Life After Death

Quinn: future threats

{Quinn}

My childhood home was impressive in the normal sense. The Torninc was a collection of style from across centuries; my parents had built this home to be delicate, calm, and beautiful. The windows all had stained glass in them with various designs and the tiled floors were done in a way that you could see designs with the tiles themselves. Finran had never seen a place like this, and stuck close to me, gawking at the portraits of my parents, the floral arrangements, and the guards standing as quietly as statues.

But my arrival had not gone unnoticed and my mother burst from an inner room, with a big smile on her face.

"Quinton, it's been a long time!" she said, wrapping me in a hug. "And who is this?"

"This is Finran, Lionel's eldest," I replied. "He's accompanying me today. How are you Mother?"

"Wonderful," she told me. "I assume you're here on business, but you will stay for lunch first, yes?"

She didn't wait for my reply, instead pulling me down the hall. Finran almost had to jog to catch up.

"You haven't brought your wife, I see," she remarked. "Is everything all right between you two?"

"She's in Martel with one of our sons," I explained. "We're fine, Mother."

"So have you thought any more about taking your father's title?" she inquired.

"Mother, we aren't even at lunch yet," I complained. "Can this wait until then?"

She smiled at me, but didn't pester anymore.

"It's good to see you," she said.

Lunch was almost a feast, and I could only hope in vain it wasn't because I was here. Regardless, both of my parents were overjoyed to see me. Finran was quickly welcomed as well, with his wings and his magic he fit into my family better than I did.

"Let's not talk about business, as we probably don't want to know," my father laughed. "How have you been, Quinton?"

"Fine," I replied. "Most of our boys have moved out of the Torninc. Gawain is married to the heir to the throne. The Cabinet has been very productive. Things are peaceful and happy."

"That's wonderful," Mother smiled at me like her face was freezing like that. It was bit worrisome. "So I'll ask my previous question. Have you thought about taking your father's title?"

I sighed. "Mother, we've been through this before. It's not my title to have. It's my brother's. I have dozens of positions at Vercyne and I am more than content with them. If you want someone to take care of Aushim, talk to Lionel, Finran's father."

"He's just our grandson," my father objected.

"With wind magic and wings, just like my brother," I replied. "I don't want to live in the Tesni Forest. I like the Torninc. But Lionel might be interested. I'm not. I'm sorry."

My mother frowned. "What did we do so wrong that neither of our boys want the one thing we have to leave them?"

"Mother, if I was married to Adele, I couldn't have lived here anyway," I pointed out. "I was never going to stay. You knew that."

"So are you going to stay on the Queen's Cabinet until the end of time?" my father asked.

"No. I'm leaving the positions to one of my sons. I have seven of them; one should want it."

I knew that my family hadn't approved of Mikaela or the amount of children we had. But being forced in roles I didn't want had shown me that it was much better to put up with some oddities than to have my children forced as well. I tried to smile at my father and come up with a different topic of discussion.