In the Tathamet family home, Lailah was heading down into the basement.
Why exactly she had chosen to do this at this particular time, she was not certain of the reason.
All she knew was that she wanted to relieve herself of this weight she’d been constantly carrying around.
Passing through her lab and study area, she came to a stop in front of a large cell within the underground dungeon.
Peering inside, she found three women huddled up together, reading over individual books without even bothering to speak to one another.
The three of them looked up at Lailah at nearly the same time before two of them returned back to reading.
“I take it that you have something else you need to know?”
Lailah’s mother Sei pulled herself up from the ground and dusted off her bottom before coming towards the bars.
“I hope that you know just how lucky you are. Anyone would be more than happy to pick my brains about magic, and here you are doing so for free.”
Lailah seemingly had no interest in responding, and she simply waved her hand to unlock the metal bars separating the two of them.
Sei breezed past her daughter and started walking towards the lab, before realizing that she wasn’t being followed.
Lailah was still standing outside of the cell, staring casually at her two sisters.
“The both of you, come out too.”
Meredith and Morigan both looked alarmed as Lailah never asked for them to come out of their cell, and they never got to unless it was to bathe or use the bathroom.
“H-Hey, we haven’t done anything wrong..!”
“We just want to sit here and read, so please just leave us alone..”
Sei prepared to step in and say something, when Lailah uttered three words that made her brain shut down.
“I’m releasing you.”
In that moment, no one seemed to understand what had just happened.
Lailah was entirely calm and rational as she held the door open waiting for both of her sisters to crawl out, but it was clear that they believed this to be some sort of trick.
“What is the meaning of this? If this is a game then I’ll have you know that it isn’t very-“
“Do you know that I have children?” Lailah interrupted.
“…What?”
Lailah suddenly stepped inside of the cell and grabbed both of her sisters by the hand and pulled them to their feet and out of the small cell that’d been their home for several months.
“I have one darling son and three precious daughters, and I even have two adorable daughters-in-law.”
The three women wondered why Lailah was giving them a rundown of her family registry, but she would explain soon enough.
“Gabbrielle is my youngest and despite her maturity she is so adorable and pure… her siblings adore her to no end, and they spoil her almost as much as her father does.
Watching her be a child who is innocent and carefree… It makes me remember my own childhood, and if I am honest I feel rather jealous of her.”
By now, Sei and her daughters had some inclination of where this conversation was going, but they hadn’t the slightest inclination of how to stop it.
“Isn’t that a horrible thing to think about your daughter…? I’m honestly ashamed to call myself her mother. ” Lailah admitted.
“The longer I thought about it, the more I realize that I feel this way because I am still unhealed from my own upbringing. “
“Lailah… I-“
The young witch held up her hand to cut off her mother’s words before she could say something unnecessary.
“I thought myself healed from all of your abusive words and punishments. Our positions are now reversed, and I hold your lives in the palm of my hands so why do I not feel avenged? Why can I not move on?”
Lailah moved to stand face to face with her mother, the two of them standing at exactly eye level.
“I realized that therein lie the problem. Hurting you back will not heal my scars, it will not bring me the salvation I seek. It only prolongs this nasty cycle that we have all found ourselves in.
I want to truly move forward, without letting ghosts from the past interfere with my emotions and cause me to harbor negative feelings towards one of my precious baby girls…”
Lailah took a deep breath and closed her golden eyes before she reached out and grabbed her mother by the hands.
This was a monumental step for her.
These were the hands that had beaten her, thrown things at her, and pushed her away when she was only a child yearning to be loved.
And now she was holding onto them, of her own volition.
It was scary, a bit uncomfortable, and certainly surprising, but it undoubtedly needed to be done.
“I release you. I will not hunt you, curse you, or crucify you, and we need not ever be considered family ever again. I forgive you for what you have done, and I hope that you forgive me as well.”
This emotional moment was further compounded as Sei felt something in her body that she hadn’t experienced in so very long.
Mana.
The seal that Audrina had placed in her that prevented her from using magic had been completely removed, and her body already felt much healthier.
It let her know that her daughter was serious about everything she had said so far, and this was a true show of good faith.
Lailah’s choice of words were sincere, hard-hitting, and her actions were even more so.
