It wouldn't have surprised Ghastly. When he first met Skulduggery, the man was still in the midst of trying to keep two very different lives separate - his life with his family, strained and breaking though it already was, and his life with magic. He hadn't needed anything like a reflection, except maybe once or twice, because he didn't start meeting other sorcerers and learning how much there was to magic until he was already old enough to leave the house. Which, back then, was a lot earlier than it was nowadays.
It wasn't long after the debacle with the pirates that Skulduggery had to cut ties with one completely. And he chose magic over his family. While he probably didn't regret the decision, exactly, Ghastly knew he regretted having to make it. And he missed many of his younger brothers. Solomon was a transparent attempt at filling that hole, but Ghastly had refrained from saying so, and - like so many transparent attempts at dealing with feelings - it did, eventually, work. Work, and grow into its own feeling. Solomon became less of a replacement, and more his own person. Someone Skulduggery could be genuinely proud of.
So he could imagine his friend being more excited about the meeting than Solomon was. He could also imagine Skulduggery growing bored while he waited, and deciding to take out a sailboat he'd been on before. It might not have ended in disaster. Unfortunately, it did, and Ghastly was robbed of a sailboat he'd very much been looking forward to one day receiving.
"He probably was," Ghastly agreed. Skulduggery might have talked about his hat, but he'd probably never told Solomon about his family. He barely spoke about that with Ghastly. "You were like a little brother to him. And, like most older brothers, he was jumping at the chance to show you off." Ghastly hesitated, then shrugged. "I was impressed, by the way. Not many Necromancers disobey the Temple so openly, whether Temple-born or not. I still didn't think it was a good idea, but there's a reason I didn't object."
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It wasn't long after the debacle with the pirates that Skulduggery had to cut ties with one completely. And he chose magic over his family. While he probably didn't regret the decision, exactly, Ghastly knew he regretted having to make it. And he missed many of his younger brothers. Solomon was a transparent attempt at filling that hole, but Ghastly had refrained from saying so, and - like so many transparent attempts at dealing with feelings - it did, eventually, work. Work, and grow into its own feeling. Solomon became less of a replacement, and more his own person. Someone Skulduggery could be genuinely proud of.
So he could imagine his friend being more excited about the meeting than Solomon was. He could also imagine Skulduggery growing bored while he waited, and deciding to take out a sailboat he'd been on before. It might not have ended in disaster. Unfortunately, it did, and Ghastly was robbed of a sailboat he'd very much been looking forward to one day receiving.
"He probably was," Ghastly agreed. Skulduggery might have talked about his hat, but he'd probably never told Solomon about his family. He barely spoke about that with Ghastly. "You were like a little brother to him. And, like most older brothers, he was jumping at the chance to show you off." Ghastly hesitated, then shrugged. "I was impressed, by the way. Not many Necromancers disobey the Temple so openly, whether Temple-born or not. I still didn't think it was a good idea, but there's a reason I didn't object."