“And last but not least, this is my room!”

Rai opened the door to his room, which was mostly how he’d left it. The only differences were that the bed was done, and the sheets were new. A thin cloud of dust particles floated in the rays of the suns’ light that reflected off the moon, which seeped through a pair of thin curtains.

All of Rai’s childhood toys were in a box, just under his bed. He had a desk just beside the bed, and a chair that was neatly tucked under it.

The bed itself was relatively small, Sin noticed. She wondered if they would both comfortably fit on it.

“... I like it.” She said.

“You... like it? What exactly are you talking about?”

“Yeah! Knowing where you grew up, what your home was like, and how it all made you into who you are now... I really like it.”

Sin put her knapsack down beside the bed, and hopped up on it. She sat cross-legged, to get a feel for how the bed was.

“It’s comfy too...”

“Yeah, Jin made it for me when I was a kid. Every time I outgrew it, he would take the old one, deconstruct it, and make it into a new one. Honestly, I’m amazed at how good he is with his hands, since he made the bathhouse with me too when I was younger. You remember when we first met? And we sat in Acies talking about our houses and all that? We came back that week and started working on the bathhouse, which I think you’ll really like.”

“Woah... are you telling me that I had a direct influence in a part of your home being made?”

“Wuh... well... I guess?”

“He he he. I knew I was just the best, and this only proves it even more!” Sin said smugly.

“Oh yeah? Can the self-proclaimed ‘best’ survive my tickle powers?!”

“Wait... no Rai no-OOOoooOO”

*... AHAHHAHA*

Rai tickled Sin into submission.

“DINNER’S READY!” Came Reiki’s voice through the door.

A groan came from the other side of the house. Jin must’ve woken up.

Rai smirked at Sin, who was panting now.

“Retribution comes swift!” Rai triumphantly declared.

“You little bitch! UGH!”

“HAHAHA! I win this time, Princess Raven!”

“Yeah yeah, just you wait... I’ll make you regret this disobedience in the royal court!”

They stared at each other all serious-like, before bursting into giggles.

“Okay, let’s go eat.” Rai said.

“Mhmm. I can’t wait to taste your mum’s cooking.”

The two of them left Rai’s room. Sin followed Rai through to the kitchen, where there was a big pot full of rice and chicken bits.

The scent of the meat and well-seasoned rice made Sin’s mouth water.

Rai was just as excited to have his mum’s home cooking again.

“Please, grab a plate and whatever utensil you prefer eating with, and enjoy your food at the table!” Reiki said.

They filled up their plates with chicken rice, and sat at the table. Jin was already there with his plate of food.

Rai asked Sin to wait for his mum to bring her plate before they started eating.

After a short moment, Reiki came into the room with her plate of rice and chicken. As per Rai’s expectations, Reiki’s plate was topped by chilli flakes, adding that spice that his mother always loved.

“What are you all waiting for? Dig in already!” Reiki said.

“If you say so.” Rai replied.

Rai took the first bite.

He savoured the flavours popping out of the chicken and the rice. Rai’s mum always prepared chicken to be slightly sweeter than most places would. The chicken in Acies was always saltier or bitter, but Reiki somehow avoided all of that and made it so much better than anyone else.

“Perfect, as always. Thanks mum!”

Reiki reached over and squeezed Rai’s cheek.

“Anything for my little lightning bolt!”

Sin took her first bite as well.

The sweetness of the chicken screamed at her, in a good way. She loved it. Sin took a second bite after devouring the first.

Consecutively, Sin took more and more bites, trying to maintain the flavour in her mouth.

Eventually, Sin ran out of rice to take bites from.

The aftertaste of the dish hit her with a gentle savoury tang, which left a wonderful feeling in her mouth.

Reiki watched Sin devour the plate with a smile on her face.

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“Good?” Reiki asked Sin.

Sin nodded profusely, causing rice to drop from the sides of her lips.

