Val glanced at the ruins on the wall illuminated by the flickering torchlight. He couldn't recognize a single character. As far as he could tell, the civilization had been crushed at least a thousand years ago. Some parts of the building they were traveling through had partially fallen. Wherever Nadia was taking him, it sure was interesting.
Val had actually been the one to get hold of the map. Nadia had been the one to grab it from him not two seconds after his hands first touched it. She refused to give it back for some reason totally unfathomable to him. It hardly mattered, though. He figured she could read a map as well as he.
"Uh!?" Nadia cried. The world was plunged into darkness.
"Who do you think you are?" A stranger shouted, tossing random debris off his shoulders.
"What do you mean 'Who do you think you are'!?" Nadia exclaimed, trying her best to stand up and look tough. Sean refused to be out-toughed. He struggled to stand, and finally gave up when he realized the rock on his leg was too heavy. He decided to sit and look cool instead.
"I mean, how could anyone be so stupid to set off a trap like that?" Sean said, giving his head a toss that denoted more coolness than Nadia could ever hope to have. A few pebbles clattered from the top of his head to the ground.
"You should hardly be asking that of me!" Nadia growled, taking on her best threatening stance.
"Do you need any help getting that off?" Val said, indicating the rock. He was trying his best to keep Nadia from finishing off this boy.
"Getting what off?" Sean said tersely, his coolness temporarily hurt.
"That rock that is crushing your leg." Nadia said flatly.
"Oh, this pebble?" No problem. I've thrown larger rocks ten miles or more." Sean said, giving his head another toss.
"Which explains why you are still sitting on the ground." Nadia said happily. Sean scowled at her.
"Like you could ever lift something like this!" Sean said, pointing at the offending rock. Nadia began heading towards Sean just so she could show how well she couldn't lift the rock. Sean was horrified. Val held out his hand and stopped her. Sean breathed a sigh of relief. Val calmly dislodged the rock and set it down nearby, pretending that it was a bit heavy. Sean looked down at his leg. It was covered in blood. He felt all of his limbs become heavier and the world become dim.
"He fainted." Nadia said flatly.
"Well, let's help him out." Val said, picking the boy up.
"You can help him out. I don't feel like being charitable today for some reason." Nadia glared at the tunnel supposedly leading to treasure, now impossible to travel through, crossed her arms and headed for the nearest exit. Val briefly wondered if his sister ever felt charitable, and then followed her out of the hallway.
Sean blinked as bright light flooded his eyes. He turned his head to the side and attempted to place his hand somewhere between the sun and his eyes. He didn't recall being in the sunlight. As far as he knew, he was in some obscure ruins scouting out treasure, and dealing with- "Oh, no." Sean looked up to see Nadia glaring down at him. "Not you." Nadia remained motionless. "Well? Are you going to yell anything?" Sean asked, annoyed that he wasn't getting more of a reaction.
"One, I never yell. Two, I am supposed to be watching your worthless self while my softy brother goes out to find some more kindling; which means I am not required to talk to you."
Sean strained to think of something intelligent to say back. "Fine!" He finally ended up retorting. Nadia twitched in some way that resembled a triumphant smile, and the decided the fire was more fun to watch than the boy.
Sean stared at the trees. He stared at the sky. He stared at the fire. He was getting very bored. He wished he could get out of the area, but he didn't dare move his poor mutilated (in his mind at least), leg. As much as he would hate to admit it, he didn't like pain very much. He could heal it, but there were other people around. He shuddered at the thought of other people learning that he had a talent for white magic.
"You cold?" Nadia asked.
"Shut-up." Sean replied.
"Hello!" Val said, appearing in the tiny clearing. He dropped a massive pile of sticks down by a tree and looked over to Sean. "You're up!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm awake." Sean muttered.
"Have you tried standing yet?" Val asked curiously.
"Are you nuts!?"
Nadia snickered. "It's healed, you idiot."
"It is?"
"It is." Val said. "I can do a little white magic. I'm not great at it, though, so it probably still be sore. There may be a scar."
Sean moved his leg slowly, testing it. It felt a little funny, but it didn't hurt. He slowly stood up. It felt like someone had bruised his shin, but that wasn't nearly as bad as it had been feeling.
"So, what's your name?" Val asked, poking some kindling into the fire.
"Sean." Sean said absentmindedly, still testing his leg.
"Okay..." Val said, unsure of what else to say. "Uh, I'm Val, and this is my sister, Nadia."
"So?" Sean said, grabbing his pack and making motions to leave.
