Day five with Avuri’s family had more in common with the first couple days than the day before. Other than her parents appearing for a brief ‘good morning’, her family members mostly kept to themselves. We saw most of them in passing before noon, including the teenagers who looked happy and waved greetings. That much, at least, put my mind at ease about them being mistreated the day before.
What really brightened up my mood, however, was the trickling in of my own family.
Fairly early on in the morning, Ieji just sort of appeared, as they did often. Avuri, Talya, and I were making lunch when there was a scream from outside. Apparently, Ieji had simply made their own way up to the basin and ran into Mint before anyone else. Ieji’s sudden and unnerving appearance had scared her, and she screamed. Thankfully it was easy enough to calm her down once I introduced Ieji to her. Mint retreated back to her borrowed house pretty quickly though.
Ieji’s appearance hadn’t changed much since the last time I saw them. They kept their hair the same as always - so straight and black that it looked almost like a veil. They looked eternally malnourished, and their face was gaunt. It was, unfortunately, no wonder that Mint had been scared at first. Ieji gave off a fairly unnerving aura unless you knew them. And even then, Ieji still always looked a little ghastly.
“So, Ieji, this is Avuri, the woman I’m marrying.” I said by way of introduction, motioning toward Avuri beside me, then the reverse. “Avuri, this is my sibling Ieji. And yes, I realize how they look. So do they. Ieji is perfectly healthy, I assure you.”
Avuri offered her hand for a shake somewhat awkwardly. She looked a little disturbed by Ieji’s appearance, which wasn’t unusual. I had faith that she wouldn’t judge or be harsh, and she quickly proved me right.
It took her a moment, but a genuine, welcoming smile split her face. “It’s nice to meet you, Ieji. Truly.”
“The pleasure is mine.” Ieji responded, their voice flat and emotionless as normal. “I haven’t heard much about you from our father, but it’s been mostly good things, don’t worry.”
Avuri looked lost somewhere between wanting to laugh and being worried. “Mostly?” She said, half-panicked and looked at me. “I thought Vale liked me?”
“Avuri, relax.” I said, placing a hand on her shoulder, then looked sideways at Ieji. “Ieji is teasing you. Though I imagine you can’t tell. They’re difficult to read until you’ve spent time with them.”
“I suppose I should use my other face while I’m here, shouldn’t I?” They said, voice still flat. I frowned, able to see the slight show of hurt behind their eyes.
“You really don’t have to, Ieji.” I said, moving in to wrap my arms around them. “At the very least, I think you should say hello to Vale, Talya, and introduce yourself to our girls before you do that.”
“I don’t want to scare them. They’re young right? Little kids don’t usually get along well with me.”
“They’ll be fine. They should meet the real you before you go covering it up around everyone else for the next two weeks.” I sighed. I could also tell that Avuri was shifting around uncomfortably, probably wanting to apologize. “And if it was just our family here for the next few weeks, I would tell you to not bother at all. But Avuri’s family is -”
“My family is apparently full of assholes.” Avuri said, jumping back into the conversation. “I’m sorry for how they’re likely to act for the next two weeks. And I’m sorry for my poor welcome. Your appearance just took me a little off guard.”
“It’s alright.” Ieji said. “I know it takes getting used to. I regularly play up my creepy appearance, too. It’s just another tool in my tool box.”
“I told you that Ieji is a spy of sorts, didn’t I?” I asked Avuri with a grin. “They’re the best I’ve ever seen. They can get just about anywhere. And their techniques are second to none when it comes to becoming someone else.”
I didn’t mention that Ieji developed those techniques as a teenager because they wanted to be literally anyone else. I had my suspicions that Avuri would put it together anyway, given I had told her about my own childhood. She was smart; she would get it.
“That’s really exciting.” Avuri said, appearing to be genuine. I smiled at her as she continued, “I bet you have a ton of really cool stories.”
“I do.” Ieji confirmed, as we finally began walking toward the house. “I’ve seen some things you wouldn’t believe. Though they’re mostly very…gross. Honestly, I wish I could forget a lot of it.” They said, voice still as flat as ever.
“Hey. You people wanna wait just a minute before you get walking?” A voice called from behind us.
I grinned as I turned around to see three more people walking up the dirt path toward us.
“Oh. I should’ve mentioned that the other three were behind me, huh?” Ieji said dryly.
“You should’ve, you ass.” Demi, my youngest sister said, looking me dead in the eyes from a hundred meters away. She didn’t even speak loudly, knowing we could hear her regardless. “Ieji just vanished a half hour ago, and said nothing. We were all walking together until then. Jerk.”
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I laughed, taking in the image of my brother and sisters happily. It had been a long time since I had seen them.
Kota, our eldest brother, led the pack. He was built big and sturdy, but not chunky. He was made pretty solidly of muscle, and had similar scars to mine covering much of his body. He kept his dark copper hair cut short, just long enough to hide the scars on his scalp. Despite it all, he smiled easily and almost always looked relaxed. He was often the most level headed of all of us, even including Vale.
