A Father's Sins

Volo looked on in shock as he took in his home. His youngest son, an adult in his twenties, was bawling into his elder sister’s hold. One of his granddaughters was looking through book after book, trying to figure out how to solve the problem. Volo could only swallow as tears threatened to fall from his face. He was immortal. His family was not. He had adopted his latest three children, but his granddaughter was of his blood. His youngest son was a twin. One who was missing his other half. The elder twin was gone. Had been gone for two years. That had been hard already. Now he had lost his daughter. The young man was devastated.

Volo wanted to do something, anything, but the only thing he could think at the moment was “This is all my fault…” as he remembered from before he became immortal.

It had been over a thousand years ago. He had been young, foolish, and angry at the world. He had managed to make contact with a banished god, but the god of all creation still ignored them both. In their fit, the banished god accidentally tore a hole in the sky and two people fell through, but two years apart. Now that Volo was remembering it, he remembered the first person to fall through was a man, the elder twin. He looked so haunted when he was finally found and brought into a local clan. It wasn’t Volo’s clan, but Volo felt bad about it at the time. He knew it was his fault. He didn’t know how to fix it though. Even the banished god was ashamed. The man could only remember his name, and had a vague impression of the one who was his brother, but couldn’t remember his name… He became a warden of the Demigod of the mountains.

The second faller was a child. She was young and looked so much like the twins and Volo, but Volo, as well as the people of the time, were blind to it. The girl didn’t speak to many, but Volo was an exception despite how she shouldn’t have trusted him. Volo remembered her. She was determined. She was capable of taming the beasts around them and calmed the demi-gods that were enraged by a power surge that threatened to cause them to destroy the land. Looking back, Volo now knew it was his granddaughter, and that she had been an amazing woman despite how young she had been. She had only been 8 at the time they had met then. He left those lands shortly after she had defeated him in his own frenzy, the madness getting into him and the banished god.

She calmed them and told them her truth. The creator cared not for their own creations, including Volo and the banished one. Volo packed up his things after his frenzy was gone. He didn’t want to harm the girl anymore and he wasn’t finding a cure for the warden of the demigod of the mountains. When he came back twenty years later, after accidentally discovering he was immortal, he found the girl and the warden were gone. No one would tell him how though. Not even the banished one he had asked to watch over them. All he knew was that it was his fault they had been there in the first place, and he hoped they had somehow gotten home.

Volo looked at his two children, holding eachother, not understanding the pain he had caused them in his youth by trying to call upon the gods. He understood though, and knew this was all his fault. He gritted his teeth and stormed to the balcony of his him and roared in agony, letting the region itself know of his and his family’s pain.

“I see our mistake has caught up to us.” Volo turns to see the human avatar of the dark god, the banished one, that had been his friend all these years.

Volo has tears in his grey eyes as he looks at one of his oldest companions. “Is there anything I can do to save them? To stop this? To bring them home?”

Red eyes look him over and the banished one nods slowly. “Yes, but not alone. Take the broken one with you. The warden will recognize him the fastest and the girl needs her parent. My brothers will let me send you to after you left, but the girl’s task is not complete.”

Volo glared. “What task? What right do the gods themselves have to ask that child to go through that kind of hell? What did HE ask her to do?” Once the last of a race that praised the creator with all sorts of ritualistic means, his eyes awakened to the cold truth that the Creator cared for none, not even it’s own children.

“Her task was to document all the beasts created by HIM, but he refuses to let her return until after she defeats him.” Volo’s glare darkened as he looked at the banished one.

“He asked that of an 8 year old!?” Volo was livid. “WHY HER? WHY MY GRANDDAUGHTER?” Then Volo was exhausted of his anger and his grief returned. “Why is he punishing her? I did the wrong thing, why did she have to stop me and save everyone? Why is she still there?” He looked so broken now. “Why is my family suffering from my stupid actions?”

The banished one looked at him with a tired expression and sighed. “Though you blame yourself, she will tell you the same as she told you back then… the same as she told us… it isn’t our fault… it never was… he made the choices that led to our own.”

Volo looked at his oldest friend, tears in his grey eyes, looking like a storm. “The choice to call on you was still mine… though I’ll admit, I’d still do it. I just wouldn’t have created the rift after that…”

“Agreed.” The shadowy form of the banished god looked solemn, and sad. “When you are ready, we can attempt to go back and aid her, to fix our mistake.”

“You can’t go back to when you were…”

“But you can meet my past self… I stayed to watch over her as best as I can…”

“Do you remember…”

“What happens next?” The red eyed man smiled dangerously. “That would be telling, but let’s just say that you always did enjoy history, and now you get to make more of it.”

Volo nodded. “Then let’s get this over with.” The two went back to the other three members of the family. Time travel wasn’t unheard of if the right gods were involved. Volo was the most knowledgeable man in the region about the gods and their likes and dislikes. Just because the Creator himself didn’t want to talk to Volo, didn’t mean his children would ignore him. Now, Volo was going to make the creator listen. After all, an 8 year old girl shouldn’t be challenged to find all the beasts of a region just for the creator’s amusement. It’s not her fault… it’s his. And now? Now Volo was going to show the Creator that if he didn’t want to talk to Volo, then he shouldn’t have traumatized his family. It was his own damn fault.