Emery

After dinner was over, we took the kids around the third floor and showed them all their rooms. We had all of the room furnished when we first put the house together, and kept the extra potential furnishings in a storage Array in the house. We had to pull out an extra bed, blankets, pillows, and desk to set up the room Kord and Briar were going to share, but everyone was easily accounted for.

We took extra time to show them all around the house, and explain to them that this was their house now, too. That they were welcome to ask for food or drinks whenever they wanted. When they saw Cierra's and Stena's rooms, we promised to take them shopping for more clothing and toys to fill their new dressers and storage, as well as the chance to pick out bedding for themselves.

Avuri and I had been keeping a close eye on everyone, assuming that the whole ordeal would be overwhelming for them, but Kord, Briar, Enrik, and Karn took everything in stride. And not in the silent way an overwhelmed kid would, either; they were all excited, even bordering on bubbly. Except for Briar who was still excited, but a little more understated. Her eyes shone brightly the entire time, though.

While we promised them a shopping trip back to the city to get their new things, we told them we would go in a few days. There were plenty of less personalized blankets and clothing options for them for a few days, and we had simple toys for them as well, not to mention what Cierra and Stena would share with them.

They accepted that readily enough, visibly happy with how things were going. Even that night, Avuri and I stayed up the entire time but not one of them made a peep once they had all gone to bed, following Cierra and Stena's schedule. The ease of it all had been shocking, but Vale had reiterated that we should hold off judgement for a few days before we said this had been easy.

Unsurprisingly, he was right. The second day with them in the house had been just as easy as the first. Avuri and I had gotten more involved with the kids than usual, keeping them all company throughout the day just in case, but they didn't seem to need the extra care. Instead, we spent basically all day either cooking and eating or playing games together.

They didn't even seem antsy or unable to concentrate. We, as a family, had spent several hours just drawing and doodling on paper. Then, after dinner, we played simple card games that even the younger kids could play. When they said they wanted to try something else, we sat them in our laps and let them help us play a more complicated game. Everything had gone great.

It was that second night that things finally looked more like what Vale had warned us about, and what we had been expecting.

It started with Enrik stumbling into our bedroom less and hour after everyone had gone to bed. He looked sleepy, rubbing his eyes against the low Array-based lighting in our room, but also equally upset.

"Enrik?" Avuri had asked, after he stood motionless for a while in the doorway.

"Miss Avuri?" He said tentatively, "I can't sleep. Can you come back with me?"

"Of course." Avuri said, sliding out of bed. "I'll be back later, I guess."

"Don't hurry." I responded with a smile. She nodded, took the boy's hand, and walked him back to his own bed.

I idly wondered why he didn't ask to sleep with us, the way Cierra and Stena both had, and whether it was maybe a boy thing or more to do with us being too new to him yet. But a little more than an hour later, I heard a pitterpatter of feet running down the hall, and someone leaping into our bed.

Karn immediately huddled under the blanket and cuddled up near my thigh, and I couldn't help but picture him as a wounded animal the way he had acted. Rather than try to pull him out or agitate him, I tried to rub his back through the blanket in an effort to calm him down. I could feel him shaking, but couldn't immediately tell if it was with fear, crying, or the cold through the blanket.

He did eventually stop shaking, but when he began to move up toward the pillows at the head of the bed, I felt the slightly damp clothing he moved away from cling to my leg, so I guessed he had been crying.

By the time he had wiggled his way up to where the pillows were, it seemed like he had exhausted himself. We had never said a word, but whether he had run in because of a bad dream or something else, it seemed like he had calmed down enough to sleep.

He all but collapsed on Avuri's pillows face down, and was out again while I continued to stroke his back, hoping to keep him calm.

"You too?"

"Me too. I've got Karn in here." I sent back. "He's on your pillow, and I think he must have had a nightmare or something. He was trembling when he came in, and crying. He's asleep now, though."

"I see. Enrik is asleep again, too, but he has kept a death grip on my hand the whole time. He might be afraid to be alone."

"He called you 'Miss Avuri' when he came in, too, despite calling you 'Momri' all day."

"Yeah, I noticed that too."

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"I guess we should both stay put. I'd like to check on Kord and Briar, though."

"As far as I can tell, they're both still in bed. We'll have to see how long that lasts, I guess." Avuri sent. "With some luck, they'll last the night."

"I'm just hoping they don't rely on each other too much."

"Love, I don't think that came out right." I could feel Avuri's amusement with the words, and I let out a small chuckle.

