Archive of Our Own

Leeves, November 1206

Afterwards, when they’ve finally made in back to Leeves and started stumbling their way into the future, Instructor Rean’s parents invite the whole of Class VII, old and new, to Ymir.

“It’s a tradition, I suppose,” Instructor Rean says awkwardly. “Actually, they’ve invited the whole school, since it’s the off-season, but we can’t all go at once, so the classes will take it in turns.”

Altina doesn’t know how to feel about this. She doesn’t think she’ll be made welcome in Ymir.

“Why not?” Juna demands. “You’re a hero too.”

“I kidnapped Elise and helped the jaegars who injured her father,” Altina explains.

“You did? When?”

“During the Civil War,” Kurt explains patiently.

“Oh, that war,” Juna says airily, as if she’s talking about something that happened decades ago. “That hardly counts.”

“I think it does,” Altina mutters.

She gets unexpected support when Crow leans over her shoulder and says soulfully, “Hey, some of us died in that war.”

Kurt looks pained. “Please stop joking about dying where Instructor Rean might hear you.”

“Yeah, don’t want Schwarzer sobbing on my shoulder like a sad puppy,” Ash contributes.

Altina says very quietly, “None of you are helping.”

“Personally, I would be delighted to comfort poor Instructor—”

Ash gags so loudly people sitting on the other side of Recette look up in concern.

Altina contemplates her pancakes. They are very good pancakes, but they are not quite worth putting up with this conversation for much longer. She crams as much into her mouth as she can and then sidles her way out of the cafe.

She makes it to the fountain before someone calls, “Altina?”

It’s Crow, so she sits and waits for him. He mostly lives in Leeves these days, sometimes helping Instructor Rean with combat training or taking on Instructor Towa’s admin. Other times, he just sits in Carnegie and plays the local kids at Vantage Masters. He takes shifts in the campus shop, and helps out with various clubs—even covers Instructor Randy’s lessons when he’s in Crossbell. Principal LeGuin has taken to threatening him with a salary.

Other times, he goes away, drifting into Heimdallr or beyond, but he’s always back before Instructor Rean gets too hollow-eyed and anxious. He doesn’t seem to know what to do with himself, now destiny isn’t breathing down his neck.

Altina understands that.

“Are you really worried about going to Ymir, little bunny?” he asks her.

“I didn’t know then,” she tells him and doesn’t need to list all the things she didn’t know, family and home and hurt.

“I reckon Elise and Alfin have forgiven you, and I know Rean told his parents what you did for Ymir in the war.”

“That wasn’t—”

“It was.” He slides a sideways glance at her. “Don’t do that again, yeah.”

“I shall hardly have the opportunity. Unless there’s another war.”

“Please don’t tempt fate.”

She looks at him again. He looks relaxed, sprawled out across the bench and contemplating the sky, but looks are always deceptive with him. She’s known him longer than anyone else in Class VII and she still doesn’t really understand him. She asks, “Are you worried about going back?”

She manages to surprise him. “I wasn’t planning to—”

“You’re invited,” she points out. “You’re in Class VII just as much as I am.”

He’s quiet for a while. Then he says, “I was there too and, unlike you, I was old enough to know better.”

She ponders possible counterarguments and then goes for the obvious one. “Instructor Rean will be unhappy if you don’t go.”

“Maybe.” He’s still staring at the sky.

Everyone knows he’s in love with Instructor Rean and that Instructor Rean is in love with him. It’s just that nobody’s sure if either of them knows about each other. There’s a very complicated sweepstake in place, which Ash initiated and Musse is now managing, recalculating the odds and taking new bets on a weekly basis.

Altina ponders a week in Ymir watching Instructor Rean pretend not to be pining. Avoiding that is worth some sacrifice, so she says, staring at the sky herself, “I’ll go if you go.”

He whistles. “And if I don’t?”

She lets the question sit in the air for long enough for the answer to be obvious, then offers, “Do we have a deal, Crow?”

He blows out a heavy breath. “Yeah, okay. But if either of us need to bail…”

“I am sure Claiomh Solais can fly us down the mountainside even if they barricade the funicular station against us.”

He laughs at that and offers her his fist. She bumps it solemnly and feels a little better about the whole trip.

Then, of course, Instructor Rean has to make it complicated.

Altina isn’t even part of the conversation. She’s sitting at the other end of the table with the swimming club and their after-club sweet tea. Instructor Rean is at the other end of the table, chatting with Crow, Towa and Linde. He says to them, “I was thinking about asking the principal if I could go ahead to Ymir. I’ve not been back for a while.”

Unfortunately, Musse is also close enough to hear. “Oh, Instructor Rean, that’s a long way to travel by yourself. You should take someone with you.”

Altina isn’t sure if she’s offering herself up or trying to manipulate the odds, but Instructor Rean inevitably turns hopeful eyes at Crow. For a long, horrifying moment, Altina understands what it must like to be Major Arundel and see the inevitability of everything, because of course Crow can’t resist and of course he looks at her, equal parts sheepish and hopeful, and she nods grimly.

“I’ll keep you company. Make sure you don’t sleep through your stop. Bring Altina, too—she hasn’t had any time off yet.”

Instructor Rean lights up, Crow gives her an apologetic shrug and smirk, Stark quietly says, “Well done,” and Altina’s fate is sealed.

They set out for Ymir midway through November. Altina’s never travelled this way by train before—it was always airships. It’s a long way, changing at Heimdallr and Roer. Ash made her pack three books, and Juna has made them snacks, but she spends most of the journey gazing out the window, listening to Crow and Rean talk softly. It’s calming—oddly hypnotic—to watch the landscape change slowly from the low hills of the midlands to the increasingly jagged landscape of the northeast. Crow’s brought his Vantage Masters deck, but when they both tire of losing cards to him, he gets out his old Blade pack.

“Feels like a field trip,” Rean says and their eyes catch, not for the first time. Altina stares out of the window again.

She hasn’t played Blade for a while, but it comes back quickly.

“Where did you learn this?” Rean asks her after she beats him again.

“Crow taught me. On the Pantagruel.”

“Did you?” Rean says softly and they’re back to the gazing. Altina sighs and attempts to build a house of cards despite the jolting of the train.

It’s strange to think back to who she was then, how small her world was and how little she understood beyond orders and missions. They hadn’t been unkind to her, not as such, but most of the people on board had seen her as a thing, not a person. It had been Crow who made sure she ate at every meal, taught her to play Blade, told her jokes she didn’t understand and regaled her with stories of his schooldays, full of people she now knows. It had been Crow who insisted she know who best to run to if something went wrong, even though she hadn’t understood then why she might ever need help.

