The past keeps coming back to haunt me

Ulric's ears flicked uncertainly when he saw the hard expression on her face. Had she smelled Serenity's scent on the border? Had she seen him with her already while he was showing her around the castle? He jumped to his own conclusions she same way she was, unbeknownst to him. He sighed and sank onto his haunches, frowning as he tried to figure out where to even start. "While I was out hunting down more saber cats this morning I stumbled upon a young woman named Serenity. I've... I've never met her before today, but she's... She's my daughter." All he could really do was tell her the truth at this point. As ashamed of this fact as he was there was no way to sugar coat it or say it any easier. This poor girl had grown up on her own because of her mother abandoning her and his own lack of forethought or restraint.

His gaze shifted down toward the ground in-between them, clearly feeling a heavy guilt for having to bring yet another dark spot of his past into his life that he just wanted to share with her. But, he felt like Eska deserved to know why this woman suddenly appeared and why he was trying to incorporate her into his family. "For the first few years of my life I spent it taking care of my mother after my father was killed. That took me away from Boreas and Auster because being near our old home was too painful for her. It was just the two of us for a long time and I didn't really allow myself to do anything other than take care of her. When I was... around four, I guess I met this woman - Bella. She lived in the forests we were staying in at the time. We only crossed paths a couple of times but one night I couldn't sleep and we found each other while I was out wandering around the woods."

It was memories that he hadn't thought about much since the night they happened, but he still remembered them pretty vividly. He supposed it was probably pretty hard to forget a first time like that. "I had never been with a woman like that before her. I was attracted to her, but I didn't really know her so I didn't think much of it. A few days later my niece found me and that brought us back to Boreas to find my sister so I never saw Bella again after that night. Apparently I got her pregnant and never knew about it. But... Serenity is definitely mine. Same coloring, same markings, and... and my father's markings are all over her legs. I've never seen anyone with markings like those besides him." He had known it from the moment he saw her and knowing that Bella was her mother only cemented the fact.

He brought his apologetic gaze up to hers, his head lowered with guilt. "Eska, I'm sorry... I... My poor decisions keep coming back to haunt me and I'm just so afraid any of it is going to come between us. I just... I don't want to lose you." There was no title between them, nothing official, but she had become more of a fixture in his life than anyone else. He never truly felt like himself the way he did when they were together. "This is it. I swear, there's no one else. Bella was the first, my former fiancée, then Aranea... That's it." There were no more skeletons to uncover. He didn't realize a one night stand over two years ago would ever come back to haunt him, but now here they were. He waited for her reaction, his silver gaze searching her face.

Ulric Adravendi