Chapter 20 – Sins of the Family.

It turned out that there were a number of quite nice places in Resinfalls, if you were familiar with the town, or knew where to look. Gardens, parks, and even a fountain that had been well maintained and still worked, nestled in-between two older buildings that were probably from the founding of the town, manicured trees surrounding it. With little else to do, they had gone out and explored, enjoying what there was of the day and each other’s company. Not a lot was said, but there didn’t need to be. Some topics were better left alone, both of the past, and what was to come. Just the act of being together, doing things together, was the gem of it all. And of course Callie was going to hold Uriah’s hand, Uriah taking it a step further and wrapping his arm around her whenever they stopped, Callie happily leaning into him. Felicia, in her fox form, spent as much time walking as being held in Julia’s arms, while Julia seemed happy and content, though wistful and thoughtful at times. There was, after all, a lot on all of their minds.

The arrival of the Guardians couldn’t be missed or mistaken though, like a blot on an otherwise perfect landscape. The roar of powerful engines, of two military grade helicopters closing in on the town, and then landing near the town centre. More things that her father had acquired using his network of connections, and kept aside for emergencies or for her parent’s personal use. Recently too she was certain, in the last couple of years. Thinking about it, there had been quite a lot of acquisitions in the last few years, with no real reason for it. Yes, the Guardians had magic and influence, too much of it in fact, but still, it just seemed odd.

The machines had been fully powered down by the time they wandered back, all of the passengers having disembarked, with a few still by the helicopters, and the rest now by the motel that they were staying at. Callie’s blood went cold, fear taking a grip as she looked at who was here. She knew that her father was going to be present, but still, seeing him here did a number on her, her grip on Uriah’s hand tightening. Her father was dressed in full Guardian fatigues, weapons included, and could have easily been mistaken for the soldier that he had once been.

“Hey, it’s going to be alright,” Uriah whispered to her, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze back.

Callie gave him a smile back. It helped, his words and having him there with her. Julia too, and Felicia, Callie drawing a little bit of strength from all of them being with her. But even still, what she had been through, the fears clawing at her mind, they were all very real too.

She recognised some of the other people that were there, a couple of other spellswords, the head of the archives, and one of the family’s guards, not that they actually needed them. A holdover from when magic hadn’t been a thing, ways of life that were firmly ingrained into the founding families. Another thing that she hated. The rest of the people she had no clue about, but given the way that one man looked at Julia, she assumed that was someone connected to Julia’s family.

They were only half a dozen paces from her father by the time he actually noticed her presence, looking to the side from his conversation with Riddling. She would have just gone back to the room instead, but she was well aware that doing that would have probably gone even more badly than whatever was about to transpire. He looked at them all, then her, confusion evident on his face as he looked her over, his gaze in particular lingering on her hand that was still in Uriah’s.

“Ah Julia, it is good to see that you’re unharmed, despite all that has happened,” her father started, facing Julia and giving her a smile. A smile that was completely fake, his eyes betraying his calculating nature.

Julia smiled back, before giving him a brief nod. “Thank you.” Her foundling mask was back on again, but here and now, that was a good thing, and the less that was said about what actually happened, the better.

Her father turned back to her again, his eyes doing another pass over her and Uriah, and going hard, the corners of his lips curling down. “What the hell is going on, Fraser,” he all but growled, his tone unpleasant, Callie flinching at the use of her deadname, and at his words in general. “Why have you not answered any of our calls?”

Callie took a deep breath, trying to steady herself. She had her magic. She had all of the others. She was not their pawn any more, even if they didn’t realise it yet. “My phone got destroyed, father. In the attack that I am sure Riddling has told you all about. An attack that I think you may actually know something more about.”

“It was enchanted, boy, and you don’t have use of your magic.”

Callie flinched again. She hadn’t thought it would, especially from him, but his use of those terms hurt. She could feel her magic starting to move, the tips of her fingers tingling.

“Does the name Alyther erl Tasuriet mean anything to you, father?” Her own voice had gone colder, and edge to it, and she did not like it at all. “Lightning aspected, powerful and skilled, and looking for a man named E’iures. Someone that he believed is connected to the Guardians.” She cringed at the pronunciation again. Why did that other person have to have a difficult name? At least Amber made it easier.

The flicker of recognition was but that, but she saw it anyway. He knew. He was involved.

“Any why was Riddling trying to open a rift at an anomaly, an anomaly that was all but dead? What is really going on, father.”

“I do not know these names, nor why you were attacked.”

Callie blinked. She had expected it, but still she was shocked. “Why are you lying to me, father? You sent Riddling along, have been in heavy conversation with him, and like you, he recognised the names.” A flicker of rage this time. She’d crossed a line.

“This was nothing but a routine mission, Fraser. One that you have been on many times. That is all that you need to know.”

“Like hell. We almost all died!”

“And you didn’t. I expect a full debrief on the way home. That is enough, Fraser. This conversation is over. Go get changed into some proper clothes and burn those ones, and for #$%$ sake, let go of his hand. You’re an embarrassment to the family, and I’ve had enough of it.” He then looked over at Julia again. “I’m sorry that you’ve had to put up with my son behaving this way.”

