Chapter narrated by: Sera
Date: 20/14/95
My reading of the time magic book was interrupted as the carriage stopped. Not that it annoyed me too much - the first chapters were useful, but it got incredibly theoretical after just a few pages. I'll need to find some complementary material… how boring.
The door of the carriage was knocked three times. "Lady Valemont, we have arrived."
Alright, breathe, Sera. In and out, and you get this done with. I opened the door and jumped down. This place was exactly the same as when I left - the big gates, the monster-shaped bushes my mother loves so much, even that weird gargoyle my brother bought last year.
I took the small bag I'd brought with me, thanked the driver, and began walking through the iron gates toward the entrance of my home, mentally preparing myself for what was coming as the wooden door in front of me swung open.
And there they were - my parents, standing before me.
Dad stood at the door with his perfect posture and a face full of awkwardness. If I had to guess, I'd say it was because he knew exactly what was about to happen, same as I did - because Mom always did this whenever me or one of my brothers came home.
Mother had this habit of jumping toward us the moment one of us had spent more than a day away, expecting to be caught.
One time Luci couldn't catch her in time, and they both fell to the ground. That day the entire house descended into disaster. Mom was in a foul mood all day, saying she didn't want to talk to any of us.
The next morning, Dad called an emergency meeting - eyes black from no sleep at all - and told us Mom had been crying the whole night, saying she was getting fat and that her own children could no longer catch her. He made us promise it would never happen again, and ever since, he'd been throwing objects at us at random so we'd always be ready.
So it was genuinely strange when Mom didn't even flinch.
She just stood next to Dad with her arms crossed, wearing an expression that could scare even Master Holt.
"Seraphina Cornu Valemont!" I gulped - full name. I was in trouble. "You haven't written a single letter to us in two months. TWO MONTHS!"
"B-but Mom, I've been really bus-"
"But-Mom nothing, Sera. We are very disappointed in you. Aren't we, Jacob?" Mom cut me off.
"Yes, dear." Dad's tone agreed, but his face was telling me to just go along with it until the storm passed.
"I'm sorry, Mom…"
"Will you forget to write to us again?"
"No, Mom, I will not." If I ever forgot again, I'd need a very good excuse.
Mom took a deep breath, her expression melting back into her usual smile, and jumped toward me. Thanks to Dad's training, I managed to catch her and avert a family crisis - barely.
"Oh, look at you, my little daughter is back! You'll have to tell me everything that's happened to you lately - especially with that boy Fin."
And here she comes. Another thing about Mom: if you haven't been around her in a while, she asks questions. A loooooot of questions, until she practically knows more about your life than you do.
"Dear, why don't we let her put her things in her room before you start bombarding our daughter with questions?"
Saved by the bell. Thanks, Dad. I love you.
Slowly, Mom's feet touched the ground again. She pouted. "Alright - go put your things away quickly. We'll be waiting for you at the garden table."
"We?"
"Yes, my love, because we both miss our dear daughter very, very much and want to hear all about her adventures." Mom paused. "And about that boy Fin."
I screamed internally but knew saying anything would be pointless, so I grabbed my bag and walked through the door, giving Dad a hug as I passed him.
"Ah, yes, I almost forgot - Seraphina, remember to say hello to Lucio. He's in the study on the third floor."
And so I did. Slowly. Very, very slowly. I normally hated when things took too long, but if it delayed Mother's interrogation, then so be it.
I went upstairs step by step, taking my time over every portrait of my grandparents, the strange pots Mom makes, every detail in the rugs on the floor, until I reached the third-floor study - a room my brother had claimed for himself after he took over managing the family's finances.
I opened the door to be met with the smell of Luci's cologne - aelberries, he swears girls go crazy for it - and there he was, sitting amid piles of paper in the middle of the room.
"Hey." I said.
"Hey."
"Hey."
"Hey?"
"Hey!"
He finally lifted his gaze from the papers and looked at me. "How have you been, Sera? I haven't seen you since you broke up with that boy - what was his name… Min?"
"I did not break up with him. He was my party member and we disbanded. We were never a couple. I don't know where you got that idea."
"Mom. You know how she gets whenever a boy's name comes up."
Of course. It had to be Mom.
"So how have you been? Any interesting things to tell me? A story? A good deal? A girl, perhaps?"
"Yes, I have stories to tell, but I doubt you'd care to hear how I grew the family's fortune by five percent. And no, no girls."
"Come on, Luci! At this rate, Lu is going to give me a sister-in-law before you do."
"As if losing to him at something was ever news to us."
There was something in the way he said it that I didn't like - a kind of defeat in his voice. It was true, after all. Lucio was incredibly smart, considered a genius, but our oldest brother, Lucious, was on a level of his own.
"Speaking of him, where is he?"
"In the words of our dear mother: 'My poor baby is buried in work because of everything happening in Vareth. He won't be able to come back until the twenty-third.'" Luci said trying to imitate Mom's voice.