She’s still not sure how much of that he remembers—how much he wants to remember.

They stop for lunch in Roer, meeting Alisa who hugs them all a little too tightly and then whispers to Altina, “Is Musse still accepting new bets or has the current round closed?”

“She’s adjusted the odds again. I would not bet on next week.”

“I knew I left it too late,” Alisa mourns and then there’s another round of quickfire hugs before she’s dashing off for her next meeting.

Crow watches her go, shaking his head. “I wouldn’t want her job. Too much hard work.”

Rean meets Altina’s eyes in exasperation. Musse’s got a second book running on when Crow will give up his so-called job hunt and admit he already works for the Branch Campus.

“Because clearly you’ve never worked hard in your life,” Altina says.

“Yeah, which of your many identities was actually the slacker?” Rean adds.

Crow pretends to buckle at the knees. Rean props him up, and for a moment, they just grin at each other, as young and stupid as she’s ever seen them.

They’ve still got an hour before their train, so they take her on a tour of Roer she didn’t require (she has, after all, been here before). She refuses to ride in circles on the escalators with them, and instead takes the time to message Musse a count of the times their hands have brushed and they’ve sprung apart blushing.

The train to Ymir is tiny—two coaches and polished wooden seats with no padding. They can rent cushions, though, and Altina decides she likes it—the slow wheeze of an older orbal engine, the way it zigzags back and forth across the rocks, climbing higher and higher. It’s full when they leave Roer, but it empties out as they stop at tiny village after tiny village. Buildings perch on the slopes above them, nestled into the cliffs, but on the other side she can look down at treetops on the slopes below, track the flights of birds across the narrow valleys.

“I’m not sure we’re going to get the Derfflinger up here,” Crow says.

“Might have to leave it in Roer,” Rean agrees. “Pablo will be heartbroken.”

He sounds sleepy, his body starting to slump a little against Crow’s. Everyone in Class VII has been sleeping a lot lately, as if every restless night has suddenly caught up with them. Sleep and sometimes tears at things that shouldn’t make them cry. Linde has told them it’s natural, that their bodies and minds need time to learn that everything’s over.

They’ve still got at least an hour to go, so neither of them say anything as Rean’s eyes fall shut. Crow’s blinking too.

They’re the only ones in their carriage now, so there’s no reason not to let them sleep. Altina can keep watch and so she does, watching the afternoon light start to slant across their quiet faces as the little train climbs higher and higher into the mountains. She considers taking a picture and decides against it. Sometimes it’s better if Musse doesn’t know everything.

They don’t wake up until the announcement for Ymir comes over the speakers, and they’re all a little slow and groggy as they stumble onto the single platform.

It’s much colder here and she takes a startled breath—tastes the mountains against her tongue—granite and ice and clean, thin air. It wakes her up and she sees the moment Rean looks up and smiles, a little more of the weight sliding off his shoulders.

“Can you see the funicular?” Rean says, pointing it out to her. It seems like an almost vertical line from here, crawling up the flank of the mountain. And at the top, so tiny it looks like a toy, is Ymir, where she’s been before.

Her heart sinks.

Rean, oblivious, says, “If it was a bit warmer, we could walk all the way.”

They both shoot him flat, incredulous stares.

Crow says, “Yeah, no. The rail car’s fine for me. Altina?”

She turns to Rean. “You may walk, if you like. We will meet you at the top. Eventually.”

“Fine, fine. Come on then. It’s a few minutes walk from the station.”

The path leads them through pine trees, the air sweet-smelling. As they come out of the woods, Rean’s steps slow.

“It’s been a while,” he says.

“What’s wrong?”

He stares up at the village, his throat working. “My—Osbourne—he was my dad’s best friend.”

Crow nods Altina along the path and turns back to Rean. She walks on obediently, in time to hear him say, “Come on, man. You’re their son. They love you.”

Altina walks on, pine needles crunching below her feet. It feels very strange to be alone, out here in the wilderness. She’s used to Juna bouncing, and Musse making sly remarks, Kurt’s quiet steadiness and Ash grumbling behind them. She doesn’t think she likes this—it’s too quiet, too peaceful.

The bottom of the funicular comes into view. There’s a guy there, about Rean and Crow’s age. He’s just closing the door and sliding the locks into place. He jumps when he sees her.

“Didn’t think anyone had come off that train.”

“There are three of us. I came ahead.”

“That’s cool. I can wait.” He looks at her, frowning. “You look familiar. Do I know you?”

“No.” She searches through her memories of the time she attacked Ymir, finds him running across the square, face frantic. Well, it’s not quite a lie. She never really met him.

“Weird. I’m usually good at remembering visitors. Are your family right behind you?”

That one’s easier. “Yes.”

“Having a break from school? That uniform—is that a Thors uniform?”

“For the Branch Campus.”

His face clears. “Hey, are you one of Rean’s students? Aren’t you guys meant to be coming next week?”

“Some of us came early.” It strange sometimes how someone as loved as Instructor Rean can doubt that love. Does it ever become safe to just lean back and trust it?

“Luke!” That’s Rean, rushing forward.

“Guess they know each other,” Crow says, coming to a stop beside her.

From the excited babble of news and gossip, he’s right. “It’s a very small town.”

“You ready for this?”

“Ready if you are,” she tells him and shapes a fist to bump against his.

The views from the funicular are even better than the ones from the train. She can even see the train from here, drawing back out of Ymir station to wind its way back down to Roer.

“Like being stranded on an island and watching the boat pull away,” Crow says.

“Does that happen to you often?”

Before he can reply, Luke the rail car driver turns round from his perch. “Hey, kid, is Rean here a good teacher?”

“Certainly, when he is not protecting his students at the expense of his own wellbeing.”

“Altina!”

Luke laughs. “Nothing changes, then. Hey, Rean, your parents didn’t say you’d be on this train?”

“I wasn’t sure exactly when we’d get here. They’re expecting us sometime this week.”

Crow facepalms.

Altina looks down at the train crawling away and tries to calculate how long it would take Claoimh Solais to catch up with it.

“If you abandon me here, I will haunt you,” Crow mutters.

“You can’t haunt me. You’re not dead anymore.”

“Altina!”

Oops. Overheard.

“My fault, man. I started it.”

Rean looks at them, suddenly troubled. “Are you two teaming up against me?”

“No,” Altina replies.

“Obviously,” Crow says.

Luke seems to find them very funny. He’s also the one who springs out the moment the rai; car is docked properly, rushing out the door to yell, “Baron Teo! Baron Teo! Look who I found at the station!”

Rean hesitates. Crow sighs and claps a hand to his shoulder, propelling him out. Altina finds a space by his other elbow.

