Savior

Memoria Part 3- Leon Cassio

ELLENY

I arrived at the edge of the marsh just before sunrise. When I approached the porch, I noticed that the door was already opened. I slowly stuck my head inside the door, feeling slightly more confident as my power had been freshly awakened. I smelled the air which revealed a tinge of iron, “Blood”, I whispered. I looked down to see a trail of it leading to the dining room. I entered the room to find a large bloodied man sitting at the table.

“Leon! You’re hurt!” I rushed to him. My powers had not yet started to fade. I placed my hand over his injuries and started to heal them. His skin still felt familiar to me though I had not placed my hands on him in six years.

“El,” he turned to face me. His eyes were wide and his face was pale. “I made a mistake.”

“What are you talking about?” I continued healing him as I spoke. He paused in thought, not looking at me. It reminded me of the times we were together in the manor before he left. It was rare that Leon would look at me directly, even when we tried to conceive. He was disgusted by the sight of me. Even with my glamour in place, he knew what lay beneath it. A race that his family hated so much, they chose to lock us away for centuries. Exiled from the humans we once called friends.

“I told them about you.” His voice trailed off in shame, “I told them about you and the kid.”

I was taken aback and unsure of how to respond at first, “Why would you do that?”

“I ran away from home like a child. For six years I lived in Brildin and farmed my poppies at night when you and the kid wouldn’t see me. I was drunk and angry about all that had been taken from me. When I sobered up, my men told me I beat a man senseless and talked about the disgrace I brought to my ancestors by breeding with you-Elleny of Vita, host to the Goddess of Life.”

“Leon, when you left I had no idea you weren’t coming home. I never asked you to leave. Any feelings of resentment you have towards me you’ve brought onto yourself.” I tried to ignore the fact that he referred to our union as disgraceful. I knew how he felt, but that didn’t change the hurt his words inflicted on me.

“I couldn’t stand the sight of you pregnant with an offspring of mine. I tried to convince myself I had no other choice. That it was the only way to stop the destruction of Etherea. But deep down I questioned if it was worth it. My mother would be ashamed.”

I felt anger starting to boil inside of me, “Your mother would be ashamed that you are trying to save the realm?”

“That I bred with Lolth blood and couldn’t stop him on my own.”

What a selfish man he was. I left my home for him, for this arrangement. He has never once asked me how that felt. After all that I had sacrificed, for him to divulge our secret in this way. He was a foolish mortal. I let my anger boil over and take hold of my words. A spiteful tone shot from my mouth, “I didn’t force you into this, Leon. You agreed to this arrangement and since the day she was born, you have not held up your end of the bargain. You are supposed to be training her, not running away from her like a coward!”

He didn’t speak, but I saw his fists clench.

“If you really wanted this to work, you would have stayed and tried to teach her something. Gods forbid you actually pretend to be a father. If anything would bring shame to your mother, it would be the way her son abandoned his offspring.”

With that he slammed his fist into the table and shot to his feet. He towered over me, but I did not waiver. How dare he treat our daughter like a burden when he was not even around for her first words, first steps?

“I’m so sorry that you couldn’t be bothered to save your people, but while you were doing Gods know what in Brildin-You wasted six years of valuable time teaching her your ways. She can’t be our savior on her own. By neglecting her, you have doomed us all.”