Chapter 563: Saturday

By Saturday morning, Arion had been home for two days and had already become difficult.

Victor had discharged him only after repeating the same warnings often enough that Dean could recite them from memory, while Seven had performed his own examination afterward and agreed that Arion’s pheromonal system had returned to baseline.

Arion’s scans were normal by every conventional measure; the black glandular lines had disappeared, his blood pressure had stabilized, and he no longer became dizzy when standing. Victor still wanted several weeks of observation before Arion attempted another restoration, particularly with an elder.

Dean had upgraded that recommendation into law.

Arion was not allowed near the restricted forest this weekend.

He was not allowed to work from his office.

He was not allowed to reinterpret answering fifty messages from the sofa as resting.

Saturday therefore found the Crown Prince of Alamina stretched across one end of the family-room couch in soft black trousers and a dark grey shirt, barefoot, with Theodore sitting on his stomach.

Dean considered that acceptable medical management.

Theo had recently turned one and seemed determined to make sure nobody forgot that he had developed opinions.

His hair had thickened into soft dark waves around his ears, his legs had become steadier, and the premature baby who once disappeared inside Arion’s hands now walked through the suite with enough confidence to create daily security problems.

He also talked.

Not well.

But loudly.

"Dada."

Arion looked down from the report he was absolutely not supposed to be reading.

Theo slapped one palm against his chest.

"Dada."

"I’m looking at you."

Apparently this was insufficient.

"DADA."

Dean looked over from the armchair near the windows and lowered his book.

"He has discovered volume."

"He discovered that weeks ago."

"No. He discovered yelling weeks ago. Now he has discovered that yelling specific words makes us respond."

Theo grinned at Dean.

"Papa!"

Dean immediately smiled.

Arion stared at him.

"You rewarded it."

"He called me papa."

"He screamed it.

"He was enthusiastic."

Theo bounced once on Arion’s stomach and shouted, "Dada!"

Arion caught him before a small heel landed somewhere painful.

"You are abusing your position."

Theo laughed.

Boreas, asleep beside the couch, opened one eye and apparently decided the disturbance did not require intervention.

Ducky was less tolerant.

The small black dog had been lying beneath the coffee table with one of Theodore’s cloth toys between his paws. When Theo climbed off Arion and toddled toward him, Ducky immediately picked up the toy and moved away.

Theo stopped.

His black eyes widened.

"Da!"

Ducky continued walking.

"That one is not Dada," Dean said.

Theo pointed.

"DA!"

Arion laughed into one hand.

Ducky escaped through the terrace doors.

Theo followed.

Matthias intercepted him before he reached the threshold.

He had entered quietly from the corridor in dark trousers and a pale shirt, no guardian uniform today, one hand carrying a tablet and the other holding Theodore’s abandoned shoe.

"The little prince is missing equipment."

Dean looked down.

Theo was indeed not wearing shoes.

"When did that happen?"

"Near the kitchen."

Arion lifted his head.

"How do you know?"

"I found the other one beside the fruit bowl."

Nobody questioned it.

Matthias crouched and fastened the shoe while Theo placed both hands on his shoulders for balance.

"Papa," Theo announced.

Matthias glanced toward Dean.

"I believe he means you."

Dean smiled.

"He knows who I am."

"Yesterday he called Boreas papa."

"That was experimental."

Arion looked deeply amused.

Matthias stood and handed Theo back toward him.

The child immediately climbed onto the couch and wedged himself against Arion’s side as though the previous ten minutes apart had been intolerable.

Dean watched Arion’s hand settle automatically over Theo’s back.

The hospital had frightened him more than he admitted.

Dean knew that much.

Arion had spent the first night home waking twice to check whether Theodore was still breathing despite the fact that the baby monitor sat less than half a meter from the bed.

Dean had pretended not to notice.

The second night, he had simply pulled Arion closer before he could get up again.

Today was better.

Normal enough to argue about shoes and stolen toys.

Matthias glanced toward the clock.

"I’ll bring Marius this evening."

Arion’s attention shifted immediately.

"He was cleared?"

"For a short visit."

Dean closed his book.

"Victor agreed?"

"Reluctantly."

"Then I suppose he is actually stable."

Matthias nodded.

"He asked to see Arion."

Arion leaned back more carefully beneath Theo.

"Why?"

"He says he wants to thank you."

Dean’s expression hardened slightly.

"He nearly killed himself restoring him."

"I am aware."

"So is Marius."

Matthias’s tone remained gentle.

"He also remembers enough of what happened to know Arion could have stopped."

Arion said nothing.

Dean knew what that meant too.

Marius had asked for the risk.

Had begged for it.

That did not mean Arion would stop carrying responsibility for what almost happened afterward.

—

Marius arrived shortly after dinner.

He no longer resembled anything that had belonged inside the restricted forest.

The man who followed Matthias into the private sitting room looked perhaps in his late sixties, though nobody could say with certainty how much of his chronological age would return now that the corruption no longer preserved him. His hair was grey and cut close, his face lined deeply around the mouth and eyes, and he walked with a cane because his muscles were still relearning an ordinary human gait.

He wore dark trousers, a white shirt, and a navy cardigan that made him look less like an ancient infected elder and more like someone’s retired professor.

Theo stared at him from Dean’s lap.

Marius stopped.

His grey eyes softened.

"That is the little prince."

Dean adjusted Theo slightly.

"That depends. Are you going to start talking about destiny?"

Marius smiled.

"No."

"Good."

Theo decided this was enough vetting and leaned forward.

Marius approached slowly.

He did not kneel.

His knees were apparently still negotiating the return to human life.

Instead, he sat in the armchair opposite Arion.

For several seconds, he simply looked at him.

Arion had changed into a loose black sweater after dinner, the kind Dean preferred because it made him look considerably less like he might walk into an emergency council meeting at any moment.

Marius’s hand tightened around the cane.

"I remember everything."

Arion’s expression became still.

"The restoration?"

"Before it."

Marius looked down at his human fingers.

"I remember asking you to let me die."

Dean’s arm tightened subtly around Theo.

Marius continued.

"And I remember you doing it anyway."

"I did not know if you would survive."

"I know."

Marius raised his eyes.

"But I did."

His voice remained steady.

"And when I woke, there was nobody in my mind except me."

Arion looked away briefly.

Marius smiled faintly.

"I had forgotten what silence felt like."

Theo suddenly yelled, "DADA!"

Everyone jumped.

Arion closed his eyes.

Dean started laughing.

Marius stared at Theo.

The baby pointed triumphantly toward Arion.

"Dada."

Marius laughed too, rough and surprised enough that tears gathered in his eyes.

"So much for silence."

Arion finally smiled.

"No. Apparently not."

Theo wriggled until Dean let him down, then crossed the rug in uneven steps toward Arion.

Arion lifted him onto his lap.

Marius watched the two of them for a moment before leaning back in the chair.

For sixty-three years, he had wanted an ordinary life badly enough to risk dying for it.

Now he sat in a warm room listening to a child yell for his father.

Judging from his expression, that was close enough.