Wolf of the Blood Moon - Book 2 - Chapter 68.2 - Failed Talk Part II
Added 2023-05-12 07:12:59 +0000 UTCScarlet
The knowledge of that just washes over me and I can’t help but lose my strength and fall to the ground.
A prophecy. I was abandoned. Because of a prophecy.
Nearly an entire minute passes in silence, the two seemingly not speaking and Allen and Cynthia staying quiet as well since they can’t talk. Eventually I manage to life my head to look at White and Tar, just to find White looking at me with both longing and regret plastered all over her face.
I stare for a few seconds before my face hardens into a scowl and I finally climb to my feet.
“No,” I state out loud, making a wave of sadness cross her face. “No. Just no.”
I shake my head.
“If what you said to Tar is true, you’re not even going to bother telling me what this prophecy is,” I state while looking White directly in the eyes. “Not that it really matters. Because it’s obvious this prophecy was more important to you than me.”
And my words actually make a tear begin to form at the edge of White’s eye. The strongest human in the entire world. Crying.
“You know what? I don’t even care,” I mutter, feeling a wave of relief wash over the sheer depression from earlier. “I don’t.” I look down at my fist. “Now I at least know who I am.” I pause at that thought to look up, “Actually, who’s my father?”
She opens her mouth and then closes it again. So I turn to Tar, and he just shakes his head, apparently not allowed to tell me.
“Guess it doesn’t matter then,” I state, my scowl growing deeper. “You may be my mother by blood, but the only person who has ever been a mother to me has been Cynthia. And that’s that.”
White turns a sad look towards Cynthia, who is still unable to move. And I am very glad that she doesn’t seem to be showing any hostility towards her for that, because I didn’t really consider that she might.
“Is there anything you need to tell me?” I ask White while putting my hands in my coat pockets.
White turns back to me, nods, and says, “Yes. This should be the last assassination attempt on you during the tournament. Especially after I deal with the organization behind Destroyer. But now that a Class V Rogue has been killed, the other organizations would have to be stupid to try anything else.”
“Then you have my thanks for saving my life,” I tell her, only to cut her off as she opens her mouth to speak, “but this in no way makes what you did to me fine. And you are a long, long way from me ever forgiving you, if that’s what you’re hoping for.”
The woman stiffens up slightly at that before the tear on her face suddenly vanishes in a tiny white light as she nods her head. But right when I’m about to turn towards Allen and Cynthia, she says, “Please at least consider forgiving your father. He… it was my choice alone to follow the prophecy in every way. He wanted to raise you himself, but…” She pauses with a conflicted look on her face before glancing at Tar, who shakes his head.
Guess it’s something they aren’t allowed to say at this point?
Stupid fucking prophecy.
If he wanted to raise me, then why didn’t he? Unless… the blood lycan White was apparently seen fighting during the last Class V Fracture… could it have been my father? But…
I don’t have enough information to come to a decision on that.
What I do know is that he hasn’t ever come to me since. Meaning either he can’t, since he’s on Tartarus and is a Class V demon, or he hasn’t tried.
I don’t say anything in response to her as I turn to Allen and Cynthia before kneeling down next to them.
How am I going to get these two out of here now? Should I call for help? Or…
The two suddenly disappear, making me blink in surprise before glancing at White who simply says, “I used a magi-tech item to teleport them both back to your Association’s base.”
Oh. That makes it easier.
“Could you teleport me as well?” I ask while glancing around at the damaged building.
I really don’t want to deal with the aftermath of this alone.
“Of course, dear,” White says, making my gaze snap to her as I scowl at her term of endearment. Which makes her flinch.
Oh, right. One other thing.
“About the adoption,” I state, making her flinch again before she answers rather stiffly, “Could you wait a bit longer for that?”
My eyes narrow.
“Please?” she pleads, tears beginning to form in her eyes again.
“The adoption isn’t planned until after the Class V Fracture,” Tar suddenly says, making White blink while turning to look at him. Then a moment of silence passes, following which she turns to me and nods, saying, “Okay. I won’t stop the adoption.”
That was… easy?
Why was it so easy?
And why did she change her mind the moment he mentioned the Class V Fracture?
Tar doesn’t say anything. Although he doesn’t avoid my gaze either. In fact, he even makes direct eye contact with me.
Hmm. Guess it’s safe to say that something important will happen during that Fracture. Something related to all this prophecy crap.
I really hate prophecies. They’re just stupid and we’re better off without them.
White stares at me with way too much emotion on her face for a Knight. Knights are normally shown as the saviors of humanity, even if some of them are psychopaths and insane or just plain touched or messed up in the head. Actually, most of them are.
Blue is a psychopath.
Black I believe has a bit of a split personality. One being playful and the other extremely cold and uncaring.
