Put back together

52. Cold rain on my skin

Logan played Emile's words over in his head and tried to match it up with what he knew about Chronal or 'the Cursed Islands'.
It had never been a topic he had really looked into, except maybe for the mythology and a few chronal scientific papers.

As a child, he had heard about the war but to him it might've as well been a story in a book. It hadn't affected him and he was probably one of the only people in his generation who could say that.

Sure, it had been weird to suddenly hear that Chronal was gone and the view had changed but other than that he mostly missed all of it.

Even as he had grown older it had never seemed very interesting.
None of the politics meant anything to him.

In Terona the economy was in shambles? Bad for them.

Sallerow lost most of its army? Too bad.

Chronal is officially non-existent? Not his problem.

Except that, apparently, now it was his problem.
He had been dragged into the conflict he had never wanted anything to do with and now he was a wanted criminal for assisting in a potential regicide. After all, helping with the getaway counted as assistance as far as he knew.
Teronan laws. Yet another subject he regretted not looking into more.

Unfortunately, Emile's rant about Roman's father hadn't really made him more trustworthy so Logan suppressed the urge to hold either Roman's or Patton's hand.
Because as if he didn't have enough on his mind already he kept feeling himself drawn to them.

Most likely just because of their magical connection but it still irritated him.

"Mum?" Elliott pulled Logan out of his thoughts. "I want up!"

Their pronunciation was improving incredibly fast just like their growth.

"Of course, dear," Logan let them climb up to his shoulders. They had put on a lot of weight too and he wondered for how long he'd be able to carry them like this.

He had used to think people were exaggerating when they talked about how 'quickly' children grew but at least in Elliott's case it turned out to be true.

A thought crossed his mind.

"Emile, do you happen to know how big Elliott might grow?"

Emile leaned his head from side to side.

"Depends a bit on the environment and how much food they get but the smallest Giges Invitum I ever heard of was about the size of a small house. Or a peasants kate."

"The smallest?" Logan echoed. Dear gods, Elliott was going to be huge.

"The biggest to ever live supposedly was as big as an Island," Emile shrugged. "But that's more a legend than a proven fact."

Logan felt slightly dizzy.

"I'm gonna grow tall?" Elliott chirped. They sounded excited at the news.

"Very tall," Patton muttered.

Elliott hopped on Logan's shoulders and nearly brought him to his knees.

"Sweetheart, could you please not do that?" he forced himself to speak gently.

"Huh? Why?"

"You're already pretty big and I can't carry you when you jump like that," they were a child but that didn't mean that calmly reasoning wasn't effective, right? He just had to keep it simple enough for them to understand.

"Oh, okay," Elliott curled a little tighter around his neck. "Sorry..."

"It's alright, dear," Logan patted their head and they purred.