Chapter Text
“Are you sure you can take care of the kids?”
Violet gave him a worried look for the tenth time, and he sighed in return.
A baggage of books, clothes, and a range of other assortments which Violet called ‘essentials’ was being attached to Tairn’s saddle as they spoke, readying for her trip to Poromiel to visit her sister Mira who had recently married Crown Prince Drake Cordella.
After the final war, Xaden was completely cured, and they lived a peaceful and happy life Violet had ever dreamed of.
In the Riorson castle, they had three beautiful kids, and after that, the house was never quiet.
“I can handle them, they’re just kids,” Xaden reassured her in what felt like the hundredth time, smoothing back her hair and she melted into the touch.
“They’re our kids, Xaden, and you know that- Caelum Fen Riorson! What did I tell you about throwing your sister’s book!”
Violet’s voice cracked across the flight field like a lightning strike.
The eight-year-old froze mid-windup, his arm cocked back with a leather-bound copy of The Fables of the Barren aimed squarely at the fountain about four miles away from him. Caelum Riorson—named for the sky he wasn’t yet allowed to touch and a grandfather he’d never meet—inherited his father’s dark, unruly curls and his mother’s terrifyingly sharp gaze. He slowly lowered the book, offering a sheepish grin that was pure, manipulative Xaden.
“I wasn't throwing it, Mom,” Caelum lied with the confidence of a future king. “I was... testing its weight. For science.”
“Give it back to Nyxra,” Violet commanded, her hands on her hips.
Nyxra, a bright girl with curly brown Sorrengail-style hair and deep onyx eyes, six years old but already possessing a temperament that made Tairn seem cuddly, marched forward and snatched the book from her brother’s hand. She didn’t have a signet, and without a dragon, she shouldn't have been intimidating, yet the way she narrowed her eyes made Caelum actually take a step back.
“And where is the baby?” Violet asked, her head whipping around. “Xaden, where is Aine?”
Xaden didn’t even look up from the cinch he was tightening on Tairn’s saddle. He simply pointed a thumb toward his own cloak. Tucked into the heavy, shadow-dyed fabric of his jacket was two-year-old Aine, her ink-black hair peeking out as she peacefully chewed on a wooden dragon carving. She was the calmest of the three, a stark contrast to the storm that usually followed her siblings.
“See?” Xaden said, finally turning to face his wife. He caught Violet’s hands, pulling her into the space between his arms. “Total control. Caelum is ‘studying,’ Nyxra is reading, and Aine is... currently not eating rocks. That’s a win for us.”
Violet let out a breath that was half-laugh, half-huff, rolling her eyes.
“Can I go with you, Mommy?” Nyxra’s bright but quiet voice asked, her small dainty hands tugging slightly on her flight leathers.
“Yeah! I want to see Auntie Mira!” Caelum shouted, running over and almost tripping over a rock in his haste.
Violet giggled, smoothing down her boy’s curls which just bounced right back up.
“You all are too young to ride a dragon,” Violet explained, crouching down to meet Caelum’s bright hazel eyes.
“But Tairn likes me!” Caelum protested, pouting.
“Actually it’s because your mother needs a time out from all of you,” Xaden joked, then let out a small ‘Oof,’ as Violet elbowed him in the ribs, glaring mockingly.
“And you,” Violet said turning to look at her second daughter who had somehow tiptoed behind all of them and was trying to haul herself into one of the bags tethered to Tairn. “No trying to sneak onto Tairn’s back while I’m taking off. I don’t care if Sloane told you it was okay. Sloane is a bad influence.”
Xaden barked out a laugh, catching Nyxra by the waist just as her boot found purchase on a leather strap. He hoisted her up, Nyxra shrieked with glee as Xaden tucked her under his free arm like a sack of grain while Aine remained nestled securely in the crook of his other.
“Sloane is an excellent influence,” Xaden corrected with a wink, ignoring Violet’s mock glare. “She just understands that a Riorson’s natural habitat is about five thousand feet above the ground.”
“Don’t encourage them,” Violet groaned, though the corners of her mouth twitched. She turned her attention back to Caelum, who was looking at Tairn’s massive, obsidian talons with a look of pure, unadulterated longing. “And Caelum. No ‘weight testing’ with your sister’s toys, no trying to convince the kitchen staff that dessert is a mandatory pre-training meal, don’t spend too much time with Ridoc if he visits and absolutely no tripping Senior Aetos down the stairs when he’s carrying crates for the archives while I’m gone. He still has back pain from that. Do you hear me?”
