Theora released an exhale she didn't know she had been holding in. Knowing her father hadn't been the one trying to harm her mom was a bigger relief than the surprise that her existence was the reason her mom had fled...
"I mean it, Theora," King Lucius insisted, visibly mistaking her silence for doubt. "Your father is a good man. He spent even longer than I did looking for Astoria, blaming himself for her disappearance-"
"So she did leave because of him", Theora whipped her head back to the King.
King Lucius opened his mouth, and then closed it, clearly looking for his words.
"It was not his fault," he finally said. "Your father isn't responsible for why your mom left."
"But it did have something to do with him," Theora frowned. "With me."
"Theora, things are a lot more complic
