"I would like to thank Magus Verhen for what he did for us." Borj said while looking Agra in the eyes. "But I’m the lucky one. I remember nothing and his actions only benefitted me. It’s your choice, dear." "Please, Mommy, no." Liru started to sob. "Keep him away. Make the darkness stay away." Hearing her son’s terrified cries broke Agra’s heart and changed her mind. "Tell Supreme Magus Verhen he can come to visit us at his earliest convenience." She said. "Is now okay?" Shay asked. "More than okay." Agra swallowed hard and tried to appear calm. Shay talked briefly in her amulet and less than a minute later, someone knocked on their door. "Mom, no!" Liru tried to run to her but Borj held him in a bear hug. "It’s alright, baby. You stay there." Agra stood up from her chair, feeling the wooden floor turn into a tar pit. The few meters she had to cross stretched and deformed into a long tunnel that seemed to never end. Raising her feet was a struggle, her heart beat faster and faster as if she was walking to her death. ’You can do this.’ She said to herself. ’If not for yourself, do it for Liru. Do you want him to keep living like this?’ Agra took a deep breath, steadying her knees and focusing her vision again. She reached the door with a few strides and opened it before fear could make her second-guess her choice again. "Good morning, Lady Agra. Thank you for receiving me with so little notice." The voice of the man standing on the other side wasn’t the same as the nightmarish creature that haunted her dreams. The clothes weren’t the same. The Voidwalker armor was shapeshifted in the form of Lith’s Supreme Magus robes and uniform. The face wasn’t the same and even the black blade on his hip was missing. Yet Agra would have recognized those eyes among a thousand. One glance at those eyes was enough to bring her back to that day and awaken her fear. She could almost feel the wind caressing her skin past her torn clothes and the cold sweat drenching her body. "Lady Agra?" The kindness in those words broke the illusion, bringing her back to the present. "Not the same." The voice was human, not the howling of the wind. "I beg your pardon?" The man, not the creature, narrowed his eyes, which were warm and compassionate, not cold and full of spite. "Nothing." Agra shook her head, half in denial and half to shrug off her inner demons. "Please, come in." "Thanks, but I don’t think it’s appropriate." The man pointed behind her and Agra risked taking her eyes off him and following his finger. Liru was shaking and sobbing. He was so scared that his voice came out in a whisper of jumbled words that didn’t make sense. "I insist." The vision steeled Agra’s resolve and her tone. "You have my permission to come in." Lith complied and she closed the door behind him. "Please, say what you have to and leave." "I just wanted to apologize for how I behaved toward you and your family, Lady Agra." Lith said. "I know that nothing I do or say can change the past. I won’t try to explain or justify my actions, Sir Borj. "I’m sorry, Liru. You’ve been named after me and I’ve failed you. I hope that one day you all will believe these words." "I have one question." Borj left Liru in Shay’s arms, gesturing her to move to the farthest corner of the room with him. "Is it true that you had lost your mind after being beheaded?" "Yes, it’s true." Lith nodded. "Someone tried to kill me in order to kidnap a person precious to me. They failed only because in my Abomination form I have no vitals." "I can’t speak for the rest of my family because I was only half there that day, but I’m grateful those people attempted on your life." Borj offered Lith his hand who tentatively shook it in confusion. "I’m sorry?" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶 "Had they not beheaded you, you would have never flown over that road, correct?" Borj asked while maintaining a friendly but firm grip. "Correct." "Then you would have no amends to make and I wouldn’t be here to meet you today." Borj shrugged. "My entire family would just be buried under a nameless tombstone along the highway and my wife would have been…" The unfinished phrase told Lith everything Borj meant without traumatizing Liru further. "So thank you for saving my life and my family. I can’t condone how you did it but I can’t argue with the results. I accept your apology." "I’ll take my leave, then." Lith gave the family a polite bow and turned around. "Wait a moment." Agra said, clenching her hand hard enough to make her palms bleed While she listened to her husband’s words in a rollercoaster of shock and outrage, she recalled many things she had forgotten about that horrible day. That man was indeed the laughing creature who had torn men apart like paper. The hungry beast who had butchered horses and riders to feast upon their blood. Yet Lith was also the one who had stopped the bandits from defiling her. He was the creature who had brought her dying husband back to health and saved her child’s life. Nothing could change the horrible things Lith had done but, for the first time since they had met, she was grateful for that. "Can you please turn back into that thing, Magus Verhen?" Agra asked. "Are you sure?" Lith furrowed his brows in confusion. "Damn sure." She nodded. The change was so quick and fluid that one blink was enough to miss it. In a single heartbeat, the man was gone, replaced by the familiar shadow creature over two meters (7’) tall with horns and membranous wings. Liru didn’t cry harder only because fear paralyzed him like a deer in headlights. "Thanks for saving me and my family." She shook his hand before turning around. "See, Liru? Nothing bad happens. He’s not a monster." Agra threaded her fingers into Lith’s and raised their hands for the child to see. "Mommy is alright. There’s nothing to be afraid of." "It’s true." Borj understood her intentions and gave Lith a side hug, patting his shoulder. "Come, Liru. See for yourself." The boy was terrified at first, but after seeing his parents clinging to the monster without them dying or suffering any harm, Agra’s and Borj’s confidence reassured him. "Can you put me down?" He asked Shay who gently did as asked. "Mom? Dad?" Liru approached them while keeping himself out of arm’s reach. "It’s safe. Watch." Borj poked at the Abomination’s cheek and fangs. Despite his father’s reassurances, Liru trembled like a leaf and was incapable of taking the next necessary step. The boy trusted his parents. He wanted to believe them. Yet after that day things had changed. Even to a child as young as Liru, it was painfully obvious how oblivious his father was and how scared his mother was. His parents had proven not to be as strong and wise as Liru had always thought them to be. They weren’t invincible as he had always believed.