Sword and Snow

Emery

As far as I was concerned, things were going incredibly well. It had been a little over a week since we had taken Stena into the city for her birthday, and there hadn't really been anything notable in the days that followed. Or at least notable in the way of being bad, anyway.

Four days after Stena's birthday, Vale took off for a trip again, leaving just Avuri and I with the kids. With the two of us now solidly outnumbered, we really needed to buckle down and focus on parenting them for the time being. The Basin itself was in good shape, and while there were certainly chores to be done constantly, they rarely amounted to anything more than a few hours each day.

The real work was two people managing six kids. Briar and Karn were still young enough that they needed fairly direct attention, and the older kids were a mix of hands-off and dedicated watching. Especially Cierra, who was nearing the age where she'd probably start being a bit more of a knowing troublemaker.

Thankfully, it didn't seem to me like she was getting anywhere near as bad as I remembered Demi and Rylie being at her age. Avuri was still generally concerned that we were still just on the cusp of Cierra becoming a troublemaker because her experience had mostly been with her own family.

We talked about it a lot after Vale left. He had helped us both look at ourselves and process things in the time he was there, but without him we started talking to each other more. Every day, we took an hour or so to cut off our connection the best we could and just talk about things without sharing emotions. It was something we had always tried to do regularly, but after making specific times to talk to Vale, we were better about doing it with each other.

Avuri had processed a lot of her emotions regarding the whole situation in Resin, and Vale had helped her dig into it, tracing a lot of it back to her awful family. She had already shared a lot of stories and anecdotes with me over the years about her childhood, but she had kept a lot of it held back. She had very specific stories from growing up among her extended family and some of them were as twisted as my childhood had been, just in a very different way.

She was still convinced that Cierra was going to cause trouble because kids her age in her family almost always did. The thought was ingrained in her in a way that was difficult for her to work past because of how it had been so reinforced with experience. But I still did my best to work with her to see that a lot of the issues her family had were due to their upbringing. Any kid that was forced to go through such strict upbringing was going to act out eventually.

Of course, it was after their acting out around that age that her family then turned around and isolated them in an attempt to break them. There wasn't a day that went by that I wasn't grateful that Avuri had somehow managed to emerge from that hellhole intact.

Still, while I was quite sure that Cierra wouldn't be the hellion that Avuri seemed to expect, that didn't mean that she wasn't becoming a bit of a troublemaker. She just wasn't explicitly disobeying us or doing bad things. Instead, she seemed to be developing a habit of causing a little chaos for fun.

Somehow, she had developed a taste for pranks. Relatively harmless ones, thankfully, but Avuri and I found ourselves yelling for Cierra often enough that it had become a normal occurrence. And I had to hand it to the girl - she was creative.

Avuri was cooking dinner, and the rest of us were at the dinner table. I was watching all six kids so Ri could get the work done. Things were going well; I had gotten out the paints and some thicker papers so the kids could have fun, and they were doing exactly that. I didn't even mind if they got themselves covered in the paint this time because we had gotten some that were designed to come off easily with a bit of water and Qi, but still stuck pretty well to paper.

The kids were chatting and doing their own things when a yelp and the sound of sudden and explosive flowing water came from the kitchen. I could tell pretty immediately that Avuri wasn't in danger, but she slowly walked out from the kitchen completely drenched. Her light robe clung to her skin and her hair drooped and hung in her face. Even the way she stood was a little comical, with her arms held up limply, dripping water.

"Cierra."

All of the kids except Cierra had stopped drawing when Avuri had yelped in the first place, but Cierra finally put her brush down and turned to her mother.

"Momri? Why are you so wet? Can't you just dry yourself off?" She asked innocently.

I stifled a laugh as I felt Avuri take a deep breath to calm the bit of anger that had risen. I could also tell that aside from the annoyance, she had found the trap at least mildly amusing, too. She pinned Cierra with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Who taught you how to play with Arrays, hm?"

"Um. Aunt Talya did." Cierra said. "When she watched us, sometimes she showed us how they worked."

"Did she teach you how to change them too?"

Cierra shook her head proudly. "Nope, I figured that out myself!"

"What did she do?" I finally asked, and Avuri pointed over her shoulder with a thumb.

"Go take a look. Because I have to admit, she got me. She got me good."

Cierra giggled at that until Avuri once again trapped her under a stare. "Oh, don't you giggle at me, Cici. I'm going to get you back for this." Avuri's words came out sounding pretty harsh, but we had decided after the first two pranks to sit Cierra down and talk to her about pulling anything dangerous. She seemed to understand that anything potentially dangerous would get her in big trouble, especially if anyone ever got hurt. But smaller ones like this would get retribution in kind.

Stolen story; please report.

It was one way that we felt would let her get her almost-pre-teen need to cause trouble out without her getting severely punished. And so far, it was working.

I followed the track of water on the ground to the water Array we used in the kitchen for drinking water and washing dishes. Typically, an Array was built up of various engravings or other conduit to track Qi in such a way to produce a specific effect when Qi was run through it. The patterns were very precisely designed for specific effects, and they could generally be scaled up in size as well, for purposes like our Basin's environmental one to keep us comfortable.

