Tributes

Chapter Ten

Silas was terrified. Face buried into the fold's Tyreol's cloak on his shoulder, Silas felt safe. It helped that Tyreol kept murmuring gentle words into his hair. A hand was rubbing his back too. Probably Heilan by how Tyreol was holding the two of them.  

The safe feeling didn't remove the fear though and even with his heartbeat slowly returning to normal, Silas kept feeling waves of terror wash over him. The image of sharp teeth inches from his face trying to eat him flashing through his mind. Only to fade as Tyreol's magic flared up and wrapped around him tightly. It started to pulse, almost in time with Silas' flares of fear. Until finally Silas only felt safety. He closed his eyes and let his body drift, surrounded by Tyreol's scent and warmth.

Tyreol felt his little one go limp, no longer smelling of fear. Silas was going to need watching after this. Some humans struggled to recover from such events. Silas was young, and that could go either way. As they reached the tributes tower, Tyreol marched into his own room, intending to put Heilan and Silas down before collecting the others. Only, it seemed he didn't need too. As he entered the room, he found the rest of his tributes there, plus Airean. They were all sitting on the large rug on the floor in front of his bed. Julia and Airean were talking quietly with their respective charges cuddled on them. Paul was cuddled up to the fae servant while Abel appeared to be sleeping on Julia's lap. No doubt tired from the long day.

 "When did you get back here, Julia?" Tyreol asked quietly, not wanting to disturb either twin from there slumber. The three awake people looked over at him. Paul flinched almost violently as Tyreol met his eyes before hiding his face in the fae's chest. A fire burned in Tyreol's chest and he glared at Airean. The man had the decency to look embarrassed but did nothing to push Paul away from him. Another one who was going to be in big trouble the next morning. 

"I asked a  servant the way back and was brought here," Julia replied, her eyes not fearful when they meet Tyreol's. Tyreol almost smiled at the sight of her. She was being polite but was clearly not cowed by Tyreol either. Good signs, hopefully. 

"I'm glad," Tyreol said allowing a small smile on his face. Julia smiled slightly back before ducking her head. Tyreol saw her tiredness in the smile though. All of his charges needed to rest.  He placed Heilan and Silas on his bed gently, Silas stirring slightly. "Sleep," Tyreol murmured as he saw the boy's eyes open, kissing his forehead. "Get over here! All of you. It's bedtime." 

It took a moment, but Julia was first to respond to his order. Sweeping up Abel and settling herself on the bed. Tyreol pushed her to the centre of the bed with Abel in between her and Silas. Silas stirred again, this time to curl closer to his brother, yawning slightly as he did so. Julia looked down at the two of them with a fond look on her face.  

"Paul!" Tyreol summoned, reaching a hand in the boy's direction. 

Paul whimpered but let go of the fae and walked over to the god. Tyreol picked up the boy and kissed him gently on the cheek. "I'm happy to see you safe, my boy. We will discuss everything in the morning. For now, it is time to rest and recover from today," he murmured, pressing their foreheads together. Paul stiffened at the words before nodding, his eyes lowered. "Can you look at me for a moment?" he asked softly. Pink eyes flickered up to Tyreol briefly, wariness clear in them but not terror. Tyreol smiled again and bumped their head lightly. Paul seemed to relax slightly but lowered his eyes again and didn't make any other movements. Gently Tyreol settled him on the other side of Julia.