Ranvir opened the space to Vednar, not looking into a dingy warehouse, through a window onto an empty street. A slight chill swept over him as the air of the space mingled with the plane.

“Oh, shit!” Kirs cursed from his left, just in time to slap a hand over her mouth as Frija darted out.

Frija oohed and aahed at everything, peering onto tables and counters as best she could. Menace got up with a heavy sigh to follow her.

Ranvir waved Vasso out as well. The teenager moved more cautiously than his adoptive sister. He held a book by his hip, though Ranvir noticed the knuckles were white from clutching it.

“You’re back,” Es said as Ranvir let the space collapse, revealing the rest of the room.

It appeared they’d put the beacon in the middle of their living room. Ranvir noted a table stacked with slates and chalk as Frija snatched one of the white sticks.

“Whoa,” she muttered, noticing the residue it left on her palm.

“You don’t have this where you come from?” Es asked. Kirs sat at the other end of the table, looking at them. It took Ranvir a moment to penetrate her expression. Discomfort.

“No,” Frija told Es. “What’s it for? Is it food?” she gave him a coy grin and opened her mouth wide to chomp on the stick of chalk.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Es said. He didn’t stop her, which amounted to tacit agreement from her perspective. She didn’t bite down on it as viciously as she’d first intimated, but bit it nonetheless.

“Eurgh!” she cried and began spitting on the floor. Menace, curious, came over and licked her as she sputtered. The unexpected assault covered half her face. Crying out again, she stumbled and fell over dramatically. Menace batted her with a paw big enough to scoot her under the table.

Frija giggled and gagged as she was intermittently entertained by Menace’s antics and horrified at the taste of chalk.

“It’s safe,” Es said. “There’s always one kid or two who’ll try it,” he gotten a bit of cloth and scrubbed up her spit as the culprit was sent halfway across the floor on her back by one of Menace’s swiped paws.

Ranvir touched Vasso’s shoulder with two fingers as he guided him toward the table. “Is this it?” Vasso asked. He still wore the translation stone, so his words were shifted into Elensk.

Ranvir noted the slight disturbance on the boy’s face as he examined his surrounding. Following his son’s lead, he too took in the surroundings. The house was made of wood, with rough cut planks for the walls. The flooring had been smoothed over further and had some kind of treatment, though Ranvir still wouldn’t walk barefoot over it.

The cabinets and table were slightly better, enough that he didn’t worry about someone catching a splint just from resting their arms on it. Though hardly of a quality he’d expected.

But then again, Korfyi was a fair bit ahead of Vednar and they had braced with nature or even wood mana. One of those would’ve completely changed the situation all on their own.

“It’s a little chill,” Vasso murmured.

“What was that?” Kirs asked, as Es burst into laughter over some antic Frija and Menace got up to.

Ranvir reached into his storage and pulled out a loose over-shirt. Kirs blinked at him, then glanced at Vasso. “But it’s summer…”

“I’m sure you noticed the heat,” Ranvir said.

Kirs nodded. “It was horrible. I don’t know how you dealt with it.”

Ranvir smiled at her. “You can get used to a lot of things.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“What does summer mean?” Vasso asked. This time he spoke loud enough for Kirs to hear.

She blinked and opened her mouth. “Well…” she glanced at Ranvir. “Do you not have seasons where you’re from?”

Vasso shook his head. “We do. You saw the writhing. Other than that, rafting is most common.”

“Um. The writhing,” she quieted for a moment. “Do you mean related to the plants?”

Vasso nodded.

She scratched at her forehead. “That’s so…” she opened her mouth to continue a few times, but didn’t seem to find the words. “Well, here, it’s a little less noticeable. We’re currently in the middle of summer, then it’s autumn, winter, spring, and summer again.”

“That’s easy to remember,” Vasso said, speaking a little more easily now. “We have writhing, rafting, cracking, shivering, weeping, and Night’s Heart.”

Kirs cocked her head. “That’s a lot more than we got. Do you mean weather patterns?”

Ranvir shook his head at the same time Vasso did. “We get rain and storms, but these are different.”

