Kingdom of Ash

Worry paled the Lion’s tanned features. Not
for the reunion, but for what his son might be
facing in the North.
Chaol considered. “My father is a bastard,”
he said quietly. “He has been in my life from
my conception. Yet he never once bothered to
ask the questions you pose,” Chaol said. “He
never once cared enough to do so. He never
once worried. That will be the difference.”
“If Aedion chooses to forgive me.”
“He will,” Chaol said. He’d make Aedion
do it.
“Why are you so certain?”
Chaol considered his words carefully
before he again met Gavriel’s striking gaze.
“Because you are his father,” he said. “And no
matter what might lie between you, Aedion
will always want to forgive you.” There it
was, his own secret shame, still warring
within him after all his father had done. Even