Kitten Bliss [https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AP1GczM1JqJw9wArXibzlKcW0_lPJhhpiumPATOuwI3-XHRbQAxPaBXG6l_Hc0olxWSUTxVFJRpD1dU2X1DvqGjoXXCgwI0HOG57gsX4oKrqAPegYpGQcxcqvTXsfD8d1rqN5xM0_obUQ-Nht6JY9DoSoTtf=w661-h992-s-no-gm?authuser=0]
Dazien rested a hand on the Amethyst Gemveil Tree giving its glittering shade and protection to the children playing in the yard outside the temple of the Parent. Most of his life had been spent here, and tomorrow, he would finally leave Tulim indefinitely.
While he had worked with Paul for a while on the plans laid out before them, he had no idea how much time would actually be needed to accomplish each step. It would likely take at least a year by his most optimistic estimates but could just as easily take a century. There was no accurate estimate to give when it came to searching and researching. Lost artifacts and heirs were likely not so easily found.
He found himself wishing for Paul’s reassuring presence and the confidence he had usually shown him. His decades of experience hunting down the Corrupted all across Pyrin made him much more prepared for this kind of quest than any of them were.
“Are you saying goodbye to your mum, or postponing saying goodbye to the others?” Uriel asked, breaking him from his thoughts as he turned to see him return from the temple.
“Can’t it be both?” he replied with a soft smirk.
“Always with the ‘both’ option,” his partner teased, returning the smile. “The frolves are almost all rehomed. Only two left, but there were some interested parties already. I almost wish we found another litter though. I think taking care of them has been helping Jen’s mood. It’s been a rough year for her since you joined the AOA.”
Dazien sighed, “I guess I should stop being a coward and go say goodbye to her then?”
“I know you’re legally Phoenix’s big brother now, but I believe you were unofficially Jennica’s before that,” Uriel pointed out. “You’ve always been looking out for her since the day you saved her from her father’s rage. She sees you as the only family she has left, and now you won’t be around to check in on her anymore. She sees it as you abandoning her.”
“She’s known for years that I’ve been planning to leave Tulim. It’s not like this should come as a surprise.”
“True, but you’ve been saying that for the past sixteen years, and she’s almost fifteen now. I think she was hoping you would wait just one more year for her to be old enough to go with you,” Uriel softly said.
Dazien looked over at the temple he knew Jennica was waiting in. “You think she actually wanted to come with us? She always complained about me becoming an Adventurer and leaving. It didn’t seem like she wanted to be anywhere near me while risking my life by fighting monsters.”
“I think she would have preferred to have been part of your dangerous adventures rather than left behind to wonder if you were already dead or not.”
“Mew?”
Dazien looked down as a small black kitten rubbed against his leg and shook his head as a smile forced its way onto his face, “I’m glad you made it, Bliss. We weren’t sure if you would get our message in time or have the chance to stop by with all the monster clearing that I know your party has been busy handling out in the wilds. We wanted to say goodbye before leaving soon.”
Bliss meowed again before hopping up onto Uriel’s shoulder and saying in a small voice, “We will be leaving soon, too. Going to Chriss’s home.”
“She’s from the Renko duchy to the east, isn’t she?” Uriel asked, giving the chimera a gentle rub behind her ear.
The kitten bobbed her head, whether in affirmation or just trying to get a better position for ear rubs, though he wasn’t sure. “Yes. Her mom and dad said to return when Emerald and no more blood moon.”
Dazien paused at that and decided, “I think we’ll make sure to do the same. No matter where we might be in our travels, we’ll return here to at least visit when we hit Emerald and eventually Ruby.”
“I’m sure we’ll be visiting much more than that,” Uriel said. “With Phoenix’s portal, it won’t be as difficult to return as it will be to journey to a new location in the first place. We can be sure to come back for holidays and such if we’re not caught up in a war or something ridiculous like that.”
“Considering our end goal, that’s not too ridiculous, unfortunately,” Dazien admitted with a sigh, then straightened and said, “Well, I’ll leave you two to say your farewells—”
“I don’t like ‘farewells,’” Bliss interjected. “Farewell is like the end. How about ‘see you later’ instead?” she asked, looking between both of them with wide begging cat eyes. Dazien swore she used her owl transfiguration to make those eyes even more impossibly round and adorably irresistible.
He chuckled, though, and affectionately patted her head, “That’s a good point. We’ll see each other again and be sure to send letters. This is definitely not the end for all of us.”
Once she began purring, Dazien made his way toward the temple while Uriel sat down against the Gemveil Tree’s trunk to chat with Bliss. He wasn’t exactly sure what his partner might say to the little chimera that had such a polar effect on his life. Going from a source of his nightmares to an empathetic friend hadn’t been an easy journey, but Dazien was glad to have watched both of them walk it.
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Now, he had to say his own goodbye to the girl he had also impacted the life of and who had impacted his own in return.
Meeting Jennica had been one of the worst experiences of both of their lives as he saved her life by claiming her father’s. He still remembered that night vividly. The moment of indecision he had battled with as he saw a ten-year-old girl getting beaten to death in an alleyway by a man much larger than he was. The pleading look she had given him as she reached a tiny hand in his direction, unable to speak yet begging for him to help her.
That was the first time he had killed anything.
He still wasn’t sure if he regretted the action if he was honest with himself. There were other routes he probably could have chosen, like getting one of the guards, but he had chosen to stand between Jennica and the monster plaguing her life.