The former witch queen felt so much guilt that a small tear dripped from her eye before she could stop it, matching the one that Lailah had on her face.
She finally released her mother’s hands, and pulled out a pouch of gold that she placed into the center of her palm.
“Take this and take care of yourself. I hope that we do not have to see each other again.”
As Lailah walked past her mother, Sei felt like time was going in slow motion.
She wanted to say something.
She felt like she also needed to apologize, but where should she even begin?
She hadn’t done a thing right ever since Lailah had been born, so the list of things that she needed to say sorry for was monumental.
As her brain felt like it was going haywire, she recalled the figure of a man from her past. 𝞸𝑣xt.𝗰
Handsome, tanned skin, and long black hair paired with bright golden eyes that made him the spitting image of Lailah.
She remembered the love that the two of them shared that seemed more bright than a shooting star.
How could she have treated that man’s child so poorly?
The daughter that he never even got to hold was entrusted with her, and she had abused her almost to the point of no return.
And now, she had lost her entirely.
“Lailah, I-I’m sorry..!”
Sei turned around with tears in her eyes hoping that her words would reach her eldest daughter, but it was already too late.
Lailah had already left the dungeon, leaving her estranged mother with a pouch of gold, her two other daughters, and a mountain of regrets.
–
“Mother, why have you brought me here?”
“Ah, just because I can dear. Is it so wrong of me to want to spend time with you?”
“…No, I suppose not.”
Lailah and Gabbrielle were seated underneath the qlipoth tree, doing nothing but listening to the sound of the wind blow through the cold morning air.
It wasn’t hard for the young girl to tell that something was wrong with her mother, but she did not know exactly what to say.
She had spent practically all of creation locked in her own realm, devoid of any other contact with sentient beings.
Other than that annoying old couple who used to come and ask her for favors every now and again.
As such, she didn’t have a very good understanding of emotions and the complexities behind them.
So more often than not, she had difficulty in these situations that required a gentle touch.
“My daughter… I fear that I haven’t been a very good mother to you.”
Gabbrielle was visibly taken aback by Lailah’s sudden confession, and it left her with no idea where this could be coming from.
She turned around in her mother’s lap and found her with two identical trails of tears running down her face.
“Aww, come on now. You shouldn’t be seeing your mother like this.” Lailah joked as she tried to wipe away the water on her cheeks.
“Why do you think that you haven’t been good to me?” Gabbrielle asked persistently.
“I… had not sorted out my own personal issues and as a result I could not be the mother that you and your siblings truly deserved. But… I think I can be better now.”
Gabbrielle used her tiny hands to help wipe away some of the tears on her mother’s face while trying her best to voice her own feelings.
“I do not know what you mean by personal issues, but I already believe that you are a wonderful mother and my brother and sisters feel the same.
In all of my time in this world, I have been happy every single day and I have never felt any less cared for by anyone in this family especially not you… I love you very much, mother. “
Lailah’s golden eyes went incredibly wide from her daughters sudden confession.
Even though everyone in the family knew that Gabbrielle loved them, she had never voiced it before.
So to suddenly receive this unprompted declaration was a shock that the rest of the family would not believe.
Lailah could not help but pull her daughter in for a well needed embrace and let all of her guilt leave her body.
The two of them remained in that position for quite a while, with Lailah’s inner wounds being healed with every second that ticked by.
It wasn’t certain how long the two of them were going to stay there, but neither one seemed to mind sitting in this spot for a few more hours at least.
Suddenly, Gabbrielle and Lailah felt a familiar presence return to the city and they knew immediately that Abaddon had returned home.
Instinctively, the witch knew she had to do damage control.
“My daughter… can you promise mommy that you won’t tell your daddy you saw me cry?”
“…Why?”
“Well, because your daddy gets worried about all of your mommies and he tends to baby us a lot when we’re upset but it’s… “
Lailah briefly recalled how it felt when she could sit in Abaddon’s arms for hours on end and talk about whatever was bothering her.
It was her favorite, and most cherished part of their entire marriage.
“…Actually, I change my mind, you can tell him if you like.”
“I was going to do that anyway.” She admitted.
The two of them stood up from the ancient roots of the tree, and walked hand in hand back home to meet the rest of their beloved family.