^^ Lord Admiral Lyons ^^

— Reginald —

I could not help but giggle slightly at the incredibly confused look on the Admiral's Face, as the cat seemed to speak to him, but he could not make out the words, though all else at the table could. "Forgive me." I coughed and composed myself.

Cleo dug her claws into my shoulder. "Translate for this Rat-Eaten Slattern that which I say, Reginald."

I choked on my food at her calling him a prostitute, and glared at her. "Please have some Decorum, Lady Cleopatra! Unpleasant a meeting or not, you cannot insult people for no reason!"

Before she answered, the Admiral chuckled, smoothing back his black hair with its streaks of noble grey, showing his age where his physique and height did not. "I find myself amused, of course. A priest who speaks to animals, and a Rat-Catcher who insults men, though the latter surprises me not at all."

She growled slowly, and the sound built, increasing in volume until well-past her supposed physical ability. His eyes widened with each increase, as he realized he was dealing with something perhaps unnatural. "You DARE mock ME?!? Of all insults you have given, this is the most damning, I assure you!!!"

I translated faithfully, and shook my head, adding on a small explanation. "This is Lady Cleopatra, a Storm Giant, and a PseudoDeity, from the Arabian and Egyptian Deserts; her kind are older even than the names and languages given them now, and she is in her own Territory, now. She is best given deference, Lord Admiral; she is the center of the storm above us, after all."

He glanced up, around the thin, nearly see-through sailcloth that made this balcony water-tight, and his skin paled slowly as he traced the exact circle of it with his eyes. He slowly looked back at her, and swallowed heavily. "I see." It was all he seemed capable of saying, at present.

She leapt onto Ben's shoulders, slipping into his collar, and glared at the man over the leather folds at the base of Ben's neck. "Because you are blood to my High Priest, Benjamin, I will not kill you for your insults. You owe him your life, whatever a life can be worth without a Benjamin in it. Now begone with you, and take your blighted scent of fear and pompous arrogance with you, whilst I still allow it!"

I translated clearly, and then looked at Ben. "And promoted to High Priest! Go, you!"

He grinned, shaking his head. "No, he mustn't leave, Cleo, he must observe all formalities, or I will be dishonored by association with him."

She paused, fluffed up, and then settled in his collar deeper. "Then He May stay, but he will keep his mouth cordial, or I will eat him, blood of yours or no... you did not tell me he was so unpleasant. I see now why you chose the HMS Duke of Wellington over him."

Ben snorted softly, as I translated quietly. "A fine comparison, a Werewolf and False-Salt of a Father and a drunken whore of a mother, compared to the HMS Duke of Wellington, the finest ship to ever grace the British Fleet! Honestly, Cleo, you are sometimes absurd!"

The admiral flinched visibly, and the Doctor frowned. "That is quite enough of that at my table, Benjamin, Cleo, Admiral. I expect proper dinner conversation." He said clearly, with that tone that always made everyone shiver.

Ben sighed, inclining his head in apology. "Yes, Father." He said, reflexively, and again I saw the Admiral flinch.

"Well! I will inquire as to the health of your wife and children, Lord Admiral? I have heard that your daughter has had a dozen children, and surely this is exaggeration in a woman not yet 35?" I started the conversation, seeing as I was the only one who seemed to want to speak.

He smiled, thawing at the reminder. "Ah, Yes, but only slightly; she has seven children, and a eighth is to be born soon, I think. A boy, she says in her letters, and thank the gods for it, as she has had all girls but for three, now, and the second sadly taken by the yellow fever at only two, this recently."

Ben startled. "Not Little Phillip? The boy was so strong when I saw him last!"

His father turned to see him, and nodded somberly. "Unfortunately, Yes. I received the letter only a month ago, sent around six months ago, I believe."

"Odin's Blood... just after I saw them? What a miserable way to die... I will bring her the very best of Alexandria, when I return, all the silks and crystals and cotton that she and the children could want!!! Her husband is a blithering idiot, yes, but he does love her as best a man can ever love a woman, so I cannot in good conscious crack his skull, especially when she loves him as well as, if not more. No accounting for taste, of course." He muttered in what he likely thought was a soft tone.

The admiral laughed softly, and nodded. "Indeed... their eldest, Alexandrina, is already showing signs of shifting, as girls take much longer to make the transformation... I will have to go and tutor her, seeing as Minna never did get the hang of it."

"Not with a war on in the Black Sea, surely? Noble Ass that you are, the Fleet needs their leader, not whatever duke-cunt of fuck-off-shire they loftily grant your title if you abdicate!" Ben growled, the salt-ingrained profanity leaking into his careful and proper tone.

"Benjamin." Doctor Cole frowned disapprovingly.

"Sorry." He answered, sounding not very sorry at all.

The admiral smirked. "I am glad you think so highly of me, Sir Cooper! And no, you are right... they will have to come to me. It will be quite the journey for them, and I imagine that they will protest a bit, spoiled as they are."

Ben frowned, and looked at the Doctor hopefully. "Surely, Doctor... we could-... well, when we return to England, this summer, and come back to the Med? We have to make the trip anyway, no?"

