Ghost Roots

[MadEmperor]

If you decide you can, just tell me. I'll work something out. With that said, he walked towards the front door. He felt his own trepidation as he reached out to the doorknocker. After taking a few breaths, he rapped it against the door.

[DragonSong]

She nodded, rubbing her head against his cheek lightly.

The knock took a while to answer, and when the door did finally slide open, it was to reveal a steward in a sedate, starched shirt and coat.

"Yes? Can I help you?"

[MadEmperor]

"Yes. I'm looking Abigail Blythe," he answered politely, "I... I believe she knew my father, Hermes Auster."

"Please..." He hoped his anxiety was mistakenly attributed to anything but the truth. "I've come a long way."

[DragonSong]

The steward frowned. "Miss Abigail doesn't typically take visitors," he said doubtfully. "But I shall give her the name. Auster, was it? A moment."

He closed the door, and they heard footsteps disappearing further into the house.

The footsteps that came echoing back after several minutes were much lighter and quicker, trailed by a heavier, booted tread.

"Abigail, wait—"

"Unhand me this moment, Andre, or I swear you will regret it," a woman's voice snapped out moments before the door flung open to reveal a woman in a staid blue house dress.

She was older, of course, no longer a damsel of twenty but somewhere in her mid-forties; lines trailed from the corners of her eyes and mouth, strands of pale gray ran through her chestnut hair. But the eyes were the same as she looked Zephyr up and down.

"...You."

[MadEmperor]

Zeph was speechless for a long, awkward moment. Did she know? If she did, then his deception wouldn't hold even if his face was slightly different. Not against her.

"Yes, ah, we haven't... met. I'm told my father knew you."

[DragonSong]

"...Of course. Your father." She stepped to one side. "Please, come in. We can talk in my receiving room."

The man they had followed—Abigail's brother, presumably—was hovering awkwardly in the hall. "I'm not sure this is a good—"

"Who I choose to associate with is my business, Andre," Abigail snapped as she beckoned for Zephyr and his "cat" to follow.

[MadEmperor]

He nodded politely and followed. Sitting down when it was offered, he found that words failed him as he looked at her. But, eventually, he managed to say, "I'm sorry to show up unannounced, but I didn't know exactly where to find you."

[DragonSong]

Abigail had not taken a seat herself, arms folded as she just stared at him.

Finally, she sighed. "I don't know why," she murmured eventually, "but I somehow thought you would...at least look older. But you really haven't changed, have you?"

[MadEmperor]

He froze stiff. She knew. The realization hit him harder than he thought it would. He glanced around to see if the brother was in earshot before practically melting into his seat.

He sighed, looking at her apologetically. "How much do you know?"

[DragonSong]

Abigail sighed, her shoulders slumping slightly. "Honestly? I don't know—it's all folklore and hearsay. Are you a spirit? A demigod? Something else?"

She began to pace. "I didn't realize until after you—you left. And I know I was meant to contact you but..." Her expression went tight, green eyes doing dull. "Something happened. I...wasn't myself for a while."

Curled around his shoulder, Asta found her ears pricking up instinctively.

[MadEmperor]

"I'm... a spirit of nature," he found himself admitting, "I thought about telling you so many times, about coming to find you again, but I was... I was afraid: of what you'd think, of the position it would put you in, of what your family would do if they found out."

"That something is why I finally confronted that fear. I... met her."

[DragonSong]

Abigail seemed genuinely perplexed. "You met...who?" she asked slowly, eyeing him.

And then, in a strange mirror of the face Asta had made when her parentage had been presented to her, realization seemed to strike. The woman's knees trembled and she collapsed back into a chair, one hand pressed over her mouth.

"She--" She gulped, eyes watery. "She--she lived?"

[MadEmperor]

Zeph nodded slowly. "She did. And in some strange twist of fate, our paths crossed. Imagine my surprise when I learned I actually had a child."

What do you want me to say? he asked Asta.

[DragonSong]

I--I don't know. The cat blinked from her perch on his shoulder, staring wide-eyed as Abigail buried her face in her hands and her shoulders shook with silent sobs. I...feel like I shouldn't be seeing this. Like I'm spying.

She jumped down from his shoulder and crept under the chaise, curling up with her tail over her eyes. You should...tell her. If you think she's, er, ready?

Abigail gulped a few careful breaths, then finally lifted her head. "She--she's alright?" she whispered, leaning forward over her knees to fix Zephyr with a painfully hopeful look. "I didn't--she was so small, and pale, and they said she was sickly, that she didn't survive her third breath. I didn't--" She drew in a ragged breath. "I didn't believe them. For years I looked, I searched every children's home in the city, but I never found her. I--eventually I thought they must have been telling the truth, that she really had..."

[MadEmperor]

"She wasn't sick; she's an albino. A dryad found her and raised her the best it could; that's how she survived. She... grew up in the wild, trusting the civilized world even less than I do."

He considered his next words carefully. "You see, she inherited some of my power. Where I have power over the air and can shift a little, she is changeable like the wind.

"In fact, she's with us right now."

[DragonSong]

"She..."

Abigail blinked, then her eyes flickered down to the "stray cat" that had crawled under his seat. She looked back up at Zephyr incredulously. "You mean she's--surely not..."

[MadEmperor]

"She grew up with the idea that her mother had left her to die. She... was afraid to face you as herself, no doubt terrified that it was true. It was enough of a shock learning that the strange being traveling with her was her father."

"It's a lot for you too, and I know it's a risk to all of us, but I didn't know what else to do to help her process than to find you."

Just tell me anything you want to say and I can relay it. Unless you're ready? he told Asta.

[DragonSong]

The cat had crept out far enough that she could peer up at Zephyr from under the chaise. But before she could actually answer him, Abigail had moved onto the floor just in front of the seat, on her knees with her hands over her mouth.

"Oh, little one," she whispered, crying freely now. "I'm sorry. I am so, so sorry. If I had known—oh, my baby..."

Cautiously, much the way a feral cat would, Asta stretched her neck out toward her and sniffed. She took a few steps, then allowed her form to change, until she was kneeling in front of the older woman in a human shape.

"...Hello."

[MadEmperor]

"Abigail, Asta. Asta, Abigail," Zephyr said, introducing them to each other. He noticed a strange wetness in eyes as he was overcome by the moment. Never before had he felt such profound emotion.

[DragonSong]

"Asta?" Abigail began to smile through her tears. "It—it suits you. Little star."

She started to reach for her and Asta flinched back instinctively. Abigail froze. "I—forgive me. I'm so sorry, I just..." She sniffed. "They never even let me hold you..."

Asta blinked, then slowly leaned forward, allowing Abigail to place one hand on her cheek. Then she melted, leaning into the touch and all but collapsing as her mother wrapped her arms around her.

Mother.

Abigail clutched the shapeshifter to her chest, breathing raggedly. Then she looked up at Zephyr over her shoulder and smiled shakily. She held up one hand to him in invitation.