Chapter Text
Aife was practicing with the village warriors and Alder was helping some of the farmers when they arrived. They could tell that they had been found by the enormous beam of light signaling the travel of a god or goddess to the area. Aife huffed out a forlorn sigh, the ones who had arrived would try to convince them to go home, to go back to Mount Kami, the home of the gods. It was frustrating. The people this village had just reached a point where they treated them as equals instead of all-powerful beings and here come some hoity toity gods or goddesses convinced that they could bring her and her brother back. It was annoying to no end.
Aife stopped the training session and went to go find Alder so that they could go and greet (perhaps 'intercept' was a better word) the incoming gods. The flash of light had come from behind their current residence. It was a large cabin in the woods surrounding the village, near the river. It appeared isolated, but everyone in town knew where it was. They came over constantly for training, breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, coffee, tea, etc., etc. They were quite popular with the village people.
The two rushed as quickly as they could to the cabin, Aife's face hardened with annoyance and Alder's softened and creased with worry. The group they found there was quite familiar to them. There was Alaric, the twins' father who was the king of the gods and the god of pride and the ocean; Alexandria, their mother who was the goddess of queens and the moon; Bliant, the twins' full-blooded sibling and the deity of healing and medicine; Anahita, the goddess of fresh water and the sister of the twins' father; Sopath, the god of peace who was once Aife's betrothed, though she did not like him much; and then there was group of children, children that the two had forgotten about. There were about five of them, maybe more, they weren't all of them, there were more back on Mount Kami, but among those that were there, there were: Malleus, Riddle, Idia, Azul, Kalim and Jamil, Leona, and Vil.
They were a bunch of kids that Aife and Alder had taken in and started to raise and teach magic. They had taken a few of the kids with them, namely Epel, Silver, Cater, and Ortho. The others claimed that they would be fine without them, but those four wanted to, or needed to, stay with them for various reasons. Epel wanted to get away from Vil's strict standards (the kid was a beauty menace, even though he was seven), Silver didn't like that he wouldn't be able to sleep whenever he wanted and that he might get separated from Malleus forever, Cater didn't like that he couldn't take any selfies, and Ortho was a literal baby who actually needed them to survive. That's part of the reason that they had such a big cabin, they needed space for four growing godlings. They were young enough that they still hadn't been assigned a title, a value to protect.
"What are you doing here?" Aife asked harshly.
The group of children rushed towards her and her brother, hugging onto their legs with teary eyes.
"I think it is high time that you come back home, Aife. Honestly, you must stop leading your brother places he doesn't wish to go," Alexandria chided.
"Sh-she didn't lead me anywhere, Mother. I went of my own accord. Besides, this is our home now," Alder spoke up.
Aife nodded from her place beside him, hoisting Kalim and Leona up into her arms.
"We will not be returning to Mount Kami, so please bring the rest of the children here, this time not as bait, and leave us be," Aife stated, walking away.
"Yes, nothing you say or do will get us to return home," Alder said, gathering Idia and Malleus into his arms and allowing Azul to cling to his back. The other children followed him into the cabin, which shielded their eyes from the large burst of light signaling that the gods and goddesses had gone back to Mount Kami.
Alexandria was furious, she was convinced that Aife had corrupted her precious Alder and was furious that her husband and sister-in-law wouldn't speak up in her favor. She was even more furious that bringing the children and Aife's betrothed hadn't gotten her to change her mind, she was so sure that Aife loved both the children and her fiancée, about which she was completely wrong. Alaric, Anahita, and Bliant knew that Sopath and Aife had never loved each other, Sopath had always been more into Alder in the first place, and Aife had been in love with Dabria, the goddess of death, since they had met as children. But that didn't matter. Alexandria was determined to get her precious son back, no matter what it took. So, even though the rest of the family would upkeep Aife's request, Alexandria would not stop trying to have Alder return to Mount Kami.