Enid heard the door to the basement close behind her. She folded her hands behind her back and looked out at the slowly brightening sky and looked up.

“Well, he survived the first night.”

She sighed heavily. Her phone started to vibrate, and she looked at it, she recognized the number. Eyre. She sighed again her hand hovered over the ignore button but then she put it to hear ear and turned away from the window undoing the front of her Atlantean armor revealing a sports bra.

“What’s up?”

“Did you kill him?”

“No, I did not. He is in the basement asleep because its dawn here. I notice you waited until it was sunup before you called.”

“I didn’t want you to break your phone again if I annoyed you. So, I just wanted to say again, how this is the dumbest idea you have ever had mother.”

“So considerate. Look he’s fine Eyre. How are things in Edmonton?”

“Usual. Maria’s been praying for you. Violet went hunting on her own tonight.”

“Well, everything is okay here, I’ll send the photos for the ID first thing tomorrow. I’ll need US passport, Washington license, Social Security, Bank and at least one credit card. Make him thirty-five.”

“Should I put him on the sex offender registry?”

There was quite a bit of snark to Eyre’s voice when she said it, perhaps a hint of uncharacteristic maliciousness.

“No, are you being serious right now? He’s a vampire. That will put him on the radar of local police.”

“Considering what he did to you, he’s lucky to be alive in my opinion mom.”

“This is about mercy and forgiveness, right? A second chance. Besides your grandfather fucked with his mind. Every time he looks at me, he seems to gag a little. I suspect he’ll be no threat to much of anyone besides himself now. But that’s not on me.”

“Mom, you know there are fifty vampires who would do this for you without question you just have to order it, why do you do it yourself?”

“Because if I can do this then I am absolutely ready for the Black Son. Any progress on our problem?”

“No, everything our study grant lab team has come up with says there is no way to permanently store or destroy energy, it will always dissipate. Or in this case escape.”

“It’s only been four months.”

“Mom this has been a theory for centuries and no one has disproven it. Can’t we just use him up like a battery.”

“No, if even a fragment of his consciousness remains, he can reform. Maybe not now, maybe not for a thousand years, but it will happen eventually, and this shit will happen all over again.”

“Well, what about black holes? Don’t they destroy light or something?”

“I donno why don’t we go find one and go through and see what we find? Get real Eyre. We need real, earthbound solutions.”

“Sorry mom, was just throwing stuff out there.”

“I’m sorry hon, it was a hard night.”

“I understand mom. You are the strongest woman I know, you’ll be okay.”

“Thank you. I’ll let you know when I receive the package.”

“If you need to talk at all, call me mom, any time. If you feel like you’re going to do something you’ll regret, please.”

“I promise. If I don’t start by smashing him in the face with my phone.”

“Very funny mom. I’m being serious.”

“Who’s the mother here?”

“Depends on the day.”

“If I ever get the power to time travel remind me to spank you more as a child.”

“Are you sticking your tongue out at me young lady?”

“Maybe. I love you Eyre.”

“Love you too mom.”

Enid hung up the phone and pulled off her armor off and folded it up on the table. She pulled on some leggings and a t-shirt. She collapsed onto her couch and turned on the TV put her socked feet up on the living room table. She picked up the book she had discarded there yesterday and started reading it. It was manga exported from Japan by one of Nobuyuki’s daughters. She’d been sent a crate full. She looked at her phone and pondering calling but then realized what time it would be there and went back to her reading. She sat like that for a few hours, until she was disturbed by her doorbell. She sighed heavily and marked her place and walked to the door and opened it. Outside was her neighbor Cillian. She addressed him Scottish Gaelic as she knew he was fluent and also his preference for traditional Scottish folks.

“Good morning, Mr. Gunn. Come in.”

He took off his hat and stepped inside giving her a nod he had a bundle of mail in his other hand. He bent down and pulled off his rubber boots.

“Here let me take your hat and jacket.”