Purple is mute unless she is stating a prophecy or talking to people she cares about. Which still makes me wonder why she bothers commentating on the Interschool Tournaments when she does. Because she doesn’t exactly speak during them. Just sits there as someone else commentates.
Red is the very definition of a battle junky who literally only cares about battling on the front lines. Nothing more. Just battling. He will abandon people in trouble just to go fight he’s so obsessed with it.
And White… White basically erased her existence from the world except for her title, knowledge of her power and magic, and some basic information.
But this isn’t what I expected from her. Not at all.
It doesn’t change things though. What’s done is done.
I can’t see myself forgiving her. But I myself know that I have a flippant personality sometimes and my thoughts on something can change on a dime, and I accept things too easily, so who knows. Maybe I might be able to forgive her in like a century.
“Would you mind sending me to my suite at the campus? I need to get some rest for the tournament tomorrow,” I state while crossing my arms under my chest. And she quickly nods before hesitating a moment and saying, “Good luck, Scarlet.”
I nod back. And then I find myself in the bedroom of my suite at the university.
Time to go to sleep. There’s been waay too much crap to deal with today… at least tomorrow’s battles will be therapeutic in that sense.
I smile at the thought.
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Comments
I don't really see how Scarlet's reaction is "over the top". She barely had a reaction, which just puts a point on author's mentions of guardians not being entirely normal. Any normal person would have had a emotional meltdown in this situation. Anyway, I'm 100% with Quendolayne on this one. It's been mentioned several times by people in the story now that prophecies aren't exactly reliable and/or set in stone. White knows that, since Scarlets father offered to break a part of the prophecy, which she rejected. White had options, apparently quite a few, and she chose the route that made Scarlets life horrible, even going as far as sabotaging any chance of her getting adopted.
Eifer
2023-05-17 04:52:50 +0000 UTCJust caught up on the whole story and wanted to say in relation to these couple chapters that I thought they were great. Really showed how badly White messed up and how stupid she is overall. Really hoping she gets what's coming to her and that Scarlet does everything she can to stop this damn prophecy.
PlasmaticPi
2023-05-14 07:48:43 +0000 UTCHow much would it cost to hire such a high level assassin? Also general suggestion when/if you go back through earlier chapters for publication, drop a sentence or two about Scar hating prophecy plots. Could be a game or show or movie, just something so the first time she brings it up isn't this scene. Just a tinsey bit cheese for the first time for her to bring it up to be now, not a major issue at all. If I did miss foreshadowing I'm sorry. Enjoying the story and looking forward to more!
Paul Matson
2023-05-12 23:03:46 +0000 UTCOk, I will not argue anymore. I would like to point out that I enjoy your writing to the extent that I am here, me getting so involved in the story to the point that I am arguing with it's writer is proof.
Abdulmohsen
2023-05-12 18:20:18 +0000 UTCThis conversation is pointless if you can't understand Alexithymia, so I'm not gonna bother arguing further. I'll just say that it would be out of character for Scarlet. It will be explained a bit in the next chapter though. Tar asks some of the same questions you did and Scarlet answers why. That if she ever does feel 'anger' it quickly turns to apathy as she fails to clearly identify or express the emotion.
WolfShine
2023-05-12 18:13:30 +0000 UTCI don't have Alexithymia so I don't know what your going through but in the chapter Scarlet was initially very angry to the extent that she fell down, that's not someone who can't identify anger. You don't fall down from apathy.
Abdulmohsen
2023-05-12 18:12:03 +0000 UTCYou're not talking as someone with Alexithymia. I personally can't identify the emotion of anger. Nor can I express it very well at all. And Scarlet is based on myself. So what you consider normal isn't in character for Scarlet.
WolfShine
2023-05-12 18:05:29 +0000 UTCIf you are really angry with someone you don't ask them for anything, even if it was to make your life easier. You either vent your anger to their face or tell them to leave you the hell alone.
Abdulmohsen
2023-05-12 18:04:02 +0000 UTCWhy not? If I were in her situation I would.
WolfShine
2023-05-12 17:58:00 +0000 UTCI agree with Chris here, the chapter went from Scar being angry at her mother to asking her to teleport her away. The latter felt strange to me, you don't go from being very angry with the woman who abandoned you to asking her to teleport you!!!! It's either being angry with White or being apathetic with her, you don't go from one to the other in one conversation.
Abdulmohsen
2023-05-12 17:55:18 +0000 UTCI Enjoy your writings and I believe you're a great author. I wouldn't be on here if not the case. To me personally I felt this could have been a great chapter to deepen things between the 2 in an organic non forced way. If you believe it would go against the character though, as the author that is your right.
