The Price Family

You aren't certain how you expected your mom to react, once everything was out in the open. You didn't think she would be furious, exactly, but you knew she wouldn't be happy about it. You figured that at the very least you were in for the old 'not angry, just disappointed' line. But a few hours later, once the shocked tears and the happy tears and the just plain old regular tears have all dried up, and all three of you are ensconced on the sofa, she just seems rather sad.

It's way worse, honestly. You'd been so prepared for the whole disappointment angle. Fucking unfair.

Anyways. You're cursed with an entirely reasonable mother, and thanks to your softie of a father you've got to pay the piper. "I'm sorry, Mom. At first I really wanted to tell you, but I wasn't sure if that was breaking some arcane rule or whatever. Magic is super picky."

At least Asher has the goodwill to support you on that, nodding emphatically. "That's for sure."

Mallory makes a little noise, arms still tightly wrapped around her resurrected husband. You're not certain that she's ever going to let him go. "And later on?"

"I...well, things started getting really intense. I was scared to get you involved when there was so much danger."

"And you're certain you can't just give it all up? Walk away from this 'war' business?"

Give it all up, huh. Wouldn't that be nice. You shake your head. "Not a chance. People would absolutely get hurt."

Mallory sighs, reaching out to trace her fingers across your cheek. "You having to shoulder all of this breaks my heart. But I suppose that if someone has to, I can't think of anyone better. You're very brave, Ash, and I'm proud of you. I just...wish I could do something, anything to ease your burden."

You're not sure what to say, but you mumble something out anyway. "I couldn't do this without you, Mom. If I have any strength, it's only because you gave it to me."

Your mom sniffs, gently taking hold of your chin as she beams at you through glistening eyes. "When did you become so grown-up? It must have been while I wasn't looking."

A deeper sniffle reveals that Asher has not been unaffected by the scene. "You raised her so well, Mal. Our baby girl...I, I'm so sorry I left you alone to--"

Mallory softly shushes Asher, leaning in to quiet the man with a gentle kiss. By the time she pulls back, she's taken hold of your hand. "You didn't leave me alone, Asher. You were always,"--She squeezes your hand--"Right here. I saw you every day in our daughter's eyes, and now she's brought you back to us."

You rub furiously at your watering eyes with your free hand as Asher starts to silently sob, Mallory in a similar state as she buries her face in his chest. Goddamn it. Looks like crying time hasn't quite finished yet.

Mallory sets her cup down on the table, swollen eyes glancing through the open doorway to where Asher is still sprawled out in the living room. "Is he going to be okay?"

"Yeah. I have him set up in there." You squint, unsure if the man is asleep or not regardless of the headphones he's wearing and the running record player. But you detect the tell-tale signs of a head moving to a time signature. "I'm pretty sure he's got Funeral playing. So he should be good."

"Ash. That's not what I meant."

You sigh, flicking your eyes back towards your mother. "I know. And...I don't know. But I think so. He's definitely been traumatized, but he's been forcing himself to keep it together for hours now. For my sake, I guess. He needs to decompress at the very least."

Mallory nods gravely, taking a slow sip from her cup. "I'm **** to know what he's been through, but...do I want to know?"

"No. Definitely not. Let's just say he's been trapped in himself for all this time, and leave it at that for now."

"Oh God." Mallory screws her eyes shut, letting out a shuddering breath to calm herself. She swallows carefully, then quirks an eyebrow at the whine coming from the other end of the kitchen. "Pazuzu, come here."

The brindle greyhound slinks over to his mistress, back hunched and ears folded in anxiety as he shoots suspicious glances towards the strange man on the sofa. He whines again, settling his head on Mallory's leg as you reach out to give his haunch a pat. "Sorry, buddy. You aren't the only man in the house now."

Pazuzu whimpers pitifully, pressing into Mallory's hand as she scratches behind his ears and sets down his new marching orders. "Asher is family, Zuzu. Be nice to him, and he'll give you treats."

