Silas arrives back at the Map room after a disturbed nights sleep and is not overly surprised to find Aaron still there.
“No Paul?”
“No he said he owed Rae a night out on the tiles.”
“Don’t think she’ll appreciate it, she was off to bed when I saw her.”
“Oh he’ll time it right. Besides he needs a little R&R himself. Not that he’d admit it.”
“Shame I was hoping he could explain this.” Silas puts the velum down on the table. Aaron turns it round.
“ooo Does he know you’ve got this?”
“Not unless Rae told him.”
Aaron smiles and then adds it to one of the spaces on the wall.
Silas frown at him for a second.
“Can you read that?”
Aaron grins sheepishly. “If he asks you say no ok.”
“Hmm. That’s what I thought.” He decides to cut to the chase. “Who is this Silvia then?”
Aaron twists uncomfortably under his gaze. “Oh you don’t really want to know.”
“No. But I think I have to.” Silas points out. “Rae made some comments last night that opened up a few cans of worms and I need help getting them back in the box.”
“Like.”
“Human Bulmäs all being my relatives for a start.”
“Ahh that. Well broadly speaking yes I guess they are. Most of them at least. There are probably a few that are native born and not found by the Bulmäs but they are rare.”
“Ok.” Silas tries to absorb the fact.
“I mean it’s not like you directly sired all of them.” Aaron defends. “You know how populations can grow, especially given time and a competitive advantage. And natural Lea walking is a pretty good advantage in the realities.”
“So I found a dynasty.”
“Well yeah.” Aaron admits reluctantly.
“Ok. May be I’ll put that away and deal with it later.”
“I think that would be best.”
“So this Silvia.” Silas gestures at the diary extract.
“Yeah.” Aaron states. Almost as if he hopes the yeah will be enough.
Silas looks at him, making it clear that it isn’t.
“Closer to me than Amy?” He prompts.
“You could say that.” Aaron admits.
“What was she doing at Chrimel?”
“Internship.” Aaron replies.
Silas looks at him.
“Oh come on it’s pretty standard practice round here, your kids go off and spend some time with some one else so they can get a look at the real world. Rik did it, Rae did it. Even you did it, bit later that normal may be but circumstances got in the way.”
“Did you know about this attack?”
“God no. Christine would never fess up to something like that she knows how fucking furious I’d be with her especially….” He stops himself.
“Especially?” Silas prompts.
Aaron tries to look innocent and fails.
Silas puts it together. “Ahh. Especially as she was looking after Silvia for you.”
“Yeah.” Aaron admits.
Silas looks at the velum. “She’s my daughter isn’t she.”
Aaron refuses to reply.
Silas draws in a deep breath and then bites his lip.
“What else did Rae say last night?” Aaron asks.
Silas looks at him. “I think you know.” He says darkly.
“Doesn’t make it less valid.” Aaron replies.
He takes another deep breath. “What have I done to deserve this?” Silas asks.
“We don’t know. You may not even have done it yet.”
“Well whatever I’ve done or will do. They didn’t do anything did they.” He states gesturing to the picture of Amy and the velum
“No they didn’t.” Aaron confirms.
He turns to Aaron. ”What about the rest of them?” He asks. “What about the others out there?”
Aaron shrugs. “The immediate family we could act.” He stops himself. “No I’ll be frank with you, I already have acted on. The moment I realised where this was pointing to I got out there and I shifted them all to places of safety.”
“As safe as Chrimel?” Silas challenges, stabbing his finger accusingly at the velum.
Aaron leans forward, his eyes flashing will annoyance. “She’s still alive isn’t she.”
Silas goes to reply and then stops himself. “Ok. Sorry.” He forces himself to calm down.
Aaron sits back, and shakes his head softly. “Let it go.” He advises. “Ok I’ll level. I was just keeping it to myself. I figured the smaller the number of people who knew the safer they would be. But even I have my limits Silas.” He shrugs “How do you protect a whole bloodline. Especially one as disparate as yours? It’s not like we can call a big family gathering, and even if we did we might only be making it more dangerous for them by identifying them. Honestly I’m banking on their natural talent for staying alive. Face it Amy got away from this bitch once. It was only when she came here she became trapped. Even then, St Peters is so secure. If she hadn’t left…”
“But she did.”
“Yeah. And I suppose our real failing is that we didn’t know and protect her. Between me, Rae, Sister Ruth, Karl or who ever we dropped the ball.”
Silas looks at the photo of Amy again. “Rae apologised for not introducing us. She said I could have got to know her. I said I thought it would have been weird.”
“It’s a line you have to decide where it’s drawn because no one else can do that for you.” Aaron comments softly “The danger of this life. How much do you want to know about things that haven’t happened yet? How much would you try to change and how much worse could it be? You could save Amy. Silvia might die instead. We could loose a third of the human Bulmäs in the realities at a stroke.”
He shrugs.
“Rae prefers to know nothing. Paul grasp for every scrap he can. I didn’t get a choice. Or rather I did but it was too late by the time I made it. And what do you do about others? Karl goes one day at a time. Personally I give out as little as I can about what I know. Paul holds it over you like a sword of Damocles. No one said it was easy.”
“No one ever said it would be this hard.”
“If you are going to quote Coldplay at me you can go jump in the Dee right now!” Aaron states pointing to the door.
“True though isn’t it.”
“Well running in circles chasing our tails might be, unless we get a bit of focus.”
He stands up and stretches. “You had breakfast yet?”
“Ate at the Dorchester.”
“Well you can come with me anyway.” He picks up the uniform jacket and pulls it on but makes no attempt to do it up. “Bacon butty at the Pantry and I’ll be ready for the day.”