Whatever arguments his parents had were resolved or buried quickly enough, because the entire house was now busy with preparations for Richan's wedding. His bride would arrive to fetch him, and it was customary that the groom's family host the party. There was nothing more that Aldeim hated than parties, Nikolas knew, all the noise and guests and extravagance was nothing like the simple things in his father's study. But he put on a smile nonetheless, because it was Richan, his eldest, and everyone knew that if there was any wedding worth going to, it was the first-born son's.

So the mood in the house was festive, until it dawned on his younger sisters that Richan would be leaving soon and he found himself having to console them nearly day and night. Not all of them, Guigo expressed his distaste at the whole affair and proclaimed he would never get married.

"Of course you wouldn't," Richan agreed. "You would just live your entire life, reading in a library, and no one would dare pull you out of it or throw a party in a library and risk the librarians' wrath."

"Particularly if it's a magical library," Diasa agreed, grinning toothily. Guigo had nodded his head in agreement.

And so Nikolas thought that he would be forgotten again, as was customary when things became hectic in the household, but Richan surprised him by announcing that he would like to spend the evening with Nikolas, so that it was fair. This was meant by moans and complaints from his sisters, until Richan raised an eyebrow.

"No one upsets a groom near his wedding day," said Richan.

"On," Brytha corrected, irritably, but conceded. "Fine. Richan wants to have a moment with everyone. Because you're all his favorite."

Nikolas doubted her sincerity, but he was happy that it was Richan in the bedroom with him that night, and under the light of the candles, he could almost imagine it was like when they were sharing rooms before the twins were born. Brytha had been with them as well, but she was precise about bedtime and never stayed up past anything. She simply didn't care for fun. Brytha was missing out, because they were playing cards, and not just any cards, little horse and bird cards that you were supposed to match in paired numbers. The horses were running across the cards as well, and that meant the numbers changed, while the birds' numbers changed in a specific pattern. Everyone thought it was random, but Nikolas knew otherwise, and he always won when it was just birds.

Richan chuckled when Nikolas won the third time in a row. Then a contemplative look came to him and he said, "Would you have married anyone Mother or Father asks you to?"

"I guess?" said Nikolas, blinking. "Is it the right thing to do? Is it not?"

Richan huffed out a laugh, "I suppose it is."

"You don't think so?"

Richan visibly swallowed and placed the cards down, "I told you and Jozin that I met a witch didn't I?" He shook his head, sighed, and said, his eyes still on the card. It was a horse, not a bird, and Richan's finger traced the horse's flowing mane. "He told me to run away with him. He said it would be fun. He said there's no point in me staying." His lips twitched, "But I told him it wasn't the right thing to do, to just leave behind my family like that. And that's when he gave me the mirror and, I suppose, he thought I would want to share it with him, but I told him it wasn't proper. And then he laughed, and—" here Richan coughed, blinking rapidly, "it doesn't matter. I did what's right."

"You always do what's right," Nikolas insisted, moving closer, "You're a great person, Richan, and everyone loves you and—"

"What about you then, Nikolas?" said Richan, switching the topic, like he always did. "Everyone loves you too, little brother, don't they?" he winked at the last words.

"Well, yes, but, I'm not…" Nikolas jumped off the bed, then flopped back on it again, "I'm not good at anything! I'm not like everyone in this family, everyone has something they're good at and I'm just here!"

"Are you sure about that? You've tried—"

Many things, Nikolas thought, and swept his hand across the bed, throwing the cards onto the floor. "All I do is try!" Nikolas interrupted, crossing his arms, "I'm not good at numbers or reading or playing an instrument or charming or witty or whatever. I'm just…" he bit his lip. Just Nikolas sounded ridiculous, considering his namesake.

"That's the point though," said Richan. "You try and you're very good at working through the problem. You didn't have to memorize Brytha's lessons," he gave a knowing grin, "but you did, didn't you? If you're good, and everyone tells you you're good then you don't care to improve." There was a sad note to his last words.

"I'm going to miss you," said Nikolas, throwing his arms around Richan. "You have to visit. I don't care how far away your wife lives. You have to visit and bring your children with you."

"Of course," Richan agreed, "I'll do that. I promise."

… Richan had always kept his promises. Except this one. But at the time he was happy that Richan wouldn't forget him so he settled down into bed, content in that knowledge. The next morning Felie and Ada were the first to greet him when Nikolas, out of habit since Jozin's visit, woke up early.

"Why are you awake at this time of day?"

"Cook is nicer when you help her in the morning," said Felie, seriously.

"And how do you help her?" said Nikolas with a laugh, imagining Felie attempting to roll dough and no doubt getting half of it over her face and the other half on the floor.

"I can do things!" Felie insisted.

"She can too!" Ada agreed, "She makes the cakes so much nicer!"

"Oh, can you?"

"Yes," Felie nodded seriously, "I was going to pack something for Richan when he leaves, a basket of cookies that won't spoil until he gets to his new house. Cook thinks I can do it."

"We've practiced!" Ada nodded.

"I've practiced, dummy! You only watched!"

"I did things too! I held your dress for you!"

"For what?"

"So you won't get flour on it!"

Nikolas chuckled, "And what cakes will you make for Richan?"

"Bear shaped ones!" Felie said seriously, "White bears, and the white-ness will be sugar! Lots and lots of sugar."

It was a thinly veiled excuse for Felie and Ada to eat the sugar, but Nikolas agreed to play along, "Do you want me to help you as well?"

