Theon handed his coat to the butler who had a vaguely harassed expression on his face. The Healer did not want to deal with whatever was bothering his employee, there had been an accident at a merchant guild two days ago and he was just getting home for the first time since the casualties were sent to the infirmary. He was exhausted and just wanted to take a bath and sleep for a full day.
"My lord, I must inform you that your elder brother, Lord Pentrel Avenor, is here," his butler told him with a heavy tone to his voice.
Theon groaned audibly, if he could he would have made sure to do it in front of his elder brother. He had moved out of the family estate almost as soon as they returned from the border. In the intervening time his family came to visit only when they wanted to inconvenience him.
"Do you know what he wants?" Theon did not try to hide the annoyance in his voice.
"I am unsure, but he came in with a newspaper and I suspect it has something to do with that," the other man explained. "Shall I send tea to the parlor?"
"No, he'll be leaving soon. Has he been here long?"
"He came this morning but left again when I explained you were unavailable. He came back an hour ago."
Theon nodded and dismissed the man before walking to the room his brother was waiting in. As soon as he went through the door his eye went to the taller and leaner man, but that still resembled Theon closely, standing by the windows overlooking the front courtyard of his home.
"Pentrel, what brings you here?" Theon asked without preamble, wanting the other person out of his home as quickly as possible.
"Little brother~! Is that how you greet your older sibling after not seeing each other or so long?"
Theon offered the man a cold, tight smile, "It was a more polite greeting than you gave me when I returned from the war, what did you say then? Oh, right, 'if you were half as clever as you thought you would have taken the hint and died in battle', I think my greeting was very pleasant in comparison."
Pentrel's smile vanished, "you always were a bitter and resentful person." He waved Theon's words away as if recalling such things was insignificant. "I'm here because of this."
Pentrel opened a paper and threw it on the sitting table. Theon stared down at the picture of Silas and Kiava sitting at a restaurant with the headline "Sir Iaska Confirms Artificer Aid in Case".
"What about it?" Theon asked with genuine confusion. What did this have to do with Prentrel?
"Who is this Artificer, what did she do?"
"I'm not at liberty to say, and even if I was, I would not tell you brother." Theon deadpanned, officially done with whatever nonsense his family was up to, "If that was all, I'll have Lou see you out."
Pentrel frowned and opened his mouth to argue, but Theon rang the bell for the butler before the other man could speak. Lou opened the door within moments, obviously having been waiting nearby.
"See my brother to the outside gate, would you?" Theon addressed his staff with gentle courtesy, his voice changed and he turned to his sibling, "In the future, please remember to send notice and await an invitation before you come over, it is extremely rude to come without prior word, family or not."
"Don't forget who your family is, Thoen." Pentrel ground through a clenched jaw.
"I assure you, it is never far from my thoughts," Theon responded coldly, raising an eyebrow at his sibling and adding sharply; "You shouldn't forget which brother it was that brought honor back to our family."
Pentrel's face reddened before he stormed past Lou without another word. Theon waited for the door to close behind the butler before he sank into the couch with a tired sigh. He picked up the paper his brother had left and read the article under the pictogram of his friend and Kiava.
It wasn't as speculative as he thought it would be, it focused primarily on the Artificer and the reporter did a fair amount of foot work. They were able to dig up information from the Guard and deduced that she had something to do with the recent crackdown on human trafficking. Perrin and Silas were not going to be happy that the paper made the connection between slavers and Miss Kiava thwarting them and then less than a paragraph later giving the exact location of the Artificer's workshop.
Theon checked the reporter tag line: Eustace Fress writing for the Yesivan Chronicler. Poor bloke.
…
Eustace stared at his editor, who was standing behind his own desk as the chair as currently occupied by Sir Silas Iaska, because if he looked at the knight the man smiled in a way the reporter could only identify as terrifying. The knight drummed his fingers on the desk and made a thoughtful humming noise, drawing the attention of the other two men in the room despite themselves.