She gulped down her mouthful before talking.

“Amazing... Absolutely amazing! I can’t remember the last time I had a simple dish like chicken rice, but this was better than most of the other things I’m used to eating!”

“You flatter me, Sin. I only make this dish a lot because it’s Rai’s and dad’s favourite.”

Sin hadn’t noticed, but when she looked over at where Jin was supposed to be sitting, he wasn’t there. Jin had finished his plate already, and had already left to get seconds.

“You can go and get some more if you’d like.”

“I can? I hope it’s not rude, but I would really like to.”

“Please do. It’s more of a compliment if you do.”

Sin smiled.

“Then I will. Thank you so much.”

Sin got up and went to the kitchen to gather some more rice. Rai and Reiki got to talking while she did.

As Sin entered the kitchen, Jin was stood beside the pot of food, holding his plate.

“... Everything alright, Jin?” Sin asked him.

“Mhmm... I’m just wondering whether I should eat more or not.”

“Oh. Hmm... I think you should. It’s an amazing meal, and if it’s your favourite like Reiki said, then you should have as much as you can!”

“Yes... I suppose you’re right.”

“By the way Jin... can we talk later? I had an idea for a-”

“Save it for later. You want me to teach you something, but until you can prove to me that you’re worth me teaching you, I don’t want to hear your idea.”

Sin stared at him. He’d figured her out in an instant.

“... That’s fair. I’ll prove that I’m worth it!” She declared.

“Great.”

Sin stood still for a moment, not knowing what to do now that the conversation was so abruptly over.

Slowly, she crept over to the big pot of rice, and awkwardly put more rice into her plate.

She left Jin in the kitchen and returned to the table with a full plate once more.

“I hope the second serving is as good as the first.” Reiki said as she came back.

“I’m more than sure it will be!”

“So, Sin. Before you gobble up that plate, tell me more about yourself. We didn’t get that far before.”

“Hmm... where should I start?”

“You’re Kallad’s daughter, the daughter of Deception!” Rai interjected.

“Yes, Rai. I am the youngest in the Raven lineage, daughter to Kallad Raven, the Aspect of Deception.”

“Yes yes, that’s the ‘you’ that everyone else sees. I want to know more about the girl that my son knows. Not the daughter of Deception, but Sin. I want to hear about Sin. Tell me, what do you want to be when you grow older?”

“Oh that’s easy! The best. I want to be the best!”

“... at?”

“What do you mean?”

“The best at what?”

“Uh... Uhhhhhhhh... Hmm...”

“It’s great and admirable that you want to be the best, but there has to be a field or something that you want to be the best ‘in’.”

“I... see... then I guess... I want to be the best ‘me’ I can be. That means being the best fighter, the best mage, the best adventurer. All of that.”

“Wow. That’s a lot of stuff you want to be the best at.”

“Well, dad always said that if I aimed for the top, and landed somewhere just underneath it, then I’d be proud of wherever I landed. So as much as I say all of that, I think I’ll be happy as long as I keep growing.”

Rai smiled wide as he watched Sin talk.

“What a beautiful mindset. I can see why Rai liked you so much, even as a kid.”

“To be fair, I only really figured that out recently. But I think it’s been a part of me since I was young.”

“Okay. Now, let’s make this a game. I’ve asked a question about you, so you have to ask one about me! Try to make it a bit interesting haha.”

“Oh! That sounds fun. Hm... how about... You and Elira... You’re sisters, but I don’t know much about that. We met Elira just recently in Aurum’s capital since they’re there for the upcoming Summit, and you both seem very different. I don’t really have a specific question, but could you tell me about your relationship with your sister?”

“Ooo. You picked an interesting one alright. It’s a bit of a long story, so eat while I talk.”

Jin returned to the table with a full plate of food, highlighting his decision after his indecision.

“So, Elly and I are half-sisters. She’s born to a mother that lives up in the capital. My mother was... a prostitute. She died of disease shortly after I was born...

