With less than two weeks left to go before the wedding ceremony, Emery and I were constantly on the move. Not necessarily because there was so much to do or things to be done, but simply because neither of us could sit still. We were just too antsy.
My family being around complicated things somewhat, too, though not as badly as I thought they would. For the most part of the first four days they were with us, they mostly stuck to themselves. We coordinated bathing times politely, and although we offered dinner every night, they opted to stay in their accommodations and eat by themselves.
Well, except for the three teenagers who were more than happy to spend time with us and the girls. They were a little skittish around Talya and Vale, though.
I had honestly expected my family - and especially my parents - to be very involved in my business while they were here. While growing up, they had been intensely nosy and invasive, but they seemed almost uninterested for the first few days after they arrived. Even Glenn, Mica, and Cove had no idea what was going on; they had apparently been relegated to outsider status, too, and were no longer being included in whatever the Mephras got up to.
I supposed, if anything, it would make their escape easier, so we left it alone. The three of them seemed almost happy about it too. Mica in particular seemed a little relieved, given she expected that Severa would be constantly pushing Leon on her throughout the trip.
Apparently, what was actually happening for those first few days was scheming. Because on their fourth day in the basin, the whole group seemed to want to be involved. They all cited recovery from the long trip as the reason for their low energy the previous few days, which was absolute nonsense.
Perhaps Lark and Severa were old enough that they may feel a little residual tiredness from the trip, but the whole group was made up of Cultivators. They should’ve recovered perfectly well within a day of rest with some cycling and meditation. At the very least, there was no reason someone Leon’s age would need so much bed rest after a trip like the one they took.
But the last thing we wanted to do was appear to be bad hosts, so we said nothing, greeted them nicely when they finally emerged from their hiding, and introduced them all to Cierra, Stena, Talya, and Vale. They were mostly pleasant, with just a few backhanded compliments aimed at the adults.
They were lucky they chose not to insult the girls in any way - Emery and I would’ve strung them up by their necks had they said anything mean to them. Even Leon had a nice face on and was being nice to the girls. My parents were even trying to get the girls to call them grandma and grandpa, which was shocking to me.
The whole time this was going on, I kept meeting gazes with Emery as we both were trying to figure out what was happening. Their entire demeanor was different from the first day, and neither of us were buying it. If nothing else, Severa telling Talya that she “was lucky she had a real talent with Array work,” after looking her up and down was a strong tip off that they were still far from benevolent.
Amalia had even taken one look at Vale and Talya, then told Emery that she had done a great job caring for her body and being in shape. The whole thing had left me feeling sick to my stomach, and I desperately wanted to get my new family away from my old one so I could apologize for this nonsense.
Once my parents and Leon had taken to playing with the girls, the rest started to talk shop with Vale, Talya, Emery, and me. Basil had mentioned he was a produce merchant, and that got Vale talking about his travels and the various fruits and vegetables he had tried. It seemed to actually fascinate Basil as there were many things that he hadn’t heard of, giving him new potential products to hunt down.
Aster and Mint had stayed close to one another and chatted with Talya rather pleasantly about how Arrays could be utilized for better city infrastructure. I wasn’t too sure whether it was genuine or not, but my understanding was that Aster was involved in city planning for Bouquet, so he could potentially mean well. Mint mostly just nodded along, only adding small tidbits here and there. She was mostly watching my parents play with the girls.
And all of that left Emery and I chatting with Severa and Lark. Which wasn’t the most pleasant conversation I had had recently by a wide margin.
“Once you both are married, are you still planning to live out here? Even with the little ones?” Severa asked.
“Yes?” I answered honestly. “We like it here for a variety of reasons, and don’t really plan on moving any time soon, right?” I turned to ask Emery.
She nodded. “Right. I put a lot of this place together by my own hand. I have no desire to leave it.”
“Even with the city so close? Surely living there would be a better place to raise kids?” Severa asked, sounding genuinely concerned.
Emery was taken a little aback. “How do you figure that?” She asked, honestly confused.
“Flowing Dragon City is one of the wealthiest cities around.” Severa said, as if espousing an ad. “It has great schools, both martial and traditional, it’s safely protected by a strong force of guards, it’s seemingly led by good people…it seems like a wonderful place to live.”
“With all due respect, Severa,” I said, “we’re more than capable of offering all of those things here. In fact, Flowing Dragon City is probably even more dangerous than living in the wilds out here, given how many high Realm Cultivators come through so often.”
“That’s what the guard force is for, no?” She said flippantly.
“The City Guard does have a few Sky Realm Cultivators among them, and I believe even two Heavenly Realms. But they are severely outnumbered by the visiting Cultivators. If there’s ever any real trouble makers in the city, it could get very dangerous, very fast.” Emery said, then continued, “Which, to be fair, is why they do such a thorough job on inspecting who comes into the city. They may actually be some of the most diligent guards I’ve ever come across in that regard.”
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I could’ve sworn I saw both Lark and Severa look annoyed at that last particular bit of information.
“They’re even more strict when it comes to allowing people into the Peaks themselves.” Emery added. “Which is one of the reasons I’m so confident in our safety out here.”
Lark’s eyes lit up when he heard that. “Oh? I’m shocked you’re able to live out here, then, if they’re so strict about access.”