2023-05-12 15:55:27 +0000 UTCThe others are right. It would be out of character for Scarlet to show more emotion. So I'm not really sure why you were expecting more. I've mentioned this before, but I have Alexithymia, meaning I find it very hard to identify and express my own emotions. And the same is for Scarlet. It would straight up be bad writing and out of character to make her show more emotion and have a bigger impact.
WolfShine
2023-05-12 15:24:59 +0000 UTCShe obviously care or she wouldn't have feelings whether to forgive or not. The thing I'm getting at, is this is their first real meeting and it should of had so much impact to the story, to engage the readers and bring them in and tie their own feelings into the story. Instead it fell flat and read like any other chapter, that's what I'm disappointed about. Obviously we look at this 2 different ways.
2023-05-12 13:00:45 +0000 UTCYou need to remember that wolfshine is somebody who is more bound to logical decision with an emotional impetus. To him the emotions are important but they do not bypass the reasoning. Scarlet (as his divine daughter (hail the path of word gods)) takes after that same thought process because it is the way that he can most easily describe. And honestly its refreshing to meet another author that has a similar mindset as to me personally. Especially since this allows him to channel the wordplay to become poetic while still keeping the point, which so many authors CANNOT do. As such the interactions between white and scar, make sense, are to the point, give the right info, and do not deviate into small talk. The apathy was already there, now there is actual emotion, and from there can come chaotic change.
Peter Smith
2023-05-12 12:56:20 +0000 UTCThe main thing ro remember is that this is from scars viewpoint. She doesnt care enough to see any other minute details. She cared to know how the woman was feeling and how she as a person felt about that same woman. She also herself notes that she doesnt really care as much about the relationship between her and white, beyond the trauma and pain that she has been forced to go through because of it. This is very clear cut and straight forward an event for her, white already knew how this would play out, but still was hurt because of her regrets, but scar also knows that if white can manage to do something worth scar moving past these feelings, she could eventually try to forgive her. You just need to remember that for scar, its not about how she feels about these events or if she should care about them, its about if its worth the effort to care. And she has lived long enough and met enough people to know that. Note as well that though scar is pissed at the prophecy info, she now has a decent reasoning as to why, if white had no real reasoning, she probably would simply have stopped caring about this beyond what she could gain on her own from this, but now she has a path forward within her view. Again its very straight forward.
Peter Smith
2023-05-12 12:50:13 +0000 UTCThis whole scene was extremely underwhelming for their first actual talk and or visit. There should have been more emotion, anger or just straight coldness. Yet we get this kind of floaty apathy. Her mother straight abandoned her, betrays the human race by having a child with the things they are fighting their world for. Tells no one, watches over to make sure she can't find family love and happiness and then pops up hoping stuff can be alright? Why caused she killed a couple of assassins? Did she do it for scar? Or did she due it for herself and the supposed prophecy.
2023-05-12 12:21:39 +0000 UTCI just hope the prophecy isnt something omnious like "your entire family will die in this class V fracture" and thats why she has to be an orphan
Blanc
2023-05-12 11:56:51 +0000 UTC@Alex: She didn’t give her up for adoption, she just parked her in a orphanage and interfered with her adoption more then one time. And all this rationalizing is just an easy excuse for a womb donor who just couldn’t get bothered to put the necessary work for a mother in. I’m not sure who in Scarletts shoes would say: “ Oh, thank you for dumping me Mom, I’m so happy about it bc I’m sure you had a very good reason - mostly to safe the world, bc this is so much more important then your child.” You know the classic problem of parents who care more about anyone else then their family.
Quendolayne
2023-05-12 11:36:21 +0000 UTCWhy should people just buy a car, it has nothing to do with rationality. There absolutely can be an excuse for White. If giving Scarlet up for adoption causes her to live, that's an excuse both rationally and emotionally.
Alex R
2023-05-12 11:23:25 +0000 UTCIt's like a bunch of people lining up to kill John wicks next dog.. They know what happened before and are happily getting in line to repeat it..
Ephemeral
2023-05-12 09:03:39 +0000 UTCwell... her reaction is over the top though. either its her instincts acting up or she is the most edgy emo girl i ever encountered.
TargetDrone
2023-05-12 08:52:11 +0000 UTCFrom a rational point of view there is merit to your words … but a parent-child relationship shouldn’t be a rational one, if so then the people should just buy a car. A parent-child relationship ist the most emotional binding in the world and therefore I can’t agree with your opinion … it sounds like whitewashing a despicable act. There is no excuse for White.
Quendolayne
2023-05-12 07:52:57 +0000 UTCI can understand Scarlet because being effectively abandoned sucks. On the other hand, "and then the world ends" is a weighty consideration, so I can see where White is coming from as well.
Sara
2023-05-12 07:28:17 +0000 UTC