Hatred

When Heron first introduced Elswyth to his father, he was surprised how hostile his father was to her.

Well, it had gone well at first. He had introduced her as his life savior from when his carriage had been attacked, and that was all well and good. And that she was a close friend had been fine as well. His father seemed accepting, if not overly pleased. But he didn't hate her – not immediately anyway.

It was Sun that did it.

It had been kinda funny when the hawk had wracked into his father. It wasn't that the bird had done it on purpose. It had due to missing its ranger, rammed into the window hard enough for it to fly open – the window had needed replaced and had weak suppoer.

His father had not been too happy about having a hawk ram into him in an attempt to reach the ranger.

Things had gone down hill from there, as Elswyth's personality also rubbed his father the wrong way. That and her devout defense of Sun. Heron barely managed to smooth it over.

At least to the point his father just set his jaw and decided to ignore her. For Heron's sake, as his father saw how attached his son had become to this friend of his.

As strict as his father could be, he did care. In fact Heron was aware that his father's strictness was due to how much he cared. He overdid it, but Heron didn't care. His father had raised them without a mother, and was probably stressed over trying to raise his two children all on his own.

But he loved them. Dearly.

Anyway, it actually grew worse between his father and Elswyth. The two did not get along. At all. As long as Elswyth stayed out of his sight, all was good. And even if he did see her it wasn't too awful, as long as she kept her mouth shut and either had a tight hold of Sun, or the bird wasn't around.

Elswyth didn't help matters with the fact she couldn't quite keep her attitude towards most royalty from showing. She tried, she really did. But she couldn't quite keep it in all the way. And so, the two were at odds with each other.

Several times, Heron's father hinted at him to send the ranger away, but Heron played oblivious to it. Told his father that Elswyth was actually a really good person.

For some time he was kept quite busy just trying to keep the peace. Elswyth was easier to manage, actually. She didn't actually want to be at odds with his father and was willing to work on her attitude. She confided that she didn't actually lump his father in with the rest as he had managed to raise such a wonderful son that he couldn't be that awful.

But it was a habit for her to make snide comments on the nobility and though she was trying to work on it, it wasn't an easy fix that she could do with a snap of her fingers.

It fluxuated a lot whether the two got along. His father was at least making some effort to get along with her.

But steadily it grew worse. So, that more and more Heron was clashing with his father as he defended his friend. He had never openly fought with his father before and it was a strange feeling.

He wondered what his father would say when he learned that Heron had pursued a taboo subject. That he had become a full fledged wizard.

It did hurt that he didn't think his father would be willing to accept it. At the same time he understood why his father wasn't likely too. Younger people would be more likely to accept it, as they weren't quite as set in their ways.

Also, he wondered if there were others who knew they had friends who were sorcerers and didn't turn them in instead choosing to protect their friend. He was sure there were. But he wondered how common it was.

Because if it was common then it would be so much easier to get support, rather than just making everyone mad that he would try to change their society.