The Hall, Dhemlan, Kaeleer, Monday Evening (Fandom Time)

[glacial_queen]

The Coach arrived on the landing web with a slight thump. Lucivar frowned a moment and then sighed. "So, I'm not a professional Coachman."

Karla looked up innocently. "I didn't say anything."

"But you were thinking it, witchling. I could tell." He hopped out of the Coach and opened the door for them, helping Karla out first. "Ready for your first view of SaDiablo Hall?" he rumbled at Warren.

From the landing web, only a side of the Hall could be seen, towering over acres of thick, lush lawns, gardens in a riot of colors, and even the hint of some not-so-distant woods.

"Show-off," Karla muttered, though she couldn't deny a bit of pride, either. "Let's go inside. They're probably waiting on us, I'm sure."

[Up late, but for SP goodness! Still for one, and nfb. Karla and Warren will be back on the island tonight.]

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[glacial-warlord.livejournal.com]

Morton glanced first at Karla, who was being grilled about schoolwork and the at Lucivar, who was arguing with Jaenelle about well, something. It was hard to tell, they kept using Eyrien words that Morton was fairly certain were curses.

No one was listening, it was just him and Warren. "Like her?" he asked quietly, locking gazes with Warren. "Or like her like her?"

[wwiii]

"I..." And here was where Warren became suddenly and acutely aware of two things. First, that Morton had gone from amusing to kind of intense in about two seconds flat, and second, that he was on his own.

He took a deep breath, furrowed his eyebrows, and held on to Morton's gaze. "I like her, yes."

[glacial-warlord.livejournal.com]

Morton would be the first to admit that he wasn't very intimidating. Especially not compared to Saetan, who practically wrote the book on quiet menace, and Lucivar, who wrote the series on very loud, very violent menace. He just wasn't wired that way. But when it came to defending and protecting his cousin...well, that was something altogether different. It still wasn't proper intimidation, but more an acceptance of the fact that he would do anything to keep her safe. And a full knowledge of what that anything could entail.

Of course, that didn't mean he was at all prepared for a conversation like this. Especially since his first instinct was to ask 'why' or maybe 'how?!'

Mother Night, how to do this? "Does she know that?" he asked at last.

[wwiii]

That... was a very good question.

"I don't know," Warren admitted, poking idly at a piece of carrot. "I haven't exactly just told her, or anything."

Now dinner was awkward.

[glacial-warlord.livejournal.com]

Warren wasn't the one who had to listen to a male admitting he had a crush on his cousin! Ewww!

"She can be kind of oblivious," he said, not unkindly. "She's..." Morton slumped back in his chair, running his hands through his hair. This wasn't a conversation he really wanted to have out loud. He didn't think Karla would appreciate him 'meddling,' even if--or perhaps especially--if she didn't already know.

*Has she told you anything about Glacia?* he asked bluntly, on a direct spear-thread to Warren. *About why she's at school or why we come here to visit, instead of our own Territory.*

Sorry, Warren. The possibility that you're not perfectly familiar with telepathic contact never even occurred to him.

[wwiii]

To Warren's credit, he didn't jump. The voice in his head was new and different and more than a little surprising, and his eyes widened a little, and, yes, his feathers ruffled a bit. But he didn't jump.

What he did do was shake his head, no. That much, he didn't know.

[glacial-warlord.livejournal.com]

Morton paused, choosing his words carefully. He didn't want to betray any of Karla's confidences, but he wanted Warren to be aware of what he might be getting himself into.

Though if he was already interested in Karla, he was probably some kind of glutton for punishment.

*Our parents were killed almost eight years ago. Well, seven for Karla.* Damn timeline differences. *It looked like an accident, but it wasn't. Someone decided to kill off the Queen of the Territory and the strongest Black Widow. Her mother and mine. And that someone was her uncle, Hobart.*

One of the good things about psychic threads? You could drink while you spoke. And Morton really could use a drink. *After their deaths, Hobart came forward with documents naming him Karla's guardian and then shipped her off to live with the coven while he consolidated power. But the problem is, as long as there are strong witches who oppose him and the changes he's making in Glacia, he's never going to be secure. Karla's already the second most powerful witch in the Territory; she'll be the most powerful once she makes her Offering and comes into her adult strength. And she will never go along with what Hobart wants. When she was older and he was more firmly entrenched, he brought her home to live at the estate. So it would be easier to...take steps.*

[wwiii]

Warren's eyebrows furrowed a little, at that. He had no idea how this telepathy thing worked, whether he would be heard if he simply tried to think loudly or whether Morton could hear him now or if he was just going to be suspiciously quiet, sitting there and making faces at him across the table.

But he did give him a look that he hoped said, 'please, go on,' while he thought, on the chance that it would be heard, 'Steps?'

[glacial-warlord.livejournal.com]

Morton also looked a bit confused. Warren had been very quiet during their mental conversation, it was true, but not enough to make Morton reevaluate his belief that Warren was used to such conversations.

