Chapter 9 Part 3

As Heddwyn uses a cleansing parchment, the twins start asking questions. "who did Father Newman give the potion to dad!" Heather asks.

"yeah, we really want to know." Haider says.

The two tug on Heddwyn's clothes, begging to know what happened inside. Heddwyn brushes them away and gets to their eye level. "look here, you two. After that stunt you pulled, you don't deserve to know. I'm putting my foot down on this one. If you really need to know, you can ask Engilram when he is mentally capable. That may take a few days. Now get back to the tent, please. I need to accommodate our new guests." Heddwyn scolds.

The twins shamefully drag their feet back to their tent. Heather comforts Haider as he begins to sniffle. Heddwyn takes a deep breath as he holds himself back from apologising, beating himself up silently instead. "well, it's done now. No point in stewing over it." He says.

Heddwyn pulls out the materials to build a new tent and swiftly erects the structure. After furnishing it to accommodate four, he joins the twins in their tent. Haider and Heather are cuddling in the corner together. Feeling guilty, Heddwyn asks them to sit with him. When they do, he speaks. "I'm sorry for yelling at you like I did, but you two need to understand that you're too young to be making decisions like that. Ok? Did I make myself clear?"

Haider wipes his nose and gives a doleful nod before attempting to leave. Before he could get far, Heddwyn grabs him, pulling him into a warm embrace. "I'm sorry, my cub." Heddwyn holds him at arm's length as he looks directly in his eyes. Tears start to trickle down Haider's face.

"I need you to understand that you two need boundaries, and as you get older, those boundaries will be fewer and farther between. You're young, and susceptible to failure. My job as your father is to make sure you learn from these mistakes, and make you a decent and kind person." Heddwyn continues.

"I understand, dad." Haider smiles through his tears and the two embrace once more

Heddwyn looks to Heather, and he invites her into the hug and says, "the same goes for you too."

Heather runs in with a smile on her face, this being the first time they hugged one another. Making it the best sentimental embrace she has ever experienced. The three talk to one another, read and have their lunch together for a few hours before Engilram finally comes back from inside the church.

"Engilram!" Heather says.

"hay Heather. How are you? We didn't get the chance to talk earlier." Engilram asks.

"I'm good. Sorry about taking your potion earlier. I was only trying to save my brother." Heather apologised.

"don't worry about that. I was more worried about the two of you. Running in there like that. Wasn't very smart, was it?" Engilram replies.

"no. who did you give the potion to? Dad won't tell us because of what we did. He said to ask you if you were feeling ok." Heather says.

"speaking of which. You doing ok Engilram?" Heddwyn asks.

"for the most part, yeah. I'm fine. To answer your question Heather, I decided to give it to the lad." Engilram says.

"so brother is gonna be ok!" Haider yells.

Both Heddwyn and Engilram nod and the twins smile at each other, glad that their sibling is finally free from danger. "it will take him a few weeks to recover from the damage, but yes, he will be fine." Heddwyn confirms.

(narrator) thank god for that. This would have been quite a short story if he died here. The next few bits are kinda boring, so I will just give you a brief overview. Heddwyn moved back over to his mansion, taking an unconscious Christopher home where he belongs. He places him inside of the training hall to let him recover safely. We continue his story three weeks later. A week after Hilda's passing.

We see both Christopher and Heddwyn inside the training hall. Heddwyn seems to be performing a physical examination to see if Christopher has recovered. "I think you're finally good to go. You have your strength back. Your lungs seem to have healed nicely, too. Yesterday you matched your best lap time, which is good."

"can you please tell me the news you've been keeping from me now?" Christopher asks.

"uh. Yeah, sure. Please, sit down." Heddwyn says.

Christopher sits on the floor and waits for Heddwyn to start talking. "I don't know how to tell you this, but I will give you as direct of an answer that I can give you. It's about Helga. She. unfortunately, passed away a week ago."

Christopher's eyes widen in disbelief. Trying to find an answer within him on how this could be a joke. As he stares into Heddwyn's eyes, now knowing he was telling the truth, tears stream down his face, no emotion being showed. Christopher's arms go limp and the air around him begins to vibrate violently.

"uh, Christopher. Please calm down. Your magic is going wild!" Heddwyn says.

Large spheres of dark blue start to materialise around Christopher, each one signaling greater destruction. One of the spheres hits the floor of the room and tears the fabric of the dimension, sending rippling earthquakes through the ground. Heddwyn pulls out his staff and tries to locate the unravel point of one of the spheres. His mage sight proved ineffective against whatever manifestation this is.

"it's spinning too fast for me to see." Heddwyn says.

As more spheres appear and grow around Christopher, Heddwyn's exceptional hearing caught him mumbling to himself. The Vibration of the air stopped anyone from hearing what the boy was saying. Christopher looks up at Heddwyn, outstretching his arms. Heddwyn understood that Christopher wanted help, but the manifestation of his grief prevented Heddwyn from getting anywhere near close.

As another sphere hits the ground, it tears a new hole in the fabric of spacetime. Heddwyn immediately took action as he realised that if all the ground around Christopher were to be destroyed, he would be lost in the fabric of space and time for the rest of his life, unable to interact with the outside world forever.

Heddwyn took a chance and stabbed one of the orbs with a dagger. The sphere exploded, destroying the dagger with it. "if I just deal enough damage equal to something's durability, I can destroy them with minimal risk."

Heddwyn starts pulling out random items from his bag and swinging them at the dimension tearing orbs, slowly clearing a path to his child. Heddwyn misses a throw with a table knife and another sphere hits the ground. Sending another ripple through spacetime, only leaving roughly half of the floor around Christopher.

Through all the mayhem we see Christopher curl up, sound still drowned out from the interference. "don't you give up on me!" Heddwyn yells, narrowly somersaulting over one of the spheres, throwing three kunai as he lands. Destroying all the remaining orbs in his path.

Heddwyn was blindsided by a new orb. His left arm being torn off in the process. Heddwyn falls to a knee and screams, Christopher hears his dear father's screams and looks at him. He watches in horror as Heddwyn grabs the remaining part of his arm and drinks a potion, with so little time to seal the wound. Heddwyn ate the glass too, the scars quickly healing from the potency of the potion he drank along with his arm, reforming the missing chunk of his arm.

Heddwyn forces himself over the gap as two more spheres hit the ground. Heddwyn runs to Christopher, protecting him with his entire body while also giving as much love to him as he could.

"you're ok my cub. I'm here. I will always stick with you. I won't ever leave you. Please try to calm your emotions." Heddwyn says.

Inches from separating the two from reality itself, Christopher calms his welling emotions. Nuzzling his head into Heddwyn's warm, comforting fur. "why did she have to die?" Christopher sobs.

"do you want me to tell you? Or would you like to find your own answer?" Heddwyn asks in reply.

"please. *sniff* can you tell me? I can't think well." Christopher says.

"well as I see it. There are three aspects or events that shaped her fate that way. Father Newman told me that the church refused to supply the potions, even before he left for the capital. Next is her condition before we made the decision. Finally, is the fact that tuberculosis is a disease, made by the demon god Digalondid Duw. Does that help at all?" Heddwyn says.

"yeah. Yeah, it does. Thanks dad. You're saying I should be angry at those things, right?" Christopher says.

"I uh, n-" Heddwyn couldn't even explain. Christopher had cut him off and already made up his mind.

"thank you so much, father." Christopher says.

Christopher forces himself from Heddwyn's protection and stands tall. He had found a purpose, a goal, an ideal and a vengeance for killing his mother in spirit. For killing his best friend. For killing the person who understood him most.