However, smaller Arrays like the water one were often simply grooves dug into a material that could guide Qi. And the only thing Cierra had done to it was extend a bit of one groove - but it was the part of the Array that designated the output. Cierra had, in essence, simply turned an Array that produced a fairly small jet of water into one that sprayed like a large hose.

It wasn't a noticeable change at a glance, which was why Avuri had missed it entirely until she had been completely drenched. But Cierra had honestly done solid work in her little prank. The extension on the groove looked well made, almost like it had belonged there all along. And that she had been able to read the Array at all was a feat for a nine year old. They were confusing at the best of times, unless you were actively trained in how they worked.

Avuri tracked her way back into the kitchen behind me, seemingly done with chewing out Cierra for the moment. It sounded like the kids were back to drawing and painting already. Avuri had a small smile on her face, looking past me at the Array.

"I'm not even sure I can really be mad. She did a great job with that."

"I almost wish we could show Talya," I chuckled. "And then, of course, immediately blame her for the trouble."

"You miss her?"

I snorted. "Of course I do. She's my sister. But I'm sure she's busy doing whatever it is she wants to."

"I hope she's doing well." Avuri said.

"I'm sure she is. Vale will check on her, too, wherever she is. And it's not unusual to simply not hear from my family for months - or years - at a time. Everyone is very…mobile."

"I suppose that's one word for it." Avuri said.

I stood up straight, still looking at the Array. "So…how do you think we should fix this?"

"We have some putty somewhere, don't we?"

"There might still be some out by the barn from when we patched up the fence? I'll go take a look later."

"I guess we'll just need to guide our Qi carefully for a bit." Avuri said. "Now, can you be a dear and guide our kids to put their current drawings away? I don't want to ruin them when I walk out there and drown Cici."

"Yes, dear." I snickered, gave Avuri a quick hug and kiss, and walked out to do exactly that. It wasn't hard, as most of the kids had a mostly completed picture, so when I suggested taking them to put them somewhere out of reach so they could dry safely, everyone agreed pretty quickly. Karn, Stena, and Briar took an extra minute to put finishing touches on their pictures, and then I placed them up on top of the cabinet for all of our dishware. All the while, I could hear Avuri trying to cook in the kitchen, and the occasional sound of a wild water spout that couldn't decide on how powerful it should be.

Then I sent Avuri the all clear through our connection.

I returned to the table to keep the kids busy for a short bit, asking what they'd like to do next. The overwhelming answer was more painting, which really wasn't a surprise, but I did my best to keep them under control while the sounds from the kitchen gradually and naturally tapered off. Keeping six kids' attention squarely on me was a tough request, but I managed to hold out until I saw Avuri sneak from the kitchen, with a devious grin on her face.

All at once, she coalesced a huge mass of water above the table. Seeing that, I quickly leaned over the table to spirit away the paints still on the table. Avuri could dry something off by pulling the excess from something, but she couldn't fix things like running ink or ruined paints.

On the plus side, putting the paints away had the kids' attention locked squarely on me while they complained about wanting to keep going.

As soon as the last palette was away, Avuri cackled like a witch. Every head at the table spun around to face her as she dropped the giant mass of water onto the table, the kids, and me. The amount was impressive, drenching the entire room in an instant.

"Gotcha." Avuri winked at Cierra, who was standing in front of her chair blinking, stunned. She had no doubt been prepared for retaliation, but I doubted she had expected Avuri to go this far.

"Momri! Why did you get all of us?" Stena demanded. I also noticed Briar was about to cry, and moved toward her to comfort her. But I wasn't sure there was a need for that, because I could still feel Avuri's Domain around us all.

"You know? You're right. I shouldn't have." She grinned wide, and with a flourish drew the water back from everyone's clothes and hair, leaving everyone as dry as they had been before the attack. Except for Cierra.

"Pretty cool, right?" I said, leaning down by Briar, who now seemed more confused than upset. Kord, Enrik, and Karn looked up in awe as Avuri took all of the water she picked up from their bodies, the table, and the floor, drawing it into a big ring of flowing water near the ceiling.

"Momri…" Cierra stared at the mass of water and took a step back, sensing where this was going.

"Yes, love?"

"You already got me. I'm already soaked."

"If you're going to pull pranks, you should be prepared for retribution, dear." Avuri said sweetly. She looked far too happy to be threatening Cierra with an absurd amount of water. "We did warn you that pulling pranks would get you harmless punishment."

"I know but -"

Cierra was mid-sentence when the ring of water broke, a huge cylinder flowing above and over Cierra. If she hadn't already been drenched before, there was no doubt that she would be water logged now. Avuri didn't even let go of the water, carefully making sure that the excess amount of it hovered in the air, rather than soaking the wooden floor or furniture.

"Now, then," Avuri declared, as she directed the mass of water outside where it could splash on the ground, "you can dry off the normal way. But do it quickly so you don't get sick, alright?"

Avuri walked over to Cierra to give her a hug. The water hadn't been cold, so it was unlikely to cause any real issues. Cierra even tried to get a small revenge by squeezing her mother tightly during the hug, but Avuri came away still entirely dry.

She took Cierra by the shoulders and turned her around toward the stairs. "Now, go get cleaned up, alright. Then you can come back and draw some more."

I took that opportunity to replace the paints on the table with a smile, which helped settle everyone else down.

"Right. Who needs more paper?"