They were sitting on the ground floor outside the deck area lounging around. Mia wasn’t staring at the pair of them, she was glaring instead. They were talking so loudly that even the security guard back at the entrance to the estate would have heard them. Walking up to them and ignoring the fact that they had been shouting her name and talking loudly about her in front of her face she smiled and lifted her backpack over one shoulder.

‘Hiya Mia’ her little sister waved with a smile on her face. ‘What’s up?’.

She put a happy look on my face just to show her earlier words did not affect her in the slightest.

‘Hiya Fiona, hiya Charlotte. I’m great thanks.’

Her little sister's friend whispered, ‘She knows my name!’

Fiona whispered back ‘Of course she does. You’re my friend!’

‘You girls all good?’ Mia asked.

‘Um, yeah, all good.’ Said Charlotte’

‘Yup, all good.’ Said Fiona.

‘Great! Do you know if Dad or Mum is at home right now?’

While she doubted that her little expression of speech in school had been important enough to be recognized by my parents it was more likely that the school nurse would have contacted my Dad about the minor injury. She felt tucked away in her school uniform jacket pocket the small device handed over to her by the school priest. The surface felt smooth to the touch with small ridges that her fingers lightly ran over.

What had all of that been about?

‘Dad is upstairs. He said he’ll be down later to prepare dinner. Mum was going to use her amazing baking skills for dessert. Steamed custard buns.’

‘Your Mum is so talented!’ said Charlotte.

‘I know right!’ replied Fiona.

‘Um, would your parents mind if I stay over for dinner? I can always check with my parents.’ Asked Charlotte in a strange voice.

I stood there listening to the two girls talk about their dinner plans. Charlotte would be staying over for our evening meal then I guess, we always made plenty of food.

‘What about your evening prayers?’ Mia asked Charlotte directly.

‘Wouldn’t your parents prefer you to pray to your shrine at home with them?’.

‘My Mum wouldn’t mind so much as long as I make my prayers. Hey, which god do you usually pray to?’

You just had to say it.

little sister interrupted with an excited voice.

‘Oh wow, there are so many ones to pray to right now. With the demi-god Olympics coming up everyone is getting excited. Did you see the latest video where they’re showing off how good they all are? My parents aren’t into it that much because they’re old, but it looks too exciting!’

‘Hortius. We have a shrine to Hortius on the roof. Yay, Hortius. Thanks for the sunshine.’

My little sister just looked annoyed at my lack of enthusiasm.

‘Hey! I was talking to my friend!’

‘Yeah, yeah. I’m sorry lil’ sis.’

‘Don’t call me lil’ sis! I’ll be ten soon. I’m catching up you old sis.’

I just stuck my tongue out at her.

‘Sorry Charlotte, sometimes sisters argue. Fiona, you were talking about the latest god trends with your friend. I’m going to head up to my room and chill out for a while.’

‘Um, Mia. Dad was in a meeting with someone upstairs. He didn’t want to be bothered until he finished.’

‘What about Mum?’

‘I think she’s in her workshop…I didn’t check yet.’

‘Thanks for telling me. Bye Charlotte! See you both at mealtime!’.

‘Bye Mia!’ her face reddened.

‘Bye!’ said Fiona.

Mia walked past them to the stairs behind our living room. As she was just going to start walking up, the sound of loud whispering behind her. Pausing for a second and keeping her movements quiet, she stopped to listen to the two girls who were busily chatting away still on the ground floor. I stepped to the side so they wouldn’t see me and kept quiet.

‘I told you she was getting older. The older you get the more boring you get. Why is your face turning red? She just knows your name and that you’re my friend.’

‘Um, I’m sorry. It’s embarrassing that she knows my name. Your big sister is so cool! Does she know how beautiful she is?’

‘Forget about it, so the most popular demi-god right now is Stratos. He’s got these great blue wings and is nice to birds as well.’

‘Um, what power did the god give him?’

‘It was the power of-‘

With that Mia felt that she’d had enough of listening and began walking up the stairs, taking care with her movements so that the two girls wouldn’t have heard her.

She had stopped listening to them at that point. Her sister used GodSpeak all the time and had her followers. Not something that she was interested in personally. When you had to pray to these great beings that lived in the heavens that didn’t translate to shock and awe.

