You’re planning on doing something that involves them. I don’t know why, but I don’t want to be a part of it if they’re going to be there.

 
Timeline/World: Newfound Worlds – Chiera: Spring
Characters: Jassan Sialcha
Race: Chieran
Age: 27
Current residence: Crisata Manor, Nasir
Final Word Count: 830 words
 

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A few months ago, the unexpected happened. To me, at least, it was fairly unexpected in the sense that up until this point, for the years I’ve been here, it had never happened. When I asked Tia about it, he told me he had no memories of it ever happening before, either. He even looked a little sad when we talked about it. From what he’s opened up of his past to me—a vague story, but all of our stories are vague when we’re here—was that he had a twin sister but only he made it to the manor. He has no idea what happened with her.

In a way, I can’t help but feel as though she possibly wasn’t in as much danger as he was, if only he was the one to make it. He was so young, I’m not surprised that his memories of things are fuzzy, but I can understand that he must have missed her back then, and possibly still misses her now. We try not to think too much about the past.

But those few months ago, we had an unexpected set of visitors. When we first found them—during our morning check of all the bedrooms that were empty the night before—I truly thought there were two, but as it turns out, there were three of them in all. Two girls, one boy. They couldn’t have been much older than eight, maybe ten. The boy looked battered, and we had to take him to our little infirmary to take care of him. His sisters looked shaken but in no physical pain. The girls were clearly glued at the hip and their brother seemed to think himself their protector. It was sweet but sad in its own way. It also explained the injuries he’d sustained before coming to us.

They stayed for a near-full month. That isn’t really that much of a long stay and when kids disappear, I guess that parents have two mindsets. Either their children have run away, or Crisata took them. I think that most parents possibly prefer to think that Crisata took them so that they might have hope of being reunited one day. You have no means of knowing which option is truly the proper one, but I’d heard so many stories of parents reunited with their missing kids after they’d just disappeared out of nowhere that it has to be real enough.

The girls had a fairly mischievous streak despite the situation that had brought them to us. Once we’d had their brother patched up, it was as though they didn’t see at all that he was there. They were very much always just whisper-talking to one another, and the boy stayed not far from them but didn’t take part in whatever game or discovery they were going through.

I do remember, a week before they did leave, I heard the boy arguing tiredly with his sisters. I say arguing, but it was very much so one-sided. He clearly was trying to get through to the girls that whatever it was they were currently planning, he wanted no parts of it, especially if it involved them. I still don’t know who this them was. Of the month they spent here, I don’t remember really seeing the girls talk to much of anyone but one another. I’m sure they could have befriended someone else in the manor. We were up to nearly a dozen people at this point and while some were teens, most were pre-teens. It wasn’t a very happy time in the manor’s history. Kids that young, it’s just heartbreaking.

As it was, the girls were completely ignoring him. I don’t follow everyone around, I just roam a few times a day, just to make sure that everyone has everything they need, and, on the afternoon of that particular day, I found the boy all on his own. He was sitting in one of the sunrooms and he was staring outside gloomily. I tried to approach him, but he gave me such a cold shoulder that I didn’t push. If he didn’t want to talk, I wasn’t going to force him.

I was a little sad when they left. Usually, our visitors leaving is a good thing, it means that their lives and surroundings have settled enough for them to be on their way back, but in the case of this one, I felt like that little boy would never know peace. As protective as he was of his sisters, and as dismissive as they were of him, I feel as though he would never truly get a chance to know peace in life. Where would that protective spark of his stop so that he might focus on himself for a little while?

I just, I don’t know. I hope for the very best for all three of them, even if I didn’t care much for the girls and their behaviour.

I considered that as an option, but it involves fire and you know what happens when I try to be careful.

 
Timeline/World: Edge of Forever – Chiera: Spring
Characters: Jassan Sialcha
Race: Chieran
Age: 26
Final Word Count: 632 words
 

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Everyone who comes through the Manor and who is old enough to feed themselves gets to learn the layout of the kitchen. Some of the younger ones who would manage to prepare food for themselves but likely not manage full meals are usually included in our meal plans. We never have to prepare the same amount of food daily. One day there could be a dozen of us in the Manor and the next there could be one more or three fewer. It really depends on the at-home situation for our visitors.

Tia still gives me a little smile whenever I say ‘our’ visitors because he’s been here nearly all of his life and he’d never experienced anyone staying more than a few weeks to a few months at the very most. Here I am, however, I’ve been here for a few years and, if I can help it, I don’t intend on going anywhere at all.

