It was only a moment later when Lewis walked in, a very annoyed look on his face. “Camille, you know better.” He walked over and picked her up from Janus, apologizing to his son. He gave Lila a nod, and gave Myrri a dead stare, and left without elaborating any further.

“What just happened, Mr. Terrowin?” the teacher asked as everyone stared at Janus.

“Uh…”

—

Back at the Terrowin castle, Lewis sat down with Camille and Phillip. Silva came in with two cups, one filled with hot chocolate, and the other coffee.

“Thank you, Silva,” Lewis said as he bowed out. He took a sip of his coffee and sat back. “I’m a little disappointed, Camille.” He was in his serious mode. “You know that disturbing Janus is a big no unless it’s an actual emergency.” He wasn’t yelling, but he was definitely being stern with her. “Furthermore, the gate is off limits. What would have I done if you had opened it to the deep ocean? Or worse?” He took a deep breath, trying to center himself. He didn’t want to yell at her, but he also was struggling to find a way to let her know how serious this was.

“Janus could get into serious trouble if you do that again. You don’t want to get him kicked out, do you?” He wondered briefly, if she understood the implications that would bring.

“I get that you’re feeling alone. But we’re working on figuring out how to handle that together. We talked about Corrine and Jules, right?” he thought about it. “It’s also close to time for you to be starting school. Once that happens, I'm sure you'll meet friends around your own age.”

Of course, he knew the importance of her wanting to talk to Janus. “Why don’t we start writing letters to Janus? We can have Snowball deliver them. Will that do? We can make him write back too.”

Camille sniffled at Lewis while he talked to her. She could tell he was disappointed in her and that hurt. She sat there drinking her hot chocolate and she paused for a moment. “Silva,” Camille spoke up, not wanting to interrupt her father but also it was important. “Can Philip have his cup?” It was a silly little thing that made her feel better as Silva put a purple teacup in front of the red dragon plushie.

“I don’t want Janjan to get in trouble,” Camille finally spoke up. “And I’m sorry I used the portal.” The fact she wasn’t explaining how right she was to use it was a win for Lewis. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

Nodding she thought about it, “Daddy… How will I write letters?”

“Well, why not do it with your pastels? Janus will understand what you write,” Lewis was trying to encourage the little girl.

“Okay…” She sipped on her hot chocolate some more and looked up at Lewis with big eyes. “But how do I get Damond and Remy to stop being mean to me? They are bigger than me… and they can fly… They picked on Philip.” They must have taken Philip when she was in the bath playing underwater adventure with Silva.

“Oh… I think I can get back at them. Do you want to help?” Camille nodded up to Lewis.

“Can… we finish the hot chocolate first?”

“Of course,” Lewis ruffled her hair and Camille took her time as she finished up. “Now what do we do?”

Lewis was setting a trap above each of the boy’s rooms. He wasn’t showing Camille how to set the trap but he pulled her up and let her set the bucket above the door. Their screams made her giggle in Lewis’s arms as he took her up to the art room.

Corrine and Jules were there now. Putting Camille down Lewis gently pushed her towards them. Looking up at her father Camille played with the edges of her dress much like Simone did when she was nervous. “Can…” Camille spoke up and got quiet as the two looked over at her. “Can I play too?”

“Of course Camille,” Corrine and Jules replied as Jules even moved over so Camille could sit in the middle. “We’re painting scenery.” They helped pull her up onto the tall stool. She looked much happier as they showed her how to paint what they were.

–

Are We There Yet?

(For the purposes of this thread Remy and Damond are 5)

They were left to their own devices. The island was a safe place so their mother and father didn’t mind them wandering off. Today was the day though. Today, they would fly.

Remy and Damond climbed up one of the tallest trees in the east garden. They walked out over the branch and looked down at the ground. This was a pretty long drop for the two of them. “Well after you,” Remy said as he pushed Damond.

Much to his disappointment all Damond could do was tuck and roll.

Remy jumped after him with the same result.

The two sat there and folded their arms in unison looking up at the sky. “You know Damond… I don’t think that tree was high enough…”

“I think you might be right. When the baby birds come out of their tree they are much smaller than we are,” Damond was the brains of this operation while Remy was the brawn.

“The awning over the garden is pretty high…”

“I agree,” Damond responded as they pulled themselves up and climbed out the window onto the awning.

“That’s a pretty far drop…” Remy looked over before Damond pushed him off the awning.

Damond was quicker to follow his brother but the result was the same. They lay there looking up at the sky once more. “It wasn’t high enough.”

“We could try above Daddy’s study,” Remy spoke up.

