Tales of the Pearly City (Pearly Tales Vol.1) [Completed]

5. It's just Cal

"Wendy Moved Out!" Cal exclaimed

"Yep." Peter began wiping up Cal's mess.

"That's impossible! She should have the biggest loyalty complex in the world!"

"I understand you had a hand in crafting us, mate. But the issue wasn't her, it was me."

Calloway who realized that he'd been standing up, sat back down. "Do continue."

"Now don't look at me that way, Mr. Cal. I still love her with all my heart but..."

"But..."

"Ever since I got my life back and my second chance. Things just haven't been right. Am I really the same Peter I was before? I don't remember dying, and all my memories from before my rebirth feel more like a dream rather than reality, you see. I've been conflicted is Wendy really in love with me, or the past me. This ate away at me and soon it was too much for Wendy to bare. With her bags and the girls in tow one morning, she claimed that as soon as I was ready she'd listen but until I sorted everything out she couldn't bear watching me suffer and not being able to do anything."

"So what you're saying is that it's my fault?"

"NO, I would never accuse you or anyone of my misfortunes."

"An identity crisis is it?"

"I guess you could call it that." Peter had the appearance of a broken man now that his mask was gone.

"I see. Well maybe the circumstances of your rebirth may shed some light on the situation. Would you care to hear them?"

Peter looked up with a glimmer of hope. "I'll take anything you're willing to give me, Mr. Cal."

"Just Cal. Anyway, you may not be fully aware of this but on the day that you died many other NPC's died in the raid. We were successful in pushing back their numbers but the damage had been done. I was only recently given the power to augment the city and was torn about how to handle the situation. Should I just revive all the elves and make it like it had been, or leave it and start from scratch."

"You mean to say that there were others like me that you revived?"

"No. On that day I decided that the dead should remain dead, but when I found you my heart was moved. It seems as though you died protecting your family, now as rare as it is for elves to have children I found it especially peculiar for you to have two. When the moment of truth came I couldn't leave the family fatherless, yet I only had so much of your... let's call it essence or your soul to work with."

"My soul?"

"Yes, a complicated series of information that makes you, you. I compiled what I could and found it lacking. So I started by inquiring about your character from you initial creator and your wife and children. I repaired your body and inserted your soul back into it."

"So, why-"

"Let me continue, it's like this. Your "youness" is still you but it was lacking in strength or size, so I gave your "youness" a little bit of me and bits from your family. I also gave you a purpose which I inscribed on your back. I made you to be more than you were. I gave you a greater capacity to love, not for your sake but for your family's sake especially that of your daughters. Alongside that, I gave your wife a greater capacity for loyalty for yours and your daughters sake. You see, Peter, you are still Peter the same as before but if you feel different it is only because it is by the breath of your family that your heart beats now. And that your ultimate purpose was never to live for yourself but it was to love your daughters. You were brought back to life not to be a tavern keeper, but to be a father."