,” he said, patting his beard. “Took me a quarter of a century to get it this way, and a lot of conditioner.”
Two more
