Morning didn’t come fast enough.
Fray woke up before Ether, which only helped add to my discomfort. The green woman just stared at the weird mass of bodies for a while. I finally got uncomfortable enough that I started rotating my left shoulder
“Wha…” Ether rubbed her eyes and looked up, right into her mother’s face.
Ether bolted in the other direction, wide awake. “Mom… You… I…. Uh…”
“It’s okay baby.” Miel stood up, allowing me to get blood circulating into my extremities again. “Mom told me what happened.” Her voice got darker and she grit her shark teeth together. “I nearly tore your father’s ear off. Making a joke like that…”
“But I…” Ether inched closer to her mother, still looking unsure of what was happening.
“We wanted to seal you so that we could tell you everything, but a seal that strong…” Miel shook her head. “It probably would have killed you, That’s why we had to wait until you were twelve.” A smile crossed her face. “You were supposed to go to the Cathedral with Pixie, but it seems that worked itself out.”
“Wait.” I stood up and started stretching my muscles. “You were part of their whole sibling supergroup thing?”
Miel looked at me and thought for a moment. She must have decided that she could tell me, because she continued. “Not initially. Once we found out Gar and Harror had failed, I started trying again.” She nodded at her daughter. “Ether is two months younger than Pix and barely old enough to participate in the same Mantle ceremony.”
“Oh.” I chuckled. “Is that part of the reason that Kara is going instead?”
“A little.” Miel shrugged. “Honestly it has more to do with her being the right age and a fantastic opportunity opening up for one of the promising youths in the fifth-year class.” Her face got serious. “Kara getting drained of most of her experience is alarming, but it worked out. Plus Mavery has agreed to let her stay on as a teacher’s aid once she graduates.”
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“Let me guess, she’s going to gain a lot of experience in those last two weeks before school starts back.” I shook my head. I didn’t know how much help a level sixteen would be if something happened or how often she’d even see us, though I could see a Jovena situation happening.
Miel turned back to her daughter and held out her arms. “Baby, please. I’ve been waiting six years for this.”
Ether looked frozen in place. I sighed and walked over to her and helped her to her feet. I put my hand on her back and slowly guided her into her mother’s arms, then took a quick step back so I didn’t get caught by Miel again.
The three of us watched them way past the point that it felt awkward. I knew that they’d missed a lot of these tender moments, but neither of them was crying anymore, so I felt it was time to continue our day. We still had to pick up Aelin and Justia and they were probably wondering why we weren’t there. Actually they probably didn’t mind, but taking Aelin shopping was going to be an event in and of itself.
I cleared my throat a few times to get their attention. It took them some more time to finally separate.
“So…” I looked around the room. “What are we doing today?”
“I heard you wanted a change of clothes, some new gear, and to go into the dungeon.” Miel held out her left hand to show her CB. “Gesai transferred the six of you to me, so while you’re here, I’ll be acting as your teacher.” She gestured around the room. “And we can get you somewhere better than this. It’s probably best if we leave them in here since it’s warded. Don’t worry, we have the palace doctor check on them regularly.”
She must have seen the objection I was about to give and headed it off. I looked over at Rix. “Sound good?”
The redhead nodded silently.
“Fray, you okay with that plan?” I looked at the green woman.
“Yes.” Fray looked away. It almost looked like she was blushing, or maybe that was envy, I couldn’t tell.
I turned to Ether. “I’ll veto it if you’d rather have a different setup.”
The ivory woman hesitated, then looked at her mother. “It’s good.”
“Great!” I clapped my hands. “Let’s get Aelin and Justia, then go get some breakfast!”
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