Chapter 160: The Unfolding Truth XL

Third Person POV

"That is all we can realistically do for now. We just have to put our faith in the hope that this plan actually works. That everything goes exactly the way we need it to go."

Helen gave a faint nod.

Her grey eyes were glossy and wet again under the firelight, but she actively held the tears back, refusing to let them spill over her eyelashes this time.

Sonita stood in the quiet for a moment, her gaze dropping to her own boots before she looked back up at Helen.

"I just wanted to say something to you," she murmured, her voice dropping so low it was barely audible over the crackling wood.

Helen looked up, meeting her eyes.

"I have missed you," Sonita said quietly.

The simple words seemed to hang heavily in the warm air between them, filling the small space with years of unspoken grief and regret.

"Despite how incredibly angry I was with you," Sonita continued, her voice trembling slightly as she stepped away from the wall and walked closer to the bed.

"Despite every single fight we ever had... I still missed you. Every single day that passed. I constantly thought about where you were. I wondered if you were doing okay out there in the world. If you were actually eating enough. If you were truly happy with the life you chose."

The dam broke, and Helen’s tears finally spilled over her lids, running freely down her face.

"I missed you too," she whispered through a thick, clogged throat.

Sonita reached her arms out, and without another word, Helen threw herself forward off the edge of the mattress.

They collided in a tight, desperate embrace, their arms wrapping securely around each other’s shoulders.

They held on with a ferocious intensity, squeezing as if they could physically make up for the six long years they had spent apart in the dark.

The fire popped behind them, casting their joined shadows high across the ceiling.

When they finally pulled back to arm’s length, both of them were wiping at their wet cheeks.

Their eyes were red and puffy, but small, genuine smiles were breaking through the sadness on both of their faces.

Helen wiped the back of her hand across her nose, letting out a wet sniffle as she tried to compose herself.

"That little boy... the one who was running around in here before... who exactly is he?"

Sonita’s entire face instantly softened, a warm, bright light filling her dark eyes.

"That is my son. His name is Torin."

Helen’s smile grew a little wider, a genuine warmth touching her chest.

"He is absolutely beautiful, Sonita. He looks so much like you."

Sonita let out a soft, amused laugh, shaking her head.

"Please do not ever tell him that to his face. He already has an incredibly big head as it is."

Before Helen could respond, the heavy iron latch on the cottage door clicked loudly, and the oak door swung wide open.

A man stepped into the warm room.

He was quite tall, with a broad set of shoulders and a thick mane of sandy blonde hair that caught the light from the hearth.

His eyes were a warm, inviting hazel color... completely different from the bright blue of Sonita’s or the pale, ghostly grey of Helen’s.

His face carried a natural kindness that made the small room feel instantly safer.

He was carrying little Torin tucked securely under one of his strong arms, the boy’s small legs dangling in the air as his tiny hands clutched tightly around a small piece of dark wood.

"Mama! Look!" Torin shouted at the top of his lungs, his face completely bright with pure excitement.

"Look at what Daddy bought for me in the village!"

He proudly held his little prize high up in the air for everyone to see.

It was a roughly carved wooden animal, its edges still a bit blocky and unpolished.

It could have been a small horse, or perhaps a hunting dog... it was a bit difficult to tell exactly what the shape was supposed to be... but Torin clearly did not care about the details.

He was beaming from ear to ear, his chest puffed out with pride.

Helen looked up at the new man.

He looked to be somewhere in his late twenties or early thirties, his posture relaxed and easy.

His facial features were completely open and friendly as he looked across the room at her.

There was a faint flicker of natural curiosity in his eyes, but not a single trace of suspicion or hostility.

Sonita stepped forward, moving to stand right beside him.

She looked at Helen, a soft smile on her lips.

"Helen, meet my husband, Charles."

She then turned her head to look up at Charles, her hand resting gently against his forearm.

"And Charles, this is my old friend. The one I have told you so much about over the years."

Charles’s light eyebrows rose on his forehead in genuine surprise.

He looked from his wife down to the woman sitting on the bed.

"I honestly thought you had just made her up to tell me stories."

Sonita laughed, nudging his side playfully with her elbow.

"I told you before, Charles. I never make things up. She was completely real back then, and she is completely real right now."

Charles shifted Torin to his other hip, his hazel eyes narrowing slightly as he took in the striking features of the guest.

