Chapter 57: 56. Discussed

"Hello sweetheart," dad smiled as he pulled me into a hug. "Great to see you again. Happy thanksgiving!"

I smiled as I hugged him back, "Hi dad. It's great to see you too!"

After a few seconds we let go and I stepped back.

Dad grinned at my two companions, "Hello Kelly, nice to see you." He gave her a quick hug, then did the same for her sister, "You too Keira."

I honestly had no idea how he could tell them apart. It was one thing for me, I lived with them. I knew all their little quirks and all the little tells. But since they started wearing their hair the same style and length, there was really no way for most people to know which was which. Somehow though, dad always knew.

"Happy thanksgiving Mr. Vale," Kelly smiled as she gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Keira nodded, "Hello again sir."

"Hey," he said to them both in a relaxed voice. "Call me Erik. None of that sir or mister Vale business."

Both redheads smiled and thanked him, and I was already feeling pretty relaxed now too. The difference in my parents' attitudes was almost alarming. Dad was relaxed, he put people at ease. He didn't treat me any different now than he did three years ago.

I mean, I knew he was disappointed in me but only because he told me that. He didn't let it colour how he treated me though, he didn't act like a dick around me or my friends. Mom was the opposite. She was rarely direct and up-front with you, everything was guesswork and trying to decipher what her different attitudes might mean.

And I hated thinking about her like that. I hated that she'd made interacting with her such hard work. I felt like talking with your folks wasn't supposed to be a labour-intensive activity.

Dad took all our coats and hung them up in the hall closet as the four of us stood around in the front hall. Mom had put up some festive autumnal decorations as usual, and the whole place had the smell of roasting turkey.

"Hey dad, where's mom?" I realized she hadn't come to greet us when we arrived.

"In the kitchen, where else?" dad rolled his eyes. "You three young ladies are welcome to join me in the den. I'll turn off the TV and we can catch up over some drinks." He added after a moment, "But I'll understand if you all want to congregate in the kitchen again like you did last Easter."

Kelly suggested, "Me and Keira will go see how Mrs. Vale is doing, see if she needs a hand with anything. Tegan why don't you relax for now and visit with your dad?"

"Ok," I smiled. "Thanks Kelly."

The twins headed off together for the kitchen, and dad led me into the den.

While I sat down on the sofa he went over to the little bar and mini-fridge and asked, "Have you finally grown up enough to start drinking yet? Or are you sticking with soda and juice?"

I rolled my eyes, "Cola for me please dad."

He was teasing of course. Those sorts of comments always felt like friendly, fatherly jokes when they came from him. There was never any undertone of anger or jealousy in his voice.

Dad opened a can of cola and poured it into a glass for me, and got himself a glass of white wine. Then he sat down next to me on his beat-up old recliner. As he got settled in he grabbed the remote and turned off the TV.

We sat together in silence for a few moments, just sipping our drinks. When he finally spoke, he kept his voice soft and quiet. "So Tegan. Your mother told me you made her quite a remarkable offer when the two of you met for lunch recently. Was that serious? You could do that, and you were offering?"

I shrugged, "I can do it, for real. Same with arranging new ID and stuff, that's all real. Was I seriously offering?" I shrugged again, "I don't know. I'd do it if you two asked. I wouldn't mention it then refuse, that'd be a dick move."

He had a sip of his wine, then asked "If you weren't serious, then why would you bring that up with her?"

This time I sighed. "I was getting tired of her attitude. I'm sorry dad, I know that sounds terrible. It just feels like over the past year or two she's gotten kind of resentful or something? I don't know. My leg was killing me again that day, and she didn't even bother saying hello, she just started picking on me about it. I mean, I'm already sensitive about it and it's bad enough I was in pain, but she had to go digging and poking and probing to make it worse."

I sighed again and added, "Sorry. I got a bit carried away there again."

Dad shook his head "It's ok Tegan. I understand what you're saying."

We were both quiet again for a minute or so, just sipping our drinks. Then he commented, "I assume your girlfriend meant to give the two of us some time to talk in private."

I smiled slightly. Dad was a lot more observant that we sometimes gave him credit for.

"Yeah. She and Keira are going to keep mom busy till we let them know we're done talking."

He gave me a brief smile back, then became serious again. "So tell me about this magic that you mentioned to your mom." He quickly added, "I'm not saying either of us are going to take you up on it. I'm curious though, I want to hear what sort of amazing powers my daughter's actually got."

I knew he was trying to make light of it, but I had a feeling he was maybe a little scared. Or at least, he was wary. I took a deep breath then explained. "Most transformation spells are temporary. They only last as long as there's magic actively holding them in place. There's a few spells though that are permanent. I've learned them, and I'm strong enough to cast them."