It was also the first time he had needed to deal with Tulim’s justice system after he took Jennica to the temple of the Mender. Going through his own trial of murdering a man, it was Jennica’s testimony and proof of injuries that kept him from his own execution.
She had clung to him ever since. His little ‘Sprig,’ who was so full of potential, like a tree sapling, yet had a trouble-streak as bad as a Spriggan, those most mischievous of Fae. She was always happy to see him when he visited the orphanage, refusing to get adopted and often sneaking out of the temple district to visit him and Uriel at their apartment.
He often feared she would become smitten with him if he gave her too much attention, but she had always treated him more like Uriel had said: like family. He wasn’t old enough to adopt her himself —the legal age to do so being thirty— but she had often hinted at wanting him to, despite them only being six years apart in age.
When she had learned he was pursuing becoming an Adventurer, however, her entire demeanor towards him had shifted. Anger was all she offered him. He wasn’t sure this time would be any better.
As he reached his destination, he lightly knocked on the door. No answer came from her room, and he sighed before gently saying, “Sprig? Would you mind letting me in to at least say goodbye? Then you’ll never have to deal with me again if you don’t want to.”
No response came at first, but as he was about to turn to leave, the door cracked open, and a tear-stained face looked up at him. “I don’t want you to say goodbye.”
His expression softened, and he amended, “Can I at least have a last conversation then… before we leave?”
She nodded and backed up to let him inside before going over to collapse on the edge of the bed, looking as though the world had finally defeated her.
He carefully sat on the bed next to her, playfully bumping her shoulder with his own as he asked, “Are you going to be good for Priestess Anna while I’m gone?”
“I’m not ten anymore,” she scoffed, rolling her eyes at him. “I know how to behave.”
“You tried to bite a prospective parent a few months ago, if I recall correctly,” he pointed out with a flat look.
“Maybe the creep shouldn’t have had their hand so close to my teeth, eh?”
Dazien chuckled. “Alright, fair point. I know I’ve dealt with my fair share of creeps trying to adopt me.”
“You know the other kids still call them ‘purple-creepers’?” Jennica asked, seeming more grown-up to him at that moment. She looked up and admitted, “It took me a while to realize it was because of you. I don’t—” She paused, looking back down at her lap before adding quietly, “I don’t want anyone but you to adopt me. I don’t want you to leave me behind.”
He gave a pained smile. “You know I can’t adopt you yet, Sprig. By the time I can, you’ll already be out on your own like I was. However, I’m not leaving forever, and I’m not abandoning you to fend for yourself either.”
She scrunched her nose in confusion as she asked, “What do you mean? You’re not going to be here anymore, right?”
“I still plan to come back and visit when I can. I’ve also been working on a new support system to help those you say I’m leaving behind.”
Jennica looked up at him with a raised eyebrow in silent question.
“If I haven’t returned by the time you turn sixteen next year, you’ll be able to go to the Sacred City and get support with starting out your new life as an independent person. I’ve left instructions with Patricia Wayland in regard to you specifically, but I’ve also been forming a new program for the other orphans to have more opportunities and a better chance out there than I ever had. House Wayland will be helping with providing inexpensive housing and finding job opportunities for orphans who age out of the temple instead of getting adopted.”
She stared at him with wide eyes and asked, “You’d do that for all of us?”
He smiled. “Of course. I know I’ve often spoken of becoming a king, often in jest, but one of the driving motivations behind that desire is to be able to make real change for the people who need it most. As both a noble and successful Adventurer, I’ve gained the opportunity to make some of those dreams a reality already.” He bumped her shoulder again, “Even if I’m not here to sit next to you, I want you to know that I’m always trying to do my best for you and the others. I don’t want to see you suffer with the same struggles and uncertainty that I had to.”
Jennica stared at him for a long moment before carefully leaning against his arm —the way she would often do when she was younger when he would read to her. After a moment, she asked, “You said you gave instructions to some other Wayland about me specifically?”
Dazien smiled more to himself than to her as he admitted, “Only if you didn’t find another family before you aged out.”
She glanced up at him again with those questioning brown eyes, and he finally said, “If you still wish it in another decade, I told Patricia that I’d like to adopt you into my family… like Paul did for me.”
Her jaw dropped open in surprise, and he added, “I know you’ll almost be an adult yourself by then, but—”
“Yes, please!” she interrupted, wrapping him tightly in a hug.
Dazien chuckled and clarified, “If I’m away by the time you’re sixteen, go see Pati, and she’ll help get you set up in my place. I know she’ll treat you like family. Don’t trust her with choosing everything for you, but know that she’ll have your best interests at heart. You’ll be given a place to stay and an allowance, though I still expect you to pursue some kind of career as whatever you’d like. Maybe try a few different things if you’re unsure. I’m also going to be funding your Aspects.”
“I don’t want to fight monsters,” she instantly replied.
He shook his head, “I don’t expect you to, Sprig. That’s what I do so that, hopefully, you won’t have to. Become a Crafter, or a Utility Caster, or whatever else might strike your fancy. I don’t recommend using your allowance to buy Monster Seeds, but I also won’t stop you from doing so.”
Dazien wrapped an arm around her shoulders to return her hug and added, “I know your father wasn’t a good one, and I’m not sure I’m doing it right either, but I want you to know that you’re never alone, even if I’m not here to prove it.”