Sword and Snow

It didn’t take long after we arrived to show my family around the basin. Outside of the teenage trio, no one seemed all that interested. We received the expected and haughty responses of having seen this all before and being generally unimpressed.

I got sick of it all very quickly. So, instead of continuing to take them around for the grand tour, we showed them to their houses. They ‘graciously’ accepted what we offered, and started to settle in. And while we were keeping an eye on them and showing them how each of the Arrays in the houses worked, the dinner chime sounded. I guessed Talya had noticed our arrival then, if she was signaling us to come in for dinner.

When I explained what the sound meant and offered to have everyone join us, I was unsurprisingly turned down with a variety of polite excuses. Wanting to rest after the long trip. Wanting to bathe before dinner - despite everyone having already washed their hands and faces with water and soap in the houses. My parents and Leon wanted to work on business, as if that was something they could even do from our little secluded slice of paradise.

I didn’t want to bother fighting over it, so I just left them to it. When Emery and I began to walk to the house for dinner, though, we were followed by the three teenagers. I raised an eyebrow in question at them as we walked, and Glenn stammered to answer.

“Um. If it’s all the same to you two, we’d like to eat with you?” He said, hesitatingly. “You’ve been nothing but gracious hosts, and you mentioned in passing that Miss Talya’s food is really good, so…”

“Sure. You’re welcome to join us.” I turned to Emery and snickered. “Better tell Talya to watch out or she might have an admirer.”

“Wha -”

“Oh, she’s got plenty of those.” Emery said flippantly, waving away my concern. “I could never get any boys growing up because Talya kept snatching ‘em up.” She went on, and even gestured with her hands to sell the play. Then she eyed me side-long and said seductively, “I suppose that suits me just fine, given you.” Then she wiggled her eyebrows.

The sounds of disgust and shock behind us made us both laugh. I turned back to the teens, who just stared at us in shock.

“Relax.” I said with a welcoming smile. “I somehow get the feeling you don’t exactly…get along with any of your parents.” I glanced at Emery and then back to their little group. “This is much more…us.” I gestured around vaguely. “You don’t have to be so formal or polite with us.”

All three of the teens looked uncomfortable, so I added, “Unless I have entirely misread you all, and you want to be, at least.”

There was a moment of further hesitation before Cove finally spoke for them all. “No. Just…well.” He met my eyes then, and I could see a bit of resolve harden there. “Avuri, Miss Emery…” He glanced back at the houses, gauging the distance for a second, then decided to continue, “we should probably talk.”

“Yeah?” Emery said lightly, continuing to walk to the main house. “We can chat over dinner. Get to know each other better.” She laced her fingers behind her head lazily as she walked, and looked back over her shoulder with her eyes narrowed on the boy. “As long as it’s appropriate for children to hear.”

“Um. It’s nothing bad or vulgar. It’s probably beyond their understanding, though.”

“That’s fine. Just keep bad words and the like to yourself and you’ll be allowed at our table.” Emery said, then decided to kick her legs higher as she walked, as if part of a parade march. It looked silly and I giggled at her, as did Mica.

“You two are…not what we were told to expect.” Glenn said after a long stretch of silence.

“Oh? And what, exactly, were you told to expect from us?” I asked, actually quite curious.

“Two Cultivation idiots.” Mica said.

“Poor buffoons.” Glenn nodded.

Cove was hesitant to add anything, but ended up looking down, practically ashamed. “I’d…rather not say what my parents said.”

I looked at him with a frown and sighed. “I won’t lie to you, Cove. I’d expect nothing less than absolute vitriol out of Severa’s mouth. That woman has always been…well, let’s just leave it at that. I’m surprised Lark would’ve said anything too mean though.”

Cove looked up then. “Oh! He didn’t, actually. Just agreed with Severa, as he usually does.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right from what I remember.” I said, thinking back. “In case you three were unaware, I all but left the family to join the Frozen Mountain Sect when I was fourteen, so it’s been a while since I’ve had any interaction with family members outside of my parents. And you saw how nice they were to me.”

“And Leon.” Mica said, sticking her tongue out like she had tasted something nasty. “I can’t stand him.”

“Rightfully so, as far as I’m concerned.” I echoed. “He’s a real piece of work. He may be a decent merchant - maybe even a good one - but damn do I feel for the poor woman they want him to marry.”

“And that would be me.” Mica said with a massive sigh, and pointed to herself.

That drew me up short. “...What?” I asked, shocked. “I thought they did away with the whole ‘marry within the family’ bullshit decades ago?”

“They did. Severa is pushing for this one though because they’re both good merchants and from the main branches of the family.” Cove said sourly.

“Being so closely related is a reason not to marry. That’s disgusting of her, Mica, I’m sorry.” I said. “I’m also sorry for whatever Leon has done to add to the stress of it all.”

“It’s…well, it’s not alright, but it’s hardly your fault. I appreciate the sentiment though.”

“If there’s something we can do to help, just say so. You wouldn’t be the first girl in a bad situation we’ve helped.” Emery cut in.

“I somehow doubt adopting the poor girl is likely to work this time, Emery.” I laughed.

“I dunno.” Cove said, thinking about it. “We were thinking of running off to join a Sect like you did. At least we could stay together as a family then. But maybe having the two of you adopt us would work even better.”

Emery looked at me as if to say, ‘See?’, and I nearly burst out into laughter. “We’ll keep it in mind. But joining a Sect isn’t a terrible idea. It helped me really get my life together and sort out my feelings about the family. The rigid structure of it all does have its upsides.”

