Odalia let Alador lead her to his laboratory; it was the first time she had been back in there for several years. The last time was when the twins had almost given both her and Alador a heart attack by burning themselves with flammable gas. As soon as they were inside, she moved her hand and what looked like an ethereal green cube emerged from her fingers, rapidly expanding to encompass the entire room. "A magical protection? Why?" Alador asked her.

"The last time you told me 'we need to talk' was when you confessed to me that you lost Edric and Emira on the beach and that you searched for them for hours and narrowly avoided drowning. Do we want to remember how I reacted that time? The kids still wonder what made the house shake that day, and I don't want to have the roof rebuilt again" Odalia replied in an annoyed voice. "If you want to talk to me, it will certainly be something that will make me angry, and since there are two fairies in town now and unfortunately I can't tear their wings because my daughter cares about them, I can't risk attracting their attention, so I'd rather vaporize you than the house"

Alador bit his lip. Yes, in fact considering what the subject of the conversation would be it was very likely that his wife would be very angry, and this time he doubted that if she had no restraints she would have limited herself to tearing the roof to pieces. He didn't know whether to be happy about the presence of the magical protection because it meant being able to talk without being interrupted and above all to prevent their children from waking up and listening to them, or whether to be dissatisfied because it meant that no one would come to his aid if Odalia decided to cut off his limbs. "Come on. What did you want to talk to me about?" his wife asked him.

Alador clenched his fists. The time had come. He had steeled himself and made it this far, he couldn't back out now. "Odalia... I don't want to do this anymore"

His wife did not answer immediately; in fact she didn't even move, but her eyebrows arched a little anyway. "You don't want to do anymore what? I don't remember you doing anything in the last fourteen years. Nothing that would interest me at least"

"I know, and it was a mistake" Alador said. "But this isn't about you and me, it's about those three kids that are sleeping downstairs. And I..."

"Alador"

Alador immediately fell silent. Odalia hadn't changed her expression or tone of voice, but when she spoke, every word made his blood run cold. "It was a nice night for me, so I'm just going to tell you this once: if you're trying to be an idiot, stop now"

Alador knew that what his wife was telling him was essentially: 'Don't tease me, try to talk about certain things and I swear I'll kill you', and he knew it wasn't an empty threat. Normally he would have done as she said and kept quiet… but after all normally he would never have even asked his wife to speak. "No" he replied. "Not this time. Odalia, I know I'm an idiot. I hurt you, I hurt Amity, I hurt Edric and Emira, I hurt everyone. You hate talking to me and I understand. But this time you have to listen to me. If this conversation is over you won't want to anymore see me, I will leave this house immediately; if you want to tear my face off with your claws, you will be free to do so; if you want to curse me and turn me into an insect, I will not object. But I need you to listen to me, just this once"

Odalia was quite surprised; she couldn't remember her husband speaking to her so confidently even once in the last fourteen years. Which, despite her irritation, made her curious enough to say: "Okay, I'm listening. Say what you have to say... but be aware that depending on what you say, I may be unable to control my actions"

Alador swallowed; trying to talk to a witch who hated him was definitely not easy. However, he took the fact that his wife had agreed to let him speak as a good omen, since normally she would have threatened to sew his mouth shut. "Odalia... I know what you did tonight. I'm talking about Amity"

"So? Since when do you care about what I do with Amity?" Odalia asked him smugly.

"Unfortunately, I care. I've always cared, actually" Alador replied.

"Strange words, coming from someone who has done absolutely nothing to prove it all these years" Odalia muttered with a lot of venom in her voice. "But go ahead, I admit that I'm curious to know where you're going with this"

Those words hurt Alador a little, but he knew they were absolutely true. "Well, here's what I want to say: I want you to stop trying to control our daughter and make her hurt people!"

Odalia's expression became more irritated, though she still maintained a fairly neutral façade. "What I'm doing is just teaching MY daughter what awaits her in her future. For her to fulfill her destiny she needs to be ready to make the right choices"

"You know better than me that what you have in mind won't be the right choice!" Alador exclaimed.

"Won't that be the right choice?" Odalia giggled, but there was no amusement in her voice. "Is it possible that the most brilliant scientist in the town can't do such a simple operation? What my daughter will do is create the foundation of a new world, a world of peace and unity where the glory of the witches will be restored, and in return... all it has to do is make Bonesborough feel just a little scared. It's an efficient transition for everyone, even for those who will be experiencing their worst nightmares. A single night of terror, and then finally most of the true nightmares of this world will vanish"

"You know better than me that it won't be just that!" Alador said. "I don't need to explain you how terrifying nightmares are, some of them can traumatize people! What do you think it will be like for the people of this town, living through their worst nightmares and never being able to wake up? Many will die of a heart attack!"

