COVID-19 RESOURCES
LIT CAMS (200 Free Tokens)ADULT TOYSVOD MOVIES

Absolution (closed)

"I know what I will do and that is forbid you from getting involved in this, Ashien." Kitty said firmly, looking down at her youngest son. "As will everyone else in this room. This is not your fight."
 
"Everyone willing to fight has already lost, Ma. Whose fight is it now?" Ashien questioned. While he was a stubborn boy, he had never so directly challenged his mother's word. "None of us can win, or else we don't have the strength or skill to even try. So who's going to fight? I can't, I already know that. Boar knows he can't. And Brogan won't because he still loves Da. It isn't a battle anymore. It's a takeover, and we lost, especially to Oliver."
 
"Enough, Ashien." Kitty murmured, giving her son a look that told him to watch his next words. "I put up with enough talk of rebellion from your brothers. I don't need it from you as well."

"But Mama..." Kayla said softly.

"I said ENOUGH!" Kitty raised her voice to a sharp level, watching as the little girl cowered away and the rest of the children stared at her stunned. "While I wish I could take this all away, make you low born, I cannot. I can't help that you were born into this clan. I can't help that I decided to marry a wounded soul, thinking that I might be able to help him with whatever was going on in his life. I didn't want this for any of you."

Everything was quiet in the room after that, the tension building as it had been for a long time. "Boar. Go and get my jewels. Now."

Kitty would sacrifice what she was able in order to make sure that the children that would be leaving Inverness would have enough money to start a new life. It was the very least that she could do.
 
Boar silently left to do as she asked, and things remained quiet while he was gone. Eventually he returned with Kitty's jewelry box, and from there, they sorted out what he would gather. Boar would spend the next couple days commissioning the best gear he could for Durban, as well as finding a new horse suited for long travel and carrying gear.

Brogan spent most of his time keeping the peace among other things, while Ghell quietly kept track of the twins and Selena from the sidelines. Everyone and everything was quiet, tense, and growing more hopeless as Durban healed. Once he was fully able to travel, he'd be expected to leave. Otherwise, there was no telling what Oliver might try.
 
Kitty could feel illness creeping along her bones, making her entire body sore, but she refused to go down this time. Her son needed her and she wasn't going to abandon any of them in their hour of need. She wrote letters constantly, to anyone that might be able to help. She drained herself dry on money getting those letters out safely to Brian and Seamus, Vincenzo and Matthias again, and finally, to her own father. She was done hiding what was happening in Inverness. The rest of them needed to know, even if there was little that they might be able to do about it.
 
Six weeks after Durban's battle, not long after Ghell had taken the cast off Durban's broken fingers and wrist, Matthias turned up at Inverness Keep quite suddenly after Kitty's call for him to come help Durban. He was escorted inside to Kitty, and he came to stand in the doorway silently, looking at his little sister with such heartbreak and pity after hearing of all that had happened.

"Kitty," he murmured softly.
 
“Mat?” Kitty turned at the sound of his voice, pushing herself up and out of her chair with some effort. “I didn’t expect anyone to actually come.”

She wrapped her brother up in the tightest hug that she could muster, knowing that he would help Durban without question. It made her feel better to know that Durban wouldn’t simply be forced out of Inverness on his own.

“I wrote to Pa too. I’m so tired of hiding all of the terrible things that are happening.” Kitty muttered against her brother’s chest.
 
"Pa wanted to come, but I didn't want him getting sick exerting himself." Matthias sighed, looking down at her. "... Tamblin really won't let Durban stay? He hasn't changed his mind at all?"
 
“No. He’s to leave as soon as he’s well enough to survive.” Kitty said softly. “I’ve sold all of my jewelry to get him what he needs. All of Gran’s lovely pieces that she gave me are gone. I decided she would rather see Durban supported than a sad queen clinging to the past.”

It had pained her greatly to part with some of the pieces but she wasn’t about to abandon Durban completely. If Tamblin wouldn’t help support him, she would do what she could for him.
 
"Dammit..." Matthias sighed. He knew he couldn't have prevented it. Even being nobility, their family had never been particularly rich Martin had always funneled excess funds into Portree and defense from pirates.

He sighed and glanced around, "Where are the children...? I doubt Colton's men will tolerate my presence for too long."
 
“I’m sorry, Mat. I wish I didn’t have to get rid of them. Our entire family history gone to a few merchants, but I can’t let my son be on his own with nothing to start his life. Tamblin pays for nothing. I had to do what I had to do.” Kitty felt enormous guilt at the selling of her Gran’s jewels but she had no other option.

“Kayla and Ashien are with Ghell. I’m sure Selena is off sulking and Boar is probably in the woods hiding again. Everyone is miserable.” Kitty said, ashamed st the state of her family. “Brogan is with his father.”
 
"And I saw Durban from afar outside, looking after his horses... I suppose there's nothing to be done except to gather them all up and talk about where Durban will go. I'll help him get to wherever he likes, but I hope he won't go far. At the rate his father is going, something's got to give and you'll all need Durban back when it does."
 
Kitty was very quiet as Matthias said that, knowing that he was right. She needed Durban, even if he didn't need her anymore. She needed all of her children in their own way.

