***Tirnanog, Mount Aerie***

***Astra***

I didn't deign to give Magnus an answer to his – as I thought – very stupid question and instead jaunted back to Mount Aerie, appearing in our quarters.

Magnus followed a moment later. “Seriously! When did we decide? We have been arguing over their names for weeks!”

‘Yes! And don't believe for a moment I haven't noticed that you were trying to shift the responsibility of naming the girls to me,’ I thought to myself. But every time I gave a suggestion, he found something to complain about.

I rolled my eyes. “And that's exactly the problem. If we keep arguing, the girls will be born-”

“Hatch!” he corrected.

“B-” No! I didn’t want to argue about this again. “Before we made up our minds! And this time Mary isn't around to give them names. So I left Kiera with instructions before we went on our mission since she is essentially babysitting them for now. If you want to name them then say so and make a better suggestion.”

“Okay. That's fair,” Magnus admitted hesitatingly after of moment of consideration. “Unless we decide not to name them something like Ketchup and Mayonnaise, we could argue this case forever. But why Constella and Aurora?”

“It's according to the theme,” I explained. “Mary thought of you when she chose Isaac. Magnus and Isaac both have famous historical backgrounds. I decided that our boys get the historical names from now on, while the girls get something connected to the sky and astrology. A star has an aurora and several stars are a constellation. So, Aurora and Constella.”

Magnus raised a finger and looked thoughtful. “I doubt Constella has something to do with constellations, but I could be wrong. I have to look this up.”

I glared at him. “I like the name.”

“Which is reason enough.” He made an appeasing gesture.

That's when I had a wondrous idea. “You get to name the next batch if you keep complaining!”

Magnus almost choked. “Is that a threat?”

“Take it as you will,” I replied smugly. “Just pointing out that if you keep going at it as you are right now, the responsibility will fall onto you sooner rather than later.”

I turned and went to search for Isaac before Magnus could start another argument.

“I take it all back! Both are good names!” he called after me. “Just take some contraceptives when the time comes, please.”

How should I know when the time came? Gaia didn’t exactly give us a manual for our changed bodies and I was under the impression that the strange entity was operating under the principle: the more offspring, the better.

I briefly wondered whether I should bonk him over the head since he could also try to pull out for once, but then I decided I was stuck with how Magnus was and simply had to accept it.

We found our boy in the living room where he was playing with his toys. Isaac somehow had gotten himself three caretakers today, including Ivona, Hector, and my doctor, Kiera.

“Where's my boy!?” I bent down quickly, this time catching the charging Isaac with my arms and my filaments before he could wrap himself around my leg.

I squeezed my boy and kissed him before I returned my attention to a frowning Magnus, already fearing the worst because Iv and Hector looked rather different from when we had last seen them. Iv's skin colour was much less violet than I was used to and Hector's had darkened a bit to match Iv. Which could only mean one thing.

To my surprise, Magnus didn't seem to notice them at all and instead ruffled Isaac's hair. “How are you, Isaac?”

“Great! Can we go and visit Charmaine?” Isaac asked.

“Not right now,” I replied. “But Charmaine might come and visit you in a few days. Then you can play together more often.”

“Really?” Isaac's eyes gleamed. “Then I can show her my pet!”

“Pet?” Magnus' frown deepened.

Isaac pointed at a box filled with cloth and a single egg resting atop it as if on a nest. “Yes, Charmaine talked about having pets, so I thought about having one of my own. But I don't want any monsters, so I looked for the most harmless pet I could find and Aunty Kiera suggested hatching one of the zipper eggs and trying to tame it.”

Magnus' expression fell.

And he had done so well, even ignoring the fact that Hector was boning his sister since they had paired up without a doubt.

“Those eggs are for eating,” Magnus said in a deadpan tone. “And zippers are monsters. They are small, but they are monsters nonetheless.”

Isaac shook his head, very certain of his decision. “I have read all the books about them! In large groups, they can be dangerous, but a single zipper couldn't harm even me.”

“I forbid it! Zipper eggs are for eating.” Magnus declared with a tone of fatherly authority I hadn’t seen him use before.

“Please!” Isaac begged, his eyes already tearing up in response to being denied. “Aunty Kiera already made sure that it's alive! D- d- do you want to eat my pet, Dad?”

In the heat of the moment, I wasn’t certain whether Isaac was using a ploy, but it came out so honestly that I didn’t believe it.

Magnus pressed his lips together and looked at me with an expression similar to his son's.

Okay... right now... I really hoped Isaac wouldn't turn out too much like his father.

I knew Magnus had a vendetta with a particular zipper, but Isaac had already made up his mind about the 'pet'. So with some effort, I overcame the urge to intervene in this conflict of interests. I shrugged, indicating this was Magnus’ problem.

“Pleeeaaase?” Isaac sniffed.

Magnus deflated. “If the thing shits on the carpet, you are going to clean it. And I will play overseer!”

