“You’re sure that we’re fine?” I asked worriedly again.

“Yes. I’ve done this many times,” Krift said.

Glancing behind me, at the man sitting calmly, I groaned.

Why was he so…? Well…

So him.

The boat hit another one. I looked forward, holding firmly onto the pack I clung to.

Rocking wildly, I groaned as the boat lurched. It started to turn, thanks to the flower.

“I don’t like this, Krift,” I groaned. The world turned as the boat rotated.

“You’ve said so, I heard you,” he said.

Something hard scrapped up against the side of the boat, and I listened as the boat continued to get pushed by the river. Even though the large flower was stopping us.

Or at least trying to.

The flower was large, but not big enough to completely stop the boat.

Luckily the river wasn’t too fast. Even though the boat was being forced up against the unmoving flower… it wasn’t really going to capsize from it.

It just felt like it.

With a firm grip on the pack, I bent upward and peered over the edge of the boat.

Sure enough the large black and white flower was the thing the boat was rubbing up against.

Floating on the surface of the river, the flower petals alternated between solid black and solid white. The thing was, in all honesty, beautiful. The thing was massive, big enough that I doubted I could pick it up even if I could.

But I couldn’t… since the darn thing, like the other four we’d run into so far, seemed made of solid stone. At least it’s what they sounded like they were made of, based off the scraping sound they made while rubbing against the boat.

Plus they didn’t move at all. They made us, the boat, move when we hit them.

Enough of the boat had turned, that the current was able to push it farther around the unmovable flower.

Watching the petals that the boat scraped against, as it rounded the flower, I wondered how they didn’t break.

They moved a little, when the boat rubbed up against them… but it was the wood that looked scraped and damaged, not them.

Returning to the safety of the center of the boat, I sat back down next to the pack as the boat rocked wildly. Dislodging itself from up against the flower.

Then we returned to floating downstream.

This time though, the boat had turned completely around. I was now able to watch the flower we had just run into, fade away behind us.

Turning around, I stared at the man smiling at me. We were closer now, thanks to my falling over the pack when the boat had hit the first flower.

I had actually tumbled over the pack, and luckily Krift had caught me before I had fell face first into the side of the boat.

“It’s really not that bad, you know? You grew up on a river didn’t you? Did you really never swim in it, or ride a canoe?” he asked.

“I did. And I have. But I’ve never let anything just drift right up into a rock, like we’re doing,” I said.

“Well then you don’t know how to have fun,” Krift said, enjoying himself.

Rather, he was enjoying my reaction. His eyes stayed on me, even as we thumped up against another flower.

Grabbing the pack again, I flinched as the boat rocked away from the flower. Luckily this time we had hit it at an angle, and weren’t going to have to get pushed around it.

“How are they so hard?” I complained.

“They’re actually brittle, when dry. They’re only so resilient while wet,” Krift said.

Sitting up against the pack, I kept a firm hold on it as I glared at him. There was no point sitting up anymore, to try and watch where we were going.

There were hundreds of these flowers floating on the top of the river, after all.

Knowing my luck we’d ram each one.

“It’ll only be like this for about an hour. Then we’ll enter a lake, and you’ll no longer yell at me,” he said.

“Maybe I’ll just find something else to yell about… I’m sure I could think of something,” I said.

Krift smiled, and I had to look away.

The boat bumped into another flower, and some of the water splashed into the boat. It splashed Krift’s arm and shoulder. He ignored it.

“Can you swim, Krift?” I asked.

“Yes. I can even swim where others can’t,” he said.

“Not sure what that means, but ok.”

“Can’t you?” he asked.

“Yes. Swimming in the river during the summer was… common. Though I once swam too far, and was dragged down the river,” I said.

“Oh?”

I nodded, remembering my mother yell at me once I got back.

Not because I had almost drowned… but because my hat had also drifted away. Exposing my horns.

“It drifted me so far, it was night by the time I got back home,” I said.

“Did you ever figure out how to sink?” he then asked.

“Sink…?”

He smiled. “We’re buoyant. Our kind. It’s difficult for us to sink. Takes a certain method,” he said.

“What…? What do you mean?”

