"So," Chandra sighed, her breath no long visible in the night that had grown far too cold. "How mad do you think my mother is?" The couple had finally arrived home as the red head's partner worked the door, she was regretting not taking the long, long way home.

"I believe..." Liliana paused. Her mind couldn't jam her keys around, ponder an answer to Chandra's question and talk all at once. When the door finally clicked, she calmly said, "I believe whatever is about to happen is much more pleasant than whatever nightmare you have concocted."

Chandra couldn't deny that usually was the case, just as she couldn't deny her pessimism now, nor it's likelihood to return. As the door creaked open, she whispered, "maybe they're asleep."

Not whispering in the slightest, Liliana responded, "it is only 8 o'clock."

Killjoy

The seer Liliana had been right. Sitting around the dining table was Chandra's mother, Jovi, and... The young woman's brows shot vertically in opposite directions when she saw Jirina. Having to face her mother had been daunting enough, but confronting the General and the group therapist at once was horrifying.

Chandra turned to Liliana and complained with her eyes that, 'this is even worse than what I concocted,' but her partner's unphased demeanour was telling her to calm down.

"Jirina, I..." What am I supposed to say? I have to imagine what I did was about as grave a sin gets at group therapy.

Their guest rose to her feet and approached the two girls. "Chandra, please." In the wide, void room Chandra had first met her in, Jirina was an imposing figure, but in the tiny confines of the living room, she was commanding the floor even from Pia. "Even if I wanted to scold you, that's Pia's job." Jirina then leaned in to whisper, "and from one soldier to another, I don't think she's going to."

Her reassurance seemed so earnest that Chandra almost believed it. If this woman had been a captain as Pia had addressed her earlier, she would have been an admirable leader. It wasn't easy to be a soothing, powerful and beautiful woman – though Chandra would admit that was only a guess, being unaware that she too possessed those traits.

Jirina returned to her seat. "I'm actually here to see your father."

It would have been rude and even hurtful to correct that.

Instead, Chandra darted her eyes around to avoid further contact with anyone so she could focus on her own confusion. "How the hell do you... I mean how do you all know each other?" Now that the nervous girl had slightly accepted that Jirina was not here on a hostile mission, her imagination couldn't find another explanation. "I'd recognize the name if you fought with us."

Gods, don't tell me she was with the Consulate too. If that's where this is going, I'm definitely going to need to kill myse-

"Of course, forgive my poor manners." The mysterious woman went to rise again but Pia gestured her to stay in place and avoid any needless formalities. "I'm a former Captain of the Coppercoats of the city of Drannith."

Chandra recognized the name but when it was apparent to everyone that vague recognition was as far as she was going to get, she spotted Liliana bobbing her head around to grab her attention. "Ikoria," she said matter of factually when Chandra finally looked to her.

Does that mean she's here for - Jovi finally spoke up with pride and glee, "the Captain has been my point of contact about that research Vivien is in." The excitement was contagious and Chandra was slowly diverting her attention from everything going wrong. "Things are looking promising."

Ever the wet blanket, Pia cut off any opportunity to lighten the air. "If you'll all excuse me," there was no need to add a 'so I can speak to Chandra,' but she did it anyway.

As the redhead drifted past everyone like a nervous ghost, Jirina jumped up and chased after her – pulling Chandra back while Pia continued to the young woman's bedroom. Out of earshot of both ends of the house, the captain lovingly slammed her hand down on Chandra's shoulder and said, "my father was general of our military too. You have my condolences."

The idea of Jirina trying to compare herself with Chandra amused the lower ranked woman, but it made her smile all the same. Before she went to follow her mother, she whispered to the Captain, "this study my friend is a part of. It's really important with everything the people of Skalla have been through." Jirina nodded subtly in understanding. "I don't want you to lie, but if you could help convince my...dad of it's urgency, it would mean a lot."

It was impossible to say what exactly could truly loosen the Vess estate's purse strings, but there was something so wholesome, yet powerful about Jirina that seemed like she was the type of person that could make anything okay.


Chandra had an overly dramatic shrug – it went past her ears before her arms shot outwards – that she saved for instances when she wanted to fake indifference about what her mother had to say when, in fact, she cared so damn much that it almost brought her to tears. "I imagine you don't want to yell while our guest is still here, so we can just pretend, okay?"

Pia stared back dully. Her own trademark for not wanting to deal with her daughter's smart mouth.

Both were well forged.

"Please, sit." Rather than pointing at Chandra's bed to direct her daughter to sit while she stood, Pia sat down first and patted the spot next to her.

