I woke up pretty early the next morning. It was still quiet, and Emery was still sleeping next to me peacefully. That was fair, given how little we actually slept. I leaned over her to plant a light kiss on her cheek before rolling myself out of bed and into the bathroom.

I slowly went through my morning routine. Washed my face, cleaned my teeth, wiped myself down with a warm, wet cloth. The night’s activities had been both incredible and exhausting all at once, and I was very happy to wipe off the caked on sweat that we had worked up together.

By the time I left the bathroom I was feeling much more myself and much less a sleep-starved beast. Emery was awake and sitting up in the bed reading over a book regarding botany that she had borrowed form Vyne. When I returned to the room, she looked up with a huge, warm smile on her face.

“Morning, you.” She chirped happily, as her eyes roamed over me. I still hadn’t really gotten dressed, only wearing a robe that I had thrown over myself that wasn’t even properly closed. Her lips shifted up appreciatively.

“Good morning to you, too.” I responded as I made my way across the room for a good morning kiss. Emery obliged happily. I collapsed onto the bed beside Emery and sat up against my pillows in a similar fashion to how she was propped up on her own.

It was less than a minute before Emery placed her book to the side and rolled over to sit on my lap, straddling my hips. “Hi.”

“Hi.” I laughed.

Emery’s following kisses were passionate and full of love, which led us to wasting a fair bit more of our morning still in bed.

Eventually, she decided she wanted to wipe herself down as well after the night’s activities. With a final kiss - and after letting our foreheads rest against one another for a long moment - Emery hopped off the bed to go clean off.

I relaxed in bed with my eyes closed while listening to the running water coming from the Array for a while, perfectly content to spend my day like that if we were able.

Emery finally emerged a bit later, looking refreshed and much more awake. I was considering whether or not it would be possible to get some time alone in the bath house, and whether it was alright to go bathe so soon after a morning wipe down, when I heard shouting come from outside.

It was coming from a bit in front of the main house’s front door, which was also basically three stories down from our bedroom window.

The shouting was from a man’s voice, and I was pretty sure it was Leon’s. That was enough to already make me angry after a lovely night.

Then in the break between his shouts I heard crying. I was out of the bed and cinching my robe closed in seconds while striding to the window. Emery had immediately moved off to find something to clothe herself with as well.

“I’ll meet you down there.” She had said before dipping into the closet.

I nodded, pulled back the curtain, and leapt from the window.

I landed beside an angry Leon, a mildly perturbed Severa, and both of my daughters - crying. The loud noises had apparently been enough to catch most peoples’ interest, as I saw my family emerging from the homes a little ways off.

Talya was already at the door to the main house, where the small group had evidently come from, as she was saying, “What in the world happened, you just left with them…” as she opened the door. My new siblings-in-law were also behind her, as was Vale.

My eyes however, were stuck on Cierra and Stena. Cierra was in front of her sister and was clearly the leader in this particular event. Stena looked upset and was crying too, but it looked to me like she was either upset at the commotion, or was following Cierra’s example as her older sister.

Cierra, however, was crouched down with her arms hugging her knees. Her face was hidden as she had buried it in her arms. Her crying had quieted down, but her little body was still shaking with tears.

I ignored Leon, who was still shouting nonsense, and knelt beside Cierra. I wrapped my arms around her in a side hug, and tried to comfort her the best I could. “Are you alright?” I asked softly. “Cierra?”

She lifted her head to look at me, her eyes puffy and red from crying, despite it not being very long. She was clearly very upset; whatever had happened wasn’t a little thing. Even her cheek looked red and swollen from it too. And then she turned to face me straight on.

There was a clear difference between her right side, which I could see before, and the left as she turned to look at me. The left side was noticeably less red and not swollen at all. As she just looked at me with the tears running down her cheeks, I took a second look at her right side. The swollen red on her cheek was developing into a shape reminiscent of a hand.

I took a deep breath, trying not to explode at anyone just yet, as I gave Cierra a light squeeze and whispered to her that everything will be okay.

When my head cleared enough to actually make sense of the noise around me, I came back to hearing Severa asking, “Why did you do that?”

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“She kept trying to hold my hand!” Leon shouted. “I don’t let people do that in general, you think I’m gonna let a kid like her touch me?”

I gently placed my hands on either side of Cierra’s face and kissed her forehead. “You go run back inside.” I whispered. “Take your sister with you. I love you.” I gave the girl a quick squeeze, helped her to her feet, and sent her into the house. She wiped at her tears with one arm and took Stena’s hand with the other, half running toward the house. She clearly wanted to get away from here.

I spun on Leon and Severa, right as Emery jumped from our window and landed next to me. “What the hell did you do?” I asked pointedly. I was sure that the anger was audible, but I tried to keep my tone somewhat reasonable.

Leon sneered at me as he answered, “The little girl kept trying to hold my hand. Even after I told her to stop. Damn little girl.” He looked disgusted at the thought. I could just about feel Emery seething to my left, ready to pounce in defense of our girl. I shot a look back at her, trying to keep her controlled.