One of our recent newcomers was different from those we tend to get. Most I’ve seen come and go from the Manor tend to be in the usual six through twenty or so age group. There was one toddler not very long ago and we’ve had somewhat older folks—my age or up to someone who was thirty-one—but they’re rare. I don’t know if it’s because they seem to better be able to get out of situations that are unhealthy for them or not. It would make sense.

A few days ago, we had a newcomer who only stayed with us for all of a week. I figured she could have been in her late thirties by that point. She said she’d been stuck in a bad relationship and she’d tried to leave but he was constantly finding her, no matter where she went. I can’t imagine that kind of thing when you’re an adult, it must have been terrifying.

At first, we just showed her around, told her how to manage the kitchen and she gave us a dubious look and started telling us about her usual run of bad luck with fire and, somehow, when she focuses to be careful, she ends up being even more of a klutz. I didn’t know whether or not I could really believe her but we don’t judge in this place so we added her to our meal plan list and that was that.

I did get to see first-hand just how much of a menace she is in the kitchen when she was trying to heat up water so she could make herself a bowl of oats. Let me tell you, I never thought anyone could burn water but that’s more or less what happened. I just watched from a distance as she got the fire going but somehow, as she was getting the kettle set, the fire just got out of control and it took a lot of work to put it out. Thankfully, most things in the kitchen aren’t wood so that was a small mercy but I playfully banned her from the kitchen and I let Tia deal with her tears because I just couldn’t.

It may make me seem cruel but I can’t deal with people crying, it just shuts something off in my brain and I end up staring at them uncomprehendingly for a while. It was pretty bad the first time it happened and Tia tried to understand what I was doing just staring and not helping that first time around. We’ve come to an understanding that it’s one of those things. He deals with the crying and I deal with a few other things that he doesn’t care much for, or has issues accomplishing. All in all, it works out well for all of us.

Everyone has their own problems.

 
Timeline/World: Edge of Forever – Chiera: Spring
Characters: Jassan Sialcha
Race: Chiera
Age: 24
Final Word Count: 573 words
 

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I wasn’t very good with words, not when I first came to Crisata Manor. Anyone who’d ask Tiaryn would be told exactly that. Then again, I wasn’t exactly in any mindset to be good with words when I first woke up in the place. I’d come from an abusive home, as everyone who lands here did. Though not all from abusive parents. The ‘basic’ rule, so to speak, of Crisata is that those who come here are those who need an escape route from the violence in their lives.

A route that does not end in death.

That violence can be physical, emotional and mental, it can be and has been a mix and match of all three, depending on the person.

I remember, almost six months back, we were woken up to the sharp cries of an infant. At least, she wasn’t very old, not even old enough to walk, certainly not to talk and tell us anything at all. She’d popped up in the room right across from ours, thankfully. I don’t know that we would have been aware of her otherwise. We tour the bedrooms first thing in the morning but ‘first thing in the morning’ can be anywhere between six and nine in the morning.

There were no bruises on her and she didn’t fuss badly when we took care of her. We never knew her name. She stayed for two weeks before she was just gone one morning. We have a lot of cases like that. People of all ages just cropping up—though mostly teens and some children—and disappearing again within the span of a week, two, four. No one ever truly stays for any length of time. Tia has been here since he was very young and I’ve been here for a long time myself but no one else ever stays.

At this point, I’m wondering if we’re staying because the Manor sees us as its keeper and caretakers or because the source of our problems since has not been taken care of. It’s something I feel like we’ll never truly know. Though if we were somehow to disappear, to fade away, we would wait for one another. It’s what we’ve talked and discussed. It’s hard to imagine waiting an unknown amount of time until the other came back about but we’re too close to feel comfortable being apart. We even decided on where we’d meet up and wait since we’re originally from two very different places.

In a way, I think it would be interesting to be back out of the Manor, the waist-high flowers are gorgeous but deadly and while the garden is pleasant to roam through, I admit that there have been days when boredom set in but this place has become home, now. In that same way, I would like to just stay here. I’m safe, I have Tia with me, I meet plenty of others who need help and I help them as best as I can. At times, that help comes in the shape of just letting them adjust, in other; I turn into a hugger though it feels weird with a few people.

All in all, this place is a safe place. I like living here, even though I missed one or two people at first. I’m pretty sure no one really missed me, though I could be wrong but I don’t want to leave, not really.

Where do we leave it?

