Ash was… unusually quiet throughout the rest of the time after and I only noticed her sudden peculiar behavior when I noticed something even stranger, however, whilst leaning up high, and bending down low… 

“Oh, my apologies, Master, I meant to inform you long before, but in the heat of the moment…” Ash quite stiffly spoke when I inquired about it. “Alas, sadly, I know not of her whereabouts either.”

Indeed, Adalia was absolutely nowhere to be seen.

After a brisk walk home, and after also a rejuvenating shower, Ash spent the next few minutes in my bedroom dabbing some disinfectant on my hand, rolls of bandages by bedside, while I did my best rattlesnake impression every time I felt it sear and sting – which was all the time.

That’s when Adalia’s absence came to mind, as did Ash’s strange silence shortly after, and the rest was as follows. 

Ash had a sorta vacantness to her emerald glimmer, and was especially strangely unreceptive to my signs of discomfort. 

Ain’t like her to be unresponsive when she sees me flinching… must mean she’s thinking real hard… and if I’m thinking real right… then she probably ain’t thinking real good.

“Are his words still bothering you?” I asked, and immediately, that seemed to have somewhat snapped her out of it. 

“His presence alone is an aggravating bother of its own,” She said in a huff, promptly moving on to mummifying up my wounded hand. “But you needn’t fret much over me, Master, truly. In time… I’ll be feeling better with time.”

“Are you sure, Ash?”

“That man is beyond sight and sound now… and I intend no longer to be in his presence so long as I can help it.”

A smile with her words she tried to assure me, and while I still retained some doubts, ultimately though, I decided to take her word for it.

For some time afterward, I spent a good chunk of energy scouring around the house for that fanged enigma of the night while Ash did her own thing.

After our little ‘incident’ at the lake, I knew I wouldn’t be able to focus on my task at hand until I at least had the chance to check up on her.

But with every dark crevice and shadowy corner I sifted through, I was met with only dead ends and dust bunnies.

My intense searching eventually found me up high, on wobbling tiptoe, reaching for the hatch that led up to the dark and musty attic. I figured it was the only logical place.

But just as soon as I managed to get my fingertips to graze the latch, I was abruptly sent plunging back down by a whimsical all-knowing, all-smug tuned remark.

“So, I heard that you have had quite the interesting swimming session today, hmm?”

Mom’s footsteps were always muffled by the cover of sandals, so half the time, it always seemed as if she could just appear out of literal thin air, and right then, swallowing my heart back down my throat… freaking woman did it again.

“I heard quite a bit about it,” She continued to say, shuffling forward with her arms crossed in a rather sly manner. “First time swimming lessons didn’t go so well, I assume?”

“Really, now?” I raised my bandaged hand in the air, waving it cluelessly about the place. “Wonder what gave it away?”

“You’re lucky you didn’t sever a finger or three, dear,” She said, taking my hand in hers and assessing it all over. “Just imagine if you had. I can’t even imagine how distraught I’d be right now.”

“Can you fix it up?”

“Severed a finger, sure, but the way it is now,” She unclasped her hold, giving me my hand back. “Not worth the risk. You’ll be just fine.”

So she says, and yet there’s no mistaking that slight grimace of a worried mother that flickered past her gaze. I have gone through enough skinned knees and bruised arms from being my stupid younger self outdoors to never mistake a look like that. 

Still, I have more pressing questions now that the healing process of some gashes, for instance…

“I assume Adalia’s told you all about it?”

Mom nodded. “You would assume right.”

“I guess that means that you know where she is.”

She chuckled at that. “Well, wherever she is, she’s certainly not up there or anywhere close, that’s for sure.” 

“So you don’t know either.”

“I know only what I know, dear,” with a spin she headed for the stairs, and I followed along after her. “And what I do know indeed is that if a Matriarch doesn’t want to be found, then you will never find her. They’re only seen if they choose to be. Precisely why hunting for them is almost an impossibility, kinda like what you’re trying to do now.”

Mom flashed me a fleeting wryly look, and it was upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, that I finally understood what she was trying to imply here.

“Are you saying Adalia’s avoiding me right now?”

From beneath the kitchen doorway, her little silent smirk only served to affirm.

“Why?”

“Why?” She repeated, obviously amused by my daft understanding of the obviously obvious. “And here I thought you’d know your way through a woman’s heart.”

With a shake of the head, and a breathy sigh after, she trailed on deeper into the kitchen, speaking as she did. 

“In case it wasn’t obvious enough to you, Adalia’s a very emotional individual. I mean, sure, she might have some… troubles expressing the fact, and she might also not understand it herself sometimes, but the truth is, she actually feels more than most, so long as there is something to feel, you know?” 

“Not really,” I said, giving her explanation a long, blank look. “But sure, keep going.” 

“Basically, for most things, she doesn’t feel a thing, hardly anything, yes?” She said slowly, settling down onto the table with a warm, steaming mug in hand. “But on the rare few occasions she does manage to feel something, for someone like her, deprived of all sensations… just imagine it, how do you think feelings would feel for someone like her?”

And just like that, my once blank, empty stare began to fill to the brim with realization. 

Suddenly it all made sense, her erratic behavior, her baffling question… I just assumed it was just confusion on her part… it probably was, but it was also more, much more… and more than I can probably even imagine.

“So what my puzzling, curious question is…” Mom said, taking a quick satisfying sip of her drink. “Just what exactly is it, did Adalia feel for you, hm?”

I didn’t think to answer that, I didn’t even have to. That mischievous stare at me over the rim of her mug meant we both already knew the answer to her question.

“Oh, I swear,” She sighed, propping her elbows atop the table. You are seriously becoming more and more like your father, every day.”

Try as I might, I couldn’t exactly see the correlation between the two. “Is that so?” I asked, again clueless as to what she meant.

“Oh, definitely,” Mom said a little exasperatedly. “In his hero years, women would just flock to him left and right. He was actually quite a bit of a charmer, even if he didn’t know it. Much like you, I suppose.”

Well, this was certainly news to me.

“He never mentioned this.”

“And why would he?” She mused. “It’s not exactly relevant to anything at hand.”

“So why are you?”

“Because I don’t care much for relevance,” another sickly sweet smile showed. “So long as I can tease you with it.”

Ah, yes… makes sense now, I guess.

“His party was always unusually female-centric every time we crossed paths. A champion archer, a prestigious high priestess, even a Fey Chieftess at one point, and much more – your father had them all vying for his attention, and he was never the wiser. I daresay he’s earned the envy of many men in his time.” 

“Right, umm…”

“And just look at you now,” She flashed me a narrow look. “Elf-Knight, Matriarch, the Succubus perhaps? And that sweet girl, Amanda too, hm? Like father, like son, I guess.”

Really, how was she expecting me to respond to any of this? Like all I could do was just nod away and shrug my shoulders in acknowledgment.

“Oh well, at any rate, I had them all beat, and managed to snag that handsome hero all to myself,” She said with an air of pride and self-satisfaction. “I guess even your father thought that out of everyone, that I was best girl all along.”

Yeah, it’s either that, or it’s because you sorta kinda got rid of the rest of the competition on your way to that top spot… but let’s not mention that… like ever.

For all our sakes.

Just nod and grunt, man… just nod and grunt.