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A thoughtful silence pervaded the room Alberu was resting in as he, Cale, and Choi Han all contemplated the day’s events. Raon was also quiet, though that likely had more to do with the multiple apple pies he had stuffed in his mouth. There had been a large amount of new information obtained in just a short period of time, which left lots to process.
Soon Cale would be leaving for the Endable Kingdom, a trip he’d made it very clear he wasn’t looking forward to, and it was hard to know how easily they’d be able to communicate. It was important for them to get as much as they could figure out and planned before he left.
For not the first time, the Crown Prince found himself pitying his sworn brother over the amount of responsibilities resting on his shoulder, even for someone who didn’t dream of being a slacker it would be a heavy burden. Alberu was sure that there were plenty of things Cale still needed to do that he hadn’t been told about but aside from having to go to pretend to be Duke Fredo’s son, he was aware that Cale also needed to go visit the World Tree again. Which reminded him…..
“What exactly did you do with the fake World Tree?” He asked, pushing himself up to a sitting position. It had been breezed over earlier when Cale reported on the battles, with his brother simply claiming it had been dealt with, but Alberu found himself curious. His movement earned him a disapproving look from Cale, which he found rather hypocritical; the man couldn’t take care of his own health and yet he thought he could judge other people?
“It really didn’t want to die, so I sealed it away for the time being,” Cale stated in a very vague manner and Alberu found himself glancing at Choi Han in the hope of a better explanation. The other man simply shook his head however, despite having been there at the time Choi Han apparently didn’t understand what had happened any more than Alberu did. He could probably ask for clarification from Cale if he really wanted to, but that didn’t guarantee that he’d be told anything that made sense; plus Alberu had a feeling, as he often did when it came to Cale, that he might not want to actually know.
Choi Han suddenly sat up straighter, the mention of the World Tree having reminded him of something. “Cale-nim.” He called, drawing the man’s attention. “Speaking of the World Tree… I think someone else should hold onto the branch.”
Cale frowned at the sudden suggestion, but before he could say anything someone else butted in.
“Branch? What branch?” Raon questioned, climbing up onto Cale’s lap, an apple pie clutched in his chubby paw; despite having claimed they were purchased for Cale, he ate most of them himself.
Alberu was also glancing over at him with a raised eyebrow, he hadn’t heard anything about a branch from the World Tree. It was suspicious.
With their curious gazes fixed on him, there was no way for Cale to simply brush aside the topic, which Cale suspected was what Choi Han had been hoping for. He had been overly concerned with what Cale might do with the skewer after all. “The World Tree had Pendrick give me one of it’s branches to use as a sword.”
Choi Han glared at him. “A branch that if you stab into someone’s heart and cover in blood will become a great weapon.” The swordmaster corrected, “And the World Tree apparently said your blood is special.”
“Human! Stabbing yourself is not allowed!”
“Cale, give the branch to someone else.”
Both Raon and Alberu spoke at the same time, their tones scolding and Cale found himself staring at them in disbelief.
“Do you seriously think I would stab myself?”
“Yes.” There was absolutely no hesitance in their voices as they replied, which Cale found very offensive. Just how stupid did they think he was?
“I can assure you I have no plans to stab myself.” Cale told them in a somewhat snippy manner, he was getting really tired of the way people kept acting like he had no care for his own health. After all, he would never be able to live an easy slacker life if he didn’t take care of himself. “I’d probably be fine anyway even if I did.” The latter part of his words was mostly meant for himself, but he’d momentarily forgotten how good the hearing of everyone else in the room was.
“Cale,” Alberu began, staring at him with an expression similar to the one a person might have when explaining something to a small child. “People die when they are stabbed in the heart.” It was something that even the most foolish of people should know, he shouldn’t be having to remind Cale of it, but he would do it if it reduced the likelyhood of his brother doing something stupid. Cale didn’t seem to appreciate his words of wisdom however, judging by the glare which was shot his way, but Alberu didn’t particularly care for his opinion on this matter.
“I'm aware that’s normally the case, but I would heal.” His tone was annoyed, but there was also a hint of confusion in his tone, as if he truly didn’t understand why they were so worried. That, combined with his comment about healing, left everyone else trying to figure out what they’d missed.
Just what was it Cale knew that they didn’t? In his head Alberu silently went over what he knew, both from the current conversation and previous ones, after a couple minutes of thought, something occurred to him. “You punk, do you have some kind of regenerative ancient power?” It would certainly explain a lot about the blatant disregard Cale often showed towards his own health, though it didn’t do anything to make it better.
For a moment Cale just stared at him, before realization seemed to dawn on his face. “Oh yeah, you weren’t there.”
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Alberu commented dryly. All this time Cale had had the ability to heal and he’d let Alberu worry about his health; of course even the crown prince was well aware that even now that he knew about it, he’d still be worrying about Cale. Who knew what limitations there were in regards to what the ancient power could heal. And even if there weren’t any limitations, Cale would still be in pain; having now experienced just how agonzing it was to be injured to the point you coughed up blood, Alberu knew he wanted his brother to experience that as little as possible.
While things had become clearer to Alberu thanks to the revelation of Cale’s healing power, Raon and Choi Han had become more confused.
“Human, what do you mean you have a regenerative power!” The dragon demanded, angrily slamming his paw against Cale’s leg. “Why didn’t you tell us!”
Choi Han nodded his head in agreement with Raon’s words, while he was glad to know that Cale had a power which apparently would help him stay alive, he was rather ticked off by the fact he’d never told them about it before. Cale however, responded to their frustration with a bewildered expression.
“What do you mean why didn’t I tell you?” He questioned. “I’ve mentioned it before.”
Choi Han stared at him. “When?”
Cale was silent for a moment as he tried to remember when exactly it had been. “Back when we first met Eruhaben.” He finally stated. “He asked why I was still alive since usually people with multiple ancient powers explode.”
Alberu choked. “I’m sorry, what is this about you exploding!”
His brother just waved a dismissive hand in his direction, “Don’t worry about, it’s been dealt with,” Cale said and the crown prince found himself wondering whether it was worth ignoring his injuries in order to get up and throttle Cale.
As Alberu contemplated fratricide, the other two thought back to when they'd first visited Eruhaben's cave; they vaguely recalled Eruhaben mentioning Cale having a human power, and Cale referring to it as restoration, but he hadn’t given any more explanation.
"You might have mentioned it," Choi Han conceded. "But you didn't explain anything or even mention that it was a healing power."
"Really?" Cale was surprised, he'd been positive that they knew. Though now that he thought about it, a lot of things made more sense now that he was aware that they hadn't known. No wonder they had fussed so much every time he coughed up blood. "Well, now you know." They could relax and stop freaking out about his health now.
Raon stared up at Cale in disbelief, before glancing over at Choi Han, who sighed and shook his head. What else could they really expect? Cale had always been the type to drop huge revelations and then move on as if nothing had happened. As far as he was probably concerned, there was nothing left to say, and trying to continue the conversation probably wouldn't get them anywhere.
Still, the dragon had one last thing to say.
"Human."
"Hmm?"
"You're still not allowed to stab yourself."