Oh, right - with the whole southern district situation, I doubted he'd have much free time.
"Well. Three days without Lu… Mom will surely talk about him nonstop. Speaking of which, bye-bye, Luci. I'd better get going before Mom starts losing patience."
Luci just nodded and turned back to his papers before I went to drop my things in my room and go meet my parents.
------------------
The garden table was set the way it always was when Mom wanted to make an occasion out of nothing - the good porcelain, the citrus tea she only brewed for guests and returning children, a little too much food for three people. Dad was already seated, one hand around his cup, the other tapping an idle rhythm against the table that meant he was bracing himself.
Mom was practically vibrating.
"Sit, sit, sit," she said, patting the chair beside her before I'd even reached the table. "Now. Start from the beginning. Everything. Don't skip the boring parts, I like the boring parts."
"Mom, there's really not that much to-"
"The boy. Fin. Start there."
"There is no 'there' to start at, Mom, he's my-"
"Party member, yes, yes, you keep saying that word like it means something different than what it means." She waved a hand as if swatting the excuse out of the air. "Is he handsome? He sounds handsome. Jacob, doesn't he sound handsome?"
"I've never met him, dear."
"Exactly. A mystery. I love mysteries."
I glanced at Dad for help. He gave me the same look from the doorway - ride it out. Some rescues only come once a day, apparently, and I'd used mine on the stairs.
"He's… fine, Mom. He fights well. He's quiet. That's it. That's the whole report."
"Quiet." Mom said it like she was tasting the word. "Quiet ones are always hiding something interesting. Mark my words."
She wasn't wrong, exactly, which was the worst part. I picked up my tea so I'd have an excuse not to answer right away. But Mom seemed to understand she wouldn't get much further with the Fin topic because of the very next thing she said.
"Alright, fine, no more Fin," Mom said. I didn't believe her for a second. "Tell me about your adventures then. What have you done? Did you make any new friends?"
Finally! I could speak about something without wanting to shrink into the floor.
"Yes! I met this girl, Lira. She is an oracle I met during a contract. She also wanted to become an adventurer, so I took her all the way from her church to Vareth and we became a group. She is really careful, a bit quiet sometimes, but once she gets a bit of confidence in you, she can be really funny. Uh, she is also blind, but you would probably never believe it with how she moves around a room."
"An oracle?!" Mom's eyebrows went up and then she turned toward Dad. "Look at that, my love, our Sera is relating with important people right now, just as her older brother is. Isn't that wonderful?" Then, before Dad could utter a single word, she turned back toward me. "Anyone else?"
"Yes, there is also Ali, who joined us recently. There is not much I can tell you about her right now. We took a contract a few days ago where she… separated… from us, and Lira went to look for her. When I returned to the inn, Ali seemed a bit shocked, so we decided to end the year as adventurers there and take the rest as free time so she could have a bit of breathing room."
"That is very kind of you, Sera," Dad said. "You should bring them over sometime."
Mom was enthusiastically nodding at Dad's idea as she held my hand, but a part of me didn't like it very much.
"Oh, there's, um. One more thing. Small thing."
Dad's eyes narrowed, they always did when you mentioned small things near him.
"With everyone taking time off early, and the guild payout not clearing until next month, I sort of… borrowed a bit from the family vault on my way through. A hundred and sixty silver."
"A hundred and sixty…silver" Dad repeated, mostly to himself, like he was checking he'd heard right.
"That's less than nothing," Mom said, already losing interest in the number and refilling my cup instead. "Sera, darling, you didn't need to tell us that, you know that vault has your name on it same as your brothers'."
"I know, I just - I wanted to be honest about it. It felt weird taking it without saying anything."
"You're a good girl," Mom said, patting my cheek once, "worrying over pocket change." Then, without missing a beat: "Now. Anything else you want to tell us?"
"There is one more thing actually. Guess who is becoming a rank two adventurer?!"
Mom made a huge and dramatic gasp, Dad looked at me with a smile on his face.
"Congratulations, darling, we are very proud of yo-" Dad, as was natural in this home, got interrupted by Mom, who stepped up and hugged me tightly.
"My little Seraphina is going to be rank two! I'm going to brag about my girl getting to rank two to everyone in my art group, and all in under a year! You are amazing, Sera."
The last of my Mom's great list of unique traits was that she always made you feel like you were the best of the best for every small achievement.
For example, right now, she was celebrating it as if it were a great achievement-rank two in barely under a year, when most take around half that time—and Mom was celebrating it as if it made me special.
When it did not, because I was not special…
Mom went back to her seat with a smile on her face. "Now. Back to this Fin boy-"
"Mom!!!"
"What?"
"You said no more Fin five minutes ago!"
"Things change, Sera. People change. Now - quiet, or handsome-quiet?"
I put my head in my hands, and somewhere across the table, I heard my Dad laughing quietly into his tea.