Chapter 914: A Strange Family

Silas barely seemed to hear Trafalgar's answer.

Aaron tightened his grip around his finger, and Silas followed every tiny movement with the kind of attention he normally reserved for training. The enormous difference between the strength inside his own body and the almost nonexistent pressure coming from Aaron seemed to fascinate him.

After several seconds, Silas finally spoke.

"I can barely feel how much force he's using. If I wasn't looking at his hand, I don't think I'd even know he was holding me."

"That's because he's a baby," Trafalgar said. "You're comparing someone who can barely hold his own head properly with a dragon who can knock down part of this garden if he forgets himself."

"I understand that. It's just strange." Silas slowly moved his free hand closer before stopping well short of Aaron. "I'm always trying to use less strength around everyone. Around him, it feels like even doing nothing could still be too much."

Trafalgar understood what he meant better than Silas probably expected.

"Then start with doing nothing. Learn what it feels like to be close to him without constantly expecting something to go wrong. Once that stops feeling strange, you can learn how much more is safe."

Silas looked toward him.

"Do you think I'll be able to hold him eventually? Properly, I mean. Not just let him grab my hand."

Mayla answered before Trafalgar could.

"Of course you can. But we'll do it inside, somewhere comfortable, and we'll show you exactly how to hold him first. I don't want you sitting there terrified that moving one finger is going to hurt him."

Silas glanced toward Aaron again.

"I'd like that. I just don't want everyone watching me like they expect me to drop him."

Cynthia crossed her arms beneath her coat.

"Nobody expects you to drop him. If we did, this conversation wouldn't be happening in the first place."

Aaron released Silas's finger a few moments later.

Silas did not immediately pull his hand away. He stared at the finger Aaron had been holding, then back toward the child, and when he eventually stood again, there was noticeably less tension in his posture.

Trafalgar handed Aaron back to Mayla.

"Well, congratulations. You survived."

Silas ignored the comment, still watching Aaron as Mayla settled him against her chest.

"It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."

"Most things aren't once you stop imagining every possible way they can go wrong."

Rhosyn looked toward Trafalgar at that.

"That's remarkably good advice coming from someone who spends half his life doing exactly that."

Trafalgar considered arguing, but the accusation was unfortunately accurate enough that he left it alone.

They remained in the garden afterward instead of returning immediately to the mansion.

The snowfall had become lighter, little more than scattered flakes drifting between the trees, and the wind had weakened enough that Mayla was comfortable keeping Aaron outside for a while longer. Pipin eventually left Aubrelle's shoulder and flew through the garden, circling low above the untouched snow before returning to a nearby branch.

Aubrelle turned her head slightly as he moved.

"He seems to like the snow more than I expected."

"Silas used to as well," Trafalgar said. "Until he realized landing in it in his dragon form means spending the next several minutes covered in it."

Silas glanced toward him.

"I learned not to land badly."

"That's one interpretation."

Mayla adjusted Aaron before looking toward Silas.

"Are you going to stay with us for a while? You've been disappearing into the forest almost every morning lately."

Silas nodded.

"I've been training farther out because I have more room there. Arthur doesn't mind as long as I tell someone before I leave, and there are enough monsters deeper inside that I don't have to worry about wasting food afterward."

Trafalgar had almost forgotten how much of Silas's growth depended on what he consumed. Feeding him had been expensive when he was smaller; now that he had grown considerably, the amount required had become absurd enough that letting him hunt was probably doing Euclid's finances a favor.

"I should probably thank the forest for helping with my expenses."

Silas looked toward him.

"I don't eat that much."

Cynthia immediately turned her head.

"You absolutely do."

Silas appeared prepared to defend himself, but Mayla spoke before the conversation went anywhere.

"Leave him alone. He's growing."

"That's exactly the expensive part," Trafalgar said.

The exchange ended there, without anyone trying to stretch it into an argument.

Trafalgar let his attention move across the group instead.

Mayla stood beside him with Aaron. Cynthia had drifted closer to her during the conversation, while Aubrelle remained on Trafalgar's other side with Pipin now returning to her shoulder.

Rhosyn stood among them without the slight separation she had once unconsciously maintained.

No one had asked her to move closer.

Nobody needed to anymore.

She was simply there.

That small fact held Trafalgar's attention longer than he expected.

When Rhosyn had first started appearing around his family, there had always been a subtle distinction. She was someone important to Trafalgar, someone they trusted because he trusted her, but there was still the awareness that she came from somewhere else and could disappear again whenever the circumstances demanded it.

That feeling had faded.

Mayla spoke to her without thinking twice about it. Cynthia included her whenever something concerned the household. Aubrelle had grown comfortable enough around her that neither of them needed Trafalgar as the connection between them.

Even Silas treated her presence as normal.

Trafalgar looked around the garden.

Three wives.

His son.

Rhosyn.

The son of the Gluttony Dragon, who had once nearly destroyed the very city surrounding them.

Pipin, perched comfortably beside Aubrelle as though an unusual familiar completing the group required no explanation whatsoever.

There had been a point in Trafalgar's life when any one of those things would have sounded ridiculous.

Now this was simply what an ordinary morning looked like.

Mayla caught him staring.

"You've gone quiet again. You've been doing that more since you came back, so what are you thinking about this time?"

"Nothing bad." Trafalgar shifted his attention toward Aaron before looking across everyone again. "I was thinking that if somebody had shown me this garden a few years ago and told me this would eventually be my normal life, I would've assumed they were insane."

Aubrelle turned slightly toward him.

"Does that mean you're unhappy with how it turned out?"

"No. It's the opposite." Trafalgar looked at her before letting his gaze move across the others. "I think I've just stopped noticing how strange all of this should be."

Mayla's expression softened.

"Maybe that means it isn't strange anymore."

That thought stayed with him.

For a while, nobody seemed in any hurry to go inside. Aaron remained awake despite the cold, watching movement whenever it entered his limited field of vision, while Silas remained considerably closer to him than he had when he first arrived.

Eventually, Trafalgar noticed Silas looking toward the distant tree line.

Once could have meant nothing.

By the third time, it was obvious.

"You've been staring at the forest for the last ten minutes. Is there something out there you're waiting for?"

Silas looked back toward him.

"Nothing happened. I've just been training farther inside lately. There are a few things Caelvyrn taught me that I can finally do properly, and I wanted to show you once you were back."

Trafalgar looked toward the snowy forest beyond the mansion grounds.

He had spent several days doing almost nothing. His body felt normal again, his mind had cleared, and there were still hours left before evening.

"How far in are you training?"

"Not very. Far enough that I don't have to worry about the city or the mansion if I use my real form, but we can walk there without any problem."

Trafalgar nodded.

"Then show me."

Silas's attention immediately sharpened.

"You mean today?"

"Why not? I've been back several days and I still haven't properly seen what Caelvyrn taught you. If we're only going into the nearby forest, we can make an afternoon out of it."

Trafalgar glanced toward Mayla and Aaron.

"Let's get him inside and warmed up first. After that, whoever wants to come can come."

Silas looked toward the forest again, this time with considerably more anticipation.

For the first time since Trafalgar had returned from Myrrhvale, he found himself preparing to leave the mansion without politics, danger or another family waiting at the end of the road.

They were simply going out into the snow.