He’s snatched out of their arms within a few paces, crushed into a bear hug by his father. His mother is rushing across the square towards them, her face alight with joy. Altina sees the moment when Rean’s shoulders start to shake, and reaches up to stop Crow stepping forward. “You can let other people look after him too.”

Rean’s parents hustle him inside fast, clearly anticipating the storm that’s about to break. Crow rocks uncomfortably on his heels, runs his hand through his hair, and addresses the sky. “Guess we’ve got the bags then.”

They tiptoe into the manor with them. The moment they enter they can hear Rean sobbing, raw and breathless. Altina hates it. Crow looks torn, but after a moment of consideration he steers her outside again, to a table in the garden.

“We should—” Altina starts.

“Sometimes it’s not—it’s a place, or a person that takes you off guard. I went like a fountain when I saw Towa after the Fortress.”

“I saw.”

“Of course you did.”

Ymir looks different in the low autumn sunlight. Last time she was here there was snow on the ground. She can see the patches of uneven colour on the roofs where new tiles have been fixed in place, and looks away.

“We could have a look around,” Crow suggests.

“We could.”

But neither of them move. Rean is safe, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to leave him.

Altina asks, “Did Rean tell you where we were staying?”

“He forgot that. You’re not using titles?”

“We’re not at school.” It’s not that, not really. It’s Ymir, and the three of them without the others, and the echo of who she used to be.

“Fair enough. We could go to the hotel. That’s where we stayed last time.”

Altina looks at all the people who just happen to be walking around Ymir’s main square, glancing their way. They’re going to want to see Rean soon. They’re not sure of her and Crow though, worry on their faces. “Our mission is still interception.”

“Yeah, but only until it gets dark. It gets cold up here.”

“I don’t notice the cold.” He didn’t either—she’d heard him tell Instructor Towa that he still found it hard to listen to his body sometimes.

“Which is why we’re not going to stay out too long. Cold can be dangerous up here.”

“Are you attempting to be a responsible adult?”

“No, please, Altina, don’t spare your punches. That doesn’t hurt at all.”

The sun is sinking into the valley now and the shadows across the square are growing long. Lights are coming on in the buildings, warm against the night. Someone must have the radio on in the pub, because she can hear faint music drifting out every time someone opens the door. It reminds her a little of Alster and Milsante.

“Oh!” Lady Schwarzer has come out of the house and is looking entirely dismayed. “I never thought you would still be out here.”

“Yeah, we were about to head for—”

“Is Rean all right?” Altina breaks in, because some things are more important than manners.

“He’s sleeping, but I’m sure he wouldn’t be if he knew his friends were sitting out here in the cold.”

“We’re good,” Crow starts but he clearly has no power here. Lucia Schwarzer sweeps them inside, installs them on couches, and has hot drinks in their hands before either of them can present a compelling counterargument.

Altina sips her hot chocolate. It’s… very good.

Crow is looking more frantic than she feels. Altina pulls her attention away from her hot chocolate in time to hear Lady Schwarzer say, “Well, of course you’re both staying here. The rest of Class VII will fill up the hotel, but Rean wanted you two with him first.” There’s an implied question there, but neither of them are up for answering it.

Stay here? Altina stares at her hot chocolate as if it’s about to manifest tentacles (stranger things have happened in Einhel Keep).

Rean’s dad wanders in, claps Crow on the shoulder, and says heartily, “Good to see you again. Put on any concerts lately?”

Altina hasn’t seen Crow go that colour since he was dead.

She concentrates on her drink and leaves him to stammer through it.

“Did you enjoy that? Rean told us you like sweet things.” Lady Schwarzer is looking at her with a expression which makes her resemble Rean to a perplexing degree, considering they are not blood-related.

Altina panics and forgets all the social scripts Musse has been teaching her. “They are an efficient source of fuel and warmth.”

“I’d offer you more, but it’s nearly time for supper. Let’s get you settled in your rooms.”

She’s in the spare bed in Elise’s room. She hopes someone has told Elise. She puts her bag beside the bed, washes her face, carefully avoids touching anything else, and goes to find Crow. They need to revise their mission objectives.

She finds him on the way out of the spare room down the hall, putting so much effort into his slouch that she worries about the effect on his spine.

“It’s not a mission,” he interrupts.

She knows that. She does. It still feels that way.

“I don’t understand why they’re being like this.”

He shrugs. “Look, these are the people who brought Rean up. They’re where he gets it from.”

“So we should expect irrational self-sacrifice for minimal gain? Our mission objective is to protect?”

“Our mission is to let them be kind to us,” Crow says, though he looks worried about it.

“What if,” Altina ventures, “this is to take us off guard? I believe there are many places to conceal a body in these mountains.”

Rean says sleepily, “Who are you two planning to murder?”

He’s standing in the doorway to what must be his bedroom, looking sleep-ruffled, his eyes still a little swollen.

“You,” Crow replies promptly.

“What did I do this time?”

“Everything,” Altina informs him and deliberately doesn’t warn him about the state of his hair until they walk into the dining room and his mother scolds him with, “Rean, I know you own a comb! You could remember to use it sometimes.”

“Yeah, man, we can’t all look this good without trying.”

“You are both disreputable,” Altina says primly.

Rean’s parents are laughing at them.

Dinner is strange. Rean chatters in a way he doesn’t usually with anyone outside the original Class VII, drawing Crow and Altina in to add to his anecdotes about school. He looks happier, a weight off his shoulders. Crow seems to join in easily enough.

Altina isn’t sure what she’s supposed to be saying.

Once the meal is over, she helps to clear up, but is chased away from the kitchen. She eventually retreats upstairs and looks at the books Ash packed for her. Two of them are poetry. She doesn’t like poetry—there is too much blank space around the meaning.

There’s a tap on the door and Rean sticks his head in. “Are you okay? You were quiet at dinner.”

“I am unsure of the mission parameters,” she tells him.

“I thought you’d stopped thinking of everything as a mission. All you need to do here is relax.”

Right. Relax.

She can do that.

She tries very hard at it over the next few days, methodically visiting every business in Ymir. Everyone makes her welcome, but one or two bite off questions and one of the kids starts saying, “Isn’t she the one who—” before his friend cuts him off sternly.

“Guess Rean’s parents asked them not to say anything,” Crow tells her from where he’s helping mend the fence behind the storehouse. “They’re trying to be nice.”

“Do I deserve that?”

“I think you do. Rean does. They do. You’ve got to work out how you feel about it, though.”

She sighs heavily.

“Why don’t you go and find Rean? He’s looking for someone to go fishing with him.”

“You could go.”

“I want to get this done. I’ll come and spell you later.”