(If anyone is confused about this part then it’s better to read , in short: In this Senior Aetos is a servant, paying the price of what he’d done)
“But Daddy said I could trip him anytime I want! He said he was a bad guy.” Caelum shouted, furrowing his eyebrows.
Violet’s gaze snapped toward Xaden, her eyebrows nearly disappearing into her hairline. "You told an eight-year-old he could trip a servant anytime he wanted? Xaden, we discussed this. We are trying to be better than the old regime."
Xaden suddenly became very interested in the tethers holding the baggage together.
“We don't trip Uncle Dain though,” Nyxra piped up from his father’s arms. “He brings us candy and he’s nice like Auntie Sloane!”
“He would be better if he shut up about house rules,” Caelum muttered under his breath but Violet heard it anyway.
She glared at Xaden.
Xaden had the grace to look slightly unrepentant, though he did shift Aine’s weight on his hip. "I believe my exact words were: 'If Senior Aetos happens to be in your way while you are practicing your footwork, Caelum, gravity is a natural force.' I can’t help it if the boy is a quick study in physics."
"Physics," Violet muttered, shaking her head. She thought about Aetos—once a man who held the power of life and death over riders, now a bitter man in a white tunic scrubbing the stone floors of the courtyard—and felt a flicker of the old coldness. But she pushed it down.
"As for Dain," Violet continued, her expression softening at the mention of her childhood friend, "be patient with him. He’s the only one who actually remembers the rules of this house because your father certainly treats them like suggestions."
"Rules are for people who don't have kids to raise," Xaden quipped, dropping a kiss on the top of Nyxra’s head as she squirmed in his grip then put her down onto the grass.
“And Caelum, listen to me. Just because senior Aetos was a bad guy doesn't mean we trip him down stairs. We are better than that. If I get a letter from Bodhi saying you’ve been using the stairs as a tactical combat zone, you won't see a single piece of candy from Uncle Dain for a month. Clear?”
Caelum’s jaw dropped in horror. The loss of Uncle Dain’s honey-drops was a threat of catastrophic proportions. “Crystal clear, Mom.”
Violet stood, her gaze softening as it swept over her family—the husband who had survived the impossible and the children who were the living proof of that victory. They were just children, soft and vulnerable in a way she and Xaden had never been allowed to be.
But looking at the fire in Nyxra’s eyes and the cleverness in Caelum’s grin, she knew they didn’t need signets to be a force of nature.
“That hatchling's sass is rivaling your own, Silver One,” Tairn’s mental voice rumbled, vibrating through Violet’s boots. “If we do not leave, I may be tempted to show the boy exactly what 'weight testing' feels like by tossing him into the fountain myself.”
"Tairn says it's time," Violet announced, reaching out to cup Xaden's cheek. The humor faded from her eyes for a second, replaced by that fierce, protective love that had burned through a revolution.
"Keep them alive. Don't let Caelum's physics' land anyone in the infirmary, and try to make sure Nyxra actually finishes that book instead of using it as a weapon to crack open Cael’s head."
"I've survived the Sage and the Venin, Vi," Xaden said, his voice dropping to that low, intimate register that always made the rest of the world blur.
"I think I can survive three tiny versions of us for three days."
He leaned in, his lips meeting hers in a lingering kiss that tasted like home. Behind them, Caelum made a loud gagging noise and Nyxra covered Aine’s eyes with a small hand.
"Eww, Mom! Dad! Not in front of the dragon!" Nyxra protested.
Tairn let out a growl of agreement.
Violet laughed against Xaden’s mouth before pulling away and swinging herself up into Tairn’s massive saddle. She settled into the familiar leather, the height giving her a sweeping view of the Aretian peaks and the family standing below.
"I love you!" she shouted as Tairn’s wings began to beat, the downdraft sending a cloud of dust over the flight field.
"Love you more!" Xaden yelled back, shielding the kids from the wind with his cloak.
“Love you, Mommy! Come back soon!” Nyxra screamed up at her, voice cracking a little.
As Tairn surged upward, a black bolt against the Tyrrendor sky, Violet looked down one last time.
She saw the two Aetos men, Sloane, and Bodhi walking out toward the field, likely to help Xaden wrangle the kids back inside.