“We’d just need to figure out which one. We already ruled out the Frozen Mountain, given they have fairly close ties to our family these days. We’d need something further out if we’re to actually break away.”

“See now, that we might be able to help with.” I said, as we finally reached the main house’s front door.

No sooner had I opened the door than I was tackled around my hips. Cierra had her arms tightly wrapped around my legs, while Stena toddled over to Emery and copied her big sister.

“Momri! Welcome back. Dinner’s ready!” Cierra shouted quickly. Then she peaked around my legs to see the three strangers waiting behind me. She looked up at me, a somewhat worried look on her face.

I ruffled her hair and tried my best to crouch down beside her with her still hugging around my hips. “It’s okay, Cierra, these are my cousins. Glenn, Mica, and Cove.” I said, pointing to each in turn. “Say hello.”

The little girl shyly waved while using me to hide. “Hi…” She said shyly.

Cove crouched to get on her level as I did and waved with a smile. “Hi, Cierra! I’m Cove; it’s nice to meet you.”

Cierra nodded, while Emery brought Stena over to us to get in on the introductions. Once everyone had said hello, we made our way inside and up the stairs to the second floor kitchen table.

After a second round of introductions for Vale and Talya, we sent Vale off to fetch the second table. We didn’t usually need to seat nine, but we had fashioned two extra tables in case we had visitors. Pushed together, two of the tables could comfortably seat eight. While Vale had offered to stand while we all ate, Stena opted to sit in Emery’s lap instead.

Dinner started off very amicably. The teens were excited to talk to people outside of the Mephra family, and were eager to share some of their fun stories. By the time the meal was nearly over, though, the conversation had begun to grow thin.

“So,” I said, turning back to our much earlier talk, “what was it that you wanted to talk to us about?”

Mica took a deep breath. “You should be careful around our family.” She said, seriously. I had to fight the urge to snort at that.

“Trust me, I am aware.” I said. “I warned everyone here to be careful too. The entire family is a viper’s nest.”

Glenn spoke up then. “It’s probably worse than you’re even aware of.” He said, looking between Mica and Cove. “Severa has been on a warpath recently. I don’t know how much you’ve heard from your parents in whatever letters you’ve sent back and forth but…Well, Rain died a couple years ago.”

“I see.” I said. I hadn’t heard that, in fact. But Rain was the family head for a long time. He was a relatively pleasant old man with a real knack for business. It would’ve been entirely possible for the Mephra family to all but buy out the other merchant families in Bouquet and rule it like royalty, but he hadn’t wanted that. “Given what you’ve said so far, I imagine that Lark is the new head?”

He nodded solemnly. “Basically in name only. He has a great head for business, but Severa is basically the one managing the family. And she’s absolutely ruthless. We think it’s just a matter of time before she tries to buy out the other Bouquet families. And she’s already acting like a dictator in our family.”

“Like with the marriage to Leon.” I muttered, looking at Mica.

“Right. And though she hasn’t made any moves yet, I’d be shocked if she doesn’t try to trap you and Emery into something. Especially now that we’ve seen that Emery isn’t exactly poor.”

Emery chuckled. “We get by.” Despite the laugh, her eyes were sharp. “But I don’t plan on entreating with your family at all. They’ve made it clear where they stand with Avuri, even if they haven’t used actual words.”

Emery’s fierce words made me smile. “Like Emery said, I think it’s unlikely that we pay any attention to their ploys at all. They are merchants after all. Severa may be a vicious negotiator, but she’s not stupid. She won’t be able to strong-arm us into anything.”

I shrugged. “And more than that, unlike in Bouquet where Severa is on the stronger side, she is pretty easily outclassed by both of us. Even as a peak Earth Realm Cultivator, she couldn’t really harm us if she tried.”

Emery scoffed. “And if she actually is stupid enough to try something, she’ll basically just bring down the sky on her head.” When the teens looked confused, Emery just smiled mysteriously. “We have connections that she won’t want to mess with.”

Cove snapped his fingers as it clicked. “The Elders.”

I snorted. “You were actually paying attention in the tea shop?”

“I was.” He said, looking a little embarrassed. “Merchant or not, it’s smart to pay attention to your surroundings, even if you act like you don’t.”

Emery and I both nodded. “That is smart. People definitely don’t pay attention to innocuous things as much as they probably should. You’ll learn so much just by listening.”

“Indeed you do.” Talya cut in. When all the heads turned her way, one corner of her mouth quirked up. “One of the leading families of Bouquet acting a little villainous is some very tasty intel, you know.” Her eyes skirted over to Vale for just a second before she continued. “You should be careful about who’s around when you talk about things like that, kids.”

Vale looked up and away from the table innocently. When the teenagers all went pale, Emery and I laughed. “Don’t worry, he’s on our side, I promise.” Emery said through her laughter.

“But he may let a few of those juicy details slip to the Elders.” I said slyly, looking at him. “If he does,” I said pointedly, “he better make sure to get something good in trade for it.”

He quirked an eyebrow at me and I smiled. “I remember someone mentioning that they wanted some Emberling meat at the reception. To which I said okay, and then proceeded to pay a lot for it. Sure would be nice if I didn’t have to pay so much.” I said glibly.

Vale laughed. “Discounts for the catering. Yes ma’am.”

“Did you say ‘ma’am’?”