Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 4)

Ky kept herself from reacting to that one, but getting lumped into the cousin roster made her feel nice again.

"How many is that?" Aashi asked gently. She'd been working on numbers with Tasia a lot lately; she was curious to know where Marcella was in development.

Marcella took a deep breath and counted on her fingers. "Lyra. Anneliese. Oscar. Peter. Adrian. Ky. Tristan. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and the baby makes eight!"

Aashi smiled at her. "Wow! That's a lot of cousins!"

"Lots and lots!" Mattathias grinned. "But we never see Tristan cuz he lives on a farm, but sometimes he comes to visit and he makes us dolls out of wood and straw and cloth."
"He's a grown-up," Marcella added. "He has a girlfriend and everything!"

"Wow! Good for him!" Aashi said brightly. She glanced between Gaius and Tomhas. Tomhas certainly didn't look old enough to have an adult child; Gaius looked like he might be old enough. But she assumed they probably had an older sibling. A sister, perhaps? Since they were the Lords, she doubted they had an older brother. She looked back at Gaius. "You have a third sibling, then?"

(Aashi: *stomps directly into trauma*)

(The metaphor for a bull in a china shop comes to mind)

"An elder brother and a younger sister," Gaius replied thinly. "Tristan is my brother's son." That was perhaps the first and only acknowledgement of that fact he would ever make aloud. He fixed his eyes on his plate; his stomach was stirring and he wasn't sure he could eat any more, but the alternative was far less pleasant to think about. Better to be sick alone later than discuss Michael at dinner in front of all these people.
Tomhas cleared his throat awkwardly, fiddling with his utensils. "Yes."

(Wait why didn't Tristan take the Lordship then? I thought you were talking about Sera's kid because I forgot his name aha)

Aashi was so socially inept and had a long history of not being able to read the room -- and, consequently, making many, many faux pas. But even she could pick up on the fact that this wasn't something she should talk about. The energy in the room had changed in an instant and she didn't like it.

She certainly didn't want to be ticking off not one but two lords. Wasn't that how people ended up dying? She didn't know. But she didn't want to be the one to find out. "Oh."

"So I only have two cousins," Aashi said, looking back at Marcella. "And I didn't get to grow up with either of them, because my aunt lived far away from where my papa and I lived. I only saw them maybe once every other year or so, but they were delightful little boys -- eight and six years younger than me, respectively, because my aunt is my father's baby sister."

(Aashi: DEFLECT)

(He's also Sera's kid
Because he's an illegitimate son and not the only Ash [unlike Tomhas, the only Loquitur close enough in blood to inherit Brogan's title] he got passed over, also Gaius has been trying to keep the kid out of politics for many reasons)

"That's sweet!" Marcella said brightly, completely ignoring the change of atmosphere. "Do you get to see them more often now? What are their names?"

(wait WHAT Sera was banging Michael?!)

"I'm afraid not," Aashi answered. "The older one -- Jakob -- has a child on the way with his wife, so we may try to visit them."

Tadaaki glanced at her. They'd been over this. The more he traveled, the more likely it was that someone would recognize him and tell whoever it was that was supposed to be coming after him where he was. And he wasn't about to let his wife and tiny daughter travel without him. They were staying put. Jakob and Elodie could come to visit them, once she'd recovered.

"We'll have to see what works out," Aashi said quickly, not willing to re-kindle that fight when they had a noble audience. "And then the younger one is named Andre. He's in the East working with my baby brother Dekyv -- we call him Deki -- trying to launch a stonemason business together."

(also not me coming up with a family on the fly lmao)
(did I say she was an only child? dunno, but she's got a brother now hahaha)

(Not with any kind of willingness! Very few people in that household were exempt from his wrath. It happened a couple times before Septimus finally put his foot down and was like "torture your brothers but the apothecary has a job to do" and that was that. Gaius found out she was pregnant several months later, figured his parents and Michael would flip out, and helped her smuggle Tristan away to a farm where he's now spent most of his life under the care of a trustworthy parent figure. He's close with both of them, though)

"Wow, the East? That's far!"
"And riddled with conflict," Sara added. "How are they faring with the war going on?" The thousand year war, the war that had been around longer than this monarchy. It seemed a silly question, really.

(Owww that's rough)

"It's actually helping them out, believe it or not," Aashi said. "That's why they went over there: turns out there are many, many people in need of fortifying their walls and defenses and such. I feel it an injudicious choice but it wasn't mine to make, unfortunately."

(Michael's demise was a blessing to all)

(Actually I wouldn't say Tristan's very close with Gaius; Gaius is a bit terrified of him even though he's a perfectly nice kid)

"That's very good of them, though." Sara nodded approvingly. "Your cousin and brother sound like good men!"

"Yes, ma'am." Aashi smiled, pleased with the compliment. "I like to think so. They were both good kids."

"It sounds as if your family has been scattered to the winds," Gaius mused, dragging himself up from his dour reflections. "Not always a terrible thing, but certainly bitter at times. You must have been glad to get Tadaaki back; do you have any remaining relations in your area?"
Tomhas noticed his brother's deliberate interest; he'd been watching Gaius through most of dinner. Anneliese had told him with no small amount of skirting and sidestepping what had happened in the sitting room, and it certainly still looked like there was a remnant of that disturbance, increased now by Aashi's unwitting dredging up of history that every person in Serpent Keep wanted desperately to forget.

"Unfortunately I do not," Aashi answered. "My father passed away shortly after Tasia was born -- though thankfully he got to meet her, first. Tadaaki's parents had taken me in even before that, but--"

Why couldn't she keep her mouth shut? Gods. She knew better than to bring this up at all -- and even more, she shouldn't be bringing this up in front of strangers. Let alone noble strangers.

Tadaaki's entire body went tense, and he glared at her coldly. Why would she bring that up? They were having a perfectly good meal, and now he had to deal with all negative emotions that surfaced in an instant when he thought of his parents and what Aleth had done to them. Thought of all the blood. So much blood.

He couldn't do this. Not now.

"Excuse me." He stood and plopped Tasia in Aashi's lap, then quickly strode out of the room. He needed to control his anger before he embarrassed Ky. Or Tomhas and Anneke, for that matter. He was a guest. He shouldn't be being an asshole, despite Aashi rubbing salt in his wounds. But he couldn't handle dealing with the tension in this room anymore. It was too much.

Aashi cringed, regret stabbing through her like nothing else she'd felt before. She needed to go apologize. Console him. But for now, he needed space. Besides, she needed to try to salvage this.

The door closed behind him. She let out her pent breath, looking sheepishly back at Ash. "... but they're not part of the picture anymore."