I'm not sure why I had sent them all to the residential district. Maybe I was hoping they'd all run into each other, swap stories, and put two and two together. Maybe Justin would get bored and go out for a quick walk, running into them. Maybe they would ask around, at least Julianna knew to ask about a girl with red curls. Maybe I had given them enough to find me.

I should've headed back to my apartment with that in mind. Set up more clues for them to find me with. But I didn't feel done yet. I meandered, not really sure where I was going till I got there. I saw the cathedral and walked behind it, weaving my way through the graves.

I could not see my grave. My father's large form blocked it from view. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to say to him. I never knew what to say to him. So I stood and watched. Though he was as still as the stones around him I watched. And I waited. And I didn't know what I was waiting for.

After a time he moved, shoulders heaving with a deep sigh. He glanced behind him at my form and turned back to the empty grave.

"We gave her no inscription." He said quietly, voice as warm and gravely as I remembered. "We gave her no inscription because we could not accept that she was dead. We had no body. We were right. She wasn't dead. But her grave is still here."

No words passed my lips. Perhaps it was because I could think of nothing to say that wouldn't reveal my identity against the spell's wishes, but more likely it was because I could not speak. My father looked old. He looked tired.

He did not seem to expect me to speak, though he was surely aware of my presence. He spoke again.

"I wonder how she must've felt, to run away like that. To go so far as making us think she was dead. It must've," he said darkly, "it must've been my fault."

A cool breeze blew by, the sun sinking below the castle behind us.

"I was stern with her, with them all, but uncomfortably so with her. Don't think I ever scolded either. I didn't know how to interact with them so I let them do as they pleased, so long as they were good. They're all good. I thought that if I let them do what they wanted I would find a way to place my love on them. Because I am clumsy and had no other way to show it."

He sighed again, deep and full of some emotion I did not recognize. He raised his head, looking over top the gravestone and into the darkening horizon.

"If they wished to lead I let them lead. If they wished to study I let them study. If they wished to create I let them create. But Augustina-"

I felt that my name should've been strange on his lips, but it was natural. It was comfortable. It was familiar.

"- Augustina never seemed to wish to do anything. She had the education of a proper young lady and chose to do no more. The basics of everything, but focusing on nothing. It sounds strange, like an excuse, but I was scared of her. I didn't know what she liked. I didn't know what she wanted. I did know that she hung out with her sisters, especially the youngest. And I saw something there that I did not want to see. And for that I was all the more suspicious of her, like a failure. Because I am me."

He turned to me, eyes rimmed red with thin tears that I had never seen before. Still I could not speak.

"I have seen your face before." He muttered.

I could answer that at least. My voice came out airless and raw. "You have."

"I see." He turned and looked up at the castle, gaze far beyond the building's walls. "I saw that she was jealous. More than that, I saw that the guilt of the jealousy was consuming her. There was nothing that I could think to do. Because I am awkward, and because-" He turned back to me, the little sparkle that lived in the corners of his gaze shining clear and strong. "She was like me."

I took a shy step forward. Black hair. Brown eyes. I had my father's traits. "What do you mean?"

My father's face softened, a smile unlike anything I had ever seen on him broke softly through his silent tears. "To stand awkwardly watching, silent, unsure how to react. Unsure if they're right or wrong. Always overthinking how to love. Always afraid to regret. Always regretting anyways." He stepped towards me. "And the inability to cry loudly, tears always feeling cold and heartless despite the tearing at your chest." He held his hand out. "Augustina, only you are so like me. Even when your face has changed, you are most certainly my terrifying, dear, wonderful, lovely, child."

This time was different than the others. At once I understood why the spell had never allowed me to speak to those who did not know my identity. It was so I would be able to listen and hear their words. And hear his love. No layers peeled off of me, the magic burst off instead, swirling around me in bright colors, cool to the touch. Even so I paid the breaking spell little mind.

I leapt forward, arms out, and collapsed in my fathers arms. Tears, as cold and silent and thin as fathers, streaming down my face.

"Papa."

He stroked my head and I let him, never minding my pins, squeezing him as far around as I could reach. "I'm sorry Augustina." He murmured softly. "I love you. I'm sorry I didn't express it well before. Child, I love you."

FUN FACT: It was between Septemera and the General for breaking the last bit of Augustina's curse, in the end I think I made the best choice.