The Assassin and the Sorceress Ch. 06

"Father, if this happens again, I could be hurt. You have to understand how serious this is. This is more important than any of the other things you had ever fought over before. This isn't about raising me, or how we spend our money like all the other things you've argued about before. I understand that winning those arguments wouldn't have been worth the price. This is. I need you to get her under control, no matter what it takes. You're the man of this house, so please live up to that role right now. Make a decision and enforce it. Your family needs you to."

"Yes, I will."

With that he walked upstairs. The look on his face was what I figured a soldier marching off to war might look like. In a way he was. I guess I had convinced him that this was a problem he finally couldn't run away from anymore. He was being brave, or at least brave for him.

I heard the door to their room open and close. I couldn't make out many of the words of their conversation, but it didn't sound like a happy one. Mother sounded just as prideful and determined as she always had. Father started off sounding like his usual, pleading self. I thought for a moment that he would shrivel under her unforgiving will like fruit left out to dry under the hot sun, just like he always did.

But his voice changed. I thought I finally heard some firmness in his voice for once. I heard Mother getting angry. Usually, when she used that voice with him that was the end of it. Then, for the first time in my life, I heard him raise his voice at her. I was proud of him. Maybe things would finally change in our household. Maybe. I was still nervous. I waited quietly to see what would come.

Their argument continued to progress, and they fought like I had never heard them fight in years! I thought about going up there to help, but decided it might be best to let things run their course. He seemed to be doing well. He refused to back down.

Finally, when neither of them could raise their voices over the other, I heard a crash, a brief silence, and then an outraged scream from my mother. I bolted up from my chair and stood there, frozen. So it had come to blows, but hadn't I suspected it might come to this? Do I go up there? Should I stay back? What if Father couldn't handle it? Or what if I made things worse? More than anything,, I was afraid I might be tempted, or even frightened into using my new powers. Something in the back of my mind warned me that unleashing these powers would do nothing to repair my broken family. So I waited and listened.

"No!" I heard Father scream at her, and then a loud bang! He then said a few more words in a speaking voice, which I couldn't quite make out.

It sounded like Mother attempted to fight back for a little bit. She was screaming not with anger now, but a shrill, animalistic rage. It seemed she would fight literal tooth and nail for control of this household. Thankfully, so did Father. Except he wasn't fighting like a cornered animal; he fought with duty. It was a fight he simply had to win whether he wanted to or not.

In the end, he won. Her shrieking changed to begging. The violence stopped, and Mother spoke once more. In her voice I heard the wonderful sound of defeat! A minute later, she came running down the stairs and straight out the door, not bothering to notice me. I simply watched in silence, having no idea what to say.

Should this have felt like a victory to me? It didn't. I was still too frightened to rejoice at much of anything.

Father walked down the stairs a minute later. He had blood trickling from one nostril, soaking into his thick mustache. Despite that, he was standing taller than I had ever seen him stand before.

"That was a long time coming," he said with a regretful tone that said he had not enjoyed what he had done, but knew it was necessary. "Yes, she admitted to everything you told me about. She won't hurt you anymore. I made her promise. I told her to leave for tonight, told her she can sleep somewhere else and I don't care where."

He walked to the front door and set the bar to lock it. He looked at his hands with a grim frown. "I can't believe I just beat my own wife. I thought that was something only wicked men ever did. Only cowards."

"Most wives aren't Helen. I don't think you'll have to do that again. Thank you, Father. I love you."

He smiled. "I love you, too, my daughter."

"Father?"

"Yes, Morgana?"

"Will you come home after work?"

"Yes. Yes, I think I should stop running away from my family already. From now on I'll be here. I promise."

There was a silence. Neither of us knew exactly what to say. After a minute, I noticed I was hungry. Ravenous, in fact. I hadn't eaten anything all day except for a fig in the morning.

"Father?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm hungry."

We both looked to the fire, and it was close to dying. I can't really blame myself for forgetting to tend it since I had gotten home tonight.

"Actually, would you head to Shael's Public House with me? Their roast is usually pretty good, and I think I'm going to need a few more drinks. And..." He paused and took a deep breath. "And don't much feel like sitting around in this house right now."

I almost smiled at him. Maybe I even would have had the mood been brighter.

"I wouldn't mind leaving either. Sure, let's see about some roast and some ale."

We waited a few minutes to make sure that Mother was good and gone, then left ourselves. My father locked the door to that accursed place behind him, and we walked out into the night. It was starting to rain, but that couldn't have ruined how good the cool, fresh air felt to my lungs. We walked in silence for a while, but it wasn't an awkward silence at all. I was happy to have my father by my side. There was nothing else that needed to be said.

It's funny, in a village of barely over five-hundred people, there are several trades that require no more than a single craftsman to meet everyone's needs. Apparently, brewing isn't one of them. Shael's was one of only three major breweries in Ash, and none of them were hurting for business.

I heard the music before we even entered. After we approached, Father opened the front door and beckoned me in. I hesitated. What was I worried about? The warm lights inside were incredibly inviting. More lamp fuel was burning than my stingy mother ever allowed us to use in a year! The singing was loud and boisterous. My beloved father was finally offering to spend some time with his daughter: my heroic father who, with my encouragement, had just vanquished the beast that had nearly killed me earlier that day. What was I afraid of?

