Cabrin stomped out of the office angrily after the man ordered them to leave. The door slammed behind him. How could anyone be so thick in the head?

As he made his way outside, Akane ran to the table where they were seated earlier to pour one more little glass of the pitiful excuse for sake that they had been served. The body of the dead merc had been removed and everyone else who had been there that night had since left save for one man slumped over on a table by the wall and the three other barmaids who were busily cleaning the mess left behind. They watched Akane blankly as she followed Cabrin out the door.

Once outside they spoke in their native language.

“Akane, what do you make of this?” Cabrin asked her.

“Hmm…” Akane thought, completely aloof. Unless blades were involved Akane seldom let anything dampen her mood. “Well, I didn’t get to see this ‘magic’ but given what I heard from him, it is all awfully strange.”

“Hmph. Strange, you say.” Cabrin shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe I am crazy.”

“What do you think we should do about this?” She asked.

Cabrin began walking. Small flames danced in the lamps along the street, dimly illuminating the way to a hospice house that they had checked into earlier that day. Akane followed him silently.

“We’ll keep an eye on her.” He said after a long while. “First thing in the morning, we watch her. Just don’t be obvious about it. See if anything strange comes up again. We’ll decide what to do then.”

“First thing in the morning.” Akane echoed.

She reached her arm up and around his shoulders, pulling him down to whisper in his ear. “What do we do tonight?”

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Cabrin’s scowl began to melt.

“Trying to put me at ease?” He asked.

“Is it working? Akane giggled, girlishly.

Cabrin grinned, despite himself.

“It might.” He said.

----------------------------------------

At least an hour had passed since Sera had retreated to her room when the door opened and Simon peeked in. Sera sat motionless on her bed in her nightgown. She hugged her knees to her chest, her feet curled over the edge of the thin mattress.

“May I come in?” He asked softly.

She nodded, slowly, her red swollen eyes transfixed somewhere beyond the walls of her small bedroom. Simon took two steps and sat down beside her on the bed, putting his arm around her. She melted into him and began sobbing against his shoulder.

“Shhhh.” Simon said, rocking her back forth. “I’m so sorry, Sweetheart. I am so, very sorry. Had I told you earlier...” He sighed. “I should have told you.”

He kissed the top of her head as he rocked her.

“You’ve gotten so big, you know.” He said, more to himself than to her. “It doesn’t seem that long ago, at all. You were so tiny back then when your mother and I first took you in.”

Simon smiled as he reminisced.

“You had the biggest, most beautiful blue eyes either of us had ever seen,” He went on. “And the cutest little patch of hair. I wish she could be here now to see the beautiful young woman you’ve become.”

“You hadn’t even planned to keep me,” She said, wiping her face. “Would you really have let them take me?”

Simon didn’t answer for a moment that seemed to stretch out forever.

“Your mother and I…” He started after a long while. “We secretly wished for them to not make it back, you know. And we were secretly, selfishly… perhaps cruelly glad when they didn’t.

I don’t know what we would have done had he returned, but we most certainly didn’t want to let you go. Your mother and I fell in love with you the moment we met you.

I want you to know, I love you. Your mother loved you. Your mother especially loved you, every second of every day. Not once have we ever regretted taking you as our own.”

He tilted her head to look him in the eyes.

“You may not be our blood, but you are most definitely our daughter.” He said, adamantly. “Never forget that, okay?

Sera nodded.

“I wish she were here, right now.” She said.

“Me too, kiddo. Me too.”