Paul steps through the door way to the castle. He took the long way round, reluctant to see his family again until he’d got a grip back on his daemonic frustrations. Briefly he toyed with going to talk to Kendrick or Aaron but he didn’t want the lecture that he knew he would rightly get off both of them. In the end he decided the best bet was to get home and loose himself in normality for a while. Or at least as normal as it ever got.
He closes the door as quietly as he can. Rae is standing with her back to him looking at the pile of weaponry they ran through at Chrimel, included in it is a large Bulmäs head.
He steps up behind her and whispers in her ear.
"You could have put them away."
"Hey at least I got them here." She responds. "Paultal magic is your trick not mine."
He smiles at the in joke of the pronunciation and rewards her by returning the weaponry to the stacks, adding to them a sticky note to remind Tobias to clean and reclip them.
But he deliberately leaves the decapitated Bulmäs head and a few small pieces of gravel.
She turns to face him, her face suddenly filled with concern at the damage he took in the fight in the lay domain. For a second his is touched by it, and then realises himself how rough he looks. His jacket is ripped in a number of places, and there is a violent red wound on his right arm, surrounded by dried blood.
"Have fun did you?" She asks, surveying the damage.
"You should have seen the other guys." He smiles.
"Yeah, not a scratch on them." She jokes. "They were looking for a man called Stonehouse." She continues, bringing him up to date on what she knows. "Actually they seemed to think that Christine‘s new pet, Silvia was the man they were looking for. They were a bit confused with the gate opened to her instead."
"The gate was from a temporary Ley domain." He explains. "They collapsed it as soon as they realised their troops weren't coming back." He decides not to mention the events between the gate closing and the domain collapsing.
"Dead end eh?" She asks.
He nods.
"May be Kath will recognise him." She gestures to the head.
"I don't care." Paul responds, pulling her to him with his good hand. "I just want a bath and bed." Then he looks at the head. "You'd better move that before the kids get hold of it."
She looks at him hopefully.
"No." Paul shakes his head, laughing at her slightly. "You need the practice." He head out through the double doors to the left.
He feels her concentrate to move her prize and then the castle shifts obediently to more the head on to the floor of one of the deep refrigerated store. "Oh, put it on a shelf!" He shouts to here. And feels her focus again to move it. “Better.”
He moves through the castle, determined to get to the bath first, but he can feel her following him, irritated that he hasn’t waited. The upper level is one large and open room. On the floors and roof are a matching grid of small holes, aligned to take large wooden poles that are stacked neatly in the corner. This is the room they use when they need more sleeping space. By setting up the poles and stretching rice paper walls between them they and make more thirty separate rooms, more than enough to accommodate visitors. He reflects as he moves through it that it has been a while since they had such a gathering. In fact Rae has become increasingly reluctant to have guests since the twins started walking and talking and, by extension according to Rae, “getting into trouble”. He heads up the stairs to the next level, resolving to solve that sometime soon, even if it does mean palming the twins off on some one else for a weekend.
"Christine has told every one that Silvia is her niece." Her voice echoes through corridors behind him.
"So?"
"Doesn't that strike you as strange?"
"Why?" He arrives at the lounge and shifts off his clothes. The bath already hot and waiting for him next door. One of the great advantages of being a mage is that you never have to wait for anything. He can feel her paranoia and despite himself feeds it.
"What you think A has been up to something?"
"I don't know." She replies honestly. "She did say she was just the daughter of a close friend, that she told people she was her niece to get them to accept her."
"Well then." He reassures her.
He lowers himself into the bath, concluding there is little point in getting her more wound up. Besides he wants a night in and if Rae gets too irritated she might decide to head off and find some answers of her own. He can feel her focus shift to an annoyance at the size of the castle and not being able to find him and decides to keep her attention on that.  "Are you coming?" Paul's voice teases her gently.
She opens the door, letting out a cloud of steam, She has a glass of clear liquid in her hand. Probably something left over from last nights game of Mah jong.
"Close the door, you're letting the heat out." He complains from the deep wooden tub.
She slides the door shut at his protest and then moves over to him.
"Joining me?" He asks hopefully.
She looks into the water, "Too hot for me." Then she hands him the glass.
He takes it sipping the liquid.
"I ought to go and check on the kids." She stares.
"I hear no screams." He reaches out to her hand, pulling her down so she is kneeling next to her tub. She crosses her arms on the side of the tub, resting her head on them. The warmth in the room making her feel sleepy after the exertion of the combat.
"Exactly." She replies. "I always get scared when they are quiet."
"Your paranoid." he states, hunting in the deep water.
"I don't want to add another name to the list of people who coalesced looking after our kids." She replies, only half joking.
"Oh they are not that bad." He responds.
"Seventeen people would disagree with you." She answers. Then she frowns, looking at his groping actions. "What are you looking for?"
"I could have sworn I had a sponge in here." He replies.
"Ohh, you are not getting away with that one." She responds smartly.
"What?" He looks at her, a smile coming to his face.
"The old, Oh dear I've lost the soap, may be it’s on your side trick." She stands up.
"Damn." He replies a beaming smile on his face. Then he lifts the sponge from the water. "Oh look here it is."
"You don't do innocent. Paul. You never did innocent." She observes heading out of the door on the other side of the room, leaving it deliberately open.
He curses her and instructs the castle to close it.