Arc eventually actually fell asleep while he was cultivating. There was no risk of injury when he did this due to the nature of the technique, it needed Arc to actively draw energy from his points to his neidan in order to have an effect.
Subconsciously, he had snuggled up to that incredibly soft and cool pelt, burying his face in Kelvin's belly as the doting Kelvin took a rare afternoon nap. Although he was asleep, he was still vigilant to protect the child from any rare but still dangerous Xan surges.
He was going to have to insulate and enhance this room.
It used to be Jamie and Marlev's room whenever they visited Naice. He had wanted for them to live here, but she wanted to live a quiet life in the wild. Kelvin didn't mind though, he could get there in a day or two whenever he decided to visit. He didn't have to mind the mountain passes as he viewed them as a home, so he it was quicker for him to go that way instead of the longer trip along the highways that most normal people needed to go along.
He didn't have the best of relationships with Jamie, he was a little too hot-headed for his liking and had endangered Marlev more times than he could count. It was his relationship with his mother that was very good. Although she was as hot-headed as her runt, she didn't jump headlong into dangerous situations just because she got angry. In fact it was that woman who was responsible for saving his darling Marlev from her son's mistakes.
Over the years of their children's marriage, they had many a conversation over how they had changed. Marlev got a little more excitable and Jamie cooled off a bit is usually what it boiled down to, a change that both of them found desirable, as she always had issues with him not thinking and he never felt like he could get close enough to her as she thought too much about things. They had even made conversation about what they expected their grandchild to be!
Needless to say Jamie's mother, Maria, was enamored with Marlev. She might actually be more devastated than Kelvin and Jamie to find she had passed.
Kelvin could only hope she wouldn't riot when she did. She was capable of destroying entire sects when she got angry. That was simply the nature of the Matriarch of the Mountain of the Bloodied Star.
He would not be opposed to her staying here to watch over Arc. Not that there would be anything he could do about it anyway. Still, Zerrin told him that he needed some sort of reason to allow her to stay here as Arc had to be hidden and 'a baby' was not a good enough excuse.
...
Perhaps mourning would be good enough?
He couldn't tell, he wasn't good with the politics of the civilian world. He had a good relationship with the royal family of the peninsula, but he was rather ignorant of those kingdoms around them. He was half tempted to just not give an excuse, why should he bow to them?
But he realized that might break his treasured peace. After all what would the other cultivation powers think of this move? His 'sect' was supposed to be a neutral camp. It didn't train cultivators and it only received cultivators that wished to come over from the Scattered Stars sect or any of their subsidiaries.
The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to leave it up to Zerrin. He was good at this whole politicking thing being the guardian and all.
His brainstorming and cuddling session was broken when the door slowly opened and a scowling Merri poked her head in. If he didn't know better he would have mistaken her frustration for bloodlust.
Careful not to wake the baby, Kelvin left his grandson on the bed as he slowly walked towards the door under the vigilant gaze of Merri. Clearly he had been away from his paperwork for too long.
'Why am I, one of the strongest experts in the world, a slave to paperwork and the gaze of a mere maid?'
His griping went unsaid as he obediently went to his office to get to stamping and signing. At least he had a motivation to finish now. He started thinking about how he was going to play with Arc as he grew up, as well as wondered which of his parent's traits he had picked up.