It was not yet time for Meric to finish with her last group of trainees but all she did was watch them or yell at them so Pali did not think it would hurt to take her away from them for a few minutes.

"Instructor Meric," Pali called out to her when he had gotten close.

Meric looked at him, then at the three children following him, before she came to meet him.

"Yes, Instructor Pali. Do you need anything from me?"

Pali looked at the children behind her, making sure none of them could hear their conversation.

"I have a rather large favor to ask," He looked to the Ferra, Caldren, and Dario who were doing their best to hide their grins.

"A favor? Does it involve these children?" She said glancing at the three behind him.

"Yes, but they are only a part of it."

"Go on."

"I need your help on a mission for the military."

Meric looked interested now, "What kind of mission would the military give to two teachers and three children?"

Pali told her.

"So we are to be going as a family?"

Pali could not tell what she thought about this because nothing showed on her face.

"And these will be our children?"

"Yes."

"And I will be your wife and their mother?"

"Yes."

Meric said nothing for a while.

"Please help us," Ferra looked like she was enjoying the situation, "We will also look for Salis and you know how skilled each of us is in archery so your skill will help."

Pali wanted to praise Ferra but didn’t want to interrupt.

Meric looked at Pali and each of the children, "I see what you mean." She then looked at Calren, "What of him? A slave seems hardly an appropriate reason to take him along."

"I do not mind, and I am confident my magic skills will make taking me worth it," Calren told her.

"What of my position here at the school?" She looked back to Pali. It was hard to read her face so Pali wasn’t sure how she felt about the situation.

"I have already spoken about this to Headmaster Ury and he has told me he can make arrangements to have the other instructors take care of our students while we are gone."

"I see. That makes things much easier."

"So do you accept?" Ferra said, looking eager to find her new mother.

"It is quite sudden. How long until we would leave?"

"Within the week," Pali said.

Meric looked back to her still practicing students for a minute then turned back to Pali.

"There is no way I could refuse the chance to put my skills to use against an enemy of Flaern, especially one such as Toa Mirr." She said.

With Meric's approval, Ferra bounced up and down in excitement and the two boys grinned.

"There are some things I would like to go over now that we have our family," Pali said. Everyone turned their attention to him. "The first is the matter of accent."

"Accent?" Ferra said.

"Yes," Pali said. "If we are to blend into the people of Toa Mirr, we will need to speak like them."

"And you will teach us?" Meric said.

"Yes. I have spent the last few months with some people from Toa Mirr and am confident that I have a knack for it now."

"Will you be able to teach us before we leave?"

"The dialect spoken in Toa Mirr is much like Flaern. It is just a matter of learning its peculiarities."

"When do you plan on teaching us?" Meric said.

"As soon as you are done with your training for the day, Instructor Meric," Pali said and then looked at the three children. "I expect the three of you there too, and on time."

"Yes, Instructor Pali." All three said, though the two boys looked much less enthusiastic than Ferra did.

"I will also teach you some things I have learned that everyone in Toa Mirr would expect to know."

"Oh!" Ferra said excitedly.

"Yes Ferra?"

"Do you have any books that have songs from Toa Mirr?"

"Of course," Pali said.

"Are we finished?" Meric said. "I should get back to my students."

"Yes, I believe I have nothing else I need to speak about for the moment."

Meric nodded and left.

"You three can leave as well."

"Yes, Instructor Pali." The two boys said.

"Yes Papa," Ferra said.

The two boys snickered, but instead of copying Ferra they yelled to Meric. "Bye Mamma."

Meric stopped for a moment but then kept on walking as if nothing had happened.

"That was easier than I thought it would be," Pali said to himself when he was alone.

Pali had no idea going into his lessons the next day how hard of a time he would have. If he had realized how much Ferra and Dario would argue he might not have considered inviting both of them to go with him and it had been Meric who had finally gotten them to cooperate. Even though Pali was used to dealing with rowdy children, he could not instill fear into them the same way she did.

Thankfully, with the two under control the rest of that day had gone by easily. Ferra had even gotten a knack for the Toa Mirr accent, with Calren close behind. Surprisingly, it was Meric that appeared to have the hardest time and not Dario as Ferra had predicted. Pali found it cute listening to Meric fumble with the Toa Mirr accent, as did Ferra, who let Meric know many times eliciting a few blushes from the archery teacher. A thing he had never thought Meric capable of.

When the group finished with their attempts at learning the accent for the day, Pali went over general information he thought would help them blend into the citizenry of Toa Mirr. This time it was Calren who did the best even if it looked like it bore him the whole time.

The other three did not farewell. Ferra looked like she was trying her best, but the look of frustration on her face that appeared as she scanned the paper that Pali had prepared showed that she was not doing as well as she wanted. Dario looked bored and irritated. Pali even had to prod him a few times to stop bothering Calren.

