Chapter 395: A good place to start
Silas tried to leave, but it seemed as though his mother wasn’t ready to let him go just yet. She had a few more laughs in her to let out off his misery.
"I did receive her reports," she inhaled deeply after a hearty chuckle, "They are quite detailed and organized in a way that let me in as to her entire thought process from beginning to end and I must say, I liked what I saw,"
"Did she include the part about the kid?" he spared her not a glance.
"Were you surprised? It isn’t the first time something like this occurred and it won’t be the last. They sure have gotten better at hiding people’s real ages, but come now, if even the most sheltered of girls noticed it, we aren’t that naive," after a short pause, she added, "Although, I am impressed by the way she tripped the boy over his own tongue. She needn’t even pry the truth out of him,"
Silas merely gripped the windowsill that reached his waist. His vocal cords wished to remain dormant, but alas, as he knew all too well, the great Persephone would never take silence over a clear answer.
"Of course, I am not surprised. I am not stupid, mother," he put very little effort into uttering those words, "I know we’ve auctioned innocent people before. That isn’t the problem,"
"No, of course that isn’t the problem. She is,"
Silas’s face snapped her way at once to glimpse the grin that adorned her features. When he said nothing, Persephone proceeded.
"Silas, do you know why I rarely allow the nighttime staff around the tributes before they spend enough time with the daytime staff?"
"Human touch," he half asked.
"Yes," she nodded, walking towards the window as well, "By the time the ceremony comes, I need the tribute to shed the terror they came with from wherever it was they were dragged. Seeing the progress she achieved with them in a day, tells me that this idea of hers is a bright one and that I have nothing to regret by allowing it,"
"Not at the expanse of her sanity, it shouldn’t be allowed," his tone sharp as the edges of untamed ice, his voice steady, Silas was a lot firmer than he projected to be.
"And what do you suggest, exactly?" her void-like eyes bore into his diamonds, "Go on. Speak your mind. You want to take this away from her," she half asked.
"I don’t want to take anything from her!" he hissed, "That is word for word what she said yesterday... And the look in her eyes when she said it is something I will never forget, but I told her already, there is nothing we can do for the kid without harming our family," he simmered down a bit when adding that last sentence.
"Leave the damn kid out of it for now," she uttered as calmly as possible, "You know why she is afraid, don’t you?"
The deadpan look he offered her, prompted her to click her tongue against palate and slowly shake her head, "We have talked about this before, Silas," more silence from him led to Persephone elaborating further, "She does not see herself as your equal and you do not see her as such yourself,"
"That is absurd," he too kept a calm demeanor.
"Is it? Do you not feel as though you are walking on eggshells around her?" her eyebrow rose.
Silas looked away. Those... Eggshells needed to be described for him to determine whether he was right or wrong.
"I simply wish to keep her from any harm or pain,"
"Perhaps you are wishing too hard,"
For what it was, the biggest part of Silas believed it was nonsense, but a small part of him thought he should heed his mother’s warning before his... Wish to protect Arabella would break something nothing could repair.
"Don’t get me wrong, you are to keep an eye on her, but interfere only when truly necessary or when she explicitly asks you to,"
"Duly noted,"
Not duly noted at all. Silas’ insides ached with the desire to let his mother know just how lost he was or how much he disagreed with the sentiment, but discussing the topic more with her wouldn’t lead to much either so, the vampire resigned to nodding along to whatever she said.
"You still don’t get it, do you?"
Unfortunately for him, if someone knew him better than himself, it was his mother...
"If you press too much, she may not complain, she may simply stop trying. She may shut down. She may leave," she tossed those potential scenarios at him, one by one, ever so slowly.
That on the other hand sent prickles up his spine. She may leave? Where to?
"Because she and you too are right to think she isn’t your equal. She won’t stand in your face and tell you what she feels when you wrong her,"
"She has nothing to fear,"
"Does she know that?"
Every line was more confusing than the previous. Every answer she gave him begot a new question.
What was he supposed to do? Just let things unfold and watch?
"Then perhaps you could provide me with an example as to what I did wrong today,"
Silas turned to fully face Persephone, stone faced, eyes boring into hers.
"You shut the door too quickly," she said dryly.
The shift in her tone was quite abrupt, even for him. Her face shed all of the warmth it once held.
"Her idea to bid on the boy wasn’t bad but it wasn’t the most optimal. Then again you shut her down instead of chipping in. There are ways to protect both the boy and our family from harm, and you wouldn’t even allow her to explore those options,"
He held his own, withstood her empty gaze, but the twitching of some of his facial muscles exposed his true state.
"What are these options you speak of?"
"I’ll do you one better, Silas," Persephone neared him and placed one hand flat on his chest, "You think of the best option to both avoid cheating the bidders and the syndicate while simultaneously protecting the boy and his family. That should be a good place start,"