"How exaggerated. At most ten percent of the population could die. If they have a weak heart it's certainly not my problem" Odalia replied without any empathy in her voice. "It's a necessary sacrifice. You're a scientist, right? What do animals do when they migrate? They travel from a worse place to a better place, and the members of the herd who are too weak are left behind to die. If you want to create a new world, someone who will die is inevitable; all the leaders of the packs have to do is make sure that as few members as possible die, not that none die. Something has to be sacrificed. It's just natural"

"There's a big difference between natural and right, Odalia!" Alador told her. "When Amity starts what you have in mind, Bonesborough will be haunted by nightmares and someone will die. That blood will be on Amity's hands, and you know better than me that that is a point of no return since..."

"Since what?" Odalia's voice became quite threatening. "Since I've always been the one who had to get my hands dirty to protect you and this family, while all you did was ask taking advantage by the fact that I couldn't refuse because of that damn deal? Is that what you mean?"

Alador closed his mouth. He could hear the fury in his wife's words. "Odalia... you're right, it was always you who solved our problems. At most I helped you, but it was you who gave the final blow. And that's exactly why I don't want Amity to have to suffer the same!" he answered. "I remember what your first time was like. You acted on instinct and ripped out that robber's heart to protect me. You fell to your knees and stared into space without saying a word for an hour after you did it. After that time... you changed. You became colder. Killing... became easy for you. That act changed you forever, and not for the good". He paused briefly, then added, "If Amity does what you have in mind... she won't have the blood of just one person on her hands, she'll have the blood of hundreds of people. What do you think it will be like for her when she finds out? You know better than me how pure of heart she is, her mind won't handle such a shock!"

Odalia froze for a moment, and a shadow clearly passed in her eyes; but she quickly recovered and said: "She will handle it. I have prepared her for fourteen years for this, her mind is strong"

"You can give her all the preparation you want, but no mind can handle such a thing if the person in question is good, and Amity is" Alador replied. "Odalia, please... I know how much you want that... but if you really care about our daughter... you have to stop. Think of her good before your own"

Odalia seemed to be fuming, but nevertheless she didn't answer right away; instead, she walked towards the wall and placed her hand on it, as if searching for something to support her. Seeing her undecided for a moment, Ghost jumped onto her shoulder and meowed: "Mistress... I think you should listen to him. Just this once, maybe..."

But he couldn't finish the sentence: Odalia suddenly raised an arm and took him by the neck, squeezing so tightly that the wood Ghost was made of creaked slightly, and the cat let out a strangled meow. "I told you to shut up" Odalia hissed, and then she looked at Alador: "And you... don't try to tell me that I have to care about MY daughter. It's precisely because I care about her that..."

"Don't use that excuse!" Alador interrupted her; normally he would never have dared so much, but at that moment he had already decided to risk everything and everything. "We both know you're not doing this for her, you're doing this for yourself. This is your wish, not hers. She doesn't want all this, she's happy with the life she already has!"

Odalia's eyelid quivered dangerously. "Oh, really? And tell me, by what criteria do you think you can determine whether she is happy or not? Do you even know what makes her happy? What does she like to do? Which people does she like to hang out with?" she hissed, but then shook her head as if she were swatting a fly and changed the subject: "And in any case, I'm giving Amity greater happiness than she already has. I'm giving her a new world, a world where witches they will be in charge of everything and she will have more power and wealth than anyone else! She will be royalty among royalty and lead the new generation of witches to a glorious future!"

"Yes, and in your opinion will this make her happy?" Alador asked her. "You'll just put more responsibilities on her shoulders. That girl already can't take it anymore. She's not you, Odalia! She's not a mature woman who has lived to the tune of nearly fifty years and would be happy to rule the world, she's just a kid! She's not familiar with her powers, she's not interested in creating a new order, until recently she didn't even know she was a witch! What you'll do is take her and throw her into something she doesn't wants!"

"Alador..." Odalia put her hand in front of her face and almost dug her nails into her forehead. "…shut the fuck up, now"

But Alador did not give up. "No, I won't. I can't keep quiet and back down anymore, not when you're endangering our daughter..."

