When my father finally spoke, his voice was quieter than before.
"Because we believed you would die if we told the truth."
I blinked.
"What?"
His eyes met mine.
"Before your mother and I died, your grandfather and even great grandfather started noticing things."
My mother picked up the explanation without hesitation.
"At first, they looked like coincidences."
The warmth that usually filled her voice was gone.
"Important bloodlines losing children. Hidden descendants suddenly being discovered. Families suffering attacks shortly after information about them became known."
A knot slowly formed in my stomach.
My father leaned back in his chair.
"It wasn't always the Eternals themselves."
"Sometimes it was an abomination attack. Sometimes phantoms. Sometimes entire settlements disappeared without any explanation at all."
His jaw tightened.
"Individually, none of those incidents proved anything."
"But after seeing enough of them, the pattern became impossible to ignore."
