Paladins: Laina and Raven and the Boy's Story

"Will you tell it, then?" asked Laina. 

"After dinner, perhaps," said the woman. She was tall and slender and dark-haired, beautiful in her way. Beautiful enough to make Laina feel a bit plain, at least. Raven just studied her, but Laina nodded. 

"As you wish." 

"I could tell my story," said Damlok, emerging from behind the woman, who presumably was his mother. 

She tilted her head to look down at him. "If you like," she said.

Damlok shook his head and straightened. "When I was four years old," he began, "my father buried me in the back yard to prove to his friends that I was his."

Laina frowned. "That doesn't seem like a nice thing to do," she observed. 

The boy shrugged. "I didn't mind. It was kind of cozy. And when I got bored I just dug my way back out."

Laina suddenly remembered that she could detect evil, and activated the ability. She got a vague sense of something moving outside as one of the undead passed near the house, but the woman was mundane. The boy kind of... shimmered... but he wasn't any sort of supernatural evil either. "How did you manage that?" she asked. 

The boys shrugged. "I don't really know. I've always been able to do it, though. It's because of my dad, and he was always doing things like that to test me. Well, until Mother took me away. I thought it was normal."

"It's not normal," said Laina immediately. "Not what you can do, and not what your father did. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you, of course. It just means you're... unusual."

Damlok grinned at her. "I like being unusual. Unusual is interesting. I once made my teacher think I'd drowned when we were out on a boat, but that wasn't as funny as thought it would be. And she said I couldn't be around the other students after that." 

His mother gave a long-suffering sigh. "Damlok..." 

"I know, Mother," the boy said, looking up at her. He looked back at Laina. "I don't do things like that anymore. I try to be a good boy."

"That's good," said Laina. "That means you're learning." I am so far out of my depth here, she realized. She really had no idea how to talk to children, or how to sort out whatever was going on here, or even to figure out why her thrice-cursed goddess wanted her involved in all this, whatever it was. 

"He is a good boy," said his mother.

"Damlok! Sarha! Come and help me set the table!" Shera's voice carried easily down the hall from the kitchen, and the boy and his mother turned to go. 

"Best to just let them do it," said Choran, as Laina started to rise. "They'll all be insulted if we try to pitch in."

Laina considered for a brief moment, then nodded.