She must’ve seen something in my eyes, because Emery immediately backed down. She still looked about as angry as I had ever seen her, but her posture looked more relaxed, and far less like she was about to jump at Leon and tear his throat out.

“She’s a seven year old girl who was beaten and abused within an inch of her life, you asshole. Of course she likes holding our hands when she walks outside with us. It makes her feel safe.” I spat. I noticed a glint in his eyes appear at something, but I plowed on. “And I assume you slapped her for not listening?”

It was, unfortunately, a common behavior in my family growing up. If you didn’t listen to a direct command, you got hit. I abhorred the whole practice, but it seemed to be alive and well with my asshole brother.

“I did.” He declared, sounding almost proud of it. “She should’ve listened the first two times I asked her not to touch me. On the third offense, she was punished.” He spoke so matter of factly about it all that it turned my stomach.

I turned my gaze toward Severa angrily. “And you? You just let him hit a seven year old girl?”

Severa scoffed. “Of course. When you disobey what you’re told, you receive a punishment. It’s just the way of things.”

“That’s a load of bullshit. Even if you put everything else about the situation aside, an Earth Realm Cultivator has no business striking a normal mortal under any circumstance. Let alone a child.”

“A demon child.” Leon sneered. I turned my glare back on him. “Yeah, I heard what you said. She’s demon-touched, isn’t she? Both of them?” His lip curled in disgust.

As he moved to speak further, I said, “Be very careful with your next words, brother.” I snarled.

Leon’s sneer deepened, as if he took pleasure in what he said next; “If I had known before now, I would’ve hit her harder.”

And that was my breaking point. I felt Emery’s Qi flare up at the same time mine did. My Domain exploded outward and covered the immediate area in an instant. I could feel Rylie and Demi both leap from the doorway to try to stop us from doing anything too drastic.

They had apparently suspected something bad was about to happen because they were out the door before Leon’s words left his mouth. Demi did reach Emery before anything happened, trying her best to hold the stronger Cultivator back. Emery didn’t want to hurt her sister, so she was clearly not using her full strength in an effort to escape, but allowed herself to be held back.

But I suspected that was also because she felt Rylie try to get to me in time. But with the difference in our speeds, even with her head start, she was a step too slow to grab me.

I was in front of Leon in an instant, well before he could react to anything I was about to do beyond trying to put up a messy block in front of his face. As much as I wanted to just slap him in retaliation for what he did to Cierra, I was vaguely worried that I would hit his head too hard and truly cripple him.

Instead, I aimed for his centermass. A chunk of ice flash-froze around my forearm, creating a decent bludgeon for me to shove toward him at full speed.

My punch connected with his solar plexus hard, and despite feeling at least one bone crack under the weight, I followed through on the strike. The force of it lifted him up off his feet and sent him soaring through the air a good ten meters before he landed hard on his back.

While he was in midair, I tapped my Domain to effectively freeze my entire family to the spots where they stood. It wasn’t as complete as the freezing at lunch from a few days previous. This time it was just enough to stop them from rushing toward me or toward Leon.

I heard Severa’s shouts in the back of my mind as I took a few quick steps forward and stood over Leon threateningly. He was curled in on himself, clearly in pain.

“Get out.” I said, my voice low and intense. My gaze swept over my entire family with the same intensity. “Get out,” I repeated. “All of you.”

With a quick flex of Qi, the ice that had kept them trapped, if only for a moment, evaporated.

Severa had the audacity to brush herself off as if none of this had anything to do with her, then straightened up and began, “Ivory, if you think what you’re doing is wise, I would -”

“Shut up, Severa.” I said, trying to keep the danger in my voice. “I really don’t care. Leave. Take the rest of the Mephra clan with you. If you want, strike me from the family register or name me an enemy of the family, I really don’t care. But get the fuck out of my family’s home.”

Before she responded, I flashed another quick pulse of my Qi, flash freezing the ground in front of her as a threat.

She cleared her throat then growled, “Very well.” With a huff she began walking toward me, Leon, and the rest of the Mephras. I stepped aside for her to pass, but did not offer her a bow. It was a small slight, but one I felt she would likely remember.

As she passed, I turned toward the rest of my family. “None of you are welcome here again. Not unless you somehow manage to prove to me that you aren’t awful people.” As my heated stare landed on each person, they seemed to flinch. I nearly smiled at that.

Then my eyes landed on Glenn, Mica, and Cove. At them, I did smile. “You three are welcome back any time.”

I began to walk back to my new family as Severa helped Leon to his feet. Or at least seemed to, though I was fairly certain she was actually no help at all.

“I hope you don’t regret this.” Leon strained out as he stood. Somehow, he managed to fight his way into the same disgusted sneer he seemed to wear all week.

“Why would anyone regret taking out the trash?” I snarked back. “Or better yet, I scared the trash into taking itself out, didn’t I?”