In Aedric's wing of the estate had just finished bandaging both Aria and Celia, " there you go thanks to the medcine it will be healed before tomorrow just keep it covered"
" i would also like to apologise to you both it seems I have failed to raise my offsprings well"
Aedric said as he gave a small bow,
"I am sorry but I do not need your apology I knew staying here was a bad idea" she said visibly still angry but Elias still retorted,
"Aria show respects he did not cause what happened neither did he know about it he even saved you and Celia and is helping and this is how you show gratitude ", but hearing this Aria scoffed saying "he saved us from one of his own and you expect me to believe that and what assurance is there that he won't turn around and attack us next", Elias was just about to respond when Aedric held his shoulder "i understand Aria what happened is as a result of my negligence to the character of my offspring and in turn putting you two in danger and I understand your anger but why don't you take a rest,I have prepared a room a room for you two and there is a guard outside the who will fill in for Tyris he is fully recovered he will take you there" Aedric said but Aria gave no answer to him she faced Elias directly, " why can we not just stay at our apartment why must we stay here why do we need their help we have been doing fine without it" she said but Elias had no answer for her, "Aria the situation is not as simple as it seems just trust me on this " Elias said as he tried to hold Aria but she shrugged his hand off "i understand properly Elias you were not the one who was kidnapped and tortured by that sick freak and I am sure they have something to do with gramps death how can you stand here and feel nothing at all " Aria said as she took Celia and slammed the door,Elias who was about to run after them got stopped by Aedric again "calm down Elias and think clearly right now you can not reach her you need to give her time before going to talk to her or it will end way worse than it currently is " Aedric said as he tried to calm Elias who seemed like the weight of life was tilting on his head "i understand where she is coming from i really do but with alot of things being hidden from her she can not see reason with me and is making her own assumptions and I can not do anything about it because I have to keep it hidden to keep her safe i an keeping her safe but losing my sister and I do not know what to do" Elias said feeling disheartened,but Aedric just smiled while saying " believe it or not Elias i have been where you are right now in the past when my wife passed my son blamed me for her death and refused talking to me we were like strangers in the same house before her death we could never really see eye to eye she was the bridge that connected us and when she left us the bridge went with her we are so far apart I have no idea where he is now even with all my network, what I am trying to say is I understand what you are going through with Aria do not let a rift form between you two " , I..I am so sorry about your wife I had no idea ,Elias said "nonsense boy how could you have known and it was a long time ago .....just a distant memory " Elias thinking about what Aedric just said finally made a decision " thank you for the advice sir and you were right I do need to clear my head a little can I be excused to go to gramps smithy one last time, "of course I will inform one of the guards to prepare a ride for you" .
A few minutes later
A black car pulled up in front of gramps smithy,"here we are sir " the guard who drove Elias said,"thank you" , Elias said as he left the car and now standing facing the door as many memories flooded his mind and in his hand was a key card Aedric gave him as they had changed the lock so he needed a new key card,opening the door everything seemed to be as they left it many ores littered on the ground the weapon rack still holding some of their works and even their protection gear hung on it's rack but he walked straight to the back into the forging room and standing at the center of the room two furnaces, a while ago these furnaces would have burned bright heating the entire room but now they went cold,Elias thought as he sat down beside gramps furnace,"I really wish I could speak with you one more time gramps Aria is mad at me she thinks I am hiding things from her and I mean she is not wrong but it is really for her own good how do I explain to her the things she can not know is for her own good , what would you do if you were here gramps you always knew the best things to say and the best smith related quotes but now ....I am shouldering everything on my own i wish I learnt more from you,Elias said as he sat in silence maybe hoping for a response until eventually he drifted away to sleep. Si.r.
...sir...SIR!,the guard said as tried waking Elias up, "uhmmm ...what is it" Elias said as he slowly opened his eyes, "i apologise for disturbing you sir but it is getting very late ", "late?" Elias said as he immediately stood up and looked out the window and the moon was already out,"thank you for waking me i had completely lost track of time let us go " Elias said as he took one last look at the smithy taking it all in before turning to leave. When they arrived at the estate Elias immediately left the car and seeing that the guard too hurriedly left as he was to accompany Elias as he said " allow me to escort you sir" but Elias with out turning back just waved as he said " do not worry about me I am going to see my sisters you can go I will be fine " Elias said . Now facing the door he realised he had simply rushed here with no prior planning but just as was in a dilemma about what to do a
pair of hands from behind hugged him and all his previous worries simply melted away how could he not know those hands they were of course Celia's hands "big brother why were you pacing left and right outside our door where you waiting for us?" Celia asked while still hugging Elias who could see food crumbs all over her mouth and could already guess they had gone to have dinner as he bent down to clean her mouth "yes I was waiting for you but how many times will I tell you to always clean your mouth after you are done eating and what about your sister " and just as Elias finished talking Aria came running in panting as it seemed that she had been chasing Celia and finally caught up to her and that was when she and Elias noticed each other "what are you doing here" Aria said as tried to pull Celia from Elias hands but Elias put Celia behind him halting her intentions "calm down Aria come let's go inside and talk" Elias said as he opened the room door taking Celia in and Aria who reluctantly followed who stayed a good distance away from Elias as possible,Elias seeing this could not tell if she was actually angry or just trying to frustrate him but he had to do what he came for " Aria i understand how you feel about what happened to gramps i might not have gone through what you did like you said but even before gramps took us in we were surviving because we could rely on each other you were my partner but if you can not trust me enough to watch your back how can i?,Elias said as he calmly closed the distance between them,gramps would kill me if he found out it am not able to keep the family together yes we lost him does not mean we have to lose each other too so what do you say " Elias said as he and Celia stretched both of their hands as she joined the campaign with Elias,Aria who seemed to be unshaken finally spoke "i will on the condition that you promise that you are not going to hide anything from us" hearing this condition Elias hesitated he knew he could not reveal everything to her yet so he had to lie "yes I promise" Elias said and immediately Aria hugged both Elias and Celia as she said "I know things have been hard on you too and I am sorry for being so difficult I was just really angry and you were the only person I could blame I am sorry " hearing this Elias smiled and said "it is all right Elias we do not need to dwell on the past" Elias said as they stayed together for some time and talked for a while before he left them to sleep, " I suppose all is settled " just outside the door Aedric stood seemingly waiting for Elias, "yes thank you so much for the advice " Elias said as he did a small bow, "it is fine kid just remember family is everything they might not be perfect but they are all you truly have i realised that late don't make an old man's mistake go get some rest we leave early tomorrow,Aedric said as he left Elias wondering how deep Aedric past ready is.