So Altina goes fishing. She doesn’t mind fishing—no student of Rean’s would cope for long if they did—but it doesn’t really help her with the problem of relaxing.

Crow eventually relieves her and she pretends not to hear Rean’s disappointed, “There’s space for both of you.”

Back in the town square, Altina wanders over to the platform. The view is still lovely, so she takes a picture with her ARCUS and sends it to Millium, who has been back two weeks and is beginning to chafe at the confines of her recuperation in Bareahard.

Predictably enough, it’s not long before she gets a reply.

AMilliumCookies: How are you in Ymir ALREADY?!

BlackRabbit: Rean came early. Crow and I came too.

AMilliumCookies: Lucky. Ymir is cool. I wanna be in Ymir. Everyone there is soooooo nice

BlackRabbit: It’s weird.

AMilliumCookies: Aw. Let people be nice to you, Tilly.

She then goes suspiciously quiet. Altina finds out why a few moments later.

She’s shared the picture to the other group chat, the one Rean and Crow aren’t allowed to know about.

AMilliumCookies: Look. Tilly AND CROW are already in Ymir!!!

BloodandAsh: Yeah, old news.

CantBeatFie: told you altina is reans favourite child

CantBeatFie: and crow is his favourite boyfriend

BlackRabbit: I am not Rean’s child.

CantBeatFie: but you so so are

Laura: ARE YOU STAYING IN THE PHOENIX WINGS, ALTINA? THE BATHS THERE ARE EXCELLENT>

BlackRabbit: We are staying in Instructor Rean’s house.

FluffybutDangerous: And are you staying in his bedroom? Is Crow?

BlackRabbit: I am in Elise’s room. Crow is in the spare room.

CantBeatFie: lol he got the boyfriend treatment

FluffybutDangerous: Should we offer to add them to the sweepstake?

PreciselyElise: I can ask them to add to my stake. They’re a little out of the loop. Altina, I hope you’re comfortable. Please feel free to borrow any of my books if you get bored.

BloodandAsh: She’s got plenty to read.

CrossbellPride: But more importantly, are there any updates?

BlackRabbit: No, Juna, there does not appear to be any romantic progress. I am endeavouring to leave them alone together, as Musse suggested, but they are not taking the hint. They keep checking I am okay when I am simply trying to give them privacy.

CantBeatFie: find a hobby they dont like

CantBeatFie: read dorothees book out loud where they can hear

BlackRabbit: No.

Laura: THE MONSTERS IN THE YMIR VALLEY OFFER AN EXCELLENT CHALLENGE

CrossbellPride: Yeah, last time Altina tried fighting alone in Ymir, Instructor Rean’s brain nearly exploded.

CantBeatFie: hurt/comfort opportunity y/n?

Laura: PLEASE REFRAIN FROM ATTEMPTING THIS UNTIL BETWEEN THE HOURS OF THREE AND FOUR PM NEXT TUESDAY>

CantBeatFie: this is y laura always loses at poker

PurpleWitch: Please don’t break Rean, everyone. Fie and Laura, I have given up hoping for punctuation, but is it in any way possible for you to share the capital letters out more equally between you? You’re both making my eyes hurt.

CantBeatFie: sOrRy EmMa

Laura: is this better/

Laura: //??

PurpleWitch: Stop randomly hitting the screen, Laura. Fie, just don’t.

CantBeatFie: lol

BlackRabbit: I don’t want anyone to get hurt. Including me.

CrossbellPride: Ignore them. You stay safe.

BloodandAsh: Yeah, leave some monsters for us. If we really have to go to the ass-end of nowhere, next week, gotta have some entertainment.

FluffybutDangerous: Don’t be rude about poor Instructor Rean’s home town, Ash. You’ll hurt his feelings.

CrossbellPride: Especially when his sister’s in the chat.

BloodandAsh: Did you just throw a fucking whisk at me?

PreciselyElise: Putting aside Ash’s manners, are you all in a lesson right now?

OnlyAdultintheRoom: Yes, they are. ARCUSes away now.

CrossbellPride: Sorry, Instructor. We have finished the assignment, though.

OnlyAdultintheRoom: But you have not yet asked for the extension work, have you? ARCUSes on my desk. Now.

*BloodandAsh, CrossbellPride, and FluffybutDangerous have left the chat*

CantBeatFie: towa is the tough teacher

CantBeatFie: i like it

PreciselyElise: Now things are calmed down, I hope you’re enjoying Ymir, Altina.

AMilliumCookies: She thinks it’s weird that everyone is being nice to her.

BlackRabbit: That was a PRIVATE conversation.

PreciselyElise: I would hope they are. If anyone makes you feel unwelcome, please let me know. I will deal with them.

CantBeatFie: elise is the scary schwarzer now

BlackRabbit: You are all exhausting.

BlackRabbit: Thank you, Elise.

BlackRabbit: Only Elise.

She leaves the chat then. It’s starting to get dark. She wonders what the stars look like from here.

Rean and Crow bring home enough fish to feed them for a week, and are promptly kicked out of the kitchen with a firm, “You catch it, you clean it.”

Altina can’t help thinking Class VII should have instigated this rule just as strongly from the very first moment Rean looked wistfully at a passing river.

Dinner is good and the conversation comes easier. Crow seems to be more at ease, but she’s watching him and she sees the tightness in his shoulders and the wariness in his eyes.

The next day it snows, a light dusting that sugarcoats the village. They all rush around to help the villagers check they’re ready for the change in the weather. Crow’s nose goes pink in the cold, which Rean seems to find hilarious. Teasing turns into them chasing each other round the square with brooms. Altina leaves them to it and retreats to the footbath. There’s something very calming about sitting here with her feet warm, watching the snow swirl down.

Rean has Crow in a headlock and they’re both laughing like hyenas.

“Boys,” Lady Schwarzer says fondly, settling down beside Altina. “Oh, I always forget how lovely this is on a cold day.”

Altina doubts this. Lady Schwarzer has lived in this environment for many years. Trying to compose a suitable response, all she can come up with is,”It’s…nice.”

“My son,” Lady Schwarzer observes, as Crow stuffs a handful of snow down Rean’s collar, “tends to forget that there is nothing he could do to make him unwelcome here. I’m very grateful to you both for coming with him.”

“But our presence wasn’t required?” Altina asks, because she can’t work out where this is going.

She gets a startled response. “That wasn’t—Altina, you are always welcome here!”

“I don’t understand.”

“I was trying to thank you for coming with him. He’s happy with you two here. And that’s not all we have to thank you for, is it? Both my children tell me more than they realise in their letters. You’ve been looking after him for a long time, haven’t you? I don’t think he would have come home from North Ambria without you, let alone anything which happened afterwards.”

