Guardian(Part II): Soulborne

Chapter 43: Haemon

Dad was drinking as much as he possibly could ever since the battle. I wasn't at all surprised, but I was annoyed. I had to listen to him shouting at the top of his lungs for hours while I sat with Mom and Finn. Just sitting at the same table as him made me cringe, but I managed to contain my anger to not snap his neck. It would kill him, but he would be back the next day. I wanted nothing more than to kill him and make sure he stayed dead, like Mom did with the Dark One, but I couldn't. He was still my father. What he said next while he was ranting would change that, though.

"You know... Haemon," he slurred, dropping a glass and shattering it. "You have a brother."

"Had a brother," I growled. "Arion. He's in the Soul Snare."

"But there's no Soul Snare anymore," Dad corrected, chuckling. My eyebrows raised. I trapped Arion in the Soul Snare myself when Finn and I fought him on Soareus Peak. Was Dad saying he destroyed it?

"Dad," I said. "What are you saying?"

"Well, Arion is my son," Dad reminded. "Would you have expected me to leave him in that box by himself while I could do something about it?"

Mom looked over to us. She was listening to everything we were saying, and I began to sense a feeling of anger growing inside of her. I had that same feeling as Dad kept talking.

"He was just... so alone in there," he continued. "How would you feel if you were trapped inside a box that small with no escape other than clawing your way out until your fingers began to bleed?"

Mom and I looked to each other with shock in our eyes. It was a good thing Finn wasn't paying attention to us, or else he would have been terrified. I had always known Dad was no stranger to causing as much trouble as he possibly could, even more than I would, but I never imagined this! Did he not know why Arion had to be trapped in the Soul Snare instead of just killed, or why that was the case in the first place!?

"Finn," said Mom. "I'm very sorry, but I must leave."

"Where are you going?" asked Finn.

"Home," Mom answered. "I have to check on something."

"Alright," Finn understood. They both stood up and wrapped their arms around each other.

"Goodbye," said Mom.

"Hey, Mom?" Finn called. "I just wanted to let you know... I've forgiven myself for what happened in Dormanine."

"You have?" I asked.

I saw a smile across Mom's face. I knew Finn had hated himself for killing his attackers in Dormanine ever since it happened. I constantly sensed that guilt from him the entire time since we met at the foot of Soareus Peak, when I was buried under the mountain by that Tuatha warrior. Going through the Labyrinth of Torment made it even worse, since he learned exactly what happened when he blacked out. He had been blaming himself for that terrible incident, and now he wasn't. It gave both me and Mom relief to know that.

"Well, good," Mom complimented. "Maybe I can learn to forgive myself for what I did."

"Yeah," Finn agreed.

As Mom grabbed Dad by the shoulder to drag him out of the throne hall, I ran up to hug Finn before following her. Once we were out of the palace, we flew into the air. Dad was dangling in the air by nothing more than his suit in Mom's hand. We flew all the way across Camnora, and back into Chardan. Once we crossed Chardan's border, we went south. Eventually, we found Mom's house, but there was something else there with it. A crater, filled with snow and dirt that must have been several hundred feet deep.