“How are the three of them settling in, Tiffany?” The Chief asks, taking a sip from her mug as she leans forward in her chair.

It’s the morning of the third day since the first Wolf Pups, and the three rescued children Kado, Jorm, and Anna arrived. The three rescues are still staying in Tiff’s house for the time being as they adjust to their new life in Haven, and so she can keep a close eye on them. The Pups have had no trouble settling in, with all of them joining the school classroom for a few weeks so they can all learn to read, at bare minimum. They’re all capable and fiercely proud of their own ability, and there’s been little to worry about with them.

The rescued children are of greater concern, so Tiff has come around to the Chief’s residence to talk about them, as the three of us sit by the fire.

“Well, Kado’s been a little difficult with how protective he is with the younger two, but he’s starting to trust the other children, at least. They’ve done a good job of getting him to open up.” Tiff chuckles lightly. “Anna is very well-liked. The other children are happy to have a new, adorable little sister, though she rarely leaves Kado’s side. The only time she lets go of his leg is when Rabbit takes her and the younger children on an “adventure” to go see the Crystalfall.”

“That certainly sounds like Rabbit.” The Chief smiles warmly, but her expression turns serious as she moves to her next question. “And Jorm?”

Tiff takes a deep breath as she sinks down into her chair.

“Not good.” She says quietly, staring down at her clasped hands in her lap.

The Chief sighs to herself. She was expecting this. “Not good how, Tiffany? I’ve only seen him outside his room once in the past three days.”

“He’s exhausted, mind, body, and soul, but he’s not getting any sleep. He’s not… letting himself sleep. He eventually gets so exhausted he does give in and finally falls asleep, but he doesn’t rest for long before he wakes up in terror, sobbing and clutching his pillow for hours.” Tiff squeezes her hands. “He does calm down, eventually. He doesn’t want to be held, but he lets me sit by him and rub his back until the tears subside, but… it’s taking a toll on him. He’s eating less and less. He doesn’t want to leave his room, not even with Kado and Anna. They’re looking after him right now, but I spend most of the day and night keeping an eye on him.”

“Do you think he’ll improve, Tiff…?” I tentatively ask, but I fear I already know the answer.

“I can’t say for certain.” She lifts her head, nodding to herself. “But I’m not going to give up on him. Not even for a moment.”

Tiff isn’t the type to give up on people. Jorm’s in the best hands possible to look after him.

That hasn’t assuaged the Chief’s worries, though. Even as Tiff’s been speaking, she’s just been scowling down into her mug, her lips twisted into a pained frown of frustration.

“Chief…”

Tiff notices the Chief’s scowl, too. She smiles to herself, getting up and walking over to her, resting her hands on the Chief’s shoulders and levelling heads with her as the Chief finally looks up.

“It’s okay, Mia. He’s as far away from the dangers of the Abyss as anyone can get down here. Whatever happened to him, we won’t let it happen again.” Tiff reassures her, but the Chief’s gaze falls back to her own lap.

“It wasn’t just the Abyss that did this.” Her voice shakes for a moment, taking a deep breath to calm herself. “It was people. Other living beings, committing acts of savagery and hate in a place already rife with danger and death. Yes, Jorm is safe with us now. What about the others lost out there? The other children lost out there?”

“Mia…” Tiff kneels down in front of her, taking her hands in her own and looking up at her. “We focus on what’s in front of us, okay? One step at a time.”

“I know that.” She huffs, tilting her head up as she still tries to avoid Tiff’s gaze. “It doesn’t mean I don’t worry about it.”

“Miiiaaaa…” Tiff pouts, gently cupping the Chief’s cheeks in her hands. “You shouldn’t spend all day worrying, you know. You’re too young to be getting wrinkles all over your pretty face…”

“I am not getting any wrinkles!” She retorts, pushing Tiff away as she crosses her arms and legs, turning up her nose in disapproval even as her cheeks turn bright red. “Honestly, Tiff, I don’t know where you get these ideas…”

“She’s much cuter when she’s blushing, isn’t she~?” Tiff looks back at me with a playful grin.