“Oh, that’s a good idea. We can climb over to it from the library,” Damond spoke up before they pulled themselves up and made their way to the library window. Slowly they edged their way to the window sill from the window in the library.

“That’s a long way down,” Damond said.

“It’s perfect…” Remy said as he shoved his brother hard.

It was quiet. Not the kind of quiet that he was used to. It was almost perfect. He had briefly debated doing something relaxing, such as reading or looking over some new songs for the cabaret, but instead, he decided to try something new.

Lewis was going to do nothing.

It was a little hard at first. The silence was nice, but the lack of stimulation was aggravating. But slowly, the lack of anything started to change. This was nice. He could be lost in thought all alone, without any care in the world. This was it, the enlightenment that he had sought out for this exercise. The true ability to-

“AHHHHHHHH”

Someone zoomed past his window screaming, and he heard a loud smack. Lewis took a deep breath, and exhaled, opening his eyes as he walked towards the window. He sipped on his coffee. “I wonder what that wa-”

“AHHHHHHHHH”

Remy came flying from somewhere above, and landed next to his brother. Hard.

“Oh.” Lewis let out a sigh, and took another sip of coffee. “Better go get Xeik…” He seemed rather unalarmed. He knew that Silva was looking out for them, but even she wasn’t above letting them learn a harsh lesson. It was very likely she had prepared for this somehow, and that their injuries would be non-life threatening, though likely painful.

It took little time for Xeik to arrive, and soon the two were standing over Remy and Damond, both of them with their arms crossed.

“And what have we learned today, boys?” Lewis asked.

Remy and Damond both had broken one of their arms and one of their legs was gonna be out of commission for a little bit. “That flying is hard,” Remy groaned out.

“We don’t think we’re ready to fly,” Damond spoke up after his brother. “Maybe it was too high.”

“We should have tried the balcony at the library…”

“And you thought… that jumping from high places was going to help you learn how to fly?” Xeik was busy at work on both of the boys.

“Well… When baby birds are ready to fly they just fall out of their birdhouse. Like in the garden with Mommy’s birdhouse,” Damond said to Xeik a bit stubbornly. “We’re ready.”

Lewis just stared at both the boys, “But that’s not how this works though. Last time I checked you weren’t a baby bird.”

“But we’re close, right? We’re phoenixes. We have wings,” Remy spoke up now as Xeik prodded at him.

“Your feathers aren’t grown in yet. So even if you wanted to… You can’t. That’s not the way this works. You got a while to go before your permanent feathers grow in.” Xeik educated.

Simone ran out to them and stopped, “What on earth has happened to my babies?!”

“Well,” Lewis spoke up, “They jumped from the castle and tried to fly.”

“Why on earth would you jump from the castle?!” Simone yelled as she ran over to them. “Look at your little arms and legs.” She fussed over them.

Remy and Damond looked at each other and then looked at their mother. “We wanted to be like you Mommy. You are so cool when you fly.” They were trying to get out of trouble.

“Oh no I don’t think so… You are going to be grounded. You could have seriously killed yourselves,” Simone was now the one in charge. “As soon as you are better you are grounded for a week. No exploring on your own.”

Remy and Damond protested but they were met when a very fierce Simone.

“I will not be burying my children because of them not thinking something through.”

–

Dad You’re My New Best Friend

Lewis was enjoying himself in his office once more. The peace was calming. The children were being good. It was the best. Sending the Terror Twins to finishing school was the best thing ever. A relaxed sigh left his lips.

A knock at the door brought Lewis out of his peace and quiet as he beckoned them in.

“Dad!” Damond stood there with a grin on his face. “Can you show me how to throw daggers?” This had been going on for a little bit now where Damond wanted to do a lot with his father.

“MAYBE WE CAN GO FISHING!” Damond was bouncing with excitement. “How about we go look at the wine, I bet the grapes need to be looked at.”

He was at that point in his life where he was idolizing his father. Unlike Remy who had opted for his own adventures. “OH! Right I made this,” It was a makeshift dagger. “Cool right? Wait until you get me a real one. I really want to learn how to throw them.”

Events like these with Damond started happening more and more frequently, to the point where it seemed like Lewis was being hounded at every free moment he had. It wasn’t a bad thing, per say, but it was starting to encroach on what little time Lewis had to recharge.

“Lewis,” Xeik asked as he opened up a hallway closet and squeezed in. “Why are we having a meeting in the second floor linen closet?”

“Look, this is the only one I know that has enough room for both of us,” Lewis replied.

“I won’t even bother asking why you know that,” the healer responded with a blank stare.

“So…I have this problem with Damond…”

“Oh?” Xeik smirked. “He’s a daddy’s boy isn’t he? Wants to grow up just like his papa?”

