Danagek and Gurot pyed together, the boys taking turns to kick the ball, while Dagek and Murot each sat beside one ahe boys shifted the blocks to form all manner of patterns, sometimes toppling over their towers.

  Sonarot poured her brother some tea, the pair sipping the warm tea lightly, basking in the quietness of a child’s py. They tio sip in the quietness, Sonarot warming the tea again, p a sed cup for each of them.

  “The first, you must kill for me,” Sonarot said.

  “Is it so easy to kill such great warriors?” Tonagek replied.

  “Si is you, I am sure it is easy.” Sonarot smiled slightly, sippiea lightly, though she was still uo taste the light berry fvour within.

  “You do not have to worry,” Tonagek assured, also uo taste the light berry fvour within.

  “How I not worry when my younger brother is going fight such great warriors?”

  “Si is me, it will be easy,” Tonagek joked.

  “…” Sonarot wao speak up, to tell him that he didn’t o go. Yet, how could she deny her brother? He had done so much for the Gek family, and he had done so much for them too, for she had stolen such a wonderful trio of grandchildren from him.

  “Danagek, Dagek, e,” Tonagek called, the pair of boys gng towards their father, before quickly shuffling their way over. “Your aunt will take you to pick the colours for the duskval festival. Gurot, Murot, e, I will take you.”

  Murot smiled, gng towards his brother, noting a moment of hesitation upon his elder brother’s face, but it was quickly dealt with as Tonagek held out a hand, and Gurot reached out to hold his uncle’s hand.

  The gentle rain fell across the Iyr, the families withiended family estates eajoying their time in the warm rain, but for some Iyrmen, the rai far colder.

  Shasen sat opposite Shagek, the pair p each other drinks, sipping the weak wihe pair had been named after their grandfather, and thought he pair had been close when they were young, their paths had led them on different journeys.

  “Aldnd seems to have grown since I left,” Shagek said, havi when he had first bee a grandfather. It had been almost a geion ago since he had goo make a name for himself in the far east.

  “Is Javiti different now?” Shasen teased iurn, causing his cousin to smile slightly.

  “I did not spend much time in Javiti before it was taken over,” he admitted. “I had heard the rumours of the distant Goddess, but I was too busy in the Wastes to check upon her. I hear she is an Idol, and her greatest anders are simir.”

  “I uand why the federacy is having such trouble.”

  Shagek tio sip the wine, feeling the tingle against his tohough the wine was only slightly alcoholic, it still held a sharp fvour, ohat was too sweet for his liking.

  “Are the children weighing down your heart too?” Shasen asked, causing Shagek to sigh, the old man closing his eyes as he leaned back.

  “It has not been long since I returned, but my heart has bee so heavy from their worry and grief.”

  “What of our worry and grief?” Shasen joked, sipping his wine, also sighing.

  “How we worry and grieve at this age?” Shagek joked back, p his cousin a drink, allowing Shasen to do the same for him. The pair hadn’t spoken much, but after the death of their niece’s grandchildren, the pair had begun to speak again, as though they were young again.

  “Did greatfather worry like this?” Shasen asked.

  “He must have worried, since he was a Sha too,” Shagek joked.

  “Do you remember the tune he hummed when he would whittle?”

  “He Marches, She Marches, They Kill?” Shagek replied.

  “Hm hm, hm hm, hm hm,” Shasen hummed, before nodding his head. “There was another, much slower.”

  “The Day Is Long, But The Day Is Sweet,” Shagek said, hearing the gentle humming from his cousin. He closed his eyes, recalling the st of his greatfather, mostly of what he used to smoke in the er before he would allow them to sit on his p so they could watch him whittle. “Do you still have the wyrm he carved for you?”

  “I gifted it to Tasen,” Shasen thought, recalling .

  “I think I still have it.”

  “Will you gift it too?”

  “It hurts to gift it, since I like to look at it when it snows,” Shagek said, leaning ba his chair. “I should gift it before we leave.”

  “It will snow before we leave, so you look at it again.”

  “We must wait until the tenth month?” Shagek asked, thinking about how cold this nightval would be.

  “He will wish to go ohe children turn one,” Shasen said, sure of the young man’s a. He poured Shagek more wine, p out half cups, sihe bottle was near empty.

  “It seems we have not worked enough,” Shagek said, smiling slightly, already feeling his old bones ache.