He looked at the long strands of stark white hair falling over her shoulders, at the pale grey eyes, and finally at the distinct, black streak running straight through the front of her hair.

"A nine-tailed fox," Charles said, the words coming out slow and filled with a quiet awe.

Helen offered him a small, polite smile.

"Yes. That is what I am."

Charles shook his head, a warm chuckle escaping his chest.

"I really thought Sonita was just joking with me. I thought she was just... I don’t know, spinning tall tales to pass the long winter nights."

He took a couple of steps forward into the room and extended his large, calloused hand toward her.

"Welcome, truly. Welcome to our home, Helen. I am incredibly sorry that I did not believe her stories at first. But now that I am seeing you with my own eyes... wow. You actually exist."

Helen reached out and took his hand, his grip warm and steady against her cold fingers.

"Thank you so much," she said softly. "Thank you for welcoming me into your space."

"Of course," Charles said, releasing her hand with a friendly nod.

"Any friend of Sonita’s is automatically considered family under this roof."

He looked down at Torin, who was beginning to squirm and wiggle around violently in his strong grip, clearly eager to get down onto the floorboards.

"Keep our new guest properly entertained for a bit, little man," Charles said, patting the boy’s back before looking back up at the women.

"Daddy is going to go into the kitchen and start making some hot food for dinner."

He carefully set Torin down onto his feet.

The moment his boots hit the wood, the little boy sprinted straight across the floor over to his mother, wrapping his small arms tightly around her left leg like a clamp.

"Ha!" Torin shouted, looking up at Sonita with a triumphant grin.

"Daddy explicitly said that I have to keep the guest entertained. That means you are not allowed to tell me to go back outside to play anymore."

Sonita raised a single dark eyebrow, looking down at her son with a dry, amused expression.

"Is that so?"

Torin nodded his head up and down with absolute certainty.

"Yes. Daddy said so."

He turned his body around, still clinging to Sonita’s leg, and pointed his small finger directly at Helen.

"You are going to stay here for a long time, right? You absolutely have to stay. I have never actually met a real fairy before in my life."

A genuine laugh broke out of Helen’s chest.

It was a loud, bright sound... the very first real laugh she had experienced in what felt like an eternity.

"I am not a fairy, little one."

Torin tilted his head far to the side, his brow furrowing as he processed the information.

"Then what exactly are you?"

Helen hesitated for a second, her eyes darting over to Sonita.

Sonita just gave a casual shrug of her shoulders, leaving the explanation up to her.

Helen looked back down at the boy’s curious face.

"I am just... a very old friend. A friend of your mother’s."

Torin stared at her for a moment, weighing her words carefully in his toddler mind before reaching a final verdict.

"Okay then. Friends are definitely allowed to stay for dinner."

Without another word, he unclasped his arms from Sonita’s leg and ran off toward the far corner of the room, his attention span already completely exhausted by the adults.

He dropped down onto his knees and began aggressively sliding his small wooden animal across the floorboards, completely lost in his own little world.

Helen watched him go, a soft, wistful look settling over her features.

She watched the way his little legs pumped up and down against the wood.

She listened to him shout something completely unintelligible about a giant dragon and a brave knight in armor.

Beside her, Sonita stood perfectly still, watching her son play with an expression that was incredibly soft, yet fiercely protective.

"You have an absolutely beautiful family, Sonita," Helen said quietly, her voice thick with a mix of happiness and envy.

"I know," Sonita replied, her dark eyes never once leaving her son’s small form.

After a long moment, she turned her body back toward Helen, her expression turning incredibly gentle.

"I am truly glad that you got to see this, Helen. Before everything happens down the line. Before whatever dark thing comes next for all of us."

Helen gave a slow nod of her head. She was incredibly glad too.

The fire crackled loudly in the stone hearth, throwing a comforting warmth across the small bedroom.

From the adjacent kitchen area, the faint, cheerful sound of Charles humming a random tune drifted through the doorway, accompanied by the clatter of iron pots.

In the far corner, Torin continued to loudly battle his imaginary monsters against the baseboards.

Helen sat in the deep, enveloping warmth of a home that did not belong to her, sitting beside a dear friend she had honestly thought she had lost to the past forever, and for the first time in years, she allowed herself to just feel happy. Just for a tiny moment. Just for right now.