He resolutely closed his eyes and snuggled between the two awesome men that he wished he could keep.
The next few days were a little bit strange, as everyone tried to figure out how they fit together. Trill wasn’t just sleeping with Molun and Arvus anymore (though he had zero complaints about how he’d been spending his time). He had family now, and it was family that didn’t seem to hate him.
Tramon hadn’t been lost to the same bitterness that Trill’s mother had. He’d had a child and then a grandchild, and they all seemed to care for one another no matter what. (Wistfully, Trill wished that extended to being a child of two worlds. But introducedemons, and everything always went awry.)
Cormal was upset by the negative impact his father had had on their lives. Trill made sure to point out how Tramon had turned out versus Trill’s mother. Same situation, but they’d chosen to treat it differently. How they’d reacted had helped shape them. It wasn’t all Tramad.
Cormal said heavily, “Sometimes you don’t realize how you’re reacting until it’s too late.”
“Sometimes, you can still change it, even if it seems like it’s too late,” Trill pointed out.
Cormal smiled, “Yes, I suppose we can always hope to change and make a difference.”
Molun and Arvus didn’t seem to know quite what to do with Cormal, but they were being relatively polite, and Trill was pretty sure it was for his sake, as well as Livala’s and her family’s. On top of everything else, she was the first new novice in months, and they all wanted her training to go well.
Cormal was taking a special interest in training her, because he was the only one who could control fire here. (Molun and Arvus both got a little twitchy, sometimes, when that was mentioned.) Molun attended these training sessions a lot, too, him or Delana, because it was always good to have someone who could control water when you were learning to control fire. Once Livala had rudimentary control in place, she’d join the other novices, apparently.
Molun often came back from these sessions looking confused. “It’s like watching a different person.”
He didn’t seem as angry, at least, and that gave Trill hope.
Molun was spending less time in their rooms, and Trill was spending time with his family, chatting or eating or watching the training or learning more about the castle. He’d met the Princess this way, as well as seeing the Prince again, because Princess Larenia had wanted to meet the new novice who was close to her own age. (She had just turned thirteen, apparently, and Livala was fourteen.)
The two girls got along immediately, despite the fact that it was clear the Princess didnotlike Cormal. The Prince shot Cormal an apologetic, commiserating glance, and Trill tried not to goggle at the energy coming off the two of them. Oh. Wow. What could you possibly do when you were that attracted to someone you couldn’t touch?
Well, all right, Trill could think of several things, but thedesireto touch and the inability to ever do it… That would be hard.
He hadn’t realized how much he was staring until Molun said, “We know it’s sad, what happened to the Prince. We’re still trying to come up with a solution.”
They had always talked around the subject before.
“That’s why you’re all looking in the magic books all the time?” Trill asked.
Molun nodded. “Unfortunately, no one seems to have encountered anything like this before, someone who doesn’t have a physical body. It was worse before; he was invisible, and only his sister could see or hear him. So this is much better, but it’s still not good. We’re doing everything we can, but we haven’t found anything that could help so far.”
Trill nodded and made sympathetic noises, because that really did sound like a terrible situation.
Internally, he considered. There might be someoneTrillcould ask. He was absolutely certain that Yannoma wouldn’t come anywhere near the castle. But she might still have information she could share from a distance.
But truly, he couldn’t imaginenottrying to help the Prince. Trill was more than a little worried for him, for a completely different reason than everyone else seemed to be. Trill had enough control of himself not to feed off him, but what would full demons do, if they came across someone like the Prince?
Yes, Trill needed to try to help.
Molun gave him paper and ink, of course, as soon as he asked.
“I really should have written sooner to tell my friend how I’m doing,” Trill admitted. “But I got really busy here.”
He winked, and this made Molun grin at him.
“We’re very happy to keep you busy. You can stay as long as you like,” Molun assured him happily. “So make sure to tell yourfriend that. I imagine they miss you, but we’re really happy to have you.”
Trill grinned at him. “Thank you. But I really should reassure them that I haven’t been eaten by wild dogs or something.”
Molun laughed.
So Trill wrote his message, explaining as much as he could in a way that didn’t admit to anything they could do, just in case.
He told Molun he wanted to go and post the letter himself because he needed to stretch his legs and he’d feel better when he saw the letter actually go.
