Sword and Snow

I stood and watched resolutely as my blood family left. The only ones who ever turned around to look at me were my teen cousins, who all looked various degrees of sad or apprehensive. I really felt for them and hoped they would find their way out of that family as quickly as possible.

It took just a few moments for them to basically move far enough that they were obscured by trees on the property. I decided to flood the area with my Domain to keep an eye on them; if they tried to stay and hide somewhere, I would know. And I wanted them gone.

Satisfied I would be able to keep a metaphorical eye on them until they left the basin, I turned and moved quickly back toward the house and my family.

Emery was waiting at the door, still fuming, but under control. She looked apologetic as she met my eyes.

“It’s okay.” I said, letting out a long sigh. “I knew my family wasn’t the best. But I never would’ve expected any of them to hit a child.” After a moment I added, “Well. Maybe I should’ve seen Leon’s buffoonery coming. He’s always been an asshole.”

Emery stepped to my side and gave me a hug from the side. “It’s alright, it’s not your fault so don’t go blaming yourself for this.”

I turned into the hug and leaned down a bit to rest my forehead on her shoulder and took some deep breaths. She rubbed my back in an effort to soothe me, which I really appreciated. I took a short moment to recompose myself before moving to stand upright again. I kissed my wife’s cheek and smiled at her.

“Let’s go see our kids, yeah?” She asked.

“Yeah.” I agreed, and we moved toward the general commotion coming from the second floor.

Our kitchen was still set up for a large group with the extended table, and everyone was crowded around it. Cierra and Stena were in seats at the table while Emery’s siblings were scattered around the table. Vale was watching from nearby as Talya was trying to dab at tears with a wet cloth and clean off Cierra’s face.

As soon as they were in view, Emery and I both moved quickly to her side. Talya moved aside quickly as I pulled out the chair beside Cierra’s to sit down beside her. Emery did the same on Stena’s side, leaving Cierra’s care to me for now. I was glad she did, as I felt like I needed to make this up to the girl somehow.

Emery’s siblings also apparently decided to give us some privacy, as they left the room shortly after we arrived. I was grateful for that too, although I also had a feeling that had they stayed, it would’ve been fine as well.

When I turned my full attention to Cierra, I felt a surge of anger at Leon again. The girl was huddled up on the chair, once again with her arms hugged around her knees, her head down quietly crying. My first move was to scoot my chair closer to her and give her a hug. When I first made contact with her, I felt her flinch away and my heart sank. It seemed like a gut reaction though, and once I had my arms around her she leaned into me.

I honestly wasn’t sure if it was better that her aversion to touch was an instinctual reaction and not a conscious thing or not.

“Hey,” I said gently, “I’m sorry that he hit you.” I leaned my cheek against her head as I spoke. “You have to listen to me, okay? It is not your fault. And you did nothing wrong. He was the one who acted badly, not you.”

Cierra didn’t really respond, though I wasn’t sure I expected anything in the moment from her either.

I lightly brushed my fingers through the girl’s hair, trying to soothe her however I could. “Cierra? Can you let me see your face? I want to make sure you’re not hurt.”

It took a moment, but the girl did raise her head to look at me. Once again, I had to hold back a surge of anger directed at Leon. The left side of Cierra’s face looked okay, thankfully. Her eye was puffy and red from crying, and her cheek was splotchy with color from it as well, but there wasn’t any sign of anything else.

The right side of her face, though, did not look okay at all. Her right eye was swelling up, probably half from being struck and half from crying, and was already starting to bruise. The entire cheek was an angry red with the clear shaping of fingers stretching from the back of cheek up into her hairline.

Perhaps worst of all, and something I hadn’t noticed before, was that the hit had split the girl’s cheek around her cheekbone. There wasn’t a lot of blood, but there was enough that it was mixing with the tears, and staining her entire cheek a ruddy red.

I cycled my Qi into my hand and chilled the air near my palm, then brought that up near Cierra’s face. “The cold should help with the swelling, okay?” I asked, once again to no response. “It might help the pain a little too.”

We sat like that for a minute or two while Emery calmed down Stena beside us. My guess earlier had been correct - she was okay, but was crying mostly because Cierra was struck and crying. Thankfully, once Emery picked her up and sat the girl in her lap she was already calming down from the excitement.

“...Why did he hit me?”

The weak little murmured question snapped my attention back to Cierra, who looked like she was on the verge of tears again. I wanted to just say that it was because he was an asshole, but I didn’t think that would help anything. Nor would saying that it was because he was a bad guy, even if it was true.

“You understand that those people were the family I grew up with, right?” I asked for starters. The girl nodded. “When I was growing up, they were very strict. If someone didn’t listen to what they were told and didn’t do it three times, they were hit.” I said, the words turning my stomach as they brought up some bad memories.

