“...who’s the pretty lady?”

“..dunno, but I love her shiny hair!”

“... oh, come on! You don’t even look at mine.”

“...Yours is straw yellow, hers is gold.”

“Shut it, you twerps. She’s sleeping.”

“Why’s she here?”

“Who cares?”

“Her skin looks so soft…”

Yuriko scrunched her eyes and grumbled at the noise. Why was it so noisy in her bedroom?

Eh? Her eyes snapped out and amidst the high pitched squealing, she could see several small figures dart away from the open door. Her Anima flared and her perception covered the entire room, then she paused. How did she get here? The last thing she remembered was that she was inside a landcrafter with her cousins, aunt, and Ryoko.

The Radiant Sun’s light shone through a window with its curtains drawn. The ceiling was an unfamiliar light blue shade, and the room was modest by any means. A simple wooden bed frame and a mattress made of goose down and linen. She perceived her backpack, hip satchel, and safe pouch inside a cabinet, untouched and with nothing missing. Ah, she was wearing a sheer nightgown practically identical to what she normally wore back in Realmheart. Practically translucent and doing nothing to preserve her modesty if not for the tangled blankets covering her from the waist down.

“Ryoko…” She growled even as she flushed scarlet. Why would her attendant even dress her this way for bed at a place that wasn’t the Mishala mansion? She did the same while they were in the Lonely Bastion, but at least there, the door could be locked!

Oh, where was she anyway? The Davar Homestead?

Well, there was no one within her modest absolute perception range so she had her Anima close the door as she got out of bed. She must have fallen into an exhausted sleep and didn’t wake when they arrived. “I should tell her to stop dressing me like this.” She muttered.

Using her newfound kinetic ability, she took her clothes from the closet, from inside the backpack, stripped off the nightie, and dressed herself before the door even closed completely. Afterwards, she felt a bit silly for rushing. It was a tad warm for using the overcoat, so she removed it and hung it back inside. The cream coloured button-down shirt was fine, though she didn’t button it all the way up. She rolled up and pinned the sleeves too. Satisfied, she hunted down her toiletries and looked for a bathroom to do her morning ablutions. She wrapped a ribbon around her hair to pull it in its usual high ponytail.

Where was Ryoko anyway? She should have been in the room already. She stuck her head out of the door and looked down the hallway, and again, caught a glimpse of several small heads pulling back from around the corner. This time, she saw their features. Hazel eyes, light to dark brown hair.

“Hey!” Yuriko called out.

Almost reluctantly, a couple of heads popped back out from behind the corner, two boys who resembled Rami, Kato, and Marron so much that there was no doubt whose family name they bore.

“Hello, cousins,” Yuriko said with a smile. The boys oohed and ahhed.

“You’re a Davar? You don’t look like one.” The first boy, the tallest one, said.

“I look more like my Mum. I’m Yuriko Mishala Davar.”

“Oh, uh, Lorcan Davar Safri.” The boy walked around the corner and Yuriko’s eyes widened in surprise. Lorcan actually looked closer to her age rather than Rami.

“Hello, I’m Mason Davar Safri.” The other boy came round, a smaller, cuter version of Lorcan.

“Full brothers?”

“Yup!” Both grinned.

“We wondered who was in the old wing,” Lorcan continued. “Then I remembered Aunt Layla and uncles Riley and Aidan returned home last night.”

“Yes, I came with them. I’m from Rumiga, actually.” Yuriko’s tummy started to growl. “Er, can we go get breakfast?”

“Oh, that was finished an hour ago.” Mason nodded seriously, “But there should be some left over. Come on!”

Lorcan grabbed her hand and tugged. Up close, she realized the boy was only a few inches shorter than she was. Around the corner and down the hall was a staircase that led down into another hall, but this one was open to one side, revealing an inner courtyard that was filled with flowering plants. A gardener swept fallen leaves from a cobblestone path. He looked up at the sound of their footsteps and waved good-naturedly.

“Ho! Lorcan, Mason! What mischief have you two been up to? Oh, looks like our guest is awake! Haha!”

“‘Morning Grandpa Weis!” The two boys yelled back, while Yuriko gave a bewildered nod.

They led her to another room: a homey looking kitchen and dining room with a wooden long table that was filled with half-empty serving platters. There were slices of ham, cheese, and bread, along with dishes of butter, marmalade, and some kind of berry jam. Lavan, hopefully. A clay pitcher, wet with condensation, was set in the middle.

There were two others chowing down at the table, and one of them was Aunt Layla. She looked rather bright-eyed now that she wasn’t hungover. Yuriko could barely believe that the woman took nearly a week to recover completely from her excess. She’d spent most of the week in the Lonely Bastion cooped up in her quarters.

The other occupant was an older looking man, with grey streaks of hair near his temples. He had a neatly trimmed goatee and was talking animatedly with Aunt Layla. Both of them looked over when the boys and Yuriko burst into the room.

“Yuri! Good morning!” Aunt Layla said brightly. “Ah, this is Grandpa Arlan.”

“Welcome home, young wayward Davar.” The older man chuckled. “Hard to believe it's been nearly four decades since Virgil left home. Ah, welcome, welcome. Layla tells me you're his third child, yes? You don’t look like a Davar, hahaha!”

“Ah, yes,” Yuriko agreed. “Da always said I looked more like Mum.”

“Well, at least you’re not a shorty like Layla here! Hahaha!”

“Oh, you!” Layla growled as she threw a fork at Grandpa Arlan, who deftly caught it with two fingers.

