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Ru was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to sleep, but after meeting with Vol he learned that he had no den to sleep in anymore - they had assumed he was dead and gone forever and someone else had moved in - and he still had more to do. He had promised the thralls who had left the pride with him that they would be made freeborn when they returned, and he had to make it official that the freeborn who had come with him would be considered reavers. It ought to be something that happened automatically, but Vol had also told him that the new warlord did not like female reavers, and actual steps would have to be taken to ensure that lionesses like Inyoni were acknowledged as reavers, no matter what Njal said. Vol had told him other things, too. He had told him that on the day of the challenge Kazul had gone into labor and as far as anyone knew she had died giving birth. No one knew if the cubs had survived or not. Ru wasn't letting himself think about that - or more accurate, feel that - right now. He would attend to his duties first.

Tomi was relieved that Kraken seemed to be adjusting well to life, but based on what he had heard from others in the pride his brother was not doing so well. Perhaps he shouldn't have split the two of them up. But he had thought it too much of a risk to have the pair together. It might not have been the best idea he'd ever had, in hindsight, but that thrall of Nadja's had taken him by surprise and he had panicked. Gods.

Tomi's self-doubt was interrupted by the appearance of someone he really had never expected to see again, who just reminded him of more things he was unsure about. He didn't know if Kazul was alive. He hadn't seen her since that day, and that was another thing he regretted. He had been glad that it wouldn't fall to him to tell Ru about Kazul. Now, seeing the captain coming up to him, he wondered if he had not been spared that task after all. Gods. What had he done to deserve any of this?

"Lawspeaker," Ru said as he came upon Tuomas. The last time he had spoken to the lawspeaker in any sort of official capacity it had been back when Aesir confirmed his rank as a captain. That was why he had elected to go to Tuomas about this matter.

"As you see, I have returned." That sounded stupid. If he was going to impress anyone in the pride now that he was back, he was going to have to stop speaking like some awkward character in a child's game of pretend. Maybe it was because he was speaking with a lawspeaker, and some part of him felt it necessary to speak formally.

"There were some things I wanted to discuss with you about the lions who went viking with me. The thralls and freeborn, specifically. I wanted to make the thralls freeborn, and the freeborn reavers."

Tomi nodded a greeting to Ru, but the captain went straight to business and Tomi was fine with that. Strictly business meant no uncomfortable questions about what had happened in his absence. Maybe Ru had already found out from somebody. As a lawspeaker it had been Tomi's task to observe and remember, but that didn't mean he wanted to recall and recite. Not in this instance.

"All right. That's doable, I suppose. By taking the thralls with you, you could be said to have claimed them, which means that you are within your rights to free them for satisfactory services rendered - although it is unusual for you to do so. Usually thralls are merely rewarded for good service, not freed."

Something else occurred to him. "Do you mean you want the freed thralls to be considered reavers, too, or just the lions who were freeborn when you left? Either way is perfectly legal, if extraordinary."

Ru frowned. From what Vol had said, he had expected that it would be more difficult than this to see done what needed to be done with regard to his band. "There aren't any ritual words, or other steps that I must go through for everything to be official? I haven't even told you the names of the lions whose ranks must change."

From what he remembered of the night when he became a captain, there had definitely been a formalized ritual to be followed. It was possible that was only applicable for a reaver becoming a captain. He knew there was nothing special that needed said to go from freeborn to reaver. A reaver was merely a freeborn who had gone viking, after all. But surely to go from thrall to freeborn there was something more involved. It didn't even occur to him how elitist that line of thought was.

Ru considered himself basically an egalitarian, or at least a proponent of meritocracy, which would have shocked his mother to bits. Not that he ever gave her any thought anymore. He had moved quite far on from that period in his life.

"There are those things," Tomi agreed. "But I was there that day. I saw who went. I know the names, and if you would rather have this done expeditiously, we can consider everything taken care of."

Besides, to do it properly any thrall you mean to elevate would have to be here, physically." Tomi gave Ru an appraising look. The captain looked weary. "I think you would prefer to have done with all of this and rest."

Behind him he heard Kraken shift in his sleep, snoring softly. He had taken the boy around the pride and begun to teach him a little of his own job, not knowing what else to do with him to keep him occupied. He should probably send him out viking or something, but this cub was of Aesir's get. He was certain of it. And for stupid, sentimental reasons, he hated to expose the cub to risk, knowing he might be the last freeborn lion of Aesir's blood.

"But doing it this way, it is still valid?" Ru persisted. "These lions have acted with intelligence and bravery, and I must see they get what they are due. Even if it is extraordinary."

And speaking of extraordinary things, Ru would have sworn he heard a sound coming from the den at the lawspeaker's back. His green eyes darted in that direction, following his ears, but he did not make more of a move than that to investigate. He could overpower the older lion, almost certainly, but was it really worth it to find out that Tuomas had managed to find himself a mate in the time Ru had been away? What was extraordinary about that?

And Ru would have been content to leave it at that, except the snoring stopped abruptly and in short order a young lion not quite an adolescent stumbled sleepily from the den to blink at him and Tuomas. The youth's markings were familiar in a way he had been led to believe he shouldn't expect.

"Tuomas, is that...? Who is that cub's father?"

Tomi's ears swiveled when the snoring stopped and flattened when Kraken emerged. Speaking firmly he told the cub to go back to sleep. Once Kraken had complied Tomi met Ru's gaze with a level, authoritative stare. It was a variation on the one he'd used as an adolescent when people tried to tell him he couldn't do something, now backed by experience and self-confidence.

"Legally speaking, I am," Tomi told him. "And, legally speaking, what we have done here will suffice."

He wasn't sure what Ru was thinking, but he could guess. In a moment of mercy, and also because he suspected he would not be rid of the captain unless he supplied more information. "He's too young to be what you think, captain. Who his parents truly are is, and must remain, a mystery. At least while Njal is warlord."

It was stupid, but Ru was more relieved to hear the lawspeaker's assurance regarding the cub's ancestry than he was about his band. He felt like an irresponsible captain for thinking that way, but the idea that he might be staring at Kazul's cub was difficult to bear countenance. He wasn't ready to think about her yet.

"All right..." he said reluctantly. "If I ask, will you be able to tell me what happened to the cub's family? Vol told me what he knew, but, well, he has a somewhat selective memory."

He fought a yawn and tried not to think about where he would sleep that night. There was a bachelors den. He could return to that. It might even be better to do that, really. He wouldn't be alone with his thoughts then.

"I'm not asking you to tell me tonight," he clarified. "But I have to know."

Tomi nodded. He understood. He wished that he knew more, himself, but once Burzum was captured in the pride he had lost his means of communicating with the members of Aesir's family that had taken to the woods, including Kazul. He did know that Kazul and all of her cubs survived the move, and were living with her half-brother, Odd, but he had not asked about anyone else, and Burzum had not volunteered more.

"At another time I will tell you what I know. But please refrain from asking around the pride until we've spoken. While Njal is warlord, Aesir and his family are not generally spoken of, and if they are, the terms are not flattering. You would not like to find yourself an enemy of the warlord when you could be a hero."

Tomi smiled wearily. He had never aspired to heroism. He wondered if Ru ever had. Whether he had or not, he had achieved it, or nearly.

"Good evening, captain."