Family Trait: Origin

Introduction
A few days passed since the event between both the Phantom Breaker guild and Nature Hunter, which ended up with some of the Breaker mages in serious injury as many were left in the medical wing to rest and recover. The government had grabbed whatever supplies and research information that was left behind from Sabriel abandoning the sub-division.

However, the one person who felt more pain than anything was Fiona. Since her abandonment, she had felt like all of life's purposes has flown right out the window. She didn't know what to do or what drove her anymore, all she had was an empty shell of her former self who sat in the Breaker Garden's, looking at nature and trying to find some sense of herself in it.

"Still moping around are you?" said a voice, snapping her out of her thoughts. She turned around to see the taller man who had accompanied her newfound sister to the region.

"Call it what you will, but you have no idea what it's like, I've lost my mother, my home, I have no drive for anything" Fiona said as she got up and moved away from him, not wanting anyone to try and make her feel better by belittling her.

"Oh, I don't know about that." Zumma said, walking after her. "Every one of us has lost parents in some fashion. Geno had is entire family wiped out by dark mages, Shelly's mom died right after she was born..." He paused for a moment, malling things over in his head. "And I was a damn street rat from the moment I could walk." He caught up to her and petted her on the back. "Trust me, your situation isn't that unique in our profession."

Fiona simply glared over to Zumma, hating how he could say things like that so easily. They may have had different experiences, but she had no one left to turn to other than her sister, and she didn't know if she could survive with just her. The thoughts began to cause her pain as she began crying.

"Hey, what are you doing?" came a voice from behind them both. Turning back, the two of them saw Shelly running towards them. She wrapped her arms around Fiona to comfort her, them looked up at Zumma. "You made her cry." she said puffing out her cheeks.

Rubbing the back of his head, Zumma sighed. "Sorry. Your dad's a hell of a lot better at this than I am." Shelly only pointed at the door she had came through, making Zumma laugh before complying.

Watching him leave, Shelly then moved in front of where Fiona was sitting to face her. "Hey, are you ok?" She asked concerned.

"I just...  I don't know what to do anymore, I feel as if nothing in this life is really here for me, all I ever knew was the next task that my mother wanted, without that, I am nothing" She said beginning to cry again as she felt Shelly wrap her arms around tighter.

"You don't know what to do, because you never needed to decide for yourself right?" Shelly asked. "But don't you think it would be better to follow us back to our guild instead of staying here by yourself?"

As Fiona's sobbing slowed a little Shelly remembered something. "You know, my dad once told me about how Kat came to join our guild." Sitting next to her, Shelly looked out over the gardens while explaining. "She's real strong, but doesn't enjoy hurting people at all. The village that your mom left her with tried to kill her just because she didn't want to fight." Looking back at Fiona she continued. "And as Zumma rudely put it, we all have some idea what your going through."

Fiona stopped her crying as she rubbed her eyes and looked over to Shelly. "Is that true?" She asked with a confused look on her face. In her mind, her sister seemed like she could do anything if she put her mind to it, especially since she was raised by their mother.

"Yeah." Shelly said while looking down at the ground. "Some of our mages found her and helped her recover. Our old guild master is an amazing doctor, she patched her up real good. But Kat didn't really know what to do with herself for a while." Perking up, Shelly seemed to have had an idea. "You know, you might get more information talking to her about it."

"Where is she?" Fiona asked as Shelly helped her up off the ground and rubbed her eyes while also rubbing the dirt off her knees and her butt.

"Probably in that big room at the main entrance." She Answered. Taking Fiona's hand again, the two of them began to wonder through Phantom Breaker's vast halls. Though they got lost a couple times, they eventually found there way to the guilds main hall. As they looked around for Kat, several mages glared at Fiona as they passed. Fiona felt herself grow tense as the watched her, but forgot all about it when Shelly called to Kat, who was sitting at a corner table with Geno.

