Chapter Text
Aemeath had vanished by the time Rover finished cleaning the kitchen.
Rover poked her head back in the living room, expecting to find the girl sitting on the couch where she had been a moment ago. The TV was on exactly as she had left it, but it no longer had an audience. She peeked inside the bedroom in case she had gone back to sleep. No one was there. “Aemeath? Aemeath! Where’d you go?” she shouted. When no response came, she rushed upstairs to check her study. It was empty. A bolt of fear ran through her. She hadn’t explained exactly what Aemeath’s adoptive father had said, but the girl had seemed pretty shaken up anyway. Rover knew she should have said something to comfort her, but truthfully, she was still processing it herself. The way that man spoke about Aemeath made her sick. She forcefully suppressed a fresh wave of anger. There was no time to worry about what she should have done. Even though the blizzard had passed, the frostlands were still dangerous, especially for a child. She threw on her boots and coat and dashed outside.
Rover ran across the porch and down the stairs, kicking up petals in her wake. In her haste, she almost slipped on the ice that had encrusted the steps overnight. A flora reindeer snorted at her indifferently as she passed like a blur. At last, she spotted Aemeath sitting silently at the edge of the pool Rover had rescued her from last night. She was motionless, staring deep into the water. Rover let out a sigh of relief and walked over to her side. She sat down beside the girl, who looked up nervously as she approached. “I won’t ask you to go back to live with them,” Rover said. Aemeath tilted her head and let her continue. “No one deserves to grow up with a family that doesn’t love them. Especially a sweet kid like you.”
“But they’re the only people in my village that wanted to look after me,” Aemeath said sadly as she shuffled her feet. “Where would I go?”
“I have some friends from the Black Shores who can take you in. They’re good people, I promise. I think you’ll like them.”
Aemeath raised her eyebrows. “The Black Shores really exist? I thought they were made up, like the heroes from Katya Space Fantasy.”
Rover laughed. “Oh, they’re real all right. They’re a group of heroes, always out saving the world. I know they’ll take good care of you, too.”
Aemeath was practically glowing. “That’s awesome! Hey, is it true that they have a computer the size of a skyscraper? And I heard about this Bloom Bearer that can grow flowers on her body, but there’s no way that’s true too, right? And what about the Threnodians? They don’t really fight them, do they? They would have to be super strong! And how do they—”
Rover cut her off, taken aback by her sudden enthusiasm. “Yes, Aemeath, everything you’ve heard is more or less true. I’m sure they’re going to adore you.” She patted the girl’s head and sighed. “There’s just one thing, though.”
Aemeath frowned. “What?”
“You would have to leave Lahai-Roi.”
A look of confusion crossed her face. “Why? Can’t I stay here?”
Rover shook her head sadly. “All the Bloom Bearers in Lahai-Roi are too busy on missions to look after you. You would have to travel far across the ocean to our home base.”
“But I . . . I want to stay here. Close to Mama and Papa.” She tugged on the hem of Rover’s dress and looked up at her. “Can’t you find another way?”
The look she gave Rover wrenched at her heart. She tried to look away, but those huge golden eyes of hers were impossible to tear her gaze from. At that moment, a stupid, impulsive idea leapt into the forefront of her mind. She knew it would never work, but the thought of refusing Aemeath had suddenly become impossible. Against her will, the fateful words tumbled out. “If you don’t want to leave your home, you can live with me. We can stay right here in this cabin together.”
Rover’s logical side frantically wrestled to take back control. Adopting a kid on a whim? She had no experience to draw upon, and no one around to help her. She was way out of her depth and she knew it.
Aemeath looked surprised. “Are you sure? I don’t wanna trouble you or anything. But, if it’s really okay . . .” She grinned and pulled Rover into a tight hug. “I’d love to live with you!”
. . . Who was she kidding?
Maybe it was irresponsible of her, but she found at that moment that she didn’t care. If there was an opportunity to make the world a little bit better, she was going to seize it, just as she had always done. And besides—she didn’t want to see Aemeath leave. Rover kneeled down and hugged her back, brushing her cheek against one of her pigtails. “I’m really glad,” she said genuinely. “I know I’ll never be a replacement for your parents. Not by a mile. But I will do my best to make you happy here.” She leaned back and took Aemeath’s hands in hers. “That’s a promise.” Rover brushed her finger affectionately against the tip of her nose.
