Rowan → Ethan Nakamura ✔

Questions

"This is great, Rachel," Billie said through a mouthful of rice. "Thanks!"

Rachel grinned at the compliment. "No problem. Solid compliment from the daughter of the food goddess."

As bountiful as the farmers who worshiped Demeter, the Mas' dinner featured glistening, savory meat and vegetables piled onto mismatched dishes, covering the slightly soiled cream tablecloth Robbie had set on the round, wooden surface. It was stained with years of use rather than dirt, aside from pieces of bone that would later be thrown and washed away. All ate from bowls of fluffy, white rice, taking pork and cabbage from sharing plates. Refills were provided with the rice cooker in the kitchen, from which Ryan had already walked towards twice and showed no sign of slowing.

"Do you guys have a god of the harvest?"

"Zao Jun," Clara responded as she wiped Ryan's mouth with a piece of tissue. "The Stove God. Every year he reports families who have done wrong to the Jade Emperor, who used to punish them for their trespasses."

"Used to?" Will asked. "He doesn't do that anymore?"

"Only on occasion, but we have no real way of knowing if its divine work or just coincidence. Mostly, however, it's the latter. As centuries have passed, the rule of the gods has become less absolute. They have withdrawn due to time, technology, and a realization of mortals' own wills."

"Careful, Clara," Old Man Ma warned. "You're beginning to sound arrogant."

"I'm only telling the truth. The line between men and gods was drawn long ago as the divine withdrew, and it should have stayed that way."

"Relax, Mom," Rowan said, face half-concealed by her bowl. "I'm not dead yet."

"If not for a sudden change of heart, you would not be here to say as such. This family should have never been recruited in their service."

Old Man Ma bristled. "Clara, you accepted the risks."

"Hunter risks. Not godly ones." Clara drew herself upwards. "We have been through enough."

There was an implication between Clara's words. Although it was not explicitly spoken, Rowan knew yet again what her mother insinuated along with the 3 days that her eldest daughter had physically disappeared. Knowing her family's reaction to Rowan's own pain, Rowan had begun disappearing long ago, and it was only now that she seemed whole again.

"Look, I'm home now. We're home now." Rowan said, taking her mother's hand gently in her own. At the mention of Ethan, despite his name not being spoken, Clara's lips tightened. "That's all that matters."

Rowan felt Ethan tense beside her, waiting for Clara's reaction. Old Man Ma had been momentarily dealt with; Clara Tan required a different type of soothing. While her husband's fury at Ethan was displaced by his faith in the gods, Clara Tan's faith was entirely different: she believed that gods were real, she believed they were powerful, but she did not believe they were better. Her family was the only thing that mattered, and whoever hurt them was doomed.

The problem was that Ethan was also family. Long ago, she considered him a child of her own - a companion for Rowan, who always had trouble making friends, as well as a delight of a little boy more calm and caring than any of her children combined. He was responsible, grounded, would shoot down any unhinged ideas that Rowan had. Clara trusted the boy to look after the infant that had been Ryan, remembering how her youngest son would sleep in Ethan's arms whereas he would wail in Rachel or Rowan's.

Finally, Clara huffed, but she squeezed her daughter's fingers in return before letting go. "Why the gods asked children to fight their battles I will never know."