Chapter 10 Breakfast Included #2
“That is not who Declan is,” Hein objected. But softly.
“Maybe that’s not what he wants to be. Probably. He’s… strange. Not like Ashryn. Not like… anyone,” Vex ended lamely.
I should be glad he is not much like me. Though, if he was, the answer to what to do about him would be so much easier.
“Why did you come now, Vex? Because the glamour on him was fading? Because you were tired of watching him from afar and wanted to see him up close? Talk to him? Be with him? Guide him?” Hein asked.
Vex’s throat felt strangely tight. “Those are all fatherly things, Hein. And, as I said, I don’t know what I am going to do with him.”
The door to the inn swung open and his son was there.
And he was not alone.
There were suddenly more Vexes here in the Sudden Dawn than there were in Nhamashel. There was himself, his son, his nephew and his niece.
It’s like a family reunion.
Rahven stalked into the room first while the others hung back, giving him space.
They all respect him.
The hood of his son’s jacket was pulled up over his head so that it shaded his face.
Those dark sunglasses were back. His hands were both covered with his sleeves and he had them stuck into his pockets despite the powerful Adiva that Rhalyf had enchanted for him.
Despite covering up more skin than showing it, he still exuded power. His son was naturally intimidating.
Fascinating. I was not this way at his age. Nowhere near.
With Rahven’s eyes covered and his mind quiet, it was very hard to read what his son was thinking as he took in Vex, his empty plate, the fork on the floor and Hein smoking opposite him.
“Rahven, there you are!” Vex smiled. “It’s been ages since we last spoke.”
“Ages? You’ve never left my head,” Rahven remarked dryly. “You were there even before you knew about me.” His brows drew together and he said more softly, “You’ve always been there.”
Had he? He’d had dreams before he knew of Rahven’s existence.
Dreams of shivering in an empty tower room.
Of a tattered blanket. Of too little food.
Of endless battering training. Of Ashryn smiling.
Of Vulre’s glowing, sulfurous eyes filled with hate.
Of failing to conjure a single spark of magic.
But they’d mixed together with memories of his own similar childhood where the only spark of light and love had been his beloved elder brother Lysanthir.
He shook himself. That was not a profitable path to go down.
“You are my son. We are connected,” Vex said lightly even as he realized it was true.
Connected… He saw through my eyes. Heard through my ears. The connection goes both ways. Have the gods done this?
Either way, Rahven was incredibly dangerous. To him? But what about others? He had always lamented that there were not two of him. Could Rahven’s dangerousness be used to his benefit?
“Father, are you making a nuisance of yourself?” Rahven crossed his arms over his chest. It was an impressive chest. Really, his son should not hide himself under layers of shapeless fabric!
“A–a nuisance?! First, I am an annoyance and now a nuisance! I do not know if I have come up or down in your estimation, Rahven!” Vex pouted.
Yes, he was pouting. Even he would admit that.
“Helgrom, has he been behaving himself?” Rahven asked.
Hein opened his mouth, but Vex jumped in to say, “I have! I have not even complained about the lack of breakfast. My free breakfast. That I paid twice for.”
“You haven’t handed over your gold just yet,” Hein grunted. Seeing Rahven’s confusion, he said, “I assumed your father would be sleeping until dusk so there’s no staff to cook for him. I offered him the use of the kitchen himself.”
“Yes, but I am a guest and I am sick of my own cooking,” Vex grimaced. He had been looking forward to the Dawn’s rumored good food.
“I’ll do it,” Rahven said and started towards the kitchen.
Vex’s mouth opened to object. To allow Rahven to make him food would be to show ultimate trust. After all, servants could attempt to poison food, enchant food or worse, but a child?
They would definitely do it. Unless one was absolutely sure otherwise and, even then, it was a near thing to allow it.
This was a Kindreth cultural understanding that likely Rahven did not remember.
But he saw that knowledge flash across Rhalyf and Haera’s faces.
But then another face interposed between him and them.
“Finley!” He found himself smiling and warmth filled him. That wasn’t altogether unexpected to feel affection for his son’s best friend, but he was a little surprised at the amount of it.
“It’s okay. You can trust Declan,” Finley assured him. He knew about the custom. Of course, he did. Finley had studied the Kindreth. Studied him. “He’s a great cook. And if I know him right, he’s making you crepes and bacon. You’ll love it.”
Vex blinked once. “Ah… bacon?”
“It is the food of the gods,” Ailduin said quietly. “All parts of the pig are truly divine. Ham is a revelation.”
The Sun King had entered the inn last, allowing others to precede him. So like Ailduin to serve others.
“Ailduin! How good to see you again! All of you! Please, sit, sit. There are plenty of places here,” Vex gestured to the table.
Rhalyf and Haera both moved for the chair farthest from him with the clearest view of the exits. They practically bumped shoulders. When they realized what they were doing, they glared at one another.
What will happen here?
In the past, he would have known exactly what would have happened here.