"You're leaving?" Nadia said, surprised.
"Why would I ever, in my wildest dreams, want to stay here?" Sean snapped.
"Because only an idiot would walk through the woods at this time of night?"
"I can take care of myself." Sean said proudly.
"Like Hell you can." Val said calmly.
"You think you would have made it out of those ruins by yourself?"
"Of course."
"Suit yourself." Val shrugged.
"I will."
"Good-bye."
Sean grunted and disappeared into the woods.
"My, was he a grateful type." Nadia commented.
"You didn't help, as usual." Val smiled.
"I don't think my personality defect made much of a difference." Nadia stared into the woods where Sean disappeared.
Sean held the boot over his eye, trying to see inside. All he saw was pitch darkness. Damn-it, he knew there was a stone in there somewhere! He felt around inside it, trying to grab the troublesome rock. How come stones always gave him so much trouble? He lifted it up to his eye again, just to make sure it was still pitch black in there. Plunk! "Yowch!" Sean's hand flew up to his eye just after the stone bounced off of his eye. Boy, was he having a bad day! Well, at least now that he was out of the sight of people he could finish the healing job on his leg. He concentrated on pulling the magic to the surface, which came quite easily. A kind of soothing calm came over his body, concentrating in his hand and leg. After he was finished his leg felt slightly better than new.
"Now, to get to a decent hotel." Sean said, standing up, entirely uncertain of himself. He glanced around the dark woods. He could either bump around blindly through the forest in the dark, or risk being a target by performing a light spell. Neither of the choices sounded pleasant. He sat back down and looked into the forest. Now he was getting creeped out. Every shadow resembled a beast or danger of some kind. Well, there was no way he was going to go crawling back to those freaks he met in the ruins. In the end pride won over, and Sean cast a light spell. He winced as the frightening shadows became suddenly more numerous and outstanding. Then, taking a deep breath, he wandered farther into the forest.
Sean was wandering around in circles. He knew this because he had passed the light in the forest that showed the freak's campfire several times. He stared at it now. It looked better than wandering around in circles. After several moments of deliberating, he took the plunge.
"You're back." Val commented. He had watch this time.
"Yeah, well, you know." Sean said definitively, looking at his feet. He plunked down on a log.
"How's your leg?"
"Better."
"2,000." Lisa Gabriev stared straight into the bandit's eyes and grinned.
"That's too high." The bandit leader said nervously. He was getting frightened by the girl, and was beginning to think that he should have sent one of his less important suckers to negotiate for the exact price he wanted.
"No deal then."
"Wait, how about 1,750. That's my last offer."
"Sorry! No deal." Lisa readied a flare arrow with the hand hidden under the table. The bandit leader frowned angrily.
"I will get that antique missy! Men! Attack!" Several bandits appeared from every obvious hiding place in the area.
"Flare Arrow!" Lisa replied, launching it at the leader. So much for him; now for the others. Lisa cracked her knuckles and grinned. A nice-sized fireball would do the trick.
Lisa left the charcoal remains of the bandits and sold her antique to a dealer later that day for 3,000. All in all, things were going well.
"What is wrong with you anyway?" Sean asked Val. They were walking to Atlas City. Val and Nadia were traveling there to find trouble, and Sean said that he was headed that way for a reason he didn't specify, as well. For some reason he also didn't specify, he decided to travel with them.
"Huh?" Val said.
"I mean, 'Val'? You look like a pretty buff guy. Why would you choose the name 'Val'?"
"That's my name."
"What is it short for?"
"It's not short for anything."
"It has to be. What? Valarie?" Sean said, sarcastically.
"It is short for Vargarv." Val said, getting irritated.
"Var...Garv!?" Sean stopped and stood in shock for a few seconds. "Woah, I'm getting outta here! And, I never mentioned any Valarie!" Sean said, waving his hands and backing up.
Val sighed. "Hold it. I have no ties to Garv."
"Then, why the name?"
"It's a long story."
Sean was interested again. "But, I bet it's a good one."
Val sighed again. He didn't particularly like the story, and he didn't really want to tell it to Sean. He took a deep breath. "I had a past life in which I was a servant of Garv's and he gave me that name then I was reborn and my mother Filia took care of me."
"Um, cool, Val! But, I get the feeling that wasn't the whole story."
"You don't need to know the whole story." Val said, glaring at Sean.
"Of course not, but that sounds so cool, and that's all I need to know!" Sean said, backing up and waving his hands again. "So, are you still a Mazoku?" Sean asked excitedly. Val stared at the kid. "Okay! Okay, I get the hint. No more questions." They walked in relative peace for a while.
