A couple hours later, Carlos had dealt with the aftermath and drug us home. He'd just waved his hand, and all the evidence of the fight had disappeared. That casual use of power highlighted for me just how incredibly powerful he is, and how weak we are.
He'd brought everyone to my house, and then set about making hot chocolate for us as if he'd lived their for the last 10 years. I was too tired, and emotionally drained to care. In the movies and books, they never talk about what comes after a fight. The shakes as the adrenaline leaves your body, the tears and outright sobbing as you realize that you just killed what a few days before had been a little kid.
"Was this my fault?" I asked Carlos after he handed me a cup of hot chocolate.
"What makes you think that?" He asked, genuinely confused.
"The brand attracts them. If I wasn't here, would those kids have been fine? Did I bring this down on them?" I asked, my voice becoming more and more despondent as I realized just how cavalierly I'd taken the attracting affects of the brand. Danger to me I could deal with, but random little kids in the same city as me? That's just too much.
"No, if anything that brand saved hundreds if not thousands of lives today." Carlos looked me square in the eyes and said, "You've read the histories, what they don't really depict properly is the sheer amount of deaths and tragedy that follows every wave of corruption."
Now, Sarah and Rick were listening closely as well. "In the last wave, the Witch of Calamity awoke fairly early on. She's incredibly powerful, and her curses and poisons managed to drive off the wave with only 20% total casualties. That's the BEST we've ever done, 20% of the total population of Earth was considered a miracle. In most waves, 80% or more of Earth's population dies. In the worst, all but a handful of humans were dead and it took almost 10,000 years to rebuild anything resembling civilization. So no, you didn't cause those kid's to die. Instead, by drawing out the corrupted being early on you managed to save thousands of lives. Not only that, but by deciding to incapacitate instead of kill those who weren't too far gone you saved over a hundred people! If it'd gotten really bad, Colorado Springs could've disappeared all together. It wouldn't be the first time a single corrupted being wiped out a city!"
After that, he went back to the kitchen to start cleaning up as we dealt with the final remnants of shock. "Jesus." Rick whispered, his head lowered. "No wonder they're taking the training so seriously, can you imagine what it would've been like if we had met that monster a week ago."
We all remained silent, imagining a scene where we fell unconscious and never woke up, turning into a monster worse then any zombie movie I'd ever seen.
"When the implant's first came out I thought, sweet I can cultivate and play a great game. This'll be awesome! Now, I really understand what they meant by fighting for our lives." I said, barely able to believe how fast my world had turned upside down. 'Just this morning I'd been thinking about how nothing ever changes and now...'
The door opened, and my mom rushed in. Before I knew it, I was in a bear hug. Somehow, Sarah and Rick had been swept up by her passage with all of us held tightly together as she clung to us. Tears were in all of our eyes as we stood there.
After a while, my mom let us go and said, "It's great to see you again Sarah, Rick."
"You too Mrs. Hughes." Rick said
Sarah smiled and said, "It's been years Auntie Claire"
My mom smiled back at her and said, "Now that all the misunderstandings have been dealt with, I'm sure we'll get to see more of each other."
It's amazing how just having my Mom in the same room can dull the pain of a grievous loss. For me, it'd been the greatest loss of my life to date, the loss of my innocence.
My mom's voice turned stern then, "Now, I want you to tell me everything about the incident. I mean EVERYTHING!" She said.
An hour later, Rick had taken off, his dad had come to pick him up on the way home from work. Meanwhile, Sarah was still in the house, apparently a family meeting had been called and some
people I'd never met before were coming. My dad and Carlos were sitting in front of the TV, watching a baseball game and ignoring us. I had just recovered enough to notice just how much like my Mom Sarah looked. Long red hair, a classically beautiful face combined with an ethereal element that now that I was a cultivator I'd begun to recognize as a sign of an Elementalist.
Also, I'd never noticed in the past, but both my Dad and my Mom looked young for their age. According to what I knew, my mom was in her late 30's, but looking at her, if I hadn't of known better I'd have said she wasn't more than 4 or 5 years older than Sarah. Dad was the same, now that I was older we were almost identical.
'Guess there's a lot of things we need to talk about' I thought to myself.
"Hey, mom." I said, getting her attention form Sarah.
"Yes honey?" she said, smiling at me.
"I heard someone refer to you as the 'Runaway Princess' today, and Sarah's my cousin and I'm pretty sure my Aunt Cynthia is working at my school now. Maybe it's time you told me somethings?" I said, looking between my dad and my mom.
"Well..." My mom looked embarrassed, and my dad had a look that said he just didn't know what to say.
Carlos piped up from his spot, "It's not a big secret or anything, your mom ran away to Earth because her family wanted to marry her off to some king. Her dad was in closed door cultivation at the time, and didn't know about it. Then, she fell in love with your dad and had you. After that, it was too late and the king who wouldn't give her up wound up dead mysteriously. Guess that's what happens when you marry an infamous assassin."
"WHAT?!?!" I yelled in shock.
My dad's eyes went cold, as a killing intent greater than any I'd ever felt before filled the room. "How'd you know?"
Carlos just snorted, not paying my dad any mind. "I may not have managed to reach the absolute peak of dantian cultivation yet, but I'm still an Outer Elder of Storm's Refuge!" An amazing pride and force emanated from him at that moment. Then it passed as he continued, "Do you really think we didn't research everything about the first person in over a thousand years to pass the Trial of the Storm?"
My mom laughed hollowly at the casual summation of what must've been an incredibly traumatic and tough period of her life. "I'm glad mom." I said, smiling at her. She gave me a hug, then said, "Well, it's over now, and with you joining Storm's Refuge all claims that you didn't deserve your birthright have gone away."
"What?" I asked, confused.
"A certain faction of the family wanted to take advantage of the fact that I ran off with your father to keep you from inheriting the family's training and techniques. I never would'ver let that happen, but it would've been a pain and no matter how much your father might wish to just kill them off there were just too many of them." She said, with a sharp look in her eyes. "None of that matters anymore, they wouldn't dare to slight you now."
That was when the doorbell rang, and my father went to the door. Opening it without looking, I could feel the shock radiating off of him as a boisterous voice came from the door. "Why, aren't you the fellow who ran off with my daughter! Nearly 20 years later and you still haven't visited this old man! I can't believe I had to come here myself!"
"Daddy!" My mom yelled in shock, rushing over to hug him. "I thought you were in closed door cultivation for at least another 40 years!"
Getting a good look at the man, he looked about 35 years old with red hair that was turning white at it's roots. That same mysterious energy that seemed to come off of all Elementalists was multiplied many times over, and for the first time since I met him Elder Carlos looked worried as he stood up and readied himself for a fight.
"Well, I planned too, but I got a message from an old geezer. Apparently, some grandson I'd never heard of before had managed to pass the Trial of the Storm in his first try. Imagine my surprise when I found out that you'd ran away, and then been removed from the family register in order to punish your son." His voice turned cold, a menacing killing intent even greater than my father's emanating from him. "I wanted to let you know personally that those who schemed to setup that marriage are dead! I didn't create this family to have it torn apart by power hungry fools."
Then, his menacing aura was gone, as if it'd never been there. My dad stood in shock as he was enveloped in a bear hug. "Son, you've done a great job keeping my baby and grandson safe! For that alone, you have my blessings in this marriage."
Letting go of my dad, he walked up to me and picked me up in a big hug too, "I know its a bit belated, but I'm your Grandpa Sam." He said, then he let me go and hugged Sarah too.
"Now," he clapped his hands enthusiastically as he looked around the small but cozy house, "Where am I staying?"