“We merely have some convenient connections.” I said with a shrug. I didn’t want to give too much away, and actively avoided glancing toward Vale. “And a convenient arrangement as well. We don’t just get to live out here for no reason.” I said, trying to throw them off a little.
“Is that so…?” Severa muttered, looking as though her brain was working overtime trying to connect some bits of information. “I’m still not sure I’m convinced it’s a good place to raise my great-nieces.”
A cold shiver ran down my spine at that. Cierra and Stena being tangentially related to my own immediate family was something I could reluctantly stomach. However, I wanted no part of them in any way connected to the rest of my family.
Emery seemed to feel that same way, given the quick shadow that passed over her features. I hoped Severa didn’t notice it as I replied, “Well, we can take it under advisement. One way or another, we have good reasons for living apart from the city.”
“Suit yourself.” Severa said, dismissively waving her hand in the air, as if waving off the topic. “I would never raise my own children like this, but it’s up to you to take advice from your elders.”
I bristled, as did Emery next to me. I could practically feel it coming off her in waves, and it had been a while since we did any Paired Cultivation.
“As I said,” I said through gritted teeth, “we’ll take it under advisement. Perhaps in the future we could consider moving to the city.” I looked at Emery, trying to keep us both calm. “Right, Emery?”
She nodded mutely, not risking an explosion. I supposed that was for the best.
Looking for a change of subject, I asked, “By the way, I haven’t seen Glenn, Mica, and Cove yet today. What are they up to? I had assumed they’d be here with you.”
“Ah, yes. They’re working on some merchant related business that they had been neglecting the last few days. And catching up on their studies, too.” Severa said, almost sweetly.
“They’ve taken some time from their schooling for this trip, so their teachers left them assignments to work on.” Lark added, sounding a little more sincere. “They’ve been ignoring them in favor of whatever else they’ve been doing, so it’ll be good for them to take some time and work on it.”
I nodded. I didn’t trust Severa much at all, but Lark read as a little more honest to me. Until the teens said otherwise, I would take him at his word. I had assumed they’d been getting schooled in Bouquet anyway, so this more or less tracked. Regardless of whether they would be leaving the family for a sect or not, I hoped they took their schooling seriously. Despite how I felt about my family, I was grateful for the schooling I had received growing up.
“They had better catch up.” Severa muttered. I could hear the venom in her voice. “We don’t need to be paying anyone for extra lessons because they chose to be lazy and not do their work.” She muttered. I wasn’t sure she realized I could hear her muttering to herself. I kept my mouth shut and smiled as if I had heard nothing. Emery did the same.
“In any case, I imagine I’ve kept you both from your own work, yes?” Severa said, affecting her rich-woman tone again. She motioned toward the area where we had placed the small barn, chicken coop, and crop field. It was the beginning of Spring, so she wasn’t exactly wrong - there was plenty of work to be done.
I still didn’t like her tone. She clearly thought she was better than working on a farm or in a field, and it showed in the disdain clearly displayed on her face.
Emery and I didn’t let it bother us too much. I just smiled and nodded. “You’re right, we do have plenty to do.”
“It’s already early afternoon, so there’s no reason to work on the fieldwork.” Emery said, looking back over her shoulder toward the house. “We should just get the husbandry chores done today. We can work in the field tomorrow while your family relaxes.”
I nearly laughed. Emery tried her best to sound genuine and more or less succeeded; I didn’t think that anyone else caught the obvious sarcasm in her words.
“Yes, we won’t bother you tomorrow.” Severa said, with one of the fakest smiles I had seen on her yet. “If you’d like, we could watch the gi -”
“Sierra, Stena.” Emery called, cutting off Severa as if she didn’t even notice the woman had continued speaking. “We’re going to clean up the barn now. Would you like to come help?”
The two girls, who had seemed fairly content playing with their potential grandparents and uncle, immediately perked up. Stena especially was always excited to see the chickens. How that girl had managed to reconcile loving the animals as well as loving to eat the animals, despite being around three years old, was one of the great mysteries of the universe to me.
“We’re coming!” Cierra shouted, and then turned back to my family members to apologize and excuse themselves. Or at least Cierra did, Stena sort of just followed along and echoed her older sister.
“You really don’t have to make them help.” Severa said, sounding sickly sweet again. “We can watch them while you do the work. We may as well make ourselves useful.”
“It’s alright.” I said, echoing the woman’s tone back at her. “We wouldn’t want to impose. And Cierra and Stena both like helping, and we’re teaching them how to do it all themselves while we do the work. It’s good lessons for them.”
As I finished what I had to say the girls ran over to us, and Stena began pushing on my legs. “Chickens! I wanna see the chickens!”
I chuckled, letting myself be slowly pushed toward the coop. “Okay, okay, we’re going!” I said, slowly moving away from my family. “We’ll talk to you at dinner if you’d like to join us tonight. Otherwise, we’ll talk later.” I waved as we began moving off in earnest.
I wasn’t sure who, but I thought I heard the beginning of one more objection that was quickly silenced by Emery’s loud whistle. The sound carried throughout the whole basin easily and continued to echo for a moment/ She bent down to cover Stena’s ears while Cierra covered her own, then Emery bellowed. “We’re working on the coop and barn!”
“Be right there!” Came the loud reply from the house. I desperately wanted to turn around to see my family’s reaction to both Vale and Talya nonchalantly jump out of the second story windows of the main house, fully clothed in dirty work clothes, ready to get dirty.