Kushiel tilts his head curiously, but doesn’t press Vaermina when she said he couldn’t meet her parents. For all that she was young, Kushiel felt like she had her reasons, and that they were valid ones. However, a twitch of unease clicked in his heart, not for himself, but for her. He, for all that he had not raised so much as a hoof in self defense, had a high enough opinion of his talents to trump most logic and reason.Like anything could hurt him like anything would want too.
But along that train of thought, what what kind of asshole would hurt a kid? She didn’t seem hurt, at least not bodily, but he was starting to make sense of her strange, silver eyes, and was becoming more and more certain that something sinister lurked within them, ghosts of things she had seen, perhaps. With a touch of weariness, he sighed.
This, this right here was why he was jaded. The world and everyone in it could be a real bitch.
There was no doubting that she was a fierce little thing, however. She sidled up to him, and Kushiel got the distinct impression she was trying to protect him rather than seek protection. He grinned at that. A smooth sea did not a skillful sailor make. By the looks of it Vaermina would be a verified captain by the time she was a year old. She would probably be a commodore by the time she was two.
Hell, he should probably start calling her captain now, just to save time.
He looked down at her in mock surprise.
“Never left the meadow? Well, if you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?”
It was a question he hadn’t thought much about until now. Up until recently, his answer probably would have been, “back to the Valley to take a nap.” Now, he would probably say, “home.” Already along that train of thought, he answered her question.
“I come from the Valley, I was born there, but now I live in the Chamber.” Like her, he hadn’t gone very far from his place of birth. The kingdoms were geographically distant in some ways, but the culture was similar, and both resided along the mountain range.
Her little ghost of a voice is enchanting, for all it makes him worry for the things she is not saying. Were she not so insistent on him not doing so, Kushiel would have half a mind to seek out these parents of hers. For all that he was a terrible meddler, he didn’t have much practice in family dynamics. Is it better just to leave it alone?
She speaks again and Kushiel smiled, warmed by the sweetness that contrasted sharply with her obvious ghosts.
“That is only because you have not been in it very long.” That much is true, for he did get rather tedious after a while. Still, he is flattered despite himself, that this precocious little child would like him.
“Of the two of us, I’m sure most would find your company vastly preferable. Do you like to play with other kids, or just entertain boring old men?” He was, of course, referring to himself. It was perhaps the only situation in which he would refer to himself as old. Having an eternally young mother had a way of giving you a complex about aging.
Kushiel
some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall