There is no force as protective and comforting as a mother’s hug. My mum held on to me like she would never let go again. My worries melted away, and my eyes closed.

I had so many questions.

When I opened my eyes again, I was lying on my dirt bed. I'd fallen asleep in my mum's arms.

A single night's rest at home felt like heaven.

It was night-time. The fluttering of feathers, and the sound of rain on my roof drew my attention. They were faint. Like they were trying to hide from me.

Through the cracks in the wood, I saw a large stomach, and then two eyes staring down at me. The puffer made its way from one end of the roof to the other. It watched me the entire time, trying to check from every angle that I was safe.

After it saw that I was okay, it let out a low squawk and flew away.

I watched it with a smile. I learnt many things in the last few days. Some of them I didn’t want to know, like how helpless it felt to be a prisoner. This was the first time I had faced adversity like this, in both my lives.

I wanted to make more friends. And fix the relationships of old ones.

William had saved my life by stepping forward when I fought Eli. Gerial had only made the effort to use the Mark to reach me because he was my friend. I couldn’t face all my challenges alone.

It was more than that. They had helped me emotionally, and it was genuinely fun to know them. I needed some more fun.

I closed my eyes again and then I heard the sound of my door opening.

There were rays of sunshine in the air now. My dad was trying to be sneaky as he made his way inside to visit me. He looked down at my bed and saw me staring straight at him.

“Hey champ.” He gave my head a pat. “How’s it going?”

That was a good question. I opened my mouth to answer and found that I couldn’t.

I took a moment to think.

“There’s a lot that’s happened over the last few days. I’m still trying to accept it.” I spoke.

The kidnapping. The church. My parent’s secret. All of these loomed under the umbrella of my impending death. Strangely enough, the idea of dying was the least distracting.

“I’m going to help you through that.” My dad said. “In fact, I'd like to talk to you... about our family.” He hesitated. “But only if you’re okay with having this conversation.”

My drowsiness seeped out of my body, replaced by the cool sensation of excitement. My family situation. I still didn’t know what my mum had done. I thought I would have to pry it out of him, but he was coming to me himself.

“I’m always happy to have a conversation with you, dad.” I smiled.

My dad smiled back, and then it dropped. He took a seat on the edge of my bed, and his foot tapped against the ground nervously.

“I've had a lot of time to think. About life, about family, and my mother. She's wanted to see you for a long time. I've decided that my issues shouldn’t affect you.” My dad spoke. “Not when it’s also hurting others.”

His clothes ruffled as his fingers dug through his pockets. His arm paused, hesitating, and then brought out a piece of paper. It was an envelope with a bright teal wax seal.

I stared at it. I hadn’t been expecting this.

“It’s a letter. From your grandmother. She sent it as soon as she heard about your situation.” My dad breathed in. “Gosh, I haven’t seen her in years. Apparently, she’s been asking about you every day, and when you disappeared, I realised what a fool I was to keep my family apart from each other.”

He held it out to me. His hands barely grazed it as he held it delicately between two fingers. As though it was a priceless object instead of a piece of paper.

She’d addressed it to me?

That didn’t make sense. She didn’t know I would survive. I took the envelope cautiously and unsealed it. A letter unfurled, as well as another piece of paper. Both had their words scrawled in elegant handwriting.

My dad looked at me expectantly.

The words were in front of me, but I felt reluctant to read them.

Had my family treated my dad poorly? I don’t know.

I didn’t consider them a priority. They hadn’t been there for us.

I shook my head. That wasn’t how I should be thinking about this.

Sometimes situations were complicated.

If they were making the effort to fix our relationship, then I would support it. I looked at my dad, at his smile, and then at the letter.

Dearest Andross,

I know you shall make it out of the situation you’re in. Call it grandmotherly instincts, or blind hope. In truth I have wished to meet with you since the day you were born. It was only when my dearest granddaughter, your cousin, Berlia, spoke of you and your disappearance that I realised what a fool I’ve been. I want to meet you, and I shall make sure I accomplish the steps necessary to achieve this end.

Our family has many troubles. The majority of us are caught up in politics, and for reasons I shan’t go into this means they are not as accepting of you as they could be.

Quite frankly, I don’t give a shit.

Please find enclosed the address to my private estate.

Yours truly and forever.

Gloria Jâl.

Gloria. My grandma’s name was Gloria. Warmth blossomed in my heart. I had a grandmother. She cared about me.

