A Jaded Life

Chapter 1324

“Lia, we need to talk,” I quietly told my daughter when we had a bit of time to ourselves, as Luna was outside, working on the fields she was preparing for the locals.

“Oh?” Lia perked up, looking at me with curiosity, “What’s going on?” she asked, her curiosity turning to worry as she noticed the serious expression on my face.

“A while back, we talked about the bond, or rather, the leash, tying us together, do you remember?” I asked, to which she immediately nodded, indicating that she remembered.

“Now, as I told you earlier, the Mother, as in, the divine being a part of me is currently ascending to,” I paused, parsing that statement for a moment and marvelling at the strange world we were living in to make that statement factual, “Well, the Mother could take over the bond we share. I would still be your mother, just as I’m Luna’s mother, but I believe you would gain a lot of independence, as the Mother can effectively be everywhere. Or maybe everywhere she has faithful, I’m actually not sure how that would work.” I explained, doing my best to convey the advantages it would give her, even though I didn’t want to give up that bond. Not because I wanted Lia to remain leashed, but because I wanted our bond and relationship to stay the way they were.

“What would that change?” she asked, sounding apprehensive, curious and a little excited, all at the same time.

“I’m honestly uncertain,” I admitted, knowing that I had to be completely honest here, as any decision made on the information I conveyed here could permanently alter Lia on a fundamental level. “We can first note down what the bond currently means, though we obviously can’t be certain how much of that would go away if the bond were shifted,” I frowned, thinking about the current state of affairs.

“We know that you gain a large amount of Astral Power when draining power from me, or when I imbue Blood with it. I’m uncertain if that would remain the case; you probably know better how much power you gained when draining power from other people, compared to the power you gained from me, right?” I asked, doing my best to keep things objective.

“Well, I get the most when you give me blood, but whether that’s because I get more from you or because you are simply the strongest being I have ever drained blood from, I don’t know,” Lia started lightly gnawing on her lips, her fangs occasionally visible between her lips, “We might have to experiment, maybe Luna would be willing to donate a bit of blood so we can have a few tests,” she muttrered, her voice pensive. “Though I know you deliberately imbue the blood I drain with Astral Power, that’s something you can do with your Blood Magic, right?” she asked, nodding to herself, “So we would need a control to make sure that any discovered difference isn’t because of your Blood Magic but due to the bond.”

I couldn’t help but smile at Lia’s scientific mindset, already trying to set up decent controls and parameters for any experiment, instead of just bullheadedly rushing forward.

“We’d have to be rather careful with any Blood Mages. There’s a reason Blood Magic is considered innately dangerous, and it’s not just because the Gods want to retain a monopoly on Healing Magic,” I warned her, causing her to raise an eyebrow in question.

“You know that bond we are talking about?” I asked, getting a nod and a frown in response, “That bond is based on Blood Magic. It’s especially strong on you, because you literally rely on the imbibed blood to live, but it would work on anyone, though it would take some special preparations, maybe a blood transfusion or something,” I paused, considering how I would forge such a binding on another person before shaking my head, as it didn’t matter too much at the moment. I had other ways to bind a person, though anchoring such bindings with Blood Magic, possibly blood runes carved into their flesh, would make breaking them quite difficult.

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“Another reason is that Blood Magic, just like Life Magic in general, can create some rather nasty plagues and diseases. Not something you want to use carelessly. The secondary effects can be much greater than anyone can reasonably anticipate,” I explained, noticing a faint expression of discomfort on Lia’s face.

“If anyone else were to bind me,” she began, sounding worried, “Would you notice? Could you break it?” she asked, her shoulders a little hunched.

“Depends,” I replied, doing my best to be completely honest with her, “Bindings are complicated; they can be made in a variety of ways. The bond, the binding, between us is incredibly strong, mostly because I used my very magic to, for lack of a better word, glue together your Shattered soul, fundamentally changing and remaking you. To break the bond, instead of transferring it, we would have to undo that process, shattering your very soul. I have no idea what consequences such an act would have, but I’m confident it would be incredibly traumatic,” I explained, noticing that her discomfort was even stronger now.

“But simple bindings, maybe something just based in blood, or maybe purely forged with Mind Magic? Fairly certain I could undo such a binding without causing additional trauma, though it obviously depends on the power involved, the exact nature of the binding, if it was created with your consent and probably a dozen other factors,” I shrugged, knowing that this probably wasn’t the answer she was looking for. Her expression certainly said that she didn’t like this one bit.

“Can we shelve the idea of transferring the bond?” Lia asked after the conversation had meandered through a few more potential benefits and drawbacks of the current bond. “From my perspective, the biggest drawback is that I’ve got to remain near you to stay healthy,” she explained, her voice a little uncertain in the beginning, but quickly gaining confidence, “If I leave you for too long, I’ll get depressed or something. Maybe, I mean, we didn’t exactly test that; it just happened after I remained in the tower, while you and Luna moved on. But whether I got depressed because I missed my family, or because the bond made me depressed, we don’t know. And I have no interest in testing it, thank you very much,” she shrugged, before continuing. I could have interjected, but I felt it would be better to simply let her speak while I listened.

“As you might imagine, I don’t have a real interest in separating from you. I’ve been trying to learn how to travel through the shadows at the ranges you do, though I’m still working on it. If I managed to learn that, the whole ‘I have to stay with you’ thing becomes completely irrelevant. We could just make a standing appointment for dinner every Sunday at the Nexus tower or something, and I could travel the world as I pleased, hopping back home every Sunday and going back out Monday.” She grinned at the idea, a grin I had to return as it sounded like an amusing idea.

“And, yeah, I might be compelled to obey you. But you are my mom, I’d listen to you anyway. Mostly because you are smart and have more experience, so listening is generally a good idea. Not sure if that’s such a compulsion either, it’s hard to tell from the inside,” she shrugged once more.

“So, I’d rather have the bond and the security it brings me, knowing that I’m part of your family and will always be part of your family, no matter what. That’s important, the rest doesn’t matter too much,” she finished, and I noticed that her large, carnelian eyes were just a little wet and shiny.

“You’d always be my daughter, even without the bond. Never think that you wouldn’t be my daughter, just because I’m no longer holding you on a leash,” I tried to assure her, while also pulling her in a hug.

“And that’s why the binding doesn’t matter. I’d rather not experiment with it; I don’t mind that it exists. But if we transfer it, and something goes wrong…” her voice petered off, clearly uncomfortable with the idea. “We have no idea what might happen,” she added, her voice barely a whisper as her arms wrapped around me.

“Yeah, I admit that I had some worries about that, too. But I didn’t want to limit you, so I didn’t voice them,” I admitted, feeling her arms squeeze me a little harder.

“I’d rather be a little limited by you than be completely on my own. Family goes both ways, mom, don’t forget that,” she reminded me, causing me to crack a small smile and nod against her head. Family, it was such a wonderful concept. I couldn’t wait to have Sigmir back and add her to this little family of mine.