Viktor looked absolutely floored at the statement his mother had made. While it wasn’t completely outrageous for her to want to apologize, it also wasn’t entirely what Viktor had been expecting. That much was clear. Both Misra and I had seemed to pick up on the subtle hints throughout the match that Dameria wasn’t putting in her full effort, but Viktor had been so blinded by his own anger he couldn’t see it.

I watched as Viktor fell to his knees, his face full of surprise. I thought this was a bit of an extreme reaction until I realized something. While Dameria’s made a lot of sense, she had had a lot of time to deal with what was going on with her emotions, Viktor hadn’t. Since the second we’d gotten here, Viktor had received nothing but confirmation that his mother was exactly what he’d always believed. Even the little mention from Amelia that Dameria had been angry for the wrong reasons seemed to go totally unnoticed by Viktor.

I walked over to Viktor and placed my hand on his shoulder, kneeling down to look at him. He turned his head up to look at me, a mix of emotions on his face ranging from residual anger, to confusion, to frustration.

“Viktor. Are you okay?” I asked.

He just stared at me. All he could manage to do was shake his head and begin crying. I could understand what he was feeling, empathize even, but still, something felt wrong. I felt like I was missing something in how he was feeling, but I couldn’t really place it. Through my touch, I could feel his entire body shaking.

“Viktor, I’m very sorry. For… everything,” Dameria began, causing Viktor to raise his head up once again, this time turning his attention to her. “When you were born, you and Sammy, I was so happy. You two both radiated so much joy from the moment you were born and I loved you so much because of that.”

Viktor held up a hand for her to stop.

“Viktor, I-“ She stopped when Viktor stood up and walked over to the golem. He placed a hand on its chest and we watched as it sank to the ground, almost like it was listening in to the conversation as well. However, that couldn’t have been correct as we watched the light fade from its body until it was nothing but a large mass of wood. Viktor then returned. Misra had jumped down from the stands and was now sitting next to Dameria. With the four of us seated now, Viktor nodded that Dameria could continue.

“Well, despite how much I loved the two of you, you… you just didn’t display the kind of magical prowess as the rest of the family and it worried me. I tried to teach you to use magic better, but you just weren’t receptive to it and…” She began tearing up. “That’s when everything started to get so much worse. Whenever you wouldn’t understand or wouldn’t be able to get something right, I would get so angry with myself for being unable to help you, but then I would take that out on you and I would just feel even worse and I had no idea what to do.”

“Why did you push me so hard?” Viktor asked, his voice quiet and dry.

“I was afraid…”

“Afraid of what?”

“Afraid of you getting hurt or worse! I’d never had to worry about it with Misra or… Ezrael, but with you, I was constantly living in fear that you would somehow end up getting injured because you weren’t able to protect yourself. You should know firsthand just how dangerous this world is and with you not able to use even basic magic, I didn’t know what would become of you.”

“When I left, why didn’t you come looking for me?”

Dameria shook her head. “I did. Sengario almighty, I tried. I didn’t sleep for weeks as I tried to find you, but when I did, you were already at Camp VII. You seemed happy when I saw you. It was the first time in such a long time that I’d seen you that way. I just couldn’t take you away from that, no matter how much I wanted to.”

“You knew where he was all this time and you never told us?!” Misra cried from beside her.

Dameria nodded. “I’m sorry, dear. I never wanted to hide him from the rest of you, but I knew he would never come back so long as I was with you all.”

“She’s right.”

We all turned to look at Viktor, a little surprised at his addition.

“Exactly. However, once I had gotten better I thought maybe I could build up to finally asking you to come home so that we could at the very least see each other again, but then… Ezrael… I just couldn’t. Being so helpless to save one of my own children was so distressing. I was sent back to where I was when you first left. And… when he decided to leave because he couldn’t be around us, I felt like I’d failed…”

Misra placed her hand on Dameria’s shoulder. “Momma… you didn’t fail… none of us could have predicted what would happen…” I knew she was just trying to make her feel better. Viktor and I both knew how Misra felt in regard to whatever had happened to Ezrael.

“Viktor… I don’t ever really expect you to forgive me and, honestly, I can’t blame you there. I just hope that you won’t stay away from the rest of the family because of me. They’ve done nothing wrong and I know they all miss you.”

We all just sat there for a while. No one wanted to speak, knowing that Viktor should be the next one to do so. I kept looking between the three of them, not sure if he ever would give her a response. Given everything that had happened, I almost expected he might simply say nothing and we would leave, but I hoped he wouldn’t do that. Dameria was putting everything on the line here and offering a very genuine apology.

“I forgive you.”

We all turned to Viktor as he said it. His face was extremely serious, so it didn’t seem like he was joking.