"So, are you really his sister?" Sean said, turning to Nadia.
"Eh!? Yes! I really am his sister." Nadia said, irritated.
"No, I mean really, like a blood relative."
"Close enough."
"Yes! But not really." Sean said, sounding like he had just figured out a Sherlock Holmes mystery on the first sentence.
"I'll really you." Nadia scowled. "Okay, fine. But who are you?"
"Me?"
"You."
"Um, I told you. I'm Sean."
"Sean what? If I may ask."
"Um, heheh, Sean Saillune?"
Nadia and Val nearly fell over. "Sean Saillune?" They chorused, astonished.
"As in, royal family Saillune?" Val asked.
"Unfortunately." Sean crossed his arms, irritated. Then, he realized he was mimicking, uncrossed his arms, and grasped his hands behind his back, irritated.
"No wonder I don't like you." Nadia said, matter-of-factly.
"What's that s'pposed to mean!?"
"Just what I said, exactly which word didn’t you understand?"
"You, you...You!" Sean said, seething.
"Me?" Nadia smiled, crossing her arms.
"Simmer down, we're almost there." Val said. Sean quieted a little. Nadia smiled.
"I'm in trouble." Lisa said to herself, looking around at the ring of bandits seeking revenge. This was not good. They were all spread out so that she couldn't get a clear aim at all of them at once. Her day had been going so well, too. She was just outside of Atlas City, if only she could get in so that the resulting confusion would help her out a little. She drew her sword. It might help to fight with a sword this time, considering that bandits tended to only go at her one or two at a time in swordfights. A bandit came at her with his sword. They clashed together, and her sword broke. The bandit posed. Now what to do? "Hey, can't you guys give a girl a break?" Lisa said, readying a fireball in her hand.
"Not when you fried our boss." The bandit tried a different pose.
"Fireball!" Lisa shouted, throwing the flame at the bandits blocking the trail to Atlas City. Then, she took off towards the city.
"So, this is the famous Atlas City." Val said, looking appreciatively at the bustling crowds going through their daily motions. Stands lined the streets. One could get everything one needed for a journey here. Val eyed a stand displaying archery equipment. He could use some new arrows.
"Somehow I thought it would be more impressive." Nadia observed quietly, finger to her mouth in concentration. Val face-faulted.
"This is nothing." Sean scoffed. Val face-faulted. He picked himself up from the ground.
"At least I could get some more arrows." Val said, working his way to the archery stand.
Val and Sean and Nadia explore the city. They come upon crispy bandits.
"What happened to you?" Val asked, surprised at the sight of a crispy human. That was the straw that broke the bandit leader's back.
"Get him!" He screamed to his remaining men. Nadia grabbed a surprised Val by his collar and took off, Sean close behind, headed out of Atlas City.
Running through a big, crowded city is not an easy task. Things get knocked over, people get run over, and general chaos ensues. In any case, it isn't easy to watch where one is going, one just hopes that others are paying attention. Needless to say, there was a crash.
Lisa glanced back to see the progress of the bandits behind her.
Val looked back to see how many bandits were left.
"Val!" Nadia cried, just before he crashed into a very pretty girl with pink hair. "Uh-oh." Nadia said, now ignoring her brother and Lisa dazed and sprawled out on the ground. She looked around at double the number of bandits she saw earlier now surrounding them. "Uh, Val? You better get up." She said, nudging his side with her toe. Val looked up. Lisa looked up. Val wondered if maybe it would have been better not to look up.
Lisa, Sean, Val, and Nadia stood back to back in a circle, each facing a group of bandits.
"Um, maybe the city isn't the best place to fight in." Nadia said happily, trying to talk sense into one of the bandits. She didn't get any reaction. Val drew an arrow into his bow. Everything was still for a minute, then everybody charged at once. Val concentrated at setting loose arrow after arrow. Sean tried a Fireball. It didn't work very well. "What was that? A Firespark?" Nadia joked, not wasting this opportunity.
"Shut-up." Sean decided to fight with a sword instead. Lisa and Nadia concentrated at setting loose any Shamanistic attack they could think of and perform at a moment's notice. Soon the bandits learned that swords and iron knuckles didn't stand up to two magic users and an archer, so the remaining ones gave up and ran. They figured vengeance wasn't worth that much.
"Thanks for helping out." Lisa smiled at the three who "helped out". "My name is Lisa Gabriev." Lisa made a move to shake Val's hand. Val stared at it for a second like it was part of an alien, and then took it. Nadia noticed that and wondered.
