Chapter 5 – He always does
Tak! Tak! Tak!
Sefira's crimson-nailed finger tapped rhythmically against the table, her eyes resting on the spot where Cassius had been sitting.
Her son had gone back to his room looking oddly determined and excited about something none of them could place. At that thought, a loving smile found its way onto her face without her permission.
"My baby is just so cute, isn't he?" She breathed, tapping her nails again and again, the sound subtly shifting with each strike.
If one looked closely, they would notice a thin thread of blood seeping from the tip of her nail, spreading through the table like cracks through stone.
Morgan and Aldrin noticed. Neither said anything.
"He is." Morgan answered, her face now oddly neutral. Her eyes drifted to her brother's empty dessert plate, the spoon resting across it, a little leftover still clinging to the bowl.
With a small beckoning gesture, the spoon slipped into its own shadow and reappeared in her hand.
She put it in her mouth without hesitation. Her eyes closed in quiet pleasure.
"When will you stop doing that?" Sefira asked, one crimson eyebrow arching.
"How about never?"
"Just don't let Cass see it." She warned. "You wouldn't want him knowing about this side of you, would you?"
Morgan grinned. "Why not? He'd love his big sister even more, I'd wager."
"Oh?" Sefira's grin widened. "Even after finding out you collect every spoon and plate he's ever eaten from inside your—!"
"Let's stop there, Mother." Morgan's dark eyes deepened. "Some things are better left alone. Or would you like me to bring up yours? Two can play this, Mother."
Sefira chuckled, the sound like thick blood hitting hard ground. "One day I want to know how you found out, Morgan."
"Over my dead body." Morgan licked the spoon and said nothing more.
Aldrin looked between his wife and daughter and shook his head, unsurprised. These two were always like this whenever Cassius wasn't in the room.
Then his eyes widened slightly at a thought. He reached into his space ring and produced a white notebook with crimson pages, setting it on the table with a soft tak!
Sefira and Morgan immediately twisted their heads toward him, eyes carrying a questioning light.
Aldrin didn't return their gaze. He raised his right hand unhurriedly. The shadows froze, then surged toward it, coalescing until they formed a pen darker than the darkness around it.
Without his level of power, even he would struggle to see it against the shade.
He gripped it, lowered his hand, and began to write, his face completely serious.
"What are you documenting today?" Sefira asked, leaning over to look.
"Cassius," Aldrin said flatly, "said he likes older women. This needs to be recorded."
She chuckled. "True." She nodded. "Though I would have preferred it were the younger sibling and not Isolde."
"I said the same." Morgan added, spoon still in her mouth. "We could have managed it if we'd pushed a little harder."
"Too risky." Aldrin said quietly. "The King has had his eyes on us lately…ever since the event with you, Sefira, against that Tier Three Family. Isolde will be enough. And don't forget, the King wants the girl for his own son."
Morgan and Sefira both clicked their tongues, knowing exactly what that meant.
The King would never allow such talent to exist outside his bloodline's reach.
"What about the young boy?" Morgan inquired. "The one from the Tier One Stormblessed Family. What was his name again?"
"Emrys." Sefira answered. "And that's none of our business. For once, let another family take the burn of the Royal Family's greed."
A silence swelled between them, soon broken by Morgan.
"Still, it's a genuine shame." She sighed. "Cass's Aspect is unlike anything I've seen come out of our Blood Origin Pool. And yet his Birthright Capacity is so low he can barely activate it properly."
"Or perhaps," Sefira said, "his Aspect is so powerful that his Capacity simply can't keep up with it. Like trying to power a Tier Two artifact with a Mortal-level Essence."
She shrugged. "It simply can't work."
"True." Aldrin nodded.
"But there must be a solution." Morgan said, looking between her parents. "Can't we find one?"
"Not without involving a god." Sefira said. "And we can't afford that. The gods who favour us are few — very few — and I trust none of them with my baby."
At those words, a red light flashed in front of her.
[The Queen That Swims The Red River frowns at you.]
[The Queen That Swims The Red River does not appreciate the lack of faith from her Blessed.]
Sefira's smile turned sharp. "Yes, even you, lovely Red Queen. I don't trust you either."
[The Queen That Swims The Red River regrets making you her Blessed.]
"Ouch." She said with mock sadness, then waved the notification away.
Morgan and Aldrin caught her gestures and immediately understood. They didn't react. It was a common enough occurrence.
"Then what do we do about it?" Morgan pressed again. "There must be a god somewhere with no appetite for our bloodline."
"There are." Aldrin nodded, finally done recording the day's events. He stored the notebook away and straightened back into his usual posture. "But drawing their attention is difficult. Making them consider Cassius as a Blessed is harder still."
"The only thing we can do for now is protect him." He continued. "Protect him until a solution presents itself. Dorian is already working on it. The Twins as well."
Morgan stood immediately. "Then I'm getting involved too."
"Don't you have enough on your plate, Morgan?" Sefira asked, still tapping her nail against the table.
"I can manage multiple things at once." She retorted, pocketing the spoon, then dissolved into a wisp of shadows and was gone.
Only Sefira and Aldrin remained, eyes finding each other across the table.
"Was finding him a wife the right choice?" Sefira asked quietly. "Rather than a Guardian?"
"A Guardian has limits on where he can be at the same time." Aldrin said. "You know that. A wife does not."
"Still." Sefira smiled emptily, her crimson eyes churning like a sea of blood. "If she decides to be a problem. If she falters in her duty. No one will stop me."
"No one will stop me either." Aldrin said.
A brief silence settled between them.
"But let's trust him." Aldrin added. "Cassius might surprise us."
He paused.
Then, slowly…
"He always does."
—End of Chapter 5—