The Lost Secret of the Silver Sea

Chapter 15: Questions

            Kaelonne takes a step back in surprise as the beakers in Hartley’s hand crash to the ground, the sound of breaking glass echoing in the otherwise quiet lab. He flinched harshly, unprepared for the sudden intrusion into his personal space. Warmth enveloped him as arms warp around him tightly, strong and firm despite his earlier assessment of fragile humans. This warmth was comfortable, much unlike the heat he felt when wearing a jacket under the direct sun. It was enough to make him drop the dagger in his hand, attention completely off the detective standing at the door for a few seconds.

            The young royal relaxes naturally into the confine, his body reacting as though it was something familiar without his permission. Relief spreads in his body as the loud screaming of the Call finally stops, leaving him straining to keep his balance on unsteady feet. Losing that battle, he copies the movement of Hartley and wrap his arms around the human, if a little hesitantly gentler. The exhaustion in his muscles came back slightly, as if whispering ‘safe, sleep’, he ignored it in favour of turning his attention back to Ford.

            “Hartley, you know this kid?” His hand is still held out, aimed for the young man beside Kaelonne in the case that he decides to take the shelter of the other human instead. Hartley, finally taking in his surroundings, releases his tight grip on the royal and puts himself in the path of the detective.

            “Dad! What are you doing here?” Kaelonne allows himself to be shielded, not quite willing to start a fight he didn’t totally understand. It was not a common notion to him as a royal, usually it was his job to be the shield, trained to protect his people even at his age. Having someone else protect his front willingly was a bit of a strange feeling.

            “Hart, I’m just asking, who’s the kid?” The detective took a step forward, the young royal took one back in response, tugging on Hartley’s jacket to get him to follow. The human did not give up his grounds, holding his hands up placatingly. Kaelonne could tell that Ford was taking in the sorry sight of the royal, from his dust stained face, dirty hair to the badly hidden tattoos and bandages.

            “Dad, it’s fine, this is Kellon. Kellon, meet my dad.” Hartley takes his moment to gently pull the young royal to his side instead, letting the detective get a good look at him. Kaelonne scrunched his nose at the vulnerability then cursed himself mentally at the thought of leaving Hartley to defend him. The dark-skinned human leaned over slightly with a lower tone of voice, “That’s my father, the family I was talking about that night.”

            ‘Father’, that word he recognised. Suddenly, a lot of what was happening made sense. Since the human languages were something that was learnt only by those willing to, and members of the research group, a lot of the terms were left out. Most researchers only learnt enough to get by if they were ever to encounter a human, Kaelonne was smart but he was not smart enough to learn every word of another language. His recognition of Ford’s general features and stance suddenly made sense, and the smell of the sea still attach to the both of them.

            “Friend of yours?” Ford relaxes a little, hands back at his sides and posture less tense.

            “Something like that. You remember how about a month ago, I got pulled out by the tide?” At the detective’s look, Hartley continued with a stiff wave of his hand, “This is the guy that pulled me to shore.”

            “What?”

            “Y-yea, he got me out and called for you.” Hartley glanced at Kaelonne, directing a small smile at him, “I told him where he could find me if he needed to.”

            “I see… well then.” The detective takes a step forward and stops when Kaelonne takes one backward, not having said a word yet, “I must thank you then, you saved my son’s life.”

            “Kellon, it’s getting late already, do you have a place to stay?” Kaelonne opens his mouth in order to respond but the words don’t quite fit, so he simply shakes his head. “Dad… can Kellon stay with us a little bit?”

            “Well, it’s the least we can do, sure.” The detective still looks a little weary, not that Kaelonne can blame him, if someone were to be caught with a dagger in hand and tattoos hidden partially on their neck and chest, he’d have a lot of inquiries to. “But, can I ask a few more questions?”

            “Y-yes?” Kaelonne speaks up, gaining the full attention of the room’s occupants. He scrunches his nose in response and the pair immediately focused on other items in the room, the young royal mentally notes the action with surprise.

            “Got a story with those bandages?” Ford asks gently, Hartley staring at Kaelonne in surprise. The young royal pulls the sleeves of his jacket down in an automatic response, cursing himself for not pulling them off before he entered the building. He’d just been so occupied with the Call, and the fact that he didn’t want to take them off in case the injuries hadn’t quite healed when he had nothing to clean and re-bandage it with. “No pressure to answer.”

            “Got hurt, didn’t have the things to change it.” He answered shortly, but not unkindly, uncertain of just how much he could say without revealing what something he didn’t want to. Kaelonne does raise his eyebrows this time when Hartley casually takes a hold of one of his hands and pulls back the jacket sleeve, inspecting the wrappings. Much to his own surprise, the young royal lets him.

            “The tattoos?” This time, Kaelonne chooses not to answer, thinning his lips and curling the fingers of the hand in the grip of the younger man. Ford simply nods in response, as if understanding everything Kaelonne was trying to say in the silence. Tattoos, Kaelonne learned, was not a common thing among the humans. He was fascinated by them to be honest. Most of them stood for something the human fighting for, while others were for decorations, or to cover hurts, it was one of the more amazing things he learnt from his short time on the streets. Explaining his tattoos to Ford would be too difficult and confusing.

            “Any place you’re staying?” Kaelonne is pulled back into the present as Hartley seems somewhat satisfied with one arm and proceeds to take the other.

            “No… not anymore.” The young royal curses how his voice seems a little brittle at this, enough that it has Hartley raising his head to meet his eyes.

            “What happened?”

            “A lot.”

            “Is… are your siblings okay?” Kaelonne had mentioned them in passing to Hartley the night they talked. Not into great detail of course, but the young man had somehow still remembered. Ford doesn’t intrude in the moment, silently listening from his position by the door.

            “I… think so. One is, the other… I’m not so sure.”

            “I- how?” Well wasn’t that the ‘million-dollar question’, another phrase he picked up and found rather suited his current problems. He had no clue what was going on, muchless, why it was happening.

             “A fight broke out I guess, I got out… barely.” The young royal hisses softly as the human runs his fingers over a bandage where the skin was still slightly sore. Hartley pulls back immediately, an odd look in his eye. 

            “Wait, a fight, like between you guys?” Kaelonne shakes his head and glances between Ford and Hartley, the younger human picking up the silent note, not here.

            “That dagger that you picked up, you recognised it?” Ford continued on softly, allowing for a change in topics.

            “Yes, it’s mine.”

            “Yours?”

            “My…uncle gave it to me.” Cassian wasn’t related to him by blood but the Mermatian had looked after and cared so much for him that it felt right to give him that title.

            “I see, well, you’re staying with us for the while. Hartley, you seem to have this handled.” Ford takes a step back, exaggerating his moves for the pair that honestly wasn’t paying him as much attention as they should’ve. “Hart, do me a favour and check his bandages for me, call me if you need anything. I’ll get the captain to hold off on any of the work for today.”

            Then the lab was silent save for the soft ‘pings’ of the equipment around him. Kaelonne could see the questions burning in the human’s eyes, so he wasn’t surprised by the next question.

            “How?”