"Hey guys. What're you up to?" She asked, ignoring a small circle of people forming around them a couple tables away.

"Um well..." She felt the eyes right behind her as she felt nervous, "Do you think the two of us can go somewhere and talk privately?" Fiona asked looking to Kat.

Glancing between Kat and Fiona, Geno stood up and walked towards the crowd. "Hey, you lot. I'm up for a bit of sparing, and I want to see which guild packs more punch. Who's with me?" he asked slamming his fists together. Several forgot about Fiona and jeered and Geno's challenge, following him as he marched outside. As one of the last to leave, Shelly turned and winked at Fiona, then the room was empty.

Laughing a bit to herself ,Kat pushed out a chair for Fiona and said. "So what did you want to talk about sis?"

She looked over to Shelly, nervous about asking, but Shelly simply smiled and hugged her before leaving the duo alone to speak, "Shelly told me that when you went to her guild, you didn't want to kill anyone at first, but I don't understand that since Mother often made Me kill anything." Fiona asked closing her eyes as she waited for her sister to do something to her.

"Did she now?" Kat said, with a tired look on her face, though it was hard to tell if she meant Shelly or Sabriel. "Well if it makes you feel better, things where different back then. But I doubt our situations would be different had we made a different choice."

"How different?" She asked as her curiosity peaked, she wanted to hear how her older sister and her mother acted together before she was born.

"She only started her 'science' thing after doing a mission for our village." Kat said looking up at the ceiling. "Before that, she was much more..." She took a moment to find the words. "Human." As Fiona listened intently, Kat continued. "It was probably around 25 years ago."

Flashback 25 years 

Snow fell outside a stone hut at dusk. Visibility was steadily declining as the sun diapered over the horizon, casting less and less light over he mountain top the hut was located on. Lights from inside the hut lit up the surroundings as a small hooded figure trudged through the snow. Snow blew inside the hut as she opened a door on the front and entered, quickly closing it behind her to keep out as much snow as possible.

A young Kat took off her hood, and dug through her pockets to retrieve what looked like a small bird made of paper, decorated with small flowers and other childish things. "Hey Mom, Dad. Looky what I made." she said, holding it up proudly to a man and a woman sitting at a small stone table.

"Oh wow, this is incredible sweetie" A younger Sabriel said with a kind smile on her face as she placed on top of one of the mantles, next to a portrait of Kat when she was a baby along with her and her husband. "So how was training today?" She asked looking back at Kat who took off her cloak and went to sit by the fire.

"It was awesome." Kat said, warming her hands by the fire. "We're learning to climb later, so we might be going down the mountain." Both her parents laughed a bit before Kat turned around to face them. "Hey Dad, do they really have groups of mages down there? My teacher called them Guilds or something." She asked.

"Oh yes. There's loads of them all over Earthland." Her father answered. "Some have gotten quite famous for there actions." he said, though looking back at Kat, he saw that she was rocking back and forth as she sat, half asleep from the long day's training.

"Well, it seems training really did a number on you didn't it?" Sabriel said as Kat rubbed her eyes, trying the best she could to stay up, "Come on, let's set you in for a nice nap and you can eat when you wake up, I made your favorite too" Sabriel said lifting her up as she smiled sleepily, lying down on top of Sabriel's breast like a pillow, something she often did as a baby.

After entering Kat's room, Kat rolled out of her mothers arms and onto a bed. "Hey mom. Are you going somewhere tomorrow?" Kat asked curiously as she wrapped herself in a blanket.

"Yes, tomorrow the village wanted me to help out with some evacuation in their neighboring tribes, since I know more about when and where it would actually hit, they want me to make sure there aren't any surprises, but don't worry" She said with a smile kissing her daughter on the forehead, "I shouldn't be gone too long, plus you can spend some time with daddy" Sabriel told Kat with a kind smile on her face.

"Yeah ok." Kat said yawning. As Sabriel got up to leave, she could hear Kat snoring before she had even left the room.