Caballa gripped Tristan’s forearm in warning.
Rose stared starkly at her husband, her fingers tightening on Elianas’.
Tianoman stood. “Welcome, Teroux. Help yourself to a drink and sit with us.”
Teroux inhaled and then nodded. “Thank you. Forgive me. You must know I expect the worst now.”
Tristan squeezed his eyes shut.
“Bring the wine here, Teroux,” Torrullin murmured.
Clearing his throat, Teroux moved to the sideboard, poured himself a hefty helping of whisky, then gripped the wine urn. Returning to the table, he moved in Torrullin’s direction, passed Rose, who he ignored, and passed Elianas, who ignored him, to the seat empty beside Torrullin. He sat, shifting the urn in his direction.
Torrullin nodded his thanks, poured, and moved it to Elianas.
Elianas stared at it a moment, lifted his goblet to drain it, and refilled. “Would you like some, Rose?”
She managed to nod.
He set his full goblet in front of her. “We can share.”
Swallowing, tears in her eyes, she nodded again. She did no more than look at the wine, though.
Tianoman sat and even the most unobservant person would have read the intense tension in him.
“Is this an interference?” Teroux demanded.
“We have family matters to address,” Torrullin said. “Teroux, for once curb your reactions and just listen, will you?”
“All right.”
It cost the young man, but if he was willing to meet them halfway, they would give him the benefit of the doubt.
Tianoman placed his hands flat on the table. Transparency for family.
“We are at the point where we need to present a united front. Not only to the Valleur, but also to the universal worlds. Recent events have revealed to many how fractured we are as a race and how much we now flounder. Wait. Hear me out. After the Rift tore open to bring Margus into this universe, the Valleur stood forth as an ancient race and worlds everywhere again harked to history. We were acknowledged as first sentience and the race most powerful through time. Many then looked to us for guidance, largely because of the Enchanter on Valaris.”
Torrullin made a face.
“Valaris was the star world, a place where old enemies lived side by side in harmony without rancour. Valaris became heartworld to the Valleur, for it was proof of lumin kindred. When strife came again, once more the Enchanter was our saviour. To the universe this was irrefutable proof of Valleur supremacy. Millennia of peace followed and we were honoured, respected and celebrated. The fact that the Valla was also Elixir aided that.”
“Tian, please …”
“Torrullin, just listen. Everything has changed. Despite the host of benevolent Valleur on Luvanor, Valleur supremacy is now feared. On the other hand, many now question said supremacy. While we do not need that kind of pedestal, for supremacy may also equal tyranny, we have been pushed out of the mind-set enabling it. Why?”
Tianoman glanced questioningly around the table.
“The Vallas are the why,” Teroux muttered.
“Excellent, Teroux. We are at the root of the changes in perception, yes. The Vallas do not stand together. Torrullin, wait! I know you want to say the fault is yours, but you cannot be. While we owe our existence to you and Lycea, you are not responsible for what is in our hearts and in our souls. Every Valla man and woman is responsible for him or herself. The duty of blame is not yours.”
“I agree with that,” Tristan murmured.
“Good. The changes began with Tymall, of course, the Valla who murdered Vallas and brought Valaris to the point of annihilation again. Fay, glorious and beautiful Valla, aided in it. Yes, my parents. Tell me, Torrullin, do I now accept every ill that befalls us, because they were my parents?”
Torrullin shook his head.
“Then we lay the spectre of blame to rest. The man who wore the face of your father, Teroux, further created our downward slide. The reappearance of Nemisin and his daughter Cassiopin also caused upheaval in perception. Much has happened to this family and we have dealt with it as best we knew how at the time. We are the last and our future now lies with Lunik. I would like to gift him something wholesome to reign over in that future, and thus we need affect changes now. We have abandoned our heartworld in order to spare her, but we need not make that an eternal state. In order to return, we have to begin right here. We need to be united as a family.”
Tristan said, “You sound much like our grandfather now with your ideals.”