Walking up the stairs she went up to the first floor first. If her Mum was in her personal workshop right now, then no way was Mia going to bother her. The last time she walked in without letting her know her Mum had been working on one of her commissioned pieces of jewellery. Mia had caused her to scratch a tiny part of it on the side, just by opening the door and saying hello.

The thing was she had a really bad temper, if her work wasn’t completely perfect then she would scrap the whole thing and start over again. She never shouted at her older daughter but instead, she would just channel all that anger into this incredible focus. That meant that she would be starting all over again and they just wouldn’t see her until she had finished.

Her Dad had sat down with Mia and explained how dedicated her Mum was to her craft and that as an artist she had a unique kind of personality. He told her that we should just support her Mum when they could and let her work on her jewellery creation in peace. Artists were sometimes temperamental at heart, all that creativity had to come from somewhere. Mia was secretly glad her Mum wasn’t an author.

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How bad would that have been? All those words and books? Worse, so much worse if she made a mistake.

Entire chapters would have to be rewritten...total nightmare.

She saw that her Mum's workspace door was open. That meant that she wasn’t at home at the moment. She could be outside shopping, seeing friends, or even gardening on the roof. It was a little early for our evening prayer at the shrine on our roof garden. Yay, Hortius. All praise to the growth that it provides the avocado crops.

You won’t mind that I don’t believe in you as a divine being, will you?

No rainstorm started so either it didn’t hear her, or the god didn’t exist.

Mia’s Dad's office door was closed. That was pretty unusual considering that when he was at home, he was happy for anyone to go into his office and have a chat. Mia thought it was because he worked away sometimes that he wanted to be closer to his family.

She didn’t think she’d ever seen his office door closed at home. Even if he was busy working, he would just give everyone a wave and smile and apologize for working late. Other times he would be playing some music and invite Mia, her Mum and sister, to come and listen to the latest popular song that he enjoyed. That was mainly for Mia though as they shared the same eclectic taste. Anything that he liked he called good music.

I’m going to knock on his door. If he’s busy, then fine. Best to talk with him about what happened in the classroom earlier, so he doesn’t worry.

Mia walked right up to his office door and right before she knocked on the door, she heard two voices within that were gradually being raised in volume. Close to shouting but not quite, that…that wasn’t usual. Arguments were a rare thing in her family life.

‘I told you to leave it alone!’ came my Dad’s voice. It was raised.

That’s unusual. He’s normally so chilled out at home.

‘Brother, I’m here to help. Just give me a chance to talk to him-‘.

‘NO! I don’t need your involvement or that of your patron god. Just leave my family at peace. We have our plans in place. My contact at the government has told me that they have space for all of us as long as we make a decision soon. ’

‘Danny, you need to listen to me. This isn’t going to go away. I’ve already decided with her school’s religious authority. The government? A joke you mean. I know the priest in her school, he’s been applying for the moon darkness ceremony an-’

‘YOU! Why are you getting involved with her affairs? You’re her guardian. Her uncle. Not. Her father.’

‘Look, I can respect that you’re her Dad and all, but you know it’s going to run in the family-.’

‘An Uncle can be respected but you will not get involved in my daughter’s school affairs! I will protect my family with your god getting involved. I don’t want to hear any more about it.’

‘What’s that noise outside?’ came the smooth-sounding voice of Mia’s Uncle.

Guess he heard me.

‘I’m telling you that we don’t need your help. Alison especially doesn’t want your involvement. You know how she feels about the bringer of night. About what he did.’

‘Danny. Hold on for a moment. Someone is outside the room.’

‘Oh? Is that one of the powers that your god bestowed on you? I thought your powers only came at night or under the light of the moon.’

‘Just. Just wait. Let me go and check.’

With that, the door opened up and a man dressed in a smart black suit opened the door. He looked to be in his late thirties but in decent shape, strong, and handsome but cold looking. He had black hair with a streak of white in it. Still, he smiled at her before holding his arms out and clapping her shoulders in greeting. Her Uncle Felix. Mia thought he did fashionable, she granted him that. Despite his older age. Her Dad’s younger brother. High priest of whatever fake deity he followed.

