The two sisters hugged for quite some time until Maple eventually relented and let Willow out of her embrace after she’d started to squirm a bit.

  From the strength of her hug and flow of her qi, Willow could tell that her sister had grown massively since she’d left all those weeks ago. The girl idly wondered if she’d been actively training or if this was just a side effect of binding spirits of a certain strength.

  Harmony and Change hadn’t directly given her any strength to her knowledge, they’d merely given her the tools to strengthen herself through qi exercises.

  Something to ask Mu later.

  Speaking of, Maple turned and gave the wanderer a slight bow.

  “Thank you for looking after my sister last night, Master Wanderer. I hope she wasn’t too much of a handful.”

  Which just made Mu chuckle.

  “No more than usual, still workin’ on solvin’ some of her issues, but so far she’s been a fine apprentice. Soaks up my teachin’s like a sponge, and she’s constantly eager to learn more.”

  “What’s a sponge?” Willow piped in, having never heard the term before.

  “They’re critters that live in water that people harvest for their ability to soak up liquids. I studied a spirit beast variant that had an unnaturally quick absorption rate for all types of qi so long as it was imbued into a liquid of some kind. Heard its binder was quite frustrating for others to fight as a result. Luckily I never had to fight the man.”

  “Neat!” The girl replied to this random tidbit of information. She wondered if she’d ever get to see one of them. They sounded interesting.

  Mu gave Maple a half smile. “See what I mean? Always happy with whatever random anecdote I bring up, it’s frankly refreshing to have such a captive audience for my ramblin’.”

  Willow’s sister laughed. “Yeah she’s always been like that, constantly questioning whatever unfamiliar term or concept came up in our mother’s stories. Though there are other times where she comes to her own conclusions on something without consulting anyone, and we’d all get a chuckle out of the resulting misunderstanding.”

  Oi!

  Willow hoped she didn’t share any of those embarrassing moments. It wasn’t her fault that things weren’t explained properly to her sometimes. Then again, her time with Mu had begun to teach her that she shouldn’t feel embarrassed when she misunderstood something so long as she sought to correct her world view as soon as the mistakes within it were discovered.

  Willow still didn’t fully understand what that meant, but figured that was part of the process.

  “Where’s Da and everyone else?” She asked, hoping to distract her sister from telling potentially embarrassing stories of her past mistakes.

  Maple patted the top of Willow’s head and flashed her a smile. “Oh they’ll be here soon. I just went ahead so I could see you sooner. We’ll be checking out one of the plots of land me and Uncle Lin scouted out today.”

  That piqued the child’s interest. “Neat! Is it a nice place?”

  Her sister didn’t let it show on her face, but she grew uncomfortable at the question. “The people there seem lovely, and the land meets all our requirements at a cheap enough price.”

  Willow was upset that her sister didn’t seem entirely happy with it, but kept her mouth shut since she didn’t want to call her out in front of Miss Mu.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  The three of them continued to chat as they waited for the rest of their group to arrive, though Maple grew increasingly concerned at how long it was taking for the family to catch up to her.

  Eventually they saw the sight of Bough trundling through the crowd with the rickety cart attached to them. Aunt Jieun and Uncle Lin were walking with their arms linked beside the old earth turtle and Yew was animatedly talking to Bai behind them.

  The Faber family and Mister Joaquin were noticeably distant from the rest of the group, and as they grew closer Willow noticed that the overall mood of her family was stormy and tense. Clearly something had happened while she was separated from everyone.

  Rowan began to awkwardly dismount from his beast and Maple rushed over to help him. Afterwards Willow noticed her father’s qi lost a lot of the anger stewing inside of it when he confirmed that his youngest was safe and sound.

  “We were worried when you two didn’t make it to the inn last night.” He rumbled to Mu.

  “My apologies, they started closin’ the gates for the night earlier than I was expectin’. We were perfectly safe the entire time though, no need to fret.”

  The large man grunted his acknowledgement as he gently placed a calloused hand on his youngest’s head.

  Willow’s curiosity reached a breaking point. “Why is everyone so grumpy? Did something happen?”

  Her father let out a deep sigh, and the anger from earlier resurfaced.

  “The Fabers and Joaquin will be going their separate ways from us.” He eventually explained, but he was clearly hesitating to say more.

  “They’re also taking half the money we’d assigned for the group to move as their own.” Her aunt interjected with venom in her voice.

  “What?!” Maple exclaimed, clearly as surprised as Willow that this was happening. Guess they discussed this after she’d left.

  “That means the leads we’ve gathered are basically worthless.” Her uncle commiserated with Maple, though he was much calmer about the news since he’d had more time to process it.

  “So we’ll be heading to some of the more fringe settlements and see if our funds can be stretched a bit further out there. Who knows, maybe we’ll find something even better.” Her father tried to put some enthusiasm into his voice, but Willow could tell how tired and upset he was.

  “Is this because of me?” She asked him. Though she felt she knew the answer.

  “No, sprout. There’s been a growing rift between me and the Fabers for a while now, and Joaquin was always a companion of convenience. It’s not a complete surprise that they chose now to separate our community.”

  Willow felt there were things her father wasn’t saying, but she didn’t want to worsen his mood.

  It still hurt that her family was breaking up in this way.

  It hurt worse that she felt responsible.

  She felt her Uncle Lucius approaching their group. His normally stoic demeanor cracking under the weight of his melancholy.

  Her father and uncle stared at each other, neither of them wanting to break the building silence.

  Until Lucius eventually relented.

  “Rowan.” He rumbled, clearly unsure of what to say, but pushing ahead regardless. “I’m sorry things turned out the way that they have, but I need to do what’s best for my family. However…” Lucius struggled with his next words, but pushed them out in a rush. “I don’t want words said in anger to be your potential last memory of me. Doesn’t feel right.”

  He raised his arm for a forearm clasp, and Rowan stared at it in silence for a few moments.

  “I hope you find happiness again, brother. Despite everything.”

  Willow felt her father’s turmoil as he grasped his friend’s hand and pulled the man who was like a brother to him into a brief embrace.

  “I wish you and your children well, Lucius. If I never see you again, I hope you die fat, happy, and surrounded by grandchildren. If I do see you then it's my turn to buy the drinks, aye?”

  Lucius snorted and wiped some moisture away from his eyes. “Safe travels, brother. To you as well, Lin, Jieun.”

  Uncle Lin gave Lucius a tired smile. “May your family find happiness, friend.”

  Willow’s aunt just gave a terse nod to the man in reply, though her uncle didn’t seem to expect more as he started to head back to his wife and children.

  The girl saw her Aunt Sarah glaring daggers at their group.

  At her side was a wide-eyed boy that may or may not have been Willow’s friend.

  She waved her goodbye to him.

  Remy did not wave back.