Previous | Chapter Listing | Next It seems Gabriel has taken on the arduous task of teaching his little sister to talk. She’s learning at a decently speedy rate, so I can’t say he’s doing too badly! Maybe someday he’ll be a teacher. Maybe not. It’s good to see the kids getting along as well as they do. Avery mentioned off-hand one morning that I’d have to decide which of them would be taking over the legacy after me, and I sort of froze, like a deer in headlights, and wondered how on earth dad managed to make that decision himself. Then again, I was the only one of my…

Previous | Chapter Listing | Next I told dad when Gabriel was still a baby that it felt like time had slowed down on us. Dad laughed at me and said that the time would start to fly by soon enough. He was right. Gabriel’s getting bigger every day, and sometimes I look at him and wonder where that little boy came from. We do need to have a talk about his table manners, but there’s no harm in him flinging his salad across the room right now, I guess. (It bothers me. Avery tells me it’s just salad. She’s right.) Avery seems a little upset about how much weight…

Previous | Chapter Listing | Next Dad doesn’t come by as much. It’s kind of like he seems to think I’m starting to get the hang of this (I’m not) and I’m calming down (I’m really not), so he doesn’t need to come by as much anymore (he does!). It’s probably the kid in me that just still isn’t ready to grow up that’s clinging to him. “You’re going to be a granddad,” I said as he hugged me. “I already am,” he said, laughing. “Bryn had her baby, a son. She named him Ari.” “Oh.” For a moment, I was a little hurt she hadn’t told me that. But…

Previous | Chapter Listing | Next I asked her. She said yes. It was kind of a spur of the moment sort of thing. I’d meant for something more romantic, you know, some candles, soft music, rose petals maybe (does she even like roses?), a nice dinner, some time talking under the stars, and then I’d ask her. Not by dropping the ring into her wine glass, either (not that she drinks wine). Instead, what happened was, and now in hindsight I don’t even remember what she said, but she said something, and I laughed, and just… pulled the ring out and asked. I’m surprised she said yes. Avery’s always…

Previous | Chapter Listing | Next Cynemaer and I’s birthday came much quicker than I was hoping it would. By some miracle, I passed biology, and I also passed all my other classes, and graduated from high school. It was probably mostly with Avery’s help. That girl’s a genius, and I’m sort of ashamed to admit that I asked her for help a lot. But then, maybe that’s not so bad. Dad would say something like, at least you’re using your resources, or something. Which is… smart, I guess. I still have plenty of doubts about being heir, but dad’s words about not being able to learn to be a…

Previous | Chapter Listing | Next Notes: Here we go, I’ve never written for Cecily before, I have no idea how she’s going to come out, so pardon the first few chapters where her voice is likely to be very shaky. My sister’s regent. And somehow, I ended up heir. Let me back-track a little, I guess. Dad (the one we’re all related to) got a random hair up his bum, and decided to leave magic realm (um, why???) and come out here to Mt. Komorebi and… you know he’s explained a few times what he intended to do, and every time it confuses me even more, so, to do…

Previous | Chapter Listing | Next I decided to put a gym upstairs for the kids to use. They unfortunately got the Ember propensity towards putting on a little too much weight a little too easily, and it seemed like it might be beneficial for them to have an easy way of working it off. Freya was one of the first ones up there. She seemed pretty determined to work the baby fat off, but as far as I’m concerned, all my children are perfect exactly the way they are. Dustin later dyed his hair more of a golden blond, and he looks almost exactly like his auncle Morgyn. There…

Previous | Chapter Listing | Next My mother’s spirit has taken to doing chores around the house. One morning I caught her washing the sink, and then she took the trash out. There are pluses and minuses to being spiritually aware, and personally I think being awoken at 5am by your dead mother taking the trash out is one of the drawbacks. The boys were due their birthdays soon, and were ageing into teenagers. I wasn’t super thrilled with the idea of having a house full of teenagers, but really, it could be worse. Cynemaer was first, of course. He was born first, so he goes first. He seemed to…

Previous | Chapter Listing | Next Dad died the next day. Drake was the only one of us that wasn’t in a terribly awful mood, and he spent a lot of time trying to cheer everyone else up. I think it worked to some extent, but perhaps not the fullest extent that Drake had been hoping for. Still, I appreciated his effort, and I think the kids did too, even if nothing seemed quite normal, and they weren’t sure how to express their feelings. With this sudden change came a lot of talks about how to properly express sadness, and ways of turning it into something more constructive. These were…

Previous | Chapter Listing | Next The kids decided that the leaves had to go, and went outside on their own and raked the leaves. There were lots of questions about whether we had any rakes, where they were, how to use them, what to do with the leaf piles, but I was rather proud of them for picking up something like that on their own. Drake and I would’ve never asked it of them, but neither do either of us have the time for such things. Drake’s a rather successful author now. It’s hard to go out in public with him these days, as I have to fuss with…