“What does that mean?” Torrullin demanded.
“You are the true idealist here,” Tristan responded. “It clearly rubbed off on Tian.”
Tianoman glared at his cousin. “Never have I known you this contrary. I thought you would be the one to jump in first and back me.”
“I am no idealist,” Torrullin snapped.
“Of course I back you,” Tristan said simultaneously, adding immediately, “and you are an idealist, Torrullin. Was it not your ideal of living in harmony that brought peace to Valaris and thus the universe? At least your ideals bear fruit.”
“Meaning mine won’t?” Tianoman demanded.
“Are you Vallorin now, Tian, or family?”
Tianoman glared at him. “Say what you want to. This is a family gathering.”
“Right. Pull the Vallorin card here and I will smack you as well …”
“Tristan!” Caballa gasped.
“… directly after I have smacked Teroux,” he went on.
Teroux hurtled to his feet.
Torrullin dragged him down. “His anger is for everyone here, not just you. Sit.”
Teroux, thankfully, sat.
Tristan leaned on his hands and pushed himself up, to stand bending over the table. His head hung for a time, and then he looked up. “I am filled with fury, yes, and it seems it begins to rule me. The changes you speak of, Tian, despite unity, will not now cease. Major alteration lies on the horizon and we can do little to stop it. The Vallas will pay again. I begin to believe we are cursed.”
He straightened to draw a breath and let it go. Incongruously, he then smiled. “I begin to understand you, Torrullin, so much, and that is scary. I remember someone saying I do not have your capacity to hate and it remains true, but I certainly have your capacity for rage. I need to learn to hide it …”
“No, you need to use it,” Torrullin interrupted. “In battle, rage will dull your other senses, but when you use it for strength, it sharpens your ability to think and react. Everyone knows anger, Tris. How we deal with it makes the difference. Do not hide it; transform it.”
Tristan nodded. “Sound advice. Are you transforming your anger now or are you hiding it?”
Elianas’ head swung to Torrullin.
“Touché, Tris,” Torrullin murmured. “Fortunately you put a face to what roils within me. Do go ahead.”
Elianas’ head swung away.
Lips quirking, Tristan said, “Tian, forgive me, I was lashing out.”
Tianoman nodded.
“We are at a crossroads here …”
Tianoman’s mouth twisted. One meaning for his name was ‘crossroad’.
“… and for Lunik’s sake I agree we need a united front. If we maintain it through whatever comes next, Lunik will inherit something worthy. However, the word ‘front’ fills me with dread and, yes, anger, for therein lies deceit and manipulation. If the Vallas are a front of unity, we are not united.”
Caballa said, “Tristan is right. If any of us desires now to be part of it, wonderful. If not, I say leave this room.”
Teroux rose then. “I assume you speak of me.”
“No, Teroux, to all of us. Sit, Tris, I have this.”
Tristan sat, sending Caballa a grin.
“We deal with our issues right now,” Caballa went on. “This does not mean magical resolution to every problem, but certainly the willingness to keep working at it. If we can reach consensus to keep trying, we are united
. Sit, Teroux. And start thinking.”
Obviously surprising himself, Teroux sat.
Tianoman grinned widely. “Now we are talking like family.”
“What is your ultimate plan, Tian?” Elianas asked.
“I believe, for the foreseeable future, we should all live here. We then show …”
“I do not want to live here,” Elianas snapped out.
“Then we should address that issue,” Caballa murmured.
He glanced at her. “You do not understand.”
“I think I do, Elianas. I know the expectations beauty places on one. Fay suffered under the same burden.”
Elianas frowned and Tianoman twitched. “Why is that?” Elianas asked.
She shrugged. “Some seek the fallout attention being in your orbit brings. Others are envious and seek to cause damage. Many place you on a pedestal of worship. But some, my friend, simply desire to look in order to celebrate beauty. They do not seek anything.”
He closed his eyes. “I will go insane with so many looking, Caballa.”
Teroux snorted.
