Even though it had been five years since the bonding, it still wasn't often that Alder Canaric saw his son's bond: once every few months was the norm, at a dinner which involved the whole household, whenever both he and Humain were in town. Though he no longer held anything against the half-breed, he was more than comfortable with only rare interaction. Anything remotely demonic, even the meek and unassuming, if odd, young man Sentio had chosen, made his wife nervous, and even he wasn't entirely sure how to relate to someone who reminded him more of monsters he was in a profession to kill than someone he'd have a conversation with. He had been under the impression, actually, that Cacopheny understood completely and was quite content with that arrangement, himself.

So it was with great surprise that he found, the day after their most recent meal with the motley household, that he had a visitor, and that visitor was Cacopheny.

The human members of the staff remembered Cacopheny, and when Alder finally made it downstairs-- he'd received news of the arrival in the middle of his morning shower, the half-demon had shown up so early-- the sitting room was empty but for Cacopheny himself, hunched into a chair. Alder was glad he had thought to shift forms: though he might have felt more comfortable towering over the human-sized Cacopheny, Cacopheny looked intimidated enough just by his surroundings. In fact, he jumped to his feet guiltily at Alder's very entrance. The mage decided he'd better put forth an effort to be unthreatening.

"Cacopheny, good morning," he smiled, offering his hand. The half-demon eyed it a moment, as if gauging whether or not he dared take it, then clasped it tentatively and submitted to a gentle shake in greeting.

"Hello, missster Canaric. Ssorry to come sso earrly."

Though some of Cacopheny's accent had faded over the past few years, he still hissed funny on his S's, couldn't pronounce W's, and sometimes mixed up his T's and D's. Still, he was much easier to understand than he used to be, especially when he spoke carefully.

"It's all right. Please, sit...."

Cacopheny eased himself gingerly back into the armchair he'd vacated, though didn't settle in at all, but perched on the edge, as if ready to leap up again. Alder leaned back into the chair opposite him, folding his hands and trying to look as relaxed as possible. He assumed there was a purpose to this visit-- he couldn't imagine Cacopheny just wanting to chat, not with him, and not here-- but he hadn't the faintest idea what it was. It wasn't Sentio; his son had seemed perfectly happy and at ease the night before, as had the rest of the odd household. 

But Cacopheny didn't say anything. He merely looked around the room with eyes that seemed over-bright and darted around far more than necessary. The silence stretched for a long, uncomfortable moment, before Alder broke it, himself, in an attempt to get the half-demon going.

"I must admit," he began, "I'm a little surprised to see you here. I thought you didn't like the manor."

"I ton't," came the short reply. "Too many zhadows... but I had to talk."

"To talk? To me?" Alder coaxed.

"To you. To somevone. To anyvone.... I tidn't know who else to ask." Cacopheny finally looked at him, his expression both nervous and hopeful all in one, and the words started tumbling out at last. Unfortunately, they didn't mean much to Alder. "Tchiya vas embarrass't and voodn't talk to me about it, and Ketvya talk't about respect and liking and time and it tidn't help any, and Tchaiss hartry sait anyssink at all, and Rady Aroia isss kone, and Rady Fericita iss kone too, and-- I titn't know who else to ask."

Apparently he still dropped his L's, too. Someday Alder would make the time to learn more about the demon language from him, but just now wasn't it.

"What do you need to ask, Cacopheny?" he asked patiently, having managed to at least gather that from the rambling sentence.

Cacopheny paused again, then, and took a deep breath-- Alder hoped to gather his thoughts rather than to embark upon another list like that.

It wasn't. It was worse.

"I vant to know vat vomen rike," Cacopheny said, and Alder started at him in confusion.

"What women... like?"

"Yes." The half-demon's head bobbed rapidly and nervously in a vigorous nod. "I only know vone voman, and Zhe iss. Issssss. Vasssss...."

Understanding, Alder hastily finished, "Unusual."

"I ssink so," Cacopheny agreed meekly, obviously grateful to be spared having to come up for a word for his former mistress.

"And you want to ask me...?"

"Vell, I ssought to ask Deif, but I vas nervous."

Alder suppressed the urge to comment that Cacopheny seemed nervous enough now. "Why do you want to know?" he asked instead, stalling a little while he tried to make the situation compute.

The black eyes slid away from his, and there was a definite color to his face. He was blushing. "Issss not important," he muttered. It didn't take a mind-reader to guess that Cacopheny was interested in someone, for the first time since his rescue. Though that was probably healthy for him-- and it was probably even more healthy that he knew whatever the demon he used to live with did, it wasn't something normal-- he heartily wished he had spoken with Deiv Watcher instead. It was an uncomfortable topic, even for someone married as long as Alder.

"How much do you want to know?"

Black eyes fixed back on him firmly, then, with all the hopeful, earnest attention of a puppy-- a full-grown, toweringly tall, slightly insane puppy, but there was still something puppy-ish in the expression. "Anyssink you can tell me."

Alder sighed faintly; he couldn't just say no, and let the poor fellow blunder through things without any more knowledge than his own abuse, discomfort or no discomfort. Was he a disciplined mage, able to put aside emotion if need dictated it, or wasn't he?

"All right. But I'm not going to repeat myself, so pay attention."

"Oh, ssank you. Ssank you, yess, I vill."

I'm going to regret this, Alder thought, and tried not to think too hard about his words of advice.

He just hoped that when Sentio got old enough for this sort of thing, Cacopheny would return the favor and pass on what he learned, rather than having to repeat it all again!