Cry
Caspian had held Harry's hand the entire time they had been in the meeting room in the Earth Palace. He would give a reassuring squeeze every time Harry flinched or jerked, barely restraining himself from speaking up, out of commiseration and support.
When Harry collapsed after the shocking sight of Tom breaking down, Caspian was the first to notice and immediately leaned all of Harry's weight on him as he caught him around the waist.
Harry's pained gasps and pleading keens were torture for Caspian to listen to. Handing him over to Healers Malifors and Kuroe was physically painful.
There was concerned voices speaking over each other and serious, focused healer talk going on over Caspian's head, but all he heard was the small pitiful noises that escaped Harry.
Harry was still just fourteen. He wasn't supposed to go through his inheritance yet.
And yet, by the light peach and pure silver wings breaking out of his back in a spray of fresh blood, that was exactly what was happening.
Caspian suddenly wished his family's medic training was more intensive and less focused on the weak points of a body.
Caspian was just about to start whining himself when something glowing appeared out of Harry's head.
Caspian watched the thing as it speedily zoomed straight over to Tom in shock before Harry sat up slightly and let out a soul piercing cry.
A soul cry.
Caspian knew as soon as he heard it. He wasn't just hearing it with his ears. He was hearing it in his very soul.
He and Harry were soulbonded.
Awe ran through Caspian at the thought, slowly followed by overwhelming joy before he was suddenly pulled back to the current situation by the pained sound of the cry.
Right. Caspian being Harry's was something to celebrate but the priority right now was seeing Harry through his early inheritance.
Caspian, still at Harry's side, let out an unintended growl when he felt others approach his vulnerable soulmate.
Looking up, he saw three people in various states of shock and worry. There was Zandian, one of the merrow gheyos, and the Crown Prince of Earth himself. Caspian, despite being incredibly quick witted, took a moment to realize that they were likely to have been called by the soul cry as well. He had enough presence of mind to wonder what it meant about his future circle if these were the others effected by Harry's soul cry before focusing once more on Harry.
His eyes watched Healer Kuroe intently as he attended to Harry. Healer Malifors had went to Tom's side as it seemed he was having some sort of fit, but Caspian couldn't be bothered to pay the man's condition much attention.
Harry had all of his attention now. Now and forevermore.
Zandian's eyes were laser focused on the new young submissive.
Harry was whimpering as his body shook with all of the changes that were coming too fast. Normal inheritances are gradual things, the magic slowly preparing the body for the final transformation. Early inheritances on the other hand had the magic going through all at once in a brute force change as a survival reaction.
What had happened that caused the early inheritance was beyond Zandian, but considering the outrage by the hellhound attending the meeting, it wasn't anything good.
Especially if it was enough for Harry to immediately give a soul cry.
Zandian was still stunned he had been effected by the cry. Harry had been an intriguing and amusing kid, but that was about it. A kid that Zandian felt the urge to protect, but he had thought that could be because of the boy's past.
Apparently not. It was a natural reaction to a soulmate.
Flames flickered in his hair as iron his control of his emotions loosened a bit at the revelation.
He huffed an amused breath as he considered the other three connected to the new submissive. A merrow, a merrow halfling, and a Crown Royal.
Things were certainly going to get interesting from now on.
Mesmyr was a Crown contracted gheyo and so when his king asked him to go to the surface with him, he went to the surface with him.
Facing all of the youngest Crown Royals in a weird pseudo-court hearing while constantly being on guard to watch the criminal his king had warned them of was odd. Watching a seemingly unprompted early inheritance even stranger.
Witnessing and being called by a soul cry?
It was beyond Mesmyr's farthest guesses of how the day would go.
The young ACE wondered if anything else out of the ordinary would happen.
“My name is Caspian Emery,” the merrow halfling stated, still sat on the ground by the whimpering submissive.
“Mesmyr,” he replied, knowing himself to be the only other of the gathered four whose name was unknown at large.
A quick glance at his brother saw the Crimson Tide's focus split between their charge, who was being seen by Healer Malifors, and Mesmyr himself. A quick shake of his head to show he was fine and Krymsen was once more the perfect gheyo, focusing entirely on his task.
Mesmyr kept himself out of the other healer's way. He knew he would be of no help to his new submissive right now.
His submissive, huh? Mesmyr hadn't given much thought to bonding anytime soon but it seems Fate had other plans. Mesmyr didn't know how this was going to go but a part of him was eagerly looking forward to it.
Raspen was in shock and it was only thanks to his steady element that he was reacting as professionally as he could.
He had known the meeting was going to be a disaster since the request hit his desk. But he wasn't prepared for how much of a disaster it really was.
The Healer's report he had received from Ebony was horrific for a fourteen year old. And then the verbal recounting of the boy's past. Raspen was impressed that he had kept quiet the entire time. Raspen wasn't even sure if he could have kept his composure at that age.
And then the inheritance and the soul cry. A Crown Royal's circle is usually vetted by the entire court, but not even royals were immune to soul magic. He was irrevocably bound to the young submissive by an open soulbond. Even now, it being not completed was chafing.
However he had work to do. This was his palace and he was the host of the meeting, however unwilling he was. And considering the looks on multiple people's faces Raspen was going to be interrogated instead of congratulated for his new soulbond.
Sometimes Raspen really hated being the Crown Prince.