Ciaran was scared to go inside, but sadly for him, his elements refused to work for a coward and pushed him forward. It was a strange sight, and neither the girls nor the old woman could figure out why he was pushing himself with magic.
The boy reluctantly started walking with his own two feet. He remembered the last time he was here. He remembered the last time he met his family. He had already smelled the animosity taking root in their souls. They smiled and sent him off, but deep inside, their love for him lessened just a smidge.
It was the one thing he couldn't talk to Diana about because he had no proof, and because even at their worst, the Clades were far better than her own family.
That let the wound he had in his heart bleed for months. The doubts he had were rotting him far more than the wraith ever could.
Seeing how the staff let him through, and none of them bared his way, he was sure his presence was already known to his family.
He stopped right at the front door and nocked. He did not feel like this was his home anymore, and as such, he had to ask for entry permission.
"Come on dumb dumb go in, no point in waiting around all day," Clara said, and he smiled, but his feet did not move. He saw the three enter, but he never moved from the entrance.
He wanted to. He wanted to barge in and clown around, pretend he was still the boy they knew and loved, but he wasn't, and they didn't, not like they used to.
Camille was an amazing liar, and Liam was the best merchant, but they could not trick his senses, not anymore. He could feel them staring at where he was waiting for an answer. He could feel Rayon talking to his grandfather in the same room. He could feel the two girls and Edith joining them. And he could feel, how his father ordered the staff not to let him in.
Ciaran smiled, he knew the Clades wanted him to walk through the door on his own. To prove to them that he still cared for them, and his legs itched to go in. His heart was screaming at him to let it go and move, but he couldn't. He couldn't pretend he was something else, not anymore.
They mourned their dead son, and as far as he was concerned, there was no need to reopen the wound.
"Goodbye, Liam, Camille. I am sorry for what I am, and for all the pain I have caused you. I will not bother you again." He said, and using every fibber of willpower he had left, he shifted away.
A second after he was gone, the Clades were at the door. They of course knew he was alive, they kept tabs on Ariadne, and since she was fine so was he. They wanted to see how much he had changed, but they never considered the fact he could actually read them.
"Should we, should we go after him Cami? I sure as hell want to." Liam said, already regretting his decision.
Camille was a cold-hearted woman, but even she was on the verge of giving in. She saw her little boy change every time he was back from a mission. She tried to hide her emotions the best she could, but in the end, he had read her better than she read him.
She knew that if they didn't go now, Ciaran would cast aside the Clades' name for good. She thought that was for the better, as whatever came to her door just now was everything but her eleven-year-old boy. She knew that logic dictated that cutting ties right now was for the best.
And yet she moved. Liam followed behind her. They moved fast, but they could not even catch up to the boy. After running for a solid hour, they were at a beach. It was the same beach where Camille had taken the boys out for walks when they were little.
On one of the cliff sides, the boy stood and he looked at the ocean. He knew they were coming, and so he came here. Whit his back to the ocean, he had nowhere else to run to, even tho he really wanted to.
He smiled, trying his best not to appear threatening. He knew that they barely recognized him and that all they saw was the living embodiment of a Storm. One that went by the name of Soul Eater nonetheless.
"Can we drop this? Please? I don't want to lose my son again if that is possible. Why do you two always do this? And you call me dramatic. That's it both of you, I ran for an hour, and I am not sitting here for one more until you two decide to talk it out." Liam lost it completely.
His wife organized a funeral for their son, knowing full well he was alive. She did it to guilt trip him. His son, on the other hand, Gods only know how, felt their distress, and knowing him confused it for anger. Liam was tired of the games, and he dragged his wife toward their son.
"Moter, and son, just as bullheaded. We love you, and she is just being a bitch about you not calling. We are angry about it, but we love you no less for it. Ray would have figured that out on his own, by the way, so from now on he is the smart brother." Liam ranted for thirty minutes straight.
Both Camille and Ciaran were startled. He didn't say a thing about his son's new look, both outside and within. They knew he could see it, and they knew he wasn't hiding it, he just didn't care.
"Oh, what? Camille, we adopted a hybrid, who went and got disciplined into one of the strongest beings on the damn planet. What we are experiencing right now is him going through FUCKING PUBERTY. He even got himself a girlfriend." Liam started shouting.
At this point, both Camille and Ciaran had given up. Ciaran just gave his hand and shared with them all that he had experienced, and everything he felt.
Liam was flabbergasted, and Camille's eye twitched.
"How could you ever think we would hate you? We might want to beat you like a dog sometimes, sure. But it's because you always get yourself into trouble and worry us to death." She said, her previous stoic conviction gone.
"And what was with that promise? What did the girl give you? The Ciaran I know would never agree to such a bad deal." Liam asked, drawing his wife's attention to the matter as well.
Ciaran just decided to use his right to remain silent and shifted them all to the house. He made an hour-long run in five seconds, making both his parents cautious.
"Rayon, your big brother is back. Where is his greeting." He yelled, and to everyone's dismay, Rayon had actually thought his brother was dead. The two got into a fight, but it was more of a brotherly squabble and nothing serious. Naturally, it was dangerous enough that the guards of the district thought there was a foreighn invasion.
"He uhgu, he avoided the topic like the plague. Seriously, is he mine, or did you just clone yourself?" Liam asked, but his wife did not dignify him with an answer. Instead, she swallowed the vomit she had in her mouth and gave him a deep kiss.
"You can be so wise sometimes you know. You just saved our relationship with our kid, when I was about to fuck it up, like mom did with me. And no, he isn't yours, come to me tonight and we can talk reimbursement." She said, walking into the house.
Liam thanked all the Gods that would listen that his family did not crumble, and begged for an easier kid this time. Rayon was a good kid, but he was as dense as a rock. And Ciaran… Ciaran was too much, he had to admit that.
In the sky above the clouds, Nature was watching the scene play out. She wasn't sure if she should be happy for the boy, or sad that her little scheme didn't work out.
"Did you have to interfere like that you damn bookworm? I was doing it for your students you know?" She asked, but the only answer she got was a hotter-than-necessary sun.
"So basically you are telling me to go fuck myself." She said in outrage.
She was then teleported away from the continent.
"No, I am in my full capacity, and complete authority over my land telling you, go fuck yourself, and leave the kids out of it." A voice said, and then it was gone.
Unlike her, Ra wanted mortals to make their own choices, no matter the end result. Even his latest interference was just because Nature was getting a little too involved in his territory.