“He looked after me too.”

“I’m sure he did, but that’s not going to stop me from being very grateful to you. As I keep having to remind my children, you are always welcome.”

“I kidnapped your daughter.”

Lady Schwarzer’s smile is both serene and terrifying. “Over the years, I’ve found that first impressions are always the ones that matter least.”

Altina definitely does not run away at that. It’s more of a tactical retreat.

By mid-afternoon, the snow has stopped and an inch of crunchy white powder lies over everything. The town springs into action, inspecting roofs and window seals and doormats.

“You can prepare as much as you like,” Rean explains to her, “but there’s always something you don’t catch until the first proper snow.”

It’s exciting, the bustle and energy of it, and she offers help where it seems like it’s needed, only to be politely refused. Eventually, she finds Crow where he’s mending a hole in the roof of the funicular station and floats up to join him, perched on Claoimh Solais.

“Hi.”

“Hi,” he says back, grinning at her. “Trying to scare the locals?”

“Claoimh Solais was not designed to intimidate.”

“Has that effect sometimes, though, doesn’t he?”

Altina sniffs. “Only if people are foolish enough to misunderstand. He is only a threat if I desire him to be so.”

“Yeah, that’s the intimidating bit.”

Altina decides to change the subject. “I did not know you were proficient in roof-mending.”

“You wander around by yourself for a while, you get good at picking up odd jobs.”

“Mending roofs, waiting tables, operating a Divine Knight.”

He grins at her. “You’ve got it.”

“This week, you have also fixed fences, delivered mail, swept the square, helped move three kegs of beer into the pub, assisted with stock taking in the local store and cleaned an excessive number of fish.”

“I’m a helpful guy, Altina. What can I say?”

“Rean is also very helpful. Why has he not helped you? Or is he unaware of the unusual number of chores you have completed?”

“Altina…”

She refrains from comment, but continues to watch him. Eventually he sighs and swings his leg round to sit more comfortably on the ridge of the roof. “Look, you remember what I said about them being nice to you?”

“They’re where Rean gets it from.”

“Well, it’s not the only thing he gets from them.”

Unless they are discussing homework, Rean does not tend to set excessive numbers of mundane tasks. Clearly, she has missed some vital information. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s the Elise thing,” Crow says with a shrug.

“I have yet to observe anyone trying to immolate you with their glare.”

“Not everyone has to take everything to extremes.”

“So, they are imposing extra work upon you because they too believe you are in a romantic relationship with Rean?”

“I don’t know how everyone keeps getting the wrong idea about this,” Crow grumbles. “Can a couple of guys not just be friends any more without someone making it weird?”

Altina tilts her head and gives him her best analytical stare. “You spent that last night at Mishelam with him. In his room. Whilst the majority of adults attending the event were engaging in romantic interaction.”

“We weren’t doing—I was technically dead at the time.”

“Did your undead status render you sexually impotent?”

He flails enough that he nearly falls off the roof. “What, no—you are too young to say things like that!”

“Fie is not that much older than me and she says much, much worse. You have not answered my question.”

“Yeah, no, not answering that one. Holy crap, Altina.”

It was worth a try, even though it hasn’t provoked him into enlightenment. She spends the next hour helping him, until Rean shows up, lugging an armload of freshly chopped wood. He looks up at them and asks, “What are you two up to?”

Crow doesn’t say anything, so Altina offers, “Essential repairs.”

Rean smiles up at them happily. His cheeks are pink from the cold and flecks of snow are melting into his hair. The effect is aesthetically pleasing, and were the Rean Effect still in full force, Altina might be emotionally compromised.

Crow is just staring at him.

Rean is staring back, his cheeks increasingly pink.

“I see Lady Schwarzer,” Altina says. “I think I shall go and say hello to her.”

Neither of them acknowledge her so she takes Claoimh Solais across the square and hops down in front of Rean’s mother, who is regarding them with a worried frown.

Altina assures her, “Contrary to appearances, they are not engaged in a romantic relationship.”

“They’re not?”

“If they are, they have yet to realise it.”

Lady Schwarzer covers her mouth with her hand. “Oh, Rean.”

Altina has never heard it said with so much fondness and exasperation.

She repeats solemnly, “Oh, Rean,” and Lady Schwarzer smiles at her.

“It looks like the snow is about to get heavy again. Why don’t we get out of the cold and leave these boys to it?”

Crow is running his hand through his hair, looking awkward, and Rean is talking at the side of the station. Altina sighs and asks hopefully, “May we have more hot chocolate?”

“Altina, my dear, you may have all the hot chocolate you like, especially if you fill me on of some of the many things my children are deliberately leaving out of their letters.”

That is a good deal. Hot chocolate in Ymir is particularly excellent and the cooperation of Rean’s mother may significantly aid Altina in winning the sweepstake.

Later, the snow does indeed grow heavier. Altina stands by the window and gazes out at it, whirling down through the darkness into the light cast from the gap in the curtains. Behind her adult voices blur together, their conversation warm with laughter and affection. She doesn’t need to be part of it, but it’s still a comfort to know that they’re all okay, that they somehow survived.

Rean appears at her shoulder, smiling at her. “It’s wonderful, isn’t it? Elise and I always used to love the first proper snowfall.”

“Maybe you should take Altina out to dance around in the snow,” Baron Teo calls teasingly.

Altina tilts her head at Rean. “Dance?”

Rean goes pink again. “We haven’t done that since we were tiny.”

“Right up to the year he left for Thors,” Baron Teo stage-whispers.

“Why would you dance in snow?” Altina asks. She has very little experience with winter weather, but does not see the appeal.

“Well, we’ve got to try this now,” Rean says.

They bundle up against the cold and scramble out onto the terrace. Altina’s learning to like the press of thickly knitted scarfs against her chin, the contrast of the rough warmth with the way the air coolly stings her cheeks, as if she’s flying alongside an airship instead of standing with her feet on the ground.

“Now, dance,” Rean urges, grinning at her.

She looks at him, unsure, and he thinks for a moment before holding his arms out, wrists crossed. “Take my hands and look up.”

She does as she’s told, and stares up at the sky full of dancing flakes, lit in streaks from the lights of Ymir. Then Rean starts to spin her, and she goes willingly, caught up in the whirl of the world, until it feels like everything is in motion and she’s somehow both still at the heart of it and yet still moving, never stopping. She’s smiling so widely her cheeks hurt by the time Rean staggers to a stop, laughing.

For a moment, dizziness engulfs her, but then Crow says, “My turn.”

Unlike Rean, Crow never forgets that she is tougher than she appears. He puts his full strength into the spin, fastest and wilder, and as her feet leave the ground, laughter gusts out of her and she has an idea.