"She's MY daughter!" Odalia growled, and for a brief moment her eyes flashed and her hair stirred. "Don't you dare call her 'ours', is that clear!? I gave birth to her, I raised her, I made her what she is now! You were never there for her! You know nothing about her, I bet you don't even remember the date of her birthday! The only connection you have with her was that fiery night when you impregnated me, and that was it! You weren't even present at her birth! I had to give birth to her completely alone, without you to help me, without even being able to call a midwife since I would have had to confess to being a witch! You didn't come to see her while she was in the crib, it's me who, even though I was exhausted, worked hard to feed her, lull her and sing to her the lullaby, all alone again! I'm the one who saw her take her first steps, I'm the one who heard her say her first word! You didn't see her until she accidentally came into your lab when she was four! You have no right over her! I wasn't a perfect mother, and maybe I should have tucked her in more often or hugged her more, but at least I was there! You wasn't! I worked for the beauty of fourteen years to prepare her for what awaited her, I planned her destiny day after day and I steeled her to be ready! So now don't try to act as if you know her better than I do, as if you give a damn about her well-being, or as if whether or not you like what I've prepared for her has any importance whatsoever! She has a preordained destiny, and that is to give the Emerald Witches the glory they had in the past and start a new golden age! I gave birth to her for this, so stop saying that I should stop now that I'm finally so close to success!"

Alador instinctively backed away, but still said: "So you are close to success? Not her, or you two?"

Odalia's fingers began to twitch dangerously. "What are you implying, sorry?"

"What I told you from the beginning: this is what you want, not her!" Alador replied. He paused for a moment and took a long breath, and then said, "Odalia... you're right to be angry with me. I ran away like a coward when Amity was born. I was afraid to get attached to her, because I knew you were aiming to use her for your project, and that therefore she would become something that I would end up fearing. I wanted to keep her at a distance so as not to risk... having feelings for her, and having to see her become a..."

"What!? A monster!?". Odalia's teeth began to turn into fangs. "Is that what you're about to say!?"

"No, Odalia, you know that I don't..." Alador tried to answer her.

But his wife didn't let him finish. "Last chance. Shut your mouth" she said simply, and did so in such a menacing tone that it was clear she was barely holding herself back.

Alador felt a shiver run down his spine, and was seriously tempted to obey. But the last bit of courage he still had was enough to make him say: "No, Odalia. I tried to reason with you, but if you won't listen to me, then I'll do what needs to be done. I won't let you use Amity like a toy anymore. Our contract is off!"

Silence fell in the room, broken only by the labored breathing of Alador, who was continually feeling the urge to run away but still remained where he was and looked his wife straight in the eyes; she for her part seemed to have become a pillar of salt. That standoff lasted for nearly a minute, in which neither of them did anything; then, suddenly, Odalia opened her mouth wide and let out a scream of pure fury. Her body changed completely into her witch form and she began to fly a meter above the floor, supported only by her own magic; green fire and lightning emerged from her hands and exploded in all directions, reducing everything they touched to ashes. In a matter of fractions of a second, everything from inventions to plans to furniture to equipment was turned into nothing more than smoldering, smoldering crumbs; the very air shook as if struck by a shock wave of epochal proportions, and Alador himself was hurled away like a grain of sand in a tornado. Alador didn't remember ever having seen Odalia so furious: he had seen her angry many times, but this was the first time ever that he had seen her totally lose control and release her anger without any restrictions. Compared to it, the time when she had yelled at him when Edric and Emira had gotten burned in his laboratory had been nothing. If it hadn't been for the magical protection that contained the witch's power there in the laboratory, the whole town would probably have started to tremble.

For a moment Alador feared he would be hit by the dark spells that seemed to have gone completely mad, but then he realized that Ghost had jumped on him and was emitting a light magical barrier that blocked the blows. However, that barrier shattered as if it were made of glass as Odalia closed the distance between them and grabbed him by the neck. "YOU UNGRATEFUL MISERABLE PATHETIC PIECE OF SHIT!" she roared, and her every word seemed louder than the thunder of a hurricane. "I GAVE YOU EVERYTHING! YOU WERE PRACTICALLY CREATED BY ME! YOU WOULD BE NOTHING WITHOUT ME, NOTHING MORE THAN A SHY INTROVERT! I GAVE YOU THIS LABORATORY TO DEDICATE YOU TO YOUR INVENTIONS! I CREATED THE SPECTACULAR WEALTH THAT YOU NOW HAVE ENJOY! I GAVE YOU THIS HOUSE! I LET YOU SLEEP IN MY BED AND PLAY WITH MY BODY AS MUCH AS YOU WANTED! AND NOW YOU, AFTER TAKING SO MUCH FROM ME, THINK YOU CAN DECIDE TO BREAK OUR AGREEMENT AT YOUR WISH!? YOU NEED A LESSON IN HUMILITY, INSECT!"