It wasn't her usual strategy for yelling, and given how angry Chandra's mother had been in the hallway of that miserable office building, the younger Nalaar couldn't imagine how this could end any way other than white hot rage. It would be just as easy for Pia to kill her on her feet than on her bed, so she sat next to her mother.

"My dear," Pia stroked her daughter's hand. "I want to apologize."

It's finally happened. I got her so mad that her anger looped around to pleasant.

"While the war was going on."

Great. Anytime she talks sweetly about the war, it's always major depressing.

"People would see everything you did for us and they would always ask me the same question."

Why does she never stop talking? Why won't she sit still? Why does she look like a boy?

"They always asked me how old you were." Pia's gentle caress contorted into a firm grip, like she was trying to squeeze some love into her daughter's body like a needle. "They were always shocked when I told them, even though you were somewhat small, they were always surprised."

I don't know where this is going, but as long as long as she ain't yelling, I'm keeping my mouth shut.

"You always had so much courage and tenacity." Chandra found her mother's flattery, when spoken with such honest passion, always grated her soul almost as much as being in trouble. "Even people that knew better were so quick to forget you were just a child."

"Your father was the only one that never lost sight of that."

Still foggy about what exactly was going on, Chandra's hand was finally forced by something she was always compelled to say earnestly, "It wasn't like it was just me. There were lots of kids."

Pia responded in turn with a hint of force, "but we treated them like children. Everyone saw them for the victims they were, but not you." The General sighed and shook her head. "You were Chandra Nalaar – my daughter; you looked Baral in the face and lived, ran headfirst into danger without question and it made us forget that you were just like those other kids."

"You were treated like the hero you were, but you never coddled the way you should have been." That was never something that would have crossed Chandra's mind as it was never something she wanted. Her mother knew this, of course, so she had to look at her daughter with the right amount of cute and authority silently say, 'you're my daughter and you'll feel how I tell you to feel because I know best.'

For the second time today, the younger Nalaar saw mist in her mother's eyes and it was no less nauseating this time around. "Our people let you down, Chandra. Myself included."

Chandra attempted to scoff the emotional tension away, but Pia was having none of it and the awkward young woman found her head buried in her mother's shoulder with an arm wrapped around her. It was as blissful and awkward as it ever was and Chandra had a sluggish way of speaking when in such a moment. "But I never felt let down – by you, father, anyone."

"That does not change the truth," Pia said stroking her daughter's hair. "We unintentionally created a world that normalized what your upbringing became and none of the children of Kaladesh should have felt that way."

Fully convinced that her mother desperately wanted her to believe the motion, Chandra thought it might be best to at least pretend she did, so she chuckled. "So can we blame everything I've ever done wrong on this newly found stunted emotional growth?"

After the events of the day, it was musical to hear Pia laugh. "We may have to go through it case by case, my pet. You did still get your sister arrested after all."

Chandra snapped her fingers as she snapped herself up. "Shit, that reminds me. I told you I was going to make up for that. Do you have access to that planar phone thingy at the school?"

Intrigued and confused, Pia responded, "the interplanar relay, yes." It was a fancy phone that could do video calls with other worlds. It also happened to be worth millions of dollars and required a computer the size of a bedroom to operate and, luckily, Tolaria had one of the only units in Dominaria.

"I am actually using it this weekend. I have to call home...Why do you ask?"

Normally, Pia mentioning calling home would have grabbed Chandra's full attention, but she was on a mission."I'm gonna need it," Chandra said excitedly. "I need to talk to Liliana's mom. Oh, I'm also gonna need you to help me figure out how the hell to get hold of her."

The intrigue and confusion was still illuminating Pia but it had grown more concerned and pessimistic. Thankfully, for Chandra, any chance of interrogation was interrupted by a knock at her bedroom door.

"Forgive the intrusion, General, Chandra." Jirina's voice seemed to have a tiny bit less spring in its step. "I must get going. I have to return home to get your husband more information."

Pia said sweetly, "you can stop calling me General, Captain. Now I assume my daughter has impressed upon you that she would like my husband to divert substantial funds to your university."

Nearly smiling at Chandra Jirina said, "well, yes, she did" before sucking air through her teeth like she was trying to breathe some of that energy back in.

It didn't work.

"I brought up the idea to him just now and he seemed apprehensive. I think you may need to work on him a bit more, Chandra."

Even Pia seemed a little surprised by the suggestion but Chandra was completely lost. "Why me? I don't know anything about money, or the research...Or anything, really."

"When I let him know what you had whispered to me in confidence." Jirina shrugged a sorry-not sorry gesture. "All he said was was 'that girl is probably the smartest one here."

Chandra didn't see the humour in the joke.