Not to be outdone, Aemeath declared, “I want to promise you something too!” She puffed her chest out. “I’m going to pay you back someday for being nice to me.”
“You don’t have to do anything in return,” she replied, a little amused. “Except maybe don’t run out of the house without saying something first. You scared me earlier, you know.”
“I did? Sorry,” she said sheepishly.
“It’s okay. Just make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
“It won’t. I promise!”
“Good. Now let’s get you back inside. If you’re going to live here, we need to make space for your bedroom.”
“I’m getting my own room? I’ve never had one to myself before! I had to share one with Mama and Papa ‘cause we didn’t have a lot of space.”
“Then this is going to be a big day for you. Come on, I’ll show you the way.”
Aemeath’s new room turned out to be Rover’s study on the second floor.
Rover had led her up the stairs until she was standing in a dusty, cluttered space crammed from floor to ceiling with books and paperwork. Some pages were scattered about on the carpet, and strings of cobwebs were festooned in every corner. An array of strange machines that she couldn’t identify stood in a row against the far wall, and next to them towers of cardboard boxes were piled up dangerously high. There was barely space to walk around without tripping over something. This was where she was going to live?
“I know it’s a bit of a dump, but I promise it’ll clean up nicely,” Rover said reassuringly. She bent over, hefted an entire stack of boxes over her head, and carried them out of the room like they weighed nothing. She’s really strong, Aemeath thought. “If you feel like helping, I could use someone to clean some of this mess up,” Rover shouted from down the stairs. On any other day Aemeath would have hated doing chores, but she meant it when she said she wanted to pay Rover back, so she didn’t mind helping out a little. She dropped to her hands and knees and started to gather up as much clutter as she could.
On the Spatiotemporal Properties of Etheric Sea Droplets, read the title of one report that had been haphazardly tossed aside by the desk. It was stamped with a purple logo that looked like a flower, and it was at least a hundred pages long. Messy notes written in bright red ink were scrawled up and down the margins. Aemeath collected it and placed it carefully in a box. A book beside it was called Confirmed Case Studies of Inducible Amnesia in Congenital Resonators. The pages were creased and worn, like it had been read over and over. She tried flipping through it and felt herself getting cross-eyed. All the big words made her head hurt. Why did they make words that long, anyway? Short ones worked just fine for her. She wondered idly what Rover did with all this stuff. Most of the other documents were equally impossible to make sense of, and she stopped trying to read them after that.
Soon enough Aemeath had gathered up neat piles of all the books, papers, and other odds and ends that had amassed in Rover’s study. Meanwhile, Rover had hauled off most of the junk into a storage shed outside. As it turned out, the room was actually pretty spacious once she could walk around in it. “We’ll have to get you some proper decoration later,” Rover said as she heaved a large mattress onto the ground. It landed with a loud thump. “I’ll get you anything you like. It takes ages for stuff to get delivered out here, though.“
“Ooh! Can I get a pet Snowfluff Seal? I’ve always wanted one!” Aemeath said excitedly.
Rover smiled and rolled her eyes. “I’ll get you almost anything you like.”
“Aww . . .” She stuck out her lip and pouted. Rover came closer and affectionately ruffled her hair.
“We could hang some pink curtains over there.” Rover gestured towards the windows. “And maybe some posters on that wall. And throw in a whole bunch of stuffed animals, of course. What do you think?”
“I love it!” She hopped onto the mattress, already imagining how she was going to arrange everything.
Rover let out a deep breath and sat down beside her. She seemed anxious for some reason. “We’ll make this a home for you soon enough,” she said. Aemeath nodded in agreement, then reached over and booped Rover on the nose.
Rover blinked in surprise. “What was that for?”
“You did that to me earlier, remember? Now we’re even.”
A mischievous look flashed across Rover’s face. She booped Aemeath’s nose once again. “Not anymore.” She hopped up from the mattress before Aemeath could retaliate.
“Hey, no fair!” She yelled, chasing Rover around the room. The two of them laughed as Aemeath jumped up and down trying to reach Rover’s nose.
The dark pit in Aemeath’s chest was still there, weighing her heart down like an anchor. It would probably never leave completely. But, for the first time since her parents had died, she was able to forget about it for a little while. Because in that moment, things were alright.