First Demonic Dragon - Chapter 1201: Hypocritical, Clumsy, Cowardly

Chapter 1201: Hypocritical, Clumsy, Cowardly

The answer to just how long a family of dragons could sit in silence was an uncomfortably long time.

Any discomfort was only amplified by the lack of talking among the group.

They all just sat in silence for hours on end, with no end in sight to the dreadful hostage situation.

Hours went by.

They thought, surely, that at some point, their father would free them to go back to their rooms to sleep.

That was, until the sun started going down, and they blinked to find pillows under their heads, a mattress under their backs, and a blanket covering their bodies.

Thea finally cracked.

“Oh, come on, let us go! I’m not spending the night in a bed with these two again!”

Mira and Gabbrielle looked offended.

Abaddon, on the other hand, looked pleased as punch. “Nice to hear your voice again, my daughter.”

“I’m still not talking to you.” Thea said firmly.

“You just did.”

“O-Only because I wanted you to let me out of these ropes! Being pressed up against my sisters for seven hours isn’t exactly comfortable!”

Again, the girls looked offended.

“I can understand that. And I’ll let you out as soon as we talk.”

“You just said we were talking.”

Abaddon sighed.

“Thea… can you truly not forgive me? As a mother, can you not understand why-”

“That’s not fair, Dad. I’m not a child who needs you to look out for them anymore. I should have been allowed to make the decision to stay, but you sent me home without thinking about what I would have wanted..!”

“I know that you would have wanted to stay. But my first instinct will always be to protect you and your siblings. If I feel there are too many unknowns about an enemy, then-”

“Would you have sent any of the boys away…? Or just us?” Mira finally asked quietly.

Abaddon was surprised by the question. But based upon his prior behavior, he couldn’t say he didn’t understand where the hypothetical had come from.

“…All of my children are precious to me. And I don’t believe any of you to be any less capable than the other. My intention isn’t to leverage you all over your siblings based on gender. If your brothers had been with me before everything went badly, I would have sent them away just as surely as I sent you.”

“…I don’t care.”

Gabbrielle finally spoke, and when she did, her voice was more expressly emotional than Abaddon had ever heard.

“You’re not the only one in the family who feels the urge to protect someone. You’re just the only one who feels they have the right to prevent others from making the same kind of sacrifices that you so readily make, even when we ask you not to. You are a hypocrite. And I do not forgive you.”

Thea and Mira already knew that Gabbrielle was the most upset out of all three of them. But they hadn’t expected her to flat-out refuse to repair the relationship between herself and her father.

They looked to Abadodn’s face and saw as wounded as a shot doe.

“….I understand why you feel that way.”

Abaddon tried to place his hand on his daughter’s head, but she looked away from him.

He gently placed his hand on the back of her head, even in defiance, and felt her tense up.

“…It must be difficult. I understand what it is like to have a clumsy father. But I fear I do not know what it is like to have a clumsy father who also attracts many enemies to my doorstep.

I make no excuses for myself. I certainly will not impose upon you to ask for your forgiveness, but I want you to understand… I have always wanted to be a being that prioritized responsibility.

I brought you into the world. I, for whatever reason, attracted enemies who sought to claw at our doors. That means that your safety is my cross to carry. It is not a burden I like to share with anyone. Not even your mothers.

I always thought that my power demanded I be the spearhead of our family whenever possible, whenever it was necessary. I still believe that. But I am… beginning to see how it can be burdensome on the ones I love to see me take on such responsibility without involving any of you.

It has never been something I wanted to do to you. Just what I have wanted to do for you.

You, my children, are flesh of my flesh, and blood of my blood. Proof of the love fostered between your mothers, my better halves, who have grown into astounding forces of nature.

Sending you against Azathoth and out into the universe was perhaps one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do in my entire life. Because I knew that, if he awoke, he could hurt you. And I knew the universe could conjure up threats specifically intended to balance you.

But I trusted in you. I trusted in our family to help you all stay safe and grow, through strenuous, rigorous challenge.

I’m sure it must have felt liberating. To hear me let go of the reins I’d held around you for so long and let you spread your wings.

So I am equally sure that it must have been incredibly hurtful for me to suddenly pull you back underneath mine, after I had already set you free.

For that, Thea, Mira, you have my most earnest apologies. Whether I knew the specifics of the threat or not, I should have trusted you to stand beside me and face it together.

But your father is a coward, you see. I could not bear to see you hurt if the other generals had come through, or if Chaos had taken surprise action against us again. It’s why I had to send you away to grow, instead of going with you.

And to you, Gabbrielle, I owe an apology greater than anything that words could convey I have always known you to worry about me more than most. It seems, in my arrognace and infinite lifespan, I have always given you reason to do so.

I can imagine how i would feel if my parents suddenly did not allow me to protect them if they were ill. The mere idea of the scenario haunts me, so i can only understand how dreadful the reality must have been.

It would be hypocritical of me to tell you children shouldn’t worry about their parents, so I won’t. Instead, I want to tell you that I am sorry for sending you and your sisters away. And that I am honored to have children to care so much about me that they would put their lives on the line without question.”

Gabbrielle cried to herself silently, her face away from her body and her body as still as a resting board.

She didn’t want to hear any of this. She didn’t want to hear an apology at all.

She wanted her father to be safe. She wanted a change of behavior and attitude.

She wanted to be angry at him. He had taken away her opportunity to come to his defense, so all that she had left were feelings of resentment and hurt.

And that, in no small part, wounded her greatly. Being angry with her father was no different than being at war with herself.

He, who had been the first to show her what love and family were, and he, who had supported her in her every endeavor no matter how outlandish or eccentric, was also the cause of her greatest stress.

Fighting to defend soemone is an act of love on behalf of that person.

For Abaddon to not only refuse Gabbrielle’s aid, but to send her away as well… he might as well have told her that he did not need her love. Her help. Her protection.

She knew that her father was powerful. Much more so than herself.

But would she ever be able to do anything for him other than bring him cigars or sit with him when he was by himself?

Would she ever, despite all of her immense power, ever stop feeling so useless to help someone she cared so much about?

Merely having to ponder such a question filled her with immense feelings of inferiority and grief.

If that day had been the last time she ever saw her father… what would she have even done about it…?

The rope binding the girls was suddenly released. Gabbrielle vanished before it could even hit the ground.

Mira and Thea were slower to get up. But both rushed to her father to hug him and keep him upright.

Abaddon closed his eyes tightly so as not to feel weak. He held his daughters even tighter so that he coukd feel how sorry he truly was.

Silently,underneath the star-filled light of the family observatory, hefought back his own grief.

His mind darkened.

He found himself questioning why, despite all of his knowledge and lived experience, all of the decisions he ever made seemed to be the wrong ones.