Lineage

I’d done what I’d promised, for everyone. Cadance had returned a signed, sealed letter to Khalifa expressing nothing but excitement and eagerness to work as business partners, going so far as to allow Khalifa to be the sole receiver of their business’ finances due to Cadance truly not being in it for the money, signing the letter with her name and a kiss mark. With Khalifa ready and raring to go, she and Alexander met apprehensively at first, but soon learned to work well together, in tandem with Kalla and her thieving skills, were soon putting the pressure of McGraw’s finances as we sapped more and more of his funds, keeping it stored in the vault at the base of the tower.

To the aid of Miss Claire and Annerose, Twilight arrived with a team of excavators within three days, bringing books containing knowledge of the likes the other women had never seen before, able to put not only locations of ancient ruins in the map, but also names and a little bit of history. Twilight and her team of excavators had the first set of Elven ruins returned to the world stage and quickly informed the Guilds she needed to, having the fame and accolades spread to her and Miss Claire for their amazing discoveries that week.

With two allies gained and bonds strengthened, I knew it was time to try the same with the knight-captain I’d summoned here, who had seen fit to bring along a good number of well-trained Equestrian soldiers. I’d heard he’d arrived in the tower, but hadn’t been willing to see him face to face until now, and as I walked out onto the balcony and beheld the man I had not seen for over a half a decade, I’d be a liar if I’d said my heart hadn’t sunk a little.

Shining Armour was not the man he once was. While his darling wife had her magic blood to rely on to keep her fresh, even into her sixties, my father was not so lucky. The once vibrant blue of the man’s hair had been sapped away, replaced with thin, grey locks that barely held any resemblance to the colour they once had. His face showed his age, even more than most men of his years did, due to the harsh lifestyle he’d lead. His great size still remained, standing at the same height Luna did, but the powerful body he’d once possessed had been rotted away by time and age, his eyes dim and withered, the life fading from him day by day as he knew it was coming close to an end.

“Father,” I said, walking over to his side. “It’s good to see you again.”

The old man turned to look at me, a sweet-yet-sombre smile on his face as he stared me up and down.

“Good Gods, look how you’ve grown,” he said, a rasp in his voice that he’d never had before. “I’ve definitely been gone a while, haven’t I?”

“Change from usual?” I asked in a semi-spiteful tone.

“No…” he said, shaking his head as he looked out over the city. “No it isn’t. But I had my reasons.”

“You always told me that,” I said, turning around with aggression in my voice. “You said it all the time, every time you disappeared for three years at a time. But you never told me the reason why you were never around.”

“I suppose you’re old enough now,” he nodded, sighing heavily “A grown man has a right to know why his father was so terrible.”

“So you admit it?” I asked.

“Of course I admit it, Richter,” he nodded, standing up straight again and walking over to a wineskin sat on a table just by the balcony door. “I’d be a damn fool not to admit it. I was never there for you, always off on some training exercise and neglecting my duties as a father… but now you’re old enough to know why…”

He drank from the wineskin, some warm liquid that had a scent of crushed berries. He set the drink down and gently massaged his shoulders, rolling them and grimacing in pain slightly.

“Are you okay?” I asked him.

“No. Not really,” he said. “The wars I’ve fought are catching up to me, it seems. Arthritis in the joints and knuckles, nerve damage to my lower left arm from something I would’ve shrugged off forty years ago, and a stab wound to the side from a swordsman I would’ve swept the floor with in my prime. No… I’m not okay. But that’s not what I’m here to talk to you about…”

He walked back over to me and leaned against the balcony, taking a deep breath before beginning to explain something that seemed highly irrelevant at first.

“You know I’ve almost died before?” he asked me. “I was about thirty seven, I think. You would’ve been turning two that same year. I was assisting in a war against a country with borders getting bigger than everyone liked them to be, and I was in a building that got hit by a trebuchet. They said what they pulled out of the rubble an hour later wasn’t anything more than a somehow functioning torso with paste attached to itself.”

“Fuck…” I commented.

“Yeah, but thanks to the help of a good few talented mages and a lot of rest, I made a recovery when nobody else did,” he continued. “But it’s not the injuries I suffered that was the most painful thing to go through. While they were fixing me, I was put to sleep, but kept waking up. And every so often I’d spot your mother a little distance away in a state I wake up at night feeling guilty about just for making her experience it. Tears streaming down her face, eyes swollen and red from sobbing for so long, and a look of tiredness that told me she hadn’t slept for days while I was being healed.”

There was silence for a moment, Shining clearly experiencing the guilt again from even remembering Cadance looking the way she did.