As for Meric, she looked as if she wanted nothing to do with the piece of paper. When Pali asked her if she had any problems he could help her with, she just said that it had just been a while since she had done any studying and she just needed to get used to it again.

When it was time for the last thing Pali had planned for the day, he was not sure if the group wanted to stay any longer. He was planning on using the last bit of time just to let everyone get to know each other better because he knew that if they would pass as a family then they at least needed to know each other's likes and dislikes.

He decided that they should at least try. He also knew that if he did not bring it up, no one would know any better, but he was not one to go easy on his students just because they were feeling a little tired, frustrated, or irritated. He knew one thing. He would do it first the next day when everyone was in better moods.

It turned out just as he expected. Even the friendly Ferra did not try hard. Only Meric attempted any kind of conversation, but she was awkward with her questions and often stopped to rephrase them.

In time Pali decided that they were not going anywhere and told everyone that they could leave. Even Pali himself was tired, but after a full day of work on top of the after class instructions it made sense.

Fortunately, the next day worked out much better. Ferra had mastered the accent during the time between lessons and had even learned a few folk songs on her hand harp, which she played occasionally throughout the night when they stopped for an occasional break.

This night, the time spent getting to know each other went much better too. While Ferra and Dario did more arguing, Pali learned a lot about his new family.

Ferra was from a fairly successful merchant family in the town of Darro, which was west of Stutra near the bottom of the mountains where it refined ore from its mining village. There her family operated a few smelters and shipped it down the nearby Alh river.

Since they expected her brothers to continue to help the family business, Ferra was the one that had been sent to school with the expectations of handling the money side of things. She had no intention of doing that and wanted to become a trainer of swordsmanship and also teach children how to play the hand harp.

To be honest, Pali had already found out a lot about Ferra's tastes in the many arguments she had with Dario so many other things he heard were not new to him.

As for Dario. He was from a family of wealthy landowners that lived near the village of Herth, which was to the south of Kein near the border of Toa Mirr and the Howling Forest. While his family were not nobles, his life's dream was to become just that.

Calren was the most interesting to Pali. While he had been born and raised in Flaern, his family was from a country called Ye. When Pali asked him how much he knew about Ye he was disappointed to hear that Calren had never been there and that his parents had stopped taking him with them on their journeys as soon as he had been old enough to attend school.

Finally, he had come to Meric. She was from a large agricultural city on the Eastern side of Flaern called Nem. There her family made a living running a prestigious archery school that was associated with the Temples of Learning there. As an heir to the dojo, she had been expected to stay there and become a teacher but she had wanted to get away from the stuffy nobles that sent their children there from Flae and their ridiculous demands so she came to Kein where people were not as full of themselves.

As for Pali himself, he told them he was from the city of Bo, a trading town on the opposite side of Flaern on the border of Amirr and next to the Sea of Gil. While the city was a large and prosperous one Pali had been from one of the many poor families, but because of him being Candrar born he had had a love of learning his whole life and he had even taught himself to read by sneaking into the Temple of Candrar in the city and spied on the lessons being taught within.

When the instructors had finally caught him, instead of punishing him or kicking him out, they had invited him to stay and learn after seeing his desire but because of his lack of money and status he could learn none of the military arts or magic, although he had tried his hand at both just to see what they were like. It was after he had finished his studies he had become an instructor and found himself in Kein.

He then told how it was the kindness of the instructors that had allowed him to learn despite his family's poverty that had led him to travel about the eastern side of Flaern each summer in search of exemplary students, which had led him to find not only Salis but several other children that would not have ever gotten the chance to have a good education.

When everyone had told some things about themselves they did their best to ask each other questions for the next half hour. What Pali meant by they did their best was that Ferra and Dario did not get along well and often criticized whatever they said about themselves. It had not taken them long to be silenced and were not allowed to talk about the other. Meric did better than the night before, but was still awkward.

Pali was grateful when the group had finished their "get to know each other" session. Not only was he not used to talking about himself like this, it looked like Meric was not either. Only Calren had been comfortable. He did not want to think about Ferra and Dario, though Ferra was pleasant and asked lots of good questions when she was not fighting with the Dario. Pali almost wanted to dismiss them and choose some other children to come with him on his assignment but knew that he would not find replacements that would be as effective as they would. At least he hoped I did. He also hoped they would learn to get along better in time.

Thankfully, the rest of the night ended up being much more peaceful than it had started, especially when Pali said he just wanted everyone to speak in the Toa Mirr accent whenever they spoke, with him correcting and helping them as necessary, and since he would not be dedicating a specific time for them to learn it, they would not have to stay as late as they had the night before.

The rest of the week was hit and miss. Aside from the Ferra and Dario's problems with each other, the added lessons that everyone was taking began to add up, even making Pali more tired than he liked. Even Meric was looking drained by the end.