Judge looked over to his father, feigning surprise. He did not want to act surprised, but it was a natural reaction, so he felt like he had to.
"You do not feel any emotions do you?" His father repeated his question, his voice dropped to an alarmingly low point between "I feel like I should be angry" and "I am angry but I don't want to show it because I am too angry". But of course, he obviously was not angry at his son because of a mistake his wife made, he was not angry at anyone.
Judge gulped a saliva that his mouth seemed to be producing too much, he did not know the reason why.
The room was enveloped by silence for a short while, not seeing Judge answer, his father decided to take the initiative.
"You might think that this is a good thing, Judge. You might take this as an opportunity... you would think that this is how you can reach your best potential, your optimum self.
But just stop for a moment and think, you think you are the most rational now right? Just think for a while with that rational brain of yours."
He paused, as if he was letting Judge think about what he just said, but he was a hundred percent sure Judge did not know what to think of. He continued after a while, "Judge... You think you've protected yourself when your heart was sealed, but trust me, the bravest thing you can do is feel.
"We're meant to feel, to love, and to hurt. Don't let fear rob you of the richness of life that comes from feeling deeply... If I could go back, I'd tell my younger self to embrace every tear and every laugh— those moments are what make us whole.
"Emotions don't make you weak, so trust others more. Of course, you should not trust people so easily, trust is not something that should happen overnight, you should first learn what kind of person they are, and what are they hiding behind that mask.
"You are my son, so I know you can do it. Now let's see your mother shall we, you need to re-seal your emotions, it is a wonderful thing to be able to feel."
Judge felt himself smile unknowingly, he felt no interest or understanding of the meaning behind his words. But he knew, deep in his mind, what he said was absolutely the truth, his master, Seraphis, had told him this before.
Judge got up from his bed, why was he lying there anyway, because his made said so? He did not ponder on that question and followed his father as they both were teleported by him to a room Judge had never entered before.
It was his father's bedroom, the floor was filled with patterned marbles of black, white and gold. The windows, unlike most rooms, were closed, with the red curtains tucked to the sides. The balcony was open, and beside the small tea table, leaning on a chair, was his mother.
She got up as soon as she saw him, ran to him, and hugged him tightly. He did not feel the need to hug her back, but his body felt the need to hug back and smile.
"Just go there and lie down," she pointed him to a sofa after letting him go from her hug. "I will finish this quickly, I had not taken any catalysts yesterday and depleted most of my own ether, runes are that taxing." She fished out a gold and black card with both the colors churning without mixing and also a purple jewel from her pouch.
Long ago, Judge had read about the researcher who made principle for nihility carried something for dimensional storage and it ate away at his life. So he had inquired his mother about the side effects of her artifacts, and she just laughed at him and said there was no serious effects.
Judge thought about what his mother just said about runes consuming vast amounts of ether as he went toward the green sofa to lie down. Being a powerful entity even among the dragons, she definitely had ether reserves extremely immense, and if just two runes could almost deplete them, how taxing are runes?
He lay down and closed his eyes, waiting for his mother to open the seal and re-seal his intense emotions instead of all of his emotions. He did not even feel bored, rather, it was just a hollow experience, nothing stimulated his brain.
Eleyn chanted something under her breath and drew the rune for sealing on the leftmost edge of the card, and then she drew two intertwined circles at the center before tearing the card in half and going to judge.
She put the half with the sealing rune on his chest and the other half on her chest, drawing ether from the purple catalyst she had taken out before, she chanted two words, "Seal" and "Bind", she said both at the same time, it felt as if there were two Eleyns screaming.
The two halves of the card flashed quickly and then nothing happened, but Eleyn's face said "Mission complete". She held the two cards together and burned them, they were the cards used for sealing previously.
"Let's head to the docks at noon after Judge recovers, You are going with Amber right?" Eleyn turned to Alex, panting, she was clearly exhausted and needed to lie down.
"Yes." Alex's eyes scanned for cigars, but they were not there. "Not my cigars!"
Eleyn's uplifted mood quickly came tumbling back down, it was clear that she hated cigars. "You are lucky I am exhausted right now." She gave him a sharp look before heading to bed in order to lie down.
The slightly frustrated Alex slowly rose from his seat, taking a moment to gather his thoughts before heading out into the hallway. He carefully closed the door behind him, making a mindful effort to keep the noise to a minimum so he wouldn't disturb his wife and son, who were peacefully sleeping inside the room.
He then headed to his father's office to get some cigars from him. The payment for it would be to hear an earful of advice on his lousy behavior and how great his father was when "he was Alex's age". He sighed like Judge do.
"What a drag." He said to the empty hallway.