But while he could hear Warren's question, it didn't sound like proper psychic communication. It was fuzzy and quiet; clearer than kindred thoughts before one made the proper mental adjustment to hear them, but not perfect.

Perhaps it was because he was from another world? It was something he'd have to ask Karla about, later.

*Steps,* he agreed heavily. *Broken witches are harmless. Obedient. Complacent. They don't question, they don't argue, they don't fight. And they certainly can't rule. Their Craft is taken from them, stripped away, leaving them hollow inside. He's already tried once. I was very nearly too late.*

[wwiii]

Oh.

Oh.

Warren found his teeth were grit, now, and the feathers along his back, between his wings, were lifting like the hackles on an angry dog. Oh. Steps.

*And that's why she's in Fandom,* he thought back, eyebrows still furrowed. *So that he can't... Do that to her.*

Warren found himself rather wanting to find this Hobart guy so that he could pummel him senseless with a pair of very large wings.

[glacial_queen]

Karla chose that moment to look over at Warren, still laughing from something the High Lord said. "Surviving okay?" she asked in an undertone, still grinning. "Morton not glaring daggers at you, is he?"

[wwiii]

It took Warren a moment to snap out of it, but when he did turn to look at Karla, he was wearing that awkward smile of his again. If there was one expression that he could wear with no effort at all, it was an awkward smile.

"Daggers and arrows," he managed to quip. "But that's fine. I'm more or less daggerproof."

[glacial_queen]

"Don't say that too loudly," Karla said with a laugh, even as she kicked Morton under the table. "Lucivar will take that as an invitation to spar." She gave him a slow smile. "But I'm glad you're holding your own."

[glacial-warlord.livejournal.com]

*Good job,* Morton said, giving Warren a nod even as he winced. Stupid Karla got him right in the shin. That was going to bruise, too. He could tell, having been on the wrong side of Karla-kicking for years. *She'd get seven flavors of pissy if she knew I was telling you this.*

Brat.

*But yes, that's why she's there. Or here, when she has to be home. Hobart can't know where she is. Fortunately, here is where Jaenelle is, and she'd follow Jaenelle to the ends of the earth if that's what was needed. We all would.* Because Jaenelle was special.

*I'm not going to tell you what it was like for Karla from the time she got called back from the coven and the time I brought her to Fandom. That's her stuff to tell and I wasn't there for much of it.* Guilt echoed down the link, dark and heavy. *But she has reasons why she might shy away from males. Good ones. You seem like a decent enough male and you like Karla, which is nice even if it's weird. But be careful.*

That last was both concern on Warren's behalf and a warning. With a hint threat thrown in with good measure. Quite a versatile sentence, that.

[wwiii]

A small smile tugged at Warren's mouth again, in spite of himself. He caught the hint of a thread, and the concern and the warning. He was going to focus on the bits that weren't a threat. That seemed safer, somehow.

*Careful, I can do.*

And then he skewered that piece of carrot that he'd been poking at, and he gave Morton a grin. It wasn't a cocky grin. It wasn't even particularly confident. But, if nothing else, it was the sort of grin that you'd give to the protective cousin of the girl you like when he's sitting across the table attempting, and failing, to be intimidating.

[glacial-warlord.livejournal.com]

Hey! He was plenty intimidating!

...Sometimes. Sorta. When it was needed. Shut up.

"I'm not even doing anything!" Morton complained to Karla. "You deliberately wear pointy shoes, just to kick people, don't you?"

[glacial_queen]

"Your sitting there like a lump, pretending to be some big, scary male at Warren," she accused. "Very 'ooh, look at me, I'm Morton!' I'm all dangerous and growly."

[wwiii]

"He's dangerous?"

Oh, Warren's face was the very vision of innocence, there. Such a little angel.

[glacial-warlord.livejournal.com]

"I can take you, puppy," Morton said. He sounded like he couldn't make up his mind whether he wanted to sound amused or 'growly.'

[glacial_queen]

"And I can backhand you from across the table," Karla snapped, glaring.

[hells-highlord.livejournal.com]

"There goes polite," Saetan said, sighing. "I wish I could be surprised."

[offers-choices.livejournal.com]

"Now, now," Lucivar said genially. "I can smack you all around if it comes to it." Oh yes, his smile included Warren in that, too.

[wwiii]

"And what, do you suppose, are the odds of it actually coming to it?"

Sometimes, Warren had to ask the silly questions, yes.

[offers-choices.livejournal.com]

"With this lot?" Lucivar's grin sharpened. "Pretty damn close to even. Though if it happens before dessert, I'll be pissy."

[changeable-eyes.livejournal.com]

"I wouldn't mind so much," Jaenelle said. "We're having honey-pear torte with freshly whipped cream."

She smiled at them. "You all go. I'll take care of your portions."