“She is!”

“I’m not blushing!!” She yells, blushing. “Don’t you join in, Marina!”

Tiff is right about the Chief’s cuteness when she blushes. The Chief thinks she’s a walled-off, restrained and serious person, but Tiff knows exactly how to circumnavigate her defences to lightly tease her. But she’s also right that we need to focus on what’s in front of us, doing things one step at a time.

I clear my throat to let her know I’m being serious before continuing. “She is right though, Mia. It’s best that we focus on what's in front of us, rather than worrying about what lays ahead.”

Sometimes, I think she gets so wrapped up in the thoughts and feelings of others, she doesn’t stop to consider how it’s affecting herself, or how she really feels about something. I understand that it’d be hard to ignore how others are feeling when she can almost literally read their emotions at a glance.

“I know.” She sighs wearily. “But someone has to keep an eye on the future.”

“It doesn’t have to be you alone, Mia. You have others here to support you.”

She gives me a stern look, before rubbing her forehead and sighing again. “I really have been out of it if you two are coddling me so much…”

“I mean, if you want, I can really coddle you, little Mia~” Tiff grins deviously.

“N-no. That’s quite alright. Thank you for showing that you care, you two, but I’ll be alright now.” The Chief quickly responds.

“... little Mia…” I mumble to myself.

“You didn’t hear that.” She shoots her trademark glare at me.

“I heard nothing.” I awkwardly stand upright as if following an order.

“Good.” She nods, smiling to herself.

“Marina, would you mind coming along with me to check on the three kids?” Tiff asks, smiling warmly in stark contrast to the “smiles” the Chief tends to flash. “The younger two are quite enamoured with your wings, so seeing you might raise their spirits a little.”

“... They really have been domesticated, haven’t they?”

“The children?” Tiff blinks, giving me a quizzical look.

“My wings. They used to cut people’s faces and thrash about violently. Now they’re like a small animal that can’t get enough attention from people…” My wing nudges against the back of my neck to express their annoyance. Don’t you complain, you know I’m telling the truth.

“They’re certainly more well-behaved than they used to be.” The Chief adds. “You’ve gotten used to each other.”

We have. It’s only taken a bit over a year, but I’m pretty used to my wings now. You’d think it’d take longer to get used to a whole new pair of limbs, let alone limbs with an attitude, but when you wake up to the same fact every day, it eventually just becomes normal. Besides, we’re getting pretty good at flying now. I can fly high, and fly for more than a minute easily. By now, it’s more just… confidence.

Daring to stick my head into the dark, low-hanging clouds. Seeing how thick they are. Something I’ve been psyching myself up for for a while now, but… it’s really diving into the unknown. No one knows for certain what’s up there. Hopefully not another carrion hawk, but that’s not my fear. It’s more the unknown itself. Unknown threats, unknown dangers. I’ve gotten quite comfortable in Haven, and consider myself fortunate to have ended up in the most civilised corner of the Abyss. At least, I’ve gotten comfortable enough that…

I certainly don’t want to end up dying again.

Anyway.

Tiff asked for me to come see the rescued kids, so I’m heading down the stairs of the Chief’s residence with her. Still.

“Little Mia…”

“I thought you didn’t hear that, Marina~” Tiff says with a teasing grin as we reach the ground floor, hopefully out of earshot of the Chief.

“I’m just trying to figure out how she’d even get a nickname like that…”

“Well… there’s a few reasons she doesn’t drink much. One of those reasons is she gets rather adorably clingy and needy when she’s had a few too many drinks, and she finds that behaviour terribly embarrassing after the fact.” Tiff explains, with a hint of fondness in her voice.

“Now that you mention it, I don’t think I’ve seen her… well, drunk.”

“She’s been the Chief for a while now, and she takes her duties and responsibilities seriously. A little too serious, sometimes, but that’s just the person she is.”

“Sometimes, you talk about her like she’s your little sister.” I smile at her. Tiff is in many ways the model big sister… just don’t tell my big sisters I thought that.