“Down,” she demands and Crow slows to a halt, staggering a little as she finds her footing, feet crunching in the fresh snow. She pushes him towards Rean, and he goes, wobbly-legged and laughing. “With each other,” Altina instructs them and throws up her arm. “Claoimh Solais!”

And then she’s in the air, twisting round and round, up and down, a gyroscope in the snowy sky, laughter escaping her like air from a balloon.

“How can you do that without puking?” Crow yells up at her, but she just laughs.

Because this—she could do this forever—the lights of Ymir rising and spinning around her, the snow-dashed night the other half of the kaleidoscope—light, snow, the void of the night and the welcome of the warm houses all blurring together. She sees Rean pull Crow into a spin, both of them dizzy and stumbling.

It’s almost perfect, but Claoimh Solais eventually communicates a warning to her and sets her down gently. She tries to jump down as usual, but her feet slide in different directions, seemingly of their own volition.

Crow catches her. “Dizzy, bunny?”

He is not one to talk, as he and Rean are still propping each other up. Rean’s smiling, that strange unencumbered smile they’re all learning to recognise on his face. He asks, “Changed your mind about dancing?”

“We should teach this to the others when they get here,” she tells him.

Crow snorts. “Good luck getting Ash on board with that.”

“You’re underestimating the ingenuity of Class VII,” Rean says.

Altina tries walking again, but her feet still aren’t cooperating. Crow laughs and slings an arm around her shoulder, then pulls Rean in on the other side. “We can help each other inside.”

“Or maybe just trip each other up,” Rean retorts but they manage to stumble in somehow. The warmth inside is very satisfying.

Baron Teo is standing in the door of the lounge. He smiles at her. “Did you have fun?”

“I did,” Altina says and feels safe enough to smile back. “It was an excellent pastime.”

He chuckles, warm and gruff. “Give it a few more inches and we’ll get you snowboarding too.”

Crow punches the air. “Oh hell, yeah. Missed out on that last time. Gotta learn to beat Rean at his game.”

“In your dreams,” Rean tells him and everything descends into friendly argument until dinner is served.

It snows all night and throughout the next day. They go out briefly to check if everyone is okay, but then retreat into the manor. Lady Lucia recruits Rean to go into the attic and they unpack boxes of fleeces and heavy blankets to layer on the beds and couches. Altina spends the rest of the morning snuggled under a blanket dubiously reading one of Elise’s books. She’ll have to tackle Ash’s before he gets here, but for the moment she considers it acceptable to procrastinate.

Crow wanders in and claims the other end of the couch, eyeing her blanket speculatively.

“Get your own,” she tells him.

“Ah, Altina, did no one ever teach you to share?”

“No.”

Her waits for a while, before asking casually, “Hey, is that Dorothee’s latest? I’ve been meaning to read it.”

“No. I wouldn’t have thought that was your taste in literature.”

He shrugs. “Gotta support an old classmate.” His fingers are creeping towards the edge of her blanket. Altina very firmly tucks it under her feet and glares at him. He laughs and goes to get a blanket of his own.

Rean wanders in an hour later to add wood to the fire. “You two look cosy. What are you reading?”

“A book from your sister’s shelf. It appears to be a love story set in the Dark Ages.”

“I’m onto Volume Four of Love Song of the Summer Grass. Hey, do you think LeGuin would let me supervise the Literature Club? I could totally keep up with Tatiana.”

Rean rolls his eyes. “Maybe she would, if you were actually to sign that contract and become a member of staff.” Then he blinks. “Wait, isn’t that Dorothee’s—”

“Gotta share the love, Rean.”

Altina narrows her eyes. “You just implied you hadn’t read it.”

“Nah, I’m only on Volume Four. There’s about twenty in the series, last I checked.”

“She is a very prolific writer. Her subject matter may be dubious, but her devotion to her work is admirable.”

“Why is this my life?” Rean asks of the ceiling, but he goes to get a pile of marking and settles down at the table beside them.

That afternoon, as the light begins to fade, the Schwarzers get out a box of board games. Rean and Crow immediately set up the chess board.

“Do you play?” Baron Teo asks her.

“I can. It is valuable in developing tactical awareness, but I’m not as passionate as Kurt.”

He grins at her. “That’s about how I feel. I play but I’m not as mad about it as Rean and Lucia.”

Crow looks up at that, and Lady Lucia smiles at him over her knitting and offers, “I’ll play the winner.”

It’s exactly the smile Rean sports before unleashing Gale on a mob of monsters.

“Good luck, boys,” Baron Teo says. “Altina, how do you feel about jigsaw puzzles?”

“I have never attempted one.”

“Well, first time for everything. I’ve got a new one in the box I’ve been saving up for winter. Want to give it a go?”

The box sports a picture of Valflame Palace. Altina’s understanding is that their purpose is to reproduce the image. How hard can it be?

She is pleased to be proven wrong. The pieces are very alike, especially once they have separated out the edge pieces, and there is immense satisfaction in pressing one in the right space. After a while, Rean comes over to help, leaving Crow to his mother’s tender mercies.

“I should ask Rachel about getting some of these for the dorm,” he says, picking up a piece of doorframe that Altina has been trying to locate for a full five minutes and clicking it into place.

“We should,” Altina agrees and triumphantly beats him to the next bit of door.

They still haven’t finished it by dinnertime. Lady Schwarzer shakes her head and then murmurs, “Well, since it’s just family, we needn’t use the table,” and they toast crumpets over the fire and eat off trays on their laps.

Altina can’t help turning those words over in her mind, trying to make them fit.

Just family.

From the strange look on Crow’s face, he’s doing the same.

The next morning dawns bright, sunlight gleaming off the snow. Altina doesn’t quite want to walk on it and spoil the perfect surface, but Crow and Rean are determined to inspect the snowboarding course. After enduring Rean’s safety lecture on avoiding snow blindness and not falling into drifts, they head out. Remembering that she’s supposed to be leaving them alone together, Altina makes her excuses and heads across the square to look at the view.

“Good morning,” Luke the cable car operator calls to her.

“Good morning.”

He points at her cheerfully. “See. I knew I recognised you.”

“I apologise,” Altina says.

He doesn’t seem particularly worried. “No big deal, but you had me worried I was losing my knack.”

That wasn’t what she meant. “I didn’t think you would want to be reminded of me.”

“What? Wait—are you talking about the Civil War?”

Altina makes herself look at him directly. “I owe everyone in Ymir much recompense—”

“Hey, no—don’t. Aww, did Rean not have this conversation? No one here blames you for that.” He’s both upset and earnest, and Altina wonders if there’s something about Ymir that makes them all like this. Perhaps it can be blamed on the thin air and the lack of sufficient oxygen at a crucial stage in their development.

