I didn't say it to be cute

Kellam's gaze dropped to the floor, his shoulders sagging under the weight of Megara's words. The tension in the room was palpable, the curling vines a silent testament to the emotional storm raging between them. He let out a long, weary sigh, running a hand through his hair as he processed everything she had said.

I suppose there’s some truth in what you say, he began slowly, his voice edged with reluctance. I’ve let my anger and grief guide my actions for too long. I didn’t see the damage I was doing.

He lifted his eyes to meet Megara’s, the defiance and anger not entirely gone, replaced by a mix of regret and lingering bitterness. With maybe a flicker of paranoia and a dash of entitlement. Who was this child to judge his actions from years ago. Memory was a fickle thing, something not so easily reliable in the best of times.

The truth of things was usually some conglomeration of people’s memories. Because of Kellam’s inner metaphorical demons, as well as the rage demon that resided within him, his memories were hardly reliable, but it was those memories that he’d held on to with an iron grip all these years later.

Things weren’t the same after Amara was murdered. She was the one that wanted kids, and I just wanted to give her everything, be everything she deserved. His voice trailed off, as his mind started to fall into an all too familiar black hole in his brain, a hole that the rage demon did not like to go down. The rage demon was never happy when he fell into his dark depressed places, no it preferred the anger and condemnation from earlier. He cleared his throat, tried to ground himself in the moment, though the conflict was more than evident to anyone with an ounce of empathy.

Well, whatever you think is best, if my son inherited even an ounce of my stubbornness, this won’t be easy of course. At the end of the day, Kellam was backed into a corner, he needed, no, wanted Megara to look kindly on him. He wanted to be a part of integrating his clan into Arlathan, an active part. Partly because he did, at the end of the day, want what was best for his clan, but he also craved power. If trying to make up with his reckless son was what he needed to do in order to maintain some semblance of power within Arlathan, then that’s what he was going to do. Once his son refused, he figured that would be end of it, at least he tried.

@Megara Fern