Second Gen
As impressive as Adessa was, she wasn't the only child in the Finn household worth talking about. There was the eldest, Griz (8), and his sister Hela (7). Then Angeline's step-brother Jomi (5), from her father's second marriage. Then came Griz and Hela's nephew and niece, the daughter and son of their elder brother Adam. Though born on the same day, Adaraya (almost 2) was the first to arrive, followed by Hiradan (almost 2) not long after. It was a small miracle that both mothers, Adarna and Hiraya, got pregnant around the same time and gave birth just minutes or an hour apart. How Adam managed to get both wives pregnant almost simultaneously was a question nobody had a good answer for.
These children could be considered the second generation of the original Talon One kids. More would likely follow, since most of Talon One's founding members were still away studying at the capital. That also meant Adessa would no longer be the youngest among them for much longer.
They could expect more in a few years. For now, let's focus on who was already here.
Unlike Adessa, who had just turned one, the rest were no longer considered babies technically. They had already started school, spending their mornings there and the rest of the day at home. The exceptions were Adaraya and Hiradan, who were still too young for it. So for now it was just Griz, Hela, and Jomi.
They are all good kids who have picked up the spirit of the household, they have been raised well by their parents and everyone that is around them.
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Griz
Griz, being the eldest, felt the most responsible for what he called his little brothers and sisters. That was what he had been taught since he was young, and he had taken it to heart, seeing the other babies as his to protect. Right now that meant baby Adessa most of all. She, in turn, seemed to prefer the company of kids closer to her own age. She didn't get annoyed with them and found them fun to be around.
Griz had been taught the basics before he even started school, manners most of all. Theressa made sure of that. She was strict about it, and every child in the household got the same treatment, the way she had once taken charge as the motherly figure for August and the rest of the Finn household when they were younger. Not just her own children, Adam and Isabel, but Erik, Betty, Bren, Hiraya, Adarna, Donna, Milo, and Nina too. In short, no kid tied to the Finn household grew up without her hand in it somewhere.
Elementally, the Peerce family carried Earth and Wood. Red and Theressa themselves had little skill with their own affinities, but their children showed it clearly enough. Adam was a strong earth user, Isabel a proficient wood user, and Griz had inherited the wood affinity from her. He was learning from his big sister, though the village wasn't short on teachers these days, not with Master Ben and Mistress Mirabeth around, along with a few others the school had brought in to teach basic magic.
Griz also had a liking for martial arts, mostly from watching and imitating the people around him, August's unarmed combat especially. That was the most suitable place for him to start. The school would eventually cover weapons training, but for now, unarmed combat was as far as it went.
Most mornings before school he would find a quiet corner of the yard and go through whatever forms he had picked up the day before, throwing punches at the air with more determination than form. Adam sometimes caught him at it and gave a pointer or two, though he never pushed too hard. Griz was still young, and Adam figured there was no need to rush him into anything serious. Better to let him enjoy it first. Griz didn't mind the slow pace either. To him it wasn't training yet, it was just something fun to do before the day started, and being the eldest, he liked having something that was his own, separate from watching over the younger ones.
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Second Gen
Hela was just as free to choose her own path. She called herself the older sister to all the babies and took pride in looking after them, mostly the way kids her age always did, playing house and the like. It had rubbed off on her in other ways too. She gravitated toward Theressa's activities, helping around the house, in the garden beds, identifying herbs, and other small chores. She liked supporting people.
She was drawn mostly to the healing arts, and there was no shortage of that in this house. Her mother, Angeline, Betty, Hiraya, Adarna, and Donna could all do some form of it. Hela's own path followed closer to Theressa's, passed-down knowledge of herbs rather than anything tied to an element, which gave her a strong base for potion crafting and alchemy. She couldn't lean on light magic the way Angeline did. Her own affinity was earth, not water.
Her biggest influence was her mother, who used plants to heal without needing magic at all, and after her, Betty, who used fire. Fire wasn't suited for healing, as Theressa had told her more than once, but Betty had picked up a basic technique or two, enough to cauterize wounds when needed. That got Hela thinking. If fire could manage something like that despite not being suited for it, could earth find its own way into healing too? Earth wasn't known for that, it was a defensive element with a supporting side at best, but she wasn't ready to rule it out. That was a question for later. For now she had other things to worry about.
Most days she followed her mother out to the garden beds right after breakfast, a small basket in hand, and Angeline would point out which leaves were ready to be picked and which needed more time. Hela had a good memory for it, better than most kids her age, and could already tell apart a dozen or so herbs just by look and smell. She liked being useful that way, and liked knowing that what she brought back mattered to somebody. When she wasn't in the garden she trailed after whichever of the healers happened to be free that day, watching them work, asking questions until they ran out of patience or she ran out of questions, whichever came first.
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Jomi
Jomi was more reserved than the other two and slower to trust people. In that way he had some of the same temperament as his sister Angeline, despite having a different mother. Jonathan, his father, had no real element and couldn't use mana, but his grit and willpower were strong for a human regardless. Michelle, Jomi's mother and Jonathan's second wife, did have an element, though she had never learned to use it. That wasn't unusual. Learning to use mana was hard on its own, and learning it from someone else cost money most people didn't have. Even now, most humans in Arkanus who could technically use mana either couldn't in practice or could only manage the lowest degree of it. Michelle was in that same boat.
What mattered was that she had an element, water, and so did Jomi. Water was a solid affinity, useful in attack, defense, and support depending on how it was trained. Count Bradmoore had once mentioned that most healers, aside from light users, were water elementals. Jomi could go that way if he wanted, or use it as a weapon and defensive tool, the way Bren did.
