As soon as the mid day meal was over, Slavian excused himself and, finding there was a backdoor, stepped out. Behind the house was a grassy yard going into the creek. On the left was a wooden fence and on the right was part of the house. Slavian breathed out tensly. Nel'Andra walked out after him and looked up at him with his glowing eyes.

"I just need a moment. Fresh air." Slavian said.

Nel'Andra raised a hand in the motion 'why? Air inside.'

"I don't know- just do." Slavian shook his head. His muscles tensed and relaxed like it was cold, but it was warm. His next breath hitched in his throat and he rubbed dew from his eyes. Suddenly self-concious, he stepped to the side into the corner and leaned against the wall. His friend followed and stayed near.

"Nel'Andra," The prince started. "Why do people praise father, while others speak against him? Mother said such good things, but people chose to die than live under him. People are offering prayers and thanks, and people are scheming his demise. Who is correct? Is he good? Is he bad?"

The prince took a steadying breath and shoved his emotions back. This place was messing with his head. There was too much noise, too many people, too much laughter, affection, and camaraderie. It was too much of grandmothers and mothers and fathers giving children attention around him.

It was suffocating.

At last Nel'Andra motioned, 'He is.'

"He is what?"

'He is.' The Soran-Blood motioned again.

"That doesn't tell me anything. He is good? He is bad?"

'He is. More- he is your father. Other questions- no matter.'

Slavian sighed and pinched his nose near the base. Why were the other questions irrelevant? He was trying to sort out just who his father was.

The Soran-Blood added, 'Always conflict. Every line drawn someone is on other side. Law cannot please all.'

"I guess you're right." Slavian leaned back against the wall and looked up at the sun. If he looked close enough, he thought he could see the tip of the tower where father was. Yet, at the same time, the tower was never ending. He chuckled. "Can you believe we climbed that? I thought I was going to fall so many times, but hand holds happened to be exactly where we needed them, the windows were convenient. And them gusts were so strong they managed to catch us and throw us in or shove us into the stone!" He looked down at his friend, a mischievous grin plastered across his face. "Want to do it again?"

Nel'Andra shook his head frantically.

"You're no fun." He said with no bite.

The backdoor opened and out poured a throng. Like shepherds, the patriarch of the Revue family lead them, children and animal alike, out into the yard where immediately they scattered. Nel'Andra leaped up to the roof above the door and hung there above their heads to avoid being trampled.

Krakow immediately set the children into groups to contest in a game. One would normally think there not be enough players for a large sport within a single family, but as the players were tallied out, there were more than enough and to Slavian's surprise he selected a third team among them. He told them the rules, threw a ball into their midst, and took many steps back as the rules were immediately forgotten and the entire yard turned to chaos. Slavian had no idea what the goal or aim was for victory, and it likely was they had no idea either. He watched, bewildered, as the mass of arms and legs drifted from one side to another.

"That should wear them out." Krakow explained. He approached and sat on the wooden porch beside Slavian. He smiled and looked up at the older boy. "You wish to join in?"

"No." Slavian said quickly. Then adding, "I'm good. I think I will keep out where I am likely to not be injured." The man chuckled, and nodded. The father looked on his children and smiled. Slavian, suddenly self-conscious, stepped inside.

Inside was hardly better. Krakow's wife, whose name he forgot, was sitting with Aelius and Fereren and mothering him, fixing his hair, scrubbing his face, threatening to feed him until his stomach burst, and just- no. Slavian's gut clenched and he sharply looked away. Instead, he sat across from Val'Spear, who was poised over the table facing an inkwell and suspiciously empty paper.

"You going to go far at this rate." Slavian jested.

"I'm still sorting my thoughts."

"What's so hard about 'hey, its been a while!'"

"You have a lot to learn about the poetic nature of women."

"Poetry." Slavian gagged. "Ew. That's for literate know-it-alls."

"If the written word is not your thing-" Slavian jumped as Krakow's wife appeared behind him. "Why don't you go outside with the others and play ball?"

"I'm good." Slavian answered quickly. The suffocating, wrenching gut returned.

"Seriously, I think you would like it if-"

"Can you all just leave me alone!" Slavian jumped up, his gut finally snapping and releasing itself from his mouth. In its release and the silence to follow, he stood huffing in sweat and many eyes on him.

He felt his blood in his mouth and heart beat in his ears. In his mind's eye he was brought back to the day he stabbed his father, and how he snapped and his mother died. Both times he acted impulsively. Both times there was the same silence as death and eyes on him.

Slavian looked between them all in a blur before running in the only direction left to him. He took up the stairs to the second floor. The second floor had a large assortment of beds and chests for everyone and windows leading out the front and out the back. He climbed through the back window onto the roof and fell on his hands and knees.

He felt hot water on his cheek and run down his face. He put a hand up and wiped his face. Sniffing, he sat and watched. At this stage the children had decided the metal man was more interesting then a ball and took to chasing Nel'Andra around the yard.

"Can I come out and join you?" Krakow's wife asked from the window.

"I'm sorry." Slavian choked. "I just want to be alone right now."