“Yay!” Isaac raised his hands and cheered loudly.

I had to suppress a laugh.

Magnus turned his attention to his sister and Hector. Both had stood up when we entered the room.

Iv nodded awkwardly at Magnus. “We have spent most of our time here since you went on your mission. Isaac is a charm.”

Magnus grinned. “Are you already used to being an aunty?”

Iv frowned, slightly perplexed at his teasing. “Okay. This isn't normal.”

She turned to address me. “What's wrong with him?”

“Nothing?” I answered questioningly, not quite sure where she was going with this.

Iv threw up her hands. “Neither of you mentioned anything about Hector and me pairing up! I thought Magnus would be up in arms the moment he saw us.”

I coughed. “I am sorry. I thought it was a given it would happen sooner or later.”

Magnus nodded. “I even gave him permission the last time we saw each other.”

Iv choked, then turned on Hector. “That's what you talked about when you had your chat between men?”

Hector stared off into the distance, wishing to be anywhere else right now. “Well...”

I covered Isaac's ears with my filaments, expecting this to go in an unsavoury direction.

“All the embarrassing things I did,” Iv complained. “And you listen to my brother instead of me!? I practically threw myself at you. It was humiliating! At some point, I suspected you might be gay!”

Hector raised his hands, palms out to ward off Iv's ire. “He broke my arm the first time we met – which was admittedly kind of justified. The second time he tried to strangle me. Sorry if I am a little wary when it comes to your brother.”

“He is a psychopath who joined a terrorist organisation to take revenge on those who killed his family! He killed who knows how many people and then he got himself exiled to this hellhole of a world just because there was a slim possibility of finding me and my sister!” Iv ranted but threw Magnus an apologizing glance. “Thanks for that by the way.”

“No problem,” Magnus answered.

Iv whirled back on Hector. “Anyway! Magnus is a psychopath, a stalker, and… I don't know whatever mental illness makes him behave the way he does. All that taken into account, my brother should be the last person in this world you should listen to!”

Okay, she was getting a little harsh now. What did that say about me for hooking up with her brother?

Hector nodded to himself. “If you put it like this, I am now more convinced than ever not to get on his bad side. Following his recommendation was the right move. And he has the Frosts behind him, which makes him even more dangerous.”

“Urrgh!” Iv balled her fists and swung them at Hector's chest who endured the battering stoically. All Iv achieved was to crack a thin layer of frosty secretion beneath his clothes. It had quickly formed on Hector's skin to create a natural armour.

The Mora family wasn't known for a specific mutation.

Instead, they relied on whatever powerful combination they had access to at the moment, which had almost become Hector's downfall when his parents decided to take a risk with an only sparsely known mutation and add a new combination to it.

The ice-lurkers lived deep down in the furthest and coldest caves the mountain had to offer. They were nasty creatures who seemed driven by an unstoppable rage at anything alive other than them. Their tendency to throw themselves with abandon at any foe they encountered was only compensated by their ability to create a very strong bio-armour by secreting a substance from their pores. Upon contact with air, this substance produced a strong endothermic reaction, causing the temperature to drop rapidly below freezing and resulting in the quick polymerisation of said substance. It wasn't quite as good as iobeetle armour, but close. In particular, because damaged sections could easily mend themselves or be replaced.

It looked like partnering up with Iv had stabilized Hector’s behaviour. But Iv was still warring with the emotional side effects. Though, she was kind of a hothead beforehand. I found it hard to tell whether her current outburst was caused by the partnering or whether it was simply how she had always been.

After a few seconds, Iv finally exhausted herself and stopped.

“Better?” Hector asked once Iv had vented her ire on him.

“Much better.” She turned back to us. “I am sorry. I am kind of frustrated at the moment. What I wanted to ask was for an opportunity to help rescue my sister.”

Magnus smiled. “If there is something you can do, I will tell you right away. I am afraid there isn't much that can be done right now. Astra and I have been doing nothing but running errands for the last month which has me frustrated to no end just the same. It feels like I am standing still, but the truth of the matter is that nothing can be done until everything is in place.”

Iv narrowed her eyes. “You are just trying to placate me! Look, this thing between us is strange enough. I know that you are my brother, but neither Evanne nor I have seen a hair of you for years. We are trying to reconnect and you are trying to behave like a big brother – though I believe you shot way past the finish line. I appreciate the effort you put into finding us. I don’t want to diminish what kept you going for years, but I just have to make sure that everything humanly possible is being done. I need to be involved.”

“I am not trying to protect you by holding you back. You are a young adult, Iv, and I can’t tell you what to do. Though, I might put a few shackles on you and throw you into a cell if I thought you were about to commit suicide.” Magnus shook his head. “We haven’t gotten to know each other as well as I would like, but at times you are giving me the impression of being a suicidal hothead. Which is the only reason why I am saying this.”