“Well, eat, eat! You’ve got to tell us more about your travels. Hard to believe a young’un like you’d come here across two planes.” He looked at the two boys, “You two go back to your training!”

“Aw! But Grandpa!”

“Yes, yes, I know she’s new. You can go look for her after breakfast. Don’t bother her while she eats. Now go! Shoo!”

Grumbling to themselves, they left the rustic, yet comfy looking kitchen, though not before Yuriko gave both of them a hug and said, “Thank you!”

Of course, both boys’ faces turned beet red before they scampered off.

“Your aura is as strong as ever,” Layla muttered, “I thought your Mishala side was going to teach you control.”

“Aura?” Grandpa Arlan muttered as he frowned. “Hmmm, yes, I feel it, but not strongly.”

“None of the exercises worked,” Yuriko muttered sourly as she took a seat beside her aunt.

She reached for the food, poured herself some fresh milk from the pitcher, and started eating. Between bites and when her mouth was empty, she told the old man about how she accidentally left Rumiga, got stranded in a strange plane, and was eventually rescued by Aunt Layla and her crew.

In the middle of her retelling, her audience grew by a dozen, with Lorcan and Mason leading four other kids to peek and listen through the doorway. Aidan and Riley also came down, and Grandpa Weis listened from the window. A couple of older women, Aunts Kisha and Jewel, sporting the same brown hair and hazel eyes as the rest of the brood, wandered in towards the tail end of her story when she spoke of the attempted abduction.

Her older cousins gasped and made furious noises, while Layla’s eyes scrunched down. When Yuriko mentioned the forced engagement, the whole lot of them nearly exploded.

“Of course we’ll help you.” Aunt Jewel, who looked older than Layla, but only because her hair was peppered with white. “I can’t believe the Mishala Clan would still stick to the old ways! It’s been centuries since arranged marriages were in vogue.”

“That’s ‘cause we’re not nobles,” the other aunt, Kisha, said. “Ulmira’s more cosmopolitan than Realmheart, and we’ve got a lot of merchant princes here. Heh, but just like the old nobles, they also arrange their children’s marriages. Just that they don’t do it until the kids are old enough to decide. They usually won’t force things. Why’s the Mishala Clan doing it?”

All eyes turned to Yuriko.

“Er, since it’s with one of the Pia’Vasi?”

“Oh.”

Layla’s eyes narrowed. “You didn’t tell us that.”

Yuriko shrugged sheepishly. “Will you still help?”

“Of course, we will,” Aunt Jewel said. “Though I don’t know what else we can do other than help send you on your way.”

“An Arkship bound for Delovine will leave in six days,” Aidan said. “I’ll go with you until Rumiga.”

“Huh, I’ll go, too,” Riley offered. “There’s not much to do here anyway.”

“In the meantime, why don’t you explore Homestead?” Grandpa Weis said, “There’s less than a quarter of us Davars here, with all the others off somewhere. Virgil should have brought you and your brothers here! This is our Ancestral Home. Here is where we come from and here is where we’ll return.”

The others nodded and murmured agreement. Yuriko looked at them in confusion. Did they mean that their Ancestors, well hers too, were buried here?

“Well, we’ve got six days to kill.” Aidan said to Yuriko, “I guess you can tour the farm? Help out with the chores too, yeah?”

“What are you talking about, you silly boy!” Aunt Jewel exclaimed as she grabbed Yuriko’s hands. “Look how soft her hands are! Are you going to ruin them with coarse work?”

“Er…”

“What are you talking about, Ma?” Aidan grumped, “Yuriko’s just as strong as I am!”

“Well, she certainly doesn’t look like it! You can just enjoy your stay here, little Yuri. No need to do anything. Let these oafs handle what needs to be done.”

“Well, we could always resume your studies instead.” Aunt Layla said, “I’ve still got my practice pieces somewhere around here.”

“You mean those boards that always burst to flame?” Aunt Jewel snarked. “I got rid of them! No sense burning the barn down.”

“What!” Layla exclaimed. “Those were my precious first drafts!”

The two of them bickered while Yuriko and the brothers exchanged gazes.

“Come on, I’ll give you a tour,” Riley said.

“Thanks.” The three of them left the table to the elders. When they stepped outside, Yuriko gazed out at the golden wheat field just outside. Off to the right was a copse of trees. She could see that the trees were filled with five-petaled flowers, white with a tinge of pink towards the centre.

The Homestead was set on top of a low hill, and she could see for leagues around. Ulmira was off to the east, the skyline was filled with the towers of glass. Eh? What were those black marks just beyond the wheat field?

“When the sun hits the towers just right, the rays focus on the ground and cause whatever’s there to burn. Stupid design, really. No one thought that glass towers would focus light into burning lances? Idiot city planners.” Riley grumbled when Yuriko asked.

“Well, feel free to walk around. There’s a low wooden fence at Homestead’s boundaries. Just don’t cross it or you might get lost.” Aidan said.

“I thought you were going to give me a tour?” Yuriko asked cheekily.

“It’s just the great house, the barn, then the sheds, and the fields. Ah, behind the barn is the shooting range. Be careful there.”

“Oh! I’d like to go.”

“Well, the fresh awakened kids should be there. There’s six of them this year, so I heard. Hmmm,” Aidan gave her a long look, “Why don’t you help get them ready for their training camp? Six days should just be enough to give them an edge.”

“Eh, you two won’t?”

“Well, we’ve got some paperwork to do, ehehe,” Riley muttered. Then he said under his breath, “I’ve gotta go to Noanne, too.”

“Huh. Alright.” Yuriko agreed. She wanted to continue training anyway, and teaching kids should be fun.