Tales of the Pearly Kingdom (Pearly Tales Vol. 2)

166. The Royal Family

Cal pulled Seamus to his feet once he healed his fatigue enough that Seamus could finally move a little.

"Can you make your Perilroot arm into a stub covering sleeve when you aren't using it?" Cal asked.

Seamus held his stub up and there was no longer a tree arm there. "Way ahead of you." He smirked.

"That's my boy." Cal chuckled. "Now let's get you upstairs. I have some explaining to do to your moms."

*

"Cal, what on Gaia's green earth made you think that this would be a good idea?" Shayley said rubbing her temples.

Cal, Shayley, Selene, and Seamus were all sitting around his kitchen table as if they were having a family talk about something that wasn't at the level of attaching a thousand nuclear reactors to Seamus's body in the form of an arm. Seamus had his reddish-purple arm outstretched on the table for all of them to see.

"Well. World Trees all require complicated set of conditions to even sprout. Isn't this a miracle of miracles?" Selene asked.

"I don't think you understand, Selene." Shayley rubbed her face before she spoke. "The only places to even find seeds of the world tree are deep within the Dark forest or they are passed down by the tribes in the area. There hasn't been a true world tree in hundreds of years, and we've been sieged or infiltrated several times because people thought we had a world tree under the city powering everything."

"You don't?" Selene asked as if she had just assumed there was one after knowing Cal eccentricities.

"Noo~ there's something worse." Shayley moaned.

"We can't talk about it, but we have talked about it in passing. Either way. Selene is right. Gaia plays a large part in it, and since she's on my side now this is one of the greatest assets we can ask for." Cal explained.

"But you stuck it to his ARM!" Shayley picked up Seamus's arm and shook it at Cal.

"Ow. Mom!" Seamus snapped while bending in pain.

"You can feel that?" Shayley let go.

"Does it bruise?" Selene picked up his arm and gently looked it over.

"The point is, I trust Seamus. He did something amazing and I wanted to reward him. I also wanted to give him not only the knowledge but the strength to protect his family. Namely Ophelia." Cal explained.

Shayley pouted and sat back on her chair. "Fine, I trust you." She turned to Seamus. "I'll also place my trust in my son. It's somehow fitting for the Prince of the Pearly Kingdom to have a Poison-type World Tree for an arm."

"Prince?" Seamus's eyes bulged as he looked at his 'parents'.

"Isn't it obvious?" Selene, who was sitting on Seamus's left, placed her hand on his back. "Although, it won't happen for a while. Dragoonia will soon became a part of Calphian when our marriages finalized and recognized. Well... since Cal is technically the prince of Dragoonia wouldn't that mean-"

"Selene, honey, I love you, but don't even go there." Shayley took a deep breath and turned back to Seamus. "Either way. Cal is king, you are his son and Ophelia is his daughter. At a certain point you will have to come to terms with the fact you were adopted into the royal family." Shayley said from across the table from Seamus next to Cal.

Seamus turned his gaze to Cal.

"Don't think about it too hard, I plan on being alive and well for a long time." Cal shrugged. "If and when you are ready to rule, we'll talk about it. But Shayley is right. When everything settles down and we announce you and Ophelia as royalty, nobody will complain about your princely status when they find out about this."

Seamus stared at his arm and Selene put her hand on it to get his attention. "Like Cal said. Don't think about it. This was already your inheritance, besides Cal is the type of person to care about you more than something like this. If it was you or this, he'd tear it off and burn it to ash himself to save your life."

Seamus looked up. Cal made a face like it was the obvious truth and nodded.

"I mean we all would." Shayley also nodded. "Like Cal, I put my faith in people not things. I'm more worried that you'll become a target before you master that power. Besides if things get dicey, we can just call Gaia. But we may have to have your godmother involved in your training when Cal's not around."

"Godmother?" Seamus asked as another bomb dropped.

"You met her today. Silvia." Cal stated. "If anything happens to us-" Cal motioned around the table. "-She'll be the guardian and caretaker of you and Ophelia. She is one of the only beings in the entire city that can hold her own against either of your mothers, maybe even both."

That comment earned Cal a couple of glares.

Cal shrugged. "Don't take it personally, she wouldn't fight fair and she wouldn't go into a fight if she didn't hold the advantage. That's just the kind of person she is but that's also why she's in charge if we're gone."

"I guess I'll accept that." Shayley said. "That said, Seamus why don't you get some rest?" she pointed her thumb back towards his room. "You look as tired as I am." She didn't even wait for him to leave before she fell into Cal's lap and whined. "Babe, pamper me. I need some cuddles if I want to make it another day~."

*

"Cal what is going on here?" Vera asked as she walked into Cal's home to see three people pilled on the couch. She and Greffin had both tried to sneak away to check up on Seamus and ran into each other.

When they walked into the living room where Selene was leaning across the couch and was propped up against the arm at the end. Cal was leaning back into her with his back pressed against her stomach. Shayley had crawled up into Cal's shirt with her face pressed against his chest while her hair was poking out of his collar. Both Shayley and Cal seemed to be completely asleep, so Selene put a finger to her lips to shush them.

"Can I help you with something?" Selene whispered.

"We just came to check on Seamus." Greffin fidgeted with her fingers.

"You two are so cute." Selene smiled warmly. "But you should probably let him sleep for the rest of the evening and flirt with him tomorrow." She shushed them before they could make a bashful clamor of denial and waved them away.

"I wonder if we're setting a bad example for the kids?" Selene mused as she looked down at her beloved sandwiched between her and her sister-wife.