Road leading to the ruins of Buckley Village ( link to a message in this game ).
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:33, Sun 17 Jan 2016.

"Would you want the children to risk their lives to rescue you?" Liadan demanded. "I would save you but don't expect our children to risk their lives for you!"

"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."

"I never said Yehudit isn't yours." Liadan said, feeling her mouth going dry. "Damnit Aron, our family needs you too."

"No one acts like I'm needed, other than to earn the money. No other reason." Aron felt his heart breaking. "Now I know why Papa put all his efforts into the inn. He never felt like Mama wanted or needed him either."

"Your mother had at least one affair! I'm not running around on you." Liadan tugged on her ear and swore. "Can't we talk about this when Yehudit is safe?"

"I didn't say you were." Aron pushed his hair back. "There's not a lot to say but yeah. We can talk about it after I find Yehudit and bring her back to the keep. You need to go back now."

Liadan shook her head. "I can't go back without her."

"It would make me feel better if you didn't have to face any of these raiders. They could still be around."

"How do you think I feel about you and Yehudit facing them?" Liadan asked.

"because you have no faith in me. You fully believe I am not capable of protecting myself and my daughter," Aron said, trudging forward.

"I have faith in you but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you get yourself killed alone!"

"So you'd rather risk our children having no parents?"

"Then you go back!" Liadan snapped.

Aron glowered. "There's nothing here for me anymore. Goodbye, Lia," Aron said, heading off in a direction that did not lead to the keep.

Liadan punched Aron in the back. "Nothing? You have five children back there and you say you have nothing?"!

The air left Aron in a woosh. He stumbled forward. "Not one of them come to me for anything. I'm nothing in their eyes while they're everything to me. I should stay and be unhappy? I should stay and continue being emasculated on a daily basis? No, you know what? You're right. I'll take the children with me. We'll start over somewhere else." He turned again and headed for the keep.

"You're being childish!" Liadan shouted, exasperated. "Yehudit has gone off and is in trouble but you want to tear the family apart because the children never ask you for anything!"

"I was trying to help find her but you decided to tell me to go back to the keep. Make up your mind, Lia," Aron snarled. "And I'm not being childish. You started this line of discussion."

"It was your idea for us to split up." Liadan said angrily.

Aron shook his head angrily. Such selective or narrow memory. "Let's just find Yehudit and get back to the keep."

Liadan growled and stomped down the road.

Aron was far ahead of her, stewing. He couldn't figure out if Lia couldn't understand or simply didn't care how he felt. Nor did she seem to care...he shook it off. He had to concentrate on the task at hand.

Liadan did not completely understand, but she did care. She just thought finding Yehudit was more important than working out their marital problems at the moment.

Aron approached the village gate still silent as he walked.

When they reached the village, Liadan was ready to explode.

Aron made his way through the gate, horrified at the destruction that lay before him. They would never be able to rebuild this, nothing would be the same ever again. He stared at what was left of the inn, his father's legacy. For the first time, he was grateful his father was no longer here to bear witness to this. His failure. Aron lowered his head.

Liadan reached the village. She stared where the inn used to be.

"No." Liadan whispered, finding the bell from the lobby desk in the rubble. She picked it up and it dinged in her hand.

Aron found one of Bob's chickens and scooped it up. The hen gave a weak cluck. Aron blinked back tears forming in his eyes. He tried telling himself that it was just a building. But he and his sister had grown up here, his cousin had summered here. He had raised his family here. The memories were still in his heart but it hurt seeing his life reduced to such rubble. "I'm sorry, Papa. I was never fit to follow your footsteps."

The Inn and the Bakery... the first real homes LIadan had ever had. She felt herself beginning to tear up. They couldn't really be gone.

Aron turned to look at Lia.

Liadan couldn't stand it. She threw her arms around Aron and sobbed.

Aron wrapped his free arm around Lia and held her close. The hen periodically pecked at each of them as Aron rested his chin atop her head.

"It's can't be over." Liadan whispered, talking about more than just the inn and village. "Not everything."

"I don't see how it can be rebuilt," he said of the village. "But then I have no useful skills so what do I know." Aron sighed. "I don't want everything to be over, but I feel useless." And unwanted.

"You're still a good father." Liadan sniffled. "And husband."

"I just...I don't how to explain it properly. You are so strong and able to take care of yourself and the children. I was too busy with the inn to be available to the children so they learned to come to you. Or Aislyn or Brie or Shawn. Even Sileas when she was older." Aron sighed. "I can't even protect you all. I feel like a failure."

"The kids hardly ever come to me for anything." Liadan laughed bitterly. "I told you I'd make a terrible mother."

"You're a wonderful mother. They are coming to you less because they are older." Aron shrugged. "Looking back, I don't think I seemed approachable. Kind of like Papa was before Mama left. Aislyn wouldn't know this of course since Mama left when she was born, but Papa never wanted to be disturbed when working. Which was all day and night. I tried to not make the same mistakes, but I think I did."

'You've always been there for the kids." Liadan scolded. "How often had the babes played on your desk while you were supposed to be working?"

"I tried to always be available," Aron said. "But I know I wasn't always able to do so." Aron glanced at her. "I know there were times I wasn't there for you either. And now I have no way to support us or to give us a home."

"I grew up without a home." Liadan sighed. "I just always wanted the children to have it better than me."

"What are we going to do, Lia? We have nothing to build from now?" Aron said, his voice slightly shaking.

"First we're going to find our Yehudit and bring her back to the keep." Liadan said. "Then we're going to find the momzers that destroyed our home and kill them. Then we'll rebuild."

"It's going to take years to rebuild. Look around Lia, there's no need for an inn here now. The village is gone."

"People will come back after those raiding momzers are dead." Liadan said. "Now c'mon, we have to find Yehudit."

Aron knew that would be highly unlikely. The village would forever be tainted, there would be nothing to draw more than passers through. A tavern perhaps might be the way to go but an inn? No.

Liadan heard her daughter screaming. She dropped the bell and ran.

Aron hurried after her.

Shawn set off down the road toward the village. He figured the best place to start looking for the raiders was to pick up their tracks their. His borrowed armor didn't fit quite right, but well enough to protect him. Shawn carried the helm under his arm.

"What the hell am I doing?" he muttered to himself, stopping in his tracks. "I'm going to resign my post and I should be with my family protecting them instead of being on this fool's errand. I won't find the raiders anyway. Shawn felt like a cloud of anger had lifted from him. His heart had finally won out over his head and told him he needed to be with his wife and daughters. He headed back toward the keep.

Bai spoke very little as he walked to the keep. He was thinking about the missing artifacts. Some of that stuff could just about destroy the world in the wrong hands.

Dyfrig walked alongside, wondering why the place was in such a mess and who might be settling nearby.