“And that’s when I realised I’d made the biggest mistake of my life, about fifteen years earlier,” Shining sighed. “And the biggest mistake I ever made was marrying your mother. Because from that day on I came to terms with a fact that I’d ignored for so long, ignored because I was a selfish, arrogant fool. One day, be it one day soon or one day forty years down the line, I was going to die. I was going to die and leave your mother like that, for however long it took her to get over it. She was an immortal creature that had fallen in love and wed herself to a candle burning at both ends. And I couldn’t bring myself to ever willingly let her get into that state again… her, or you.”

“So… what?” I asked. “Because you came to terms with your mortality that was the reason you abandoned us both? You left your wife and son to go gallivanting off in every war under the sun? Never giving me a chance… a chance to… know you. To miss you. When you’re gone…”

“See the idea yet?” he asked with a pained smile. “It was a stupid idea, an idea most men would scoff at and discard instantly. But I didn’t. I didn’t because I’m a damn fool, Richter. I’d found myself in a hole and the only solution I came up with was to dig my way out on the other side. If I could go back and change what I did, if I was given a chance to be a better father and better husband, I would. I’m sorry that I had to leave you to grow up without a father and leave your mother for over two decades without her husband… but in my idiocy I thought I was doing the right thing. Distance yourself so you’re nothing more than a memory, so they won’t cry for long when you’re gone. But, while the plan didn’t work the way I wanted it to… it did start something good.”

“Which was?” I asked.

“Your mother loves you more than she does me,” Shining commented.

“No she doesn’t,” I said.

“Yes she does, and that’s exactly the way I want it to be,” he continued.

“Are… are you serious?” I asked him.

“Yes, I’m serious. You are everything your mother would need in her life to be happy,” Shining explained. “She’s attached herself to you in the same way she did to me, but the thing that makes you better for her than me is the fact you won’t wither away. You won’t turn to dust in a matter of a century and leave her with two children to care for on her own.”

“You aren’t seriously suggesting that I just steal your wife from you, are you?” I asked in disbelief.

“There’d be no stealing involved,” Shining said, rolling his shoulders again. “After all… she becomes available again once I kick the bucket.”

“Don’t even start with that shit,” I growled angrily.

“There’s no point in denying or ignoring it, Richter,” Shining said in a sombre tone. “I’ve had a life long past what most men do in this day and age. I’m no longer leaving my hourglass on the shelf and enjoying life. I’m staring at the last few grains I’ve got left before my time here is done. It’s something I’ve been preparing for for nearly thirty years, but now thanks to the way you and your mother have bonded, you can be there for her in the way I wasn’t, for a length of time I couldn’t even comprehend.”

“I… I don’t know what I’m supposed to say,” I mumbled, completely flabbergasted by the current situation.

“You don’t need to say or do anything different than what you have with your mother,” Shining said, drinking from the wineskin again and coughing loudly after doing so. “She’s going to need you more than ever soon enough.”

“There’s something you’re not telling me,” I growled angrily. “The shit you’re drinking from there isn’t wine, Dad. I can smell Fytherberries and Eldersap in that. Two ingredients used in a herbalist brew to stave off organ failure. It’s not a matter of staring at the hourglass in wonder, is it? You’re dying now, aren’t you?”

“Hm. You were always a smarter boy than your teachers gave you credit for, Richter,” Shining chuckled, sitting down on the balcony and giving me a gentle smile. “And you’re right… you’re completely right.”

“How much longer have you got?” I asked him. “Be honest with me.”

“From what the medics, mages, and alchemists are telling me…” Shining said, taking a deep breath. “Six months. At best.”

“Fucking hell,” I snarled, turning away from him and covering my hands with my face. “Does Mom know?”

“Not yet,” he said with a shake of his head. “I’m on my way to tell her now, actually. But I felt you were the one I’d done the most wrong in your life.”

“And why’s that?” I asked, turning to face him with a cocked eyebrow.

“Cadance lost her husband. You never had a father,” he admitted, drinking more from the wineskin. “Can you do me a favour?”

“What is it?” I asked.

“Look after Astraea for me,” he said, standing up with a pained grimace. “She won’t be old enough to remember me when I’m gone… but she’ll still need a father-figure in her life. I need that to be you, Richter.”

“I… I will, Dad,” I nodded, staring at him in the eyes as he clapped me on the shoulder. “I promise.”

“That’s a good boy,” he chuckled, limping back inside. “Now, do we have some business to take care of with this McGraw man?”

“I do,” I stated. “You need rest.”

“Ugh, you’re starting to sound like my little sister now,” he muttered. “I’ll rest in a year.”

Dad, c’mon,” I said. “That’s not funny.”

“It’s a little bit of dark humour,” he chuckled. “You should learn to laugh about death, Richter. You’re going to be seeing a lot of it in your life.”