She took his hat and jacket and hung them on her hangers by the door.

“Good morning Ceana. I told you to call me Cillian.”

Enid smiled at him.

“I’m sorry old habits. Come in, come in, could I get you coffee? I haven’t had breakfast and was thinking of starting. Sis has been teaching me a few things, shouldn’t break any teeth this morning.”

He followed her inside and she turned to her smart speaker.

“Helen, TV off.”

The TV turned off and he looked between the speaker and Enid with a quizzical look. Enid put her book down on the counter and he looked at and back to her again.

“You read Japanese?”

“Yes. You know grandma lives there, right?”

“I do, she told me all about Okinawa in the eighties.”

“She taught me and has been sending me an unending supply of these, apparently her adoptive sister from there keeps trying to get rid of them. I don’t mind, gives me something to read. Keep up on my Kanji.”

Enid turned and started to make a pod of coffee. She’d known Cillian for about twenty-five years. Before as Melanie and now as her granddaughter, Ceana McCloud. He was in his late sixties by now. She turned back to him while waiting for the coffee to finish. He put the bundle of mail in front of her.

“Been collecting it like your grandmother asked. She also told me to keep you honest when you are here and make sure you’re keeping up on your Scottish. You came in pretty late last night. With a man.”

Enid laughed as she turned and pulled the mug from the coffee make and added milk and two sugars putting it down in front of Cillian.

“Grandma, always looking out for me. Well, it is my dad. A security guard found him wandering around at the Kinlochleven castle ruins in a daze and gave me a call told me if I came and collect him, he wouldn’t call the police. You know me, I hate driving at night.”

He nodded and took a sip of his coffee.

“I still have no idea where he parked his car, not that he should be driving in this state. He’s sleeping it off in my spare room.”

“I wasn’t expecting you here until Christmas with your sister.”

“I heard father wasn’t doing so well so I flew in. Once I find his ID, which he’s lost, along with his car we’ll be flying back to Washington, so we can keep an eye on him.”

Enid turned back to her fridge and started pulling out the makings for eggs. She started cooking them while talking to Cillian.

“How are you doing, Cillian?”

“Can’t complain. Emily is coming by with the grandchildren soon, just too bad Peggie is not here to see them.”

She heard the tinge of sadness in his voice.

“I was very sorry to hear about her passing. Grandma told me she was taking care of the flowers and said she’d add my name.”

“She did and they were beautiful.”

Enid pushed a plate of over easy eggs towards Cillian and sat on a stool on her side of breakfast bar.

“How is your school going Ceana?”

“Oh, you know, it’s going. I miss Scotland.”

“Well as long as you take it with you, you’ll always be at home.”

“Yes, the highlands are in my blood.”

“You and your grandmother have always impressed me with how fluent you are with Scottish.”

Enid shrugged.

“It was one of my first languages.”

He nodded and was starting to eat his eggs and glanced up at her.

“These are very good.”

She smiled at him and started on her own taking a drink of her own coffee.

*****

Enid was watching TV and talking on the phone with Allison, her manga long finished by the time her father came up the stairs again with a full head of red hair and beard. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw his daughter in a pair of leggings and a sweater staring a moving picture. He approached slowly and stood behind her staring at it. Enid had chosen Braveheart, because she felt like mocking how badly it mimicked real history. She glanced up at him when the closing credits started, she’d miscalculated his wake-up time by a few minutes. She turned the TV off and stood up.

“He’s awake, I’ll talk to you tomorrow?”

“I love you!”

“I love you too. Have a good day at work.”

Enid hung up her phone. She went into her cabinet with the locked refrigerator and pulled out three bags of blood. Putting two in front of him and taking one for herself.

“Drink.”

She pulled the cap off her bag and started sucking it out with a slight shiver. Never as good as fresh from the tap but it saved her hunting in a small town. Her father mimicked hers, and his reaction was similar, but he gulped it down hungrily. Her blood was potent, but she hadn’t given him much.

