Zephyr: The Elemental Clans

94 - Burnt Bridges / 95 - Let It Out

Chapter 94 - Burnt Bridges

Grisha Astra - POV;

I stood, leaning aginst the table in the new office I'd been assigned to while working on my current case against Xyder, leafing through the documents, pages and reports related to the incident. Everything seemed to perfectly point to Xyder being the culprit but, despite my best efforts to separate personal feelings from my work, a part of me screamed that there had to be some other explanation... he had to be innocent.

"Father!" Indira cried out, bursting into the room. I sighed to myself, prepared to have her chew my ear out for last night's arrest.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! I can't believe I thought you were loyal to those you were good to you! Xyder saved us! Xyder saved our friends! And what? You throw him in jail?! You ungrateful, self-loving, narcissistic piece of shit!" she spat.

"Are you done yet?" I groaned.

"Am I done yet? AM I DONE YET?! No I'm not fucking done yet!" she roared.

"Sis, please stop," Nariko begged running up to her.

"Let go of me Nariko! I won't let this asshole get away with this!" she announced, "After everything, he just bows down to his 'supreme masters' in the World Heirarchy and once again doesn't give a shit about anything else. To hell with family, to hell with duties and to hell with debts. He just throws it to the wind all for the sake of his great and holy higher ups in the Heirarchy. When will you stop being their little bitch and start actually being a leader, a father for once?!"

My daughter's words cut deeper and stung more than any wound but I couldn't exactly denounce her either. Her words held some truth. I did always fail to be in their lives as the father they deserved to have grown up with.

"Indira! Watch your words and your tone!"

Entering the room was a tall woman embodying true beauty. She was pefect in every possible way, with her clean, wavy, blonde hair, and perfectly symmetrical figure meshing nicely with her dominant presence.

"Mother? But he-" Indira protested to my wife.

"Don't talk back to me young lady," she stated firmly as Indira angrily backed down.

"Grisha, you can't allow her to continue talking down to you like that. She'll never learn that way," my wife murmered walking to my side and fixing my hair.

"I have no right to stop her Emilia. Especially when what she says is true. I haven't earned the right to call myself her father," I told my spouse.

"Don't say that Grisha. You and I know that isn't true. You love your children more than anything else in this world and beyond, even yourself. You'd do anything for them and for your clan and you have been doing everything. Far more than even the greatest of parents in fact," Emilia iterated.

"Emilia, please don't say too much," I whispered.

"Mom, what are you saying? Do you even know what he did? Jack... the same thing that happened to Jack could have happened to all of us! But Xyder.... Xyder and the rest of Zephyr risked his life and their chance in the tournament to save us and in return this bastard arrested him because the Heirarchy told him to. He could have defied them or fought for Xyder's sake but instead he just kissed their feet!" Indira cried out.

"You're wrong Indira! Everything you've just said is nonsense. That's not anywhere close to how it happened," Emilia retorted.

"What do you mean?" My daughter shot back.

"Emilia, don't," I said to her.

"I'm sorry Grisha but this headstrong daughter of ours has to know," Emilia sighed.