Freesia plunged herself confidently, comfortably. The wooden contraption creaked beneath her small weight, and she panicked for a second, thinking it would break, but alas nothing happened. Just a false alarm. It could be fixed before any accident could occur.

I’ll ask Al to fix it later.

She made a mental note of it. Gabrielle, who was sitting on the opposite end of the table, eyed her with curiosity. These two weren’t the type to spend time with one another. They probably would never be actual friends. It was not that they hated each other. The time for hate had come and gone already. They shared too much for something like that.

There just wasn’t much else to be said at this point. They interacted normally with each other and were very cordial to one another, and in very specific situations such as this, they would get together and discuss what the next move should be.

“We have to do something about Raanan” Freesia made the theme of the conversation very clear from the start.

“I agree. It’s just… I don’t know what’s going through that kid’s head sometimes,” Gabrielle reached for her temple; visibly dismayed by the subject.

A problem that couldn’t be left to fix itself had occurred, given Raanan’s sudden change in attitude as of late.

“It’s not like him to be hurtful, he’s not a bad kid, I suppose Rania had an effect on him… things weren’t supposed to be like this but it’s not like we could have predicted this kind of reaction from those two” Freesia felt guilty about everything, she knew since way before Alden had left that she would have to be on high alert, Alden would come back home at any point after a few months had passed and there would be no letter to warn her about his arrival. There couldn’t be any records of this journey anywhere. He would avoid any and all cities and interact as little as possible with anyone.

he won’t be coming back tonight either way so there’s no problem if I drink a little.

She deeply regretted her thoughts.

Freesia couldn’t explain what happened. What kind of impulse came over her? For months, she had felt the small urge for a drink that she occasionally sated with a glass of wine. It wasn’t a desperate desire or an uncontrollable need. She also felt a longing for her husband from time to time. She wanted him back, even if he was as dumb as bricks. But this wasn’t urgent. She had been able to cope until then just fine, but that night her emotions spilled over as if a simple want had just grown into an uncontrollable deep desire and could be held back no longer.

Freesia really felt like she needed to drink. She felt her pent-up lust explode into a frenzied fire and as soon as everyone when to bed she got drunk and only woke up when she heard Raanan scream.

How come the one night that I decided to relax it’s the one time I shouldn’t have? It’s ridiculous.

“It’s also my fault. I know you two told me you had everything under control, but I should have been more attentive either way” Seeing her in deep thought, Gabrielle apologized.

Freesia waved dismissively, she couldn’t take Gabrielle’s apologetic look, it reminded her of a sad puppy “Don’t feel bad about it, you got the short end of the stick anyway, we didn’t even tell you everything didn’t we?”

“Well, I guess not, but now I understand why you didn’t.”

“You do?”

“Yeah, when you and Alden told me about bringing a girl to live with us, I accepted, but if you had told me she was a demon, I probably would have refused on the spot.”

“I think they prefer to be called Zafrir, you know.”

“Okey, I’m sorry "Zafrir" but will it matter what we call her once we’re all hanged?”

“It’s not illegal for non-humans to live in Ostara anymore, you know. It hasn’t been for a while now. There aren’t any causes for concern.”

Gabrielle wasn’t convinced, and it showed, it was true that non-humans were now “welcomed” to live in Ostara, that was ever since the king opened the borders some twenty-odd years ago, that doesn’t mean the people themselves were welcoming towards other races. Hearts took much more time to change, after all.

Elves were pretty much the only race that didn’t get rough treatment, and that was mostly due to the sacrifices the elves had made by refusing to leave their ancestral lands once King Enerin “freed” the south and “founded” the country. The Elven tribes that had already lived there for who knows how many years were “relocated”; many didn’t want to be banished from their ancestral homes, so they stayed, roaming about the country while enduring heavy persecution and discrimination.

With time, they became tolerated, and their presence normalized in the eyes of the Ostaran people.

It was thanks to them that now Freesia could live a “normal” life in her husband’s homeland, even if she would have preferred not to.

“You know what I mean.”

Gabrielle said to her, Freesia understood, even if elves don’t have the hardest of times, it doesn’t mean that other races won't, and the Zafrir are a special case unto themselves since even in Assythia exists places where they aren’t welcomed.

It may not be illegal, but that doesn’t mean it’s not going to receive push-back from the villagers. It was happening as they spoke, after all.

Freesia sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Things were going well up until the doorway, but Al said he would fix it.”

“I don’t think things are going to go that well. He may be able to convince Father, but Vilis is a hard bone to pick.”

