Through Blood by Fate

Heading Home

In the city, they mainly enjoyed food and wine, all to Ward's liking. From Parmigiana Di Melanzane to German imported Riesling. Jade did like the Riesling even if she had some history with Germany. While Jade's surface thoughts were trying to focus on these little things, she knew the feeling in her stomach was the sign of thoughts churning much deeper. Leading the way down a road that she once ran through long ago, the others followed beside her, surprisingly without hesitation.

The trek was over in no time; they'd reached the top of a small hill. Though the other two looked at the same bend in the road, they didn't know what lay just beyond. Of all the rivers Jade had visited and listened to, the one just ahead sounded the most like returning home. Still standing, now finished, a near reflection of the image in her mind, the Ponte alle Grazie bridge seemingly awaiting her return.

Stepping onto the bridge gave Jade a feeling of proud completion, proof her father had been there and lived on until his mortal life was over. Pausing midway across, Jade rested her arms on the railing and looked it over, wondering which pieces, if any, she could tell were worked on by her father before setting her interest on the waters flowing under it. Rosalina and Ward joined her in tandem, though Ward faced away from the water as he indulged his appetite, sometimes giving Phantom pieces to eat. At the same time, Rosalina gently nudged Jade, offering her a piece of beef carpaccio.

"Thank you." She said gingerly, picking up the raw meat, half expecting it to drip from her fingers; it held intact until it was in her mouth. Only then did it become so delicate it melted at the temperature change. Giving an impressed mewl at Rosalina's excellent choice given their particular preferences. Cleaning her fingertips, she expresses herself, knowing they were curious but polite enough to let her come to them. "It's beautiful. I never got to see it finished...or I should say I was afraid to come back here and be seen."

"I understand. What it feels like to leave a family you wish you didn't have to." Rosalina hadn't meant to say it out loud, but she did feel like she knew what Jade must have gone through. "It's different, I know, but I once worried about running into people I couldn't convince I was doing the right thing. I wasn't sure I was far enough away from my family that they couldn't force me to return to working for the family business and eventually marry a man. Despite how sure I was, they disliked my life choices. I had no doubt they wanted me to be a low-cost worker or push their ideals on me until I changed my mind."

"Really, your own family?!" Ward asked, unaware of the prejudice and unwavering opinionated family history Rosalina told Jade about. Wiping his face clean, he turned to look out across the water, seemed to marvel at its beauty, and then looked at them with a curious interest. Rosalina explained her family affairs, sharing that she understood the struggle to put significant distance between those who hurt her and the life she wanted. Jade had not only run away eventually from a coven but, since being changed, constantly felt like she couldn't be seen by the people of her village who believed she'd died. Jade chose to distance herself from a life familiar to her because they wouldn't be able to accept her, which is why Rosalina explained that, oddly, it was similar.

"A few cities from home is not as great a distance as going across the seas. I never traveled to other states, so New York always felt smaller than I imagined." Rosalina added after the brief story.

"And now?" Jade asks with a glint in her eyes, which might have been a half-knowing question.

"Aside from the distances we have gone since knowing you, I came to a moment of realization back when I was moving into the place I'm at now. I was nearly invisible in a sea of people, and my life was speeding by. I needed to focus on the people and places I was in and stop freezing my life to worry. I'm sure someone will be looking for me someday, but I can only hope that it's one of the better of the bunch."