Chapter Text
It had been around a week since the divorce, and Alador felt absolutely drained. By everything. The societal repercussions had been almost instantaneous with every single one in his sphere immediately speaking ill of him and his marriage, hushed voices about Odalia, the kids and the Clawthornes. He had heard everything, from him just wanting to take down the Blight family from the inside to Amity being a bastard child of his and Edalyn.
Odalia hadn’t made things any easier, just having a tug-o-war of influence, trying to take everything away from him. He had no doubt that if he hadn’t retorted to a divorce via the Titan's will she would’ve managed to take custody of the twins and perhaps even the Fongerhorn estate. Somehow.
The quietness of the manor didn’t help with easing his tiredness. It was eerie, being the only one in such a huge building. Amity had decided to stay with Edalyn and Lilith -and to be perfectly honest he hadn’t seen her since the incident with the portal-, and the twins had decided to move to an apartment in Bonesborough. He had decided to pay for their rent until they joined the Illusions Coven and started working, he simply felt that was the least he could do after… Everything.
His coven work helped somewhat, diving into Abomination research felt liberating, and although the conditions hadn’t been exactly ideal he had proof that the new goo’s magical absorbing power was outstanding, although one had to keep an eye on the issue of possessed abominations .
As always, Sappus had been nothing but outstanding in his help, both professionally and personally. He had truly helped the ex-Blight through the maelstrom the divorce was turning out to be. He had also informed Alador of their progress on yet another kind of Abomination goo, especially designed to be used as an exoskeleton of sorts.
Alador sighed, walking down the halls of the mansion. He couldn’t keep living like this, secluding himself in his gigantic, empty ancestral home and burying himself in paperwork and abomination formulae.
Finally, he made a decision. He would head to the library, hopefully he’d find at least something to read and distract him from everything that was happening. With a deep breath he took his cloak and made his way to the main entrance of the manor.
From there, he decided to walk all the way to the Bonesborough library. He felt everyone’s gazes on him, whether the crowds recognized him or not didn’t matter, he was already too used to the way common folk would stare at him. He was a Blight, everything about him screamed power and wealth.
He once was a Blight.
That thought echoed in his mind as the man finally reached the steps of the library. He had no highly distinguished family name to uphold anymore. Odalia wouldn’t chastise him for his carelessness…
His lips lightly tugged upwards at the thought. In that case, there was something he had not read in a long, long while. The man climbed up the large stairs of the library, gently opening the luxurious wooden gates of the building. The receptionist barely spared him a look as he walked past the entrance’s desk.
Alador knew where he wanted to go, even after all these years he remembered the location of those books. Next to the reference area, pass the arc that led to the children’s section. He had questioned that position for a long time, but yet again the Necronomicons were there too so who was he to judge he supposed.
He was much too immersed in his thoughts to really notice his surroundings, although he was vaguely aware of some teen reading to a group of kids as he walked over to his objective: the manga section. He carefully looked over the title available and frowned when he realized he didn’t recognize any of them, all the stories he had read as a teen had probably ended their run.
With a resigned sigh, he reached for a random volume and hoped for the best. That was the moment when he noticed the silence. Sure, he was at the library, but the girl had been reading out loud for the kids. He lifted his gaze, and his eyes widened in realization.
Amity simply stared at her father, completely dumbfounded. The kids looked at her, confused as to why the girl had suddenly stopped her reading. Father and daughter shared their gaze for a few seconds that felt like hours, before one of the toddlers tugged at Amity’s leggings, asking her to continue reading.
The girl blinked, coming out of her stupor and cleared her throat. He continued the book, sparing a look to her father, who simply walked out of the room and towards one of the tables dedicated to reading.
He hesitated for a moment, almost going to his old hideout, but decided not to. This was something he needed to face head on. Both of them needed to. And so he sat down, placing the manga on the table. He inspected the cover, something about giant animated statues battling giant demons. Alador shrugged, surely it couldn’t be that bad.
Around thirty minutes later the former patriarch of the Blight family was completely immersed in the story of a reluctant teenager forced to save the world from gigantic demons of unknown origin by piloting a statue with some disturbing use of what looked like soul magic. However, he saw some children leaving the kids’ corner area, and supposed Amity would be with them.
