The hivemind is conquering for me? - Chapter 586

Chapter 586: Fate Is Always In Motion

“Whoa! These are amazing!” I exclaimed after being pressured by an intense glare, I bit into a cookie that was set out before me. Hints of vanilla blended perfectly with the chocolate chips and there was this… Intensity that enriched the flavours beyond what I thought was possible.

Orchid also seemingly thought they were good as she quietly began shovelling her face one after another, barely taking the time to chew them.

Millie gazed upon me and looked me up and down, her legs crossed and her foot slightly fluttering out to her side. “Wow, you really aren’t affected?” Her voice was full of genuine shock as well as fascination.

I resisted the urge to consume the eighth cookie in hasty succession as her words pulled me to. “Right… The whole guard thing…” I suddenly remembered my life outside the cookies and what just transpired. “What’s up with that?”

Millie sighed. “It’s not really a secret, you most likely would have found out about it through your stay here, but it’s a little embarrassing to talk about.” She then took a deep breath and looked me in the eyes. “Around me there is an aura of fifteen meters. Within that fifteen meters, if a man sees me. He turns primal. His testosterone spikes. His dopamine floods his body goes through all the changes of sexual arousal and then they come for me… In essence, they develop sexual mania.”

“Crickey.” I said. “That sounds… I’m so sorry, I know Psionics can develop negatively sometimes, but that…” Psionics being my whole life, I couldn’t imagine something so horrible as having an effect on a whole gender like that and in such a way.

Millie smiled. “Oh it’s definitely been a curse, but it’s not been all doom and gloom. Especially in my twenties. I went a little wild and embraced it, but after I fell pregnant, I did develop a phobia of my own power. I have some pretty crippling Agoraphobia as well these days and don’t really leave the bakery. But when I saw you and your resistance to my influence after we locked eyes, I had this surge of confidence and just had to see for myself the truth. And that truth is. You are immune!”

A muffled voice suddenly emerged from the counter. “Why are you immune, Apollo?” Is what I understood from Lena’s cookies stuffed mouth. She had been taking the opportunity of being told the cookies were free while Millie was having a conversation.

“I don’t know? Have you ever met another man that is also resistant, Millie?” I asked and Millie suddenly glanced down to my nether regions. “Yes actually… Apollo, you aren’t… Chemically castrated per chance? That would explain things.”

*Cough*

Sitting next to me, Orchid just inhaled a cookie as she began to laugh. The notion her mate was incapable of using his bioform beater after last night was beyond comical to her. I smiled too, but shook my head. “No, I’m not castrated in any form whatsoever.”

Lena then finished chewing and added on. “It’s true! He got some chub earlier, I saw it. It wasn’t half bad.” That remark got a scowl from Orchid, who would be seeking questions later, meanwhile Millie looked me up and down again. “I see… Well if it’s not that… Apollo, do you perhaps have a Psionic ability that affects another gender the same way mine does?”

I began to shake my head. “No I-”

‘Oh shit!’

My eyes went wide in shock and my mind started perceiving time super slow as I really needed to think.

I always assumed my boon was truly random, just something ingrained into my soul by a greater power, which it was, but could I have developed it Psionically like this poor woman? Possibly with my Origin and the proof? Here she was, having a watered down version of my boon. ‘Can I resist her because I have my boon? Is my boon greater than her power because it’s linked to my soul? Or does it not affect others’ Psionics and I am resistant to her power for another reason?’

I didn’t actually contemplate on it that long as it didn’t matter for now. I couldn’t even explain that to her anyway, I cannot speak or think outwards about it after all. In the end I simply replied after coughing.

“-Sorry, a cookie crumb got stuck in my throat. To answer your question. No, I do not have a Psionic ability that affects other genders.”

Millie hummed and bit her lip in thought. “Hmm… The only other thing I could think of is… Apollo, what do you know about your parents upbringing, more specifically, your mother?”