After another sip of my cola I continued, "The magic basically rebuilds a person's body into whatever I want. The spell can change as much or as little as I like. It could be as simple as rolling the clock back a few decades but everything else remains the same. Could be as much as, well, everything. Height, hair colour, eye colour, build, literally any physical attribute at all. When the spell's over, it's over and however the person winds up is forever. Or like, I could do another spell to change things again. But I mean, forever as in it won't wear off."

I sipped my drink again and added quietly, "If that sounds terrifying, it's because it is. Most fae with that kind of power use it badly. Especially the ones who hang out on Earth. But the spell itself is just a tool."

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Dad was silent for a few moments, and drained the last of his wine.

Finally he asked in a soft voice, "If your mother wanted you to use it, so she could be like you, have a long life-"

"I can't do that," I interrupted. "The spell I'm talking about can't change a person's species or whatever you call it. A human's always going to be a human. There's other magic that can change people into...other things. But that's not permanent, it'll always wear off."

I wasn't going to tell my parents that I knew how to break those other spells and make them permanent, and that I was hoping to make that offer to the twins. My justification was Kelly and Keira were already part fae. I wouldn't be changing their nature, I wouldn't be making them fae. I'd be enhancing and expanding the fae that was already part of them. I knew it was probably a big blurry grey area, and maybe the whole thing was a bad idea all around. But I'd already told mom, and my mind was made up to talk with Maeve about the twins. I just hoped this wasn't going to wind up costing me every relationship I had.

"You mentioned there's some temporary magic too. So for the sake of argument, if your mother wanted to try it out first on a short term, you could do that? Without any consequences or long-term side-effects?"

I nodded, "Yeah. The temporary stuff is just that. It wears off on its own, or I can dispell it any time. No consequences, no side-effects."

"Hmm," he nodded thoughtfully.

We were both quiet for a few more minutes. This time I broke the silence, "Do you think mom's actually considering it?"

He shrugged, "I can't say, hon. I suppose she might be, since she told me about it."

I narrowed my eyes at him, "What about you dad?"

Honestly, I thought he was going to laugh and tell me I was crazy to even ask that. Instead he got a slightly wistful look in his eyes. He shrugged slightly, "There's some things I wouldn't mind changing about my life. Getting to do some things over again, but differently... There's a certain appeal to that."

That actually caught me off-guard. I wasn't sure how to respond, but I was suddenly intensely curious to know what my dad would want to change about his life.

I didn't get the chance to ask though, as he gave me a friendly smile and suggested "How about we go see what your mom and the twins are up to? Before your mother accuses us of being lazy while the three of them do all the work."

"Ok dad," I smiled back.

He poured himself another glass of wine first, I still had half my cola to go. Then the two of us wandered into the kitchen. There we found the other three sitting at the kitchen table with a bottle of wine between them, half-empty glasses in hand.

"Aha," dad laughed. "I see we caught you three hard at work!"

"Quiet you," mom scolded him. "You waited till we took a two-minute break."

Dad motioned for me to take the last seat, while he stood leaning against the counter. I sat down next to mom, Kelly and Keira were on the other side of the table.

He looked towards the oven and asked, "How much longer till the food's ready?"

Mom rolled her eyes, "Typical. He spends all afternoon watching TV, then wanders in here and wants to know where his supper's at."

I honestly couldn't tell if mom was joking or not. She never put enough humour in her voice to make it clear, and her tone almost always had that slight bite to it that made it possible she was actually complaining.

Dad just chuckled though and had a sip of his wine. His tone was calm and joking as he replied, "Now now Laura. Let's keep friendly, we've got guests over."

That was pretty much the tone for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Dad was friendly, laid-back, and when he teased you always knew he was joking. Mom was uptight, and you could never be quite sure if she was teasing or actually being hurtful. Still, we managed to get through thanksgiving dinner without any raised voices or arguments.

There wasn't any more talk on the subject of magic, or anything else fae-related really. Dad talked about his plan to take early retirement in December, Kelly and Keira talked about their studies. I didn't have much to say, other than that I was doing daily exercises for my leg and was thinking of getting a treadmill so I could walk indoors over the winter. And mom didn't have much to say at all really, apart from commenting on what everyone else was up to.

Eventually me and Kelly and Keira helped clean up and do the dishes, then we escaped.

"I like your dad," Keira commented from the back seat as the three of us drove home. "He seems pretty cool."

I was driving since both Kelly and Keira had a few drinks over dinner. I nodded, "Yeah he's been really good about everything, to be honest. Once he got over the shock and stuff, he's been really accepting and laid-back about all the craziness in my life."

Kelly commented, "Your mom used to be like that too."

"Yeah," I sighed. "I know she's disappointed in me for dropping out of school and stuff. And I'm starting to think she might be jealous, too."

Kelly gave me a slightly worried look. "Do you think she'll take you up on...?"

"No idea," I shrugged. "Though I think my dad's actually interested too. I really wasn't expecting that."

"Huh," she said, with a slight frown.

Which pretty much summed up how I felt about it as well.

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