"Well, how about I be alone with you?"

Slavian did not answer, so she put a foot out and slowly leveraged herself onto the roof. "You know." She continued, gently. "Silence is consent among the Ire. The name is Abigail."

"Slavian." He replied.

Abigail sat beside him and watched in silence. Despite the noise and laughs, Slavian kept his eyes upward and directed towards Dyson and the clouds. At times he might glance down, but just as quickly he forced his attention up. After a time he laid back and gazed at the sun.

"Do you have any siblings, Slavian?" Abigail asked.

"Yeah, father adopted a lot."

"Any your favorite?"

An unreadable expression passed by him. He sighed and closed his eyes. "Not really. They're annoying." She nodded, starting to piece at least one thing together. Slavian sat up and looked down at the kids. They were now starting to tire and slow down enough for him to not see them as one giant mass of limbs. He asked, "I don't know how to ask this is a way that Chicken-Scratch won't yell 'rude', but is my eyes playing tricks on me or do most of them look the same?"

"Oh, they definitely do."

"Thank the Ancestors!" He groaned in relief.

"I had a son, then surrogate twins, then triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, sextuplets, and finally septuplets." She smiled warmly and laughed at Slavian's horrification.

"How? I don't even know half those words!"

"With a lot of help!"

"What's a surrogate?"

"The twins that are a boy and girl. Sanec is about your age. They are strong and healthy. We are lucky and blessed. We managed to avoid the Arayot Plague, build a good home in Kes where we were allowed to have so many blessings, and now here where there is so much food, water, and safety under the Aeterna's gaze."

Slavian blinked in surprise and looked at her seriously. "You lived in Kes? Where all these slaves are from? How did you avoid...?"

"With planning and foresight." She confirmed. "We saw what was coming and predicted the changing times. Krakow and Sanec came here to prepare a home for us, which is when they met your friend Val'Spear, and the rest of us stayed and prepared to leave. Granted, the Empire's conquest was much faster than we thought. We anticipated him taking a decade or more, no one could have expected it to only take a month or two. But at the time of the slavery we were already in Ire waiting for Krakow to send the word."

She said this casually as if telling a story from history. She expressed how lucky they were, and truly she believed they were lucky to have left Kes at the time they did considering they did not believe it even a possibility of how swift the Aeterna's subjugation was. Had they dallied at all they might have been caught up in the chaos to follow Kes' fall. Ire had fallen but its princes had remained and kept the peace in the transition time. Kes did not have that luxury.

Yet Slavian's thoughts grew troubled and focused on another, singular thing.

"Krakow... left?" He asked.

Something in his tone stopped her and she looked at him. His head was down so his white hair covered his eyes from her. In two words laced with anger and confusion, and personal investment, he spoke volumes to her. Whether it be experience or just good ol' gut instinct of an adult, woman, or mother, she put enough pieces together to have an idea of the picture surrounding him and his outburst. It hadn't escaped her how he fled or avoided specific things.

Naturally there was no way she could know the complete picture, but if one were to lay out her conclusions, it was enough.

"Yes." She whispered. "Its not normal, but sometimes, that is what fathers have to do to build a good home."

He flinched as if slapped. "Even so why not take you with him?"

"Then we all would have been homeless. He went to prepare the home to receive us."

"So you're fine with it, even if it would have taken a ten years?" He asked more seriously. He looked up at her and she was right, the anger was there, but also hope and between was confusion. He was a child.

"Even if it takes ten-thousand." She affirmed.

Slavian stared at her a long moment, digesting it. At last he looked down and said, "Can I be alone for a minute?"

She nodded, and to his surprise kissed him on the forehead before struggling her way back in. Slavian watched her leave and put a hand to his forehead, feeling the warmth. Then, suddenly self-conscious, he rubbed it out. Sighing, he laid down and stared up at the sun, at the top of the tower, and if he looked closely enough, maybe at his father.

-------

Izthark spent some time surveying the establishment. Now that he knew Caius was alive and was making local purchases, it was an easy task to find him. The man wasn't trying to hide at all, but had built an impressive gambling hall. There was a line to get in that went down two blocks, and certain VIPs were allowed to bypass the line entirely, them and their Kes-Blood slaves. Further examination into the windows, including those on the roof or an elevation, provided him a basic layout of the premises.

He waited until he confirmed Caius was there. The target entered the front door, bypassing the line to get in through the VIP entrance, and disappeared within.

------

Slavian stepped down into the main room. Without needing to see Chicken-Scratch's disapproving gaze, he felt bad for before and apologized for his outburst. An apology the others quickly accepted. 

"Can we go and see the city some more?" Slavian asked.

Chicken-Scratch sighed and looked at the empty paper he had yet to start. "Well, our immediate business is resolved and Aelius will be in good hands, so, yes, let us see more of it."

"Actually, can I come?" Aelius asked. He was sitting at the table with Abigail attempting at drawing something, or writing. It was impossible for Slavian to tell with one blind and the other illiterate.

Fereren shot a concerned look at Chicken-Scratch and an unspoken conversation passed in the blink of an eye. "Are you sure?" His father asked.