“I took Elise and helped the jaegars who hurt Baron Teo,” she reminds him.

“You were a kid,” he replies indignantly. “Baron Teo explained, but we could all see you were a kid. The ones who should be ashamed are the ones who sent you—big, fancy nobles like them using a kid to do their dirty work.”

“But—”

“Besides, we all do stupid things when we’re kids.”

“Some things are beyond just stupid. Some things get other people hurt.”

Luke shakes his head at her. “Hey, someone we both know decided to invent summer snowboarding when he was ten by nailing wheels to the bottom of the boards and challenging all the kids in town to a downhill race.”

“That is not at all the same thing.”

“Oh, I promise you it hurt a lot more than anything you did. Elise was in a sling for a month.”

Altina does not think that a deliberate act of war is in any way comparable to a badly-planned childhood sporting event. The fact that he can make such a comparison, however, is revealing. “Is this why no one here exhibits any need for retribution? Does that extend to Crow? He is not a bad person.”

“I mean, yeah, sure. Guy did some crazy shit—er, stuff—in the war, but Rean obviously thinks the world of him, which is a pretty safe recommendation. I mean, it’s cool. Wasn’t expecting him to bring a boyfriend home, but we could all see he had a crush the first time Class VII visited. It’s nice it worked out for them, despite everything.”

Altina sighs. She may not understand his logic, but she can correct his misconceptions and potentially recruit him to the cause.

She spends the rest of the day trying harder to speak to the rest of the people in Ymir. She offers more apologies which are rejected just as robustly, and eventually Lady Schwarzer catches up with her.

“Altina, is something wrong? People keep telling me that you’re upset today.”

“I am perfectly well.”

Lady Schwarzer just looks worried, so Altina says hurriedly, “I just remembered that I promised Millium I would take a picture of—” She glances around frantically for inspiration. “—the mountain railway!”

Lady Schwarzer’s voice is gentle but implacable. “Altina, if someone has upset you…”

“They have not. Everyone has been very nice.”

“You can always talk to me if something is worrying you.”

“Thank you, but I am not upset.” Altina can’t remember when exactly she learned to lie. It doesn’t come naturally, but right now her eyes are hot and her throat is tight. She has tended her classmates through numerous fits of irrational tears—from Juna’s weeping into a tennis net to Millium bawling snottily into a bowl of cookie dough which Jusis then refused flat out to let her bake—but she has not yet been victim herself. She is pretty certain that is about to change, so she summons Claoimh Solais, informs Lady Schwarzer tersely, “I have to look at the rail car now,” and runs away.

She gets two selge down the cable track before the tears spill over. She presses her face against Claoimh Solais’ smooth side and cries and cries until she’s not sure why she’s crying.

No, that’s a lie. She’s crying because they keep forgiving her when she hasn’t done anything to earn it, and because Lady Schwarzer said, “Just family,” and because she wants to believe it.

What if they change their mind?

They’ve accepted her so easily—what if they stop again, just as effortlessly?

She discovers she doesn’t like crying this much. It makes her eyes swell up and her nose feel stuffy and hurts her throat. But there’s also something about it which makes her feel lighter, somehow.

She isn’t expecting the noise of the rail car grinding down the track. It stops beside her, and Luke leans out looking anxious. “Are you okay? Did I upset you earlier? I didn’t mean to.”

“I’m fine,” Altina lies again.

“Get in. I’ll take you back up.”

She will get there faster on Claoimh Solais, who is always there for her, never changing and never confusing her with illogical emotions.

Messy feelings aren’t always a bad thing, though, so she thanks Luke and climbs aboard.

Inevitably, Rean is waiting for her in the cabin. She sees him take note of her swollen eyes and damp cheeks, but all he asks is, “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.”

“Okay.” He pats the seat beside him.

She sits down and takes the handkerchief he hands her, wiping her eyes and blowing her nose. “Where’s Crow?”

“He said he had something to do at the hotel.”

Of course he did. How has Rean not noticed yet?

“It occurs to be that I wasn’t being very fair to either of you in insisting you came with me.”

Of course he’s blaming himself. “We offered.”

The cabin is rumbling softly back uphill. “While thinking everyone here would hate you? I didn’t realise it was an offer to sacrifice yourselves.”

Altina shrugs. “He needed my help. You needed him.”

“And you,” Rean says, because he’s still an oblivious fool.

At the top, he quietly thanks Luke and nudges her towards the foot bath. She doesn’t argue, but settles down on the seat. It feels good, better than usual somehow, as if it’s balancing out all those tears she shed.

“Elise and I used to sit here and talk a lot when we were kids,” Rean says idly. He’s watching the people wandering about the square. Some of them glance their way and now Altina understands the looks they are giving her. They aren’t worried about her—they’re worried for her.

She isn’t sure how she supposed to feel about that.

“I used to think you and Elise were the strange ones, but everyone here is strange.”

“How so?” he asks.

“They’re too nice.”

“I think most people are, if you find a way to give them a chance.”

She shoots him an incredulous look.

“I know the curse has made things weird, but now it’s gone, most people are going to be okay.”

“Strange,” Altina emphasises, and doesn’t dodge fast enough to avoid the pat on her head.

He goes to look for Crow after a while, but Altina stays where she is. She feels pleasantly tired, not enough to sleep, but enough that she doesn’t want to do anything energetic. She’s finally interrupted by the village children. The young boy is shifting awkwardly from foot-to-foot, nudging the girl forward.

“Hi. You’re Altina, aren’t you? We were wondering if you would help us with—”

“Tell her about the snowman,” the boy hisses.

“You wish me to help you assemble a snowman?”

“You and your puppet!” the boy says.

“We saw you flying earlier,” the girl says, shushing him. “And we thought that—”

“You could help us make the biggest snowman ever!”

Altina hasn’t had much to do with children, beyond occasional chats with KeA and the kids in Leeves. “You wish Claoimh Solais and I to assist you in making a giant snowman? Why?”

“Because it’s fun,” the boy says, bouncing on his heels with excitement.

In the last few days, she has tried out both jigsaw puzzles and spinning in the snow. She is sure that snowboarding will come soon. She can try this too. “I would be glad to help, but you have to show me what to do. I have never built a snowman before.”

The girl nods briskly and says, “We can definitely teach you what to do.”

A while later, Crow and Rean go past, as Rean says earnestly, “Volunteering to clear out the bilge pump is taking it too far, Crow.”

“It was no big deal. Wow—that snowman’s the size of a Divine Knight.”

Rean turns and stares. “Er, Alf? Kiki? Altina?”

