Badjau's eyebrows furrowed, but saw no harm in telling in the end.
"Her name is Bousa," he said, and Gaudí couldn't help but gasp a bit. Bajdau saw the old man's eyes reddened as if he was about to cry, but he shook his head in the end. "No, Bousa is a common name—"
He stopped talking and stood up. He grabbed his arm and practically dragged him somewhere.
"Let's go to Miss Althea," he said. "She has a way to test."
Now, Badjau was really confused, but he couldn't find it in himself to reject an old man on the verge of crying.
The Miss Althea was in the Research Center at this time, helping out with the studies. They waited at the lounge area for a while, with the older man pacing back and forth, while Badjau looked awkward as he sat on the comfortable chair in a large reception room.
It was his first time going here. To access, he had to make an oath in the Village Center (paid for by Gaudi) that he would follow all the rules in the Center even during wars. It was very strict, and rightfully so. From what they heard, this place was one of the mysterious places in Alterra.
Anyway, they waited for a while and Miss Althea arrived some minutes later. The two of them stood up to greet her, with Gaudi almost entering her private space in his hurry.
"Miss Althea!" he gasped, softening his voice when he realized he was being presumptuous. "I… can we ask for a favor? We can pay…"
"I…" he paused, looking around. He realized that he only knew of this because he had stayed with the soldiers for a while.
Looking back, he wasn't sure if it was public knowledge, especially when there was a non-citizen in the area. Suddenly, he felt guilty for being too rash.
"I… I heard that the Research Center has a way to determine relatives?"
"Well, yes," Althea said. "Want me to test your blood?"
She could study components of plants, so of course she (or rather, Tori) could do blood tests.
Althea's green eyes fixed on him, and then shifted to the other lad behind him. Her eyebrows rose when she noticed their similarities, and there should be some other clues that led them to come to her in such a rush.
She nodded in the end and took a clean pin from her space to get their blood samples.
They were asked to wait in the reception area for about 20 minutes or so, with Althea heading back out with the results. The two of them stood up as soon as she entered the room, looking at her with nervous eyes.
She had a blank expression on her face for a while, though it broke into a smile a moment later. "You have 25% shared DNA," she said. "This usually means blood relations like uncle or nephew, Grandparent or grandchild, half-siblings, or double first cousins."
The two looked at each other, eyes sparkling. This confirmed that Badjau's mother was indeed Gaudi's sister! Immediately, the two burst to tears and ended up hugging, all the tension they had felt the past half an hour or so immediately flowing out.
"My mother did mention she lost loved ones before…" Badjau said, sniffling. "It was just that she was too weak to go looking for them. I never thought I'd meet any one of them…"
Gaudi also cried. "My parents died in Nova because of different disasters," he wept. "The only relative I had left after transferring here was my sister…" he sobbed. "But we got separated after we escaped from our territory that was just about to lose in a war—
"I tried looking for her, but the territory I ended up in lost in a separate war, and I was unfortunate enough to become a slave."
He lifted his head, looking at the younger Novan with apprehension. "How… how is she?"
"She's a free woman," Badjau said with a smile, and suddenly all the worries that had been haunting Gaudi were blown away. "And while life is hard—" he said, as it was for almost everyone. "She is living decently in our own corner of the world, at her own terms."
Althea was glad for these wholesome moments that made her day. Sadly, a couple of hours later, some more serious issues had to be tackled.
Later that day, the council met up to finalize the next step to handle Vismont.
They concluded that Vismont… was not a hostile territory, at least not in the sense that they had to get rid of them.
At the very least, they had to take away all Terrans who wished to be taken before the Extreme Heat.
They also couldn't be complacent. It wouldn't do to lose an Alterran during the rescue operations. Subsidiaries would get punished for attacking master territory, but it wasn't like they couldn't do it outside of it.
"Cain can't escape," Victor said. "Please assign him to us."
Juni nodded. She was tense in both nervousness and excitement. She had been working on her revenge for years, and it was understandable she would feel a bit antsy.
She had also actually talked to Melissa as well, and the two of them had a heart-to-heart talk that lasted for hours. Because Melissa could not get away from the territory due to her pregnancy, they had agreed that Juni would kill Cain for the two of them.
After various discussions, the people in the room turned to the two leading women in the territory, and Althea and Mathilda looked at each other in turn.
"Based on the status of the slaves there, attacking could be a bit much," one said. After all, everyone just wanted to live.
Althea's fingers tapped on the table in thought, eventually coming to a suggestion.
"Well, if we are reluctant to use too much force…" she said, pausing. "We can always… threaten."