He took a deep breath and held up a hand to stop Iv who was winding up for an argument. “Look, if you can call me a psychopath, then allowing me to call you a hothead should be the least.”

Iv huffed. “Fine.”

Magnus nodded and continued, “If I thought it to be feasible, I would put together a team with the strongest people I know and take them right to Thich and extract Evanne. She might think she is being abducted by the enemy, but I would do it if I thought it was possible. Heck, I might have gone alone and jaunted her out. But the truth of the matter is that I have no clue what the Thich are capable of. I have seen their ancient fight and ended up hospitalized for it. Unless they are heavily distracted and us having more knowledge about their fortress city than even you do, I see no chance of getting her out. It's more likely to end up getting us and her killed, provided we reach her in the first place.”

“We don't have to get into their city,” Iv objected. “I told you that the training compound is at the outer wall. I can lead you there and I know the place like my own pocket.”

Magnus smiled sadly. “Do you believe that after starting a war with three of the major powers in this region, the Thich would have left anything of strategic importance vulnerable? The people in that training compound were either drafted into the Thich military, meaning we are more likely to meet Evanne on the battlefield than anywhere else. Or she was chosen to be 'paired' with one of Thich's higher-ups.”

“That...” Iv's expression fell. It was clearly something she hadn't thought about, or at least didn't want to consider.

“If you can tell me how to get into one of Thich's command centres where they might have documents on her whereabouts, then we can go right now. Or do you know at least someone who might reliably know what happened to her?”

“One of the teachers perhaps?” Iv suggested, but she didn't sound so sure. “I don't know whether any of them would have paid close enough attention to the recruits.”

“And would those teachers still be at the compound if their trainees were drafted for the war?” Magnus asked. “Or would they be drafted too?”

Iv only hung her head as an answer and Hector wrapped an arm around her shoulder to give her comfort. “Hey, Iv, I told you my family would help. It might not feel like we are doing a whole lot, but if we help the elders in the same way as Magnus and Astra are doing, then we are working towards a possible solution while we are waiting for news about her. Evanne’s rescue was one of the conditions Magnus proposed to the elders for his help. You can be sure they will honour the agreement.”

It took a few more minutes to convince Iv that nothing more could be done at the moment.

The newly partnered pair eventually excused themselves, with Iv firmly resolved to follow Hector’s suggestion of asking his parents for anything they could do to help.

Once they left, Magnus’ expression turned somewhat downcast, worrying me just a little bit. “What’s wrong? I thought this conversation went well.”

“Nothing that wasn’t wrong before,” Magnus admitted. “I just believe getting Iv back was an incredible stroke of luck. One which might have gotten a little aid from Gaia. Meeting her just like that and then not killing her during the fight was…”

I took his hand. “Don’t give up hope. You didn’t do so for years. What’s different from back then?”

Magnus looked at the floor and closed his eyes. “Zacharias knew who I was and that I had sisters who were with the Thich. Which is bad enough, but they also have someone who can twist minds. If I were in Zacharias' shoes, let’s just say it might not be possible to save Evanne at this point. Finding one of them might be the best outcome I could have hoped for.”

I said nothing and just hugged Magnus with my arms and my filaments, squishing a squirming Isaac between us.

We spent some more time with Isaac until the boy’s interest drifted towards other things than his parents as was typical for an easily distractable child.

Afterwards, we took the wormgate to Aerie’s flagship where we bumbled in on an impromptu meeting of what looked like the highest brass from among the three allied clans.

From Aerie, my mother and Juliana Rumen from the fifteenth were present together with Mary who had returned successfully from her rescue mission. A rather diminished-looking Gurney was sitting in on the meeting, looking like a ghost of his former self, but alive.

Savannah and Ahmad Gentry represented Clan Jeng, their imposing armoured figures seemingly filling almost a fourth of the room.

Matriarch Vanya and her right hand Tianna together with the matriarch’s bodyguard were representing Clan Hochberg. The last time we saw them, they had a bone to pick with each other after Vanya revealed she had killed Hochberg’s former matriarch, Greta. From Tianna’s presence, I could only assume they had somehow worked things out.

“Gurney!” Magnus exclaimed upon entering the room. “I am glad to see you again, but you look like shit, to be honest.”

The scientist grinned, revealing a few missing front teeth. “That’s what a few weeks of starvation followed by radiation poisoning do to you. I still can’t work up my old appetite for good stew, but I will get there sooner or later.”

Vanya raised a hand. “As much as I don’t want to interrupt the reunion, but we are a little pressed for time. Magnus, Astra, we will give you a very quick update about the current overall tactical situation and then we will have to send you off to the Old Camp where we have a small problem. Magnus, your people arrived in numbers and our soldiers stationed there aren’t quite able to deal with the flood of people. Conla Leece, who is in charge of our troops, also has some beef with the organisation’s leaders who are demanding to see you before they cooperate with the clans.”