I raised my eyebrow curiously. “I assume you mean my biological parents? I’m afraid I can’t tell you much, they abandoned me hours after my birth. I don’t know if they are alive or not. Sorry.

“Biological? Apollo? Wait! Are you Valerica Hyllus’ boy!?!” The subject shifted out of nowhere, but talking about Valerica was always a welcome thing to me. “You know Valerica?”

Millie then nodded her head jubilantly. “Of course I do! Such a lovely woman. My family are not nobles, but we are very well off merchants. We have had dealings with the Hyllus’ for dozens of generations. Not to mention, she has come here and said hello to me earlier last week, praising you to the planet above! Of course Apollo… I should have realised It was you, you have quite the old name after all, not very common these days. But all things considered, you can understand why I didn’t connect the dots right away haha.”

…

The conversation totally shifted away from the mystery at hand and onto other matters after that. Genuine chit chat. Millie was fascinated by my stories about how I became adopted by the Hyllus’ through such lewd methods. She even made a quip about how she was slightly saddened her power hadn’t worked as she would have loved to have seen how one little fun stick could be the cause of such a tale.

She of course didn’t mean it as a short while later, while I was preparing cookies with her, I accidentally touched her hand and she flinched backwards on instinct. Something she and then I profusely apologised for, though for different reasons.

She was apologising because she was just going on over sixty years of instinct to stay away from men and didn’t mean anything towards me with her flinch, whereas I was sorry that she was forced to feel that way. Things got a little awkward after that though, enough for even my low EQ to realise and we called it a day.

With Orchid and I a box of cookies in hand each and Lena not looking too good after her binge, we said our goodbyes. “Apollo, I will let my guards know that you are welcome back here anytime. It was a pleasant change of pace talking to the other gender for once. It has been too long. Tell Valerica I expect to see her at some point this week and give my love to Kathrine when you get the chance.”

I smiled warmly. “I will and I will see you at some point this week as well Millie, your cookies are out of this galaxy amazing!” I declared truthfully. Millie’s hands went above her heart and cradled it before waving the three of us off.

While we were walking away, I turned to Orchid and looked down. My plan had not changed. My hunger might have been sated, but the thought of cookies and cream had overloaded my mind and I couldn’t think of anything else.

…

Millie stood at her bakery door for a few moments watching the young man, his sister and his friend leave. Once they rounded the nearby corner, she took in a deep uncomfortable breath. “Lock up for me today girls, I need to go lay down.” She said to her guards before rushing back inside.

Today had been a roller-coaster of emotions. Not only had she gone outside, twice! More times than in the last year combined, but she also had a genuine conversation with a man. And while Apollo was such a sweet young man, the thought and her trauma had been lingering the entire time. She was exhausted.

Millie went behind her counter, and down its steps, making her appear much shorter on the customer side. She went through to the back of the bakery and down into a tunnel. She followed the well illuminated tunnel all the way until it connected to another room.

Once Home, Millie went upstairs and into her storage cupboard. She spent the next three hours clearing it out all the way to the back until she found it. A small box forgotten, until today…

Ignoring the mess she made, she would deal with it tomorrow, Millie walked to her room and sat in her good chair. The box sat heavy on her lap, its weight causing great discomfort despite it only being a small thing.

She sat there for a time, thinking of possibilities. Could there be another explanation? But her mind was blank. Despite living here for a long time, her Psionic academics were not the bees knees. This was more her sanctuary, her safe space than her school.

Eventually though, she decided to open the box. It was an empty, almost empty, box with one single picture. She picked it up, her hands Shakey, tears forming in her eyes. She looked at the image. It was her, much younger in a hospital gown. She looked tired, which made sense as also in the picture, in her arms was her small child.

She smiled looking down at the picture, her face a complex of tears and happiness.

“Did you somehow return to me, my sweet girl? Has your child returned to me by fate? I’m sorry sweetheart. I wish I kept you close, but with my power… I knew I couldn’t give you the life you deserved…”

(:O

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

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