"I'm Val Ro Copt, and this is my sister Nadia Ana Copt."
"And I'm Sean Fi-uh, Saillune."
"A member of the royal family? Really? Hey, do you all want to join me for lunch?" Lisa asked cheerfully.
"Okay." Val said.
"You can always tell a person's personality by what she eats." Lisa said later, chomping away at several plates of many of the things the restaurant had to offer, triple portions. (In Lisa's case it may have been less personality, and more heredity.) Nadia had her doubts about that statement. Sean was eating like he hadn't eaten in days. (In truth, he hadn't.) Nadia and Val just watched in disbelief.
"My, but you are friendly." Nadia choked out at last, desperate for something to say.
Lisa winked at her. "I make it practice to be one of the gentle creatures of the land." Nadia wasn't so sure about that, either. The girl had been lobbing Fireballs the size of Saillune at the bandits. Why was she being chased by them, anyway?
"How did you end up being chased, anyway?" Val asked, voicing Nadia's thoughts.
"They refused to give me a reasonable price for a valuable artifact I dug up."
"I bet." Sean mumbled.
"What's your name again, Saillune?" Lisa said threateningly.
"That's Sean." Nadia volunteered. "Oh, and you may also want to meet Sean-san's identity crisis, it likes to make itself well known. Sean gave Nadia a look that plainly said "Shut-up or die." Nadia beamed back at him.
"So, where are you from?" Val asked Lisa, trying to create a distraction.
"Here and there." Lisa replied vaguely.
"Oh. Where are you headed?"
"Why are you so interested?" Lis countered, tipping her head to the side and staring curiously up at Val.
"Just curious!"
"I have no idea where I'm headed."
"Oh. Neither do we. Hey," Val said, snapping his fingers and pounding his fist in the palm of his hand like he just had a great idea. "can we join you?" Nadia face-faulted out of her staring contest with Sean. She had to pay attention to this one.
Lisa laughed. "Well, I don't know. I guess. You have to take care of yourselves, though. I'm not planning on paying for any more of your lunches."
Nadia coolly opened the door to her brother's room, walked over to the bed, and sat down. She stayed silent for a moment. Then, "What in the name of L-sama do you think you're doing!?"
"Huh?"
"I said - "
"I heard what you said, I just...I don't know. Mother would be upset to here you using the Lord of Nightmare's name like that."
"Right, I care, really. Do you think she's cute, or something?" Nadia cooed.
"No, well, yeah, but, well..."
"Okay, I'm tired. See you in the morning." Nadia walked out of the room. Val stood there and blinked. He never could follow his lunatic sister.
"Your mother was who!?"
"Lina Inverse."
"No kidding!"
"Of course not."
"Do you know the Dorag Slabe?"
"Yes." Lisa said, guardedly.
"Awesome!" Nadia said, eyes sparkling.
"No."
"Huh? No what?"
"No, I won't teach it to you."
"Aw, but mother never let me learn it. I have to learn that spell!" Nadia cried. Lisa and Nadia were sharing a room to keep down costs. They had decided this a week ago, after they had had time to get used to each other.
"Why do you have to learn that spell?"
"Because it's so wonderfully destructive!" Nadia said happily, collapsing backwards on the bed.
"You want to learn it because of its destructive potential!?" Lisa stared at Nadia like she had just dropped the news that she was from planet X. "I thought you were a Golden Dragon! Aren't Golden Dragons supposed to be good and gentle and wise or something?"
"So I'm a demented Golden Dragon. That doesn't mean I'm a bad person." Nadia grinned.
"Shouldn't you have a Dragon form or something?" Lisa said, trying to change the subject. She really was curious about that, as well.
"Nah, I never could figure that out. Mother got very frustrated over that. She devoted hours to trying to teach me to transform."
"Mm...my mom died when I was eight years old." Lisa said quietly. She turned off the light, laid back and stared at the ceiling. A light from a street lamp illuminated it, so that strange patterns danced across it created by the flickering.
"Oh." Nadia said softly. "I couldn't imagine life without my mother." She paused. "Maybe I can...things would be a lot quieter."
"I would have liked to have had a mother for longer. I don't remember her well."
Nadia notice from Lisa's voice that she was starting to slip off into a daze of some sort. "I don't know," she tried to joke, "I wasn't allowed to do anything." Her voice started to get slightly bitter. "I eventually just snuck out after Val. She probably threw a conniption fit when she found me gone." Nadia seemed to think this funny in a bitter, sadistic way. It did succeed in slipping Lisa out of her daze, though.