  “I would feel at ease if cousin came with us.”

  “He ot since he is the Family Elder,” Shagek said, his voice low, full of a cold sadness. If he came, then he wouldn’t o worry quite as much of the task.

  ‘Are we enough?’ Shasen thought, uanding that there were too few of them to plete their task, if they wao e back alive.

  ‘We will have to be enough,’ Shagek thought, uanding his cousin’s thoughts, and hoping that he would uand his own.

  It was dark by the time Otkan appeared, having caught the twins as they were about to head to bed.

  “Nano!” Jirot called out, though her voice was weak, the girl yawning as she rubbed her eye. She reached out a hand, before she hugged her nano’s neck, cuddling up to her shoulder, while her brripped at her shoulder and cht, feeling the nub of her elbow press against his bottom to keep him up. Gangak stood beside Otkan’s side, just in case the boy slipped down.

  “You have e?” the old Jarot asked.

  “I have pleted the family matters,” Otkan replied simply, and so she began to join the children during their nights, watg over them, and soothing them when they screamed and cried te in the night.

  It was te during the night when the darkness overwhelmed the figure. He sat aloaring down at the dle. He had yet to light it, his eyes glued to the dark petals within the dle. As he lit the dle, the petal’s colour returned, red, like fresh blood.

  ‘If you were alive, what advice would you give to me?’ Dogek thought, staring at the gentle fme, the red of the petals, and the small strand of smoke which evoked memories of old.

  ‘Little Dogek, how you cry?’ Shogek asked, embrag his younger sibling close to his chest, brushing the back of his head.

  ‘Papa! My bread!’

  ‘I know, I know,’ Shogek cooed to his younger brother, the boy barely seven himself. ‘It is too te to cry for the bread, sihe river has eaten it. e, let us go ask mother for more bead.’

  ‘Huu!’ Dogek cried, while his brother wiped away his tears.

  Tonight, his brother could not wipe away his tears, and he allowed them to fall, the tears disappearing into the fibres of his clothing.

  The stars shone brightly in the night sky, the myriad of colours distrag the Elder. He let out a low sigh, closing his eyes, wanting a moment of rest.

  “If you are so tired, you should sleep,” called the voice, as quiet as a mouse.

  “How I rest when there is so much work to do,” Zijin replied.

  “Thus, the work of an Elder,” Rajin said, sitting down opposite his nephew. He pced down a small cy pot. “I have brought a drink to wake you.”

  “Do you have another which help me to sleep.”

  Rajin flexed his muscles. “I help you to sleep easily without a drink.”

  Zijin raised his fingers, shaking his head lightly. “I sleep fine enough.”

  The pair fell silent for a long moment. It was a quiet night in the Iyr, like most nights in the Iyr. Since Zijin could dare to doze off during the night, it meant that things were proceeding smoothly at the fort in the south.

  Rajin poured the sword wihe kind of wihat could awaken someone by stabbing their throat so harshly. It was eveer than the sour wine he was well known for.

  “The children miss their aunts,” Rajin said.

  “Did the Mad Dog send you?” Zijin asked, noting the guilty look upon his uncle’s face, though he was gd that the Mad Dog was being so kind to him. “When I first became Elder, I used to look to my father to help deal with him. Father spoke to Mulrot, and the Mad Dog fell quiet for a short while. It was one of the first lessons I learnt as Elder Zijin.”

  “If you learnt that lesson, why did you ask me to speak with him?” Rajin asked, leaning ba his seat, feeling the ache from all the scars he had gained from the crippled Iyrman before he was crippled.

  “In order to uand those who caused trouble, I had to cause trouble,” Zijin joked.

  “So, it was back then?” Rajin asked.

  Zijin looked through his uncle and to the past. To the little girl who would cry to him about her father and mother bullying her, even though she was the one who caused such trouble. To the girl who stopped causing so much trouble after her aunt was killed. To the girl who would swing her bde so te into the night, ting to a hundred repeatedly, even though she knew how to t to a thousand.

  “I will nret it,” Zijin said.

  “I know,” Rajin replied, pig up his cup, waiting for his o raise his own, the Elder quickly moving his papers to one side, before the pair sipped the wine, coughing and hag together, as though they had been stabbed ihroat.

  I should have made this year 200 chapters so I could show so much more!