A Sword For Gold

Chapter 19 - Dazolece II

It took him a while, but Baros eventually knocked.

He was reluctant to do so, understandably of course, for it had been a fateful encounter, or perhaps reunion, that he had been anxiously waiting for, torturing himself with contemplations of how it would all go down the moment his parents would answer the door. Many questions and scenarios troubled his mind in every second that passed after he had lightly tapped his knuckles upon the hardwood of the door three times.

Was he welcome to come in? Would his family be thrilled to see him return? Or would it be the other way around, with him being cast away like the deserter of the family that he truly was, in the end. It would have been, in Baros' eyes, justified for his family if he was not welcome anymore, if he was no longer considered a member of the Delvis family anymore.

There was also the question of what he was feeling leading up to the doorstep of his former home. He didn't know whether to be overjoyed or thrilled or anxious or indifferent to see his family once again, the life that he had left behind all those years ago, to keep a promise that he had sworn to protect Vaelia Martel at all costs.

Those costs included his family. After all, in the end, Baros Delvis would have admitted it himself. He loved Vaelia more than he ever would his family, and that was yet another thing that bothered him. Did they blame his childhood friend Vaelia? Did they presume to think that she was the reason of his desertion? Had they placed the entire fault on her, for the loss of a member of the Delvis family?

Baros certainly hoped not. After all, it was his decision, and his alone.

Finally, the door opened ever so slightly, the creaking of the wood showing how careful their family had always been: never to open the door right away. After all, Dazolece had always been a dangerous, and arguably unlivable land, and considering the situation and circumstances of such, it had always been a kingdom wherein every man fought for himself and himself only.

"Who's there?!" asked a man's voice from inside, and judging from his demeanor, tone, and pitch, it probably could have been a man in his forties, arguably his father. Baros was quick to recognize it, too, as he immediately replied:

"Father, it's me, Baros," he said, lips and fingers trembling with every word that was said, with long, awkward pauses in between.

Baros did not expect to be entertained at all, and much less, invited back into the household that he had left behind all those years ago. After all, he had turned his back on the family that had managed to even just raise him in a land wherein the people who lived in it had to be cynical to survive.

"Come in, son," his father invited him in, albeit with a monotonous tone as if he was not at all surprised nor shocked, and not even overjoyed that his son had just come back into his life and showed up on his doorstep.

It was an old, yet sturdily constructed house that resided along the outskirts of the capital of Dazolece, and, therefore, away from the rest of civilization. His father led him into their dining room, which was quite dimly lit despite the midday sunlight as well as the candles that had been lit inside. His father sat him down upon a small, modest, wooden chair by their dining table, before grabbing his own chair to sit across Baros, all the while glaring at him with a piercing cynical expression almost completely devoid of emotion. Baros had expected his father to be angry with him, perhaps hateful of him, but this was most definitely something else.

"You have some nerve coming back here, Baros," his father hissed at him, and Baros could not bring himself to make eye contact with his father any longer. After all, he knew what he did, and what he may have caused the moment he had turned his back on his family. Whatever kind of dirty words and slander that his father had in store for him, Baros had already completely convinced himself that he really deserved it.