chapter 6. Barricades of silence

The dinner was held in deathly silence. The only sounds were the clinking of spoons on plates and the soft, broken sobs of Leo, who had long since forgotten about his "katusha" and was simply rubbing his eyes wearily with his fist. The air in the dining room was thick and heavy, as if it could be cut with a knife.

Gray could see everything in the smallest details, which made his heart ache. He could see how tense his mother's shoulders were, stiffened in an unnatural posture. He saw the edge of the tablecloth trembling as her knee bounced under the table. He saw his father trying desperately to catch her eye, but her eyes were fixed on a point on the wall behind him, glassy and unseeing.

He saw a tiny crack in her favorite blue cup (to him, just a cup with a slightly rougher texture in one place), which she gripped so tightly that her knuckles were white.

"Mom, can I..." Leo began in a pitiful voice.

"Eat, Leo," Elina interrupted. Her voice was flat, monotonous, devoid of any emotion. It was more terrifying than any scream.

Hugh cleared his throat.

"Eli, we need to talk," he said quietly, his words echoing in the silence.

Elina slowly, as if with great effort, looked at him. There was no anger or resentment in her eyes. Only an icy, bottomless void.

“What about?” she asked. “About how you kept our son’s life from me? Or about why you thought you could handle it better on your own? Pick a topic.”

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Leo sobbed again, frightened by her tone.

“I didn’t want to scare you,” Hugh began again, sounding pathetic and unconvincing even to himself.

"Didn't want to scare you?" She set her cup down on the table with such a clatter that everyone jumped. "And what do you think is scarier? Finding out the truth, or seeing your husband and your eldest son whispering in corners, acting like heroes, and treating you like a fragile fool who needs to be protected from the harsh world?"

Her voice finally broke, and she spoke with a familiar mix of pain and rage.

"I didn't think..." Hugh tried to explain.

—Exactly! She stood up abruptly, and her chair slid back with a loud screech. "You didn't think!" You've been thinking about your duty to the guild, your theories, your... your sin! But you didn't think about family! That we are a team! Or they should be.

She looked at Gray, and for the first time that evening, something warm and painful appeared in her gaze- a great, all—consuming pity.

"Go wash up, honey," she told him softly. "And you, Leo.

It wasn't a suggestion. It was an order. Gray nodded silently and pulled his younger brother, who was already crying quietly, not fully understanding what was happening, but feeling the icy gap between the closest people.

Left alone with his wife, Hugh lowered his head.

"You're right,— he whispered. "You're right about everything. I did a terrible thing. Stupidly. I was blind.

"Blind?" Elina chuckled bitterly. "No, dear. You've seen too much. Just not where it's needed."

She turned and began collecting the plates from the table, banging them loudly, venting her frustration and fear on the dishes.

As Gray stood in the hallway, listening to the deafening ringing in his ears, he realized that something irreparable had happened. In a house that had already been filled with too much silence, real barricades had now been erected. Not made of wood and stone, but of unspoken resentment, fear, and silence.

And the worst part was that the real danger that his father had tried to protect him from had not yet even crossed their threshold. She only threw a stone at their window, and the family's glass shattered into thousands of sharp pieces.