Chapter Text
“I totally disagree with this idea, don’t count on my support for this madness!” Isabel replied, frustrated with the absurdity she had just heard.
“I didn’t ask for your support, I just ask that you don’t tell her what I’m going to do!” Alma insisted fervently, it was impossible to get that damn idea out of her head.
“I don’t want to be your accomplice in this nonsense! Miss Avocet doesn’t deserve this heartbreak, Alma!”
“It’s too late for you to complain now! I know she’ll be very angry... But I need to do this, Isa!”
“She won’t be angry, she’ll be worried and sad! She’s your mother, YOUR REAL MOTHER.” Isabel crossed her arms in a sulk.
Alma was nervous, she brushed her bangs out of her eyes in concern. “I know, Isa... She's my foster mother... But I still have a biological mother and a father too, and I deserve to know them... I don't even remember their faces... This is a part of me that I don't know and before I become an ymbryne I deserve to know.”
“She's the only mother you have, she's the one who sang you to sleep, who put medicine on your wounds, she's the one who taught you to read and write and gave you a worthy destiny! While the woman who gave birth to you abandoned you! She doesn't deserve for you to call her mother! Your brothers hate your biological parents so much that they renounced the Lefay surname and adopted the surname of a peculiar ancestor of yours! Alma, if you go through with this, you'll be disappointed!” Isabel was almost screaming, she wanted to force Alma to see the facts, now that the girl had discovered the name and location of her home village she had become obsessed with the idea of meeting her biological parents.
“You may even be right... But I'll never be sure if I don't try... I'll go back, Isa, I'm not abandoning you or Miss Avocet, I just want the opportunity to try... Maybe they've changed... Maybe when they see me... See that I've survived and grown... Maybe they'll regret it... Maybe they'll welcome me as a daughter! So much time has passed... People change... They can be new people, better people... Maybe I have other siblings... So much may have happened... I need to go... And I will. I'm determined.”
Isabel looked at Alma indignantly. “I won't be able to get that absurd idea out of your head, will I? Alma, my concern isn't just about your disappointment if they haven't changed... I'm worried about your safety... What if they try to kill you?” She was really worried about that possibility, normal people cannot be trusted under any circumstances.
“I've made up my mind. I'll leave this night and I don't know exactly when I'll be back... Don't tell anyone... And don't worry... I know how to take care of myself, if everything goes wrong I'll stop time and run away... I just need to try... I'd never forgive myself if I didn't try.” Alma smiled at Isabel with tears threatening to roll down her pale cheeks.
“Okay... But promise me that you'll come back as soon as possible... That at the first sign of danger you'll run away... And promise me that... If everything goes well and they accept you... That you'll still come back... That you won't abandon the Ymbryne Academy...” Isa still didn't agree with the idea of Alma going to see her biological parents... But she knew she couldn't stop it.
“I promise everything... Isa, stop this, I'm not going to abandon Ymbryne Academy, I fought so hard to be excellent here... I just want to go meet my parents... Learn a little more about myself... Everything will be fine, before you know it I'll be here again telling you about my adventure!” Alma smiled and hugged Isabel, the hug was returned and this gave Alma more courage not to give up.
That night Alma Peregrine escaped through the window.
Isabel walked slowly, with each step she heard the sound of the beads on the ends of her long braids hitting each other. The hypnotic sound distracted her from the headaches that the last few days had brought her.
She hated lying, but she wasn't a snitch and even though Miss A and Miss B insisted, she didn't confess that she knew where Alma had gone. Logically, Alma left a vague note for the teachers. She didn't say where she went or when she would be back, and this was driving the ymbrynes crazy. Miss A and Miss B postponed some of their classes to look for her in the surroundings, inside and outside the loop.
A few days ago Bentham appeared trying to interrogate Isabel and find out if she knew where Alma had gone, and this made Isa's suspicions come true. Alma found out where her parents lived because Jack told her. Bentham has no idea what happened. It could only have been him... Isabel is absolutely certain that Alma will be disappointed, and he also knew that Alma would be disappointed, Jack gave this information to Alma to make her suffer. He takes sadistic pleasure in making his sister suffer.
The afternoon classes had been postponed. Isa played with her long braids, remembering how Alma helped her make each one of them. This two-month period they wouldn't have Metamorphosis Classes and for the first time in her life Isa could experience the sensation of having long hair. It was an interesting experience and easy to get rid of if necessary. When she became a bird, the braids would fall out, but that wasn't going to happen now.
When Isabel went into her room to get a hair tie, she noticed that the window was open and someone was sitting on the floor.
Alma!
Alma was there, she had returned! Isabel ran to her friend, who was wearing her school uniform and seemed to be observing the patterns of the blue wallpaper in the room.
“Alma, you’re back! I missed you! Everyone was so...” Isabel’s excitement faded when she saw her friend’s face. As had red eyes, as if she had cried a lot, and was breathing with difficulty.
She looked at Isa with tears in her eyes. “I’m stupid... You were right... It was all in vain... I... I ruined their lives... I ruined everything!” Alma burst into tears.
Isabel immediately got down and hugged Alma. She knew this was going to happen, but she still hadn’t planned what to do when Alma returned.
“Hey... Don't ever say that, you're not stupid, you're extraordinary, the best ymbryne of our generation... You didn't ruin anything, and you don't even need the validation of two horrible people who abandoned children to their fate... Whatever they did... You are and always will be superior.”
Alma continued to cry as if she hadn't heard anything Isabel said. “They kicked me out without even listening to me... My father kicked me out with a fireplace iron... And my own mother cursed the day I was born... I feel like the worst person in this world Isa....”
“ Alma, I'm sorry for all of this... You always deserved more... More than your parents could give, they don't deserve someone as incredible as you, you shouldn't feel bad for what they did... You're not to blame for anything... There was no way to avoid anything that happened, you are like this, you were born like this and you're going to die like this, and there's nothing wrong with that, you're extraordinary, the best woman in the world, and soon you'll be the best ymbryne in the world, and it doesn't matter the opinion of two normal people who are nothing more to you than strangers... Your family is here and I don't mean your brothers' trash... I love you Alma, just like Miss A and Miss B love you, just like all your classmates love you. I know this won't heal your pain right now, but I ask you to listen to these words of affection because they are the truth, your parents don't know what they're missing by not giving themselves the opportunity to meet someone as incredible as you, my dear." Isa stroked Alma's hair while she still cried in complete silence, digesting each word Isabel said.
The two stayed like that for what seemed like hours, both sitting on the floor, Alma leaning against Isabel, crying in silence and Isa comforting her in silence as well.
Isabel didn't know how that trauma would affect Alma's life, but she was willing to help her best friend until the end. As long as Alma needed comfort, Isabel would always be there for that.