Alf beams at him. “Isn’t it the best?”

Crow high-fives him. “Best of the best.”

Rean chuckles. “Let’s hope Moritz isn’t too drunk when he stumbles home tonight, or he’ll scream the place down.”

“We still need to get a carrot for his nose,” Alf says.

“I think you need something bigger than an carrot,” Crow says.

“Maybe Dad has a marrow,” Alf says and dashes off towards the shop.

Rean eventually makes them all pose in front of it and takes a picture with his ARCUS. It takes him less than a minute to post the picture to the official group chat.

Thirty seconds after that, Millium messages her.

AMilliumCookies: He is such a proud dad!!

BlackRabbit: He is only six years my senior.

AMilliumCookies: And yet STILL YOUR DAD

BlackRabbit: If he’s my dad, Jusis must be yours. In which case, my dad is stronger than your dad.

AMilliumCookies: Aw, Tilly. You’re MEAN when you’re feeling things.

The trouble with emotions, even once they fade away, is that sometimes they leave your brain too busy to sleep. Altina lies awake deep into the night. Eventually she gets up and tackles Ash’s poetry books. Perhaps they will cure her insomnia.

They don’t help. Nor does staring at the snow.

She checks her ARCUS but no one else in Class VII seems to be up either.

Then she hears soft sounds from Rean’s room, and the opening and closing of his door. Musse will not forgive her if she misses something momentous so she creeps across the room and cracks her door open.

Rean is sitting on the landing, his back against Crow’s door and his face in his hands.

Oh. One of those nights.

Altina quietly goes to sit on the floor in front of him and whispers, “Bad dream?”

He looks up, eyes shadowed. “I just needed to check if his heart was still beating.”

“It is.”

“I know. I can hear it now.”

Staying here all night will not help him. Altina says, choosing her words carefully, “Would hot chocolate help you sleep?”

“If you want me to make you some, you could just ask.”

“I hear it is very good for insomnia.”

He gets up and offers her his hand. “Let’s go and make some then.”

They head downstairs through the quiet house. In the kitchen, Rean looks around, a little uncertainly. “I haven’t made this in years. I wonder where she keeps the cocoa.”

“I believe it is in that cupboard. Can I assist?”

“Can you get some milk warming?”

Altina has just selected a saucepan and Rean is still searching the cupboards when the door creaks open, and Lady Schwarzer says, sounding amused, “Who’s raiding my cupboards for midnight snacks?”

“Hi, Mom,” Rean says and grins at her cheekily. “I can’t find the cocoa.”

She swats him on the arm. “Stop messing up my kitchen and let me do it. Oh, Altina, we need the milk saucepan, not that one.”

“You are the best mother,” Rean tells her.

“I’d believe that more readily if two of my children weren’t up at three am with circles under their eyes.”

Altina doesn’t think she makes a noise, but suddenly they’re both looking at her.

Lady Schwarzer moves the milk pan off the hob and comes over to her, crouching slightly. Her voice is very gentle. “Altina, Rean is far too young to legally adopt anyone, but it’s clear you are family to him, so you are family to us. Didn’t you realise?”

“Mom, don’t overwhelm her—”

Baron Teo wanders into the kitchen. “So this is where my family all went? Oh, did I just walk into the middle of something?”

“Tell Altina she’s family, darling.”

He blinks at them. “Of course she is. Always wanted another daughter, especially one who can build a damn good snowman.”

Altina doesn’t want to cry again, but that wet burning is troubling her eyes.

And under the tears, she’s angry. All she manages to get out past her tight throat is, “Crow’s not here.”

“He should be,” Rean says, glancing up as if he can ascertain if Crow is okay through layers of floor and wall.

Rean’s parents exchange doubtful looks.

The rage dries up her potential tears. How can they see her and yet be taken in by Crow’s shrugs and jokes and lazy smiles? “He died to save Rean and he cared for him when he was mad in the Black Workshop and he fought with us even though he was going to die again. Rean wakes up scared at night in case he’s died without any of us knowing. And I don’t understand why you’re being kind to me and not being kind to him. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Altina,” Lady Schwarzer says, reaching out for her, but Rean’s voice cuts over them, fierce and righteous.

“Who’s not being kind to Crow?”

Baron Teo looks sheepish. “It was just a bit of teasing.”

Lady Schwarzer’s disappointed tone cuts even deeper than Rean’s does. “Teo Schwarzer.”

“He shot Giliath,” Baron Teo appeals to her. “He broke Rean’s heart. I just suggested he do a few chores.”

Altina says, “At my most recent count, you had assigned him seventeen tasks since our arrival in Ymir.”

“Is that why he was clearing the bilge pump?” Rean demands, and only a few months ago that much indignation would have turned his eyes to fire. “Dad, he’s terrified he’ll let us all down. He’s not going to say no.”

Baron Teo’s shoulders slump. “Ah, hell.”

“He’s family too,” Altina continues stubbornly. If the Schwarzers changes his mind about her, it doesn’t matter, no matter how much her throat hurts. She’s used to just having Class VII. “And he had family once and they died. He needs a new one too.”

Baron Teo draws himself up and nods firmly. “Right. Rean, you and I need to wake that young man of yours up. I owe him an apology. Altina.”

She braces herself. “Yes?”

“Good girl.” Then, to her bewilderment, he pats her on the head and strides out of the room, Rean on his heels.

Altina looks at Lady Schwarzer, who shakes her head fondly. “I spent two decades trying to cure him of that and all I managed was to fail so abysmally he passed it on to our son.”

She still doesn’t understand what’s happening and it must show, because Lady Schwarzer says gently, “I understand now why Rean is so proud of you.”

“Because I told Baron Teo off?”

“Because families look after one another, and sometimes that can mean yelling at each other. And I think you should call him Uncle Teo now, and me Auntie.”

“I obviously still have much to learn about families,” Altina observes. She doesn’t understand what’s happening or why it makes her want to cry.

Lady Sch—Auntie Lucia smiles at her. “Well, the first lesson is that since it’s now obvious that all of our boys like to mire themselves in guilt, we should try to take the edge off. There are cookies in a tin in that cupboard.”

“The first lesson is cookies?”

“You already know the more important things. The rest is just fine detail.”

Later, when they’ve feasted on hot chocolate and cookies, Crow sits down next to her. Rean is dozing off again on the couch opposite and Uncle Teo has already gone, snoring softly where his head is tilted back in his chair. Aunt Lucia is busy in the kitchen.

“I hear you had my back.”

“I only did it for the cookies,” Altina tells him.

“Sure you did.” And, to her indignation, he too pats her on the head.

Then he steals one of her cookies and she pretends not to notice.

Everything’s good.