She eyed Caelum already staring at the back of Senior Aetos’s heels with a very suspicious look of concentration on whether or not he could push Aetos into the fountain without being noticed.
She smiled, leaning into Tairn’s neck. For the first time in her life, the sky wasn't just a battlefield—it was the way back home.
Back on the ground...
“Okay, guys, your mom’s gone, and the kitchen’s wide open.” Bodhi clapped his hands together and the kids cheered.
“Not without training,” Xaden cut in, cradling Aine close. “Violet would kill me if I gave them sweets first,”
“But Daddy-” Caelum started to complain.
“No.” Xaden said firmly, pinpointing Caelum with that ‘Riorson stare’
“You will train with Bodhi first and then get treats. Right, Bodhi?” Xaden raised his eyes towards his cousin who gave him a not-at-all reliable grin.
“Hey, don’t look at me. I’m just the fun uncle. But the Big Kingman is right—no daggers, no honeyed biscuits. That’s the rule of the castle.”
“We don’t even have daggers!” Nyxra pointed out, crossing her arms over her chest. “Mom says we have to wait until we’re sixteen because Caelum ‘lacks impulse control.’”
“She’s not wrong,” Bodhi muttered, dodging a playful kick from the eight-year-old.
“Wait, I thought you said we were the fun ones?” Sloane said, falling into step beside Bodhi with a wide, bright grin. She reached out and ruffled Caelum’s dark curls, ignoring his indignant huff.
“I brought the training daggers—the wooden ones, obviously. Your mom would have my head if I let you handle steel before she’s even past the first peak.”
Caelum’s eyes lit up at the sight of the practice blades tucked into Sloane’s belt. “Can we do the disarmament move? The one where you twist the wrist?”
“Only if you show me you’ve mastered your footwork first,” Sloane countered, her expression softening. She had become the aunt they adored—the one who told them stories of the revolution and secretly taught them how to move silently through the castle corridors.
Dain stepped forward, looking every bit the responsible honorary uncle, though he was currently holding a small bag of brightly colored candies behind his back. He glanced at his father, who was scowling at a nearby stone pillar, then back to the children.
“Rules are rules, Caelum,” Dain said, though his tone was far more gentle than the one he’d used back in his days at Basgiath. “But your father is right. Training makes the biscuits taste better. It’s a matter of... internal reward systems.”
“It’s a matter of Mom not grounding all of us, when she comes back” Nyxra corrected, sticking her tongue out at Dain.
Dain laughed, a genuine sound that reached his eyes. “That too. Now, Nyxra, I promised to help you with your stances. If you can hold a perfect defensive position for five minutes, I might just have something for you that isn't biscuits.”
“Candy!” Nyxra shouted, her onyx eyes zeroing in on the bag hidden behind Dain's coat.
“Bribes? Really, Aetos?” Xaden asked, though he smirked as he adjusted Aine on his shoulder.
“It’s not a bribe, it’s an incentive,” Dain corrected with a shrug.
“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” Bodhi chimed in, clapping Caelum on the back. “Alright, you little prankster, let’s go. Sloane, you and I take the lead on the strike patterns. I’ll make sure Caelum doesn't actually manage to trip Dain’s dad into the fountain while we aren't looking.”
“I’m right here,” Senior Aetos grumbled from his spot by the wall, though nobody heard him.
As the group moved toward the training mats, Sloane and Bodhi began showing Caelum how to grip the wooden dagger, Dain stood with Nyxra, his hand hovering near her shoulder to correct her posture, his movements methodical and calm.
Xaden stayed back for a moment, watching the scene. He looked at Dain—the man who was once his greatest rival—now working alongside his cousin and his friend to teach his children how to survive.
Aine reached out, grabbing a lock of Xaden’s hair and pulling.
“Yeah, I know,” Xaden whispered to the toddler, kissing her forehead. “It’s a weird family, but it’s ours.”
“DADDY! LOOK!” Caelum yelled, successfully executing a clumsy but effective leg sweep on Bodhi.
Bodhi went down with a dramatic groan, sprawling out on the mats. “Oh, the betrayal! My own flesh and blood!”
“Physics!” Caelum screamed, pumping his fists in the air.
“That’s my boy,” Xaden muttered, pride warring with the knowledge that he was going to have a very long three days' worth of explanations ahead of him when Violet returned.