“It didn’t taste right.”

“It never does if it is not from a live human being, but what can you do? I can’t trust you to control yourself yet, so you get the bagged stuff, and I get the bagged stuff because I don’t feel like leaving you alone at night.”

He nodded and drank down his second bag hungrily.

“What is that?”

He pointed at the TV which only a few minutes ago had moving pictures of a man being tortured and executed.

“Does it show you village punishments? Is that what awaits me?”

Enid laughed.

“No, that was, fake. In English it is called a television.”

“Oh.”

He blinked at her. She shook her head and gathered the empty blood bags throwing them in the special shredder she had in the kitchen. He jumped at the loud sudden grinding noise.

“You’re as skittish as a mare in heat.”

“This is so strange. You were talking to…someone like she was in the room.”

“It is going to get so much stranger before we’re done father. Come on let’s get you looking…well decent.”

“Who is she?”

“She is my girlfriend. Now come on we need to sort you out.”

She led him to one of the bathrooms in the house and started to brush out his hair. He was a muscular man had a bit of a belly on him. His hair had been trimmed before he was turned, and his beard wasn’t extremely long. He looked like a hipster who worked out. Once she was happy with that, she led him to a spare bedroom and started laying out a pair of black suit pants and a white shirt and tie. She looked at him.

“Get undressed.”

He blinked at her. She sighed heavily.

“Just do it, you need to get changed and you have no idea how to do any of this yet.”

He started pulling off the jeans and t-shirt and socks and went for his underwear but Enid stopped him

“Enough. Pull those on, just like you’re used to. Good.”

She reached down and pulled up his zipper and fastened the button.

“See how I did that? Easy, just don’t get things caught in the zipper.”

She picked up the shirt and walked behind him.

“Lift up your left arm, now right.”

She pulled the shirt closed at the front. Started with one of the buttons.

“We had something similar you see how this works?”

He nodded, she stood back and let him do up the buttons of the shirt. She stepped up and fastened the last one.

“Now tuck it in.”

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

He blinked at her. She started with the front, and he caught on and did the rest. She looked down at the tie and shook her head and put it back in the closet. He was already tugging at the collar, so she undid the top three buttons. Then she rolled up his sleeves to just below the elbow. The black vertical pin stripes had been the right choice. She showed him how to wear a belt and then stood back.

“Now, now you look presentable. Come on.”

He looked at himself in the floor length mirror as they passed and blinked at his reflection touching his face and beard.

“You have water stuck in wood why does it not pour out?”

Enid rolled her eyes.

“No father…just never mind for now, come along.”

She led him into another room where she had prepared a green screen. She lined him up in front of it and adjusted the tripod and digital camera she had set up. She walked back and centered him on the screen.

“Okay, face straight no smile.”

He sent back behind the camera and took several pictures. She took the camera off the tripod and started going through them.

“Most look usable.”

She pulled the memory card out of the camera and started walking out of the room and realized her father wasn’t behind her, so she turned back and leaned through the door.

“Come.”

She pulled her laptop out of her pack and opened it up. The screen came to life after the fan blew loudly and her father jumped again.

“What is that?”

“Honestly, I’ll tell you later, just sit down.”

She pointed to a chair beside her. She slid the memory card into an adapter and plugged it in. She zipped the file and uploaded to the secure site Eyre had prepared for this sort of thing. She started reading a news site while she waited for Eyre’s IM confirming she’d received them. Her father stared at her, finally speaking.

“How do you understand all this…this stuff?”

“Unlike you I’ve been awake for the whole time I’ve been alive. Adapt or die father. I adapted, if you can then you’ll be fine. If not, then it’s not my fault you end up dead. Either way I have lived up to my commitment.”

“Was it me that made you so, cold?”

“No shit, father. Turns out if you sexually abuse your child, they turn out to be assholes. And I’m not always like this, you bring out my worst.”

She heard a ding on her laptop she saw it was Eyre asking for a video conference she sighed and clicked it.