Julia blinked, shock on her face, her mouth open a little.

No, Callie had had enough. She’d been delaying, because she knew that it wasn’t going to go well, but it was long past that point now. Her father had not changed at all, not that she’d expected him to. “No, father.” she stated, her voice clear and steady. “Callie. My name is Callie. I’m your daughter. Not your son.”

Her fathers face became a mask of rage, his scowl threatening to tear his face apart as he took a step forward. “I was certain that we were long past this, Fraser. You are a man. You will never be anything else.”

“No, father.” Her voice had taken on that edge again. “A whole lot of people died. We almost died. And yet all you seem to care about is controlling my life, and my identity. No. Just no. I am a girl. I am Callie. No matter how much you tried to beat it out of me, it has always remained. This father, is who I am. Who I am comfortable being. This is me.” Callie, the witch. Not that he needed to know the last part.

She didn’t see it coming till it was too late, her father’s hand right at her face, fast, tinged with his magic. All she could do was stare at him in disbelief, and anticipate the blow and the pain that would follow, as had happened so many times before.

Except it never happened, Uriah letting go of her hand and suddenly on her other side, his hand over her father’s, stopping the blow just before it could connect.

“I will not let you hurt my Callie, Mr Calworth,” Uriah growled. “Not ever again.”

Her father’s face became controlled again, a far more dangerous expression than rage. “Fraser is not yours, boy. He is engaged to Julia.”

Uriah gave her father a wolfish grin. “She is my wife, Sir. And Julia’s in some ways as well,” he added, with a contemplative tilt of his head. “She is yours no longer.”

Callie’s father pulled his hand out of Uriah’s grasp, and stepped back as he crossed his arms behind his back, standing tall, still, and controlled, staring back at them. Callie could feel sweat collecting on her brow, and her heart was racing. All of the others around them had gone quiet, and all that she could hear was her own breathing. All eyes were on them. They had an audience, an important one, and they’d just made her father, a very important man in the eyes of the Guardians, look like a fool.

“Your mother is right.” Her father’s voice was just as controlled. Level. “You silly antics with Uriah have gone too far.”

In one quick seamless motion, he pulled out a handgun, aimed, and fired. There was almost no sound, the gun both silenced and enchanted, a sickening thud as Uriah was thrown backwards.

Callie paled, her blood going cold as she turned and rushed to her lover’s side, blood dripping from his head as he crouched down.

‘Uri!’ She almost screamed the mental message in worry.

‘That damn well hurt.’ She could sense the pain in his voice. ‘If it hadn’t been for Felicia’s barrier, he might have gotten what he wanted.’

“What the hell have you just gone and done?” Julia was all but shouting in the background. Callie could feel her rage. “Are you trying to completely destroy your daughter?” Felicia was possibly the only calm one among them.

‘She’s going to lose it soon. She’s too new to her vampiric nature...’ Okay, perhaps Felicia wasn’t that calm.

Callie crouched down beside Uriah, her hair falling over her face as she lifted his head up, her fingers tracing along the line that the bullet had left. It was but a graze, but head wounds had a tendency to bleed worse than they actually were. The fear, the worry, bled away. But it was leaving something else in its place. Anger. Rage. That her father had dared to try and kill Uriah. Her Uriah. Her husband.

They’d learn about her magic. There might even be someone connected directly to E’iures here. But she didn’t care. She would not let this one lie. Especially not her parents.

‘You’re not doing this alone, Callie. It was me that he tried to kill after all.’

Callie gave him a smile, and leant in, giving him a kiss. ‘I wouldn't have it any other way.’

Callie stood, pushing her hair back over her shoulders, Uriah standing up beside her as arcs of energy started to creep out around her. Bright, vivid, and intense. Her father was still standing there, gun now loosely held at his side, his focus currently on Julia as she advanced, her arms held straight down at her sides, energy gathering around her fingernails that looked almost like claws. ‘Please get her to stop,’ she sent to Felicia, as she tried sending the same emotion through her connection to Julia.

Something worked, Julia stopping in her tracks, turning to look at them, relief washing over her face. Then worry and understanding. Seeming to collect herself, she made a show of dusting off her jacket, bent down and picked up Felicia, and then turned and walked towards them. Her eyes had gone a deep red. “He’s all yours.”

‘Can you help shield us?’ she asked Felicia.

‘You don’t even need to ask. I hope he burns in hell.’

“What the...” Words failed her father as she looked back at them, the confusion evident. Yes, Uriah was very much alive and well. And he would be staying that way.

Callie stepped forward, her magic coming forth and coursing over her, arc of lightning in blues, whites and pinks, eager and hungry. “Unlike you, father, I have emotions.” The words come out as she advanced, spoken with clarity, sadness, and an inevitability. “I love, I fear, I care. I am not just some tool, some pawn in your game. I am your daughter, even though you denied that of me for so long. You had me trained, in your ways, trying to make me into an image of you, something that I am not. But those skills, father, they are not gone. I have no idea what possessed you to try and kill Uriah, the one who always has, and still does, mean the world to me, but I am not going to let that slide. Not this time. You don't know me father. You never did.”