“Well, aha…” Tiff chuckles sheepishly, opening the front door. “I do see her that way, I suppose. She works so hard, every day, for the betterment and wellbeing of everyone, and with how she was when she first came to Haven… it’s hard not to dote on her, sometimes.”

The two of us head out onto the street, just in time to see a small group of children, led by Rabbit, making their way down Crystal Road. It’s mostly the littlest kids with her, but notably Anna, Kado, and even Jorm are with her. Anna notices Tiff and I, and runs over to us all excited.

“Tiffy!!” Anna bounces on the spot. “Rabby’s taking us on an adventure!! We’re gonna see the Crystalfall! Jorm’s coming too!!”

Tiff briefly looks shocked to see Jorm outside his room, but she smiles warmly, kneeling down to ruffle Anna’s hair. “You are, are you?”

“Yes!!” Anna excitedly nods.

“Be sure to look out for everyone on the way there, okay? It’s a long and perilous journey, down the road all the way to the Crystalfall.” Tiff rests both her hands on Anna’s shoulders, tasking her with a mission of great import.

“I will look out for everyone.” Anna nods sternly, giving a cartoonish but determined salute.

“Go on, then.” Tiff giggles, giving Anna a playful push back towards the group, as they continue on their adventure to see the Crystalfall.

“Should we follow along after them…?”

“Mmm…” Tiff ponders, watching the group slowly travel further and further away, down the Crystal Road. “We’ll leave them be, for now. Jorm is out of his room, and that’s what’s important. There’s other things we can do.”

…

“Marina!” Irie smiles, running up to me and giving me a hug around my waist.

“Eirene!” I lean down and hug her, my wings coming out to wrap themselves around her in a warm, fluffy hug.

Tiff has nearly as many responsibilities around town as the Chief does. Though on paper she’s the head artisan, a large part of her daily work is looking after the children's needs to help Yvonne. With the six Wolf Pups and the three rescued kids, there are now thirty-three children in Haven. Which is a lot of kids to handle, and that number will only grow, but Tiff has her helpers to make things more manageable: Eirene, Adri, Mei, Emi, and Rickard. Barring Eirene who is eight, they are all ten to twelve years old, and they keep an eye on things and tell Tiff if they feel anyone needs help with something, if there’s a fight going on, et cetera.

Of course, they’re not perfect at their jobs; Rickard and Emi were two of the ones sheltering Crow from being found, but they were just doing what they thought was best, so there’s nothing held against them because of it. If anything, that compassion is exactly the lesson Tiff seeks to impart on the children. They’re mostly well-behaved, after all, and they look out for each other.

The five of them were gathered in a corner of the tavern, where they usually meet with Tiff to discuss the goings-on. Tiff and I joined them at the table each with a warm drink from the bar (non-alcoholic, of course, to set a good example for the kids), with Irie happily huddling herself between us.

“So then, how are the new kids settling into Haven?” Tiff asks with a smile as she gently ruffles Irie’s hair, making her giggle.

“The Wolf Pups are doing fine.” Emi answers, who if I recall correctly, is the oldest child here. “They’re capable and independent, so much so that they’re having a hard time adjusting to the idea of, well… relying on adults. But they trust them, at least. They know who’s who.”

“We did take it on ourselves to discipline and instruct Shrike and Calico, whom we caught eating food they’d stolen from the kitchen yesterday.” Mei nods.

Tiff nearly chokes on her drink as she takes a sip from her mug, coughing into it and lowering her voice. “They stole from the kitchen? When? Does Anton know?”

“Some time yesterday between breakfast and lunch, I think. We returned what they didn’t eat, and I don’t think Mr. Clemencau found out, so-” Mei starts to answer, before Rickard cuts her off.

“He will find out! This is him we’re talking about, he probably knows already! He knows if so much as a spoon goes missing!” Rickard panics, trying to keep his voice hushed. He’s been on the receiving end of Anton’s fury before, and he knows what Calico and Shrike are in for if he finds out.

“They’d only eaten a little bit, everything else was returned. He was probably expecting at least a little bit of food to go missing after the new kids got here. My sister was expecting as much.” Emi pats Rickard’s shoulder to calm him down.