“Eyre, what’s up?”

“Hey mom, just making sure I got the right photos.”

She shared her screen showing the pictures Enid took. Her father was staring at the screen after Eyre’s face appeared on it. He almost fell out of his chair when the image of him showed up. Enid sighed.

“Yes, hon, those are him.”

“He doesn’t look like he spent two thousand years under the ocean.”

“Well, I fed him blood and shaved him so he would not need to sort out his hair or beard. Are they good enough?”

“Yes, perfect as usual mom. And nice choice of shirt and pants. I underestimated your fashion sense.”

“I still prefer combats and t-shirts.”

“Stay classy mom.”

“Love you too dear.”

The messaging app blooped as the connect closed and she noticed her father was still staring at the screen.

“She was my granddaughter.”

“Yes, I didn’t mean you to even see her, but oh well.”

“Who is her father?”

“Not you. If that is what you’re thinking. Her father was my 2nd husband and died centuries ago.”

“You are a good parent, I can see it on her face. She loves you. You never looked at me that way.”

“You could have been that kind of parent. I’m just glad I had Morag so I didn’t turn into you.”

Enid closed the computer lid and slid it into her pack. Statis was amazing for ridiculous long battery life.

“What now?”

“We wait for Eyre to get your new name made.”

“What do you mean?”

“Once you understand enough English I’ll explain better.”

*****

A week after she’d sent the photos her doorbell rang, and a courier was at the door. He held out a padded envelope. She signed his scanner and closed the door. She sat down on the couch and opened the package. Inside were two US passports and a new set of back info and two Washington licenses. One set for her and one for her father. A pilot’s license for her, in her new name, and two USB sticks along with hard copies of their backstopped histories. Enid smiled as she looked at her new name, marveling that her daughter had made her twenty-five instead of fifteen. Her pleasure evaporated when she realized her name was Skylar.

“Uck, what kind of name is Skylar. Blah. I told her Samantha. Oh well.

Her father’s was Charles Connor, he was ten years older than her and was apparently her brother. She started leafing through her background. Apparently, Skylar Connor is a budding commercial airline pilot, and her brother is a used car salesman, both were trust fund kids. She nodded. She had her appendix out when she was fifteen. Enid chuckled. She picked up her phone and hit the quick dial for Eyre.

“Hello mom.”

“Hey Eyre, I got the package. I will make a flight plan and fly to Washington. Thanks for the help again, but Skylar? What kind of name is that?”

“Skylar is the name of a girl at your school. You’re using up so many new names I had to get creative.”

“It’s a terrible name.”

“Don’t be like that mom, it’s a perfectly decent name.”

“Okay, okay, I asked for Samantha.”

“Next time mom. How are lessons going?”

“Oh, he was never unintelligent, just power hungry, greedy and an alcoholic. So, he’s doing well. So far, we’re doing grade 2 English. I am also realizing I should never go into teaching.”

“Has he been behaving?”

“You know, I don’t know if he is just acting the part or if his genuinely regretful. I catch him looking at me with these sad eyes, like he wants to make it up to me but has no idea how he can ever do that. Either way he hasn’t touched me in any fashion, I’m glad I am not sure how I might react.”

“Be careful mom.”

“Yes mom.”

She heard Eyre snicker.

“It’s just you can get a bit arrogant.”

“Arrogant?”

“You know what I mean, overconfident.”

“I’m being careful. Have you arranged for the next few legs of the plane’s journey?”

“Yes mom, it will take off from Washington with two passengers matching your descriptions and it will land in New York, then it will do the same and land in Cuba. It will stay there for a week, and it will fly on to Africa, they’ll be a malfunction and it will crash into the ocean.”

“Seems like a waste of a good plane.”

“Well, the cartel you stole it from doesn’t need it anymore, do they?”

“What is really going to happen to it?”

“Landing it on our island, putting a tarp over it and they’ll take a boat to Africa and split up from there.”

