The next day there was rain, but no wind at all.

Aureum stood soaked. Her face sculpted into a dim scowl. Was even nature mocking her now?

“AHHHHHHH!”

By the third day, Aureum had had enough of shouting. The scowl that etched inside her face crept inside her eyes. By the fourth day, murder was on her mind.

But the sky didn’t care.

Her family did.

For a while, her actions were ignored. She held the ultimate card when it came to leeway, her pearl being broken. Since this behavior arose from that, nobody in the family touched it carelessly.

However, It was too much of an eyesore for her father.

Calces was a merchant. He was used to apologizing profusely for minor offenses. He didn’t consider such a task demeaning of his pride at all, as long as he could make a hair's worth of improvement on his margin of profit.

When it came to his family it was different.

He had seen her the past few days when he returned. At first, it was a minor annoyance. The days tipped and toppled that annoyance into something else.

Sure, our family rarely has guests, but does every day have to be a scene in the back garden?

The eighth time he arrived home after dark and saw his wife watching their erratic daughter, he went directly to the garden without a word.

Aureum felt a heavy hand on her shoulder. Her eyes snapped open with a panic, her concentration broken.

“Uh! Dad?”

The shadowed face of her father looked down at her. A light from the house highlighted his eyes. His expression seemed serious.

What.

It might be pointless, but it’s better than just standing there. And if the wind does suddenly pick up, I’m ready.

Even if all it resulted in was her repeated failure.

She didn’t voice this preemptive defense to her father.

“Aureum,” he said. “What is this nonsense? Come inside.”

She took the time to really look at him.

It’s nasty being ordered around, even if it’s my dad, huh.

She smiled up at him.

“Nonsense?” She said. “I’m just getting ready to redo my pearl.”

“In this manner? What good is slamming your head into a wall?!”

He was pissed.

“Well, I might make a crack if I keep doing it?”

That makes it sound like I’ll crack my own skull!

Calces pulled himself straight and looked down at her nodding.

It had been the wrong thing to say.

“Aureum, when the last time you kept on doing anything?”

She opened her mouth and closed it. The kind father from her memories shouldn’t have said something like that.

Was it true?

She looked down and brushed her hand through her bangs.

“I kept up layering my pearl pretty well,” she said. “Just a bit everyday but—

“Yes, but you dropped that for your wedding. Just because the best option doesn’t work out, doesn’t mean you get to give up on it. Where do you think me or your mother would be if we did that. We weren’t ideal partners for each other, but ideal partners don’t exist!”

Calces spoke without giving Aureum much of a chance to speak. He had to breathe still, and Aureum took her chance.

“Are you telling me to wed the guy I slapped?”

“No. But you can’t give up on marriage as an option just because the son of Lord Nix himself didn’t work out. There are at least fifteen eligible lordlings from the eight nearest city-states alone for Bonum’s sake!”

She bit back petulant desire to shout back. Her control lasted all of half a second.

“And if I don’t want to get married? Even if you manage a miracle to get one of those fifteen lordings to marry me?”

“Aureum, act with good sense.” Her father’s voice was tired. “Even if you had a chance at becoming a true sorceress, now you would be behind your competition. You would have to race to catch up to them, which increases your chances of dying. Being half-baked will just get you killed.”

So there it is.

He doesn’t think I can do it.

Should I shout about this? It feels like I should shout. I’m kind of accomplished you know!

At giving the big Cyclops a headache. OK, that just makes me feel worse.

Does throwing common sense out the window and causing havoc not count for much? And even there I had the occasional help. What?

Does everything I went through count for nothing?

Calces continued as Aureum felt the ground sink like quicksand beneath her. The smile she'd forced twisted in her mouth. She didn't know what expression it showed.

“What sort of ambitions do you even have for becoming a sorceress? Can you tell me that?”

“…I just want to be able to run away.”

That was far too much honesty.

Aureum winced after she spoke.

“Run away?” Calces said. “Aren’t you already pretty skilled at that? Why do you need to be a sorcerer for that?”

All right, that hurt.

“You ran away from the storm as a child,” Calces said. “You ran away from your education to training under Spesavia. You ran away from that into marriage. And you run away from marriage into setting a path for sorcery after all sense for that path has left. Maybe you should already consider yourself an expert on that subject.”

Aureum’s expression leveled out. She was shocked. She was pissed. She wanted to cry. She wanted to murder him.

But she knew too well that none of those things would be advantageous for her right now.

And.

She couldn’t deal with him like Caducus. Cussing him out, burning his curtains, ruining his parties, and any number of other things. She could, but she wouldn’t.

My Dad is worth more respect than that fleabag.

She forced herself to smile again. It took every second of self-control hammered into her at the House of Nix to do it. It cost a piece of her soul.

“Seems I’ve got a lot of practice then!”

She took a hesitant step past him. Then another.

“Living however you want has a price, Aureum. I hope you realize that.”

He didn’t shout at her to come back, to her relief. He likely thought the discussion was done here. If he he had continued she couldn’t promise herself she wouldn’t turn around. And do any number of unseemly things.

Once in her room, she curled up in bed like an injured animal. She kept that position for maybe half an hour, excepting minor shivers. Still, the bed was soft.

The sore wrists, the dry throat, and the haggard breathing from being hung up for so long. Compared to that she could almost smile.

At least Calces actually cared.

Her eyes flashed open. Jolting up she beat her fist into her pillow.

Womp! Womp! Womp!

Really? So what if he cared! Is there no other way to redirect me than to take out my guts and crush them! Sadist! Just tell me to stop!

Her arms sagged. It’s not like nice words would stop her, Aureum knew that. The worst thing, the absolute worst thing, was that he was right. Maybe not in his delivery, but in his perception.

What was the reason I was imprisoned? Unable to see or make a real friend?

Unable to do even simple things like dress or eat as I wanted?

Was it for a righteous purpose? Was it for love?

No.

You couldn’t call the feelings Aureum had had for Nivis anything close to love. She’d been flattered by his pursuit. Admired his nice appearance, upbringing, and wealth. She thought she trusted him. But.

I just took the easy way out. I thought somebody else could create my happiness for me.

It wasn’t her fault that marriage was from hell, but she ultimately suffered the consequences for that “easy choice” alone.

I can’t stay like this. Even if facing reality is painful, I’ve got to do it. Otherwise, the painful things just pile up and burst into flame after a while.

She got up from the bed and sorted through the drawers of her dresser. The clothes and jewels from her teenage years piled behind her. Still, what she wanted was found in the most obvious spot, on top of the dresser by the corner. The one place she'd continuously overlooked.

She held Nivis’ engagement ring to her eye and looked through it, the eye narrowing as she smiled.

So what if no windy day has come? I’ll go catch the wind myself!