Quite some time passed after his first tournament experience.

  Rowan had managed to convince his family to let him participate in the event every year after he showed how much he had managed to earn from his first attempt. With each visit to the city he met up with Alexandra, and over time the two grew closer.

  Until one year she decided to leave the city with him.

  From what she had told him, she had grown tired of all the politics of the clans and houses, with her family treating her as nothing more than a piece on the board and a chip to bargain with. So the idea of joining him on a farm somewhere grew ever more appealing.

  The two of them built a house near his family’s farm and began living together. Eventually she renounced her family name and joined Rowan’s household officially. Although they had no name to replace the one she gave up, she was overjoyed to be a part of a family that cared for her.

  One year after she had left her home city behind, Alexandra gave birth to Maple. Seeing his wife holding his newborn daughter for the first time was still one of Rowan’s happiest memories. Her tired yet bright smile staring down at the tiny life she had brought into the world, eyes alight with promises of happiness and love for the infant.

  Two years after Maple was born, Jieun found them. She was quite cross with her friend for leaving without even telling her, but after the two of them talked for a time she calmed down. Rowan never did find out what was said during that conversation, and at this point feels it is not his place to know.

  What he did find out was that apparently House Petros was furious that his wife had left them and even more enraged that she had taken Meteoros with her. Alexandra, now going by Lexie, was unconcerned by this. They had no idea where she was and were unlikely to find them. According to her, she had only told Jieun about the farm boy she had fallen for, which was the only lead that had allowed her friend to track them down.

  And so time continued to pass with three more years going by in a blink.

  Lucius finally convinced Sarah to join his household. They had been courting each other off and on for years, but one or both of them had reasons to not take the final step. Reasons that Rowan often viewed as silly, he even told his friend as much, but eventually they bound themselves together and Sarah was pregnant soon after. With Rowan being only slightly smug to his friend about the whole situation.

  In the same amount of time Jieun had wound up together with a local hunter by the name of Lin. How they met, and what happened that made the two of them fall in love was a mystery to both Rowan and Lexie. They had only found out she was seeing someone after she became pregnant, and even then she was tight lipped on details.

  The only thing she did tell them was that she was being mysterious to get back at Lexie for disappearing on her.

  Of course Jieun’s pregnancy coincided with Lexie’s second one, and the two of them went into labor about a month apart. That was a hectic time for all of them, with the parents both new and old needing help from friends and family.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  All in all this was probably the happiest time for Rowan and everyone he cared for.

  Four years after the birth of Yew and Bai, House Petros found them.

  At first they were almost polite, with one of her older brothers, Nikolaos, showing up at their doorstep demanding Alexandra come home with him. She, of course, refused, and he seemed to leave after that.

  Lexie was convinced that some form of retribution from her family would happen soon and started packing and preparing their family to leave, which was difficult as she was heavily pregnant at the time. Rowan informed his friends and family of the potential danger coming for his loved ones and that he might soon disappear.

  Lucius and Jieun were quite insistent that wherever their friends went, they would follow. Both of their spouses took some convincing, especially Sarah who had just given birth to her second son the previous month, but eventually everyone was on board.

  That night, as the group was planning their departure, earthquakes ravaged their home.

  Multiple lamps fell over, as their group was talking late into the evening, and a fire quickly grew out of control in Rowan’s house. Everyone grabbed what bags they could and fled the burning building, finding further madness and destruction outside.

  The home of Rowan’s parents was gone, fallen in a great crack in the earth. The plentiful fields of produce were upturned and destroyed. The home of Rowan and Lexie, the site of their happiest moments, was forever marred by House Petros.

  Bough was outside staring and rumbling at the perpetrator of this act of cruelty and malice. A mixture of boredom and light disdain was the only expression on his face.

  “You really should have come home with me sister.” Was all he said before opening up the earth beneath everyone’s feet with a stomp of his foot.

  The group was in free fall for only a moment before a nimbus of light surrounded them and they shot off into the sky. Children were crying, and their tired parents tried to soothe them as best they could as the ball of light containing them moved as fast as possible. The number of passengers was clearly straining Lexie’s capabilities, even with Meteoros’ help. Yet she persevered through the night, only stopping as the sun crested the horizon.

  Not feeling safe, the group continued to move through the day, with Lexie and the children resting on Bough as best they could while they went. Everyone was harrowed by the events of the previous night, with Rowan in particular trying to put on a strong front despite the probable death of his parents. They moved ever further southeast, hopeful they had evaded their attacker.

  Sadly this was not the case.

  At noon he caught up to them, the rumbling of the earth heralding his arrival. Nikolaos emerged from the ground in front of them, his bored expression tinged with annoyance now. As if their continued struggle for survival was a mild inconvenience for him. A small mess that he had to clean up.

  A chore on a checklist.

  “Don’t you see how pointless this is? No matter where you go, or how far you run, we’ll find you. Just give me our family’s property and I assure you your deaths will be painless. Just a gentle return to the earth.”

  Roots made of qi shot up from the ground, binding him in place, with only a slight widening of his eyes hinting at his surprise. Then Lexie rocketed from her place on Bough, striking her brother in the face using her knee, a loud crunch echoing in the air. She shot back to her initial position, and it quickly became apparent that her brother was relatively unscathed by the interaction, a small trickle of blood from his nose the only sign of harm.

  “You’ve gotten rusty, sister.” Was all they heard before the corona of light surrounded them once more and they fled.

  His pursuit continued for over a month.