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“So how was your day?” Neffres’ mom asked as he walked into the kitchen to join his family as they had dinner. “Barely even saw you today.” Isabelle sounded proud, which immediately eased her child’s concerns that he’d worried her by being out too long.
He laughed and shrugged as he sat down, “Just kind of needed to get outside today. Ran into Trinah and Bryn while I was out and made plans to meet up at the Crown tomorrow.”
“Fun!” his dad piped in between bites.
Neffres smiled and began to eat too, content with that being the end of the conversation. He should’ve expected his siblings to continue it.
“I miss Trinah. You should invite her over so I can say hi!” Vic insisted, leading to Will’s whining.
“No!! Trinah always pinches my cheeks even though I’m not a kid anymore!”
“Hate to break it to you, Will, but you’re definitely still a kid,” Miryn chuckled as the thirteen-year-old turned and pouted at him.
Isabelle smiled, turning her attention back to Neffres, “You know they’re more than welcome to come over anytime.”
“I’ll spare Will the torture for now,” he shrugged, ignoring Vic and Miryn’s complaints. “How were y’all’s days?” he asked, happily shifting the focus away from him by kicking off the daily family-dinner-recap.
Unsurprisingly, Tybros answered first, “It was mostly a quiet day, but I did sell some of my favorite outfits to some folks headed to a gala a few towns over. They were very giddy to try things on and extremely complimentary when they realized I designed and made everything myself.” He sat straight up as he spoke, as proud of himself as he was excited for the strangers. “It’s always nice to have new faces in the shop!”
“Did you try to sell them on the bright orange suit? Or the dress with a billion patterns?” Miryn joked, earning himself a smack on the arm from Neffres.
Isabelle chuckled and smiled at her husband, “That’s great to hear, Ty.” She then hummed contently, “Nothing nearly as special happened to me today. Had the usual meetings upon meetings upon meetings. Everyone was on-track today, though, so it was an easy day.”
“Lessons were boring today, but my friends and I hung out after,” Vic offered cherfully.
“Miryn made cookies with me,” Will beamed, gesturing to the dessert in the middle of the table.
“They look really good!” Neffres said before looking to Miryn, “You do anything else note-worthy today?”
“Nope, just took a stroll, made cookies, and hung around the house!”
Neffres nodded, glancing his half-brother over quizzically for a moment before simply returning to eating. The family settled into relative silence as they all ate, occasionally chatting about whatever came to mind.
As soon as the meal was over and everyone had eaten at least one of Will and Miryn’s cookies, Neffres excused himself, grabbing one more cookie and heading back to his room quietly. As much as he was trying to follow Miryn’s advice of ‘Try to socialize more,’ he was still pretty easily overwhelmed and preferred to retreat rather than push himself further. So he walked into his room, shut the door, and lay back on his bed.
Not even a minute had passed before Neffres heard a knock on his door. “Come in,” he called.
Miryn walked into his sibling’s room and plopped down on the bed beside him, smiling, “So, how was asking Trinah and Bryn to hang?”
“Not too bad, actually. I just asked them before I could think about it, and they seemed excited? I dunno for sure, but they both smiled.”
“See, I told you it’d be fine! I’m so proud of you, Neff!”
He smiled and shrugged, “It’s not a super big deal.”
“Yeah, but it probably wasn’t easy, so I’m proud! You’ll have fun tomorrow, I know it!”
“Mhmm, most likely,” he took a bite of his cookie and looked over his brother’s expression as he asked, “You really haven’t been doing much lately?”
Miryn shook his head, knowing Neffres was asking about his research again, “Yeah, I meant it when I said I’m done with that, Neff. It’s more trouble than it’s worth.”
Neffres sighed, “Yeah, I guess,” before quietly finishing his cookie.
After a moment of charged silence, Miryn asked, “Wanna play cards with me, Vic, and Will, or are you done for the night?”
He smiled and shook his head, “I’m out this time, but y’all have fun.”
“Will do, I’ll try to not completely crush the babies.”
He groaned, “Please don’t. I don’t need them banging on my door and begging me to beat you.”
“No promises!” Miryn laughed as he stood, heading out of his room. “Night, love you!”
“Yeah, yeah, love you too. Don’t forget to actually sleep.”
Miryn just laughed more as he walked out and closed the door behind him.
Neffres sat up for an hour longer, doodling quietly and tuning out the distant sounds of competition until he felt tired enough to sleep.
The next morning, Neffres was quickly awoken by a few sharp knocks and her mom walking into her room, worriedly asking something. She hadn’t fully awoken until she sat up and noted her mom’s expression. She looked worried but was clearly trying her best to hold herself together.
Neffres murmured, “What?”
“Do you know where Miryn is?” Isabelle asked, the quiver in her tone betraying what composure her posture held.
Now Neffres was wide awake with a pit forming in her gut, “What do you mean? What’s going on?”
“He- Well, he’s not in his room. We haven’t seen him and his travel bag’s still there but I don’t-”
Neffres stood and ran past her mom, towards Miryn’s room. It was just like she’d said. Miryn wasn’t there, but nothing seemed out of place.
The Kayes spent their whole day searching around Pago to see if anyone knew anything about where Miryn could be, but no one had seen him since the day before. Miryn had simply vanished into thin air.
Neffres skipped out on her plans with Trinah and Bryn. Instead, she spent the day scouring through Miryn’s room, desperate to find any clues. She’d passed out mid-search, but Tybros picked her up and carried her back into her bed the moment he noticed.
The next few days felt like a haze as Neffres continued to search. Their parents were forcing them to take breaks and eat as their younger siblings would try their best to cheer them up and help them look. They hadn’t found anything but they were certain they hadn’t looked well enough. Miryn couldn’t be gone. He just couldn’t