Sebastian stood in the same clearing where moments before his sister had been waiting for the liminality to open so she could face her trial. Just like with his sister, his grandfather hit the ground three times with his cane.

Sebastian was waiting for something to change, something to start feeling that something was amiss, but… The feeling never came. The more time that passed, the more it looked like liminality would not manifest, and that was something that really scared Sebastian because his father would not take kindly to either him or his sister failing to find a conduit.

Time continued passing, but a liminality didn’t appear.

“I wonder what’s happening,” Jacob suddenly asked. “Usually when grandpa does this, it doesn’t take nearly as long for a liminality to manifest itself.”

“It seems like the liminalities are refusing to manifest.” Celine chimed in the conversation.

“That’s weird,” Abigail added. “Why would the liminalities refuse to manifest?”

“Because Amrita is rejecting him,” Arthur said.

Sebastian turned to look at his father and saw him standing there; all his muscles were tense, he had a frown on his face, and he was looking with empty eyes. And without uttering another word, Arthur grabbed Aura and left. Aura tried resisting, but Arthur simply dragged her, ignoring her screams, pleas, and kicks.

“Jacob, stay here with your brother. I’ll talk with your father.” Clara told her son before running off behind her husband, and she did not look happy at all.

Gerald, seeing the scene, was not happy. He then hit the ground three more times with his cane; the surrounding fauna started to shift, or try to shift; the fauna started to seem strange, as if it were trying to summon liminality but failing.

Sebastian was feeling strange, but not because he could sense liminality manifesting in the world, but more in the sense that he knew that it wouldn’t.

Sebastian's breathing started to get faster.

He started to grab his chest while he began to breathe increasingly faster.

He lifted his head and saw his father grabbing Aura and dragging her away.

He tried to stand up but was unable to. Then he noticed his grandmother was leaving too.

Was he being left alone?

So I really screw things that badly…

Sebastian started to wonder.

That’s why they are leaving; I’m not worth it in this family.

Sebastian's self-doubt started to creep into his mind.

I’m only a child, and yet I have failed already

That day was their 8th birthday, and in the Alaric family, it was at that age when you are attuned to a conduit; his sister and he had been trained, thought, and prepared practically since birth to continue the grandiose legacy of the Alaric family. It wasn’t weird for them to spend more time with teachers than with their mother, nor was it weird to spend more time practicing martial arts than playing like normal children. Sebastian was sure that they had heard it more times: You two are going to represent the family in the future. Then any semblance of warm words.

I guess that’s why I’m so afraid of failing

The Alaric family tended to set high expectations on their own. Aura and Sebastian had been drilled with the expectation that everyone had on them; there could be several reasons as to why. It could be the crazy accomplishments Abigail and Gerald managed to make during the war so many years ago. Or her aunt following suit in their grandmother's footsteps, stepping into the military, and being on track to be just as important a figure in the military as their grandmother. Or their father being one of the top scientists in the world. Even though they didn’t know much about what their mother did, she was sure it was not something normal or common, so that could also be the reason why everyone had such crazy expectations of them. Even their older brother, Jacob, was consistently great at everything he did, so he could have increased the expectation for those born into the Alaric family simply by existing.

“Don’t worry, little brother,” Jacob said while approaching Sebastian. “We still don’t know much about liminalities; we barely even know that going into one is the first step to finding a conduit.”

“He is right, Sebastian,” Gerald intervened.

“I know you are lying,” Sebastian said while he sat on the ground and hid his face between his legs. “I’ve been reading about conduits, liminalities, and domains; I know why this garden is so big and nobody ever comes in: it is to make it a good place to summon a liminality. I also know that last night several relics that were thought to be conduits or contain conduits for this ceremony”

“What makes you so sure?” Gerald asked.

“Nowhere in what I’ve read does it say that going into a liminality guarantees to find a conduit, although conduits can be found in liminalities naturally; the best way to guarantee attuning to a conduit is to find one and access a liminality with the relic that is supposed to have a conduit already in hand, thus accessing its test,” Sebastian said.

“Impressive,” Jacob said while smiling. “It took me so long to figure that out, and you did it even before you managed to attune to a conduit.”.

Gerald was looking at Sebastian, with the mouth wide open; Jacob was right, Sebastian was not supposed to know any of that nor even figure it out. And that was precisely what had made Gerald feel almost sure that Sebastian wouldn’t have any type of issue with attuning with a conduit. Alas, apparently the world had a different idea.

“Don’t worry, little one,” Gerald said. “We will try again tomorrow, and I’m sure a liminalite will show up with the test for a conduit for you.”

Gerald got closer to Sebastian and helped him stand up. “Don’t worry; everything will be ok.”

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Jacob then grabbed his little brother and took him to his room; he wanted to allow Sebastian to have his space away from people who could hurt him, especially their father.

Gerald remained in the garden for a little while longer. He looked around and verified that everything seemed normal; once he made sure that everything was ok, he started to walk away. He still had things to do that day and wanted to make sure that tomorrow, nothing unexpected would happen like it happened today.

Jacob took Sebastian to his room; then he left his little brother alone inside and continued on his way. After being abandoned like that, Jacob figured that Sebastian would need some time for himself. And Jacob really needed to calm himself.

Dad really left… He left his son alone because he thought he failed, and even worse because he thought he failed at something he had no control over…

As Jacob walked away, a golden shimmer started to emit from his neck. As the shimmer started to intensify, things around Jacob seemed to start to slow down.

“Jacob!” A voice yelled out. Gerald was right next to Jacob out of nowhere.

