To Capture A Heart (girlxgirl)

Part Thirty-One

It was safe to say that Harold and Andreas needed some time to talk to one another after that. I wasn't expecting them to outright apologise to each other but I knew they needed some time to settle their differences. The worst thing that happened in my life was losing my mother. However, I now knew that I could do something to make things right again. If Andreas and Harold had some time to speak to each other, then we could begin to settle the differences between the empires and unite them, just as we had set out to do in the first place.

The war had taken away my mother and after that I had been hateful towards the Sparrow Empire just as much as my father had been. Matters were changing now, though. I knew that I couldn't blame the Sparrow Empire for what had happened. I could, on the other hand, blame the bandits and rebels for taking my mother from me. They were gone now, though. I had defeated them and I would continue to defeat the darkness that was spread throughout the lands of Wingacre. I would continue to defeat the hate. With Avery by my side, I could begin to work on fixing things for our empires.

I knew that Harold and Andreas were going to work on things, too. It had been a long time since they had considered each other friends and while I didn't expect either one of them to go back to that immediately, I thought it could be a possibility. The main problem was that the two of them could be so entirely stubborn. My father hated apologising as much as Andreas appeared to. Nevertheless, I think the both of them understood that it was a necessary part in moving on from all of this. It was a necessary part in moving on from the past and beginning to work towards a better future.

Of course, I still wanted to improve my own knowledge of the Sparrow Empire, too. In my free time, I had spent many of my hours in the library, often accompanied by Avery who chose to sit in my lap as I read, not as though I was about to complain about that. It was a relief that the two of us didn't have to be so scared to be together anymore. I felt a new energy for my life that I hadn't experienced in a long time. I just knew that I wanted to make my mother and family proud. More importantly, I wanted to make Avery proud, too.

The two if us would stick together. It was just the way things were now.

As I sat reading away in the library, the door creaked open. I was half expecting Avery to join me, but I was surprised when my father was the one to begin to walk towards me.

"Hey dad," I greeted him.

"Hi Haven. How are you doing?" he asked me.

"Much better. It's just a good thing to know that people are beginning to get along much better in the castle," I said.

"In the empires, too," my father said.

He went on after he received my expression of curiosity.

"The point is, now that word is getting out that emperor Andreas is here, people are beginning to think that maybe the two emperors are friends again," Harold said.

"Are you friends?" I asked him.

My father's ears grew slightly pink at my words.

"I don't know if I could call it that just yet," he said.

The words "just yet" were promising, though.

"In saying that, the two of us have been getting along a little better. I can't believe I was wrong for so long about everything...about what happened to Helena," he said.

At the sight of my father's eyes becoming slightly glossy with tears, I wandered over to him to wrap my arms around him.

"It's okay, dad. You know now and that's what the important thing is," I reminded him.