Oracle

Part 36

Elison watched from the side as the fae used his magic to put the young man to sleep, having kept out of the conversation as much as possible to obverse them. Calder's words about John having plans for Jaspar ringing loudly in his ears. John was certainly acting like Jaspar was one of his pretty boys and not one of the Calder's pups. Protective and possessive but in a different way to Elison. Elison would need to warn Calder of that.

The young seer fought briefly before slipping under at the promise of a dreamless sleep. Elison wondered darkly how much sleep Jaspar had actually gotten the night before. It sounded like the shock had wrecked his system. Jaspar had clearly been struggling that morning if John's words were any indication. Swearing was a big no-no with the fae, with most of the old races even. Races who were from a time where words had far more power than they did now. Even the old superstitious about giving someone your birth name were beginning to lose power.

John allowed swearing from the customers for the most part but not from the people who he viewed as under his control or just plain his. Elison had been reprimanded before for cursing, and he knew Calder had too. Recently at that, not from when Calder was still serving in John's makeshift court as an advisor. John took no liberties when it came to people who used crude language and Jaspar was lucky John had let it slide this time.

Jaspar was fragile that morning. Fragile and Elison hadn't been there to support him because he had been enjoying his only lie in of the week. Elison felt slightly guilty at that but his demon half was quick to snort and yank the feeling away. Being fragile when your emotions were still bouncing all over the place wasn't always a bad thing.

"Your pup is getting more rebellious," John mused, still sitting on the bed, his eyes on Jaspar's sleeping face. "I hope you are ready to deal with this stage."

"My apologies. He's still a touch shaken from last night," Elison said softly, pulling on a t-shirt before John thought he was being rude by remaining undressed. "He's going through angry again."

John snorted. "Bit of an understatement Elison. Jaspar is going to be pushing boundaries and testing limits for a while yet. They all do and Jaspar is still adjusting to his condition as well," John glanced over at Elison with a knowing smile. "No reason to let him get away with that sort of behaviour but more reason to pull tight at the first signs of it. Try not to give him enough rope to hang himself by," John advised.

"I'll watch out for when's he's starting to struggle," Elison nodded slowly, understanding vaguely what John meant. He had never done this part of assimilation into the underbelly before or even been around for it. John, on the other hand, was well used to putting rebellious young adults in their new places. Without completely breaking them or ruining them, which was an art in itself.

"Speaking of which," John turned to Elison with a decidedly miffed off look on his face. "Jaspar questioned me on when he became one of my boys. Just what have you been telling him?"

Elison swallowed. Maybe things were worse than he thought if John was genuinely thinking as Jaspar as one of his boys. "He knows he's not one of your pretty boys," Elison said emphasising the pretty. "He also knows there is a power balance between yourself and Lord Calder. I thought he knew not to question you, however."

John let out an almost feral growl before looking visibly embarrassed that he had let the sound out. The fae was normally in considerably more control than that over his reactions. "There is no power balance issues. The brats have as much power as I allow them and Alistair Calder is only a few years away from retirement. You will tell him in your report to him that whatever he is planning is to stop now. Jaspar is part of something which will succeed his tenure as city lord," John said darkly but refined, a hand running over the blankets on Jaspar.