"Make me a promise. Please look after him until you're sure that he can stand on his own." Kitty said softly. "There's little I can do once he leaves Inverness, but it would do me a world of good to know that he's with someone who cares about him. I can't afford to send him secret letters as I've done with everyone else. Every last coin that I have is going to him."
 
"Whatever happens, Kitty, Durban won't be forgotten or abandoned. Even if he wanders, I'll call on whatever connections and favors I can to make his time abroad safer." He hugged her once more, wishing much like his father that he could go back and stop all of this before it began.

The next morning, Matthias managed to gather all of the children in one place, and he was both relieved and worried to see Durban enter looking hale and whole despite plenty of new scars. If he was healthy again, it meant he'd be expected to leave. Matthias would follow, if that's what it took.
 
All of the children were quiet, none talking like they normally would have. It seemed that even light hearted little Kayla was beaten down by life as she stared at the floor and refused to make eye contact with anyone.

"Ma shouldn't have brought you here, Uncle." Selena started softly, looking at Matthias. "You shouldn't have to see any of this."
 
"I would've come even if your Ma hadn't asked," Matthias greeted Selena with a tight hug. "I wouldn't trust anyone else to see your brother safely to wherever he needs to be." He looked to the door as Brogan was the last to enter just behind Durban. "Well, then... Everyone's here." He sighed and faced them all. "You all know why I've come. Durban won't be allowed to stay much longer, so I'll help him to wherever he needs to go, and see if I can't find him someone to apprentice under, or a place to stay with a job to support him, be it in Skye or elsewhere."

"Uncle," Durban spoke up quietly. "I already decided where I want t'go..." When Matthias turned to him, Durban murmured, "I'll go t'Uncle Seamus... work there fer a while if he'll have me... then when I have some money set aside... I think I'll try traveling fer a while."
 
“That’s a long way from here.” Selena said quietly as Durban insisted that he knew where he wanted to be. “What if something happens to Ma? You wouldn’t be able to come back quickly.”

“We can’t ever see him again.” Little Kayla said softly, looking up st her brother with tears already in her eyes. “That’s what Oliver said.”
 
"Oliver 'as no say," Durban assured Kayla softly. "An' Da won' keep me away forever. Brogan's th'next in line an' he'll bring me home. But if somethin' happens, love... nothin'll keep me away."
 
“We’ve never been apart like this before.” Selena said softly after a long moment of silence. “This isn’t fair.”
 
"I know, love... But nothin' in this world is fair, no' fer people like us. All we can do is survive an' wait til we can make things right." Durban pressed a kiss to her forehead.
 
“When will you leave?” Selena asked, looking between Durban and Matthias. “I hope not too soon but I know it’s wishful thinking.”
 
"I don't know how long I can linger..." Matthias sighed. "It's already been made very clear that I'm not welcome."

"Tomorrow," Durban answered softly, though his expression told of the pain he felt saying it. "I won' put you at risk."
 
The silence in the room was deafening as the siblings all let that news sink in. Tomorrow, they would be split. It would be the first time that any of them had ever been forced out on their own. Any bonds or promises that had been made between one another would have to be broken.

"I'll go talk to Da. I'll make him listen." Kayla said softly, standing up as if she might be the one that could talk some sense into Tamblin. "And then Durban can stay."

"That's not how this works, love." Selena said softly as Kayla walked as if she wasn't going to listen. "Kayla Skye, you're not going."

Selena reached out to grab her sister's arm as she walked past and Kayla reacted violently, pulling away hard enough that she stumbled. Kayla turned to look at Selena with a surprising fury in her dark eyes.

"Don't touch me." Kayla growled, her sadness and worry turning into vicious anger. "Let me go!"

She was screaming by the time Selena grabbed her arm tightly and pulled her back from the door. Selena wrapped the little girl up in a tight embrace to make her stay put until she was no longer angry.
 
Durban stepped in and wrapped both his sisters in his arms, helping Selena to hold the girl til Kayla's short burst of anger crumbled. It could never last long, not like her older siblings. She was too sweet to be truly angry for long. "Kay," Durban murmured softly, kissing the top of her head. "Don't fight, love... please..."
 
"Don't tell me what to do." Kayla sobbed as Durban helped to hold her there until she collapsed against her big brother, crying into his chest.

Selena glanced around at Boar, Brogan, and Ashien, knowing that they all felt the pain of Durban leaving. "It will hurt for a while, but we will see each other again. Durban will write us all the time, Kayla. I promise."

Even if Selena had to write the letters in Durban's own name herself, she would make sure that Kayla knew that they weren't separated forever.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

shizzz
Annual Dunder Muflin Life Insurance Sales Conference (reserved)
Replies
13
Views
227
Gamina
Gamina
The_gladiator
Virtue Signals: closed thread
2
Replies
25
Views
631
magellans_demon
magellans_demon
The_gladiator
Royal Intrigue: Closed Thread
2 3 4
Replies
83
Views
2K
magellans_demon
magellans_demon
Lady_Jade666
Freedom Of The Kindred Spirit (Closed)
Replies
16
Views
218
Lady_Jade666
Lady_Jade666
zydrate
A long time ago... (closed)
Replies
5
Views
471
BeachBum25
BeachBum25
Back
Top