Solace went inside, his family waiting for him in the living room.
"Did something happen, Solace?" his mother asked.
Solace sighed slowly and shook his head.
He threw aside whatever was on his mind and smiled softly. "Wait a second! I have something for all of you."
He then went back to his room, brought back a bag, and, in front of their eyes, opened it, revealing several black boxes.
As soon as they saw what he pulled out, their heart softened. A sense of familiarity and recognition flashed across their face, and they slowly called him.
"Solace," both his mother and father called out. Their tone was gentle, almost a whisper.
"Brother!" Both siblings lowered their voices.
He brought out four identical boxes and handed them with a sense of pride.
The first one to open the box was his mom, in a hurry.
From inside the box, a beautiful silver pendant emerged with a gentle glow. Celeste's eyes immediately welled up. She looked from the pristine pendant in her hand to the one hanging around Solace's neck. It was worn, the silver scratched and dulled from months of training and the recent horrors of the mountain. It looked like it had survived a war because, in many ways, it had. Inside each of the new pendants was the same family photo that Solace carried, a frozen moment of the five of them, smiling
Every one of them had the same pendant, inside it the same family photo that was present in Solace's own.
He looked at them and held his pendant like a medal. "You gave me this pendant as a gift when I first joined The Weave." his voice was soft as he reminicend the memories.
"And now that I have achieved something on my own, earned something. I want to give you all a part of my earnings, something close to my heart that will forever remind us of our family." he then looked at them and said that will forever be the only thing a parent wants. "Please accept my love and wear it from now on."
This was Solace's most raw feeling he had ever shared with anybody. This was a declaration of his own heart. As Alexander, he always had a pursuit for a home, wanting to find a family and warmth. In that moment, the memories that he had been forgetting, the faces of his parents who died in an accident. The same faces who were blurry got replaced by his parents in this world.
It didn't matter to him what he once was, Alexander, Solace, or someone completely different. This was his family, and he would do whatever to keep them safe.
As he poured out his heart.
The silence was broken by the sound of his mother's sob. It was like a dam breaking. Celeste rushed forward, catching him in a hug that was fierce yet mindful of his bandaged arm.
"Oh, Solace," she cried into his shoulder. "You are such a good, kind boy."
His father wasn't faring much better. He turned his head away, clearing his throat aggressively as he tried to blink back the moisture in his eyes. He maintained his "stern" mask until the very end, but the way he clutched the silver box told a different story.
Noah and Luna didn't cry; they were too young and too full of fire for that, but they wore smiles so bright they seemed to compete with the pendants. After Celeste finally released Solace, wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand, she whispered a quiet prayer of gratitude.
"May the Great Mother bestow her softest blessings upon this house," she murmured.
His father stood up, placing a heavy, warm hand on Solace's shoulder. "You've become the pride of this house, Solace. Truly. But..." he glanced at the twins, a playful spark returning to his eyes, "don't let your siblings fall behind. They'll need a tall shadow to walk in."
"Hey!" Noah and Luna barked in unison. "Just you wait, Dad! Once we're in the Weave, we're taking the top spots. Solace better enjoy his rank while it lasts!"
Their father laughed, a deep, resonant sound that filled the small house. "I don't care about ranks. I don't care if you're first or fifty-first. I just want the three of you to be happy. I want a future where you can live without looking over your shoulders. I don't compare you; I just love you."
It was a perfect moment, the kind of memory that sticks to the soul, providing warmth on the coldest nights.
Later, after the house had gone quiet and the fire had burned down to embers, Solace sat at his desk. He opened a fresh, ordinary diary he had bought in the city. He picked up a pen, his hand steady for the first time in weeks, and wrote the date at the top of the first page.
25th Vinctum, 4359
And he began to write.