Perpetual Commotion | The Santini Family

[Thexare]

"Dear, wait." They had stopped just at the entrance to Mia's property - w hich surprised Emilio every time he saw it. He had never expected anyone in his family to own land outside of Malta, or that he'd be happy for it.

"What is it, Serena?"

"It's about that message earlier." Emilio twitched slightly, a tic he was picking up in recent months whenever a subject he didn't like came up.

"Serena. Malta is beyond help at this point."

"So you say, as you try to convince yourself."

"We don't have any reason to go back. You were a Hacker, Serena, you don't have any family there. And most of my family is dead."

"And your mother?"

"Three years ago, she broke the right arm of a would-be robber and then shot him with his own gun. I'm reasonably sure she can handle herself." Emilio's voice was getting somewhat shaky, however; Serena was right, he didn't entirely believe it.

"The Ghosts are waning. And the Lance needs to be broken."

"And then what? Will the Maltese ever put their petty revenge fantasies behind them? Will they unite instead of always falling intio these petty power struggles?" He sighed, and looked back at the distant city. "Can they ever become a true House?"

"Well, Dad, that depends on who's leading them," Mia said, now hanging upside-down by her legs from a nearby tree, somehow not surprising either of her parents.

"No leader among the Maltese shares my vision. And I am not a leader."

Mia flipped down from the tree, and looked Emilio in the eyes. "So you're giving up?" Though she didn't look angry - she never looked angry - there was a challenging tone in her voice that, however briefly, stunned her father.

"Mia... you've been listening the whole time. You know how I feel."

"But... I mean, weren't you the one talking about doing the right thing for Malta?"

"My father was killed by one of his rivals. Thousands have died in these pointless civil wars. Millions of lives have been ruined by the slave trade. You speak of doing the right thing, Mia - why should we continue to support this?"

"I... I don't know..."

"Of course you do, Mia. You know that we can't. That's why you left. You did the right thing, and it took the rest of us a bit longer than it should've to come around."