“Calico and Shrike said they were sorry. They said Haven had so much food, they thought no one would notice if they took a little, but we told them that they don’t need to steal things. They can ask for things they’d like, rather than having to just take.” Irie nods confidently, apparently having imparted this lesson upon them herself.

“... Did they apologise to you, or to Anton?” I feel like I would have heard if Anton found out things were taken from his kitchen…

“A-ah…” Irie twiddles her fingers nervously. Seems I hit the issue right on the mark. “W-well… Mr. Clemenceau can get quite angry, and, if he doesn’t know, then…”

“Well…” Tiff ponders. “If he noticed, or if he was angry about it, the Chief and I would have heard about it by now… so I think it’s alright.”

The kids all breathe a sigh of relief. The fury of Anton Clemenceau is something best avoided, and he won’t hold back, regardless of who has drawn his ire.

“I’m glad to hear that the Wolf Pups have settled in well.” Tiff smiles warmly, but she can’t conceal the concern on her face as she asks her next question. “How have the three rescues been?”

The kids quietly exchange worried looks. Emi takes a deep breath, and speaks.

“Anna’s doing well. Everyone loves her a lot, and she loves everyone. Kado is… I know he’s difficult around adults, but he’s a lot more talkative when there aren’t any adults around. He asks lots and lots of questions, but he's starting to come around on trusting people. Jorm…” Emi trails off.

“I know. Today is the first time Jorm’s left his room since he made it to Haven.” Tiff gives a small smile to reassure Emi.

“Is he eating…?” Irie asks, looking up at Tiff worriedly. “I haven’t seen him come out for meals…”

“I bring his food to him every day, Irie. He’s eating, but he’s yet to clean his plate.” Tiff gives Irie’s hair a soft ruffle. “I was surprised to see him out of his room earlier.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Emi and I went to check on him while you were busy yesterday, Tiff.” Rickard speaks up. “Kado and Anna were with him then. Kado said Jorm and Anna were sleeping, and closed the door on us.”

“I had left them alone for a while because Jorm was sleeping, but Kado didn’t have to close the door in your face…” Tiff sighs to herself.

“I understand. He’s protective of them.” Emi says.

“I can’t imagine what they must have gone through at the hands of the Breakers. I’ve only heard stories of what they do, and none of them sound good.” There was that wild man we encountered while out chopping lumber, but… I wouldn’t count someone that far gone as people.

“Kado told us a little about what happened to the group he was with.” Mei says, clutching her hands together.

“He has? He hasn’t told the Chief or I about anything that happened…” Tiff perks up at this information.

“All he knew was he was asleep one minute, and there was yelling and screaming the next. He took Anna to hide, but he couldn’t find Jorm. All he could do was hide and wait for the yelling to stop. When it did, he waited longer, and came out of hiding to look for Jorm. He found him, huddled up against a tree and shaking. All their stuff was gone, or smashed to pieces. All the adults were gone, except one, who…” Mei gulps, furrowing her brow. “Kado said there was a body of one of the adults on the ground. He couldn’t tell which adult it was, because their body was beaten and trampled, and… their head had been cut off. Kado doesn’t know how much Jorm saw, only that when he found Jorm, Jorm refused to speak. He hasn’t spoken since.”

An uncomfortable silence falls over the table. In another world, what Mei spoke of would be far too graphic of a scene to recount to children, but… it came from the mouth of another child who witnessed it.

What Kado saw was the aftermath of it.

What Jorm saw, and likely why he’s been the way he’s been, was the event itself.

The Bone-Breakers. The only pack of savages in the Abyss large enough to earn themselves a name for their barbarity, and going by what Kado described and the Wolf Pups’ tracking reports, the likely culprits of that incident. Rann told me their methods; those with broken arms can’t fight back. Those with broken legs can’t run. If you keep trying to resist or run, they’ll just break your neck instead.