Haera would have stared Rhalyf down, even going so far as to shoulder him out of the way, while Rhalyf would have managed to make that seat undesirable in some way by blocking her view with his feet or something like that.
But the tenseness left Haera’s expression first and she gestured for Rhalyf to take the spot.
“I’m sorry, brother. You sit there,” she said.
Rhalyf blinked as Haera moved to sit with her back by the fireplace.
Rhalyf then began to study the chair minutely, looking for something wrong with it.
A tack left on the seat? A raised nail possibly coated with poison?
A weak leg that might just collapse beneath him?
Ailduin was watching Rhalyf, confusion writ large on his face for Vex was certain that Rhalyf was a gentleman in this incarnation.
“Where would you like to sit, King Aquilan?” Finley asked, even as he keenly wished to sit next to Vex, but likely he thought one seat should be reserved for Rahven and the other for the Sun King.
But Ailduin clearly saw Finley’s repressed desire and smiled warmly at him. “You catch up with Vex first. I am certain you have many things to tell him. After all, he sent you to the Temple of the Necrilem.”
Ailduin’s eyes narrowed briefly at him. Though he might not know exactly what that was, Ailduin clearly guessed it was a dangerous place.
And it was.
Deadly really.
But here Finley was.
And more than that, he had The Dark Gift and the dagger Drethes Umbra in his possession. The scar on his neck showed he had used it. He would have had to in order to end its last user and take it for his own.
Finley beamed at Ailduin and settled in the seat next to Vex while the Sun King settled next to Hein. Vex was not unhappy with this arrangement. He was eager to talk to Finley. He moved the pointer finger of his right hand and the magic surrounded them.
“We can talk openly, Finley,” he said.
Finley’s large blue eyes–made larger behind his glasses–blinked rapidly. “I don’t–”
“They will hear us speaking about a highly sanitized version of what actually happened in the Temple of the Necrilem,” he explained.
More blinking and then a dawning smile of awe. “What about our lips? I’m pretty sure that Rhalyf can lip read.”
“Oh, he can. But the magic takes care of that, too,” Vex assured him.
“And if they ask something? How will we know what to say if what we’ve been talking about is quite different?” Finley pressed.
Clever.
“They won’t ask anything,” he said.
“Even Aquilan?”
Ah.
“He’ll respect your privacy,” Vex answered. “If he asks you later about what we talked about, it will be up to you to tell him… or not.”
“But that means that Rhalyf won’t know about any of it–”
“Do you want Rhalyf to know everything?” Vex tilted his head to the side.
“I…” Finley’s eyes lowered. “The Professor tells me that Mages have secrets and that Rhalyf will understand if I have some.”
“Professor?” He lifted an eyebrow. This was an expected development. Who was Finley talking about?
Finley gestured towards his right temple. “I hear him in my head. He was a great friend of mine–a teacher–who… who died. But he’s stayed with me. And now I can hear him. I heard him even back then, but I… Well, I can hear him far better now. Funny.” Finley frowned. “He’s not talking now.”
Perhaps because he does not want me to overhear him. Curious. And dangerous. Undoubtedly. Will Finley realize this?
“How utterly clever a spell you developed!” Finley stared ahead of himself silently for some moments, absorbing this, before turning back to Vex. “You really do think of everything.”
“I’ve had a lot of chances to perfect it,” he admitted. His eyes dipped towards the hidden book and dagger. “I see that you obtained your prizes. The Dark Gift. Drethes Umbra.”
“Drethes Umbra? Is that the dagger’s name?” Finley was holding his breath as he searched Vex’s face.
“It is.” A nod.
“So you know all about this type of magic? The Professor said that it hasn’t been properly practiced in over 50,000 years.” Finley faintly shook his head as if he couldn’t quite believe that.
Vex stilled for a moment before murmuring, “The Professor said that, did he?”
“The dead have information that they didn’t have in life,” Finley explained. “At least, that’s what he told me.”
“Yes, yes, I do believe that is an accurate time frame since the Death Mage Ipraxus Kane wielded the book and the dagger.”
“Ipraxus Kane?” Finley repeated the name as if tasting it. Again, that distant look appeared in his blue eyes as he filed that information away for later. For one so young, he was something else. He refocused on Vex. “Did you know him?”
“Are you asking if I am older than 50,000 years?” Vex laughed.
Finley blushed. “Perhaps.”
Vex pursed his lips. “What I will say, Finley, is that I have chased the legend of Ipraxus Kane for a long time.”
A single blink. “You have? What need did you have for a necromancer?”
Vex smiled. How clever for Finley to have jumped to that conclusion! He really mustn’t underestimate this young man.
“I…” Whether his next words would have been lies or truth, Vex was never sure as a glorious smell suddenly drifted on the air to his nostrils. He drew in a deep breath and practically levitated from the table. “What is that scent?”
Finley laughed. “That, King Vex, is the smell of bacon. Welcome to Earth.”