"Oh, that's mean! My dad was always very nice. He seemed to be worried when I left, but he trusted me enough to let me go."
"I have a feeling my mother wouldn't trust me even if I was thirty years old. She always seemed like she was worried that something would take me away in the dark. It was ridiculous."
"Hm." I wonder what Sean is running away from." Lisa wondered.
"Who cares what the jerk is running away from." Nadia said, slurring her words as she started to suddenly fall asleep.
"Hm." Lisa said, still staring at the ceiling.
"Wait a minute." Sean said worriedly, looking around at the suddenly achingly familiar terrain. "Where. Are. We. Headed?"
"Saillune, Sean." Lisa answered cheerfully.
"Saillune. NO!"
"No!?"
"N-O. That spells 'no'."
"No kidding." Nadia said dryly. Sean was too worried to argue with Nadia.
"I'm not going."
"Of course you are." Lisa said confidently, grabbing Sean's collar and dragging him along.
"Why!?" Sean whined.
"'Cause you are my ticket into the castle."
"What!? Noooooo!" Sean opened his eyes to see Nadia smiling at his misery. She seemed to be enjoying this immensely.
"Oh, shut-up." Sean said to Nadia, crossing his arms. It was tough to look mean and cross while being dragged across the ground. Nadia pointed at herself in mock surprise, still grinning. Sean, as usual, would not be having a good day.
"Ooooh, I've got a stomach ache, I can't do this." Sean groaned.
"Sean's reactions are very interesting. Maybe you can get a reward from the King and Queen for returning him to his personal Hell, Lisa-san." Nadia suggested. "I'm sure his parents would like to see him back." She added, smiling.
"Shut-up." Sean glared at Nadia.
"Oh, come-on. Lighten up. I'm sure it's your fault, anyway."
The team was dragging the ailing Prince through the gates to the city of Saillune, much to the surprise of a dozen residents of the area. The group stayed the center of attention all the way up to the palace gates.
In fact, the gossip the the Prince was arriving reached the entire city by the time they were halfway to the palace gates. Because of this, the guards were waiting. They eyed the strange, tattered-looking group as they walked up.
One of the guards craned his neck to see behind Lisa so he could address the crabby Prince. "Prince Sean Fi - "
"Yes?" Sean said sharply, cutting the guard off. Nadia wrinkled her nose. She was starting to get mighty curious about this "Fi - " thing.
"Are these people traveling with you?" The guard asked, looking at the group doubtfully. Sean thought about this. If he answered no, his group was likely to get thrown into prison, or worse, get a speech by his grandfather. That would be cute. He could just imagine Nadia's face. But, if they were around, then his parent's upset reactions may not be so tough.
"Yes, they are. You can let us in." Sean turned around and stood up, brushing himself off. There was no use in acting so unbecoming of a Prince here.
"Oh, wow!" Lisa said, looking at the gardens between the gate and the entryway appreciatively. "I could live here."
"No you couldn't." Sean said tiredly, staring at the ground.
"Maybe you couldn't." Nadia said. She looked at Sean, and suddenly felt a little sorry for him. As the group reached the gigantic double doors Sean put his arm out. He pushed a door in, and disappeared inside. Val shrugged and they followed him into the giant, brightly lit entryhall.
"Hullo?" Sean shouted, lifting his head up from the ground and searching the room. A little girl about twelve years old stuck her head over the balcony a couple stories up.
"Sean!" She disappeared momentarily, and the reappeared dashing down the stairs. She raced across the foyer. Sean put out his arms and embraced her in a big bear hug. "Gee, I though you'd never come home again. You looked pretty serious when you left last."
"Yeah, well." Sean shrugged. The girl looked over at Sean's friends. She poked her thumb out, indicating Sean. "Man of many words." She joked.
"Lillia, meet Val, Lisa, and Nadia. I've been traveling with them now for a while."
"Hi." Said Val and Nadia.
"Hi!" Said Lisa.
"Should I tell mother and father you're here?" Lillia asked. Sean hesitated. "I take that as a yes." She said, darting off before Sean could get over his shock and protest.
"Smart girl." Nadia commented.
"You should take note." Sean said back. Nadia blinked at Sean in surprise. He wasn't supposed to be that smart, was he?
"Hello. Mother. Father." Sean acknowledged his parents existence by staring at the floor.