I’ve been there, in a way; falling victim to the cruelty of your fellow man. It’s why I’m here, after all. Worse still, I’ve ended up in the same place where those who deal in such wanton savagery also keep turning up. Our hell may as well be their paradise.

The more I hear of them, the more they churn my stomach, and the hotter that deep-seated anger burns in my chest.

A small hand squeezing my own pulls me from my thoughts. Irie’s holding my hand. I smile, and squeeze hers in turn, but Irie still looks a little worried. I must have been making a pretty dark expression as my mind drifted down that path, enough that she felt the need to reassure me.

“Thank you for sharing that, Mei. Understanding what happened to him helps a lot in helping him recover.” Tiff smiles warmly.

“Do you think…” Adri, who’s been quiet for most of the time here, speaks up, nervously looking up at Tiff. “He’ll get better…?”

“He will, Adri. Tiffany is looking after him every day, and there’s nothing Tiffany can’t fix.” Mei nods assertively.

“Tiffany fixed the hole in my shirt last week!” Irie sits up, lifting up part of her shirt to show a portion near her collar that… wow, only by really squinting can I tell there was ever a hole there to begin with. “And she helped Rickard get all better when he had a cold!”

The kids all agree that Tiffany’s a wonder woman who can fix anything she puts her mind to, heedless of Tiff’s slight embarrassment.

“Kids…” Tiffany chuckles.

As we giggle, there’s a small commotion by the front door as the gaggle of adventurers who set off for the Crystalfall return to the tavern for lunch. Kado’s at the back of the group, carrying Anna on his back.

Kado and Anna…

“Where’s Jorm…?” I wonder out loud, but Tiff is already on her feet checking on the group.

The group’s adventure off to the Crystalfall had tired Jorm out, so they took Jorm back to his room before coming to the tavern to lunch, promising to bring food back to Jorm, who expressed some interest in eating. A marked improvement, over the last few days. Tiff’s group of helpers moved over to one of the larger tables to join the other kids for lunch, and Tiff and I sat down with them to keep an eye on the rambunctious group of kids. They were happy. Kado in particular seemed relieved that he’d gotten Jorm out of his room, though he couldn’t stop worrying about leaving Jorm alone, even briefly, even though he personally tucked Jorm into bed. I volunteered to go check on him and bring him some food, so Tiff could watch over the group. I knew which room he was in, after all.

Which brings me to now. Standing in the doorway of one of the guest rooms of Tiff’s residence, looking into an unoccupied room.

Did I… he may be in the other room. There’s two, after all, I may have gotten them mixed…

The other room is empty, too.

A cold chill brushes against my spine before I shake my head. No. I calmly set the food down on a table, checking the bed. Unmade. Slightly warm. He was here. There’s only one door to Tiff’s house, he can’t have snuck past me. He must have left before I got here.

But why would he leave? He was alone for ten minutes, at most. Where would he…

He hasn’t been eating, he hasn’t been drinking, but he suddenly found the energy to walk to the Crystalfall, and now he’s gone.

And then, a memory I’d almost entirely forgotten surfaced in my mind.

Vincenzo, my little brother. My baby brother. Vinny. The little blonde-haired rascal with a smile that could get him out of anything. If Jorm smiled, he’d probably look a lot like him, with how similar their hair is. It’s good he had such an adorable smile, because he got himself into a lot of trouble, but one time was different. He was sick with a moderate cold, but he refused to eat and would hardly drink, which only made his condition worse. It was the first time he’d gotten sick that bad, and he just didn’t know how to handle it at his young age.

Then, one afternoon while he was sick, he vanished from his room.

Our home could have been called an estate if you were being generous, with the main residence and the various workshops and smaller buildings about it, but I’d seen a few noble estates in my time to know what a real estate looked like. Still, it was a larger property to grow up on than most who weren’t farmers or nobility. My parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, my sisters, my cousins, even I practically turned the whole place upside-down trying to find him. We did eventually find him, shivering and sniffling in a corner in one of the unused storerooms, and I’d never seen my parents so relieved and furious at the same time.

Vincenzo didn’t know why he wanted to just… go and hide. But he did. It just came over him, as it can sometimes in children, sick or not.