"No, I don't think it did. I hope they realize they can rely on us, too, and not just each other." I amended.

"Better." I smiled into the darkness as Avuri's satisfaction settled around me, as I imagined she could feel mine. "Well. Looks like we spoke too soon."

"So I see." I sent back as I once again heard footsteps approaching our bedroom. They weren't nearly as rushed as Karn's had been, and I could clearly make out two different sets of footfalls.

It wasn't long before Kord and Briar stood in the doorway, hand in hand. Briar was sleepily rubbing at her eyes, which looked red and puffy to my limited vision in the dark. Kord looked tired and upset as well, but not like he had been crying.

"Is it okay if…" He said, trailing off when he realized that Avuri wasn't in the room, but Karn was asleep in the bed.

"Of course it is." I said, keeping my voice down. With Karn asleep fully on Avuri's side of the bed, I shifted over so that Kord and Briar could clamber up from the foot of the bed and crawl into the middle, closer to me. Karn didn't need any comforting as asleep as he was, but it looked like Briar, at least, might benefit from a hug.

"They're both here." I sent to Avuri, just to keep her updated. "It looks like Briar was crying, and Kord looks upset, too."

"Gotta hand it to Vale. Your dad was entirely right."

The two kids climbed up and crawled into the space I made for them, trying to settle in. They made an effort to avoid jostling Karn as they laid down in the center of the bed. I pushed my pillow over to cover the gap that was usually there so they weren't just laying on their arms, and Kord gave me a small nod of thanks.

Briar shifted around to try to burrow into the blankets, and ended up settling up against me. The position immediately brought to mind the way a cat or dog would place themselves up against their owner for comfort, without quite the force or closeness of a cuddle. But if that was all Briar wanted, that was fine by me.

"I guess to be fair, when I first took Cierra in we usually slept in the same bed for the first few months. And Stena slept with us for a while, too." I thought to Avuri.

I felt the equivalent of laughter through our connection. "We might need a bigger bed if we're going to fit four kids in it with us."

"We'll need to fit six kids, Ri." I said, imagining how Cierra and Stena were going to react to seeing their new siblings sleeping in our bedroom.

"That's…true, isn't it? That's going to be a big bed."

"I'm sure we can make something." I sent, thinking about how Vale and I could put together a bed designed to fit all of us. Maybe a large rounded one that we could all fit into?

"Cierra's already nine. We can't have her in the bed with us for that much longer."

"I don't disagree, but do you want to be the one to tell her that?"

"...No."

"I didn't think so." I sent back. "We'll just have to be careful not to let them sleep with us for too long, that's all. A few months, at most."

"I don't believe for one second that you would push them away until they're all entirely settled, Em."

"You're probably right…" I sighed. The entire thought was reinforced when Briar turned herself over, pushing further into me. Without thinking about it, I reached up to run my fingers through her hair, trying to help comfort her. She at least looked more at peace now than she did when they came in, and was definitely not crying.

Kord, meanwhile, was still wide awake and staring at the ceiling. I couldn't tell if he was struggling to sleep, or actively trying to remain awake, but he still looked bothered somehow, or perhaps dissatisfied with something.

With Briar practically taking up my entire front, I couldn't do much beyond reaching out to take the boy's hand. He flinched at the touch, but I thought it seemed more in reaction to the sudden contact, not from fear of the contact. When I squeezed his hand lightly, he returned the squeeze and finally closed his eyes.

As I laid there looking at the faces of three scared and scarred children, I couldn't help the bit of anger and disgust that welled up inside of me.

"How could anyone treat kids like this the way demons do?" I asked Avuri, not really expecting any real answer. It wasn't the first time, or even the tenth time, I had posed the question to her, or myself.

"I don't understand it either." Avuri sent back. There was a wistfulness to her thoughts that formed an image in my mind of her kneeling beside Enrik's bed side, half laying on the bed and holding his hand, studying his face. "No one deserves any of the torture they put people through, but I can't even imagine using children like that."

"I suppose that's why we're here, no?" I sent.

"I just hope there are more people like us out there, handling the ones out of our reach." Avuri's thoughts were quiet, like a muttering to herself.

"I hope so too." I said, not wanting to think about how many groups of demonic Cultivators could be out there, in places we couldn't reach, doing whatever it was that they did.

Kord rolled over, still holding my hand. I shook the thoughts away, not wanting to be preoccupied with dour thoughts while I had kids right there to look after. They deserved my full attention, as long as I could give it.

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