Since Jonathan was his father, and a captain of the village militia force besides, Jomi was raised with a fair bit of discipline, expected to grow into someone capable of holding his own. August came up often as a reference point, along with Erik, who was level-headed enough to serve as August's second. Jomi didn't fully understand yet what a brother-in-law was supposed to be, only that August was his sister's husband and that they didn't share a mother. It confused him early on, though that was the kind of thing that would sort itself out as he got older. For now, Jonathan trained him at home in the basics, and he would eventually join the training sessions with August, Adam, Uncles Andy, Sibus, Marcus, and Sandeval.
Jonathan wasn't harsh about it, but he wasn't soft either. He believed a boy needed structure early, needed to understand that the world didn't owe him anything just because he happened to live in a household as well regarded as this one. So Jomi's mornings before school were spent on simple drills, footwork mostly, the kind of thing that built discipline more than strength at his age. Jomi didn't complain. He liked having something clear to focus on, something with a right way and a wrong way to do it. It was easier than most things in his life, which so far had been full of questions nobody seemed to have simple answers for.
To Jomi, the household was strange. This many people, but none of them are related, somehow working like a family anyway. He asked Griz and Hela about it once. Neither of them had thought much about it before, they'd simply accepted it as how things were, and told him not to worry about it. But he couldn't let it go that easily. School had taught him that a family, in its most basic form, was people related by blood. So who was right?
Fed up, he finally went straight to August to ask.
Jomi wasn't shy, not really. He could speak up in a crowd when something was bothering him. He called August "sir" out of habit, because he'd come to understand there was more to his brother-in-law than what he saw day to day. He knew August was the last surviving resident from the old Maya Village, and the one most responsible, through decisions made long before Jomi was born, for the village becoming what it was now. He'd also heard that August had taken charge as village leader once, back when he wasn't much older than Jomi was now, somewhere around five to seven years older. And from his history lessons, he knew this household sat on the very land the new Maya Village had grown out of, and that many of the village's founding families, the ones in Zone One especially, had come from here.
Jomi found the whole thing a little overwhelming. So many people under one roof, even with plenty of them away right now. But his question hadn't gone anywhere. What was a family, really, if it wasn't blood?
He found August at the central hearth, playing with Adessa.
"Big brother..." His voice came out a little shaky. He always felt that way around August.
August looked up, easy as always. "Oh, Jomi. What's up? Do you need something?"
"Umm... can you explain what a family is? And why are we all called a family? I don't really get it. In school they said a family is people related by blood, a mother and father first, then their children, then relatives. But most of us here aren't relatives. I don't understand why we're still called a family."
August thought about how to answer that. Jomi was more curious than most gave him credit for. Even Adessa seemed to be paying attention, watching the two of them with the same still, focused look she gave most things that caught her interest.
"Well, for starters, your lessons taught you right, Jomi. I'll give you credit for asking about something that's been bothering you instead of just letting it sit. What your teacher told you is true. A family is what you said it was, and that's not wrong. Now, why we're a family here, even though we're not related by blood, well, take me and Adessa for example. She and I are the only two people in this house actually related by blood, but me and your sister aren't. I'm guessing you haven't gotten to that lesson yet, but think about it this way. Your parents, Uncle Jonathan and Miss Michelle, aren't related by blood either. So why are they a family? Why are their kids a family? Because they got married. That's the simple version. A family isn't only about shared blood. It's people you're close to, people you have a real bond with. That's you, Griz, and Hela. So even if you don't fully get it yet, just know this. You matter to me, to my family, and to everyone here, and honestly that goes for everyone in this village too, your classmates, your teachers, anyone who lives here. If you really want to know what family means to you, ask yourself who you're willing to be responsible for. Because that's what it means to me. I'm responsible for everyone here. Even you. Don't think too hard about it for now. Go play, go to school, and one day you'll understand what I mean without needing me to explain it."
Jomi had more questions now than answers, but he'd caught enough of it to sit with. A family wasn't just blood. It was something you built, and something you took responsibility for. That much he understood.
August saw him still turning it over and ruffled his hair. "Jomi, the world's not going anywhere just because you're thinking hard about what a family is. Go find Griz and Hela and play."
"Okay. Thank you, big brother August."
So he did. His smile came back, and he went to find them, mostly settled on the answer he'd gotten, well at least for now that is.
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Adaraya and Hiradan
As for Adaraya and Hiradan, they had their own small world for now. They weren't keeping pace with the older kids yet, having only just reached the age where they could walk and play alongside Adessa. The three of them stayed close in age and mostly shared the same play area, with the adults and older kids taking turns watching over them.
Adaraya, being the first born of the two, had already shown herself to be the bolder one, always the first to reach for something new or wander a few steps further than she probably should. Hiradan was content to follow along behind her, watching before he tried anything himself. Between the two of them and Adessa, the household had its hands full most afternoons, though nobody seemed to mind much. It was a good kind of busy. Griz and Hela liked to help out when they got home from school, and even Jomi, once he'd sorted out his questions about what family meant, took to sitting with the three younger ones without being asked.
Nobody in the household expected these three to stay this small for long. There was already talk of what elements they might carry once they got old enough to show it, and plenty of guessing about who they would take after once their personalities settled in. For now, though, none of that mattered much to Adaraya, Hiradan, or Adessa. They had each other, a patch of yard to run around in, and a house full of people who looked out for them.
And that was the story of the children of the Finn household.