Everything According to Plan
Darius wanted to ask about Bariya, but Velodic stood with her back to him, and that sight alone was frightening enough that he could not get a single word out.
"You want to know where Bariya is."
She had read his heart. He flinched.
"…Yes."
The reply sounded wrung from him. Velodic turned, and before their eyes could meet, Darius jerked his head down. Meeting her gaze was the most terrifying thing in the world.
"If she isn't here, there is only one place she could be."
Only one place? Had they thrown Bariya straight into the underground room where she had lived with her mother? Or into a cell?
"She's at the Caliph Estate."
"…Pardon?"
The answer was nothing he had expected, and his head came up before he could stop it. Pitch-black eyes met his—so dark they hardly seemed to belong to a person—and goosebumps raced over his whole body. He could not make sense of it.
"Th-the Caliphs? Why would she…?"
Didn't you say you'd found her?
"I said I found her. I never said I brought her back."
Darius stood blank for a long while. The moment the meaning finally landed, he went ashen and threw himself flat on the floor.
"C-Clan Head! Forgive me. I'll resolve this somehow. This time—if you grant me just one more chance, I will bring that thing, Bariya, back!"
"How?"
Velodic's question held no anger at all, only a level voice, and that frightened him more. The angrier she became, the calmer she grew. Darius shook where he lay.
"You failed to so much as locate the creature before I found it myself. The likes of you—how, exactly, do you intend to manage it?"
"I—I can! If I ask Buten, who holds the Authority of Bloodline Discernment, and file a suit for parental rights, it will be more than enough!"
Why Bariya was with the Caliphs was obvious. They must have learned she was their daughter, hunted her down, and locked her away to hold as a hostage. With Buten's help alone, he could grind those wretches into the dirt.
"Unable to do a thing on your own. Incompetent. And a child of Mariner blood has the gall to speak of borrowing someone else's help."
"C-Clan Head…"
Cold sweat poured off him as he looked up at Velodic—and froze. For all the chill in her voice, her eyes held no feeling whatsoever. They never did. She looked at Darius not as a son, but as a microbe. That was why he feared her eyes. All they ever showed him was that, to his mother, he was nothing.
"Come in."
At Velodic's command, the clan's knights entered. They were elites who answered to no one but the clan head, and at the sight of them Darius's face blanched.
"I—I was wrong. I'll stake my life to capture her, so please—!"
"Who said anyone was going to kill you? Don't fret. If you mean to file for parental rights, as you suggested, then you, her birth father, will need to be alive."
His life had been spared, and still he felt no joy. He would simply be allowed to keep breathing. From this moment, it was no different from being told that every power he held within Mariner would be stripped from him.
"Take him."
"C-Clan Head. Mother—Mother! I am your son!"
The knights seized both his arms and began to drag him out, and Darius made one last grab at a mother's love.
"I know."
That was the whole of the answer that came back, as if to ask what he expected it to change.
"Mother…"
Before his mother's eyes, still empty of even a speck of feeling, Darius fell into despair. He was hauled away. The door shut.
Only then did quiet return to the office. Velodic shook her head and lowered herself onto the sofa.
"To think a thing like that came from my own womb."
She had borne six children, and not a single quality among them satisfied her. That was Velodic's grief. Rozan, the heir, was at least quick to read a room—but whether that one could truly carry on the grand design Mariner had pursued across long ages remained very much in doubt.
"So the little wildcat has gone back to the Caliphs."
Darius seemed convinced they would take Bariya, his own blood, as a hostage. Velodic knew better. Those who shared a common enemy in Mariner were hardly going to turn on one another. They would join hands.
For the first time that day, Velodic smiled.
She had worried what she would do if the little wildcat failed to return to the Caliphs, and the relief was genuine. Had Darius known her true mind, he would have been staggered—but sadly, he did not. Velodic wished only that the young wildcat who carried Mariner's blood would go on moving exactly as she desired.
Bariya's permission had been secured. There was no reason to delay any further, so the Caliphs decided to leave for Aldros at once. There was, however, exactly one problem.
"I'm going."
"I'm going too."
Sabrina and Sirka, having stormed the office, began pressing their cases hard in front of Baden.
"I'm the lady of the Caliph household. If not me, who goes to adopt our girl?"
"I'm the one who brought the little one here. The adoption was my suggestion, so I ought to go as well."
"You stay and watch the estate."
"You're the best fighter we have, Mother, so you should be the one guarding it."
"That's exactly why I should come along! What if those hyena whelps attack the little one on the way?"
"It'll be fine. She could wipe out every last one of them by herself."
"…Well. That is true."
What kind of conversation is this? A hollow laugh escaped Baden. Both of them, in short, were insisting on coming to Aldros.
"If we want to get there and back as quickly as possible, it's best if the little one and I go alone."
"What? Are you saying I'd be in the way?"
He had never intended to take either of them, and the instant Sabrina's eyes flared, his heart dropped.
"Of course not. If you came with us, nothing would reassure me more."
Baden shook his head at once. In truth, parting from her was the last thing he wanted. This time, though, it would not do.
"Only, the two of you have work here that needs you."
He was not peeling Sabrina and Sirka off the journey merely because he wanted to travel alone with the little one. That desire was not wholly absent. He was wise enough to leave it unsaid.
"The men Sirka arrested from the underground auction will be arriving soon. Sabrina, please see to their punishment."
"…Ha."
With the clan head away, the important work naturally fell to Sabrina. Once she fell quiet, Baden looked to Sirka.
"You have something to finish as well, before the little one and I return."
Sirka closed her mouth. He had not named the task, but she knew exactly what it was. Both duties were too weighty to leave to anyone else, and with no room left for stubbornness, the two of them sank into despair.
"To think I won't even be there when my own daughter is adopted."
"I was the one who suggested we take her as a little sister…"
"The little one will like a family that does its work in style more than a family that puts everything off to travel together."
Reluctance had been dripping off both of them, but Baden's reasoning settled them almost at once. Heard aloud, it was true.
"You'd better come back as fast as you can."
"We'll have the work finished perfectly."
They nodded with grim resolve and were soon gone from the office.
Ever since Bariya had arrived, the family had grown almost unbearably sweet, and a faint smile would not leave Baden's lips. The little one truly was a blessing. And if he meant not to lose that blessing, the adoption had to be settled quickly.
By that afternoon, every preparation for the journey to Aldros was complete. Bariya stood before the carriage with the child-sized pack Sirka had given her strapped on neat and proper, Blackie cradled in her arms.
"You're bringing that one along too?"
Sirka scowled, and Bariya nodded hard.
"Yeah. I left him by himself for a bit, and poison started spreading all around him right away. I can't just lock him up until I get back, so I'm taking him."
No one could very well argue with that. Everyone who had come out to see them off stole a glance at White. They had been certain she would throw a fit over why only Blackie was allowed to go.
Chuff.
Astonishingly, she sat with perfect composure and saw Bariya off like a model of good behavior. Bariya turned a bright smile on the stunned gathering.
"It's fine! I already sorted out the pecking order!"
In so little time, she had put two tigers beneath her and claimed the very top of the hierarchy. A truly fearsome little wildcat.