Perhaps those were exactly the things I was afraid of: all the singing and revelry. I was used to being lonely. This place was crowded, and everyone was acting so sociable. I could have embarrassed myself. But I had my father with me. He smiled at me, and I finally worked up the courage to step inside.

As soon as we were inside, the barmaid greeted him by name. We went to a table and sat down. Barely a second later, and two huge steins of ale were set before us. It was as bitter as I had remembered, but surprisingly not against my liking. I emptied half the drink before I had realized it.

Despite the noise, Father and I were silent. I watched a few intoxicated couples dancing merrily to the music. Usually I might have been bitter with envy to watch other humans so happy with their special someones, but not that night, I suppose. Perhaps I had too many things to be happy about to pity myself.

Finally, Father leaned in, close enough so I could hear him over the noise, and began a conversation.

"So is it true you've lain with Joseph, the butcher's son?"

The shock must have shown on my face, so he quickly explained.

"Well, you know how rumors go around. I just thought I'd ask you directly. Don't worry, you aren't in trouble. Just wondering what's going on in your life." He looked guilty for having just asked such an accusatory and personal question.

"I... did," I admitted without much hesitation. Apparently the drink was already affecting me.

Much to my surprise, my father laughed. "Not bad, Morgana. Not bad at all!"

"What? You're... you're proud of me?"

"Why the hell not? Good to see you having a little fun for once! And don't worry, I definitely won't tell your mother."

I was so shocked and relieved that he could actually be proud of me for this that I must have lost all composure. I think I laughed harder than I had ever laughed before in my life, though that isn't saying much.

"But he was engaged..." I said once my fit was over.

"Bah!" he exclaimed with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Someone has to show those well-off, arrogant bastards that the world isn't always fair. Sorry, do I sound bitter?"

"Perhaps a little."

"Okay, but seriously now, did you know he was engaged at the time?"

"Well... no."

"Then it wasn't even your sin."

"No, I suppose not."

"Moreover, I'm glad to see you getting out there at last and having some romance. Look, I know your first love is always the most awkward and the hardest to let go. Believe me, love is supposed to get better once you figure out what you are doing. It's a learned skill like any other. Just don't make the same mistake I did. After I had my heart torn out by my first love at the tender young age of seventeen, I swore love was for fools, and from then on I only chased after whores and the like. I drifted, I drank away my youth, and by the time I realized I needed a wife to help me keep my life in order, all the good women were long gone. And that is how I came to marry your mother. So I suppose I was able to keep that vow to swear off love forever."

He laughed the most pathetic laugh I had ever heard from him. The next instant, he was somber again.

"Ah, but I did get a lovely daughter out of the deal. You were the only thing good to ever come out of our marriage, and it was all worth it. And now I see you chasing after good, worthy men. Joseph is a good kid, but there are plenty more like him. I've been where you are, and I know how it hurts. Let him go. You are wiser now, so your next time should go a little better."

Somehow, I knew what he was saying was true. It hurt to think of losing Joseph, my one true love. I don't know how he knew what I was feeling. I hadn't let on that I felt a single thing for his loss. Perhaps this unbearable sorrow really wasn't all that unusual. Perhaps I wasn't so uniquely unfortunate as to lose a true love.

"I'll try to let him go. I... well, you are correct. It is a hard thing to do."

"My daughter, I know you will do fine. You are strong. Well, here's to you becoming a woman, and to the amazing woman you will surely turn out to be."

He raised his glass. I raised mine, and our glasses clinked. For the rest of the night we laughed, we sang, and danced with some of his friends. They were a lively bunch, and they were genuinely glad to finally meet this bright, young girl they had heard so much about. For the first time in my life, I felt like I belonged. With my father at my side, there was nothing I couldn't face. I finally had someone who I knew loved me unconditionally.

As we danced and sang, I recalled Verus and his gift, currently sitting idle on our kitchen table back home. It was funny, it was just earlier that day I had learned that magic was real. I had been given the power of a god! Yet all of this seemed unimportant next to what I had accomplished with my family. Even stranger to consider was that I had accomplished all of it without any help from my new powers. That potential had been inside me all along! I just needed something I knew I could fall back on, just knowing Verus and his gift were there if I needed them.

Morgana finally stopped speaking and sighed. She stared up at the ceiling pensively and reminiscently. "I could have been so happy. I could have chucked the accursed rock into a lake right then and lived contently for the rest of my life."

"It didn't last," Adrielle said.

"No."

"What happened?"

"Terrible things happened, all of them my fault."

"What do you mean?"

"Verus, he tricked me. He knew the temptation to misuse his gift would be too great. And the things I did with that power... sins there can surely be no redemption for."

"What did you do?"

"Do you really want to hear it?"

"Yes. Yes, Morgana, I do. Tell me the rest."

Morgana sighed, working up the courage to confess her sins.

"Very well. I will tell you the rest. At first, I only used my power for small things..."