He closed the manga, making note of its title, Neon Origin Daemonion , and watched the wave of toddlers pouring out of the area. Amity followed soon after, waving off a red demon with a face that was just a giant mouth full of sharp teeth. The girl watched the kid run off with a smile, which faded when she directed her gaze towards her father.
Alador felt his throat clench when Amity seemed to hesitate, almost getting ready to leave the library, but for better or for worse the girl walked over to her father. She sat down next top him, the two witches staying in complete silence. Neither knew what to say.
After what felt like an eternity, Alador finally made to speak. However, Amity had other plans. “Thank you.” The girl said, not really looking at her father. “If you hadn’t shown up the other day…”
Alador internally winced, seeing his daughter’s eyes getting watery and the horrible realization of the fact that he didn’t know how to console his own daughter hit him like a carriage. “Amity…” He started, and the way she instinctively tensed up with his voice didn’t go unnoticed. “Do not thank me. I should have done that a long time ago. It’s me who should thank you.”
The girl gave him a confused look, but remained quiet. “If you hadn’t… Left.” Alador continued, shaking his head. “I don’t think I would have ever dared to do what I did.” To be a father, he had wanted to say, but bit it back. Neither were ready for that.
The two fell silent once again, an awkward air being quick to set in between father and daughter. Alador kicked himself mentally, how in the Boiling Isles was he so utterly terrible at this? This was his daughter for crying out loud, she was blood of his blood and she was supposed to be able to trust him, not fear him…
Her daughter… Who had apparently noticed Alador’s manga and was squinting to make out what it was. However she noticed her father’s eyes on her and quickly looked forward, averting her gaze from the book. Alador raised an eyebrow, lifting the arm he had placed on top of the cover.
The movement caught Amity’s attention, who couldn’t help but look at the cover art once more. To say she was surprised was an understatement. “Is that Demonion?!” The girl said, cringing at her own voice’s volume. Alador frowned.
“Indeed. You know about the series?”
Amity sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck, looking at her feet. “I may have read some stuff…” She then frowned, confused. “But, what are you doing with a copy?”
Alador awkwardly coughed, his turn to avert his gaze. “I… May have been a… Manga enthusiast when I was your age…”
The man cleared his throat, briefly looking at Amity… Who was looking at him with stars in her eyes. Then it clicked, and a smile grew on Alador’s face. “In fact, I believe I may still have some of my old volumes back at the manor… If you are interested.”
Amity seemed to ponder on it for a few seconds before giving her father a weak smile. “Sure.”
Alador nodded, getting up from his seat almost in unison with his daughter and taking the Demonion manga with him. He stopped by the receptionist’s desk, registering the book as burrowed and Amity took the chance to send a text to Eda, telling her she was going out and would be back for dinner. She didn’t tell Eda who she was going with, but fortunately the Owl Lady trusted her enough.
And so the duo made their way out of the building and into the streets of Bonesborough. The two walked in silence, one that soon became awkward once more as the time passed. It was Alador who struck up a conversation.
“I see you’re still doing your extra credit work at the library.” He commented, almost off-handedly. Amity nodded.
“Yes, father.” She said out of sheer habit, and Alador winced internally yet again. And silence once more.
“I noticed the human was not with you today.” He said, desperately trying to break that awful silence. He couldn’t help but smirk when he noticed the faint blush on his daughter’s face.
“She- She’s in the human realm. She’ll come back tomorrow.” Amity explained, her fluster not lost on Alador. Amity then shyly smiled. “The kids asked me where she was today.”
Her father raised an eyebrow. “She helps you with it?”
Amity nodded. “Yeah. She’s great with the kids. She’ll do all sorts of voices and act out the scenes.” The girl fondly shook her head. “Sometimes she’ll get so over her head one of the librarians will come over and tell us to quiet down.”
“She sounds like quite the individual.”
Amity’s ears perked up in surprise, like she had completely forgotten she was actually talking to someone in her gushing. “Y-yeah… She is.” The girl admitted, dreamly looking at her shoes. Her father smiled. He hadn’t seen Amity so happy in years. His smile faded, guilt settling back in. It was his fault.
“And quite the trouble maker too.” He added. Amity tensed up at the comment, fearing what he’d say next. “She truly is Edalyn’s apprentice.” The man said, fondly shaking his head. “I’m glad you found her, Amity.”
The teen’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “R-really?” She asked, looking at her father. The man, who once would stand tall above her, casting her in his cold and distant stare, gave her a warm smile. Or at least tried to.