Now Jorm’s gone. And he’s got an entire village to hide in.

And he’s in a far worse state than Vincenzo was when he went and hid.

In a blur, I’m out of the room and charging down the stairs to find him, only to nearly bowl over Tiff who had just reached the bottom of them, bumping my chin against her forehead.

“M-Marina! What’s the… rush…” Her smile falls as she sees the obvious panic plastered across my face. “What’s wrong, Marina?”

“Jorm isn’t in either room. The bed’s unmade, and slightly warm, so he was definitely there, but-”

Tiff takes my hands in hers, giving them a squeeze. “Slow down, Marina. Breathe. He can’t have gotten far, and there’s only so many places to hide. We’ll find him, okay?” She sighs to herself. Whether she’s noticed it or not, her hands are shaking. “I worried that this might happen if I ever took my eyes off of him… we’ll look for him together, and keep this between us for now. We don’t want to worry the other kids, especially not Kado and Anna.”

That was the plan, anyway, but we had barely made it out of Tiff’s front door before we ran into Kado and Anna.

Kado immediately knew what was going on, and before long, the whole town was turning Haven upside-down in an effort to find Jorm.

With sixty-odd people looking for one boy, you think it wouldn’t be long before he was found, but two hours of searching has so far turned up nothing. All the children have been indispensable in the search, checking every single hiding spot they knew of (many of which were completely unknown to the adults of Haven, until now) in hope that Jorm found one of them. Not a trace of him. The search expanded from the area around Tiff’s house, to most of town, to the walls, cliffs, down towards the Crystalfall and down in the Cellars. He likely hasn’t left Haven; the main gate is guarded, and the tunnel that Crow used to get in was sealed a while ago.

He has to be here, somewhere. There’s only so many places he could hide, but that’s why I’m stooped over in the Cellars with a lantern in hand, checking every dark corner.

The Chief’s worst fear was that, if he went down to the Crystalfall, he may have slipped and fallen into the water. It’s highly unlikely he’d be washed downstream anywhere with how shallow the water is, but that’s where the majority of people are searching, around the pools and streams near the waterfall’s base. There’s only a few of us looking in the Cellars because, frankly, it’d get pretty cramped and impossible to search with any more than a handful of people down here.

“Any luck…?” I ask the figure next to me, lifting up my lantern to see their face. Ah. It’s Kazuma.

“This kid’s pulled one hell of a disappearing act.” Kazuma sighs, rubbing the dust off his elbow. “Lots of tunnels run through this place. Lots of places for a kid to hide.”

There’s a noise behind Kazuma, and both of us lift our lanterns as we turn to look. It’s Tiff, with dust and dirt all over her face, panting as she brushes her dress off, having just crawled out of a waist-high tunnel. She looks… fraught, understandably.

“Neither of you have found him?” She asks, wiping her brow.

“We’re running out of places to look.” Kazuma shrugs.

“He can’t have left Haven. He can’t have. He has to be somewhere, we just haven’t found where yet.” Tiff repeats, scanning across the lower level of the Cellars for any nooks and crannies that haven’t been searched yet. “Where could he have gone…”

“There’s more than one way out of Haven through these tunnels, y’know, if you really want to find a way out. Would be too tight a squeeze for any of us to check.” Kazuma comments, glancing across the walls of the lower level of the Cellar we’re on. Various cracks and crevices line the cave walls, some wide enough to squeeze through. More are wide enough for a child as small as Jorm to fit through.

“You’re not helping, Kazuma.” Tiff snaps at him. “If you know more ways out of Haven, go and check them.”

“Sure, sure…” Kazuma nods, heading down the path along the wall to investigate some of the crevices further down.

Tiff sighs to herself, rubbing the bridge of her nose as she scowls and mumbles. “Where could he be… I take my eyes off him for ten minutes and he disappears…”

“Wherever he is, it’s somewhere he wants to be found.”

“E-eh…?” Tiff looks up at me like I’ve just said something nonsensical.

