Chapter 1097: Serious Meeting Time

Oh, his poor little sister.

She had spent the entire day helping him fight, exhausted herself doing it, and now she was standing in front of him asking whether he could spare her a few minutes. He wanted to gather her up immediately.

When he looked toward Nyx, she was already lifting her feet from his lap.

"Go, Kai. I’ll wait for you."

He smiled at her gratefully before getting up, then offered Alice his hand.

"You can have considerably more than a few minutes."

Her fingers closed around his at once.

"Really?"

"Really. Though we might be walking rather slowly. Your big brother’s legs are making some complaints."

"Mine too," she admitted, smiling up at him.

"Then we’ll get along beautifully."

Alice held his hand with both of hers as they left the lounge, quite content to have his attention to herself.

...

They changed into shoes by the entrance before stepping out of the palace. Cool air touched Kaiden’s face, carrying the forest’s scent across the lawn while Alice slipped beneath his arm.

"Cold?"

"A little."

He rubbed her upper arm through her pajama sleeve, keeping her close as they followed the path toward the trees. Behind them, light from the palace windows stretched over the grass.

For a while, Alice seemed happy simply to walk beside him. Their joined hands swung between them whenever she moved far enough away to inspect a flower or look up into the branches, and she returned against his side before he had time to miss her.

"Did you enjoy today?" he asked.

"Mhm."

"You worked hard," he said. "I was very proud of you."

She slowed beside him, watching his face as though she wanted to be certain he meant it. Kaiden stopped with her and brushed her hair away from her cheek.

"You know that, right?"

"You can still say it out loud when you are."

Kaiden wasted no time. "I’m very proud of my amazing little sister."

Her smile made the aching walk worthwhile. She hugged his arm against her chest and rested her cheek against his sleeve, holding him there beneath the trees.

Kaiden bent to kiss the top of her head.

"Can we go a little farther? If your grandpa legs can take it."

"Hey now..."

Alice released a sweet giggle. "Fear not, Big Brother! When you inevitably collapse, I’ll carry you!"

"How reassuring," Kaiden sighed wryly.

"Right?!" She sounded thoroughly satisfied with that arrangement. When they started walking again, Alice threaded her fingers between his and stayed close enough to lean on his arm.

...

The lounge had fallen silent as soon as Kaiden and Alice left it.

Luna had shut off the game mid-round. With the television dark, Yunohana placed her controller beside Bastet’s, while Calypso closed the cookbook and set it beyond the low table’s edge.

By the time the siblings reached the forest, the women had drawn their seats together.

Aria laid her sketchbook facedown beside the cooling chocolate. She lowered her tucked foot to the floor, crossed one leg over the other, and leaned back with her hands resting on the chair’s arms.

"Little sis is frighteningly effective," Nyx murmured. "He didn’t suspect a thing."

"He’d have carried her out if she’d asked," Calypso said, smiling toward the doorway.

"Kai promised them too much," Aria said.

Her voice was soft, her expression utterly serious.

Across from her, Nyx sat at the end of the sofa where Kaiden had been. One elbow rested on its arm, her fingers against her temple as she studied the women gathered around the table.

"Yes. He did."

"He put his authority at risk for them, and afterward he still hated himself because those grieving children might become his soldiers," Aria continued. "He could barely stand to look at Alice. Giving them a home still didn’t feel like enough."

Alexandra folded the scarf over her sewing basket, securing the needle before setting it on the floor.

"He wanted them to be safe from him too."

"I know." Aria’s fingers pressed into the armrest. "I love him for caring that much. I would have held him all morning if he’d let me."

The memory hurt. He had stood in front of them ashamed of the good he might gain from helping people, while she had wanted so badly for him to understand why they were proud of him.

Now she could still feel his cheek against her lips, and the thought of someone using that kindness to take his home made her furious.

"But I won’t watch him lose everything because someone learns how to use it against him."

Luna had taken the chair beside her. With her legs crossed and an arm stretched along its back, she looked toward Nyx.

"What would it take? Actually getting him stripped of the Dungeon Master position."

"A knowing breach of the rights he promised," Nyx answered. "They can’t just vote him out. This is not a democracy with periodic elections. But if he breaches his vow, the Dungeon-Born choose his replacement after the dungeon removes him."

"So somebody has to make him break his own rules."

"Yes."

Yunohana sat forward enough to put her empty teacup on the table, then reclined again.

"And we know where he is most vulnerable. What would he do to someone who hurt Alice? Or any of you?"

Calypso’s expression flattened.

"He would go through them."

"Even if the attacker had surrendered by the time he reached them," Yunohana said. "He might see red, might forgo due procedure, which is not the fair treatment he promised them. And this is just one way his position could be endangered."

For a moment, Aria could only sigh. She could imagine her overly protective lover doing just that.

"Exactly. That’s why we make certain he never has to."

"Especially if..."

Nyx let the words trail off as she reached for a folder beneath the table. She drew out a printed research paper and laid it where the others could read the title.

"This was published recently. They’ve been studying changes in awakened bodies, and they’re finding signs that aging slows after awakening and reaching higher levels."

Aria uncrossed her legs to lean forward and read the abstract.

"How much?"

"They don’t know yet. We haven’t had awakened people long enough to measure an entire extended lifetime. But the signs are there."

"Japanese researchers have had these suspicions as well. Let me read this." Yunohana took the offered pages and tilted them toward Bastet on the neighboring sofa. Together, they read the passage Nyx indicated.

"And Kai believes the Dungeon-Born might not age at all," Aria murmured, nodding to Nyx. "If we’re looking at a much longer life together..."

She sat back, the possibility filling her with a fierce longing even as she considered what it meant for his promise.

She wanted those years with him, all the evenings when he could tease her about a drawing and the mornings when she could wake with his arms around her.

The people entering his domain would have those years too.

"A person can be grateful now and hate him decades later, let alone centuries," she said. "Or their children can grow up believing they’d be better off with someone else in charge."