[Flashback] Daddy Issues (solo)

[Harper]

46 of Spring, 507 AV Harper grasped onto the doorknob of her house, preparing to enter. Her heart was pounding and she was scared to face her father. He always knew when she had done something wrong. She didn't know how, but he did. She had been missing all day; she left early in the morning, a few chimes just before Syna rose to the sky to beam her radiance for all of Mizahar to see. She had gone straight to the docks, where she could be alone among the busy sailors and ships. For the whole day, she sat on the side of a dock and she leeched Djed from everywhere around her. It wasn't much, for the area did not contain much. But she could feel the Djed slowly pouring into her. She could feel the life-force of things around her -- or she thought she could. She wasn't sure if it was all in her head or not. But she knew that she was absorbing Djed. She had read countless books on the subject, and had been practicing the technique for months, sapping small amounts of Djed here and there. She found that the effects that all of the literature warned her about were not that great; she barely felt light-headed. But she didn't want to take too many chances, so she would expel the gained Djed soon after she would absorb a fair amount, opening a portal to the Void in the middle of the water in front of her. She found it amusing to do so, watching the water fall and pour into the portal. It was an odd sight, one she wasn't used to seeing. But she had made a habit of doing it, often stopping to do so whenever she passed the waterside. So after a full day of absorbing small amounts of Djed, she knew her father would realize. So she prepared herself for his rants and speeches that he would give her; she could only imagine what he'd say. "Harper, I've told you how dangerous it is!" "Harper, it's a disgrace to all wizards and practitioners of magic!" "You'll end up killing yourself if you do this for too long!" Harper sighed inwardly, already annoyed by his words that were not yet spoken. So after she gathered her courage, she turned the doorknob, ready to face her father.

[Harper]

"Where the hell have you been, Harper?" Her father asked right as she stepped into the door of their relatively small home. Harper remained calm, as she had planned, careful not to let her emotions get the best of her. "I've just been at the docks all day, Pim." Pim was the name she had called her dad ever since she was little. "You know how I love the docks. They're calming." She gave him a small smile. Just let it go, please, just let it go! "Don't you dare try to lie to me, Harper. I know exactly what you've been doing. Leeching. How dare you!" Her father looked at her with nothing but furry in his eyes, his long shaggy hair falling into is face as he shook. His thin frame seemed to grow, vibrate, with anger. It was a scary sight, truth be told; Harper had never seen her father this angry before. "How do you even know that? I've never even--" She stopped in mid-sentence. She realized right then how he knew exactly what she was doing. "Auristics. So that's it, huh?" Harper scoffed at her father. How could she not have realized it sooner? Of course that was it. He could see the damage to her Aura, even if it was small. He could see exactly what she had been doing all day, because it was staining her very soul. "I do what I must to protect you, and if that means spying on your Aura, then I will. Now Harper, I know that you think what you're doing is smart, and that it won't affect you in the long run, but you're wrong. You're poisoning yourself, and--" "Save your lectures for someone who needs them. I know everything you're going to say because you've been drilling it into my head for my whole life. But you're wrong. I'm going to be a better wizard than you ever could be, and I won't let you hold me back." Harper couldn't believe she was saying all of this. She had never spoken to her father this way. "Harper, what you are practicing is sick. It's a disgrace to wizards everywhere and a disgrace to this family. And I'm ashamed to call you my daughter. I taught you better." Harper's father slowly made his way to Harper as he spoke. Finally, when he finished, he slapped her in the face, saying nothing else. He looked at her with a stern expression filled with shame and anger. Harper was shocked by what had just happened. It took her a moment to process what had happened, and when she did, extreme rage filled her."How dare you!" She screamed as she grabbed on to his hands and squeezed as tightly as she could. She looked at him straight in the face, painted with an expression of pure hatred and anger, and focused on her father's Djed. She recalled what the books said, how they spoke of sapping the life force straight from the target. Harper slowly began to sap her father's Djed, and smiled wildly. "Get off of me!" Her father cried and shoved her off of him. Harper hadn't managed to sap much from him, but it was enough to speed up the process of her Voidng. She began to chant, "Long live the king, for the king is dead, long cried the child, for she had not been fed." It was the chant that she had used to focus on while she opened portals to the Void. The saying was basically nonsense, but it helped her nonetheless. It took a matter of 20 seconds for her to open the portal, seemingly unnoticed by her father as he screamed at her even more, preaching on the immorality of her actions. Harper only ignored his words, chanting faster and faster under her breath, almost too low for the human ear to hear. Finally, the portal was opened, and it was large enough. When Harper had had enough, she finally spoke. "You were always a good father to me. Almost always." Then she lunged herself at him, letting out something resembling a war-cry and pushed her father as hard as she could and watched as he stumbled backwards into the portal, entering the Void. Harper could no longer hear his screams. She panted heavily as she let the portal close slowly, watching as her father disappeared forever from her life.