"Father, look," the girl said, holding up a tiny red flower towards her father. The man picked the flower from her fingers, like it was as fragile as the flowers within Aldnd. The girl's face was the painting of joy as she giggled wildly, before her younger sister rushed up beside her, panting for air, before coughing, a cough that was not like the cough of a little girl, but of an older fellow who had smoke from a pipe sihe womb.

  "Oh my, my dear," the man dropped to a knee, patting the girl's back. "Did you drink your water?"

  "Yes!" the girl said, before shaking her head to deny her words. She smiled ily, before her father ruffled her hair, ahe twins to a nearby well to cool their fathers and to quench their thirst. Their little brother stormed onto the se from their mother, who led the children away to py further away.

  The Iyrman turned, feeling the wind shift slightly as his brother approached him. "You have e?"

  "I have e," the brother replied.

  "How is sister?"

  "Well."

  "The child?"

  "Healthy."

  The Iyrman nodded his head slowly, a small smile appearing on his face. "The sed child is not easier."

  "No," the brother firmed, stepping beside the Iyrman, staring out to watch as the twins and their little brother ran across the field. "Tonagek pys well with his sisters."

  "His sisters py well with him," Shogek corrected.

  "..."

  "..."

  "..."

  "It will be fine, Dogek."

  "It does not feel easier."

  "It will not be." Shogek reached over to pat his younger brother's back. "Sister will assist you. She will care for them in the ways you ot, and you will care for them in ways she ot."

  "In what ways she not care for them?"

  "There are times she will require your assistance. Look at me, Dogek. My daughters, they act as they please in front of me, but there are times when their mother es to me. She es to me because there are ways she ot care for them, it wounds her heart, in the ways that I ot care for my daughters, for it wounds my heart."

  "You are better with others, brother. I am not."

  "You are like grandfather, but..." Shogek thought carefully of his words, before sighing. He was no good at speaking so thoughtfully with his brother. "You are not grandfather. You pce your duty first, but you are still my brother. I do not know if grandfather worried wheepped out to plete his duties, I do not believe he did, but you? You worry. You, who live within my shadows, a plete the duties you must without pint. You are not grandfather. You are not me. You are Dogek.”

  Dogek remained silent, listening to his elder brother’s words.

  “A rigid bde will break. A bde which flexes much, ot draw blood. A bde which is rigid and flexible will spill enough blood, from the Iyr to the federacy."

  "Not beyond?" Dogek joked.

  "Beyond is too far," Shogek replied, a wide smile encroag across his face. "There will e a time when their father ot deny them, and their mother ot. It is those times we may e to you, Dogek. You must succeed where we fail."

  "If you ot, and if sister ot, I ot."

  "No," Shogek said, pg a hand on his brother's shoulder. "You ." He squeezed Dogek's shoulder gently. Shogek pulled his hand away, lifting up the flower within his hand. He brought it up to Dogek's face. "Do you see?"

  "I see."

  "Take it."

  "It was given to you."

  "And I give it to you."

  Dogek reached over and plucked the flower from his brother's hand. He could feel how thiem was, so easily cowed by his fingers. The petals shimmied in the soft breeze. The flower would die before the year passed.

  “Father!” the girl rushed up towards her father, with her sister rushing after her, their brother not far behind. The girl held up another flower, with blue petals, which she hao her father.

  “Will you give uhe flowers?”

  “No,” the girl said, pouting. “It is your flowers, father.”

  Shogek inhaled deeply, opening his palm for the girl to gently pce down the flower into his hand. Shogek pced a hand on the girl’s head, before she rushed off. Her younger sister held up another flower, with yellow petals.

  “Who is this flower for?”

  The girl gowards her uncle. She could feel the expectations of her father. “Uncle.”

  “Do you see?” Shogek asked, his eyes brimming with pride.

  “I see,” Dogek replied, slowly bowing his head. He dropped to a knee and held out his hand. The girl hesitated for a moment, before pg the flower into his hand. She hid her hands behind her back, her toes pointing inward as she pouted slightly. Dogek pced a hand on her head, ruffling her hair gently. “Thank you, Fonagek.”

