It was the day before I set out to the academy. My father burst through the front door while we were having breakfast, short on breath, and acting like he was expecting a party.
No one moved from their seats though… Well, no one but Lu, who only got up to get herself more tea, which certainly didn’t help the awkwardness of the whole thing.
“Hello Keigan. Long time no see, so. What have you been up to these days…” It was pretty clear from her tone of voice that my mom still wasn’t happy about the way he left… I had been enjoying the time too much to care… But thinking about it… I’d be mad too if my husband just left in the middle of the night for over half a month. Well, I could still only sympathize so much… If I was married to a man like him… Again… I might not care.
Still, at least she acknowledged him. I stayed silent, and Airsidh was even worse than I was. He didn’t even bother sparing a glance. It was kind of impressive in a way.
“I’ve got it, Dragon sight.” He said, his eyes tracking between Mara and me, clearly expecting more of a reaction. He certainly got one… Eventually… I saw my mom's face scrunch up, almost thinking she was going to yell, but she calmed down and put on her cold, battle-hardened warrior expression… Which was honestly scarier… Especially after not having seen it for a while.
“That’s nice dear… Did you have fun dragon hunting without me? Oh and don’t worry, I did all that paperwork you left behind too. And thanks to that treasure Siya brought back we didn’t go bankrupt.”
His face suddenly turned just as serious, but his words couldn’t have been less so. “I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy it. Killing dragons is the best…”
Mara let out a loud groan “NEXT TIME, if you leave like that I’LL kill YOU, and I’ll have the guards bury you next to a weedy field. Oh, and if there is a next time at all, you’re dead… You left for a whole month without saying a word… Honestly… Even Bhaltair at least said goodbye.”
He cleared his throat. “I mean. I did leave everything important in the note… I wrote that note, the one I left with Nillou–”
“I burned it…”
‘Geez, you guys are worse at communicating than I thought…’
“You… burned it… Oh… Ok.” Keigan responded in what appeared to be a state of shock.
“You need to learn how to use your words. You’re a grown man, you’re not the savage from the south anymore.”
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
I glanced over at Lu, who was just calmly eating a biscuit and sipping her tea, Pulling her plate of snacks between us and taking after her. ‘The savage from the south and the butcher of black gate? Where on earth did they get these crazy titles from? This is starting to sound like a bad Chinese fantasy drama.’
Lu leaned in close. “I bet you your desert tonight that this ends with them hugging.”
I leaned back in my seat, making sure not to glance at her so she wouldn’t take her focus away from the Show. “Ok, if you're right I get your desert.”
“Cool…” She muttered quietly.
‘I kind of feel guilty with how easy that was…’ I turned my attention back to our bickering parents, trying to figure out how Lu was so confident in that outcome… I just didn’t see it.
“There was a love poem in the letter, it took me all night to come up with that.” For the first time in what felt like years, I saw Keigan acting human, making the expressions of a poor man getting rejected by his crush… It felt… Not necessarily gross I guess, but it certainly didn’t feel right…
“You need to learn that sometimes your words are… Wait, you wrote a love poem in that letter?”
My father, looking more pitiful than I had ever seen him, nodded.
‘Ah… I think I’m starting to see how this relationship works.’
Mara took a deep breath. “Next time just… Say goodbye at least… Then I won’t be so angry with you…” She muttered.
Suddenly what was a fight, turned into them hugging it out in front of us like we weren’t even there, making it feel even more like a movie. Although not with the awkward realization that it wasn’t. ‘If it was though, and they were alone isn’t this wear THAT would usually happen? I mean, they are married, Would I want another little sister? Or maybe a cute baby brother…’ “ Hey Mom, if you’re going to have another kid can I teach them magic? Oh, but like… Not the way I learned it… Obviously…” ‘Wait, but that would make me the troubled middle child, wouldn’t it? No, I think I’m ok with that.’
After staring at each other blankly for a while Mara let go and Keigan cleared his throat, walking over to me and reaching out his hand.
Even then, my body refused to forget how dangerous he was, shuddering as he got close. “No, no hugs from me I’m good…”
He placed a vial down on the table next to me. “Dragon sight. Put a drop in each eye, then drink the rest. It will fix your eyes.”
I picked it up, looking at the glowing amber liquid inside the vial and swishing it around. ‘There’s quite a bit, I have to drink all of it?’ “What… EXACTLY… Will it do…” I asked cautiously, discreetly sliding my chair slightly away from him. ‘And why is the color so vibrant when everything else is grey scale?’
“Besides repairing them, it will also make your eyes tougher than stone… Look. I know what you had to do to defeat that demon… And if you have to do it again to survive then go ahead… But those… Techniques… Can cause serious damage to the user. Catherine said your eyes were burned from the inside. This will make it so that won’t happen again.”
I set it back down, finishing the biscuit in my hand and leaning forward on the table, staring at it. “Anything else?” ‘It sounds way too good to be true. And I’m not planning on using much dark magic again anyway, definitely not for hours on end at any rate.’ “Like, I won’t lose one of my fingers or something right?”
He shrugged. “It might sting a bit I guess, I don’t know what else you want me to say, it will improve your vision tenfold and let you see miles away without magic, giving you the eyes of a dragon. Furthermore, it will help you to contain and conceal your manna, giving you a bit of a dragon's power as well.”
I let out a sigh. ‘Well, he explained it this time… I guess… I could try it. Might as well become part dragon, I’m already a freak anyway…’
“One drop in each eye right, and drink the rest?” ‘It would be nice to not have to squint so much. And now that I’m strong enough to shoot long distances having my eyes sharper without straining them and using magic would be nice too.’
‘Even if it came from him. If he really killed a dragon to get it for me, and just to fix a minor problem...’ I sighed. “You’re not forcing me to… Right?” ‘It comes down to this… No, who am I kidding, even if it made me blind for a day or two the benefits outweigh that. Still… I would like to know his answer… I guess it doesn’t matter though, even if he did change it’s too late.’