“What, Big Sis Tiff has never had to go find a child that ran off and hid to sulk?”

“If a child runs off and hides, you give them space to themselves, and they’ll eventually come back. That's what Yvonne taught me, that’s what I did a couple of times myself, and that’s what’s always happened, so why…” Tiff blinks, trying to make sense of it.

“No one ever came looking for you?”

“... Mia always did. She got really mad at me for running off and hiding like that…” She chuckles to herself awkwardly.

“But did you want to be found?”

“Did I want… well, I always hid where you found me when I last, err, needed to cool off. It’s quiet there, and hidden, but not so hidden that no one would think to…” Her eyes widen, and the two of us rush to her old hiding spot, on a higher level in the Cellars.

And that’s where we found him. Curled up in a corner, shivering, damp, gaunt and skeletal. He had a high fever as Tiff scooped him up into her arms with frightening ease. He barely weighed anything.

It had started to rain as we brought him out of the Cellars, and whisked him back to Tiff’s house to set him down by the fireplace, all wrapped up in the warmest blankets Haven has. Tiff was constantly by his side, as were Kado and Anna.

But the fever he caught was too much for his weakened body to handle.

He didn’t make it through the night.

…

The following day was somewhat of a blur. Jorm’s funeral was organised and held, his remains cremated and his ashes washed downstream, just like Nate’s funeral almost a year ago. The mood was different this time, though.

Child mortality is an uncomfortable reality in this world, just as it was in our previous lives. After all, there’s only one way so many children could have ended up in the afterlife.

They died.

From illness, from injury, from starvation or exposure, the reasons vary. It’s not uncommon for children or even infants to die from sudden causes. Even in a world of magic, there’s only so much a healer can do; magic can restore wounds and knit bones, but it can’t cure a fever. My older sister Carina was very sickly as a baby, and my parents were worried she wasn’t going to make it past the age of five with how often she was bedridden. Worst of all, no healer my father paid for could do anything about her condition. It’s perhaps why my father was so inclined to spoil her. She was named for a younger sister of my father that died when she was young; an aunty I never met.

We knew nothing of Jorm’s family, or if he even had one. We don’t even know how he ended up down here. He was yet another deceased child sent to hell for reasons only the Gods know.

All he experienced was more suffering, and then a second death, shivering alone in a cave.

There was only one question on many people’s minds.

Why?

Why did it come to this?

The children turned to each other for comfort, all huddled up in a group as the villagers watched the funeral pyre burn. Kado and Anna were in the middle of them, with Kado holding Anna in his arms. He stood silently and watched, as tears streamed down his face. Anna didn’t cry. Perhaps she was too young to fully comprehend what was going on, but she knew something was wrong. She couldn’t find Jorm, after all. She just watched the flames as she held onto Kado.

The Chief had kept a stiff upper lip, as she is wont to do in these situations, but this had gotten to her worse than Nate’s death. It was her duty as Chief to light the pyre, and I don’t think she realised how pained she looked as she stepped forward to put the torch to the kindling.

Tiff was… I could tell she was waiting for a moment when she could just sit down and cry. Jorm had died under her watch, and that’s what she believed no matter what others told her. She considered herself responsible, but she had other duties to do first. She had to make sure all the kids were okay, and that the other adults were okay, before she could look after herself. She was holding herself together until then.

She wanted time to herself, and I’d give her that. She could handle herself. It was the Chief I was more worried about.

She was angry.

I had gone up to check on her that evening before I went to bed, only to find her slouched in her chair staring at the fireplace, clutching a bottle of wine in hand.

She never drinks straight from the bottle.

She probably wants time to herself also, so…

“Marina.” She grunts, not looking up at me. She noticed me. “Sit.”

I quietly sit down in the chair across from her.

“... You’re quiet.” She comments, taking a swig from the bottle and wiping her lip.

“I was just checking on you before bed. Is everything… going okay?”

“What do you think?” She scowls, taking another drink.

This… isn’t the “adorably clingy and needy” drunk Mia that Tiff talked about, for sure. She usually sits down for a drink in the evening, but not like this.

