"Aa." Caesar gazed once more at the reduced figure of his brother, motionless for a moment before he stood.
The adrenaline from Albert's "rescue" had worn away, and Caesar felt his own weariness creeping up like a dark cloud. Caesar hadn't really slept since Albert disappeared.
The last few days were a blur of memories, images of pacing his room for hours on end, creating and discarding countless strategies that wouldn't do him a lick of good now because he had no army and blessed runes he didn't even know where the hell the enemy was. Elaborate plans scribbled into a plain bound notebook, and lost moments when he nodded off at the desk, only to wake seconds later as his head slipped from his palm.
And over that, scattered memories of his childhood -- their childhood -- hazy times before he understood what it meant to be a Silverberg, the image of his aloof but not unkind elder brother; the boy whose back he had been chasing all his life.
Until this day he had never seen his brother as vulnerable. Even when he'd been taken, despite the worry gnawing at his belly, Caesar had somehow assumed that Albert was cold enough to endure untouched.
And now, Caesar wondered if he only imagined the vulnerability in Albert's voice.
He turned back to Albert, crouching beside him to flash a brief, embarrassed smile. "I'll stay. If ... if you don't mind." He lingered a moment more before he stood and walked toward the kitchen, his reluctance to leave Albert almost painfully obvious.
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The adrenaline from Albert's "rescue" had worn away, and Caesar felt his own weariness creeping up like a dark cloud. Caesar hadn't really slept since Albert disappeared.
The last few days were a blur of memories, images of pacing his room for hours on end, creating and discarding countless strategies that wouldn't do him a lick of good now because he had no army and blessed runes he didn't even know where the hell the enemy was. Elaborate plans scribbled into a plain bound notebook, and lost moments when he nodded off at the desk, only to wake seconds later as his head slipped from his palm.
And over that, scattered memories of his childhood -- their childhood -- hazy times before he understood what it meant to be a Silverberg, the image of his aloof but not unkind elder brother; the boy whose back he had been chasing all his life.
Until this day he had never seen his brother as vulnerable. Even when he'd been taken, despite the worry gnawing at his belly, Caesar had somehow assumed that Albert was cold enough to endure untouched.
And now, Caesar wondered if he only imagined the vulnerability in Albert's voice.
He turned back to Albert, crouching beside him to flash a brief, embarrassed smile. "I'll stay. If ... if you don't mind." He lingered a moment more before he stood and walked toward the kitchen, his reluctance to leave Albert almost painfully obvious.