“Good. And thanks for making Skylar a pilot and legal age.”

“This isn’t the time for practical jokes mom. I know the stakes.”

“Love you Eyre.”

“Love you mom.”

Enid heard the phone hang up on her side and hung up hers. She glanced out the window at the dull grey highlands sky and pulled her sweater tighter.

“Stupid amulet, now I’m cold and damp.”

She picked up the phone and started another video call. She felt a slight bit warmer and smiled when she saw Allison answer in her bed-headed glory. Enid was wearing her Sarah face still.

“Enid!”

“I meant to call a bit ago but my contact named my ID Skylar I had to give her shit. How are you?”

“I miss you. I’m sorry I didn’t call, I had an emergency two am last night.”

“Its alright. You’re busy, I’m busy.”

“Will I see you soon?”

“I’m sorry its going to be at least another month.”

“Aww.”

“Maybe I should go away more often you’re adorable when you pout.”

“So umm…can we… do the thing again?”

“I have a few hours and I was feeling a bit cold…”

Allison smiled.

*****

Enid shoved one of the pieces of luggage into her father’s gut.

“Make yourself useful and carry this. Let me do the talking. Remember when they say ‘passport’ hand them the blue one, if they ask you if you had a nice stay, you say, ‘yes’. If they ask you where you are heading you say, ‘Seattle’. Smile, nod, just act like this is all very normal. None of that wide eyed I’m a primitive hick crap you’ve been doing.”

He took the handle of the piece of luggage, and she put her bag over her shoulder and picked up her own luggage. She had no use for it with her pack, but she’d taken to bring it along just to look normal. The car she had requested showed up and the driver who was an older woman opened the trunk for them and they put their luggage in and got in the back seat. Her father was doing his best to look calm; She’d taken him for several drives to get him comfortable with cars. The driver looked back at them as they stopped at a light.

“Where are you headed?”

Enid was about to respond but then her father said in a decent english.

“Seattle.”

“Off to America then. Not many flights out of Inverness direct.”

Her father had exhausted his ability to understand the quick speaking woman and Enid pipped in.

“We’re flying on a private plane.”

“Oh, fancy, must have cost a bit.”

“Yes, our parents were very well off before they passed, left it to us. I’ll be flying it.”

“You’re a pilot?”

“Yes I am. I will be starting with a commercial airline soon, that’s why we’re heading home.”

“I thought you sounded American. Just out here for vacation then?”

“Yes. It was a good vacation. Nice in quiet in Ullapool, so glad my friend loaned us her house.”

Enid continued with the small chat using the time to get into her new identity. As much as it annoyed her to have to deal with talkative drivers. They finally arrived at the airport and her father was looking at the number of cars and people with wide eyes, even at 9pm it was packed and when a jetliner roared overhead he looked like he was going to jump out of his skin. She grimaced and placed a hand on his wrist.

“Calm down, this is all normal remember.”

He looked down at her hand which she snapped back and then to her green eyes, and he nodded. She had done her best to avoid making skin to skin contact with him since he had arrived. It made her feel like she had to bleach herself. She picked up her suitcase and he mimicked her. The pair walked into the airport. She walked to the customs line, there was only one person in front of them. She went first, offering her passport which the agent stamped nodding to her. Her father mimicked her actions.

“Have a safe flight.”

Enid’s father just smiled and nodded as he had been instructed and followed her into the airport. She walked to the terminal where the private plane waited. It wasn’t her personal one of course. Nothing along this line besides the house and cars were hers. If her father betrayed her, he wouldn’t have much information to give anyone. They were met by a member of the customs team as they walked through the exit doors towards the plane.

“Hello, just need your ID please, and confirmation of flight plan.”

Enid smiled and nodded, showing her US pilot’s license and her passport. He shone a flashlight on her.

“Looks good. Have a safe flight.”

“I hope the night doesn’t get as rainy as it looks like it is.”

