Fate's Gambit: A Half-Blood's Odyssey

Chapter XIV: The Aftermath

It takes a few days to get my cut, which went 50/50 between me and Allura, making me 800,450 Novas richer. By then, I had already forgotten about what Overseer Roxanne had said about the ceremony, so I make it a point later to go ask Allura about it. Since Penelope kept pulling me in for work, it set me back a couple of days. When I get down to Allura's lair, it's vacant. It's not empty or anything as if she'd moved out, but the lights aren't on and I can tell she's not here.

"Hello, friend!" Theo squeaks.

I scoop up Theo with cupped hands. "Hey, little cutie. Do you know where Allura is?"

"Mommy go visit her mommy for a little. Theo misses mommy. Can you take Theo to mommy?" Theo squeaks.

"I'd love to, but I don't remember where Felicity lives."

"Theo remembers!" He scurries up my arm to his usual place on my shoulder. "This way!" His tail points in the direction I need to go.

I vaguely remember this path from when Allura and I passed through to rob what we didn't yet realize was her mom's house.

"Up!" Theo stands on his hind legs.

There's a ladder here. I have very mixed emotions about climbing out of a sewer in broad daylight, so when I get to the top, I move the cover enough for Theo to squeeze out and look around.

"No one here!" He confirms.

I climb out all the way and brush myself off. I never got a good glimpse of Felicity's house, so I'm not sure which one is hers. I look like an idiot standing around aimlessly in the middle of the road. Theo sniffs the ground and skitters over to one of the houses across the street. I pick him up when he reaches the door and set him on my shoulder. I ring the doorbell and pray this is the right home.

"Oh my goodness! Hello, dear!" Felicity squeals when she answers the door.

"Hello, Felicity," I fight the urge to pat her on her adorable head. She's just so small. "Is Allura here? There's something I've been meaning to tell her."

"Yes, yes, she came by a few days ago and is now helping me bake some cookies," The way Felicity has to look up to make eye contact with me is the cutest thing in the world.

"Who's at the door, mom?" Allura asks as she approaches the door. Her eyes meet mine. "Hey, Fruitcake."

"Isn't this nice, Luri? Your girlfriend came all the way out here to find you." Felicity smiles.

"About that," Luri-- Allura starts. "Kaela is actually just a good friend of mine."

"I'm sorry to hear about the breakup," Felicity's smile turns to a worried frown. I can see where Allura gets her simplicity from.

"Mom, no, we were never dating," Allura sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Ah, well, you're still more than welcome to call me mom if you'd like, dear," Felicity tells me and smiles again, her tail wagging behind her.

Theo jumps from my shoulder to Allura's head. "Hi, mommy!"

Felicity's ears twitch and she turns to look at Theo. "Well, aren't you an adorable little fellow? What's your name?" She reaches her hand out.

"Theodore Alvin Poseidon Simon Emerson III, but mommy calls me Theo for short!" Theo sniffs Felicity's outstretched hand.

"The third?" I raise an eyebrow, recalling that Theo was the first mouse Allura had found after running away from home.

"Eh, it's just a title I added on for fun," Allura waves it off. "Anyway, come on in. You can help me decorate the cookies soon."

Once inside, I tell Allura about Overseer Roxanne's plans for a ceremony dedicated to us for successfully making it back from the biggest targets in Ironhaven. She expresses disinterest in the event, which genuinely surprised me.

"I'm not much for public events, I prefer to stay hidden wherever and just watch," She says as she puts on oven mitts and removes the tray of cookies from the oven. "Take all the credit for all I care, I'm just happy with the buttload of money I got and the cool new stuff I have to decorate my home with."

Well, that settles that part. What I want to know next is why she's here.

"So what made you want to stay here for a bit?" I try not to laugh as she struggles to take off the oven mitts.

"What, is it so bad to want to visit my mom?" She comes to sit down next to me at the table and speaks in a low voice. "In reality though, I went through a lot at the mansion. Those first guards you killed had harassed and molested me before they started beating me, and then there was the standoff before MP showed up." Allura looks over at Felicity, who is currently engaged in a cowboy show on TV, then back at me. "Being so close to death like that made me realize I needed to be in my mom's life more. There's over a year's worth of time that I need to make up for. I'm still not gonna move in here or anything, but I'll be spending a lot more time here now."

What Allura said makes me think about my parents. I have over five years to make up for.

"I think it's great that you're doing this," I place a hand on Allura's. "I'm sure your mom appreciates it."

Allura doesn't say anything. She stares down at the table, deep in thought about something.

"I've been doing a lot of thinking lately," Talking catches Allura's attention. "I've decided that I want to quit being a thief."

There's silence. She just looks at me with a blank expression on her face before looking back down at the table. "Yeah, me too."

I'm shocked again.

She continues. "Mom needs me and I need her. When I told her about everything that happened that night, she broke down in tears. It had been so long since I'd seen my mom cry like that. It brought her back memories of how helpless and scared she was when she couldn't protect me from my father. I can't let her go through that again, Kaela, I just can't." Allura speaks dismally, having gone through much worse than I did that night.

I respect that and I respect her for having the strength to tell her mom.

"That night was so heavy on me, I couldn't even sleep," Allura mentions. "And when I finally did go to sleep, I had the worst nightmares. Much worse than the ones I had when my father was alive."

Come to think of it, I did spend a few hours lying awake that night too. I couldn't believe I was still alive. Everything had looked dark and I was prepared to die, but I didn't. Lying in bed, I was afraid that I really did die and that everything I was seeing was just whatever spiritual forces filling in the blanks for me.

When I ask her about the nightmares, she refuses to go into detail. Noticing how clearly distressed she was, I considered changing the subject, but I didn't want it to seem as if I wasn't interested in what she had to say so I just didn't continue the conversation at all. I sat around in silence for a while, listening to the cowboys on the TV shoot bad guys, until Allura spoke again.

Her ears perked up. "The cookies should be done cooling off by now. Wanna help me decorate them?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, sure," I nod.

"Mom, the cookies are finished cooling!" She calls to Felicity whose attention immediately breaks away from the TV.

So for the afternoon, I decorated cookies with Allura and Felicity. We painted hearts and smiley faces, among other things, with the icing. I drew KR + CS, mine and Cota's initials, in a heart on a cookie. She loves corny gestures like that. On another cookie, I wrote KR + AE on a blue background. Then I wrote Best Friends on a different cookie.