“Grandpa, I’m sorry,” Jacob said.

“It’s not your fault; you are still at the discovery stage, so it’s to be expected if you have too strong emotions for your Anima to start leaking out,” Gerald told his grandchild. “Go, relax a bit; tomorrow everything will be ok.”

Jacob smiled and started to walk towards his room.

Gerald did the same as his grandchildren; it was getting kind of late, and he wanted to make some arrangements to ensure everything would go smoothly tomorrow when they retried Sebastian’s attempt to attune with a conduit.

The Alaric family, one by one, went to sleep. Aura was alone in her room after her father had been lecturing and going over every single detail about conduits, details she had already memorized over and over. She wanted to go be with her brother but her father had forbidden her from doing so… And, well, she had never disobeyed her dad. Aura knew that her brother was feeling down and alone, but she just couldn’t muster the strength to go be with him.

Jacob, who had decided to give his little brother space, passed by his parent's room and managed to listen in on his father and mother arguing.

“You left Arthur; your son was left there alone,” Clara told Arthur.

“He was rejected; there were several conduits relics there ready to call to someone, but no one tried to call Sebastian. He has been rejected; as such, he is a failure, and I don’t stand failures,” Arthur answered

“How can you say that? He is your son!” Clara told her husband.

“NO!” Arthur answered, “He is nothing but an experiment that we were forced to accept due to my father's insistence. For all I care, he is just that, an experiment, a failure that was rejected by several conduits.”

“So? Maybe a different conduit will react,” Clara said.

“Don’t care,” Arthur answered. “He already failed; he is already a failure.”

“Just like your father.” Jacob opened the door, entering, “You are a failure of a father; the fact that you are going to leave my brother alone may be for the best.”

“Show some respect, Jacob; I’m your father,” Arthur answered while looking directly at his son.

“Respect is earned, father, and you fail miserably at that,” Jacob told his father and then turned to leave.

Arthur was about to follow behind Jacob, fully intending to punish his son, but something stopped him. It wasn’t that someone had physically stopped him, nor that he thought that Jacob was too far away now or that he wouldn’t listen to him, but something else entirely. For Arthur, the first thing that came to his mind was the feeling of entering a liminality, the feeling that something was off but you cannot pinpoint exactly what is off. Then, the longer you go into the Liminality, the stranger things get; right now, Arthur felt as if he was being dragged into the center of a Liminality against his will.

“Do you feel that, honey?” Clara asked Arthur.

Arthur turned to look at his wife, and with a nod, he started to run; behind him, his wife was running behind him. But they were not able to advance much; as soon as they advanced a bit, they found two children, two little kids that reminded them of Aura and Sebastian when they were a bit younger.

“Am I seeing things?” Arthur asked.

“No,” Clara said. “I see them too.”

“Are we being attacked by someone?” Arthur asked.

“With your father and mother here, that’s the last thing that could happen,” Clara said.

Arthur then started to move when the children suddenly spoke.

“Stop,” both of them said at the same time. “Are you going to walk to fail again today?”

“Fail?” Arthur answered.

The children turned to look at Arthur; they saw his fist clenching.

“Did we touch a nerve?” The children asked. They turned their heads to look at Arthur directly in his eyes. The more Arthur looked at the children, the stranger they looked. He noticed the hair on the little Aura staying up in the air, like if there was a strong air current blowing, that wouldn’t allow it to fall. Meanwhile, little Sebastian was having a different issue; instead of eyes, he had two black gaping holes on his face, and tears of blood appeared to be streaming down those holes.

“Did you think that you were going to win an award for father of the year?” The children suddenly asked. Afterward, both of them disappeared.

“When was the last time you hugged your kids?” The children asked while they grabbed Arthur's pants. “When was the last time you saw them as something else but the extension of yourself?”

Arthur tried to grab them but was unable to do it. They continued to disappear, and every time they would reappear, they would tell Arthur something else.

“You are so obsessed with pleasing your dad.”

“A grown-ass man being such a daddy’s boy”

The children started laughing.

“Pathetic”

“Predictable”

“Your father already loves Sebastian more than you.”

“He loves Jacob more than he loves you.”

“You are the only one your father doesn’t like.”

“Arthur!” Clara screamed, trying to get close to her husband.

Clara, who had been following her husband, found herself in quite a predicament. Her husband appeared to be screaming in the air, trying to grab nothing, but he seemed so sure that there was something there. Clara then tried to walk closer, fearing that it was some sort of dementia attack. With each new step, she would feel stranger, just like Arthur had been feeling. She suddenly saw herself; she saw herself being at her workplace.

“Where are you going?” The woman who was dressed in her work attire asked. “Now are you going to pretend that you care about your family?”

“I love my husband and my kids,” Clara answered.

“Well, I do believe you love your husband, but your kids? Please. Any person who knows you enough can realize that you know nothing about them, Jacob, perfect little Jacob. He is only the way you are going to show your family that you are better. Aura and Sebastian, you didn’t want more children, but Arthur did. You ended up falling under pressure; you know nothing about those two, and today instead of being there for your son, you went after your husband.” The other Clara said, with each word she got closer to Clara. “Let’s not pretend anymore.” The other Clara continued. “Be honest: what is it that you care about the most?”

Clara looked straight at the other Clara, who was in front of her. But she didn’t know what to answer.

The other Clara, seeing that she was not answering, forcibly grabbed Clara’s face.

“Tonight just do what you’ve always done: focus on work and leave the kids alone.”

With that, the other Clara disappeared. But along with her being gone, something else seemed to have left Clara.