“That’s a no, then. Might be why you survived being carried along your river. What I mean is us powers have a notorious difficulty in drowning. Even those who can’t swim don’t need to worry… which is why I’m so amused by you. I’ve never seen a power panic over falling into water,” Krift said.

Glaring at him, I tried to understand. “We can’t drown?” I asked while trying to… think of the times I’ve swam.

I’d swum many times in my life. Especially when younger… but… well…

Now that I thought about it, I did seem to find it easy at the time. Father and the others had worried for my safety when I had been carried down the river, but mother hadn’t been. She had only been worried I’d allowed my horns to be seen.

“We can. It’s just very, very hard. The only way we can actually submerge completely is if we release all the air inside of us. You’ve never noticed?” he asked again.

“No. Not that I can think of. And I swam a lot, in the river… It rounded our property along our farm,” I said.

“Hm. Well, you can test it out later. Once you’re out of the Rift. No point endangering yourself foolishly, after all,” he said.

“Why would we float?” I asked, wondering how it worked.

“Who knows? We just don’t sink easily. It’s sometimes annoying, actually. I spent some time on a dock when younger, and having to reclaim things that fell into the water was a pain. What’s odd is that we’re heavier than humans, on average. But that might just be because we’re a tad taller than they usually…”

“Except me. Maybe I can sink easy, then,” I said.

“Possibly. We’re about to hit another flower, by the way.”

I flinched as the boat jolted. As the boat rocked a little wildly, I felt the boat continue to float without resistance.

We had bounced off a flower, hard enough to not get stuck on it.

“Ah. Look at that,” Krift then said, noticing something.

Still sitting down, and holding tightly onto the pack, I was only able to watch as Krift shifted to the edge of the boat.

Worried a little, Krift reached over the edge of the boat. To grab something from the river.

I understood what was wrong, once I saw the black and white petals.

He had plucked a very small flower from the river.

Krift shook the flower, surprisingly violently, and I realized why as water danced off it. Splashing even me.

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“Here,” he said, offering it to me as he sat back down.

Taking it, I smiled.

“Thank you,” I said. I hadn’t even thought of trying to pick one up. Most had looked far too large… and the idea of something hard enough to not get damaged by this floating boat, made the idea of them being light enough to pick up impossible.

The flower was far smaller than any other I had seen so far. It fit in the palm of my hand, and… was surprisingly light.

And indeed looked like a typical flower. It had tiny little vines on its bottom. But nothing else.

I had suspected it, since the water was so clear that I could see everything… but the flowers really weren’t connected to anything. They were just… floating on the surface.

And it was hard. It had dozens of petals, and none of them were willing to move.

Strangely though they still felt… soft to the touch. Their feeling was familiar to the petals of colorful flowers I was used to.

“It is pretty,” I said honestly.

I at first hadn’t really liked the look of them. The white and black petals gave it a… odd look. As if it was sickly.

Holding it up, I smelled the small flower… and found it didn’t smell of anything.

“Flowers usually smell,” I said.

“Some do, I suppose,” he said.

Although disappointing, it was better than it smelling bad.

After all, it really did look… strange.

How did each petal know to be a different color? No two side by side petals had the same color. They always alternated.

“There’s a flower in the Lands of Power. It’s massive. You can chop it down with an axe. Like a tree, it can grow that big,” Krift said.

Glancing at him, Krift wiped his hand on his leg. It must have been wet still.

“It’s used in perfumes. Or at least, the petals are. It’s very expensive, and… well popular, particularly amongst women too.”

“If it grows so big, wouldn’t it be cheap? Since its petals should be huge?” I asked.

“You’d think so. But it takes a long time to grow. Hundreds of years. And although large, they wither easily. There’s…” he went silent, his eyes narrowing.

I stiffened, and was about to sit up as to look around for what had caused him to go quiet, but he nodded and went back to talking.

“Actually, there used to be a family which was known for their greenery. They specialized in those flowers. Their crest was even that flower,” he said, remembering.

“Used to be,” I said, noting his tone.

He nodded. “Yes… They and the House of Brandids. They were the two main Houses to fall with the rise of the new kingdom. Slaughtered and hunted by the current rulers. They lost the war,” Krift said.

