Chapter 12: Steam and Trouble
Kael could leave.
If he really wanted to walk out of this bathhouse, Aurelia had no way to stop him. Not with his abilities.
But if he left, she would be hurt.
She would not cry. She would not complain. She would simply stay awake for the rest of the night, unable to sit still, worrying herself sick in silence.
Kael clenched his teeth.
His pride told him to run. The fear in his mother’s eyes kept him there.
So he turned his face away and gave up.
"I’ll wash myself!"
Ears burning, Kael set Puff down on a small sponge mat beside the bath.
"D-Don’t look!"
The words had barely left his mouth before he bolted to the far end of the pool like a man escaping execution. He tore off his filthy outer clothes, dropped straight into the hot water, and sank until only half his head remained above the surface.
His eyes said one thing.
Don’t you dare.
Aurelia watched him for a moment, then sighed.
She bent down, picked up the clothes he had thrown on the floor, and placed them in a laundry basin nearby.
Blood. Dust. Milk stains.
The last one, naturally, was Puff’s fault.
Aurelia looked at the mess and frowned.
Then she picked up Puff, who was crawling across the sponge mat as if she had discovered a new continent, and carried her to the edge of the pool.
"Little Kael," Aurelia said, sitting beside the water, "let me wash your back. Look at you. You’re filthy."
"No!"
Kael immediately sank lower.
"Mom, I can do it myself!"
Aurelia moved a little closer.
Kael sank even lower, until the water nearly reached his nose. Steam curled past his lashes. He stared at the waterline with the stubbornness of a man prepared to die on this hill.
"Wash..."
Puff, on the other hand, was having the time of her life.
She kicked her chubby little legs in Aurelia’s arms, waved both pale hands around, and grabbed a white rectangular scrub block from the side. After staring at it for a few seconds, she turned toward Kael.
Then she threw it.
Smack.
The scrub block hit Kael on the head, slid down his wet hair, and plopped into the bath.
Kael went still.
Very still.
"Hey. Brat."
Puff was not scared at all.
"Hee..."
She giggled like she had just performed the greatest trick in the world, then snuggled happily against Aurelia.
Aurelia looked down at the little girl in her arms, then back at Kael sulking in the water.
"Little Kael... who is this girl? Where did you find her?"
Kael fished the scrub block out of the bath and dropped it on the rim.
"How would I know? Some black-cloaked idiots outside the city tried to sneak through the gate with this moron, so I handled them."
He snorted.
"Trash. Not worth mentioning."
Aurelia froze.
The water still rippled around Kael, but the look in her eyes changed at once.
The warmth vanished.
She held Puff closer, stepped to the edge of the pool, and reached out to touch Kael’s wet black hair.
"What?" Her voice tightened. "Someone tried to kill you?"
Kael opened his mouth.
He wanted to say it was nothing.
But Aurelia’s hand rested on his head, and the words would not come out.
"Don’t scare me like that," she whispered. "Little Kael. Please."
She was not speaking like an empress.
Not like the ruler of Suncrest. Not like the woman whose name could make ministers lower their heads.
Right now, she was just his mother.
Her eyes moved over him again and again—his hair, his face, his shoulder above the water—as if she needed to make sure with her own eyes that he was not hurt.
That kind of worry was hard to bear.
Sometimes it pressed on Kael so heavily he could barely breathe.
But he understood.
He was her only child.
No matter how many enemies he had killed, no matter how many soldiers called him Grand General, Aurelia would always see the same boy who used to come home late and make her wait up all night.
Kael looked away.
His ears were still hot.
"Yeah, yeah. I get it. I’ll be careful."
That was what he said.
What he thought was something else.
From now on, he could not tell her about things like this.
He was not a child anymore. He had been in the army for years. He had fought on the front lines. He was not someone others could bully just because they felt like it.
But if Aurelia heard the word danger, she would look at him like this.
So he had to become stronger.
Strong enough to crush every threat before she ever had to know it existed.
The bathhouse quieted down.
After checking him several more times and finding no injuries, Aurelia finally relaxed. She placed Puff in the shallow water near the side of the pool, where the little one could sit safely, then turned toward the nearby mirror to dry herself and put on a robe.
Puff sat in the water and stared at the ripples.
Then she looked up at Aurelia.
"Da... da."
Kael had just picked up the scrub block again. Hearing that, he gave her a sour look.
"Yeah? What is it, dummy?"
Puff raised one pale little finger and pointed at Aurelia.
"Ma... ma?"
Kael’s eyelid twitched.
"No, you idiot."
He tapped her forehead, grabbed her tiny slippery shoulders, and continued scrubbing her clean. Puff wrinkled her nose at the water, but she did not pull away.
She frowned, thought hard for a moment, then looked back at Kael.
"That big—"
Before she could finish, Puff twisted around, planted both hands on Kael’s chest, and yanked.
Her little feet kicked wildly under the water.
Splash!
Water flew straight into Kael’s face.
Kael closed his eyes.
His patience snapped.
"You little—"
He did not bother finishing the sentence. He lifted Puff out of the bath before she could turn the whole pool into a disaster zone.
Puff blinked.
Before she could figure out what was happening, Kael held her carefully under one arm and smacked her little bottom through the soaked cloth.
Smack!
The sound rang through the bathhouse.
Even Aurelia turned from the mirror.
"What happened, Little Kael?"
Red-faced and dripping, Kael held Puff away from his chest like she was a criminal caught at the scene.
"Nothing!" he shouted. "Mom, hurry up and put on a robe!"
Aurelia had already wrapped herself in a towel. She paused, looked at him, and reached for her robe with a faint smile.
"Ma... ma!"
The moment Aurelia came closer, Puff pointed at her chest again.
Then she looked down, grabbed the towel around Kael’s waist, and tugged as if she were trying to compare the two.
Kael’s face twisted.
"Tch. You stupid dragon—don’t grab that either!"
He pinned Puff’s wandering hands down with one hand and snapped his head to the side, suddenly very interested in the bathhouse wall.
His brain was done for the night.
