As Aiden stared down into the small room, he had to fight the rising feeling of excitement in his chest.
For years, he had said he hated his parents for leaving him with Grandpa.
Yet as he stared over that railing, a part of him wanted to tackle them in a hug.
Dad was older now.
His glasses were the same, and he wore that familiar smile Aiden remembered from when he was a kid, when Damian would call him over to eat dinner after he had been playing in the yard.
Mom's face showed small wrinkles, hidden well by makeup.
To someone meeting her for the first time, they would have been invisible.
But Aiden remembered her face from when he was little.
The way she would laugh with Dad and dance as dinner cooked over the fireplace.
They had been perfect for each other in the way only finding one's soulmate could make people perfect.
However, as Aiden's eyes drifted to Canna and Abel, he felt that ember of resentment in his chest again.
It was not directed at either of them.
They were just kids.
But that small voice in the back of his mind whispered in his ear.
They had me.
If they wanted kids so badly, why did they leave me behind?
As Aiden made his way down the stairs, he saw Selene meet his eyes with a worried look.
She was worried for him.
That was reassuring in a strange way.
Aiden sat down at the table.
"And you must be Aiden," the man said. "I'm Damian Hallowcreek, and this is my wife, Patricia."
Aiden stared at the extended hand for a moment.
Then he took it.
He met his father's eyes.
"Dang," Will said bitterly inside his head. "They sure are invested in this whole no-first-son bit, that's for sure."
Aiden's eyes drifted to his mother.
Patricia stared at him for a moment too long.
Then her eyes widened.
"Oh, Damian, can you believe it?" she asked. "He has the same brand of glasses you do."
She smiled at Aiden.
"You wouldn't happen to have been by Hopestone recently, would you?"
Aiden took a moment.
"I, uh," he said, "I was in town just a few weeks ago and got a pair."
The mood at the table dipped toward awkwardness.
Aiden sat down.
Selene nudged him slightly, as if to say she was there for him.
Maybe sensing the mood and knowing how quickly a conversation could go stale, Damian spoke.
"Dang," Damian said, "loss of the first match must have hit y'all hard."
He chuckled lightly.
"If it will help cheer y'all up, I heard about you working with Selene here to make medicine for her condition, and I wanted to see if I could help get some things."
He looked to Selene.
"You were missing some tools for it, right, Ms. Selene?"
Selene nodded.
"Y-Yes," she said. "Aiden has the recipe, and from what we saw, your s—"
She stopped herself.
"I mean, someone in your family runs an alchemist shop in Hopestone, so you might have heard some of these terms."
At that point, Patricia spoke up with a small chuckle.
"Well, my father Stoic was an alchemist," she said. "Sadly, however, we heard he left town. Though he gave the shop to a protégé he had been training, so it is in good hands."
Aiden felt a twinge in his chest.
"Protégé," Will said. "Fucking protégé. Ah, yes, because gods forbid they have a son they left behind. Least they can do is say we exist."
Aiden bit his tongue to stop himself from speaking.
Then he felt Selene grab his hand.
He could only assume it was meant to ground him.
"R-Really now," Selene said. "That's wonderful."
She stood quickly.
"Let's go get that list from upstairs. I'll come too, so we can talk about what we need to get most."
She did not give Aiden time to respond.
Selene quickly pulled him up the stairs.
As soon as they were out of sight, she stopped and turned to him.
"A-Are those your parents?"
Aiden nodded.
He stared back down the hall they had just walked through.
Selene turned and began walking.
"I-I'm telling them to just leave the quest reward," she said. "What they are doing is cruel, and I'm not just going to—"
Aiden grabbed her left arm before she could leave.
Its purple-colored skin was rough, but solid in a way that felt oddly securing in that moment.
"No," Aiden said. "We are this close to getting you a cure. The whole reason you have traveled across two kingdoms with us."
His grip tightened slightly.
"I can't ask you to give that up."
"Good," Selene said, "because you don't have to ask. We're giving it up."
She tried to pull away.
Aiden held on, pulling her gently enough to make her face him.
"It's just two minutes of listening to them talk," Aiden said. "I can handle that much. So let's just do this."
His voice lowered.
"That way I don't have to feel so guilty about your illness, and you don't have to live with it any longer than you need to."
Selene took a moment to think.
Then she turned back.
"F-Fine," she said. "But only as long as needed."
She fidgeted for a moment, almost as if she was unsure whether she should head down first or if he should.
Then she suddenly gave Aiden a tight hug.
Afterward, she began leading him down the stairs.
Maybe it was because, with his parents' arrival and dismissal of his existence, Aiden was emotionally in shambles.
But that small gesture solidified him in a way he could not describe.
As they sat back down, Aiden pulled out his notebook.
"So," Aiden said, "the potion I'm making for her needs a silver reflux coil and a runic strainer in order to work. I have the other tools, but I'm missing those."
Damian nodded.
He looked over the recipe and began mumbling the herb names to himself in that way he always did when speed-reading.
Then he slid Aiden's notebook back to him.
Damian looked up.
"I think we can provide both of those," he said. "But I do have a small favor to ask."
Selene tensed as if about to stand.
Aiden grabbed her hand under the table to stop her.
"Depends what it is," Aiden said.
Damian chuckled and leaned back.
"It's nothing big," Damian said. "I just wanted to know if you had heard anything about my father-in-law."
Aiden went still.
"I know he left the shop to his protégé and that lazy Peridot girl," Damian continued, "but he stopped sending letters a few years back, and we haven't seen him since we left to start our business. So we were curious if anyone in town would know."
For a moment, Aiden stayed silent.
He looked down slightly, forcing his face to stay neutral.
"Not that anyone in town heard," Aiden said. "He had gone looking for you two and hasn't been back."
Damian nodded.
He turned to Patricia, who had a worried look on her face.
"It should be fine," Damian said quietly. "I can have the scryer try to find him when we get back home."
They gave Aiden and Selene a small bag that contained their gold and the item from the quest reward.
Then Aiden and Selene headed upstairs.
Selene turned toward their rooms.
Then she paused.
As she turned back, Aiden realized he was holding part of her shirt.
She looked up at him.
Her height was slightly shorter than his, and there was a curious look on her face.
Aiden was not sure what to say.
Will did not wait.
He spoke through him.
"Can…"
Aiden's voice trembled.
"Can I get another hug?"
Selene turned with a sympathetic expression and hugged him.
Her rough arm slowly moved up and down his back as she whispered, "It's okay. You don't have to be strong right now. You can crumble."
It was like her words were a command.
The strength left Aiden's knees.
He hugged her back with an almost desperate strength, his face buried in her shoulder as his back shook with sobs.
The silent question of why they did not want him hung in the air.
And for a moment, Selene held him together.