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An actual embrace.
A father hugging his daughter. Hugging her tight.
Hugging her because she needed the hug.
His eyes closed, his face a mess of gratitude and regret and happiness.
Everything was going to be okay.
Given enough time, it usually was.
I watched the snow fall gently about the two of them, the serenity of it striking me deep in the gut.
This was what I’d always wanted for the two of them. What they had needed in each other. Unconditional acceptance—both ways.
We were still in the middle of the labyrinth, sure, and still had to escape it. But I felt like we already had.
Socrates once described a labyrinth as a place where you are seeking a finish, the truth. But the way to that end inevitably bends and twists around to confuse. Provided you are not devoured in the midpoint, where you think you have all the answers, you twist and turn back to the beginning, where you find yourself just as far from that which you were seeking at the first.
When I first set foot into Netherstone, into this maze of Damen’s world, I’d been seeking revenge.
That thought had been devoured long ago.
And I’d ended up where I’d started. I’d been seeking one thing, only to be delivered back to the beginning to reassess what I really desired.
It was exactly what was in front of me.
Family. Love. Faith. Deliverance.
All things I’d thought I had lost long ago. Far away from my original intentions, but exactly what I had always needed.