“We can only hope at this point.”

“Yeah… hope” She thought Gabrielle sounded distant when she said that but chalked it up to her imagination.

“We should go back to our original problem. We can’t do anything about the villagers and Vilis, but we shouldn’t leave things to break apart around here.”

“Alas, that still doesn’t change the fact that we don’t know what’s happening to him.”

“I think that as of late, you haven’t been doing anything at all.”

“What do you mean?” Gabrielle’s face tone turned defensive.

“I mean, the way you seem to have detached yourself from him, you were all over Raan and Lucius when they were children, but lately it’s like you don’t want to put yourself in between them,”

“I’ve just been concerned with other things.”

Bullshit.

She wanted to say but held back since it wouldn’t be of any help to start a fight or to antagonize her; especially knowing that when it came to her, Gabrielle would listen, maybe it was a sense of obligation, due to status or regret, maybe the fact that Freesia was the older woman and Gabrielle saw her as an older sister type of figure, but Freesia knew she would listen to whatever she had to say.

“Too concerned to realize Raan was being beaten up by Lucius?” Freesia regretted those words as soon as they came out of her mouth. She didn’t even need to see her to know that Gabrielle was hurt by what she said.

A few months ago, Freesia was at her clinic teaching Lantana basic biology lessons when Joanne came running through the door, she thought the damn thing would come off its hinges from the way it opened, and in came Anne with a blood-covered Raanan, she felt her heart sink all the way to her stomach.

“WHAT HAPPENED?” It’s not normal for her to lose her composure, much less at work when she needs to be at her best, but when it comes to her family and her children, that’s when Free lost her cool.

“Training accident.”

“You call this training?!” She must have been really mad because even Joanne of Wald, a renowned monster hunter, seemed to pale and recoil in fear of her.

“What are you waiting for? An invitation? Put him on the table” Joanne complied, and she got to work. First, she cleaned the blood-covered face. Under all the blood, the skin was ruptured, and several parts were beginning to swell.

Who can do this to a child?

The question would leave her stunned. They all knew that Lucius had become more and more antagonistic towards Raanan, but to react in such a violent way. As soon as she finished patching up Raan and having Anne carry him back to his room, she went to see Lucius.

For the first time in her life, Freesia screamed and slapped her son. She did it as soon as she saw him even. Didn’t let him put a single word in, and both were in shock at this.

“So even you prefer him over me?” he said to her, his voice a whisper holding back more emotions than he would ever let on.

She couldn’t react. She was mad, disappointed, and hurt.

“Stay here,” she commanded. She would scold him for hours when she came back, but before that, she had somewhere to be and immediately went to Gabrielle's room and said many things to her that now she wasn’t proud of.

“Why would you let it go this far?!” she asked. Gabrielle was stunned, not even when she found out about her, and Alden did Freesia screamed at her. Not even when she came to her in shambles asking for forgiveness, she screamed at her.

But deep-down Freesia knew this was an accident, and that Gabrielle wasn’t deserving of all the blame, all of them were, Gabrielle, Alden, and herself, they were the ones that allowed their worries, insecurities, and mistakes to pass on to their children and just left them there, alone to grow and fester not daring to acknowledge that something was wrong behind the curtains.

And the ones that would pay the price for this were their kids.

It was very unlikely that Lucius and Raanan would ever fix their relationship now, they knew Lucius resented Raanan, but they didn’t do anything, they thought it was just children’s jealousy and it would come to pass with time, at some point Lucius would grow out of it, they were family after all.

Blood is thicker than water, and eventually, all water will be under the bridge.

But after this? There probably was no going back.

If only I had been stronger… if I didn’t let him see me that time, maybe things would have been different.

She resented herself, her past actions, and their past selves, and she was taking it out on all the wrong people.

“I’m sorry, it was unbecoming of me, it’s not your fault and I know it, Anne could barely stop him in time, you had no chance at all, and she was the one that let them spar, to begin with.”

“I know,” Gabrielle said, her voice several times smaller than usual “But Ed wanted me to look at him and think I made it all worse, I never should have let them do it to begging with, I’m sorry for that” she sighed “But now I don’t know how to look at him, it’s not like before, he stopped coming to see me, when Ed looks at me, he…”

Gabrielle looked dejected. She stopped talking and seemed to be in deep thought. After a few seconds passed, she continued.

“I’ve left him alone because I didn’t know how to act in front of him, but I can’t leave him to do whatever he wants, so next time I see him, I won’t let it go with just a warning.”

“Yes, that would be for the best.”