Ruby was the one who answered the door this time. "Larae, Harmor it's good to see you both."

"Ruby, it's always good to see you," the woman said as she gave Ruby a quick hug in greeting.

"I was worried we've arrived too early," a deeper male voice commented. It belonged to a very tall man with dark grey skin, somehow he was even taller than Celica's brothers. He had familiar electric yellow eyes.

"Just in time, I think," Ruby said as they both entered the room.

"Hello, I'm Dragon Tower Representative Serafina Stewart."

The woman's expression was complicated but familiar. Her dark grey eyes seemed focused on something about my face. It was almost identical to an expression I had seen Celica make. "Stewart, huh?"

Then Mom spoke. "Hey guys," she was waving with a grin, but it was one that I knew meant she was nervous.

I had a very sudden urge to be somewhere else.

"Larae," the man sounded worried. It might have been funny that this very tall man looked a bit scared of a woman about two feet shorter than him. "Sweetheart?"

If the woman was Larae, he must be Harmor. They were probably Celica's parents.

"What are you doing here?" Larae demanded as she stomped over to my mother.

"I'm a mom now! Look at her! Isn't she cute?" Mom sounded excited but she looked a bit terrified.

Larae grabbed the front of Mom's jacket and started shaking her pretty violently back and forth. "Where have you been? You disappear for seventeen years and think you can just show up now? Out of nowhere?"

"What can I say? It's been a year full of surprises. How could I stay away? And it's my only daughter's first year! That's too big a milestone for me to stay home."

Larae was still shaking my mother. "Daughter. I can't believe you ran off to have a kid!"

"Technically the kid came first."

"Do you have any idea how worried we all were? You stop answering your mirror and I didn't find out until weeks later that you changed your name to Stewart! What in the hells were you thinking?!"

"That a Hearth child was going to cause too much trouble," Mom dropped the teasing joyful edge to her voice. Her entire posture shifted causing Larae to stop shaking her. "You saw first hand what growing up the eldest Hearth is like. I wanted something else for her. Something better. And you know that sometimes you have to choose between loved ones, I chose Victor and Serafina."

There was something in my mother's voice I hadn't heard before. Not coldness, more like…emptiness. Like she had no emotional attachment to her words.

Larae finally released my mother. "Then why here?"

"She wanted it. And it was never fair to ask someone from two worlds to only live in one." Mom put her hands in her pockets, "For what it's worth, I wish it could have been different."

Larae huffed and crossed her arms.

Definitely Celica's mom.

"I'm still angry with you," Larae said.

Stolen story; please report.

"I didn't expect anything less."

"Apologies you had to see that kind of behavior from me. I'm Larae Owlcourt, Celica's mother. This is my husband Harmor."

"It's very nice to meet you both. Celica is a good friend." If not just a little bit terrifying sometimes. But I didn't think saying that out loud to her parents was the correct move.

"Do you share any classes with her?"

"Just Advanced Alchemy. She's been a wonderful partner. I couldn't imagine working with anyone else."

"That's good to hear, Celica can sometimes be a bit rough around the edges," Harmor commented.

"She's been a delight to have in Dragon Tower," I told them. "Very dependable, even though I know Chaser keeps her busy."

"That's your fault, by the way," Larae aimed her statement at my mother, "I told her stories of my best friend the chaser captain and that becomes the first thing she does."

Mom shrugged, "I'm shocked you told her about me at all."

"Oh please, with the amount of trouble you got us into, I couldn't leave you out of it. Believe me, I wanted to."

Mom grabbed at her heart and went into full dramatics, "My best friend is so cold."

"Fire's your thing, remember? Or did all those years amongst humans make you forget you're a Hearth?"

Mom laughed, "There's enough Hearth left for Serafina to have it. I mean she opened Dragon Tower. That's about as Hearth as it gets. Human father and upbringing or not."

Larae gasped, "It was you?"

"Before anyone asks, I don't know how or why. I kind of wish it had been anyone else." I rubbed at my curse again.

"Don't say that," Mom complained, "I think it was poetic."

"Someone else wouldn't have been nearly eaten by spiders," I reminded her.

She opened her mouth, looked between Larae and Ruby, then closed it with a huff and a crossing of her arms.

Larae narrowed her eyes at Mom's display. Her face was full of suspicion.

Mom was smirking though, so whatever it was couldn't have been that bad.

Vivian was also looking at Mom strangely, it wasn't the warm fond look like before. It was more like she was considering something, though I didn't know what.

The hint of tension was cut by the knock that signaled another arrival.

I went over to the door to let the adults have their little standoff.

"Hello, I'm Caninin Nightcall, Fethris's father." Fethris didn't look much like his father, the eyes were the wrong color. Fethris' were brown, Caninin's were more of a hazel.

"I'm Serafina Stewart, Dragon Tower Representative."

"Serafina, huh? Fethris has mentioned you. You're the one who got him mixed up in his first duel."

Larae started laughing, "Of course she did. She's Lucinda's daughter."

"Larae, Harmor good to see you both. It's been a while." He and Harmor shook hands, "Ruby. I heard you were keeping busy."

"Look who else decided to show her face," Larae sneered in my mother's direction.

Mom gave a slightly skittish wave, "Hello."

Caninin blinked, "Oh no."

"Surprise!" Mom's glee was back.

"Oh no." Caninin repeated for emphasis. He took a quick shallow breath, "Why are you here and what are you planning?"

"What? Can't I just be here for Serafina?" Mom asked in her fake offended tone.

"No," Ruby, Harmor, Larae and Caninin all said at once.

"Rude," Mom accused. "But if you must know-"

"There is something!" Larae exclaimed.

"I'm not planning anything. I swear. Yet. I'm…in the learning phase still. Don't worry it doesn't involve anyone I haven't shared a surname with," Mom dropped the teasing, but she was still very relaxed.

"You and your secrets. You're not going to tell us, are you?" Caninin asked.

Mom just gave a wide and toothy smile that made me want to hide.

"Unbelievable," Larae was grumbling, "Are we just going to ignore that this is an almost complete reunion? I swear to the gods if Kingsley comes through that door next-"

"I'm not late, am I?" The newcomer didn't look familiar to me.

"Dear gods, why?!" Larae cried.

"I thought this was the meeting place for Dragon Tower parents, what are you all doing here?" The newcomer asked.

"These are the Dragon Tower parents," Caninin explained, "It would seem the gods are having a bit of fun at our expense."

"I thought Russel was hiding something," he looked amused.

"That's not the worst part," Larae interrupted, "look who else is here." She pointed at my mother who was waving silently.

"Oh gods," Russel's father looked a little nauseous.

"Never thought I'd see the day the six of us were together again, but here we are," Ruby said with a shrug.

Russel's father was staring at my mother like she was some kind of ticking bomb.

Mom didn't seem bothered by it though. She was grinning like this whole thing was some kind of game.

"The gods are punishing us for our years here," Russel's father mumbled. Then he turned to me. "Ah, sorry for being rude, I'm Shakir Kingsley, Russel's father."

"It's nice to meet you all, I'm Serafina Stewart."

He looked between me and Mom a few times. Mom grinned wider.

The best part about having Vivian in the room was that the moment she started speaking all of the adults stopped focusing on Mom and were listening to her. "Now that you're all here, I'd like to go over the plan for today. Since we had to adjust the schedule due to the larger than average numbers we received this weekend even though you're all here we won't be doing the bulk of the activities until tomorrow. Right now it's time for your tour around Dragon Tower and meeting with your children. Questions?"

No one said anything.

Mom clapped and was pulling on my arm as we left, like she forgot I knew better than anyone where we were going.

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