Hanna stood by the bed, watching over Leon. When the door opened she bowed to Marcus and Asher, and Marcus gave her a small nod.
"Wait outside," he said. "Close the door."
She nodded and went without a sound.
The room was dim and Leon lay on his back. His breathing was slow and steady. Marcus crossed the floor and sat on the edge of the bed. He laid two fingers against the boy’s wrist and, for a while, only listened to the steady beat there and the thin thread of essence moving beneath it.
Asher also went towards a nearby chair and sat down. "He sleeps well for a boy, for what he did tonight."
"Resonance takes a great deal out of a body that small," Marcus said. "It will take a day or at least two to fully recover from his exhaustion."
"A day." Asher gave a short breath that was almost a laugh.
"Marcus, I have almost never heard of Resonance before the age of five. He might be recorded in history or buried in it."
"It’s rare but not impossible."
"Yes, very rare," Asher’s voice stayed low, but it sharpened.
"And this is what I came to say, four Emperor’s men are dead and the capital will hear from me that they went out to scout a disturbance in your forest and were taken by a beast tide. It is believable as it is a common occurrence here. My father will not believe it fully, but he will likely let it go. But the problem is my brother. One strange detail or one rumor, and he will start digging at your gates."
"He will find nothing. Their tags will read them leaving from my wall and the gate logs will show four men leaving after midnight." Marcus did not look up from Leon’s wrist.
"The beasts in the northern forest are already stirring after what we did to their ground. By the time any investigator walks that clearing, there will be no evidence that will trace back to us."
Asher’s gaze dropped to Leon. "He will try to find something, Marcus. That is all it would take. But what if he looked hard enough at this house and found Leon, he would surely try to take the boy."
"Prince, you do your part and I will make sure no one will come here looking for answers and-,"Marcus’s paused as he looked at Leon.
On the bed, Leon’s fingers curled into fists, and he started shivering.
The valley was full of them.
He walked through it with noting but himself. The dead lay scattered everywhere. He stepped over a banner, over a hand still clenched around a spear, over a person whose mouth was open as if he had been about to ask a question. The ground sucked his boots as blood stood to the ankle in every steps.
Ahead, thousands more waited. They screamed when he raised his hand. He did not hear them. He swung his arm horizontally, and the thread of laws went down in one long arc, enveloping all in a single slash. The dropping of bodies sounded in the distance.
He walked forward again, his hands perfectly steady.
Somebody behind him said his name, almost pleading. "Leon. Enough." But he did not turn around.
Marcus’s hand came down over Leon’s forehead before he finished the sentence.
Leon’s skin was hot, breathing short and fast. He was shivering. The silver pendant lay warm against him.
Asher was already out of his chair. "Is it because of the breakthrough?"
"Wait." Marcus let a thread of essence slide in as it followed it through the pathways, the new channels Leon had opened tonight. "He is stable inside."
"Then why is he shaking like this?"
"I think it is because of abrupt breakthrough." Marcus kept his eyes on his son’s face. "He felt the essence this early. So everything else is still catching up. The mind, the soul. What he drew in was not small, and he was not yet built to hold it."
Asher lowered himself onto the other side of the bed.
"When I stepped into Vessel I was eleven, then I had a fever for three nights. The court physicians called it the echo. A body gets stretched faster than the mind can follow, and the mind answers by replaying whatever it holds, old fears, old faces. I dreamed of drowning in the palace fountain, and could not sleep without feeling something burning inside me."
His thumb moved along the edge of the blanket. "His nightmare will pass in no time."
"You were eleven," Marcus said. "You had eleven years to dream about. But Leon? He is only a year old. What could he be seeing now?"
"That is also what troubles me," Asher said, frowning as he gazed towards Leon. "Then what is he seeing, Marcus?"
Marcus’s thumb had stopped moving on Leon’s wrist. He started it again, slowly, as though the pulse might notice. "I do not know."
Leon whimpered, and one small hand opened and closed on empty air.
"We should let him rest as he is stable physically," Marcus drew the blanket up over Leon’s shoulder. "I will sit with him until his nightmare passes."
"Then I will also accompany you."
Leon’s shivering eased by minutes. First the fists loosened, then his breath was becoming stable. And at last his face showed expression with something close to peace.
Asher let out a breath. "Better."
"Yes." Marcus did not move his hand. "He overcame whatever he was feeling."
For a while neither of them spoke. Then Marcus finished the sentence he had left hanging.
"What I was saying. You do your part in the capital, and I will make sure nobody comes here looking fr answers," Marcus said. "But keep this in mind. Ask me what you want during succession war, not my family."
Asher held his gaze as the tiredness on his face gone out. "You have my word, Marcus. I will not ask anything of them."
After a while, Asher looked towards Leon and back at Marcus. "He will be dangerous when he grows, Marcus. I felt something earlier, my bloodline was reacting when he was shivering."
Marcus looked down at his son’s now relaxed face. ’I had some suspicion since he first spoke.’ he thought.
"A father does not get to choose what his son becomes, Asher. Only whether I am standing beside him when it happens will matter most to him."
"Then choose to stand close," Asher said, smiling at the Marcus’s response. He was also curious what will become of Leon when he grows up.