His mother had been looking over a stack of what seemed like endless proposals and his father had been avidly complaining about something - she couldn't remember what - when Lillia had burst into the room.
"Mother, father! Sean's home!" Lillia had shouted. Queen Ameria Wil Tesla Saillune had been shocked at first. She had actually begun to suspect that he was indeed never coming home. That seemed to happen in the Saillune royal family. King Zelgadiss Saillune's expression had changed from anger, to shock, and back to anger.
"I'm gonna kill him." He had decided.
"Zelgadiss!" Ameria had said sharply to him. Then she had run out of things to say, so she just took off out of the room, headed to the entryhall.
"Sean! Where have you been!?" Ameria shrieked now, trying to keep her voice from shaking.
"Around." He said. He lifted his eyes ever so slowly to see his father's expression. Seeing it, he decided the ground was a safer place to look.
"Who are these people?" Ameria asked, looking at the three strangers behind her son. Sean lifted his head up and looked into her eyes.
"I've been traveling with them, mother. Can they stay here for a while?" Sean asked quietly.
"Well, I don't see why not." Ameria said, looking over the guests uncertainly.
Lisa loved the food.
"I loved the food." Lisa said later, as the four members of the group sat around a big, beautiful, comfortable sitting room later than evening. She put her hands behind her head and slid down into the comfy chair she had claimed.
"We could tell." Nadia happily joked. Lisa reached over and batted her arm.
"You should enjoy life more." She giggled. Nadia stared at Lisa like she was a lunatic. Then she turned to her brother.
"Me?" She mouthed, pointing at herself. He only smiled and shrugged. Nadia stared quizzically at the wall. "Me?" She mouthed again. Somehow she doubted Lisa's statement. Sean had escaped his father's full fury for now, and just sat miserably in a nearby chair.
"Sean," Lisa started, "why are you so upset about being here? Your parents seemed nice."
"Ha." Sean said.
"I don't know, Lisa. His mother was nice, if a bit worried and flighty. His father seemed to be exuding anger from every pore in his body. In a quiet way, that is."
"Hm." Lisa thought, chewing on the end of a toothpick. "Ye, Gods Sean! What did you do?"
"What did I do?" Sean said, giving Lisa a dirty look. "I've had it with you guys. I'm going to bed. Good Night." With that he stood up, whirled around, and marched out of the room.
Val grabbed his boots and jacket, slipping them on over his pajamas. He looked back at the room and grabbed the blanket off of the bed as well. Then he quietly headed for the door. Once outside he quietly closed it, flinching a little at the click of the doorknob. Then he headed down the hall. He thought he had a pretty good idea of where to look...
"Sean?" Val said quietly, glancing into the dark stables. Sean looked up from his past occupation of staring miserably at a stall door to see a shape that somewhat resembled Val.
"Val?" He asked.
"Thought you might be here." Val came in and sat down on the pile of hay next to Sean.
"Who's this?" He said, indicating the dog trying to sleep in Sean's lap.
"Heh...this is Cindy."
"Cindy?"
"Yeah. He's the family dog. A golden retriever."
"He?" Val said, a bit taken aback. Sean smiled a little.
"Yeah, Lillie named him. We got him when she was four, and she was given the honor of naming him."
"Your mother was very nice." Val said calmly. Sean froze up a bit.
"Yeah, I guess so." He stared down at Cindy. "She's unusually accepting."
"Mm...my mother's pretty accepting, too. I don't have a father, though, so I don't know about them." Val looked straight at Sean.
"Don't worry, you're not missing much." Sean said grumpily. Val finally decided that he wasn't going to find out what was behind this unless he risked asking straight out.
"Sean, what happened?" He asked gently.
"What happened? Oh. Everyone seems to think it boils down to one incident." Sean stared at the wall.
"Well?"
"Well?"
"Well, what is wrong, then?" Val asked. Sean sighed. "We just don't get along. He has very exact ideas of who I should be, and I don't agree with them. I wanted to learn magic and swordsmanship and travel. He didn't want me to leave Saillune. I am a stubborn idiot, and he is a stubborn idiot, so neither of us would back down. Finally, I just up and left. For two weeks. When I got back I learned that my mother had gone into a deep depression and cried herself to sleep every night. She thought it was her fault, thought I was dead, or gone forever, or something. Father never forgave me for that. I seem to be marvelous at ripping apart my family." Sean said shakily. He crossed his arms, shivering. Val dropped the blanket he had brought with him into Sean's lap.
"Here, I think you would appreciate this."
"Thanks." Sean said, bringing the blanket up over his shoulders.