“You have no idea,” Lewis replied. “He needs more than just ex-assassin role models. Maybe someone with more…healer-like qualities?”

Xeik scoffed, “Oh? What’s this? Are you trying to say you want me to take your kid?”

“What about a field trip with Uncle Xeik? You can show him that there are other paths in life.”

“I…guess…” Xeik pondered it for a moment.

“Just think, Uncle Xeik…you could inspire a new healer…”

“Fine…but just this once…”

—

Three Days Later

“Dad! Can you set the portal to go see Uncle Xeik!? I wanna ask him about potions. I have this GREAT idea about a potion that explodes when it gets opened!”

Lewis smirked, “Sure…let’s go get that portal tuned…”

“And then, we can go look up different plants. And animals! Do you think Auntie Mia will take me hunting? Xeik says there are so many different things to do with animal parts!”

“Sure,” Lewis replied, watching as Damond jumped through the portal. When it closed, Lewis let out a sigh of relief. And then, once the silence hit, he frowned.

“Damn it…I kinda wanted to show him how to throw a dagger today…”

Simone came over and put her arms around him, “Sooner or later he’ll figure out you’re cooler than Uncle Xeik is.” She chuckled a bit and put her lips to his cheek. “You’ll have your time to shine again. He’ll get bored when he finds out he can’t explode things.”

–

A Day at the Music Store

Simone held onto Camille’s one hand while Lewis held the other. Cantrell was nestled in a baby cover across his mother. “Now, are you sure this is what you want to do?”

“Yes!” Camille huffed up at her mother. “I want to learn how to play an instrument.”

They were headed to the music store so Camille could pick out what she wanted. Once they were inside Camille let go of their hands and went around the store. “Daddy, what’s this one?” She pointed at a harp.

Lewis walked over and plucked one of the strings, “It’s a harp.” He plucked a few more strings, and let the sound ring out. “Do you like it?”

She made a funny face, and stuck out her tongue. “Noo, I can taste the notes.”

“Wha-” Before Lewis could ask what it meant, she moved on to the next instrument, which was a piano on a podium.

“Oh, I know this one! Daddy can play it! But I want to do something different from Daddy!” she exclaimed, pointing at a silver flute. “What about this?”

“It’s a flute. You blow across this hole here and it makes a sound.”

“Oohh…but then I have to breath a lot, and that’s tiring…” She frowned and moved along. “No breathing. What about that!?”

“A violin?” Lewis said as he walked over and examined it on the wall. “I believe…” He picked it up, and tried to make a sound. It wasn’t something familiar to him, so what came out could hardly be called a proper note. It was more akin to a dying cat on the side of a road.

“Er…maybe not…” he muttered to himself.

Simone made the same face that Lewis did the moment he tried to make a noise.

“THAT’S IT THAT’S THE ONE,” Camille got excited and jumped up and down at it.

“Are you sure sweetheart? That harp looked a lot bett–”

“IT HAS TO BE THAT ONE!” Camille pointed at the violin. “I want that one.”

“Oh, but the flute…”

“Vi-o-lin,” Camille spoke lightly. “You can’t trick me like you did when you got me to eat prunes! YOU CAN’T USE THAT TRICK ON ME TWICE MOMMY!”

“Mommy was just making sure you didn’t really like prunes,” Simone tried to calm her daughter down. “Does it really have to be the violin?”

“YES!”

The shopkeep came over with a child-sized violin and helped Camille take a pose. He showed her a few notes from his own violin.

“Oh! I SEE! Now, I’m going to play twinkle, twinkle, little star,” Camille nodded and began a horror show in the music shop.

The sound that was created made history that day.

Out of all the weapons that Lewis knew how to wield, none of them could come close to the horrific sound that split the air, as if a dagger cutting flesh. Each note pierced each ear with the voracity of needles being shoved into his brain. The melody was heavier than any bone shattering blow he had taken, almost crippling him instantly. Last, but not least, was the finishing touch: the look of satisfaction on Camille’s face as she finished.

In all his years, Lewis had never seen such a powerful, mind altering substance.

“You did such a good job, honey,” Lewis said as his eyes started to water. He wasn’t sure if his ears were bleeding, and he was far too afraid to check.

Your Baby Girl is Your Wife but Miniature

Lewis was spending a nice peaceful day fishing with Xeik. They were out on the pier and had been since early that morning. It was quiet the sun was perfect. The fish were biting. The children were busy.

“Daddy,” Camille came over in her little sundress. She had been told not to go near the pier without an adult but she considered this with an adult. “I have questions.” She put her little hands on her hips and stared at Lewis. “Oh, hello Uncle Xeik.”