  The girl smiled slightly, before she rushed after her elder sister, while Toood there between his father and uncle. He wore a small ade of interlog flowers, with petals of red, blue, and yellow.

  “Who is this handsome young man?” Shogek joked.

  “Tonagek, daddy,” the boy said, before his father ruffled his hair, fixing his , before the boy darted away.

  “Soon he will call me father.”

  “He will be old enough then.”

  “Should he not stay small forever, my Tonagek?”

  “The Iyr raised its children well.”

  Shogek smiled, watg over his children. “Yes.”

  Donagek felt the heat of the season against his skin, feeling the delicate flowers within his hands. A single blue petal fell within his hand, his eyes falling across the flower within his brother’s hand, which had lost a sial.

  “The wind is strong today,” Shogek said.

  “It is strong, because it is the wind of the Iyr,” Dogek replied.

  “Yes.”

  Donagek recalled his brother’s voice. His answer had held an unspoken joke within them. He felt the chill of the season against his skin, only broken by the gentle light of the dle illuminating his skin. The dle’s fme burnt weakly, by design, the light sting days o. He stared into the red petals set within the wax.

  He recalled the first time he had lit the dle. He had created the dle upon his third child’s birth, and had kept it unlit until that day. It was a day like any other. A day when people ughed. A day when people ate. A day when people died.

  Death was quite the affair for the Iyrmen. There were many who died to various vicious creatures across the nd, but that was not the only way an Iyrman passed. Iyrmen were people, just like any other. One moment, an Iyrman could be tending to the fields, and ahey would fall. Another Iyrman could have fought a sea drake, with no knowledge her husband had died, before falling herself.

  It was raining that day.

  Dogek had lit the dle the first time after their funeral. He had remained silent throughout, his body frozen from the chill. He had no words to say to his nieces and nephew who had lost their mother and father so rapidly. He had no words to give to their children, who had no idea they would be uo see or speak to their grandmother randfather any longer.

  “It does not feel easier.” Dogek whispered, staring at the thin strand of smoke above the fme. Lightning fell and the thunder rumbled. Silence followed for a long while. He reached up to the fme and que between his fingers, allowing the darko e him.

  Tonagek cut through the rain with his bde. He could feel the tingle of magic of his bde, vaguely aware of the water which bounced off his bde. He tio cut at the rain before he sighed, standing in the darkness as the rain engulfed him.

  “Have yht drinks?” Tonagek asked.

  “If I did n drinks, would I still be your friend?” Mosen replied, stepping out from the darkness, holding out a gourd.

  “How long were you watg?” Tonagek asked, taking the gourd.

  “You caught me soon after I arrived.”

  “Why did you not call out?”

  “I know better than to interrupt you when you are thinking.”

  Tonagek undid the cork and sipped the wine. He could taste the sweetness, wing slightly, having not expected for Mosen t something so sweet. “Which wine are you drinking.”

  “The same.”

  “Sweet?”

  “It is to bance your bitterness.” Mosen winced as he sipped the sweet wine. “I ot believe my mother would drink this.”

  Tohought of Mosen’s mother, who had always allowed them to cause trouble when they were younger. “She has good taste.”

  “Mother knew how to kill, but good drinks? It was not her speciality.”

  “You only dare to say so now that she is dead.”

  “I am truly wise.”

  The pair fell silent for a long time as they stood in the rain.

  “Did Danagek sleep well?”

  “He called for you, but sister soothed him to sleep.”

  “What of Chisen?”

  “I made sure she was asleep before I crept away.”

  They tio drink and stand in silence.

  “I am sorry,” Mosen finally said, the lightning falling and thunder rumbling.

  Tonagek remained silent for a long while. He sipped the sweet alcohol. “I know.”

  “I am gd it is raining,” Mosen admitted, feeling the wetness across his face.

  “Yes.”

  This was actually a titled chapter but I realised it makes more sense for it to be an interlude so expeother chapter ter.