Alador could clearly feel Odalia's claws digging into his flesh, and he barely had the strength to look her in the eyes; she was holding him so tightly that at any moment his bones might break. But despite this, Alador managed to find the strength to say: "There's no point... in getting angry... I'm in control... of the contract". He stared at her with determination: "Your first contract... the only one you didn't pay due attention to... and in fact the only one that has... truly bound you forever to someone else..."

"Don't remind me!" Odalia roared as she slammed him to the ground; Alador rolled two meters away from her for the force of the blow. "But just because you're the winning side doesn't make you capable of bossing me around!"

"I'm afraid so" Alador replied, raising his head. His body was in pain like no other, but he still had no intention of stopping. "I had to give you a daughter who was like you, and in exchange you would have given me everything you could give me. But there is no limit to this last definition, right? I have completed my part, but you have not completed yours. I am therefore the only one who can choose whether or not to continue the contract, and you cannot prevent me from doing so! And now I say that the contract is off, and therefore each of us must return to the other what they have given! So I'm taking my daughter back!"

Odalia seemed more furious than ever, and the air around her trembled with unprecedented violence; but suddenly her face relaxed and she seemed less aggressive, although she still retained an unprecedented anger. "All right. So be it, I can't escape the contract after all" she hissed. "In that case, I take everything else back. I want you and Amity out of this house within the hour"

Alador knew that if his wife had given up so quickly it meant that she had something in mind, but at that moment the best thing to do was to leave as soon as possible. "As you wish" he said as he tried to get back onto all fours. "I'm going to tell the kids to pack their things..."

"Kids? I don't think you got it right" Odalia interrupted. "I said I want you and Amity out of here. I'll keep Edric and Emira"

Alador turned pale. "What? But you can't..."

"Oh, yes, I can. The contract said that you had to give me a daughter who was like me, and in exchange I gave you everything I could. But Edric and Emira are not like me, right? They are not witches, they are totally human. And they came out of my womb, which means I gave them to you, and therefore they fall under the definition of 'all that I could give you'. Therefore, if the contract is off, they belong to me" Odalia said with a furious grimace. "The choice is yours, Alador: you can leave this house without even a penny left together with a daughter that you don't even know and who feels disgust for you, or you can stay here with the two children who, even if they are now angry at how you treated their sister anyway, they love you. These are the options, choose carefully"

Alador's lip trembled. "Odalia... please, you can't..."

"I can't what? Use the rules of the contract to my advantage, like you're doing?" Odalia growled back. "You took that deal away from me when I was young and naive and I was convinced that you would always stay by my side, and in fact I didn't set the right boundaries for it, but do you really think that after you showed me your true colors fourteen years ago I wouldn't make sure to find some means to take control away from you in case you decide to turn out to be not just an asshole but also a scoundrel? I'm the witch here, I'm the one who's an expert in magic and loopholes; if you think you can win against me at this game you're stupider than I thought". With one swift movement she grabbed his face and brought it in front of hers. "Do you really think you can take everything from me, use me for decades to become filthy rich, ignore my daughter for fourteen years and suddenly decide to change and clear your conscience? It doesn't work that way, dear husband. I've waited too many years for this moment, and I won't give it up just because the miserable walking carcass I made the mistake of trusting has started to develop moral scruples and has decided to finally start being a father. You have no say in the matter, is that clear? You're irrelevant!"

"Odalia... please..." Alador whispered to her, but just at that moment a green chain appeared around his neck and squeezed him tightly, almost making him suffocate.

"I'M THE ONE IN CHARGE HERE!" Odalia screamed, pulling the chain towards her. "So… if I tell you to stop being an idiot… if I tell you to never try to make any claim on my daughter again… and I tell you to never try to stop me from building the Amity's future... what do you say?"

Alador trembled, and then looked down. "Yes... Odalia"

His wife's expression changed for a moment and the anger seemed to fade from her eyes, but it didn't take more than a second to return; Odalia knocked the chain from her hands and Alador fell to the ground. "Amity's fairy godmother would never have said yes" the witch said as she watched him crawl. "As much as I hate the presence of that treacherous bird, Lilith was ready to fight me even when she knew that I could kill her with a finger, and she's only known Amity for a year. She wouldn't have hesitated to throw her life away to protect her from me. And instead, look at you... you surrendered after just a couple of threats from me. A real man would have fought for his daughter, but instead you abandon her as soon as the situation becomes unbearable for you. And someone like you hoped he could start behaving like a father? You disgust me"

Alador was trembling on the ground, not daring to even look up, partly out of fear for his wife but mostly out of shame. Odalia seemed to want to say something else, and for a moment her gaze softened again, but then she turned her head and headed for the door. "Keep this in mind: as you always said, Amity is my problem, not yours. Remember this and never dare to rebel against me again. I won't always be so kind"

Odalia was about to leave, but suddenly Alador's voice came from behind her: "Stop it"

She turned and looked again at her husband lying on the ground, who had barely had the strength to lift his head. "What?"