"Yes, yes, and you can make something for Richan as well! And I can make it last too!"

Well, it would seem that Felie was the witch in the family. Or the wizard, if what his father said was right, but then again, wizards didn't cook simple things, they made banquets and feasts for the Tsaritsa in her palaces. Nikolas took Felie's hand in his, Ada's in the other and together the three of them made their way to the kitchen.

The cook was a burly woman, with massive forearms and an ever-present frown. She came from Aldeim's hometown, and it was her that accompanied Aldeim to his new household when he married their mother. The fact that she missed her hometown was known to everyone, Warada it clear no fish, fowl or fauna ever came to her fresh here, the merchants were cheating her, and if she had it her way she would personally fetch the ingredients herself, like she did in 'the good old days'. But she had a soft spot for children, and tolerated Felie and Ada's mischief the longest.

"What are you doing here, young master Nikolas?" she said upon seeing him.

She was pickling fruit, or making jam, it was hard to tell, Nikolas never really bothered coming to the kitchens to know.

"He's going to make a present for Richan!" Ada announced.

"Ah, is he?" Warada motioned to a small table in the corner, about the height of Ada and Felie, "I've got the dough all nice there. You can make them into your little shapes—"

"Bears!"

"Bears," agreed Warada, "and then I'll show you how to make them last—"

"Wait, you can do magic?" Nikolas blinked.

Warada turned to him, hands on her hips, "You sound very surprised, master Nikolas."

"He doesn't see you do it," said Felie. "He's just surprised, you're not mad are you?"

"No, of course I am not, miss," said Warada, a soft look coming to her eyes. "Why would I be?" To Nikolas she gave a half-smile, "Perhaps if the numbers frustrate you so much you could come and try your hands in the kitchen?"

"I can't tell any flavors apart," said Nikolas, remembering the disastrous dinner party that only happened once, and he was never invited again, "I don't think I'm very useful."

"Well, if you insist," said Warada.

Nikolas was more than happy to sit back while his sisters and their cook shaped the dough into the white bears that Felie was so fond of, but he leaned in curiously when Warada began telling Felie how to make the cakes last.

"You have to think of what goes in it," said Warada, "hold the image in your head, smell the cakes, and think of what you don't want it to smell, and what you wish it to smell, and taste, and look like, and—" she made a gesture with her hands.

Felie copied the gesture, and while nothing happened when Warada did it, when Felie's flourishes finished, the bear shaped pieces of dough— unbaked— unmistakably took on a much more oven finished appearance, crisp and smelling like fresh butter and cinnamon and sprinkled with white sugar. They even had little raisins for their eyes.

"Oh, that is… wonderful," said Nikolas, grinning at the beaming smile Felie gave him.

"Is it?"

"You'll have to wait though," said Warada, "We'll do another batch, just in case this one goes bad before then, hm?"

"It won't!" Felie nodded her head.

"I'll taste it to be sure!" said Ada, reaching for a cake.

Nikolas and Warada both opened their mouths to say no, but it was Felie who passed the cake to Ada.

"The pair of you, worse than Guigo and Diasa," said Warada, "I would think you're twins too!"

Then she shooed them off for breakfast, where, as customary, they all sat around the table in birth order. All of them, except—

"Richan isn't up?" said Brytha with a frown, glancing at the empty chair.

"I'll bring something up to him later," said Aldeim, taking a drink from his goblet.

His parents did not talk to each other at all, but perhaps that was just his father giving his mother time to talk to her children. She was quite happy with Nikolas's progress and praised his knowledge of her battles. But it wasn't praise , Nikolas only knew it because he was listening in to Brytha's lessons, and he watched, sourly, as his siblings basked in the attention of their deserved talents.

"Are you done eating, Nikolas?" said Aldeim, tapping his shoulder, "Would you like to bring the plates up to Richan with me?"

It was a rather odd request, but Nikolas would rather be anywhere but here, listening to Felie recount her magic to their attentive mother.

"Yes, father."

"Your mother doesn't mean anything by it, you know," said Aldeim, when they were ascending the stairs. "She just has an eye for a particular magic and Felie just happens to have it and—"

Nikolas ignored him, gritting his teeth.

But his father paused on the stairs, turning to give Nikolas a rare smile, "I think you'll prove yourself in time," said Aldeim. "It would be very sad to say that you have climbed the highest mountain at ten, wouldn't it?"

Nikolas nodded glumly, but decided to smile anyway, because it was not often that Aldeim smiled and it made his lined face handsome, and youthful. Nikolas could almost imagine the young man his mother married. That smile quickly vanished when Aldeim knocked on the door and, after some moments with no answer, pushed open the door.

The plates fell from Aldeim's hands, "Richan?" He rushed to Richan's bed, putting his hand on Richan's forehead, "Richan?"

He couldn't see Richan, but Nikolas knew that Aldeim never sounded terrified. Never, not when a thief broke into their house and waved a knife in their faces. "Father?"

"Go to Brytha's room," said Aldeim, not looking at Nikolas, taking a washcloth from the table and wiping at Richan's brow, "You are not to sleep here tonight, understand? No one is to come in."

He couldn't see Richan's face, and Nikolas took a tentative step forward, "Is Richan alright?"

"I said go!"

For the last several nights their house had the hurried footsteps of people getting ready for a party, but tonight, Nikolas could hear his mother ring out a call for a healer, chiming the bell again and again. And to his and Brytha's horror, it would seem that bells were ringing throughout the entire village.