Finding Contentus

Chapter 90: Cold Responsibility

Ever since Kakara's arrival, the dreams had become stronger. Of Gabrielle's time with them, his new family. Kakara's relatives.

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He dreamed of the time he nearly froze to death, to being warmed to life when he awoke to find himself in a strange aquatic province. Fountain, when he was nine years of age, approaching ten. In just one day, his normal life had ended, ripped away from him in a heartbeat, with the same heart that was beaten, beating down on his family of starred songs.

Gabrielle often questioned why his Angel Gabriel, who he prayed to, sent a message to God to spare him. Why Gabriel? Gabrielle would ask. Why ask God to let him live? For what purpose? Why punish his family when it was he and his unstable element that was guilty? Why...

But for some reason, a sense of responsibility would roll over him in waves, the guilt that only a survivor could harbor. A guilt that defined his existence and beliefs, a guilt that made him never want to kill again, directly or indirectly.

Even, and especially when others didn't see things the same way, like Patris and Dominique.

Patris was a tall and well-built woman with copper skin and grey hair. Her daughter Dominique was the same, except she had yellow-brown skin and brown hair, styled in a ponytail. Her father, Karmin, was a kind Fosho man with yellow-brown skin, brown eyes and short brown hair. His name meant "Song", for that is why Patris chose to conquer him when she left Kimba and her clan many years ago.

In her mind, the Ce conquête clan's numbers were diminishing at a rapid rate and she wasn't satisfied with life in the supreme winter land.

She knew she could never hope to challenge her younger relative Maxis, although she was his senior, she was no fool. She felt great potential in the boy, the greatest she had ever felt, the greatest humanity would ever feel once he became a man. So, she let little Maxis grow to become the strongest human to ever live. It made her proud, envious, but proud.

As for her, well, she wanted something to call her own, something new, so she left Kimba and found Karmin in Fountain. She immediately forced herself upon him and made him stay to be a father to their child. Not that he could leave even if he wanted to.

Gabrielle got along the most with Karmin since they both loved singing. Aside from being a fellow Frenchie, it was the reason why Patris even adopted Gabrielle in the first place when she rescued him. Singing pleased her greatly. She would make Gabrielle sing whenever she trained Dominique, which of course meant whenever she rendered her daughter to a state near death.

Karmin was like a helpless bystander in the family. All he could do was sing and heal, sing and heal, sing and heal, and so, as his new son, Gabrielle developed the same power as Karmin's favorite child over his own daughter.

Often, Patris made Gabrielle heal Dominique after each training session. Dominique always looked so... it tore Gabrielle's heart apart each time. Her swollen bruises, the stab wounds from her body, the feeling of warm, dense blood seeping out of her...

And this — is what made Dominique hate Gabrielle.

"Don't touch me." Those words were always said with nothing but cold hatred. They were always said with angry tears in her eyes, and they were always said with the voice of a broken victim.

"At least let me—"

"Stay away from me you thief!" Her voice would break even more, freezing Gabrielle on the spot. She would rather be healed by her father, until Patris would loom over them both with a forbidding expression.

"Heal her," she would command, and they would both fall silent. Patris watched Gabrielle heal Dominique.

"Dom, are you crying?" Patris would narrow her eyes at her daughter, her voice was like a cold blade.