Chapter 219: Home
It was near the day Batu would have to set out for the campaign.
He woke up and moved to his office to deal with daily matters, only to find his table empty.
The dispatch riders’ reports should have been waiting there already. Khulgen always arranged them in the order they arrived during the night, each notation stacked with the others so Batu could begin sorting through the previous day’s results before the morning properly started.
The absence of the reports was intentional.
Saran sat near the table with Toqoqan balanced against her knee when Batu stepped out from the bedroom. The baby was upright against her arm, completely absorbed in a task that apparently mattered to him a great deal. Namely checking whether the hem of her coat connected to the rest of the garment. He worked at it with total concentration.
"I told Khulgen the dispatch riders could wait one day," Saran informed him.
She didn’t look up from Toqoqan.
"Anything that needs deciding today will still need the same decision tomorrow."
Batu studied the empty table, then the room, then her. He tested the idea once before accepting it.
"Very well."
Toqoqan had discovered a part of the hem that seemed especially promising.
Batu crossed the room and sat opposite them, then reached for the baby. Toqoqan moved over without objection. He had strong reactions about most changes, but Batu had become familiar enough over the past season.
The baby settled against Batu’s arm immediately and began examining the new environment with both hands. The coat fastenings presented fresh possibilities. The investigation shifted there at once.
Batu adjusted his hold several times over the next few minutes.
The difficulty was consistency. Toqoqan appeared to change his preferred position roughly every ninety seconds, and Batu still hadn’t figured out the rule behind those changes.
He shifted the angle slightly.
Tried the opposite arm.
The second attempt had a sound of mild dissatisfaction. The third had no reaction at all.
Batu took that as success and stayed with the third position.
"What does he want in the morning?"
"To move around," Saran replied. "Staying still feels boring to him."
Batu began making a low rhythmic sound. He used that steady note during tumen drills. The cadence had no melody, only consistency.
Toqoqan froze.
The baby’s attention fixed on Batu’s face with focused concentration. His hands stopped moving against the coat fastenings.
"He responds to army drills rhythm."
"You’re impossible." Saran glanced over. "Try slowing it down."
Batu adjusted the cadence immediately, stretching it farther apart.
The effect was obvious. Toqoqan relaxed deeper against his arm. His expression shifted toward the calm satisfaction of a baby receiving exactly what he needed. After a moment he resumed examining the coat fastenings, though now at a slower pace.
The morning continued that way.
Saran moved through the residence carefully, keeping to the pace her somewhat bulged belly permitted. Even with the day cleared of work, she still handled a handful of small tasks that needed attention.
Batu remained with Toqoqan instead.
He maintained the rhythm when the baby needed it, changed positions whenever the current one stopped working, and watched for patterns in the responses the way he watched for patterns in formations.
By midday Toqoqan had eaten and shifted into the active part of his daily rhythm. At his age, that mostly meant he wanted the floor.
Batu lowered him carefully.
The baby crawled off immediately.
A carved planning marker was offered as a possible distraction. Toqoqan examined it for less than ten seconds before dismissing it completely. Saran’s wrapped felt ball received nearly identical treatment.
The baby abandoned both objects and redirected toward Batu instead.
He pulled himself upright against Batu’s knee and paused there, studying the room from the increased height. His expression looked oddly satisfied..
Then he crawled behind Batu.
Batu glanced toward Saran, asking with his eyes.
"That’s because you’re the most interesting furniture in the room."
She sat with a bowl she still hadn’t finished, watching the scene with quiet attention and amusement.
"He’s ignoring everything I offered him."
Saran shifted slightly in her chair. "He likes things that respond to him."
Toqoqan emerged from behind Batu’s back on the opposite side. He pulled himself upright against Batu’s arm this time and inspected the room again from the altered height. After a moment he dropped back down abruptly and crawled toward the wall instead.
Batu stayed on the floor with him until the baby’s rhythm began slowing toward sleep.
The change was gradual but visible.
Eventually Toqoqan allowed himself to be held again without resistance.
Batu resumed the low cadence.
That carried the baby the rest of the way down. Toqoqan fell asleep before the afternoon had fully settled in.
Saran lowered herself carefully into the chair she had been using most afternoons now. The posture supported her back while accommodating the belly without forcing either of them to discuss it directly.
She held a document in one hand for a moment, then placed it unopened on the nearby table instead.
Batu sat close to her.
The time that followed belonged to neither work nor planning. These experiences had become rarer as responsibilities accumulated.
After a while Saran spoke.
"I expected to be competent at this."
She was looking at the table instead of at him. Batu recognized the posture. She used it when working through an idea instead of presenting a finished conclusion.
"That was the plan. In the first months I kept a list of everything I did, right or wrong."
She paused briefly.
"At some point I stopped updating the list. I didn’t notice for a full week."
Batu waited. She was still arranging the thought.
"I misjudged one part of this,"
She continued. "I thought running the city would be the thing that kept me here. It isn’t."
Batu considered that before answering.
"That was how you planned this household?"
"I plan around facts." Her gaze settled on him at last. "This is a different fact now."
The expression was straightforward and even. Batu recognized it as the point where she had finished saying the important part and was prepared to move on.
Eventually, she continued, "The Khwarezm guild administrators will conduct their final review before you leave. Khulgen has the schedule. You don’t need to attend, but you should know it’s happening."
"The city account?"
"Mahmud is handling it. I’ll have the summary prepared before you ride out."
Toqoqan slept through the afternoon.
He woke in the evening with the consistent conclusion that the world didn’t had enough of him.
Once fed, he became alert almost immediately. Evening suited him. The frustrations of the day had already been resolved, and whatever new frustrations waited ahead had not arrived yet.
Saran looked across the room toward Batu.
"Say ’aav’ to him."
She handled the baby to face him.
"Like this. Aav."
Toqoqan focused on Batu’s face at once.
Saran repeated the word to Toqoqan in a prompting tone Batu recognized one more time. She had clearly been practicing this with the baby for weeks without mentioning it.
Toqoqan stared at Batu’s face and answered with "aa."
Then came another sound. It pushed toward the final consonant without fully reaching it, but it came close enough that Batu could interpret it only one way.
The syllable had intention.
The baby looked directly at Batu while making it and nowhere else in the room.
Batu stayed silent for a moment while he processed that.
Then he held out a hand slightly.
"Do it again."
Saran prompted Toqoqan once more.
The baby repeated the sound.
The word still wasn’t complete, but the shape of it was unmistakable now.
Saran said quietly. "I was waiting for a day that wasn’t crowded with other things."
Batu held out his arms.
Toqoqan came over immediately.
Batu settled him against his chest and resumed the low, even cadence. The baby relaxed again, returning to the important work of examining the coat fastenings.
He said nothing further.
The word had already served its purpose.
Winter darkness came early.
The lamps were lit long before they would have been necessary during autumn. Toqoqan eventually fell asleep and was moved carefully to his place near the edge of the room.
Saran lay down with caution the belly required at this stage. Batu settled beside her while the brazier maintained its steady heat and the Volga winter pressed uselessly against the felt walls outside.
The campaign would begin once spring arrived.
Batu knew the likely date within a narrow margin. Zhao had identified the window in the season report months ago. The army already held position along the Sura.
Somewhere in Ryazan, Siban was breaking down alliances and inciting mistrust.
Everything stood where it needed to stand.
Everything possible had already been done before the thaw.
Beside him, Saran’s breathing deepened into sleep.
Near them, Toqoqan made the small sleeping sound Batu started to consider familiar.
This was a home worth returning to.
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