"I'd like to go." The blind boy affirmed. "I feel better."

"Some fresh air would do him good." Abigail smiled.

Fereren was slow to agree, concern painted across his face, but agree he did. "So long as I'm there." Aelius' frowned briefly, but quickly composed himself.

Abigail rose and stepped outside for a moment to call Senec in. Senec returned panting and sweating and having shed his outer clothing. Abigail said, "Senec knows the area like the back of his hand. Senec, why don't you guide our guests and let them see the district?"

Senec wiped the sweat from his face and retorted, "But mom! I'm tired. And hot. And sweaty. and dirty. and-"

"And its nice out for a walk. Very brisk, so you can cool down." She replied kindly. Senec sighed, recognizing defeat, and nodded. "Very good, go and get your outer robe so you look half-way presentable. I promise, no one wants to look at your chest hairs."

"I have chest hairs?" Senec gasped and looked at himself, but his mother nudged him onward and he ran to get a change in clothes.

Shortly after, the group comprised of Senec, Aelius, Fereren, Val'Spear, Slavian, and his bodyguard Nel'Andra journeyed down the street. The street was the market, running north and south of the capital city parallel to the river as it ran by a number of ports. The explosion of the Empire across the world brought an influx of imports and the vast majority of it sailed down this river. Thankfully, for their sakes, the northern market lacked the open slave markets found in other cities, because Barjol dominated the local slave market, and they were able to enjoy the colors, smells, and exotics from across the world being shoved unceremoniously into a single street by many a boisterous and charismatic seller. The sheer volume of goods attributed to the buildings on the left and right having a second and third street built ontop of their roofs to accommodate traffic and sellers, and the crowning point of the market was an indoor marketplace at a point where the river curved around slightly and allowed three ports all at once. The indoor market had three floors and a public bathhouse, with a hidden fourth floor dug out of the basement connected with tunnels to the three ports to act as a storehouse.

And with eyes full of wonder and appetite leading the way they explored all of it.

Eventually they grew tired and stopped to rest. They found a garden within the indoor marketplace to rest at, but some wished to proceed on.

"I want to see more!" Slavin protested, his mouth stuffed with milk bread and other sweet things in his hands, and Nel'Andra's hands. 

"So do I." Aelius agreed.

"We only just sat down!" Chicken-Scratch laughed. "Give us a second!"

"Second over!" Slavian exclaimed.

Fereren looked between them thoughtfully and looked at Senec. Senec, for his part, was trying to steal some of the sweets from Slavian, only for Nel'Andra to unnaturally swivel his head and make odd bark-like sounds, startling the boy back.

"Senec." Fereren said.

"Yeah?"

"Can you protect my little soldier?"

Senec gulped and hesitated. He understood the undertone. He was being asked to take the boys off and explore a bit more, and to be responsible. "Sir, I have a bajillion brothers and sisters. We already lost one, the eldest, when the nobles took him away. I aspire to be a Numerenai to protect people. I would rather die myself than..."

The others were stunned momentarily. Fereren's composure softened and he said, "Well, lets see to it neither happen, aye?"

Senec nodded and Fereren motioned them off. "You three go on. We will be here when you return."

Excited, the boys ran off. Aelius went in the wrong direction and after being yelled at by Slavian and stumbling over bushes, the other boys grabbed him and took him along. 

"Hopefully they won't hurt him, or push him too far." Val'Spear muttered. "His progress is remarkable, and the change in atmosphere has restored much of him, but he is still recovering."

"Aelius is stronger than he thinks he is." Fereren concluded.

"Yes, but dealing with blindness is not easy, for him or them."

"They'll be bruised and figure it out." The general shrugged. "We did. Still have that scar on my leg when you shoved me off the tree branch in your step-mother's garden."

"It was barely a twig." Val'Spear waved it off.

"It was a twig at the top of the tree and I still remember how you panicked thinkin' me dead and Caius, as usual, had to get us out of trouble," Fereren smirked victoriously. "While I got back up and threw you over my shoulder." Val'Spear rolled his eyes and laughed while shaking his head. Despite the good natured moment, Fereren frowned and had a pressing thought. "Should I be concerned about the Ire-Bloods?"

"Why do you ask?" his friend asked.

Fereren leaned forward and whispered. "This business about the eldest son. What crime warranted a child taken from them? Have you seen any sign of child abuse? I am now very uncomfortable with the thought of leaving Aelius with them."

"Oh, no! Nothing like that. I think he is referring to..." Val'Spear hesitated. 

"What?" Fereren pressed.

"A law regarding hapalah karban."

"And that is?" Fereren asked, his face blank. "I don't know what a 'happapalap' is."

"It means 'child offering'." Val'Spear whispered. Fereren froze. His face turned white. "Every firstborn male is given to the state."

Fereren's face turned red and he grit his teeth. He hissed, "Damn them."

"The kid is probably alive and a young adult now, but they will never see him again."

"Damn them!" Fereren repeated to himself. "Thank the Ancestors we were in Kes, because I promise you one thing. If anyone tried taking my little soldier away from me. I'd burn it all down."