The sentence about the family worrying about me made sense. Especially considering what I’d heard at William’s mansion.

“You’re leaving me hanging on a cliff here, champ.” My dad’s foot was tapping against the ground ferociously. “What did she say?”

I could see different emotions crossing his face. Pride, worry, happiness. I handed him the letter and he shook his head.

“That’s for you.” He tucked it away.

“She wants me to come and visit her.” I smiled. “At her house. She didn’t give me a time or date. I… I wouldn’t mind going sooner, rather than later.”

She had reached out to me, and her letter had made me smile. My grandma was worried about me.

“Her house?” My dad paused. “Oh, yes. Her house. Maybe we should buy you a new suit.”

My old one had gotten dirty. I blamed my time in captivity and the subsequent destruction of everything around me.

I shivered as the memories of my ordeal emerged in my mind. They would take some getting used to, but now I had the methods necessary to cope with them.

“Do you think she’ll mind if I wait a month? I still need some time to rest.” I didn’t want to push myself.

There were still other things I had to do as well.

“She’ll wait all the time she needs to. I’ll get a response back to her and let her know that you’re interested.” My dad smiled. “Now then, is there anything you want to talk about with me?”

There was so much to tell him, and to ask him. The Mark. The church. I wanted to ask him about my family. I needed to know what my mother had done.

Then I took a breath in and breathed out.

“How about we take a break today?”

There was so much to do, but my mind needed to relax. My grandma had contacted me, and that had started the day off with a warm feeling.

My dad sat back and relaxed his head against the dirt.

“That sounds pretty damn good.” My dad paused. “Don’t tell your mother I said damn.”

“You don’t have to worry about that. I know way worse words.” I teased.

We fell into a comfortable silence. The things I needed to do took a back seat to the things I wanted to do. I wanted to do nothing.

When was the last day I hadn't done anything?

It felt like I’ve been preparing for so long that I hadn’t caught a break. There was always magic to practice and studying to be done.

I let the worries of the world drain away from me.

The mana around me danced joyfully. It had missed me. It rushed over my dad, and across the roof. I raised my hand into the air and felt the mana push against it.

It was nice.

Then I felt a new sensation. There was something calling to me. It had always been here, but I was only noticing it now.

It resided in small amounts in our house, but I could feel it growing in the direction of the city. It was metal. All of the metal around me called to me.

“I can manipulate metal now.” My voice floated into the air.

“Oh? That’s nice.” My dad responded.

I chuckled. I was expecting a bigger reaction, but my dad wasn’t a magician. He didn’t know the significance of what I’d said. It was refreshing.

I breathed in deeply and the world disappeared around me. Feeling the metal around me had reminded me of something. The blank space appeared around me, the earth symbol glowing brightly in the sky.

There was a new symbol next to it. Metal.

I hadn’t felt it appear, but that might also be because I was distracted at the time. I floated up to it and placed my hand against it.

It had layers, lines, and sections that flickered in and out of existence. It was ethereal.

This was advanced magic.

It emitted waves of power, but they didn’t clash with the earth symbol. They merged with it, cooperated with it, and together the waves flew off into the depths of my mind.

The sound of the door opening brought me out of my thoughts. I looked up and saw my mum standing there.

A minute later she was lying down next to my dad and I, all of us watching the roof in silence.

The mold had grown again. I chuckled and my mum asked me what I was laughing about. I told her about my imaginary stories that I’d created when I was a baby. The mold had been a wolf.

My mum was silent, and then she let out a melodic laugh.

My dad joined in with his own tales of childhood wonder. Adventuring in trees and pretending they were forests, tripping over an animal’s tail, which caused it to spray my aunt.

Then my mum added her own stories to the pile.

Hours passed and we never left the room. I didn’t move, I didn’t practice magic, but my heart was healed, and all was right in the world.

It was the most productive day of my life.

My dad and I made our way to the door and mum gave me a goodbye hug. Today was a day of relaxation, but there was a person I wanted to visit. I was confident that talking to them would be the cherry on top for this wonderful day.

I walked with dad to the Zodiac compound, and I paused at the entrance. There was something calling to me from the central spire. It probably had to do with my new attunement.

I let it be. My destination was the nature spire…

“Indra.”

“Toddler.”

My teacher and I meditated in the cultivation room.

I leaned towards him.

“I learned metal manipulation.”

His eye cracked open to peek at me, and then shut itself again.

“I hate you.”

Yes.

This day was wonderful.