Orn made his way silently through the woods. To his right he could hear the sound of his sister moving through the trees. Every so often he would hear his uncle mutter, ‘quiet’ or ‘faster’.

He smiled as he thought about how long it had been since he was in her shoes. A smile appeared on his face as he thought about how fast she was moving. She is faster than any of the children this week.

“Why do you look so smug?” a voice whispered, beside him.

He looked to over to see Kao strolling through the woods with him. He shot her grin, “No idea.”

Kao rolled her eyes. “You do realize there should be a limit to your doting. She will probably set a record time because of you. The poor child has spent most of her life training for this.”

“You were the one who decided I should train every minute I was not getting lessons,” Orn said, giving the goddess an incredulous look.

“Yes,” Kao replied, with an exhausted expression. “I said you should train. I never said you should train her.”

“She was always in the way if I did not have something for her to do. You know how she would cling to me if I did not have something for her.” He smiled as he thought of how Emmy would always find her way to where he was wanting to play. He should have been annoyed, but their mother gave Emmy less freedom than even he got. Kao does not understand. Prisoners like us had to stick together.

Kao gave him a knowing look, but said nothing else as Emmy and Uncle were approaching.

“Eavesdropping is bad.” Kao told him as he listened to his sister and Uncle talking.

Orn shrugged, their conversation was almost identical to the one Orn and his father had.

“Why are we here?” Orn heard Emmy ask as the two left the trees. “This is the edge of the forest. Did I fail the test?”

“We are here to get your family. They are coming with us.” Uncle replied, patting her on the shoulder.

“Emmy!” Orn heard the excitement in his mother’s voice, as the carriage pulled into view.

Orn fought back laughter as he heard her excitement, and watched her run to embrace their parents.

Orn’s little sister was beaming as her father lifted her up, telling her how proud he was.

“So I passed?” Orn could see she was almost shaking with excitement as she looked up at Uncle.

“Yes, but how did you know it was a test?” Orn could almost feel his uncle’s gaze boring into the trees where he was hiding.

“Cause Aunty and Uncle are only stern when you want to see if I remember something.” Emmy said crossing her arms and nodding as if it was obvious.

His uncle laughed, “I guess that is true. I was worried that your brother had told you.”

Taking the words as he cue, Orn eased out of the trees, “I’ll admit I was tempted, but I trusted that Emmy would see through you.”

“Orn!” his sister yelled jumping up and running over to hug him.

As his sister clung to him Orn heard his mother complain to his father. “Completely ignored. I have not seen her in weeks and she runs to see her brother first.”

“There, there dear,” his father said, wrapping his arms around her. “We always wanted our children to get along.”

Orn rolled his eyes, and looked down at his sister. “You did very good. I could tell you worked very hard with Aunty.”

Emmy nodded excitedly, then slowly relaxed her embrace to look up at him. Her eyes narrowed and her voice grew serious. “Were you there the whole time? But you did not say anything!”

“Busted,” Kao’s voice came from behind him.

“I had to see how you were doing.” He stroked the back of her head, “Besides what would mother say if I let you go running through the woods alone?”

“I was not alone Uncle was there.” She stepped back shaking off his hand and looking at him angrily. “You should have come with us. It is not safe to walk alone in the woods. Mother is always worrying about you because of things like this.”

“She’s got you there," his father added. “You should listen to your little sister and not worry us so much.”

Emmy beamed and placed her hands on her hips. “Yes, you should listen to your sister.”

…

[Three weeks later, Emmy’s POV]

Emmy knelt on the ground in front of the small shrine the priest brought. She knew she was supposed to pay attention to what he said, but her knees were tingling. She shifted and cringed as she realized he saw her fidgeting.

Despite her fears the priest did not say anything, and kept talking. Relieved that she was not in trouble, she let out the breath she was holding and looked back down. Her eyes grew wide as she saw a page from a book slowly appearing in front of her.

The other children must have seen it as well because one of the boys in the back yelled, in surprise. From the corner of her eye she watched the priest walk to calm the boy. How did Orn know that would happen? He said there would be a distraction and then I needed to… Emmy’s eyes went wide. I almost forgot.

Just like she practiced with her brother she silently mouthed, “Kao, can we talk?”

“What do you want to talk about?”

She looked up to see a girl about her brother’s age sitting on the loom. Her eyes grew large, and she whispered urgently, “quick get down. You will get in trouble.” Emmy glanced around hoping that no one was looking. Instead everyone was standing around unmoving.

“I will not get in trouble.” The girl smiled. “They cannot see or hear us. I did that so we can talk.”

“Are you Orn’s friend?” Emmy asked, looking at the girl. "Orn said I could meet his friend if I said that."