Timeline/World: Chiera: Spring
Characters: Jassan Sialcha
Race: Chieran
Age: 23
Final Word Count: 530 words

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I have no idea how he was even managing to carry the whole thing. We’d spend almost two hours in the garden, carefully picking the most beautiful blooms we could find, aware that Alia liked those the best and she’d been in a sour mood for a couple of days. I couldn’t blame her, the boy she’d been spending so much time with since his arrival had left. She knew this as well as everyone else who came to live within the walls of this place, it is only temporary and only Tia and I had ever stayed long-term. No one ever stayed more than a handful of months; six for the longest spell though someone had stayed for a whole year before leaving again.

It still hurts when someone leaves, it’s inevitable. We allow those new people into our lives, we let them close and they allow us close, we make friends, we heal together. This is the point of this place, healing. Once healed enough and once the magic that surrounds this place knows that the potential harm for the person has passed, they are sent back to the place they came from. It’s how it works. I know that Alia let herself swoon over the pretty boy because he was just that, pretty. If there hadn’t been Tia at my side in a really permanent way, I would have been interested in spending more time with him too but as it stands, the moment he came in, Alia was more or less glued to his side and I’m not even sure I ever heard his name.

Here we are now, just outside the door to the room she occupies and we both know she’s likely in the kitchen at this hour. Tia gives me a brief look and I shrug a little before reaching out and opening the door carefully. I’m glad when the hinges don’t squeak because Alia’s room neighbour is a little bit off their hinges—no pun—and still needs time to settle in before we start bothering them. All I know is that they’re there; I’ve yet to really learn anything about them.

I step into the room, Tia at my heels and we move towards the dresser where he carefully sets down the huge vase of beautifully blooming flowers. Alia will know it came from us, no one else enters these rooms without the specific consent of the person using that room but us and we normally don’t either but now and again, in situations like this one, we make a small exception to the rule and we let ourselves in.

We don’t even take a look around the room, we just drop the flowers and we step back outside, closing the door gently once we’re both in the hallway. It clicks just as softly as all other doors and we walk away. That’s all we’d come for. We wanted to drop these flowers because we hoped they would cheer her up. At this point, it’s just a waiting game. I’m sure she’s used to heartache this way, it’s the reason she’s in Crisata to begin with. She’ll get over it.

Stripes

Timeline/World: Chiera: Spring
Characters: Jassan Sialcha
Race: Chieran, Spring born
Age: 22
Final Word Count: 548 words

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“What the heck is that, Tia?” I was looking at the curtains hanging from one of the new room that had been recently vacated. It had taken me a while to get used to the idea that some people would come and go and that it was likely I never would be leaving Crisata Manor.

At this point in my life, I honestly didn’t care anymore. I felt at home in the Manor and with Tia at my side, I wanted for nothing. I missed teacher Eldath now and again but it was in a way that a student misses a teacher or a friend, unlike the crush I knew I had on the man before I had come to be at the Manor.

I felt arms curl about my waist and I chuckled a little, feeling Tia’s breath on my ear. He still was so quiet on my feet that I still couldn’t tell when he was creeping up on me this way. I could tell he was looking around the room but wasn’t seeing what I had asked him about.

“That, the curtains with the stripes. Those are ugly, I didn’t even know the Manor had anything like that, where did they come from?” Finally, he was looking at the curtains and I felt a startled exhale against my ear before he laughed. The sound was low but it still sent pleasant tingles through me. I loved having him close.

“I don’t know what to tell you, Jas. At times, people crop up at the Manor with the strangest of things. Remember last year, this tiny little slip of a girl? She was wrapped in that huge nest of blankets and that’s how we found her.”

I do remember her, she’d only stayed with us for a week before she’d done what no one of us ever dared to, she ran off into the flowers. We lost track of her within a few seconds and that was it. We didn’t hear anything and even after just a moment, there no longer was any motion of the flowers to let us know she still was moving.

None of us knows what’s in those waist-high flowers and they’re that tall on those of us who are done growing. There are rumours as to what might be in there and it’s enough to keep us away.

I shake off the memory and lean my weight carefully against him with a sigh. “I don’t recall the last guy who lived in this room coming in with these curtains, is the thing and we haven’t had anyone new in a few weeks, let alone anyone new in this room, so I’m not sure where they’d be coming from.”

Tia had been the Manor’s longest resident before I came too. He was such a bright soul, despite that he’d seen countless come and go. So I’m glad I’m staying, I don’t want to see any sadness in his eyes ever if I can help it.

He shrugs a moment, leaning closer to nuzzle against the side of my head before he turns, turning me with him. “Doesn’t matter, they can stay for a while.”

“They’re ugly, Tia!”

“I know. Leave them be, they’re not in our room, someone else might want them.”