The Raven's Source

Chapter 40 - Family

"I came to check on you to see what was taking so long," he said softly, his arms sitting folded across his chest.

"Long hair takes a long time to dry. Didn't want to sit through dinner with a soaked backside."

"Sheja, I'm sorry," he said, taking her off guard as he used her name.

"Why use my name if you requested for me to still be in character?" she asked.

"Because I know the room is safe," Cerno replied. "And since we're alone, I want to talk for a moment. Just you and me, calmly. I didn't have time to react to your wild accusations earlier, so I want to talk to you now about them."

"I just want you to tell me the truth, Cerno. All of it," she said softly. "Sometimes, everything about you radiates our father and it's terrifying. We were inseparable as children and you were nothing like him. But as adults, I sense his likeness in you from time to time, and it takes everything I have to keep from turning away and running."

"You aren't wrong about me, about how I hold myself," he started, her words squeezing at his heart. "Even though father was gone, I was still raised by Nan to be his protégé. She still tried to mold me to be him. Yaya, I honestly didn't know he was alive until Madeleine saw the bird tattoos when she rewound your death at the Gala. Even then, I didn't know what he currently looked like until she used her source on Salashai just the other day. Shadow abilities or not, he was still able to walk right past me without recognizing him because he looks nothing like we remember."

"So he hasn't been here in the manor? There was an empty glass of his brandy on the guest side of your desk."

"That was from me," he said softly. "He always drank it when he was angry, and I learned the appeal of it just a few years ago. Unlike father though, the sensations it brings me doesn't cause me to get physical with anyone."

She slowly reached up and touched her shoulder in a knee jerk reaction.

"Does it still bother you, your shoulder?" he asked, concerned.

"Tonight more than usual, yes."

"If you would have told me, I could have fixed it long ago."

"Twyn said he'd fix it later," she replied softly. "The story came up tonight in conversations."

"You still shouldn't have lived with it for so long."

"It would have dredged up the past and I couldn't do that to myself then."

He sighed. After a moment, he stood up straight and stuck his hand in his pocket. "I have something I want you to have." Cerno pulled a little box out of his pocket and opened it. Inside was a necklace with a little insignia pendant. "It's our family's crest, but I've altered it a bit. I've always planned to make this family have a new meaning."

She walked up and looked at it, it having been a long time since she laid eyes on their family crest. She turned around to let him put it on her. In this child-sized form, she was able to tuck it away inside of her dress and out of sight. "So you're promising me, on the honor of this crest, that you're not a traitor? You really have my back?"

"Yaya, I will say it a thousand times, a million times if I have to; I need you. I would never willingly betray you of all people."

"Then why would you not tell me details about the interrogation?"

"Because I needed you to stay level-headed. I feared if I told you how badly our father had abused that poor girl, you would have had issues keeping yourself collected."