These 'treats' Mallory speaks of seem to intrigue the dog. At least enough that he pads into the living room to curl up on one of his beds, shooting Asher a grudgingly accepting look. Your mom's little smile has faded by the time she glances back at you. "Who else knows about him?"

"A few people have seen him, but don't know who he is. Jenny and Isabelle do; so do Rhys and Donna." Oh, that reminds you. "Um, sidenote, almost everything I told you about them was true? Just they're not from Canada, they're, uh, elves. From Elf World. Donna suggested renaming the realm 'Canada' to create a loophole, but I thought that would be a bit much."

That manages to draw a chuckle out of your mother, who is clearly inured to weird shit at this point. "Rename the whole place, can she? With what, a petition?"

"Oh. No. She's, like, the Queen. Of the Elves."

Mallory's nonsense tolerance hasn't built up that much yet. "Oh." She taps at her coffee cup thoughtfully, then speaks again. "Well damn. I guess I should get out the good linens for them." She shakes her head, then leans forward. "What I was getting at, though, was whether or not these enemies of yours know about your father."

Right, that is a pretty pertinent question. And it's one you wish you'd had more time to consider. "I don't know. I'm not sure how they could." You consider it a moment longer. "No, actually, they definitely don't know. I think? One of them tried to run us off the road earlier tonight, and if they'd succeeded while he was in the car with me, I'm pretty sure the Family Taboo would have made her straight-up explode."

"They tried to run you off the road?! Ashley!"

You wave your hands, trying to calm your worked up mother. "Mom, don't worry, really. As soon as we found out just how much these assholes meant business, one of the first things I did was shield the hell out of our cars and homes. I'm pretty sure that we could have a full head-on collision and only the other car would feel it." You furrow your brow as you hear the words you're saying. Huh. "Actually, I'm pretty sure the Others do know about that. What the hell was Beatrix trying to even do?"

"Which one is she again?"

"She's the one with the gross drones who makes bullshit videos about you." Oh right! You lean forward, eyes flaring. "She's definitely the reason your project fell through! She has, like, influencer magic or something!"

Mallory lets out a tsk, brushing a silvered black lock behind her ear. "So all it takes to railroad my career is one snotty magical teen? Nice. Though I guess it worked out well in the end." She glances back towards the living room, gazing at Asher as he clutches a pillow tightly and melts in the embrace of Arcade Fire. "Still. Him coming back was almost the easy part. Do you know how difficult getting someone who's been declared dead declared alive again is?"

"Really hard?"

"Yes. Really hard."

This you have had a moment to consider. "Actually, I sort of think we should hold off on that for a bit."

Your mother does not seem on board with this particular suggestion. "I'm going to need you to explain that one to me."

"It's because of his 'accident'. It didn't happen the way we thought it did; the whole motorcycle thing was faked and--"

Mallory lets out a vehement hiss at that, fists pounding onto the table. "I knew it! I fucking knew it! There was no way he'd be on that stupid motorcycle, drunk and with no helmet doing some, some...stupid fucking stunts! Oh my God, I was so mad at him for years but I always knew there was no way. I knew it!"

Wow, she's clearly been holding that in for a long time. Still, she shouldn't start celebrating just yet. "But that's a problem, Mom. Because that means his 'accident' was staged. And someone had to have staged it."

Your mom frowns at that. "How, though? They'd have had to..." She trails off, catching up with your line of thought. "...have magic. Right?" You nod, and her frown deepens. "How, though? And why? That was almost twenty years ago. None of this had happened yet, so why target him?"

"I've got no clue. I'm going to find out, though. But whoever wanted him gone then, may very well still want him gone now. I've got no idea how big the magical world actually is. And I'm starting to suspect that we and the Others might just be, like, little kids throwing rocks at each other in the grand scheme of things. So maybe we should just keep things quiet, for the moment. Let him hide out for a bit and work his way through the record collection or something."

"Right. Good idea." Mallory gazed out towards her husband again, eyes sparkling with determined light. "I've already lost him once. I'm not going to lose him again."

Of that, you have no doubt.