“Do you want to talk, then?”

“What will talking accomplish?” She sighs to herself, staring down at the bottle in her hand.

“It might help you work through some of this anger-”

“Anger?” She cuts me off with a scowl. “My anger doesn’t need to be worked through. It is wholly and entirely justified to feel anger in the face of this situation.”

“Who or what is your anger directed at, then? This wasn’t the fault of anyone in Haven.” I don’t think she’d be angry at Tiff over this, but in her current state, I can’t be sure.

“EVERYTHING!” The Chief yells, rising to her feet as she glares down at me with righteous indignation. “This entire situation. Children. Dead children. In hell. Sent to hell by the Gods that promised us all salvation and everlasting happiness in Their own personal realms! What good are Their words if they cannot protect the most vulnerable? What good are Their words if they knowingly condemn the innocent to this fate?!”

She stops herself, laughing pitifully. She’s been stressing every use of They and Them as she speaks of the Gods, maintaining a level of callous respect bordering on mockery as she speaks of them. “But what good are They down here. They either can’t reach us, or They just don’t care. My anger and contempt for Them is only the tip of the spear of my anger. They may have sent children here, They may not have, as far as I know, Their involvement ends the minute we wake up here. What happened to Jorm, it… it wasn’t the Gods that tormented him so.” Her lips twist into a snarl, each word bitter on her lips; “It was people. Other people. Humans, committing savagery towards their own kind.”

She stares at the fireplace, her temper boiling beneath her skin as she takes a few deep breaths, clutching the bottle in her hand so tight I fear it might break. Before I can speak, she turns to look at me with inquisitive eyes as she speaks with a cold detachment. “What would you do, if you got your hands on those people?”

“... Find some way to punish them for what they did?”

“Some way?” She blinks. “I have a method in mind. Chaining them up by their limbs to the trees. Attracting some bonehounds, watching them do the dirty work. If they so wantonly commit atrocities against their fellow man, then they must accept that the same atrocities may be dealt unto them.” She sighs, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “Not that Rann would ever let me hunt for them.”

“That wouldn’t be the best use of your time, Chief-”

“Then what WOULD BE?” She raises her voice in anger, but her inner pain leaks through in her shaky tone. “What can I do to stop this from happening again?! Round up and hang every murderer in the Abyss? Set up a permanent camp near Deadman’s to rescue every child that wakes up there? Neither will fix the problem that children should never end up trapped down here in the first place! We can’t rescue everyone. We can’t hang everyone. No matter how hard I try, someone will always slip through the cracks. Not as long as children keep turning up here, and as long as we’re all STUCK down here!”

I just sat quietly for a while and let her rant to get it out of her. She’s been holding this in for a while, as her long list of grievances goes back much further than what happened with Jorm. She is, unfortunately, the type to hold these things in rather than confide in others, so they just keep piling up and up until the dam bursts and it all comes flooding out at once. Jorm. The actions of the Bone Breakers. Ingrid flaunting the rules of Haven. That thing in the Ghostwood. Our first meeting with Arza. The bloodbeast hunt. The carrion hawk. It’s better to let it out than hold it in forever, but as her ranting gets more disjointed and her anger isn’t letting up… I should change the topic, but she isn’t exactly letting me get a word in.

But she stops dead in her tracks when I get up and pull her into a much-needed hug.

“W-what’re you… I wasn’t… finished…” She protests, but the tears have already started flowing.

The two of us just held each other close for a while as she sobbed into my shoulder. All the pain, the frustration, the anger and the sorrow that she was carrying was let out, until she’d cried all she needed to, and we just hugged for a while longer. Though she has no shortage of personal contact, living around someone like Tiff, she rarely seeks it out herself. I may have initiated the hug, but she held onto me for as long as she needed.

The only words exchanged afterwards was a quiet bidding of goodnight, before the two of us went our separate ways to bed. I laid in bed for a while, listening to the soft crackles of the fading fire as I drifted off, with one only one thought on my mind.

We can’t let this happen again. To anyone.

For Jorm’s sake.

And for Mia’s.