“You are deluding yourself, Fraser.”

Huh. Not even a ‘you just got your magic back because I tried to kill Uriah’. Of course, that wasn’t the truth either.

“No, father. You are.” Callie stopped, flexed her fingers, and let loose.

A storm of energy flared around her, lightning surging across the ground and blackening the surface, slamming into both the family guard and her father, throwing them back, her father recovering after only a meter, the guard not quite as skilled and tumbling unceremoniously across the ground and into the group he had come from. She wouldn’t have bothered with the guard, but he had started moving as she had talked, and she knew how they were trained. He was fortunate that she was restraining her magic. She had no desire to kill anyone, not even her father. Uriah was right there as her father looked up, a glow about him but the ethereal features withheld, his fist slamming straight into her father’s jaw with a satisfying crunch as he was pushed back again.

“Stop this nonsense now.”

The words were barely audible, spoken as if the area had been quiet, but it was the power and intent behind them that made Callie spin around, her magic surging towards the speaker, and then hovering around him threateningly.

“E’iures I assume?” Callie glared at Riddling. He still looked the same, but the power that was radiating off him was comparable to Alyther, an aura visibly floating around him. A deadly aura, a threat, given that he was somehow now standing right beside Julia, Felicia growling and hissing at him from Julia’s arms.

“You would dare use a hostage?” Uriah growled, now back beside her, fire burning visibly around his hands.

“Me? Now why would I do that? I’m sure that we can all act like civilized beings after all.” An evil smile spread across his face as he took a few steps back. “I see that she does matter to you, so perhaps there is hope.”

‘Can you keep an eye on my father?’ Callie asked of Felicia. She didn’t trust her father an inch, even if one of the people who was probably normally in the background was making themselves known.

Callie hissed in annoyance as she let her magic fade, as she and Uriah hurried over to Julia, her eyes carefully on Riddling. The threat was far too real. She could read in-between the lines. “Yes, she does. So what of it?” She was happy to declare that, for all of their sakes.

Riddling shrugged, walking past them and back towards her father. “Relationships are rather important. They can make or break people after all. Something that I think you know far too well. I think we would all be better off if nothing else happened here.”

Her father had picked himself up by this point, hate burning in his eyes. His magic was still primed, there within him. She knew its feel all too well. Riddling hadn’t let any of them go too far. Not for their benefit though.

“That, Theodore, was a %$%# move. You would have broken her for life.” Riddling looked down at her father, standing in front of him with his arms casually held at his side.

“#$^$ you too. He’s my son,” her father replied, glaring at Riddling, and then wincing as he spoke. Good, they’d done some damage. “He’d get over him.”

“No. No, she wouldn’t have.” Riddling shook his head and sighed, as one would to a child. “She is bonded to him, with ties that surpass normal marriage. Ties of magic, of her very soul. Knowledge that she did not gain from us. Nor is that the only bond either. When the boy said that she was his wife, it was the truth. I suggest you tread carefully. We cannot afford this now, not at this point.”

“&@$# you.” Her father was being rather colourful with his language, more so than she’d ever seen before. Fully standing, he gave Riddling another glare. “I’m the one running this operation, not you.”

Riddling raised an eyebrow, his magic seeming to fold in on itself, and then the aura and sense of power was gone, the man seeming like he had before. “Having to do that, though, was not part of the plan. It will not go unnoticed. Also, they are the only ones who truly know what happened. The chance that we will get the full truth now is slim at best.” Shaking his head at her father, Riddling walked off towards one of the groups of people, his presence seeming to fade even more.

Her father looked at them, the rage still burning in his eyes. “You’ll return to the estate once we’ve been to the scene, Fraser, and I expect a full and detailed rundown of what happened.”

“No, father. We won’t.” Callie shook her head. “We will not be travelling in the same helicopter as you. I do not trust you.”

“We will continue this later.” A statement from her father, as he turned and walked back towards the helicopters.

‘He doesn’t learn, does he? I thought my parents were bad...’

Callie sighed sadly. It wasn’t going to be good. ‘No. They’ve always been this way, I think.’

Not that they were left alone, another of the new arrivals, the one who had been looking at Julia earlier with a weird expression, quickly walking over to them.

Julia looked at the man, frowned, and sighed. “Eustance, what do you want?”

“What is going on Julia? Something’s changed about you. And why do you have a fox?”

“She’s cute, isn’t she.” Her tone was jovial, her expression anything but. “And I have no idea what you’re talking about. Here I thought you were going to ask about the obvious display of power.”

Eustance gave her a disbelieving look, morphing into worry as he looked over at Callie. “I thought Fraser was your fiance? He’s... not at all what we were told. Our parents aren’t going to be happy about this.”

Julia just shrugged. “Things have changed. I like Callie, a lot, but our relationship will be on our own terms, not our families.”