"Stop saying you won't always be nice to me" Alador answered with difficulty. "You hate me, and you have the right to do so... but I know for a fact that you will never actually hurt me. You could have turned me into a frog fourteen years ago, or any other time during these years; it would have been easy for you to fake my disappearance and our kids would never suspect a thing. I've made you angry so many times and yet you've never left me anything more than a few scratches. So stop pretending that one day you might get pissed off enough to do something serious to me, because I know you never will"

Odalia's nails ran down the door, scraping the wood. "You're crossing the line, Alador" she warned him.

"And for the same reason I could never do it to you" Alador continued. "I could have reported you to Amity's fairy godmother, asked that djinn for help, or even just waited until you went to sleep and stuck a knife down your throat, but I'll never do that. I can't do that, just like you can't hurt me. So stop making empty threats. None of us will ever hurt each other because we are bonded"

"What, are you trying to use the love card now?" Odalia said with an annoyed sound. "Don't bullshit me. I don't know what stupid illusion you and I lived in when we were young, but it wasn't love. You totally proved it"

"I know. And that's why I ask you to stop" Alador told her, finally managing to get on his knees. "Odalia... you are free to believe me or not, but I truly loved you, and I have never reproached myself enough for my cowardice. Even with the company of Edric and Emira I have lived the last fourteen years in regret because I gave priority to myself, and I abandoned you and Amity because of my selfishness. What I'm asking you... is don't make the same mistake I did. Don't prioritize what you want, don't lose everything like I did". A small tear rolled down his face. "I already know that I can no longer be part of this family, but you can still prevent your... OUR daughter from hating you! Go to her and tell her the whole truth, and then give up that obsession of yours once and for all. You can still live out the rest of your years here surrounded by our kids, and don't say you wouldn't like it because I know that's not true. Let go of your ambitions and really think about Amity's future... because if you really think about her future, you will realize on your own that you have to stop. It's not too late yet. You can still be a good mother"

Odalia narrowed her eyes and gritted her teeth, but this time she didn't scream. "Should I give up now? After all this time preparing for this, should I back down from the brink of victory? Should I throw away the reward I've waited for so many years, since I was even younger than Amity? I don't think so. I don't intend to give up a whole life of effort, planning and preparation just for a nice speech from you"

Alador sighed. He remained silent for a moment, then he asked: "Do you remember what subject you loved most in school?"

"Huh? Why is it mattered now?" Odalia muttered.

Alador ignored his question. "I remember it very well. It was philosophy. You really liked asking questions to solve... you were a great thinker even back then. I, on the other hand, hated it, I preferred more scientific subjects, and in fact I didn't do very well in that subject... and so you tutored me. And while you spoke you managed to hypnotize me. Your way of speaking, your philosophy... they were something extraordinary". His eyes narrowed slightly. "And in particular... there is a detail of those private lessons you gave me that has remained imprinted in my mind for all these years. A phrase from a philosopher whose name I don't remember. It was this: 'The true unhappy people in the world are not those who have missed their opportunity, but those who have destroyed it with their own hands'. At the time I considered it a ridiculous phrase: how, I said to myself, could a man ruin himself with his own hands? But now... I can say with absolute certainty that that philosopher whose name I don't even remember was absolutely right. Destroying your own happiness... is really easy". He looked at his wife with pleading eyes: "Odalia... I destroyed my happiness... don't destroy yours too"

Odalia remained silent, and her expression almost completely abandoned all traces of anger; even her hair stopped twirling in the air and fell down to her shoulders. Slowly, all traits of her witch form disappeared and she returned to normal. She looked at her husband for a moment longer, then she turned and grabbed the handle. "Happiness... must be grasped. That's what life has taught me, and I don't intend to give it up now that I'm so close to grasping mine" she replied, though she seemed to make an effort to say it. "Ghost, come. Let's go to sleep"

"Mistress, please. You should at least think about it..." Ghost tried to tell her.

"LET'S GO TO SLEEP!" Odalia screamed, then she put a hand over her face and let out a growl that sounded like that of a wounded beast. With a click she opened the door and left the laboratory, followed by the cat. Alador was left alone, lying on the floor of his now destroyed laboratory; he looked at the spot where his wife had left for a few more moments, and then he lowered his head and rested it on the floor.

The phrase said by Alador really exists, but in our world it was not said by a philosopher but... by a character from Dylan Dog's comics XD