Duskfire Glacier and suddenly i'm someone that prays

The boy agreed, and Lane adjusted her pace so that they were walking side by side. She wondered if she ought to talk about something, to fill the air with chatter in an effort to keep thoughts at bay. However right when she decided to speak, the boy piped up first. 

Her ears flew up in surprise to hear the boy renounce his medical studies. He had seemed so devoted in the past weeks, but perhaps that had more to do with his father's illness than with a true desire to study medicine. Even so, big changes should never be pursued during periods of grief. 

The boy went on to reveal his desire to train as a leader, going so far as to claim the title of heir for himself. 

Cold dread settled over Lane. "The heir?" she questioned, throat rather dry. "Did.. someone tell you that you carry this title?" Given that Wintersbane had fathered five (four? five? we're going with five) children last spring, it was extremely troubling that Arius seemed to think of himself as the sole heir, apropos of nothing. 

With Makatza gone, Lane had, perhaps mistakenly, assumed that the threat to her own children had passed. Tzila had once told Lane of the demons that haunted her, and how she believed that these very demons had been passed along to her daughter, Makatza. Could Arius have inherited these demons as well? Would they lead him down the same road as Makatza, namely the pursuit of control and dominance at whatever cost?