"That's not an easy question. Of course I never want them to risk their lives. For any reason. But that's what families that love one another do. They have two choices in life, do whatever they can to save their parent or sibling or live with regret or the shadow of what if they had tried to find them."

Liadan scowled. "My father can continue to rot."

"I know, and that's why you don't understand. Look at how much Sileas, Shawn and Brie love each other. Look how distraught she was when she thought she had lost her entire family. Sileas could be on a fool's errand but what if her heart is right? What if she ignored her instinct only to find out her mother had been injured and could have been saved if anyone had found her."

"But Brie is dead!" Liadan said in a choked voice. "Sileas and Yehudit are risking their lives to find a corpse."

"That's why I said it could be a fool's errand. But what if, Lia? What if Sileas's heart is right and there's a tiny chance that Brie is laying there badly hurt?"

"Brie wouldn't want Sileas to get hurt or die for her." Liadan said. "Yehudit either."

"I'm not looking at it from the parent's view but the child's. I can understand following my heart if it could mean the difference between life and death of my mother or father."

LIadan scowled. "If Yehudit lives through this she's grounded."

Aron shook his head. "Good luck with that."

"She knew better than to leave the keep." Liadan said.

"Her need to be with Sileas far outweights our daughter's common sense. Especially when she's worried about her cousin."

"Yehudit needs to learn common sense." Liadan said. "And Sileas needs to learn to not bring Yehudit into trouble."

"I'm  sure Sileas tries to not involve her. I would be willing to wager a steak dinner that she told Yehudit it was too dangerous and too far on her ankle, and wanted her to stay and mind Olivia."

"Sileas should have stayed at the keep if she couldn't persuade Yehudit to stay where she belonged." Liadan said.

Aron gave up. It was always the same, every conversation went in a circle. He forged ahead.

"This never would've happened if you hadn't gotten yourself drunk." Liadan needled.

"How was I going to do anything about it? They've been together for the most part since we arrived. I wouldn't have known they left either."

"If you were sober you could have helped me watch the smaller children so I could have kept a better eye on Yehudit." Liadan said.

Aron bit his tongue and clenched his jaw. There were so many things he could say in response but all of them would start a fight. "Let's just find Yehudit and get back to the keep."

Liadan muttered something about Aron sleeping alone.

Aron caught part of it and to be truthful, at the moment, he didn't care. He was tired and quite honestly, he was starting to not feel like he was much of a man.

Liadan tripped on something and fell flat on her face.

Aron stopped and turned around. He reached down to pick her up. "Go back to the keep, Lia. I'll find Yehudit."

"No." Liadan shook her head. "I'm looking for my daughter."

"It's never our daughter. You've never seen me as an equal or her father even though I have always loved her because to me she is mine. We have children at the keep who need their mother, we don't know what we're walking in to but once again you don't think I'm good enough to take care of them or be a protector. Since we no longer have an inn, this is the perfect time for me to go to the monastery as I originally planned. If I'm not man enough to protect my family or be able to even tell my wife to go to safety, at least I can do some good there. I'll help you find her and then I will be out of your hair forever."