Doctor Cole smiled. "I have always rather adored Minna, and yes, I will happily transport them. The boy, his name is Henry, is it not? He is 8 summers, now?"

"It will be ten, actually, when we get there." Ben nodded.

"Ah, Good! A good age to begin learning the Sea." The Doctor smiled happily. He seemed to rather enjoy the thought of teaching the children, and it showed.

Adrian grinned. "And the girls, as well. The women on board will delight over them and the boys both, I'm sure."

Cleo blinked slowly, and opined as well. "Yesssssssss!!! The littlest ones are mine, and I have not seen them in so very long!!!"

"It has only been half a year, my dear." Ben chuckled at her enthusiasm, and she instantly calmed, turning her head to seem disinterested.

"Well!!! Time is so very different, for us immortals! You must manage issue of your own, now! Adrian will likely do for you, no?"

Adrian and Ben both nearly choked on their wine, and I translated with some amount of amusement, as payback for Ben's earlier topic choice.

The admiral raised his eyebrow slowly, and smiled. "Well, the Daughter of Doctor Adrian Cole is a proper and fair match, even for a Knight... I would leap at the chance while she still considers you viable, Benjamin! We lose our virility at the same age as normal men, after all, despite our continuance and lack of aging!"

Adrian drew a long dagger and impaled the table with a crash and a snarl, halting the good-nature's laughter at their expense. "I am not marrying anyone. My name is my own, and not even Benjamin will change that." Her voice was a startling match to her fathers, and I shivered as it seemed to rake claws up my spine.

Ben smiled and pulled her dagger from the table, handing it to her. "I would never ask, my dear; and if I did, I would be Benjamin Cole, never otherwise. Cooper is but a Bastard Name I chose for myself, after all."

She blinked, and settled in her chair again slowly. "Well... I suppose I could be convinced to consider it... at length." She allowed, and tension released slowly as she poked at her food.

The doctor sighed loudly, and tapped the large cut in the table. "This wood came from Constantinople, some 800 years ago, given to me in the form of a pair of wooden shields and two Pilum by the Emperor of Byzantium and the Caesar of Rome... the pilum became the legs, and the metal was melted down to make the fittings..."

"Just because something is old, doesn't make it precious." She muttered in response, and I gasped as his eyes seemed to ignite with a Savage Fury, though his face didn't change, which had her ducking her head and hiding, without trying to seem so.

He was silent for a moment, staring at her and waiting patiently, like a wolf staring at a rabbit's burrow.

She sighed. "I should not have done that... I apologize, papa."

His gaze softened somewhat, and he nodded brusquely. "Good that you know that... your apology is accepted, and you are dismissed from my table. You may go and command the loading of new cargo."

She flinched at the demand, -far beneath her station, to oversee something they had seven men in charge of, as well as Jaime, the quartermaster,- and stood, bowing deeply. She excused herself properly, and walked out to the deck with her head hanging, taking quiet charge of the process from her surprised clerk and quartermaster.

I cleared my throat in the uncomfortable silence. "Well, I don't know it's rude of me to ask if Ben has more siblings than this sister, Minna, was it?"

"Augusta-Mary-Minna-Catherine-Lyons-Fitzalan-Howards. We call her Minna, otherwise we'd never finish our sentences around her. And yes, I have many siblings, though I can only tell you a few of their names. I know of only a few other Claimed ones, being Anne Theresa, Viscount Richard, and Edmund Maubray, my favorite. He is the captain of the HMS Miranda, a proper Salt, and I've served with him before." Ben raised an eyebrow at his father's fallen features.

His father sighed, shaking his head. "Edmund was at Sebastopol, when the Batteries began. He died this June of his wounds there."

Ben's smirking expression melted into a calamitous and horrible fury that shook me to the core, even by association, and I at once pitied the Russian Army at Sebastopol, as he looked fit to level the entire city or the whole of Crimea, whichever it took to get at them. After a moment, he seethed out a few strangled syllables that might have been a wish to be excused, and lurched away from the table.

He was safely inside, thankfully, when he shifted into his beastly form, and was swiftly tackled to the ground by a great many of the Cat-Men from the ship, who had heard his initial roar and leapt onto action admirably. It took a great many of them, nearly fifteen, to hold him down to the deck as his enraged roars for the blood of Russia slowly devolved into heart-wrenching sobs.

It struck me that as much as he disliked and even perhaps hated his father, his family was a precious thing to him, more so than mine had ever been, so precious as to reduce the proud, hardened Salt to a young boy who had lost a dear sibling.

The doctor shoved aside the admiral, who had stood to perhaps awkwardly comfort him, and grabbed Ben by the scruff, slapping him fully across the face. The echo of the harsh slap halted all noise in the chamber.

"That. Is. Enough." He stated calmly. "If you wish to go to Crimea, and tear down a great and powerful city with your bare hands, I do not blame you, but you will not act the clawless foundling kit! Am I clear?"

Ben nodded slowly, staring up at him. "Yes, Father."

Again, the admiral flinched at the address, but made no sound, staring at the proceedings with a well-hidden and yet aggrieved expression.

