Durest: Paternal Pride

"Is it true?" asked Vandraka. 

Durest blinked and turned. The child had literally just come in the door; she hadn't offered a greeting or even cleared the threshold before asking her question. "Is what true?" asked Durest, somewhat disgruntled. 

"That you and your friends set loose that thing that's chewing through the south," Vandra clarified.

"Oh," said Durest. "That." He nodded, still uncertain about where this was going. He'd been gone from the clan for years now, and for all that Vandra was his daughter she was still an unknown quantity. Would she rebuke him for releasing an unstoppable horror on the world? Or would it just reinforce whatever image of himself as a darkly powerful father-figure that she seemed to be carrying in her head? "Aye. 'Twas Malefar's plan, but we were the ones that did it."

"That's amazing. I wish I'd been there to see it." Vandra looked briefly wistful, and Durest decided that he'd better step on the idea that this was somehow admirable. His instincts as a parent were all kinds of wrong and he knew it, but this he was fair certain about. 

"I'm very glad ye weren't," he said gently. "Meanin' no offense, of course, but that thing is pure destruction and distance be the only true safety from't.  Ah'm nae so sure we did the right thing by letting it out, tae be 'onest, though Indra's sure eno' pleased wi' it."

Vandra frowned. "But once it's eaten enough Solari, sure'n Malefar will..."

"Surely. What of ye, me darlin' girl?" asked Durest. "What've ye been keepin' busy wi'?"

Vandra pursed her lips, but allowed him to change the subject. "Small errands, minor bits of sabotage. I ran support when we kidnapped the mayor of... some little hamlet outside of Garamond. Kassadia Etriga says I'm not ready for more, yet. She's got me working on casting spells without showing any sign that that's what I'm doing, which makes it a lot harder."

"Useful, though, if you can master it." Durest thought about that, wondered if it was something he should try to learn for himself. "They're treating you well, then." 

Vandra nodded. "Aye, well enough." Then she added, "Damn it, Dad, I start talking to you and all of a sudden I sound like every hidebound elder in the delve again."

Durest chuckled and shrugged. "'Tis a danger, me lass, to be sure." He stopped, recomposed his voice, and said: "I'm one of those undisciplined young men and women who refuse proper behavior. You can tell by the way I talk, which is perfectly normal and much more in keeping with the times."

Vandra laughed. "Sure, Dad. You just keep telling yourself that." Then she went back out, leaving him alone and bemused in his room.