“Because of the flower…?” I asked, wondering what brought this about.

Krift chuckled, his eyes studying me. “Your mind works oddly. No. They simply had refused to bow to the Royal Family. Petty politics.”

“Sounds very human,” I said.

“Quite so. But that was the past. Now the entirety of the Lands of Power is ruled under a single Crest. The Royal Family. Now there is peace. Peace and quiet,” Krift said.

I noticed the sarcastic tone, especially since it was accompanied by a grim smile.

“Do you not like the Royal Family?” I asked.

“Hm… I have no opinion. I was just amused. The Royal Family does enforce peace, in the Lands of Power, but it is enforced with a fist. A fist clad in armor,” he said.

“So… just like any other ruler?”

“Indeed… I suppose it’s better, especially for you. Before the Rift the Lands of Power had been in countless years of war. Civil wars, House wars, even families at war with one another. It was, in all sense of the word, chaos,” he said.

“So… no one fights now? Because they’ll be punished if they do?” I asked, making sense of it.

I was actually glad to learn about the place I was headed to. After all, I had never been able to talk to someone who was willing to share this kind of information.

“They do. It’s now just… done with words. Or rather, with politics. Families wage war with coins, and words, instead of blood. It’s sometimes annoying.”

“Something tells me the only reason you’d be happy with going back to dealing in blood, is because you’re so strong,” I said.

“Possibly… Speaking of lost houses, I’ll be honest with you… I’ve been trying to think which you belong to. Fallen or no. If your family was purged during the war, either by others or from the inside… say by your supposed father, then there are a few that come to mind,” Krift said.

Somewhat surprised, I nodded and focused on him. The flower was no longer interesting.

“Every house participated in the war. It was not just mandatory, it was seen as… well, divine? The whole entirety of the power race focused on it. Everything, everywhere, was dedicated to the war,” Krift said.

“Was it that important?” I asked.

“The Rift was. It was a world of wealth and magic, something everyone wanted. And everyone had believed that if we didn’t kill the humans, then they would gain control over the Rift and keep it from us. It was stupid, honestly. Scouts passed through the Rift, saw the massive armies of the Lands of Man, and thought they were getting ready to invade the Rift as to conquer it,” Krift said.

“Were they?”

“Oh they might have thought they were going to. But at the time they had simply been preparing. Defending. It was… a strange time. We invaded them, thinking they were going to invade the Rift. They thought we came from the Rift and were invading them. A giant mess of misunderstandings,” Krift said.

“One’s not entirely like the other, Krift,” I said.

“You’re right. We were the more evil of the two… but that’s the past. And not what you should be concerned with. We’re about to hit a few flowers, by the way,” Krift warned.

Sure enough the boat thumped another. The jolt almost made me drop the flower I was holding, but at least we bounced off the flower and returned to floating.

“Can I ask something silly?” I asked, waiting for the next impact.

“Go ahead.”

“What’s the difference between a house and a family?” I asked.

Krift looked away from the river in front of us, and down to me. “A family is one of blood. A house is made of many families,” he said simply.

“I see. So which does the crest represent? The house or family?” I asked.

“The bloodline. Your crest is your family. However most wear the crest of the head family. The crest of the family that rules the Household. Think of houses somewhat like nations. You’re not related to your neighbors, but you hail from the same land and march into war together. It’s a little confusing, but that’s just how we are,” Krift explained.

The boat ran up against another flower, and this time got stuck for a moment. It didn’t take long for the river to push us away from the flower, but the boat immediately hit another.

“I no longer like this,” I complained, holding onto the pack with a single hand.

“I can tell. Anyway, my plan is to check the tax records. Powers pay taxes based off their household. Their numbers and their deaths. I’ll look for households that lost a large number during the war. Difficult, since nearly they all did, but I’ll specifically be looking for one where a wife and daughter were lost. It’s not something as common, so it should be something easily found,” Krift said, ignoring our boats rocking.

“My mother and I didn’t die though?”

“You’ll be recorded as such. If more of your family were killed at the same time, it’ll be more proof too. Then we just need to compare ages, descriptions, stuff like that,” Krift shrugged, as if it sounded so easy.

“Will it really be that easy?” I asked.