You see, our biological father is the former captain of the guard force that answers directly to the Warden, so he’s pretty high up. When he learned that he had a daughter with a prostitute, he did everything he could to... keep me out. I didn’t care about any of his money, or wealth really... I just wanted a dad. Remember, I was around 6 or 7 by this point so obviously I didn’t care about money. Luckily for me, Bort from Acies had basically adopted me at the time, and I ended up doing little errands and chores for him in Townsend.

Well, it turns out, that my biological dad was married to a noble woman. And she cut me off completely from him.

After a lot of heartache, I figured that there was no point in thinking about my dad anymore.

That was that, for a while.

Then I met this woman who was a good few years older than me. She had just started adventuring with Bort and his party. Eventually, Bort asked little 10 year old me if he could tell the girl about me.

When he did, she kicked up a fuss about ‘lies’ and ‘slander’. After that, I was, well, heartbroken. Because I knew it was a truth about my life but then someone else, who I never really knew of was calling me a liar.

But after a few months, she came back and cried to me. She begged and begged me to forgive her for the words she spoke before. Part of me didn’t want to forgive her, because of how much she’d hurt me... but I convinced myself to do it.

That girl was Elira, and she pried the truth out of her dad to find out that I really was her half-sister. From that point on, she let me go out with her around the cities and towns in Udra. I’m not a fighter, but those couple years where I travelled with Elly were some of the most exciting periods of my life.”

“Wow...” Sin said. Her plate was cleaned empty. “That’s amazing. I never knew that you and your sister had such a wild history...”

“Of course, it started off rocky. But, we grew past it and now we’re really close! I love her to bits.”

“I’m really happy to hear that.”

“Alright... I’m pretty tired. Rai, how long are you staying?”

“We’ll stay tonight and tomorrow night, then go to Draconis for our assignment. That should only take a couple days, and then we’ll port back here for, hopefully, another night or two. Ideally, we’re back in Aurum on the Sunday, since we’ve got a dungeon expedition starting on Monday.”

“Hmm... I think you should change your plan then.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“If you want to get back on time, and spend that much time on the farm, then you’ll have to spend less time in Draconis. Honestly, you can get through that whole city in an hour or 2. It definitely won’t take you 2 whole days to get what you need from it. What’s the assignment?”

Rai turned to Sin, because he forgot.

“Of course you forgot.” Sin said to him. She turned to Reiki. “The assignment is to travel to a clan capital, and learn what we can about the clan. So, the overall goal of the clan, what exactly they provide to the world, how they structure their systems, what the people are like, all of that kinda stuff.”

“Yeah you can do that in a day. It’s quite simple for our clan really. Everything revolves around the Tree of Life. You head up to Highborn Keep, show the guards your Academy IDs, and they’ll let you in. From there, you’ll be able to do everything you want to do. It’ll make sense when you’re there.”

“I see... then we should do that, Rai.” Sin said.

“Yeah. Kallad had a portal set up for us nearby that’ll take us there and back, so I think we can do it in a day if it’s as simple as you mentioned, mum.”

“Alright, so we’ll stay here for a couple nights, until Thursday. We can leave on the Thursday morning, and sort out everything there then come back Thursday night. Then we’ll have a few more days here.”

“Yep, sounds good to me.”

“Wonderful. Now, if you’ll excuse me. I’m going to bed. See you all in the morning!” Reiki said.

“Goodnight mum!”

“Goodnight Reiki!”

Reiki took her plate to the kitchen and went off to bed.

Rai, Sin, and Jin, all sat at the table in a comfortable quietness.

Well, Rai and Jin did.

Sin felt as awkward as all hell.

Then, fortunately for her, Jin broke the silence.

“Sin.” He said. “If you want me to teach you, then you’ll have to do 2 things.”

“Oh... okay. I can do that! What are they?”

“The first, you must tell me what you understand of Balance.”