28)

Martin – Talking about what might have been

I leaned forward in my chair, my hands clenched to the top of my desk below the line of sight of my family and all the various witnesses.

“First of all, if Aunt Natalie had not gone behind your backs to come get me when I graduated from St Jude’s, how exactly was I supposed to get back here from Sweden? It’s not like I had a lot of job opportunities living in a boarding school in the middle of nowhere in another country that I am not even sure that I had any legal right to be in by mundane law.”

“Then, if I went with my original plan of getting deported and made my way back here from whichever part of the country I got dumped off at, what would have been the best I could have hoped for from this family had I come begging for help?”

“Would I have been welcomed back into this home, accepted as part of the family? Perhaps I would have been sent off to another school, to get me out of sight and out of mind for another few years?"

I flicked my hand up in the direction of Grimaud standing by my grandfather’s side. “Or was it always the plan to have your loyal hound make me disappear once enough time had passed for everyone to forget about the cripple.”

My father had gone red in the face as he rose to his feet again, but my Grandfather just rolled his eyes. "Your life should never have been in danger Martin. Even if you could not be of service, children born of your line could still breed true.”

I leaned back in my chair. Wow...just wow.

“The last thing I would do is curse another child to be part of this family.”

My father laughed, turned to see the dark glower my grandfather was sending me, and then laughed again before sitting back down as my aunt and he exchanged a look as he slowly shook his head.

“This is why I sent him away Nat, that and his very presence was and still is an embarrassment to the family. A weakness that is an opportunity for others to mock us. At least I gave him a chance to make some sort of life for himself halfway across the world, somewhere where he wouldn't have to be our problem."

He stood up again. "But no. You had to bring him back, and he couldn't just stay forgotten. Everyone knows about him, and they can't stop talking about how proud I must be. How my son has been so helpful to them. Pushing him into my face, saying how inspiring it is, that one of ours can serve their needs.”

"How a member of our family is working for them as an errand boy."

I closed my eyes for a moment. "Even now, after deciding to kill me, you still will not even look at me.”

He turned his head to me slowly and looked me in the eye.

Then looked away without a word.

Donovan- Being an impartial observer.

I've shot this guy and cut off one of his arms, but... dam, I didn't try to do anything... deliberate like that to him.

I see you, and you mean nothing.

Cold as ice

The old guy at the desk sighed. “You’ve overstepped yourself Kevin. I authorized you to give Grimaud commands because I wanted you to start taking over my duties that require discretion, but I now think that will be more of an advanced form of training for you."

“You need to learn how to command while exposed to the world and dealing with consequences for your actions.”

He turned to look at the short woman, his daughter. "Natalie, I will be putting Kevin in charge of the Bureau for now. I will be relying on you to work as his assistant to advise him and to help him cover up his future blunders while he gets up to speed."

Shorty didn't take that well. "What? The Bureau is mine. I did everything you demanded to get that job while Kevin was getting fat and lazy. I earned it."

The old guy waved away her complaints. "You will have to learn to support and obey him one day anyways once I am gone. It will be good training for both of you."

The fat man shot her an evil grin, "Looking forward to working with you, sis."

She gritted her teeth. “Looking forward to all the wonderful new ways you’re going to screw up, bro.”

The old man looked to the mirror. "As for you son, it might be best for you to just stay where you are for now. Let people forget about you. Then we can make some sort of arrangement for you elsewhere, we still have some properties in Europe and other parts of the world."

“About that.” said the man who wasn't my uncle as he seems to fill out the body he was wearing, somehow taller, bigger, dominating the room just by standing up straight.

More, the room seemed... thinner, like a movie set filled with stuff that only looked real, and everyone in it were only the unknown actors standing around the only star.

The mirror hit the ground as the pudgy guy who had been holding it all this time let it drop and appeared standing behind Luther with one of those old timey folding razors in his hand. The metal of the blade shone in the light of the room with a green tinge.

The old man was out of his chair and surrounded by a shimmer as the grim guy stepped out in front of the desk. Fatboy's skin lit up with black lines like tribal tattoos but I could see an extra layer of them somehow outside of his clothes.

The short woman cleared her throat. "Did I forget to mention we have a special guest? Kevin, Dad, may I introduce the First, the ruler of Hell. He wanted to speak to the manager."

She turned to Luther. "Here we have the head of my family and the current Director of the Magic Incident Bureau. They will be handling all of your concerns since all of this is now above my pay grade."

Then she sat down, crossed her legs, and began looking at her nails.

Cassy- Wishing she had waited in the car.

Good for you boss, maybe people should find out what’s going on before they try to take over’s someone job.

The First glared at everyone around the room. "You sent that boy off with just enough training to know how to slowly increase his ability to pull and store mana and no clue how to regulate its use."

"You made him into a danger to your whole society's precious secretly and as it turns out, to reality itself when he sent himself to Hell to save himself from you. Then ended up nearly punching a hole in the firmament because you didn't even give him the fundamentals of being even a simple warlock.”

He frowned. “And even now, instead of taking responsibility for him, you’re going to use my corner of reality as your dumping ground.”

Whatever he had done to let them know who he was doubled down. The room seemed to get darker, not because the light was going dim, but more like it just wasn't able to move as it should.

It became hard to breathe.

The Patriarch spoke up, “I apologize for any offenses that have been committed against you, what price must be paid for your forgiveness.”

Everything seem to snap back to normal as Luther looked at the head of the Thibedeau in surprise. “Me? You haven’t done anything to me.”

He turned and pointed his hand at Kevin, "You made a child, and then threw him away. People like you need to be held responsible."

The pressure began to build up again, this time focused on the Thibedeau heir. Kevin looked around in panic before clutching his hand against his chest and fighting for breath. "I made sure he had a place to live until he was an adult. He was taken care of, that’s all I owed him.”

Luther sneered. "You left him in a strange place. Alone. You took your presence away and denied him."

Yeah, I’m starting to think this wasn’t about Martin, someone has abandonment issues.

About then is when the young woman came in the door.

Short. Silver haired. The other child of the family. The heir. The one that met their standards.

And Possessed by an elder being.

“That’s enough Mika’el.”