“You and me both Ms. Connor.”

He handed back her documents and the ground crew pulled the door down for them. One of them handing Enid a maintenance and fueling report.

“Looks good, ma’am.”

Enid pointed up the stairs looked to her father.

“Go on, get on. Take my bag with you.”

He reached out and took it and walked up the stairs. She started to walk around the private jet checking the extra fuel tanks, then started doing the rest of her external pre-flight checks.

“Everything alright Ma’am?”

“Seems to be.”

“You used to be military, didn’t you?”

“How’d you know?”

“You looked like a fighter pilot before doing a sortie.”

Enid laughed.

“One of my instructors told me, never trust someone else’s eyes when you have enough time to use your own.”

“Sounds like flight school. You just won me a bet. One of the new guys was butt hurt you were inspecting our work. I told him you were military.”

Enid nodded.

“Congratulations.”

“Have a safe flight ma’am.”

Enid glanced at the cloudy sky.

“Stay dry.”

He laughed and walked off. She walked up the stairs and pulled the door shut. The stairs were rolled away. Her father was looking around at the cabin which was ridiculously overdone in Enid’s opinion. The cartel had gone way too far in the direction of lush. Way too much red and black. She looked at her father.

“Come on, to the front. Your libel to panic if you’re back here.”

“What is this thing?”

“It’s called a jet.”

“Is it like a car?”

“In that it has engines tires, and chairs, yes, but no, there is an ocean between us and your new home. We’re flying.”

His eyes went wide.

“Are you mad? Is this…am I mad?”

“No.”

“You know how to do this, fly this?”

“Yes, I used to fly one of these in war, it was smaller and had weapons, but yes, I know how to fly this. Now come on.”

She glanced down at her smartwatch.

“I have to finish pre-flight checks our take off time is in thirty minutes.”

She opened the cockpit door and motioned him inside. She pointed to the co-pilot’s chair.

“Sit down there.”

He sat down, she sat in the pilot’s chair.

“Do what I do here.”

She put her safety belt and he mimicked her.

“Now don’t touch anything else. Just sit there.”

She pulled out her phone and pulled up the pre-flight checklist for this airplane and started going through all the instruments. Finally, she started the engines and tested them. Her father jumped as they roared to life. She glanced at him the back to her check list. She radioed the tower providing their flight number and was given the go ahead to head to her runway. Her father twitched again as the plane jerked into movement.

“I am sorry that you’re going to have to deal with so much turbulence on your first flight. There is a storm coming and high winds. It’s going to get bumpy but we’re safe, I know what I am doing. Just don’t touch anything and everything will be fine.”

She flipped on her radio.

“Flight Six-four-four to New York City, ready for takeoff.”

“You have a strong headwind, 28 knots, you are cleared on runway one.”

“Thank you, flight control.”

She pushed the throttle forward and the plane started to taxi, her father started clutching his knees as the plane lifted off. It was shaking from the turbulence making the plane bump. She made the turn to and set her bearing for New York. When she broke through the low clouds the turbulence subsided. She flicked on the autopilot after taking into the winds into account. She put her head set down around her neck and looked at her father.

“It’s like sailing on air. If you can keep up sufficient speed the wings float along it like water.”

He nodded at her, his eyes wide.

“You do this all the time.”

“Not as much as when I was in the navy but, I like flying, yes. I miss those planes they would break the sound barrier.”

He tried repeating the words.

“Sound barrier?”

Enid pondered for a second.

“You know how you see lightning out over the ocean and then it takes time to hear the thunder?”

He nodded.

“That’s because light is faster than sound. I used to fly planes that could go faster than sound.”

He looked at her with wide eyes once again, then his face softened.

“I do not have words to describe how proud you make me, I see all these things I do not understand, and you do them with ease. I cursed the gods for giving me a girl, when I should have been thanking them.”

