Tandrak chuckled and said. “You have such lively kids, Ghoto. They have very strong opinions and are not afraid to make it none.”
Soverick expected him to be offended, even a little bit so he was impressed that the sovereign was easygoing. Plus the Origin artifact that wrapped his body in the form of wind swirls looked cool. His first impression of this neglectful father became favorable.
“Thank you, your excellency. Your compliments mean a lot to me.” Ghoto bowed. Kayla bowed too while Mihila gave a slight nod.
“What a lovely family. You have a good thing here, Ghoto.”
“I’m sorry, but who are you?” Soverick asked. This time even Mihila’s stoic face twitched.
“Let me introduce myself. I am Tandrak. Ghoto, your father, is my offspring. I am your grandfather, the one that could have used his divine sense to perceive you but was adamant about seeing you face to face. I am here to make some amends.”
Soverick was about to make another snide comment, but a look from Mihila made him change his mind.
“I see. It is nice to meet you, your excellency Tandrak. It is a pleasure.” He said something nice instead.
“This meeting is a necessity for me but I must say that it has not been bad so far,” Tandrak responded.
“A necessity you say. How is that so?” Ghoto asked. He didn’t have a high expectation for the meeting. Mihila had drummed it into his head to keep his expectations low. But for the man to say the meeting is necessary, it could only go two ways from there. A good necessity or a bad one. Downhill or uphill. He didn’t want it to be a bad necessity.
“Yes, it is. I might be mistaken, but you seem to have some misunderstandings about me. I am here to clear your doubts and set the record straight. Simply that, no more no less. We can choose to go our separate ways after I am done.”
Soverick was liking where this was going. No chit-chat. No extended exchange of pleasantries. Tandrak didn’t ask to enter the house nor was he invited in. He got right to business right from the start. All in all, fast pace action. It might not go well for Ghoto but they will be able to get this over quickly. And that’s what really mattered.
“Your excellency Tandrak. Since you are here, will you like to come in and seat? Rest a while and maybe refresh yourself.” Mihila offered. Soverick gave her a look that said ‘don’t delay this.’
“No thank you. This will be short.” Tandrak refused politely before getting on with what he came here for. Soverick couldn’t help but appreciate the man’s sense of priority.
“I only became aware of your existence when you came to the main city. You were transcendent by then. I didn’t come to meet you because I didn’t care about you. My affair with your mother was a tool to relieve my emotional turmoil. Your mother had a way of soothing my mind, yet she had a violent temper like any other. She was like the two faces of a coin. She could be calm one moment and she could be angry the next.”
Tandrak smiled as he spoke. It was a content smile.
“Staying with her in that village was the best thing that ever happened to me, the short time I spent with her enlightened me and showed me the way to become a sovereign of law. I had informed her before the relationship between us started that I was only there temporarily. I told her that I would leave in the future and never come back. She chose to start the relationship fully aware of my intentions but she also chose to have a child without my knowledge or permission. Your existence is a result of decisions your mother and I made, but I cannot bear responsibility for it. I did not leave because you didn’t have a bloodline. I left because your mother had outlived her usefulness. I didn’t acknowledge your existence because you didn’t need it nor did I want to. The fact that my seed had a part to play in your creation does not mean I must bear the responsibility for it. Your mother should have thought things through before having you.”
His words were impactful, but only Kayla showed a visible reaction to them. She comes from a small and close-knit family. One where they believe in the ties of blood. That’s only because they don’t have something stronger like a bloodline. A bloodline might be good or bad but it will bind the family together more than a simple connection by birth. That’s why such a family will experience betrayal. The blood ties she has so much faith in are weak and easily broken.
Ghoto seemed to bear the assault on his dead mother rather well. Ghaster and Litori were beginning to get restless, this entire thing was just boring and they wished they were somewhere else. Soverick didn’t see anything wrong with what Tandrak had done. There are worse parents in the world.
Tandrak only wanted a short relationship because he was at a low point in his life. His powers were killing him and he didn’t see a way forward. So he started wandering the plain and came upon Ghoto’s mother. He didn’t want a kid and having one didn’t mean he had to accept the kid. He had free will to make decisions that suited him just like Ghoto’s mother. It might be selfish of him but parents that eat their young exist. Another incarnation of Legion is currently experiencing what it means to have a bad parent. It might not have cost much effort for Tandrak to take care of Ghoto but he simply didn’t want to and neither was he burdened by any form of societal expectations to take in the mantle of fatherhood. Having a kid doesn’t make you a father, accepting the responsibility of caring for a kid makes you a father.
“I understand. I am not happy about it but I understand. You wanted a relationship and you didn’t want a child. My mother wanted a child and here I am. It is a good thing that I did not take after her angry side. Your explanation would not have been good enough for me otherwise.” Ghoto answered. What more could he say? His father’s explanation had resolved some issues for him. It had enabled him to finally have an answer to why his father left them. It was not a pleasant answer but it removed uncertainties and misunderstandings. It resolved the knot in his heart that could have been a detriment to his future advancement. Such insecurities are the cause of heart demons.
He had a feeling his father came to him to resolve any bad karma between them just so that Tandrak would be able to pass his tribulations successfully but Ghoto didn’t mind. He is also getting something out of it and half a loaf of bread is better than none.
Ghoto understands selfishness. He was also being selfish when he wanted kids. He wanted to use his kids to prove to himself that he could be a better father. It is just a shame that he got more than he bargained for.
“Good. Now that the records have been set straight, we can be friends. I’ll like for us to get to know each other better.”
“I’ll like that too. I’ll join you on the trip to the front lines. I plan to fight too. How about we go together?” Ghoto suggested. Tandrak accepted and the two of them left.
Everyone was still reeling from how fast that happened when Soverick clapped. “Everything ended well, no fighting, no cursing, no violence. Practically a good ending and the seed for a bromance was even planted. So it’s all good. Can we go now?”
“Can we go now?” Ghaster asked too, but a look from Mihila made him cringe. Unlike Soverick who can talk to his parents anyhow, Ghaster and Mihila still hadn’t gotten the hang of how to. They may be chummy with Ghoto since he is the good cop. But Mihila always puts them in their place as the bad cop. A simple look from her is enough to intimidate them into silence.
“Let’s go too. It is time you resumed your training.” Mihila answered and formed a platform with her mind. Ghaster and Litori cheered. They all got onto the platform and zoomed towards the training academy. They were moving really fast because buildings flashed by in the background. Mihila choose to move faster than usual since the kids had gotten stronger. They can withstand this much acceleration. It is not the fastest speed that she is capable of, but it is the current limit of their body. Soverick for one is looking forward to the next segment of his life and appreciates the increase in speed.