Life After Death

Quinn: a consortium of children

{Quinn}

The house was never dull with my ever dying wife and my five boys. And although Mikaela swore that she never meant to have so many, I believed she liked having the house this full.

"And besides," she had pointed out. "My whole family is dead, my mother excluded. The Seren family is expecting an heir and my mother will want an heir. And who knows, your brother might convince you to take the Duke title. Three heirs out of one family? It can't be just one faery."

And she may have been right, but it didn't explain Corryn sitting down at the dinner table, as if he belonged there. He glanced awkwardly at me as Gawain pulled on the seat for his ghostly form to sit there.

Lionel and Parsifal looked on curiously, but didn't say anything. Dinadan seemed fascinated with the see-through man at the table, but gave no comment. I didn't think Dagonet noticed. This left me.

"So, Gawain, who's your new friend?" I asked.

"This is Corryn," my son replied. "He helped me with my homework. He's going to teach me about runes and pentagrams and circles."

"Is he now?" I remarked. "Did your mother say it was all right?"

"She said I had to ask you," he answered.

Ryon came out of the kitchen, bearing several platters. Once we got each boy his allotment of roast beef and carrots, I turned to Mikaela.

"I don't know how comfortable I am with Corryn in this house," I told her. "He's killed you a couple of times, murdered your parents, tried to have me killed; he's not the greatest of role models."

"At the same time, he's the only one I can think of that could begin to teach Gawain," she argued. "I'm not particularly fond of it either, but I don't want another incident like last week."

Gawain had let a poltergeist into the house. It hadn't ended well, though with Parsifal as healer no one ended up dead. Gawain needed to learn control.

"Out of all the faeries I knew before, I was certain that you two would be the family of chaos," Corryn remarked. "Five well-behaved boys, doing their homework? Your life must be difficult."

"Ryon says if we make a mess at the table, we don't get dessert," Lionel explained to Corryn. "And his desserts are the best."

"Today is chocolate fudge cake," Dagonet informed the table. "But we have to eat the carrots."

The boys groaned quietly.

"That was Dagonet," Gawain told Corryn. "Those two are Parsifal and Lionel. Lionel has black hair and Parsifal has red hair. And my little brother is Dinadan."

Corryn turned to Mikaela, bewildered. "You read a lot of Arthurian legends as a child?" he asked. "Trying to make your own Round Table?"

Mikaela looked a bit apologetic. "Quinn and I couldn't decide on names," she replied. "Names like Timothy and Mark seem out of place here."

"I would have thought with a personal name like Ermichaeline, you would want something more normal," he said.

"If Corryn is to stay, there will have to be rules, Gawain," I interrupted.

I didn't know any Arthurian legends, but as with most things I just assumed it was something human.

"And I would prefer not to stay," Corryn added. "I have a job in Hell and demons expecting things. I would prefer no trouble."

"Well, that is for my son to decide," I replied. "Now, you have school and homework." Gawain scowled at the word homework. "And if I catch you summoning someone else to do it for you again...."