“Indeed. Do not let Edalyn try to fool you, she’s a good woman. Deep down.” He said, rolling his eyes on that last part. “If her apprentice is even an ounce like she once was at your age…” He chuckled. “You’re in good hands. Do try and keep them out of trouble, however.”
Amity gave her father a lopsided smile. “I try to.” Alador gave her an understanding nod, and the two fell back into silence. However this one didn’t carry the awkward, tense feeling of before. This one felt like a nice silence. Like one of those rare, precious moments with Lilith after finishing their lessons.
The two ex-Blights finally made it to the Fongerhorn manor, and Alador guided her inside. The girl looked around once indoors as her father magicked his cloak away. The manor was huge, don’t get her wrong, but it was still smaller than the Blight mansion. And despite its relative emptiness compared to her first home, it felt much less oppressive. Nicer. Alador let her look around for a few moments before speaking up. “Shall we?”
Amity turned to her father and nodded, following him as he guided her through the halls of the manor. After a few twists and turns, Alador stopped in front of a door. The man’s golden eyes stared at it, remembering days long past. He hadn’t had the courage to go inside after the divorce…
He reached forwards, taking the door’s handle and opening it. The wood creaked as he stepped into the room, turning its lights on with a quick spell circle. Amity followed him soon after, and to say her jaw dropped would be an understatement.
The walls were completely lined up with shelves filled with all kinds of mangas, comics and novels of wildly varying thickness. Fit in between some of the books or just outright occupying their own shelves were all kinds of figurines of superheroes, monsters, villains and even a few automatons. The few spaces in the walls not covered by the shelves had posters plastered on them.
Alador looked proudly at his old collection, putting his hands behind his back. “We had an unused room when I was a child, and so your grandparents decided to give it to me. I spent years building up all of this, but unfortunately I had to leave it behind after marrying your mother.”
Amity looked around the room with stars in her eyes, scanning every single corner from where she was standing. In the center of the room there was a pair of bean bags with a short table between them. Alador gave her a smile.
“Go on, I didn’t just bring here to gawk.” He said, extending his arm and inviting his daughter to indulge herself. Amity seemed to hesitate for a second, but her sheer nerdy excitement soon took over the years of proper discipline drilled into her.
The girl excitedly walked over to the nearest shelf, carefully inspecting every tome’s title. He recognized plenty of them, gawking at some rare first editions that had been out of print for decades. Then, a particular one caught her eye.
“Oh. My. Titan.”
Before her, the first volume of Kaitei Gunkan . She slowly extended her hand, taking the manga like it was a rare gemstone that could shatter at the slightest wrong move. Alador walked up to her, his lended copy of Daemonion levitating behind him, and smiled upon seeing the volume she had chosen.
“I see you’ve read this series before.” Alador commented offhandedly, awaiting his daughter’s reaction.
“Of course! The dynamic between captain Teruyoshi and his rival Akira is great, not to mention the action chapters where the Aratoramu goes into combat!”
“Honestly, I was driven in more by Serizawa and Takarada’s arcs. The chapter where it was revealed they had once been friends caught me completely off guard.” Her father said, walking over to one of the bean bags. “But I’m afraid I’m probably far behind you, I really need to catch up. I believe it’s one of the few mangas from when I was young that’s still ongoing.”
Amity absolutely beamed at that comment, quickly walking over to her dad. “Oh, I know of a place where you can get all the volumes you’ve missed! Mother didn’t know, but sometimes after I was done at the library I’d go to this comic shop, I’m sure you’d like it!” The girl said, plopping down on the other bean bag while clutching the manga. However, her smile seemed to fade as she came out of her hyped up state. “I- I’m sorry, I’m being too much. My apologies, father…”
Then, Alador did the unthinkable. “I’d love to visit that shop.” He said with the most reassuring tone he could. “Now, I’d love to hear your thoughts about Gunkan. I do warn you however, I’ve only read until issue sixty four.”
The teen’s ears perked up, her golden eyes all but lighting up as her smile returned. And as the two continued talking about all kinds of mangas, comics and everything in between and sharing their theories and opinions, Amity felt a pleasant warmth in her chest.
It would take far more than this for her to ever be able to forgive her father, if ever. But even then, this… This was a beginning. And it was a nice one.