Page 116 of Storm to Victory
“You know you have her blessing as well.” Fieran stuck out his hand, letting just a hint of his magic wrap around his fingers. “Brothers?”
Merrik let some of his own magic twine around his fingers before he clasped Fieran’s hand. Their magic fizzled and popped in their palms for a moment as they shook. “Brothers.”
The handshake wasn’t enough. Fieran pulled Merrik in for a quick, backslapping hug before he released Merrik. “We really should have thought of that new handshake long before now.”
“It is far superior to the spit handshake.” Merrik shook his head. “Although, we could not have done it before we came into our magic.”
“True.” Fieran took a step back in the direction of the lift. He needed to grab breakfast, shower, finish packing, and say goodbye to his family before he joined Pip and her family at thetrain station. “Well, I need to go. I want to hear all about how it goes when I get back. Just leave out the kissing parts.”
“Same. And best of luck impressing the dwarves.” Merrik was already starting to turn, heading for his own breakfast.
Fieran laughed and waved as he jogged toward the lift. “Thanks. I’m going to need it.”
Pip leanedclose to the window as the elven train glided to a halt on the spur track on one side of the western rail terminal. The familiar buildings spread before her beneath the spindly arms of the nearly bare trees, the first buds of spring dotting the ends of the twigs.
Home.
A lump formed in her throat. It had been nearly a year since she’d last seen it, and now she was returning only to say goodbye to it once again. This place that had shaped her, that held all her childhood memories, would never be her home again.
“Are you all right?” Fieran placed an arm around her shoulders, tugging her close.
“I’m fine.” The words were hoarse, her throat so tight it hurt. But she didn’t cry. Not yet, anyway. “It’s just…change is hard.”
“Yeah.” Fieran’s grip tightened around her as he enfolded her into a full hug.
She wrapped her arms around him and leaned into him, soaking in his warmth and strength. The next couple of days would be hard. Good, but hard. At least she would have Fieran at her side, bolstering her up.
Dacha, Muka, and Mak gathered their bags and climbed off the train.
Pulling herself together, Pip released Fieran, stepped back, and picked up her bag. She could do this. Surely saying goodbye to her childhood home wouldn’t be as hard as many of the things she’d done in the past year.
After Fieran had slung his own bag over a shoulder, his twin swords hanging off the side, he held out a hand to her. “I can’t wait to see where you grew up.”
She clasped his fingers, her smile feeling somewhat more genuine and less forced. As long as she focused on showing her home to Fieran, hopefully the coming farewell to it wouldn’t sting so much. “Come on.”
She tugged him from the train and gave him a tour as they meandered through the terminal. Fieran asked questions and made suitably impressed comments as she pointed out the parked trains, the open-sided buildings to park trains out of the weather, the turntable for turning around both elven trains running on roots and human trains running on metal rails. Even as they wandered, a train rumbled across the arching metal bridge spanning the Milnissi River, likely holding dwarven raw materials hauled across the Afristani Plains.
The elves, half-elves, trolls, half-trolls, and half-humans, even the occasional full human, bustled between the parked trains, storage sheds, and open-sided buildings grown between the lofty trees. The workers shouted and waved to her, and she and Fieran paused to talk to several of them.
At the far side, they reached the longest building, which held the main office and the large mechanics shop where the more complicated repairs were done.
Beyond that long building, her family’s cottage was grown into a grove of five trees, its sides and roof a living tangle of branches so that it almost looked like a giant, house-shaped beaver dam.
As she and Fieran strolled closer, they had to dodge around more workers hauling in packing crates, already getting started on the work of packing up her family’s belongings. Inside the main room that filled the entire first floor, her muka and dacha stood in the center of the space, directing workers to set down the crates and what to pack in them.
Pip would have frozen right there in the doorway, but Fieran tugged her to the side before she could get bowled over by two men carrying a crate, who likely wouldn’t have seen her.
Dacha glanced at her before he wound his way through the chaos to reach her side. Even across the room, he likely had seen how close she was to tears.
As Fieran stepped a few paces away, giving them space, Dacha clasped her shoulders. “I know it is hard to say goodbye. But this change will be good for your muka and me. The western rail terminal was the haven we needed to raise you and your brother in a Tarenhiel that was not ready for a dwarf-elf couple. But it is time to stop hiding here and use our talents in new ways, as you are doing, sena.”
“What your dacha means is that it’s time he started pursuing his dreams and talents again.” Muka strode forward and grabbed Pip out of Dacha’s elven hug for a squeezing, rib-crushing dwarf hug instead. “He spent decades here so that I could do my mechanics. It’s time he became Inawenys once again. And the dwarves need me to learn to be an ambassador as well as a mechanic.”
When Muka released her, Pip gasped in a deep breath.
Dacha smiled down at Muka a moment before he leaned down and brushed a light kiss on her mouth.
Pip looked away for a moment. Her parents were happy. Yes, they were all mourning having to say farewell to this place, but this change would be good for them as well.
