(A/N I just want to thank Drimali, Markia Mayfields and Jeminia Moon for reviewing, and thank all you guys who've read it this far. Oh, and I do not own the Septimus Heap-series (I really don't think it's needed to say, because all of us... well, I guess we all know that, don't we? Otherwise, you might be a little bit lost. The exit is to the left. Sorry, inside joke. I named the chapter after that song, You Can Let go Now Daddy, written by someone that I don't remember the name on. Sorry. Oh (I hope that I won't appear to be like an emo or something like that, 'cause I'm not, but...), I wrote the chapter while listening to Even In Death, My Immortal and Like You, all made by Evanescence. I just wanted to get the feeling, since none of my relatives has died since I was a little girl and I don't remember that to be honest. Or, well, my cat died about three years ago (uh-oh, now I beun talking nonsense that really isn't about anyone here. Oops, sorry), but that doesn't count. No, it wasn't the black one I had on my profile-picture before, that is my new cat. Oh, however, this is the chapter:

Chapter 12: You Can Let Go Now

Both Joseph and Marcia felt awkward as they knocked at the door to their parents house. Cashmére, who (as Marcia had insisted) had followed the was also anxious. She was anxious because she didn't want Trassimma to recognize her. Sure, she had never met the woman, but she knew that Trassimma and Erianna (Cashmére's own mother) never had gotten along. Since Cashmére was- she had been told- stunningly alike her mother, there was a risk that Trassimma would recognize her. But, as the little group soon would realizr, Trassimma other things to think of. When she opend the door, her eyes were red from tears. Her whole body appeard to be trembling.
"Mum!" Joseph and Marcia exclaimed, supporting their mother into the house. Cashmére did not have the desire to be left behind, so she followed.

"It's alright, dear." Trassimma said, while she was forced down into a chair by both Marcia and Joseph. "It's not... me who's..."
Their mother didn't finish the sentence. Joseph and Marcia exchanged worried looks.

"Mum, what is it?" Marcia asked.

"Oh, hello." Trassimma said to Cashmére, smiling. "Who could this young lady be?"
If it wouldn't have been for Marcia's and Joseph's concerned looks, Cashmére would have been relieved that Trassima didn't recognize her. She wondered what had happend.

Marcia had been believeing it for quite a while, but now it was confirmed. Her mother had grown mad.
"Mum!" she said, easily shaking her mother, "What is it?"

Her mother sighed and seemed to go back to- as Joseph would have called it- 'normal mode'.
"It's your dad." Trassimma replied, "He is..."

"No..." Joseph and Marcia cried out, at the same time. "No! No, no, no."

Even Cashmére, who did not have their language as her first language, did understand what Trassimma meant. Marcia's and Joseph's father was dead. Or at least dying. Cashmére- who had grown to like both of them, even Marcia- felt sorry for them. She knew how it was to lose a parent. Sure, she didn't remember much of her mother, but she had had a hard time growing up without one. But, she understood later on, this maybe was a little bit.. different, in a way that she impossibly could explain. However, both Joseph and Marcia was despaired. This was not what anyone of them had imagined. They maybe could have belived that he was very ill, but not dead. Never dead.

Once, Melchior Overstrand had been, well, handsome. But now, he looked... fragile. Of course, he was dead, but there was something more. As though he could just break by the easiest touch, it seemed to Marcia. She sunk dwon beside his bed, resting her head at the edge of the bed. She was crying violently. Joseph got down beside her, laying an arm over her shoulder.
"It's okay." he said, softly, "It's okay now."
Cashmére wanted to comfort Marcia, too, but she just didn't know how. She was, since she was almost totally isolated from others, not used to talk to normal people like Marcia. And Joseph. She certainly did not know how to show anyone that she loved the person.

It was a darke outside when the grieved trio made their way back to Endor's house. Marcia, who had had a very strong bond to her father before he passed away, was still sobbing at some points. Cashmére had got to know that it infact was okay to tell Marcia that it would be alright. Soon. And Marcia did not snap at her, or anything like that. Cashmére picked out the key to the door from in under the flower-pot and opend the door. Endor greeted them all cheerfully.
"Hello!" she said, but Cashmére put a finger to her mouth to show her to be silent. Then she gestured to her to get into the kitchen.

"Their father passed away recently." Cashmére told Endor, hoping that her accent would not sound too funny.

"Oh dear!" Endor looked concerned, "That is horrable news! How did she take it?"

Cashmére thought it was a kind of stupid question to ask, but however, she replied:
"She is very sad."

They were silent for a couple of seconds. Neither one of them wanted to disturb Marcia and Joseph, but they knew they couldn't stay in the kitchen forever. Endor was the one who gave in at first, and went back into the living room. Cashmére followed her almost immediatley.
"Where is Marcia?" Cashmére asked Joseph.

"She went to bed." Joseph answered. "She-"

Cashmére could tell that he was fighting back tears. "-Was tired, I understand." she desperatley hoped that she had got her grammar right. After living in the Castle for a while, she had understood that her grammar was not as perfect as she wished that it was.

"Yes." Joseph replied, trying to smile at her. Ignibus, Cashmére thought. He was cute when he smiled. (A/N 'Ignibus means 'fires' in latin, I am pretty sure that it is like that.) At once, Endor went to see if her friend was alright, leaving Cashmére and Joseph alone.

"I am sorry so for you." Cashmére said, and gave Joseph a hug.

"You're sweet." Joseph replied, quick and lowly.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Oh."

Back at the Immortalitatem, there was a meeting about- of course- Cashmére's... dissapereance. All knew that they really needed to get back to the Eastern Snowplains: otherwise, it could all turn into chaos. But, they could not leave without Cashmére. She was, after all, the heiress to the throne.

"We should at least wait in a week." Oberon Woodall said. Lucian bared his teeth.

"The girl-"

"-woman." Naomi coughed.

"As you wish- the woman appereantly do not wish to be found." he announced, "Therefore, I suggest-"

"How do you know that Cashmére do not wish to be found?" Naomi snapped, and the rest of the Wise Seven (but not Lucian) sighed. This was the typicall start on a Naomi/Lucian argument.

"Well, we have found no tracks of her being taken from here against her will." Lucian replied, slowly, as though he explained something very difficult to a child.

"Lucian, we are, after all in the Castle." Naomi hissed, "This city keeps the most advanced, most civilicated kinds of magyk within it's walls. It would not shock me if they knew how to kidnap anyone without leaving the slightest track-"

"Naomi, are you telling us that you accuse the Castle for the heiress's dissapereance?" Woodall asked, raising his eyebrows.

"No, not at all!" Naomi said, "That was not my point! My point was that-"

"You are making absolutley no sense, right now, Naomi." Lucian snapped.

"She infact does make sense." Tantibus said, causing the Wise Seven to look at their emperor. "She makes perfectly sense."

"What do you mean, lord?" Lucian wondered, his snake-eyes studying the emperors features to see where this was going.

"Tomorrow, I shall go to the ExtraOrdinary Wizard, Alther Mella, and ask for his adivice."

"But lord!" Lucian protested, "Don't you see? This would be the perfect oportunity for our enemies to attack! If the fact that Cashmére is gone leaks out-"

"I will make sure that Alther do not tell anyone." Tantibus said, calmly.

"But-"

"Let's vote." Darius interupted Lucian with a smirk. And so, they voted.