Enid shifted in her seat looking away from him and pulled her headset back up over her ears she focused on the window and her instruments. She didn’t spare her father another look for the entire six hour flight. She heard LaGaurdia acknowledge that she entered their airspace and they asked for a confirmation.

“Flight four-six-six out of Inverness, Scotland, landing for refueling before continuing to Seattle.”

“You’re early.”

“I had a good tailwind. You have space for me?”

“We’ll have a runway open in fifteen minutes. Take up a holding pattern at the following coordinates please.”

She received the coordinates and started heading into that pattern.

“Roger”

She glanced at her father who was looking out the window at the lights below. It was a clear night, so New York was lit up below them. She landed her plane when instructed to and stood up and stretched. Not that she needed to, but it felt right she hung her head set on the back of the chair. She walked to the door and opened it letting the fresh air rush in she hung her legs out of the door and watched the fuel tanker come up and start pumping into her tanks. One of the ground crew walked up below her and looked up.

“Hey, you still had two full spare tanks.”

Enid shrugged.

“I was expecting strong head winds, scheduled the refueling just in case.”

He gave her a small salute.

“Welcome home.”

Enid chuckled and returned the salute. She noticed her father looking out the door behind her at the airport around them.

“We won’t be here long. I just wanted some fresh air. This is New York. Eastern side of the New World. A whole set of continents we didn’t even know existed in our little village.”

“New York.”

“Yes, you said that pretty well.”

He smiled at her.

“If we do not need to breathe, why do you need fresh air?”

“Because it feels nice. Why else?”

“I do not understand the air is not fresh it smells worse than rotting fish in the summer. It clogs my lungs. Catches in my throat.”

Enid laughed.

“It’s fresher than the recycled stuff in the cabin. That’s called smog. This is a big city, there are a lot of cars, and here planes. Don’t worry, Seattle is not this bad.”

“How do you talk to them so easily? I smell the blood on them.”

“Thousands of years of practice. Also, we fed before we left Scotland. I’m full.”

She held up her hand when she saw the man from the ground crew approach again.

“Hey, she’s all fueled up.”

“Thank you.”

“Anytime.”

Enid hopped up and closed the door and locked it down. She glanced at her smart watch which had updated itself to local time.

“If all goes well, we’ll be in Seattle about four hours before dawn.”

He looked at her watch then to her face.

“You seem so young still.”

“I am, I was turned when I was barely eighteen.”

She walked to the pilot’s chair and got in. Her father got back in the co-pilots seat and put his belt on. Enid got clearance and took off. She looked to her father who was much calmer this time, the turbulence was minor at best. She put autopilot once she hit altitude, she noticed her father trying to talk to her and she pulled her headset down.

“Yes, father?”

“How long until we on land again?”

“About three and a half hours.”

“Can you tell me what happened to our tribe?”

Enid sighed.

“I tricked you into killing the envoy, I got his son out of the village, the warriors that didn’t surrender when they came for revenge were killed, anyone who didn’t fight was welcomed into their tribe. The alternative was you wiped out their tribe and had me murdered. Then our tribe was wiped out by their allies. My choice saved more lives.”

He shifted in his seat looking down at the controls then back to her.

“I am sorry I…”

“The time for apologies is long past. You were a terrible chieftain, a terrible father, and just terrible man. I am giving you a second chance, do better.”

“I will. Why are you giving me a second chance?”

“I told you, I need to learn to forgive people. You are the hardest to forgive.”

“That is not the whole reason.”

She sighed.

    “My therapist said I will not be rid of my anger with you until I forgive you. She also told me your punishment outweighed your crimes.”

“I remember you wouldn’t talk to anyone, and you wouldn’t bend knee even to me. I, you have changed.”

“Of course, I have, it’s been two thousand years.”

“It feels like it’s been a few days to me. But then I look at you and I remember… and it feels like it was another lifetime, another person doing it.”

He held his forehead. Enid sighed.

“Look, this is strange for us both. Once I get you situated and able to take care of yourself, we will separate and you can just move on.”

He nodded.