"Good! Now, unless you mean to go off to war, instead of doing your duty here and fetching your nieces and nephews to be safe by your side, you will be proper and gentlemanly, as I have taught you!" The doctor snapped, and threw Ben to his feet, where he seemed to reflexively shrink back to his normal size, hunching his head at the low overhead.

Ben looked at his ripped clothing, and sighed, cleaning his face. "I am sorry to have ruined my best clothes, just before meeting the Pope." He laughed wetly, not yet totally alright, it was clear, though playacting as best he could.

I perked up, as did the admiral. "What?" I asked swiftly.

He grinned ruefully at the doctor's glare, and sat down at the table again, despite being now naked from the waist up, and wearing tattered pants. His boots and gun harness were the only things non-damaged, it seemed, and I marveled briefly at the intelligent design of the harness, which stretched by way of pressure-release-buckles, much like dog collars. He had to now retighten the straps, of course, but they were not damaged.

"I cannot speak of the why, but we go to the Papal State after supper." He explained briefly, and tucked into his meal, all manners gone, eating most of the food on the table to fuel his body after the sudden and involuntary transformation.

I nodded slowly. "I see... well, we should collect our crew from the Lyon, yes? Or are you keeping her?" I asked, giving him my plate as my stomach revolted at the thought of food. 'The pope... I'm meeting the Pope?!?'

He nodded. "It is best she stay in the family, I think, and I am the only Salt left. She will go to my children, when I have them, and Henry, until then... also, she will be undergoing heavy modifications. She'll need screws, and the best of Storm Gear that exists... Cleo will quite enjoy making the entire ship a Shrine to her. A most fitting Temple, Hmm?" He asked her quietly.

She gazed at him down her nose, and hummed slowly. "I was promised Stone... but I agree; land storms are so very boring. A temple at sea is best. Perhaps an island, some day?"

He smiled indulgently, petting her ears. "Of course, Cleo. Any island you like that is unclaimed, I shall seize in your name, and attempt to build for you a great many shrines."

She purred, pupils narrowing to near invisibility. "I would like that... so very much... and once I have amassed enough strength, I will show that little Bitch Anubis what for!"

Ben flinched, staring at her. "You mean to attack a God of Death?"

"Well, no, only to make him leave me alone... I suppose one of my shrines must be in Egypt, but close to the sea. A certain lighthouse, maybe?" She purred mischievously.

Ben laughed incredulously, the outrageous request at least somewhat distracting him from his very real and very understandable grief. After a moment, he continued eating, and soon the table was clean of all food except the Doctor's plate, as he had returned and begun daintily eating, just as before.

When Ben eyed his plate, sidelong, he frowned, and whistled sharply to a few of the men on deck. "Brine! Bring up a cow from the hold, and take it to Ben's rooms, will you?" He asked at a normal tone, even though the man looked up, some hundred feet away.

He nodded, to my surprise, and I belatedly remembered their hearing ability, scolding myself as he disappeared below.

"Off with you, and make sure to wear your second-best clothes after your very thorough bath. The Pope is not a man you meet whilst smelling of blood." He addressed Ben calmly, patting his head in a surprisingly paternal fashion, despite Ben's age and size.

He bobbed his head in acknowledgment, and was gone in a moment.

I leaned back in my seat, gazing freely at the Admiral. After a moment, I nodded. "The Red Cross is aware you are a Half-Man, and knowing Ben is your son will let them relax. We know all the Lines which are part of the Courts, you see, and follow them closely for natural-born heirs who will not receive the proper introductions into their... inheritance."

The admiral nodded. "Yes, I am aware. They are also aware of Ben being mine. I had made sure of it as soon as I knew of him, when he was two, as is my duty. The only reason you didn't know is because he changed his name. He is naturally Benjamin Aurelia, as his mother's name. She was Roman, and lives here, in Rome. Or I think she does. I have not ever visited her again, after taking Ben away at 11, and giving him aboard the HMS Duke of Wellington."

I blinked slowly, and then realized what should have been obvious: Ben had not been insulting his mother needlessly; she was, in fact, a prostitute, and the admiral had begot her a son without his original knowledge. "Ah... I see." I frowned.

He chuckled. "So you see, young Knight, I am not so contemptible as I seem; while I did enjoy a great many women and other hedonistic pleasures in my youth, that was thirty years ago, and I have been as proper a father to all my children as I could. I could never claim Ben, or his other siblings born of that reckless time in my life, but I did place them in the navy, with men I trusted, or in convents, run by Our Kind and even the Order of the Red Cross."

I frowned. "Well, and I suppose he has his reasons for disliking you."

"Oh yes, I do not contest that I am a deeply flawed father. My only personal flaw is that I am, as Ben so eloquently stated, a Noble Ass, and a rather brusque one at that. This, with my station, renders me entirely unable to properly raise children, were it not for my lovely wife, who bears my idolatry with a distinctive manner! In short, she is a beautiful terror upon me, and I love her for it!" He laughed happily at his own expense, and poured himself another glass of wine.

I watched him, and decided to hold off any discerning judgments of him, for now. I would wait, and watch, for as long as was necessary. But then, of course, the Pope!!!