>>5715120“Have you been enjoying your lessons, Unknowable One?” you ask Nat, as you step outside the stables, where he is waiting.
He chitters and chirps happily—a bit more expressive than you’re used to from this quietest of Glowie’s children—and begins to sign to you in the peculiar silent hand-language of the dark elf soldier-class, taught to him by his OTHER minder back home.
‘I like this one,’ he signs. ‘Her scales are shiny and her voice is nice.’
…Ah. A childhood crush, is it? You rattle a little with laughter, provoking a tilt of the head and a withdrawal of your son’s hand-talons towards his chitinous carapace.
“No, no, it is nothing,” you reassure him, signing back ‘no problem’ as well. “I am glad to hear you have been behaving well.”
‘If I eat her,’ he notes sagely, ‘I cannot listen to her voice.’
“This is true,” you agree, beckoning for him to follow you. “And you are learning much?”
‘Yes,’ he agrees. ‘Mother says that a hive is important to get things done, but by summoning enough demons you can make a hive, then just get rid of it.’
“Hm?” you consider this. “It’s a possibility, but remember that demons are duplicitous things.”
‘What does that mean?’ he asks.
“They lie, and scheme,” you clarify. “They aren’t like a hive, or a family, or a community. Theya re all out only for themselves, and if you summon a hive’s worth of them, you will struggle to mind them all. If you aren’t keeping an eye on your demons, they will soon cease to be YOUR demons.”
Nat hisses and chitters thoughtfully, drawing frightened looks from some humans whom you pass—servants of the Baron, alarmed to see your objectively-terrifying offspring out of his comfortable containment.
“Keep learning,” you instruct him. “Never stop improving yourself. This is the central tenet of the Serpent Ascendant. It is what I do and what I want for you and for my other spawn.”
‘Yes, Father,’ he signs back.
On impulse you reach out to ruffle his hair—so like yours, a mane of red fuzz framing his four-eyed, split-jawed, crocodilian face. He chirps and leans into the affection, surprising you a little. A young Reptilian—like the Serpent Queen’s child, perhaps—has little need for such affirming touch, but it is something you always desired. Like you, like their mother, it seems even this spookiest of your bug-children shares this language of love. It warms your heart a little, though you wonder if he might one day grow out of it.
Yes, it is good to spend time with children while they are young, you decide. It is an unconventional conclusion to come to, for a male of the Master Race.
