...

"Those are my memories," said Jeanne as she rested her chin atop the Lerneas egg. The sun outside was beginning to set, and the firelight in turn became comparatively brighter, underlining her baby blues with flickering orange. She was pensive, lips smoothed into a straight line of thought and remembrance.

"My memories of mother are few, but those are the clearest pieces I yet hold."

"Your mother knew Aine?" said Li. He turned to Old Thane. "Did you know this?"

"Aye, a little," said Old Thane as he continued to scratch his beard. "But Aine did not tell me much, only that she had made a promise to a desperate mother to make certain her little lass was cared for."

"That didn't seem a little strange to you?" Li sounded inquisitive as he was mostly curious. He knew from Old Thane about the youth he had spent with Aine, but surprisingly little of their quiet and retired farm life. 

Li also had a general interest in what Aine was like. Her notes were methodical, precise, and taken with the intent to be reviewed and constantly used. As an academic, Li could tell how someone studied, and, by extension, thought by their notes, and she was remarkably similar to him in this regard. He would have liked to converse with her as an academic. 

"Lad, such a story was one of many thousands at the time," said Old Thane, his head shaking. "The years surrounding the secession were bloodied with turmoil. Grain from the Republic stopped flowing and Duvin had yet to clear its monstrous jungles to replace the lost crop. Many a mother let their weakest, youngest children starve. And those with weaker hearts left their children to the orphanages, unable to feed their young yet unwilling to see them waste away."

"I see." Li nodded. "And Aine, seems she was from the north, or at the least, knew quite a bit about it. By any chance, was she an elf? Beastman? Spirit? Dragon?" He rattled off the species he knew to live in the north, at least according to what he knew from the few books about the world that Aine had in her collection.

Which, come to think of it, made more sense now. Aine had books detailing the history of the south, of its cultures and peoples. Those were the books of a foreigner wanting to fit in, and Old Thane, though he had crossed the border with Aine, wasn't the type to pore over pages to get a sense of a new home.

No, it was Aine, ever the scholar, who had gotten those tomes to assimilate with the southern humans.  

"Aye, I met Aine north. Saved her from a maddened ogre in the stonespires north of Montagne. We crossed down to the south together and never separated since then." Old Thane shook his head. "But anything other than human? Nay, lad, I do not believe so. Before the secession, times were different. Quite a few human men and women lived north, and the border was not guarded with such ironclad will. Perhaps she was more than human, yet never did she mention it, and never did I find reason to ask."

"I see." Li glanced over to Sylvie and Azhar and saw that they were unsurprised by Jeanne's memories. "I take it this isn't the first time you two are hearing this?"

"No," said Sylvie. "We've always known that Jeanne had a connection to Aine and this house. She led us here, after all, once we noticed she sometimes sneaked out and came back with a full stomach and new clothes."

"Ain't that right. Wasn't everyday that a run of the mill orphan got shoes without holes in em'," said Azhar.

Jeanne smiled at the two, her previously stiff expression fading into a delicate smile. 

"Look at that," said Li as he pointed to Jeanne.

Jeanne's eyes widened in confusion while Sylvie and Azhar scrutinized the hero's face to see what was up with it.

"Your smile. You didn't have it before." Li withdrew his hand, resting it at his knee as he gave Jeanne a knowing look. "Means you know where your real family's at. So, what's the issue? The duchess's offer should mean nothing to you then.

Jeanne nodded to Sylvie and Azhar, her eyes softening as she took a deep breath in. "I know, I know, but there is still a sense of…emptiness? There has always been a yearning within me to know who my father was. I have had it for years and years. I wish I knew what he meant to mother. What I meant to him."

"Evidently not much." Li knew he sounded harsh, but it was just the truth. Sylvie looked at him concern, but he pressed on. He knew Jeanne, deep down, understood what was right, there was just an irrational part of her heart borne from so much abandonment that made her still want to know her father.

"Think about it. Sunstar, if he is your father, has enjoyed decades of fame and praise. People think he's a living god. They practically worship him. He's had all the time and resources to try and find you, and he hasn't."

Jeanne bit her lip nervously. "I understand that too, and yet-"

"I get it. You're still curious. You want to give him a chance, especially because he's someone you've been looking for your whole life. Let me ask you, what about your mother? What do you think about her? Can you forgive her?"

"She, I have come to terms with. Though her loss pained my heart dearly, and, I must admit, my being still bleeds at the memory, I knew she loved me. When she left, I knew she had to; I knew she did it for me."

"Exactly," said Li. "Family bonds are strong. Magnetic. They pull you in even when they should mean nothing." He raised a finger. "But in the end, they should always be supporting you. Pulling you up, even if there's going to be pain. Your mother left you, but she did so to pull you up, to give you a chance in this world.

But Sunstar? He's promising to drag you away from the life you chose. From the family you chose. If he's going to drag you down, then he's not fit to be called family."

Sylvie reached out to grab Jeanne's hand. "Jeanne, all of us promised to change the world for the better, to ensure that the hardships we endured when we were young would never fall upon any more children."

Jeanne nodded.

"We knew that none of us could do that alone, so we promised to do it together. Together, Jeanne."

Jeanne squeezed Sylvie's hand. "I know, Sylv, I do. I would never abandon you two, I merely thought, perhaps, if I could just sit down and talk with him, maybe I could just...understand."

"Li is in the right, lass" said Old Thane. "He seems to be absorbing more and more of my wisdom by the moment." The old man smiled for a second before growing stern. "Family is there for you. We have always been here for you, but that hero, however great he may be, however many feats of heroism he has performed, has nary held a single thought about you. I understand you wish perhaps to still talk with him, but I fear what little he has to say will but hurt you more."

"Only family I ever had tried to sell me to an Arcana scholar as spell fodder," said Azhar. "I sure as hell know if I ever saw their like again, it ain't my lips that'd be movin', it'd be my damn fists. Blood ain't reason enough to be deservin' your attention, Jeanne, let alone yer tears."

Jeanne looked around the room, at the eyes of everyone that had given her support and advice, and breathed in, closing her eyes. Her expression became blank as her chest expanded, and as she exhaled, it was like she had breathed out all her worries and concerns. An untroubled smile graced her face as she nodded. 

"I don't know what came over me." Jeanne took her hands and slapped the sides of her temple. "There, I'm fine now. Why did I ever consider that request? To even talk with the man who left my mother to suffer for so long? Of course, a man of such foul character, no matter his deeds of greatness or faith, would have nothing of worth to say to me."

"Cause your heart's too big for your chest," said Azhar, shrugging. "Surprisin' as that is."

"Az, where have you been looking!" Sylvie punched Azhar's shoulder lightly.

"Hey now, I'm proud of my muscles, figured it'd be the same for women and-" Azhar's eyes glanced to Sylvie and her slender, but modest proportions. "Aight, I'll stop while I'm ahead."

Jeanne laughed as Sylvie leered at Azhar, and the tension in the room dissipated, fading away as the talk shifted from an uncertain future to a happy past, of laughter-filled remembrances of childish antics on Old Thane's farm, of loving reminiscence of Aine's gentle and healing hand, of struggles in the orphanage where each of the three held each other up through many a scrape and bruise.  

And though Li had never been a part of this family, of a family tied to Old Thane from years before Li had shown up, he could still see that at the end of it all, it was still family.