‘Mia! How’s my talented niece doing? Wow, look at you! Look at your size of you! You’re becoming a beautiful young woman, ready to take on the world.’

‘Yeah, hi Uncle Felix. I’m doing great thanks.’

His eyes at once dropped towards my arm.

‘Sorted everything out? No stiffness there?’

She put my hand on my arm and shook it lightly to show that it felt perfectly fine.

‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’ Mia said with a smile.

Then her Dad interrupted her with a worried tone.

‘Mia?’

‘Hi, Dad.’

‘Mia? How are you feeling? Do you need to go and rest?’

‘I’m fine Dad. Is Uncle Felix staying for dinner?’

‘We’re just talking about something briefly. Mia, you do know that I’m here to listen if you need to talk about anything.’

Ugh. Nope. Seriously? Please...

‘Dad, just…don’t try and be that kind of parent. Please.’

Boundaries and you’re getting older now and I’m just a boring old man?’

‘No, it’s just…sometimes I need to work stuff out by myself. I appreciate the support but…I’ll talk to you in a bit OK. My day has been sort of busy and I just want to chill by myself in my room for a while. Just take some time to process things.’

Her Uncle appeared deeply interested in their conversation. He was standing there with both arms folded on his smart-looking suit with a composed look on his face.

‘Mia. You should have a small item in your possession. Like a cube. I’d break it. Then grind it into dust. Your Dad cares about you. Sometimes everyone has a difficult day, but you need to fight past it. That’s why my god oversees the night. After the night, another fresh day is ready to start.’

‘Uncle Felix, I don’t need to hear about more gods right now.’

‘Hey, my mistake. Sorry kid. The Nightbringer is a bit overwhelming sometimes. I forget my blessings.’

‘I don’t know anything about that…deity. Like, seriously. Can I go now?’

‘Felix, can you have a word with me? In private?’

Mia knew her Dad had that look on his face. The sort that made him change from a calm man into someone who was taking a matter with utter seriousness. Her Uncle smiled at me and waved goodbye with one hand while using the other to guide my Dad back into his home office.

‘See you later Mia. We can have a chat if you like, and I promise less of the god crap.’

‘Felix!’ my Dad exclaimed with an even stronger look on his face.

‘What?’ my Uncle shrugged his shoulders and let his hands drop to his sides. ‘You know that she’s heard worse in school. She’s fifteen years old. Don’t you remember what we were like at that age Danny?’

‘Just…enough. Mia, you’re welcome to drop by if you have any new music for me to listen to. We don’t have to talk about your day, just listen to some songs.’

My Dad then released a breath he had been holding and sighed deeply. He looked older for a moment like he had a burden placed on him that

‘Definitely. I got a new artist that you’ll like to listen to, Jaja Swag. I’m heading off this time to get some space. Bye, Uncle Felix! Bye, Dad!’

Mia started walking off as her Dad grabbed his younger brother by the arm and pulled him into his office space.

Wow. What’s with the physical attention? Where’s the brotherly love? Not strange at all..

Mia decided to ignore them and began walking up the stairs to my room. Her parents had been kind enough to let me create my chill-out space, she had a minimal bedroom. A few posters, a bulletin board, a desk and computer and her electronic book reader.

She had loved reading books ever since she was a kid but didn’t want the clutter, it was far easier just to store them all in one device and just love the feeling of a tidy space. It might be a trait that Mia had picked up from either her Mum or Dad, their workspaces weren’t messy but pretty free of any clutter. Thank non-existent gods that neither of them was a neat freak. Mia did feel that her little sister was the messier one, just a little bit though. She had walked up past my sister’s floor and her so-called fashion show area that she had made to show off her latest demi-god trend.

Not involved. Not interested in her stupid god crushes.

It was at times like this that she needed her own space. Fiona and Charlotte would both be on the ground floor, lounging around and eating snacks. It would be better for her to avoid them before they decided to head upstairs and play games or keep chatting and then want her to get involved.

The curse of being an older sister was that her little sister always wanted to be older and emulate her. Trying on her clothes, looking through her stuff and generally being a bit annoying. One time she caught her trying on Mia's makeup right in her bedroom, rather than shout at her she did something even worse.