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"I think it rolled under the desk," said Silver, head on the floor.
Kalim went to look as well but Silver held him back. Although the school was cleaned daily, the self-study rooms saw enough people that the floor quickly gathered dirt again.
"Please let me," he insisted.
"Oh… I guess Jamil will get mad if I stain my turban again…"
Silver's target was the red glint of Kalim's magic pen. With some careful fiddling—and then the help of a borrowed ruler—he managed to roll the pen back over to them.
"Thank you…" Strangely, Kalim barely reacted to getting his pen back, instead staring at Silver with a narrowed gaze.
Silver dusted his sleeve. "Is something wrong?"
"Wait, don't move." Kalim grabbed Silver by the arms to hold him in place then peered at the back of his head.
"Did I get dust in my hair?" said Silver.
Instead of brushing his hair, Kalim cleared his nape and exclaimed with excitement. "You have a tattoo! I never realized. When did you get it?"
"Pardon?"
Silver instinctively turned his head to see only to realize his foolishness. Kalim touched a tender spot on his nape that made goosebumps erupt all over his back and arms.
"Right there!"
Silver didn't follow. "A tattoo?"
"Is it not one?" Kalim rubbed the spot. Silver shivered uncontrollably and had to consciously stay in place and not flee his touch. "The skin is raised… Maybe it's a scar?"
Kalim looked worried so Silver reassured him.
"But you didn't even know it was there," said Kalim, clutching his dusty magic pen, eyes wide and dewy. "What if it's a poison's symptom…!? It looks so odd!"
At his insistence and after Jamil had come to take Kalim to safety, Silver headed to the infirmary.
It was only then that he finally saw it: pale skin slightly raised and perfectly symmetrical, in a v-shape like a bird taking flight.
"You're lucky Malleus is even more late than you, otherwise he'd think you forgot about him," Lilia joked as Silver sat down.
At this hour, this Diasomnia lounge did not hold many students, most of them scattered over campus. The few present dared not approach the table reserved for Draconia and his group.
"My apologies." Silver slowly steadied his breathing after rushing over.
"Don't you look harried! Have you been training outside of your schedule?" With a wave of his hand, the teapot lifted on its own and served a cup of fragrant tea.
"No, I was just in the infirmary."
"…The infirmary?"
"Yes."
Silver gratefully took a sip. The familiar flavor calmed his nerves, and his mind cleared for the first time since Kalim touched his nape. He gathered his thoughts and spoke again.
"The nurse said he doesn't recognize it, but it should be harmless. I'm supposed to go back tomorrow to check if it worsened."
Lilia looked at Silver with narrowed eyes, seeming to hesitate. "So you're not injured?"
"Oh, no I'm not." Silver realized the confusion he'd caused. "It's a strange mark Kalim noticed. I must have fallen on something in my sleep… It doesn't hurt or anything."
"A mark? Let me see." Lilia couldn't restrain himself anymore. He floated off the couch and over to Silver, ominously flexing his fingers like he planned to rip the clothes straight off him.
"It's nothing important…" Silver said in embarrassment, but obediently twisted around and lifted the hair on his nape. "Here, in the shape like a bird."
He felt the sofa mattress dip as Lilia knelt on the couch next to him, then his father's cold fingertips on the tender spot.
Lilia said nothing.
"Is something wrong?" said Silver.
Lilia wordlessly traced the indent again.
Silver let go of his hair and turned around. Lilia's dislodged hand hung limply in the air, but his father didn't seem to notice, gaze lost in the distance.
"…Is it dangerous?" Silver lowered his voice and asked.
"Hm? Oh, don't worry." Lilia snapped out of his daze. "You're perfectly safe. Well, probably."
"Probably? So you know what it is."
Lilia didn't answer. His eyes roved over Silver's face, strangely serious with his pinched moue, but his actions told another story: he nonchalantly took Silver's face in his hands and rubbed his cheeks pink.
"It's nothing," he muttered to himself. "Nothing…"
Suddenly, he broke into a grin and planted a noisy and wet kiss on Silver's cheek.
"Khee hee hee, it's just that you're too lovable!"
"Father!?" Silver exclaimed in a whisper, red-faced. He glanced around to see if anyone had seen.
Indeed, someone had.
"You forgot about me," said Malleus, standing displeased behind the couch.
"Nonsense, we were only waiting for you," said Lilia.
Malleus resolutely sat on Silver's other side. "It's uncomfortable if we're all on the same couch. Lilia, go sit over there."
Lilia laughed but obeyed and returned to his original seat.
Silver shifted away so that Malleus could sit more comfortably. "Lord Malleus, good evening."
"Do you dislike touching me?" Malleus asked darkly.
A question mark appeared in Silver's mind.
"No matter." Malleus realized his childishness and looked away. "Why are you two here so early?"
"You're the one who's late," said Lilia. "By the way, did you miss the housewarden meeting again?"
"How could I have missed it? It's tomorrow…" Malleus trailed off with a presentiment.
Lilia's mocking smirk was answer enough. "Ho, but wasn't it yesterday?"
"If you knew, why didn't you say?"
"So you're saying you can't do it on your own? Well, if you insist."
"That's not what I said at all."
Silver peacefully nodded off to the sound of their bickering. As his consciousness faded, a recent memory suddenly struck, and he seemed to remember Malleus pinching his nape a few days ago… At the time, he'd felt like a misbehaving cat being pinched by its mother, so he hadn't questioned Malleus's guilty look too much.
Maybe Malleus had noticed the odd mark then?
Silver's head landed on Malleus's shoulder. The bickering ceased as Malleus carefully adjusted him to sleep more comfortably.
When he looked back up, Lilia was staring at them with a bland smile.
Malleus knew he was being blamed so his hackles rose. "What is it? Speak if you must."
"He went to the infirmary."
"Whatever for?" Malleus said in alarm.
"What for, he says," Lilia laughed. "I was wondering about the strange location, like some kind of collar on a dog… but I suppose it's the only bit of skin you can spot when he stands in front of you."
Oh. So he knew.
Malleus settled back down with the same guilty expression of a few days ago. "That’s only when he’s shielding me. He usually walks behind me…"
"Well, unless you spend your life looking backward, you'll have to be satisfied with that." Lilia fell silent. The fake smile on his face raised at the corners with a hint of anger. "Malleus. This is as much as I will allow."
"He is my knight, mine," Malleus argued.
"So what? Neither his body nor soul belong to you." Seeing his dark expression, Lilia spoke more gently, "I know. I understand. Trust me, I do. But, that he belongs only to himself renders it all the sweeter that he always comes back to you, doesn't it?"
"Lilia, you…"
Malleus searched Lilia's gentle expression and found something he had never spotted before.
"Anyway, it's just a little mark few will see. It's really nothing," Lilia said peacefully.
"…Yes, you're right," Malleus said mulishly, knowing he had lost long ago.
Indeed, compared to the indelible brand of profound love, a little emblem of Draconia was nothing.