"Sil doesn't talk a whole lot unless it's to talk about him, Vorden and Raten."
Lana gave him a soft smile, "I'm sure you miss Vorden."
"Don't you?"
Lana chuckled, "of the three, I found Vorden quite annoying. Raten had a sexy smile and taught me a great deal and not just about fighting. It was always Sil, though, for me."
"When did you meet Sil? We all only knew Vorden."
Lana chuckled and smiled, "I noticed him the first week of school and we were together … I think it was around the middle of the school year. It's Sil I married, not Vorden."
"You must be the only one not surprised by what's going on."
Lana nodded, "what I'm noticing is he treats me like he did Vorden and Raten while he's closed off to others. I think that will change over time. Can we go to the classroom? I think we can disrupt combat class for the day."
Borden nodded and motioned to the kids and they all went just a door down the hallway. The kids looked at Lana with curious glances. She watched all the kids as they found seats and wondered one thing.
"Which one of you is Deal?" Lana asked tenderly with a bright smile.
A little boy toward the front raised his hand slowly.
"It's nice to finally put a face to the name. Sil has told me so much about you."
Deal looked confused, "but I've never spoken to Sil. What happened to Vorden?"
Lana smiled tenderly, "but you have spoken to him. Do you recall a counselor that acted out a comic book as he told the story?"
"But that was Vorden."
"No. Each time you entered the council room, Vorden switched out to Sil. It was Sil who told you the story. It was Sil who called you Crybaby. You know Sil. You just don't know that you know him." Lana took a deep breath and continued, "I need to thank you. You are the reason Sil took over his body while on Blade Island for the first time in 9 years. You are the reason Sil ordered Vorden and Raten to rescue you kids."
She took another deep breath and looked into the faces of all the other kids. "Sil wants you all to live where he is living. Eventually, he wants to move off this ship. Since his home is with me, he has chosen a location for you guys to build a home. He has asked that you design a home and either build it or have someone else build it. My brother is a level 8 earth user so building it is not an issue. We agree children need some outside time. Would you like to see the place he has picked out for you?"
She saw excited faces all looking at Borden. Borden turned toward her. "May I ask, is Sil in charge of these kids or is Quinn?"
"Quinn is in charge of the Cursed Faction, Cursed Family, and Cursed Ship. Sil is their older brother." She heard sharp intakes of breath. "I don't know how much I'm allowed to share. This is Sil's family. As far as he and I are concerned, as the elder family member, he now has custody of his siblings. He is Quinn's best friend so Quinn supports him. If Sil says to move them to the moon, Quinn will do so."
It was Deal's turn to ask a question. "Who are you?"
"Well, if Sil is your brother, that would make me your sister-in-law." She pointed to the children on her chest. "This is Olivia and Owen, your niece and nephew."
The room was stunned.
"This is a secret, by the way. If Hilston finds out about this, we are all dead."
That roused everyone from their own musings. Deal led the group in being the first to get up and head her direction. Lana smiled and led the group to the teleporter room. Lana activated her teleporter and everyone went through. Shalt called Dobin on the way to the teleporter so he met them on the other side. He then led them to the area Sil picked out. This was Lana's first time seeing where Sil wanted the kids to be. Lana thought for a few minutes.
This area was outside the initial walls she had crafted and realized it was just to the side, toward the Bree settlement. Here, the kids could go into the rainforest to the south which was quite the safe place. They could also have a hallway put in to get to the other side for more challenging opponents. The kids would have a lot of room for housing as well training. Lana was planning on what else they would need.
"Do you guys want your own library? I was thinking of Power Fighter pods as well. What else do you guys need?"
Lana suddenly realized the area didn't have walls yet. There were still active dumping baits in a portion of this area.
"Dobin, there is a lack of walls down here. We need to get a design in and then set this place up correctly. They can borrow your ability and get it done faster. With Sil out, I'd rather them stay here but in their own rooms. He wants to keep them separate from the others for now. They need to be fully autonomous here. The adult that is with them, like Borden here, needs to have everything necessary. All these kids need to have family IDs. I need to get Borden a money card so he can purchase what they need here. If Sil or Quinn want to add to it, they will be able to."
"Borden, how far along are the kids in their academics?"
"That's a Peter question. I'm sure he knew that. He was in charge of academics and I was in charge or fighting."
Lana nodded. "We have structure here. We are small, not very many students. There are certainly less kids than are standing here but I have teachers on staff as well as classrooms upstairs. The classrooms aren't big enough for all these people at once but perhaps we could split you guys into smaller groups and rotate classrooms?"
"I like it."
"School would mean intermingling with other children. Think these guys can handle it? They will have to adjust at some point but… "
"Let's give things a try. Do you want us to stay on the ship or somewhere else?"
"I feel like I'm asking for trouble but let's put you guys in the orphanage building right next to the library until your area is built but we need it up as quickly as we can. First thing is to get you guys entered in the system. For the purposes of the system, your last names are all Plantwell. I'd advise fake first names for now as well in case Hilston is looking for you."
They went to the command post and entered everyone in under false names except Borden. Histon didn't know about him so there was no need to hide one Borden Plantwell. He was issued a card and paid fees for teaching the kids up to this point as well as caretaker fees so he could buy what the kids needed.
On the way to the surface, Lana said she wanted the kids to have a full set of clothing at both locations so if there was an emergency, there would be no reason to pack before heading to the other location. That time could mean death. Clothing, personal hygiene items, two sets per child.
Lana then took them to the orphanage building closest to her house and pointed out to them where she lived as well as her lab as they were the most likely to find her in one of the two places. Dobin took Borden to the Travelers' Center to get clothing and such for the kids. Dilly would make some for him once Lana was able to schedule a time. Lana settled the kids into rooms and allowed them to play on the playground. They never saw such a thing so she had to show them. They still were not that interested.
Lana decided to sit down with a stick and start drawing an idea she had in her head for a house and accommodations for the kids. There was a great deal of excitement about that. They could have their own room and a bed! They slept on the floor at the temple and it was kept that way on the ship. They were all kept together because of how they were raised and it was undecided if that was best.
Lana agreed keeping them together was best but they needed some semblance of their humanity or they would soon resent other people. This was the thought in going to school with the other kids. It would be rough but as long as it was just classes and there were not that many kids per teacher, she expected incidents to be a minimum.
*********************************************
Join me on discord at https://discord.gg/wuNsfeGP Or Patreon at patreon.com/MindyLeeCrouch