“No. But it’s a good start. There are less than a thousand households left, I believe. Tens of thousands of families, sure, but we’ll be looking for something specific in a specific timeframe,” Krift said.

“And… just anyone can look this information up? Taxes? Aren’t such things private?” I asked. I’d never heard of being allowed to know the information of a countries taxes.

“Yes. Unlike humans, powers are rather open about such things. Births, deaths, income, political power… A lot of it is very open, for all to see. Hiding such things is seen as beneath us. An insult, to their honor and such,” Krift said.

The boat rocked as it bounced off another flower, and I groaned. It was turning a pleasant conversation into a difficult one.

“It’s like I said, today wars are waged with politics and money. Right now the two sides are the Royal Family, their households, and their enemies the wealthy merchant households. Thanks to the… extended peace, some of the households have been able to accrue great wealth and power. An almost sickening amount, to be honest. Enough to rival the authority of the Royal Family. So being open about such things is just seen as… normal. Expected,” Krift said.

“So we are the same as the humans,” I said.

“Indeed we are. Disappointed?” Krift asked.

“Not sure yet.”

“A very human answer.”

I sighed, and then felt something odd in my hand.

Looking down, I was shocked to find a fallen petal.

Surprised, I went to move the flower to my other hand. As to pick up the petal. But as I moved, more petals began to crumble and fall off.

“Oh no,” I whispered, watching the flower wither and die in my hands.

“See?” Krift said.

Hurriedly I sat up, and tossed the flower over the boat.

It landed on the river upside down, and bobbed up and down as we floated away.

“Uh…” I didn’t know what to say, as I watched it float away from us. Upside down, its little vines were sticking up in odd directions.

“It was dead the moment I took it from the river, Mint. Don’t feel bad,” Krift said.

“Why didn’t you say so?” I asked him.

“I thought I did? I said they died when they became dry,” Krift said, giving me a look.

“You said they became brittle. Not that they died,” I argued.

“Hm. Maybe.”

I groaned, and sat back down before we hit another flower.

At least there seemed to be… thousands of the flowers. Yet for as much as they were annoying me, hitting our boat, I still felt bad killing one of them like so.

Sitting up against the pack, I noticed one of the petals still remained. A white one. It had a small crack through it, but was still in one piece.

Carefully picking it up, I noticed that it really was… fragile now. I could tell with the smallest of squeezes, it’d shatter and break.

It was interesting it seemed to break apart more than rip and tear, like a normal flower would. As if it had rapidly dried out in the few moments I had been holding it.

“If… if I found the household I belonged to, what should I do Krift? What would you do, if you were in my position?” I asked him.

“Rejoin you family, of course. Then kill the ones who threaten you. Whoever planned it, or did the deed. Once they’re all dead, you can retake your position in the family. Then live the rest of your life,” Krift said.

I sighed, and wondered why I had expected anything different from him.

Or maybe, it was me who was strange.

Maybe Krift’s perspective wasn’t really one of a man known as the Riftborn, but rather… normal. Normal to a power.

“What… what if you do not belong to a household? Or a family? Like you?” I asked.

Krift didn’t respond right away, which was odd, so I looked at him.

The boat rocked as it hit a flower, but Krift’s eyes never left mine.

“You can’t, Mintmorency,” he said after the boat stopped rocking.

“I can’t?”

“Remember how I said we had slaves?” he asked.

I nodded.

“The real slaves are the ones without a crest. Without the protection of a family or a house. They’re not people, they’re merchandise. Or criminals,” he said softly.

Something crumpled, and I glanced down and found I had squeezed the flower petal. Accidentally.

“So… are you…?” I started to ask, but didn’t want to finish the question.

“No. Like I said, the ones without protection are slaves. Do you really think I need protection?” Krift asked.

Ah…

A little relieved, I reached my hand over the edge of the boat as to let the petal pieces go back to the river.

Back to where they belonged.

“Just… be prepared, Mint,” Krift then said.

“For?”

“For finding a broken home. A place without happiness,” he said gently.

For a long moment I stared at the man who had suddenly become so…

“I don’t need to prepare for a home like that, Krift… I grew up in one,” I said, just as gently.