Father lead me back inside the house and we sat down at the kitchen table. Mom was still cleaning up the kitchen when we entered, but when she saw us she quickly doused the kitchen fire with a wave of her hand and moved to join us. That was the first time I’d ever seen Neia do magic, and I was furious that I couldn’t ask her more about it. Why did she always do things manually if she knew magic? More pressing matters demanded my attention though.
The three of us sat in silence around the table for what felt like ages before anyone spoke up. It was Mother who broke the silence.
“Before we get too far into it, since I know what you both want to talk about, let me just say. Vincent. Your father knows everything I do. He and I had a long discussion about it several years ago, and if the two of you are going to go flying off the handle about this I think it’s best everyone should be completely honest.”
My heart started pounding in my chest, and I could feel a swell of fear in my chest. Neia had handled the truth well, but she had seen my memories firsthand. Daniel was a far more simple and straightforward man, I couldn’t say with any certainty how I’d expect him to react. I nearly jumped out of my seat when I felt his hand clamp down on my shoulder once more. It wasn’t Neia’s place to tell my secrets, let alone take them in the first place.
“I’ll admit. It freaked me out a lot the first time it was explained to me” Daniel began, my fears only heightened with every word. “But, your mom made a good point. Everything that happened before you were our son doesn’t change anything about all these years you’ve spent with us, even if it does paint them in a new light. When I think about how I felt when you got hurt and when you didn’t wake up those first few days, there’s no doubt in my mind. Vincent, Andras, whatever you want to be called, whoever you want to be, this time around you’re our kid. That makes us a team.”
As Daniel spoke more and more, his blunt approach to the topic almost terrified me completely. Yet, hearing his honest feelings laid out so succinctly helped confirm my own feelings. Part of me had still been approaching my new family with a calculated distance, a fear of getting hurt again. Neia and Daniel didn’t deserve that, they’d proven on multiple occasions they deserved my trust, and I wasn’t going to refuse that any longer. They were useful, and I liked having them around.
“Now!” mother interjected as dad and I shared an emotional look, neither wanting to be the first to cry.
“If you two are thinking what I know you’re thinking, I just want to be very clear. I don’t approve of violence as a solution to problems, and I think it should always be a last resort once all other options have been expended. That being said, there are no first resorts that any of us can see, are there?”
A long, dreadful silence followed. We all knew the answer. Dad was the one to put it into words.
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“He won’t just let her leave, we probably can’t convince him to let the kids get married.” I still didn’t know why everyone was hung up on Leigh and me getting married, especially if they knew about my reincarnation. That was likely a question for another time, though I’d put it off until wedding bells started ringing if I could.
“But” Daniel sighed deeply, “It would still be better to ask than assume. I’ll go visit him tomorrow and see if we can work something out. I don’t have my hopes up though.”
“Good. Now, assuming that doesn’t work what do you plan to do about it after?” Mother continued, keeping the conversation well on track and not letting our thoughts wander too far. Gods know father and I were both a bit more tempestuous than an Elf with centuries of patience.
It was finally my turn to speak up, and given that both my parents were clearly trying to set a very strong example for me I felt it somewhat necessary to lean into their hopes.
“Killing him is a last resort, and if we get there then it needs to be done in a way that doesn’t come back to us. Most importantly, it needs to happen in a way that doesn’t make things worse for Leigh. Even if he’s cruel to her, that’s still her dad, and replacing one trauma for another would be a disservice to her.” I began to explain my thoughts on the subject, eyes glued to the tabletop. When I looked up, mom and dad were both nodding softly and looking back at me with expectant looks. So I’m only an adult when you need my help?, I felt anger rise in my chest for a moment, tamping that down quickly.
“Dad made a good point earlier. Roughing him up and leaving him alone after might just encourage him to hide his tracks better. Maybe we could ‘convince’ him to leave town though?” I asked rhetorically, expecting some better plan to be suggested instead. To my surprise, my suggestion was considered quite seriously.
“That’s not half bad.” Daniel mumbled after a moment, puzzling his thoughts in prolonged silence. “The hardest part would be convincing him to stay away once he left, but I think I can manage something on that. It certainly sounds easier than covering up his ‘disappearance’”
At that point, Neia interjected as well. “It also involves less senseless violence, which has my full support. I don’t want to establish a precedent of solving problems by making people go away.” I could hear the pain in her voice as she spoke, clearly bothered by Leigh’s circumstances as much as we were, but conflicted against her sense of ethics.
“I have a few ideas for spells that might help,” I mumbled, embarrassed to speak so openly about my passion in front of my parents. They both knew I loved magic as a concept, but I’d never really done much spell work in front of them. In fact, my day-to-day life included very little spell work here in the countryside, but that was a problem for another day. “I saw you do a spell earlier m-mom” I stammered, feeling very self-conscious calling Daniel and Neia as mom and dad all of the sudden. “Would you look over my ideas with me tonight and make sure it will work?”
I of course wanted her perspective, she was a high leveled magic-user even if her skills focused on memory, but at the same time, it would help me identify if any of my more basic spell forms were well known yet or not.
“Of course sweetie pie, you and I can do that tonight and tomorrow morning while your dad is in town speaking to Leigh’s father. For now, though I want you to go wash up, it’s almost time for bed and I won’t let your studies keep you up all night no matter how important they are.” I sighed but stood up from the table to comply all the same. I learned long ago that there was no point arguing with mother.
I walked to the wash basin, cool water fetched earlier this morning, and scrubbed my hands and face clean. I folded up the clothes of the day and set them in the basket we used for laundry, the loose undergarments I used as night clothes waiting in the nearby dresser. I could hear mom and dad still chatting in the kitchen as I made my way back to join them, their conversation coming to an abrupt halt.
Dad stood to leave, patting me on the shoulder as he passed and quietly offering “Love ya bud.”
I joined mom at the table again and spent the next couple of hours going over spell forms I was confident I could build and having her review them.