Torrullin’s fingers whitened around his goblet, but he curbed his impulse to lash out. He glanced at Tristan, seeing there the same restraint.
Caballa nodded, ignoring Teroux. “If you will allow me, Elianas, I can help you deal with it. I will show you how to turn a blind eye.” She smiled then, for she was once blind.
Elianas returned her smile. “Very well. I state here my willingness to work on this issue.”
Teroux then leaned forward to see Elianas beyond Torrullin. “You think you are beautiful?”
Before anyone could react, Elianas had him by the throat and backed him up against the wall behind them. He moved so fast, no one had time to prevent it.
Rose’s hand, now released, clenched into a fist. She stared at the goblet in front of her.
“Gods, he is fast,” Tristan whistled, sitting back.
Torrullin, rocking on his chair in the force of movement, planted his feet to still the buffeting, and stood. The chair crashed back.
Tianoman too was on his feet. As he strode past, Tristan gripped his arm and hauled him to a stop. “This is one issue that needs dealing with, Tian.”
Staring at the confrontation opposite, Tianoman nodded and sat in the chair Tristan pulled out beside him.
“And I thought I was angry,” Tristan murmured.
Caballa glared at him.
Tawny Valleur eyes challenged. Elianas squeezed the throat in his grip. He then let go and stepped back. “No, not worth it. I choose to transform my fury into clarity of thought. I understand how much you hurt, Teroux, and thus …”
“Hurt?” Teroux said hoarsely, a hand at his throat. “Ignored! No one looks, Elianas!”
Elianas froze before him.
Torrullin righted his chair and placed one booted foot on it. His attention narrowed to the two men, but he made no further move.
“They look at you and it pisses you off? They look, Elianas. No one looks at me. I am the wraith in the walls.” Teroux inhaled a shuddering breath. “Yet I only wish for you to look.”
Rose lifted the goblet in front of her and drank the wine down.
“I am looking, Teroux,” Elianas said.
“What do you see?” the younger man begged.
Tristan lowered his head. “Unrequited love. Now I understand,” he said softly.
Caballa took his hand and squeezed. She gazed at Rose sympathetically.
“I see a handsome man, Teroux. You are the epitome of the Golden. People do look at you and they whisper about Teroux Valla, the one who is much like Vannis is appearance, a true Golden. Man, you have so much going for you.”
“What do you see?”
“I see a young man who misses his family.”
Teroux closed his eyes. “You are not going to give me anything, are you?”
“It would be a lie.”
Teroux nodded and reopened his eyes. “I know no one here will believe me yet, but I told Rivalen to sod off. After the inundation on Sanctuary, he came to ostensibly apologise for flooding the Villa. The reason I am still alive is that he hopes I will think again and thus use me once more. You are right, Elianas, I miss my family. No one here ever lied to me. Maybe they did not always tell me everything, but there were no lies. I did, to all of you, I know and I am sorry. You never used me either. In fact, Torrullin, despite the nasty things I said to you, you still gave me the Villa and the responsibility to help those in need of sanctuary. True family. Thank you, all of you.”
“Cousin, what are you saying?” Tianoman asked.
“I am asking for a chance to prove I am with you. This may not be easy, at first, for I have much to explain.”
“Teroux, what about your issues?” Caballa said. “For your family to accept you and for you to know they accept you, there must be resolution, or the willingness to find resolution.”
He nodded again and pushed away from the wall. Moving to Rose - Elianas stepped out of his way - he hunkered beside her chair.
Torrullin remained as he was, watching Elianas.
“Rose, I do love you. You are my best friend. I would love for us to take care of Sanctuary as we have until recently and I would love to share the villa with you. I would also love it if you stay married to me, but know it will be a marriage of friends only. If you prefer, for you are entitled to love, we can divorce and still live together as friends.”
Rose lowered her forehead to the table.
“Please, Rose, tell me what you think.”
She lifted up, her face streaked with tears. “I don’t know what to think.”
“You need time. Take all you need.”
She stared at her hands.
