Chapter 796: A Promise Kept

Petricia glanced toward the receiving buildings beyond the garden.

"There are people arriving who don’t know where to sleep, where their family was taken, or whom they can ask without being sent somewhere else. I can help with that. I know how things work here."

"You want to organize the arrivals?" Alex asked.

"I want to choose some of my work. I can’t take responsibility for those people if everyone assumes I am always the person staying with Luna."

A wooden block fell behind them.

Luna looked up, waiting to see whether the adults had heard.

Mingyue lifted a hand to show that they had. She did not call Petricia back to rebuild it.

"We’ll arrange her care with you," Mingyue said. "We won’t announce that we need you and leave before you can answer."

"And when you both need to go?"

"We tell you what we know, ask whether you can stay, and find someone she knows if you can’t," Alex said. "We don’t make another promise about returning until we know what we’re promising."

Petricia’s expression did not immediately soften.

"What about today?"

"Today we’re here," Mingyue said. "You can leave the garden without waiting for us to release you."

Alex nodded.

"We have people handling Proxima. Two hours are set aside. Afterward, one of us can stay while the other checks what needs us."

Petricia looked toward Luna again.

"I’ll speak with the receiving attendants. I’ll come back later to see how she’s doing."

"You don’t have to bring us another tray," Mingyue said.

Petricia paused, then inclined her head and went to tell Luna where she was going.

Their daughter listened, looked at both parents, and nodded.

"You can see the house when you come back," she said.

"I would like that."

Petricia left by the path to the receiving buildings.

Alex watched until she turned the corner, then sat at the table with Luna.

"Which part fell?"

"The roof."

He picked up the widest wooden piece. It would have covered the whole little structure if he moved one wall inward.

Luna put her hand over it.

"No. That room is for Petricia."

Alex lowered the piece.

Mingyue’s mouth moved slightly, but she did not turn it into a joke.

"Then we need another support," she said.

Luna searched the box and found a shorter piece. Alex held it while she balanced the roof across it and the far wall.

The structure leaned toward him. He could have fixed it with less power than it took to light a rune. Luna was already trying to move the base herself, and he kept his hands still until she asked him to hold the roof again.

This time it stayed up.

She looked through the little doorway, pleased.

"Now you can come in."

Alex set two small pieces near the opening.

"Both of us?"

"Yes. But don’t knock it down."

Mingyue moved her piece around his when he left it blocking the entrance.

Luna pushed Alex’s farther inside.

"You always stand in the way."

He glanced at Mingyue.

She had already settled her little wooden figure beside the window.

Alex moved his out of the doorway without arguing.

They played until Luna stopped trying to keep every piece in its exact place. The house became a larger one, then several small rooms connected by folded paper. She decided the cup was a pond and objected when Alex tried to put a wooden piece into it without asking.

He took it out and dried the table with the cloth he had brought.

There was no call passing through the water. It was simply where their daughter had decided the pond belonged.

When she grew tired of the house, Mingyue helped her fold one of the sheets into a boat. The first one opened at the sides as soon as Luna set it on the water.

Luna frowned.

"You did it wrong."

Mingyue examined the wet fold.

"Yes."

She took another sheet and asked Alex how he kept the lower corners together. He showed her with his hands while Luna leaned between them to watch.

The second boat floated.

Luna breathed toward it, making it turn until the point touched the edge of the cup.

Alex watched her turn the boat back, her fingers solid against the wet paper. He wanted to watch her play. There was nothing else she needed to show him.

After a while, she set the cup down.

"The lady’s husband died?"

Mingyue looked at Alex. He had been waiting for the question since she told Luna whom they had brought out of the building.

"Yes," Mingyue said.

"Before you came?"

"Yes."

Luna pressed the wet edge of the boat flat with one finger.

"Is the lady angry?"

"She’s sad. She wanted someone to bring him back."

"Can she see him?"

"We brought his body with them."

Luna looked at the little house, then at the garden path.

Alex waited. He did not want to decide which part she was asking about before she found the words herself.

"Will they have somewhere to stay?"

"People are arranging it," he said. "They won’t be left on those steps."

She nodded slowly and returned the boat to the cup.

They let the quiet last.

Later, Luna moved from her chair to the space beside Mingyue. She leaned carefully against the uninjured arm and continued telling Alex where the next wall should go.

Her instructions became slower. By the time he had placed the last piece, her eyes were closed.

Alex checked the time.

They still had some of the two hours left.

No warning had called them away. Dorian had held the watch, Selene had received the wounded, and Vesa had sent ordinary questions to people who could answer them.

Alex left the house standing and sat back down.

When Petricia returned, she stopped at the edge of the table instead of reaching automatically for the sleeping girl.

"The receiving attendants need someone to keep the families together," she said quietly. "I told them I would help once we agreed who stays with Luna afterward."

"I stay first," Alex said.

Mingyue nodded.

"I’ll go with you when she wakes."

Petricia looked at the extra room beneath the uneven roof, where Luna had left one of the small wooden pieces.

Petricia sat in the chair opposite Alex and asked which part their daughter had made herself.

He showed her without waking Luna or moving the room she had saved.

Luna stirred when he shifted his chair. She looked from him to Mingyue, then noticed Petricia sitting across the table. Her hand loosened around her mother’s sleeve, and she settled back to sleep.

The two hours ended while she was still sleeping. Alex noticed the time and left his seat where it was. Petricia told them about the room she had found for arriving families; Mingyue listened, with Luna’s head still against her arm.

When their daughter woke, the first thing she asked for was the boat. Alex set the cup in front of her and held the table steady while she climbed into his lap. Mingyue told her she was going with Petricia to the receiving rooms.

Luna looked at Alex, then back at her.

"Dad stays."

"He stays," Mingyue said.

Only after Luna had sent the boat on another slow circuit of the cup did Mingyue leave the garden.