“I was angry at you for a very long time,” he continued. “I believed and still believe that anger was justified. What you did to me was truly unforgiveable.”

“I know and-” Dameria started.

“However, if I were continue to hold this anger towards you even after you’ve explained yourself and given a serious apology, I would be no better than what I’ve believed you to be. An endless cycle of anger does not help either of us and, because of that, I forgive you. This does not mean everything is going to be perfect and I definitely still need to work through some of this, but I’m willing to do so so that you and I, and the rest of the family, can actually have a relationship once more.”

Dameria finally broke down crying. “Thank you so much, Viktor… I’ve wanted to hear you say that for so long.”

Viktor stood up and walked over to her. When she stood up, he opened his arms and she fell in to them, embracing him. It was a touching sight and not one that I could have guessed I would be seeing when we first arrived here. They stood there hugging for a while, but eventually, when they broke their hug, they turned to us.

“It’s getting a little late. Why don’t we all head back to the house and get some dinner?” Dameria asked.

We all happily nodded and began walking out of the arena. Once we were out, Dameria and Viktor turned back to the arena, forming two massive seals above it as they slowly dismantled it and replaced the land underneath it, putting it back to where it was before the arena had been created. It was practically impossible to tell that the arena had even been there before.

The walk back to the house was relatively quiet, other than the sounds of the forest around us. No one seemed to have anything to say and I was emotionally drained just from having been a witness to the exchange between Viktor and Dameria. Misra and I exchanged a few knowing glances. While she was part of the family too, we had both only been witnesses to the exchange.

Once we arrived at the house, we were met with open arms and a bit of concern. Viktor was without a single scratch, but he was still pretty downtrodden. Dameria, on the other hand, was covered in plenty of scrapes and bruises. Even though the fight had been short, she had sustained a decent amount of damage just from the few hits from the golem.

Viktor, Amelia, and Dameria all worked together to make a nice meal for all of us. Once it was done, the entire family sat down at the table to eat. I felt a little awkward since I was sitting in the seat that was meant for Ezrael. I received a few odd looks from Misra throughout dinner which she probably thought I didn’t notice. Once dinner was over, I helped with cleaning up the dishes. I hadn’t been able to help cook, but I still wanted to at least contribute something.

After we had finished putting away all the dishes, Cynthia and Gabriel returned to their rooms. The other five of us went in to the living room.

“I have to know, dear, what kind of quest are the two of you on?” Amelia asked.

Viktor and I exchanged some concerned looks. It wouldn’t be good to lie to her, but it also probably wouldn’t be great to tell the truth. As they were his mothers, I left that call up to Viktor. He decided to go with honesty.

“We’re gathering forces for a coming conflict against Zeraph in Ser. We were tasked with gaining the aid of not only the Masters, but of all six camps as well,” he explained.

As expected, the looks that we received from that statement were a mix of confusion, concern, and fear.

“A-Are you serious?” Dameria questioned.

We both nodded at her. “As of now, we’ve travelled to five of the six camps and have successfully acquired the help of each camp and their respective Master,” I added.

“Which camp do you have left?” Amelia inquired.

“Camp VI in Malfuim,” I answered.

She nodded. “I suppose that makes sense. With the rift right there, it would be easiest to gather all of the forces and have them meet there once you’ve gathered the aid of the other five.”

“What are the Masters like?” Misra asked.

“They’re… interesting is all I can really say,” I said.

“I see.”

“Wait a minute. They sent the two of you on your own to travel across the entire world?” Dameria asked.

I shook my head. “No. There are two other members of our group, but certain circumstances caused us all to get separated. We’re fairly certain that they’re currently waiting in Malfuim for us, so we’re currently heading there.”

Dameria sat there thinking for a moment. “If that’s your plan, you’re going to want to get there as soon as possible. To do that, you’re going to have to pass by Camp IX though.”

“Are you kidding? We’re that close?” Viktor exclaimed.

She nodded. “Yes, but you have a very limited window when you can pass by. During the daytime, the camp is far too active and you’d be spotted far too easily. You only have from sunset to midnight to be able to make it past there and you have to do so in a very quiet manner or you’ll be killed.”

“Can’t we just go around?” I asked.

“You could, but that would add almost a day to your trip. You can’t go now, but if you were to leave at sunrise, you would get there in that window and have enough time.”

I turned to Viktor who was thinking. This kind of decision could potentially lead to the end of the journey for the two of us, but at this point, we had already taken a long time on this journey and Zeraph was already probably too close to escaping his prison. We didn’t have much time to waste anymore.

Viktor seemed to agree. “If that’s what we’re going to do, we should probably get to sleep right about now. We’re going to need our rest for tomorrow. And, momma?”

She turned to face him. “Yes?”

“I need you to look at something before we leave.”