Rylie stood to his left. She was Ieji’s age, and both were younger than me by a year. Rylie was always stunning, and she was no different now having not seen her in a couple of years. She had long blonde hair that had a wave to it; all of us girls grew up jealous of how much volume her hair had. It was almost magical - no matter how much we worked, her hair always had a perfect bounce to it. So much so that I wasn’t convinced she didn’t actually use Qi to manage her hair somehow.
She was about my height, and slim, leaving her looking daintier than I did. Despite her apparent lack of muscle or bulk, though, she could throw a punch with the best of them. I supposed Qi really evened the odds in that regard.
Her techniques were scary too. She was masterful when it came to suggestion and manipulation techniques. Subtly applying Qi in the right way could apparently alter a person’s thought process or disrupt parts of it. I always felt that such things felt like they should be demonic techniques and not natural, but she certainly never produced any demonic Qi.
I’d never seen or heard of anyone else using similar techniques though, so it was possible they were developed by the sect that had us when we were children. She didn’t really remember that time very well, so it’s possible that their input altered her in some way. We really didn’t know.
And finally there was Demi. Despite her name, Demi was taller than most of us, coming in at around the same height as Kota. She wasn’t built large or bulky, and was rather thin all things considered, but somehow she managed to not look lanky at her height. Her darker hair was done up in a ponytail, and she looked ready for a fight, as ever. Demi had always been a bit of a spitfire, and was always spoiling for a good fight.
Despite her constant belligerent behavior and penchant for challenging random people to fights, her body was pristine without a scar to be found. She had her techniques to thank for that, as injuring her was quite a feat, let alone leaving any sort of permanent mark. And she knew it too.
As I watched them all approach, I fought against getting misty eyes. It had been a long time since we had all been in one place like this, even if Talya wasn’t actually outside to meet us all.
I smiled wide and hopped over to where they walked to grapple each one in a hug. They each returned the embrace with a chuckle - or in Rylie’s case a squeal when I picked her up and nearly spun her.
“I missed you all.” I said, squeezing Demi’s midsection one more time before letting go. “I genuinely can’t believe you were all able to make it. Or that my invitations actually even found their way to you.”
“Sis, you quite literally could not have timed it better.” Rylie said. “Demi and I had been Crystal Atoll, helping out some fisherman dealing with some sea monster type nonsense.”
“I was just coming back from the Mirror Flatlands by boat and ran into them in the port.” Kota added. “I had already gotten your invitation, as I imagine Dad told you where I was, so I was able to let these two goblins know what you were planning.”
“That really was lucky, then.” I said with a sigh. “I sent both of your invitations West, not North. Last we had heard, you two were somewhere in the Ash Barrens.”
“We were.” Demi said with a grin. “It was starting to get boring up there so we migrated. When we heard there were sea monsters causing problems, we headed toward the Atoll.”
“When you heard there were sea monsters.” Rylie corrected. “I just wanted to enjoy the water for a bit being in the Barrens for so long.” She grinned a big toothy smile. “It was the right choice. The Atoll was lovely.”
About that time, Avuri and Ieji had wandered over to us, and I took it upon myself to do what a host should do.
“Everyone, this is my fiance, Avuri.” I said, stepping aside to show off the woman I loved in all her glory. I stopped just short of wiggling my hands at her. “Avuri, this is Kota, Rylie, and Demi.” I said, pointing to each in turn.
“It’s truly lovely to meet everyone.” Avuri said, adding in a proper bow this time. “I’m looking forward to getting to know you all.” Her eyes traveled over each person, including Ieji, as she wanted to include everyone in her greetings. “I’ve been getting to know Talya and Vale very well over the last few months, and I like them so much. I’m glad I can meet all of you before we get married.”
“It’s a pleasure, Avuri.” Kota said. He bowed politely, then offered her his hand for a shake. “I’m looking forward to getting to know you too. And seeing what kind of person our monster of a sister has chosen to marry.”
Kota gave me a sideways glance, but Rylie was the one to continue his line of thought. “She’s never been one for romance or that sort of thing. I honestly thought she’d be the last of us to get married.”
“Really?” Avuri asked, surprised. “Either she’s changed a lot or you all didn’t get to know that side of your sister very well. She’s very romantic, actually.” She smiled, meeting my eyes. “Just the other night, she -”
“Whoa, stop right there, miss.” Demi interrupted her. “We don’t want to hear that sort of stuff.”
Avuri laughed. “She made me dinner by candlelight and brought me out for a picnic under the stars.”
As Avuri continued to giggle, my siblings just stared at me completely flabbergasted. Rylie was the first one to break the silence.
“Well, fuck me. When did you get to be so…not yourself?” She said, looking me up and down. “What’d you do with our sister?”
“She’s still in here.” I promised, and waved away her concern. “Also, please watch your language around our girls. They’re too young for that sort of talk yet.”
Kota’s and Rylie’s eyes bulged out, and Demi nearly stumbled and fell. “Kids? You have kids?” She stammered out.
“Oh. I should’ve mentioned that too.” Ieji said flatly.