In Which Adonis Hosts a Pointless Visit

January 5, 1169

"Papa!" Congren squealed as his brother swiped one of Noah's sons from the arc's lower story. "He keeps stealing people!"

Sheepish, Sev stretched his little arm and held out the figure, as if offering a trade. "Amnimal?"

"Congren, maybe give Sev one of the horses," advised Adonis. "He'll probably have more fun with those anyway."

Congren snatched the doll out of Sev's grasp and batted one of the horses his way in an irate fashion. Adonis sighed; his middle son had never been happy to share his toys, particularly with his little brother. Maybe it was just because Congren felt that he actually had the right to pick on this one--that had to be it. Sev was an easy target, and nothing more.

At least, Adonis hoped that was the case. He didn't want his son to grow up blaming his little brother for the death of their mama.

To his great relief, there came a knock at the door, a knock he recognized as belonging to his youngest's namesake. Being the only adult in the house often left him lonely, even when his older children were around; over the course of the past year, unexpected company had progressed from an annoyance to a refreshing change of pace. "The door's open."

Severin stepped inside and promptly removed his cloak; he meant to stay a while. The woman behind him followed suit, taking off her shawl and handing it to him. Adonis didn't know who she was, but he thought he might have seen her in the village once or twice, perhaps. He wondered why Severin had brought her. He doubted they were sleeping together; after Alina, Severin had a strict self-imposed rule of never appearing in public with women he was bedding. Adonis wasn't sure exactly why. Guilt, perhaps. Trying not to cause a scandal, maybe--or trying not to get anyone's hopes up. The people of Veldorashire were starting to miss having a lady in the castle.

"Adonis," Severin greeted him, stepping around his companion and placing their outerwear in the closet. "Children."

Adonis nodded. "Severin."

The other man closed the cupboard door, then took the woman by the arm and led her toward the couch. "This is my stepsister. Avine, meet Adonis and his two youngest children, Congren and Sev." He then collapsed into Honora's old chair, leaving Avine to take a seat next to Adonis.

"Nice to meet you," she acknowledged as she cast a quick glance around the room. "You have a lovely home."

"Thank you." Avine seemed pleasant, but even now that he had a name to put to her face, he was unsure as to why Severin had brought her here. From what he understood, the two of them weren't any closer than casual acquaintances.

"We were both visiting at Avine's father's house," Severin explained, as if reading Adonis's mind. "I was escorting her back to her home near Riso Village, but since I haven't seen you in a couple of weeks, I figured I might as well drop by."

Adonis raised an eyebrow; he knew that Severin hadn't been all there since Alina had died, but why was it that each of his answers was only raising more questions? "Isn't my house a little out of the way if you're heading to the king's shire?"

Severin dismissed the notion with a wave. "I know a shortcut. Anyway, how have you been?"

"Rather the same as always," replied Adonis with a shrug. "Yourself?"

"Likewise." He shot a quick look toward the window. "You haven't seen any of my children today, have you?"

Adonis shook his head. "No..."

"Are Had and the girls around?"

"No, but I fail to see what that has to do with anything."

Leery, Severin glanced out the window again. "Just curious."

Frowning, Adonis locked eyes with an equally-confused Avine, who then turned to face her stepbrother. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, you're acting a little strange," Adonis agreed, "even for you."

Severin laughed, though his gaze took to flitting between Adonis and the door. "Oh, I'm fine. Just... feels a little odd having both of you in the same room. Mixing social circles and all, you know? I'm sorry. You're both probably feeling a little awkward."

"I'm not." Adonis sent Avine a quick half-smile. "Are you?"

"Of course not," she insisted. "Really, Severin, what's going on? Why did you even want to come here in the first place?"

Severin shrugged. "Since when do I need a reason to visit an old fr--?"

"Aha! Thought you could avoid us for the rest of the day, did you?"

Startled, Adonis looked to the doorway to see Severin's two eldest children standing there, both looking so composed and controlled that he couldn't help but thinking they were about to explode. What were they doing here? As if this whole situation wasn't ridiculous enough. "And to think, we were even going to head all the way down to the village to look for you," Raia scolded, crossing her arms, her cool gaze unblinking. "Thank you for not bothering to hide your horse, Father."

Sighing, Severin pressed his hand to the side of his head. "Ah, the horse..."

Unable to take it anymore, Adonis clasped his hands together and stared past Avine to the pair of aggravated youngsters. "Excuse me, but would you mind explaining what this is about?"

Avine nodded in accord. Scowling, Jadin raised his thumb to his mouth and bit off a chunk of skin. "Well, it's the servants' payday, but someone must have forgotten. Then, I'm guessing he remembered while he was out, and then decided that instead of coming home to take care of business, he'd keep a low profile for the rest of the day and let us deal with it."

Resigned, Severin pulled himself to his feet and stepped toward his children. "I hope the servants weren't too annoyed."

Raia shook her head. "We paid them. Searle's working on the accounts right now, but they'll need your initials--and you might want to check his arithmetic. But really, what the hell do we have to do to get you to do anything? Leave notes all around the castle? Wait outside your door so we can catch you as soon as you wake up?"

Adonis could only see Severin's back, but his stance seemed to tense. "Can this wait until we get home? You're making Master Indruion and Mistress Lowan uncomfortable."

"No, they're not," Adonis and Avine argued in unison. What a bizarre, pointless visit this had been. At least he'd gotten a new acquaintance out of it, he supposed.

Jadin stuck his tongue out at his father, then stormed out the door, forgetting that the other two would follow and slamming it shut. Raia watched as Severin retrieved his cloak from the closet, her glare fixated upon him until he too had left the house. "Good day, Master Indruion, Mistress Lowan," she bade curtly before following her father outside.

She closed the door behind her with a firm click!, leaving Adonis alone with Avine in a strained, inconclusive sort of silence. Not wanting to make things too awkward, he decided to break it. "That was... odd."

"Indeed." She dropped her gaze and fiddled with her wedding band; if he recalled correctly, she was a widow. "I'm sorry about that. You should have seen his mother earlier--I'm pretty sure she thinks he's going mad."

"I don't know; I think madness would be a lot less painful for him." He moved his foot back as Congren attempted to make a zebra prance its way up his leg. "Easier on the kids, too; I know I'd rather pick up someone's slack if he was incapable of doing his own work than if he simply refused to do it."

Avine sighed. "I suppose."

More silence. Strange; he didn't usually have such trouble talking to people. He felt a little nervous. Maybe he just had to say something.

"So," he ventured, a grin coming to his face more easily than he might have expected, "since you're here, do you, uh... maybe want to stay for supper?"

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