sword

“You can’t adopt them all,” Duke Aldarius said.

“Someone has to! Those children are our future, and they’re treated like dust beneath their boots. Less than dust.”

“The Church says-”

“And you trust them now?” The duchess’s words were barely a whisper, but infused with so much recrimination Cole winced.

“You’re right,” Duke Aldarius confessed. “I am being a coward. I am the king’s sword and shield. I will figure something out.”

Ashford arrived unannounced and on horseback with nothing but a rucksack and his weapons.

Still, the Duke and Duchess Aldarius welcomed him warmly into their home, sent for a hot bath, and fresh fruit and honey. His favorite snack.

They remembered.

That simple act of kindness almost brought tears to his eyes.

Ashford wanted to run away, to leave Gaspard Manor and the runes behind him.

But he had nowhere to go. His biological mother couldn’t feed him and his siblings without his help as the heir of Gaspard.

He’d been on his way to being a pretty good thief until his biological father had come for him.

But he couldn’t go back to that. Not now.

Maybe he could be a mercenary.

He’d go see Cole and Lord and Lady Aldarius. They would know what to do.

His father was in the capital city, as he usually was, leaving Ashford alone with his adoptive mother.

She’d been drinking again, and her words had been meant to cut. Meant to hurt.

And they had, though not as much as before.

Ashford was growing too used to them.

Ashford hated how his brother and sister were treated.

Half-brother and sister. His adoptive mother’s words tormented him.

They had a different father. One who wasn’t a duke and a descendant of the Paragons.

He held out his hand and summoned a tiny whirlwind.

They were treated like dust all because they couldn’t do that, and no matter how hard he tried, he hadn’t been able to teach them.