"So, you felt that there could not be any potential danger to pointing out the active location of someone you knew was likely to be in danger from an organized crime ring, is that right?" The white haired man's voice was calm and almost cheerful, but his eyes were dark and unsmiling.
Eustace had nothing to say, and his editor wasn;ty volunteering anything. He had just wanted to be the first ones to publish proof that Silas Iaska went out in public with a woman. In fact the paper had sold more copies than any other over the last two weeks.
His editor was pale and sweating and what little hope he had kept hold of faded. He was going to get fired for this, even though it was his editor who had made him add the information he'd dug up about her involvement in an active case. Damn, he'd liked this job.
"Nothing to say?" Silas asked into the silence, his voice decidedly less friendly. "Mr. Fress, you'll be happy to know that I saw your rough draft and noted that you did not include anything about the current investigation. You should thank your Assistant Editor."
Eustace looked at the knight in pure amazement, as he was getting an out? "May I ask, what do you want to ask me about sir?"
"Yes, I do need to know if you got your information from a member of the Guard."
"It was from a pickpocket who was at the Guardhouse the day she and the victims were brought in for questioning. She has very distinctive features and the thief was actually a bit swoony about you two together." It had been a bit hilarious how keen the youngling was about them being an attractive couple.
"If you could write their name and directions and give it to one of my men outside, I need to have a talk with your Chief editor." Silas directed him, his coldness gone now that he was no longer suspicious of him.
"Yes, of course, thank you Sir Iaska." Eustace bowed and bolted from the room, knowing his job was saved by the knight and vowing to never report negatively about the hero for the rest of his life.
…
Mordius went around the back and entered the property through the garden. Kiava was sitting back there with a steaming cup in front of her and a heavy book on her lap. Mordius sat down beside her and handed the paper over, she glanced at the the headline and winced.
He'd told his son he'd watch over her and he had been stopping by for a couple hours a day, with that article circulating now he would spend the next few days here, if he could convince the young woman to let him. He sat on the bench and looked around the area,there were signs that she was planting and pruning in the back but even to his inexpert eye he could tell that she had no clear idea what she was doing.
"Is this your first time gardening?" He asked, glancing at her and seeing now that she was not reading a magical research tome as he had assumed, it was a gardening encyclopedia.
"I helped manage the vegetable and herb garden at the orphanage but I was thinking I would plant my garden for aesthetics. Flowers and trees are a lot more complicated than I thought," she confided to him, looking a little put out.
"You're in luck, I'm not a gardener myself but my brother is a talented horticulturist and landscape architect," He told her with a grin, "sometimes it is best to just hire someone with the talent for a skill rather than try it yourself. Especially for something as finicky as a garden."
His brother was also a retired knight and Kleid would likely feel more confident if he knew his uncle would be around constantly for a few months. Mordius was also considering retiring as an active knight and asking the duke to appoint him stewardship of an estate near the city. He was not getting any younger and it was taking him longer and longer to recover from patrols.
He'd feel better if he could make sure that Miss Kiava was not just magically protected. His brother was a bit flighty but he was always a very good soldier. A much better gardener though if he was being honest, his older sibling had only really flourished after losing his leg and committing to horticulture.
"If you could get me in touch with him I would be happy to hire him, I feel like if I continue on this path I'll kill everything," Kiava agreed with obvious relief, "I didn't really consider all the intricacies when I bought this property, I just thought it would be nice to have a private outdoor space."
"Is it?" She nodded, "Well there you are, and you already have a plan to handle your lack of gardening prowess, you can't be good at everything after all." he cheered jovially.
Kiava laughed and nodded, "I feel like I'm only really any good at handicrafts and imbuements."
"But you are very very good at both of those things, don't sell yourself short. Some people would say I'm only any good at being a soldier."
"Then you should have them talk to Kleid, you are also a great father," She defended him ardently.
Not for the first time Mordius regretted not also adopting this young lady. Maybe then Kleid would have grown up to be nicer to him.