“So Leon did what was done to him when he disobeyed three times.” I rubbed the top of Cierra’s head with my left hand while my right continued to ice her face. “It’s a very bad thing to do, and he should never have hit you. Especially not for you trying to hold his hand like a good girl.”

Cierra didn’t respond to that, and I was unsatisfied with what I said, so I tried to rethink it to put it another way.

“Listen to me, Cierra. This is not your fault. The fault lies with how messed up my family is. No one should ever be hit like that, do you understand?” I asked. Once again, Cierra didn’t really respond, but I scooted closer again to give the girl another hug, careful to keep the cold applied to her right side.

“Your mom and I would never hit you. Ever.” I said, giving her a squeeze. “And just to be clear, you shouldn’t hit people like that either. No one should hit anyone like that.”

The more I spoke, the more I felt the burn of hypocrisy, given that I had quite literally just hit Leon and probably even broke a rib or two. But Cierra was still little, and confusing her with anything beyond ‘don’t hit people’ was just going to complicate things. Teaching her that she shouldn’t hit people, period, felt like a much better option.

I glanced up at Emery more than once while I was beginning to ramble. She nodded in agreement with most of what I was saying, but as I continued on she started to smile as I lost my point while trying to comfort Cierra.

Eventually, I took a breath and a break from my incessant chattering to just stroke the girl’s back while I kept the soothing cold on her face. I realized I must have been truly out of sorts when it occurred to me that I could also actually use healing Qi to actually work on the bruise.

I rolled my eyes at myself as I leaned in to place a kiss on Cierra’s hair, then added the healing Qi to the cold. I slowly ramped it up, not wanting to spook the girl with sudden tingles, so it took a minute or two before the split cheek began to close and the swelling went down.

“Does that feel a little better?” I asked softly. Cierra nodded, and leaned against me for comfort. As I continued to treat her bruise with my Qi, I scratched her head lightly with my fingernails in a soothing motion. It was something that I knew she liked, and was a very normal thing for me to do when she was sitting with me.

The little dining area was quiet for a while as the four of us sat there mostly silent. Emery had gotten Stena up into her lap and was cradling her there while humming a soft lullaby. I continued to play with Cierra’s hair letting the healing Qi do its work while she slowly calmed down, just sniffling occasionally.

“Momri, I’m cold.” Cierra murmured. “Your hand is really cold.”

“Oh! Sorry.” I quickly dropped my hand from her cheek and let the Qi dissipate. Her face looked more or less normal now. There was still some smeared, dried blood, but the cuts were closed, and most of the swelling was gone. Her eyes were still bloodshot and puffy, but that was to be expected.

“How does your face feel? Any more pain?”

Cierra shook her head in the negative, then curled into herself a bit. “I’m just cold now. Can I have a hot tea or something?” Her voice was remarkably timid given her usual excitement.

“Of course.” I said, standing. “Would you like a blanket too, or do you think the drink will be enough?”

After a pause, she said, “...I’d like a blanket.”

I nodded and pulled a fluffy woolen blanket from my storage ring. It was a rather expensive blanket too, and one that I kept on me just in case. Never before had I been so thoroughly satisfied to pull it out like this, though.

With a dramatic flourish, I snapped the blanket out to its full size and wrapped it around Cierra, making sure she was snugly tucked in. I planted one more kiss on her forehead before I stood up straight again to go make her a hot drink. I had just the treat in mind for her.

“That blanket is a little bit magic, you know.” I said over my shoulder as I walked away. “If you snuggle into it, it’ll make you feel better.”

I didn’t look back, but I heard the shuffling of fabric as Cierra pulled it tightly around her.

Once I was in the kitchen, I quickly darted around to get what I needed for my special warm drink for her. It had been ages since I had made it - literally years - and as far as I knew, it would be new to Cierra.

Along with the special orders for the wedding food, I had made one other request of Lyn, to get a certain ingredient shipped in from the Southern Isles. It was something unusual that I had occasionally while growing up in a well-to-do merchant family, but wasn’t able to find much since I left them behind.

And now, I popped the special ingredient from my storage ring and dropped it into a large metal bowl. Once that was heated, and the ingredient melted, I added in some milk, cream, and just a dash of cinnamon. I poured the finished liquid into four cups, which then came back with me to the table.

I placed one in front of Cierra, then one each for Emery and Stena, who was now awake. Then I moved back to my seat with the last cup.

They all eyed the dark brown, thick drink with apprehension. At least until they smelled it.

“What is it?” Cierra asked, as she picked up her cup. I took a sip from my own, no doubt leaving a brown mustache on my upper lip, and smiled at her. Without actually answering yet, I nodded at her to take a sip.

When she did, she let out a tiny little squeal of joy and for the first time today so far, smiled. “What is it?” She asked again.

“Hot chocolate,” I said, and met her smile with my own.