“Way different,” Ranvir added, clapping Vasso on the shoulder. “He’s understating the effects seasons can have on the environment.”

“But they’re predictable?” Kirs asked. “Like regular seasons?” she dug into her jacket and pulled out the notebook he’d given her.

“I don’t think they’re fully predictable,” Vasso said, glancing at Ranvir. “Writhing, cracking, rafting, and weeping move in relative cycles.”

Despite having lived on Korfyi for nearly five years, Ranvir had yet to actually see the weeping. Necrotic and nature mana cooperating, trees grew with new life, causing old trunks and fallen trees to split and spill fresh sap like weeping wounds. At least, that’s how he had it described.

“The first three follow each other over and over until finally enough dead stuff builds into the cycle and the weeping happens.”

“That’s… Well, here we see heat rising in the summer and less rain. Then it rains more and gets cooler through autumn until…”

Ranvir tuned out Kirs explanation of the seasons as he heard Frija giggle to herself as she snuck around upstairs. Es and Menace were wrestling in what smelled like his and Kirs’ bedroom.

Excusing himself, Ranvir got to his feet and headed upstairs. It seemed Vasso had built enough momentum to continue on his own. Gliding up the stairs silently, Ranvir found his little daughter straining to open the door opposite of the bedroom.

Unfortunately for her, she’d never encountered an Elusrian door before and could only barely reach the latch she had to pull aside, even if she knew to look for it. This would have been no simple task had she not been trying to sneak about. As it was, Ranvir could see her straining to even budge the door. The latch was firmly in place.

Ranvir scented the room beyond as he swept his daughter up in a twist, spinning her around. It smelled mostly of dust and a hint of paint. Had they colored the walls then done nothing with it?

“What do you think you’re doing?” Ranvir boomed in his most monstrous ancient-creature-of-the-hills voice.

Frija giggled and screamed, her hair falling in long red locks below even her arms. “Nothing! Nothing!”

Es let out a choked sound as Menace came running into the hall, dragging him along. The overgrown cat swiped a huge paw at Frija in a huge playful move. Ranvir held her out of the way. Normally, Menace wouldn’t have hurt Frija, but it also couldn’t that Ranvir’d turned her upside down and how to handle that.

Turning her around, Ranvir let her fall the last bit onto her own feet. She landed unsteadily, knees bent, arms out, her hair wild and messy from her trip into her father’s arms. Menace pounced on her, bringing her down onto his stomach and rolling over.

The cat weighed multiple times her weight, but didn’t know to be playful.

Es rose to his feet and straightened his clothes before attempting to fix his hair. There was a long red spot from jaw to temple from repeated licks by Menace. He glanced briefly at the door behind Ranvir, something flickering across his face before he smiled.

“Join me outside? There’s something we need to speak about.”

Ranvir nodded and followed him.

“I know you’re not going to like this,” Es warned him as they stepped onto the street.

It wasn’t as empty standing outside as it seemed through their window. There just weren’t too many people passing by at the moment. Ranvir wrapped his wings about him in a facsimile of a cloak. A huge dark gray feathered cloak in the middle of summer. Not the most convincing disguise.

“Spit it out,” Ranvir said, smiling at his oldest friend.

“Kirs had to share some of her research and studies with the Queen in order to get protection,” Es said. “The Queen knows about some things you came up with. You’ll more than likely have to meet her.”

Ranvir sighed and nodded. “I figured as much,” he grimaced. “I’ll be going back tomorrow to pick up Pashar. If the Queen’s attention wasn’t on me already, she likely would’ve brought it.”

“Oh right,” Es made a face. “I’d forgotten about her. If you hadn’t remembered, we might’ve left her to never be picked up.”

Ranvir shook his head and smiled. “Anything else?”

“You can’t stay here, unfortunately. We don’t have the room, but Grev could probably find space for you. They have a big compound, you know.”

“I had some idea.”

Es gestured with his arms as wide as they could go. “About as big as it gets without being in the palace.”

Ranvir laughed hard enough to stagger back a step. “I’ve missed you, Es,” he finally admitted once he’d gathered himself. Es only replied with a big goofy smile.