Northstar Vale Makriá

Germanicus and Reyson were there to finish it off, Towhee replied.

Arsenio mentioned giving her a tour when she felt up to it. Of course, she planned to do most of her sightseeing with Maxim; they would go to all the places he’d described to her. But she would gladly accompany the Arche too. And Tamar. And anyone else who wanted to go for a walk. Towhee was going to go on so many walks.

I told myself I’d hang out here for a week, Towhee said, motioning at the cave behind her and spotting a speck of white on her paw, which she wiped in the grass again. I’ll come find you when the time comes, so you can show me all the hot spots.

A flock of geese appeared overhead, winging southward. Towhee watched them for a moment, though she lowered her eyes in time to catch Arsenio’s answer to her question. There was a softness to his eyes when he spoke of his children. She would never forget what it was like to be a first-time parent.

It’s awesome, isn’t it? And exhausting. Mine are pretty damn great. I can’t complain, Towhee said, thinking fondly of Jack and Leo. We gave them the choice to stay behind in Mereo if they liked, since I feel they were old enough. But they both came here. I don’t want to make a big deal out of it to them but, she said with her own happy sigh, I’m so fucking glad they’re here with us.

Speaking of children, one of the main reasons Towhee had come here was to teach, so she said, You’ll sign yours up for my classes, right? I’ll be teaching Ptero one day a week. And once I’m back on my feet properly, I hope to do some weekly merc training as well. I was wanting to talk to you about that, actually. I was hoping you could tell me what areas I should focus on for that. I was thinking guarding and patrolling but…