Sticking Up

You find the room that Karisi's father was staying at and you can't help but just sit outside the door for just a few moments trying your best to collect your thoughts. You really didn't know what you were going to say to her father but you had to do something.

You knock on the door and get no response for what felt like many long minutes but in reality was only about ten seconds.

"Come in." the voice replies.

You open up the door and step through, closing it behind you. The room itself is fairly small but good enough for one person. The bed is in the corner, a small table with two chairs at the side, a dresser and a bookshelf cover the remaining wall.

"Oh, it's you. What do you want?" He asks.

"Look," you step forward towards him "I think we got off on the wrong foot here, my name is Darien." you reach your hand out ready to shake his.

"I know that already, the one who leads the army and how did you say it?" he raises an eyebrow "Uses my daughters tight body for his enjoyment?"

You step back and swallow hard "That..." you hesitate "Listen, I don't know a whole ton about Karisi's personal life and where she original came from or who her family is because she's never mentioned that to me at all, but I've also known her for quite some time now. I've grown with your daughter, fought with her and even though she sometimes hides the truth from me, I do still care for her."

"You wouldn't understand, she left us for her own good. She left me, left her mother, left our village, all for what?"

"I met her in Rathkin actually, she pulled me from a bad place, made me...better actually." you shuffle back and forth in the room "Look, I don't know you and honestly I don't even know why I'm here trying to talk some sense into you."

"Then just leave..." he let's out.

"My whole family was taken from me by Rathkin. My parents slaughtered when they attacked my village and my sister killed in battle." you shake your head and look at the ground "What I wouldn't give to see their faces one more time. To be able to talk to them one more time. To be able to..." you stop, taking a deep breath "She told me you're dying."

The look on his face says that's true.

"I don't see eye to eye with Karisi often but I can still see the woman she has become." his eyes return from the floor and look at you "I mean, come on, she came from your village to Rathkin, became a noblewomen which lead to her being extremely wealthy and powerful and look at where she is at today?" you shrug "The damn Queen of the Sicilian Syndicate." your voice going a little higher "Sure, maybe I'm not her husband or she hasn't given you plenty of grand children yet but the truth is, she's amazing Sir. She really is."

The dad had to pull out one of the chairs by the table and sit down as you were talking.

"So all I'm going to say is you need to push aside your feelings on how Karisi should be and just look at what she's become. If you can't see how accomplished your daughter is. How powerful your daughter is. How...amazing your daughter is. Then why did you even come to the Syndicate? Huh?" you ask him "If all you did was to come and yell at her, be disappointed and turn your shoulder towards her then maybe she's better in her life without you."

You see him swallow hard and bring his head down looking at the table.

"Just leave, go back to wherever you came, go back to die, it's not like you care anyway." you're getting worked up now at this point "She's here in the Syndicate, surrounded by people that actually DO care for her, people that ARE proud of her, people that WANT to be in her life and if all you're going to do is try to drag her down once again right before you die, then just leave."

The man still doesn't reply as he continues to look down at the table, not even bothering to look at you as you speak.

"She obviously cares about you, a lot. I wish you could have seen her after you left, she was broken. She wants you to be in her life, wants you to be proud of her, wants you to love her." you try to plead with the man "So please just get the image of how Karisi should be out of your damn head and just accept her how she is." you place a hand down on the table and look at the back of the dad's head "She's the fucking QUEEN of the Syndicate, Sir. How can you not be proud of her? I mean, shit man, you can't get much more powerful than that."

Still nothing from the man.

"Just...pull your head out of your ass and spend your remaining time with your daughter that you love or be a stubborn asshole and get the fuck out of the Syndicate." you turn around going to leave the room as you feel you said your peace.

"Darien..." he finally talks as you turn back around to look at him "It's too bad you weren't the husband..." he grumbles out "Can you get my daughter please?" the look on his face seems sincere enough.

You just nod at the man and turn back towards the door and make your way through it. After shutting it you lean your back against the wall and let out a few deep breaths. You don't know why you stood up for Karisi as much as you did especially since she's been lying to you so much as of late but you had to do it. You loved your family and what you would do to be able to see them one more time. If you could give Karisi that one last time, to see her father, to be with him, to have him be proud of her, you knew it would leave an impact.