Teroux straightened to look at Elianas. “Nothing will change how I …” He paused and then added, “I am sorry, I cannot change it.”
Elianas moved not a muscle. Torrullin slowly shifted to study Teroux.
“I shall, however, make neither move nor mention in the future.”
Tianoman released a sigh of relief and then stiffened when Elianas said, “What do I have to do to earn it?”
Torrullin’s silvery eyes were unblinking on Teroux.
“I swear I shall keep it civil between us, after one kiss.”
Tristan lurched up. “Unfair, Teroux!”
“One kiss and we have peace. Think of it as the kiss of peace.”
Torrullin growled.
“Here?” Elianas asked.
Torrullin jerked to him.
Teroux swallowed convulsively. “Here. These witnesses are the proof of a deal struck and fulfilled.”
Rose stood. “If you kiss him, Elianas, I shall thank you, for then I know exactly where I stand and what I must do next.”
Dark eyes flicked to her and then back to Teroux.
“Don’t,” Torrullin snarled warningly.
Tristan rounded the table in massive strides to grip Teroux from behind and jerked him around to face him. “This is wrong, Teroux!”
“Is it, cousin? Will I not prove exactly who I am? Is that not dealing with my issues? I swear to move on and I swear no one will need to question my motives again. How is that wrong?”
Torrullin threw his hands in the air and perched on the edge of the table, folding his arms. “Do what suits you best, Elianas.”
Elianas glanced at him. “What is best for family.”
“However you want to dress it up.”
Tristan, astonished, stared at Torrullin and loosened his hold on his cousin.
Teroux shrugged him off and turned back to Elianas. He moved closer. Elianas waited, his expression unreadable.
“You are, after all, the one able to cross lines,” Torrullin muttered.
“This is not crossing a line, Torrullin; this is keeping one at bay.”
Teroux came to rest a foot away from Elianas. He moved his head to Torrullin. “There is no need for jealousy. It is a simple kiss of peace.”
“Nothing
simple about it. Elixir can hear your heartbeat,” Torrullin said. “Better make it a good one, Elianas, to still his need. If he ever thinks about you again where I can hear it, I swear to rip that beating heart from his body.”
“Angry indeed,” Tristan murmured.
“You have no idea,” Torrullin snapped.
Elianas reached out and clasped Teroux’s face and brought him in close. “Swear again,” he whispered.
Teroux shivered. “I swear, not by word or action will you know how I feel.”
“No looking either.”
“That will be hard, but I will try.”
“You do not touch me when I kiss you.”
Teroux nodded.
Caballa was transfixed, Tianoman along with her.
Rose moved closer to the wall for a better vantage.
Tristan, like to Torrullin, had folded his arms. He rocked on the balls of his feet, the action meant to keep him in place. Torrullin hogged the edge of the table for a similar reason.
Elianas lowered his head and touched lips with Teroux. The younger man shuddered and Elianas angled his head to claim those lips. He drew Teroux closer, fingers white on his cheeks. Teroux shoved his hands into his pockets.
The kiss deepened, lengthened.
Torrullin’s cheeks grew taut with strain.
Elianas lifted his mouth and stepped immediately away. Putting his back to Teroux, he lifted a shaking hand to wipe his lips.
Teroux collapsed to his knees. “I knew it would be like that.”
Tristan barged into Torrullin upon seeing a booted foot lift with terrible intention. A second more and Torrullin would have kicked Teroux in the head. Holding him there, Tristan said, “It is done, Torrullin.”
Rage made him contrary. He whispered into Tristan’s ear, “You will love someone like this one day and you will murder to keep him with you.”
Tristan, ashen, stepped away. “I am dreaming. I know.”
Torrullin closed his eyes. “Forgive me.”
“For what? Is it not the truth?” Tristan swung away and returned to his seat between Caballa and Tianoman. He looked at neither.
A small sound, like a mouse squeaking in fright, drew their attention.
Lore of Sanctum Omnibus Page 229