Abaddon's Gift

Chapter Fifty-Six

When Naena entered, Nendan was behind his Grammie and thus had a good view of nearly everyone. He took it all in as Grammie muttered over a little box of sweets. While everyone else was busy gawking at Naena, Nendan watched them.

And he listened when Grammie cackled about that Pan boy getting his breadstick in a twist.

He liked listening to her stories.

Just... some weren't meant for public ears.

At Grammie's word, he pushed Maeno and extracted a promise. He made no contact with Naena, feeling it wasn't his place to be anywhere in the woman's gaze.

After Grammie spoke with Maeno, Nendan met her at the teleporter's office. She claimed to need to go to the bathroom, but she refused to use the facilities at Amos. By the time Nendan caught up to her, she was just outside the door, a trick that she never shared with anyone else.

But the family swore she could teleport when no one was looking at her.

They returned to Sorrow's Keep, the main home of the Lugh family. Located just outside of Sorrow's Bay, the keep had been built to guard against attacks from across the sea. The land responsible for those attacks fell long ago, but Lugh still resided in the keep.

Not a shanty little estate, but a full keep with fortifications and an outer wall to protect them.

That night was the first night of the public celebrations, which meant that Nendan and Grammie returned to a party in the entrance hall. Citizens of Sorrow's Bay hesitated in their merriment to cheer at his appearance. Nendan roared in response, as they expected, and received a roar back from all the others. Mugs raised in the air, toasting his return as a conquering hero.

He had conquered nothing, but he appreciated their warmth.

His sisters, who should have been in bed long before, rushed to him with open arms and warm embraces. Having only been gone a few weeks, really, Nendan hardly expected them to greet him. His brothers were right behind the girls, nudging one another and grinning.

Nendan took from their looks that something else was going on.

With that, he gently nudged his sisters off. He made half-hearted excuses and promises to catch up in the following days as he slipped away.

Grammie cackled her way into the group, telling loud stories of the ball and fashions she had witnessed that night. The girls practically fell on their grandmother, giggling and begging her to describe the colours.

The boys followed Nendan, asking innocent questions that he answered as he made his way through the entrance hall. At the end, in front of the large bloodwood doors, he stopped and said goodnight to them, claiming he was quite tired from all the travelling. He hugged his brothers, and they went off, back toward Grammie, to ask her questions about the night.

Nendan stepped through the doorway and slipped to the side, into the entrance study. He sat across from his father and let out a weary sound.

His father looked at him over reading glasses for the barest of seconds before he grunted and went back to reading papers.

"I know being out there reminds you of how the other families run," his father said as he lifted a paper and squinted at it. "Lugh is blessed in such a manner. You know this."

"No, that's not it," Nendan said. "Being out there, this time, reminded me of how blessed we are. Pan serves. That's all they do, is serve. In many ways, I wish I could convince her of that."

His father sighed and settled back. The reading glasses came off and were tossed onto the desk. Hands intertwined across a belly no longer slim and fitted, but instead a little more like a keg-shaped. The features mirrored Nendan's in many ways.