Raile sat back in the main office of the company building. The city of Taevalinn had taken quite some time to get constructed, and a lot of capital had gone into its creation. The creation of the city, and the guild had been a series of lucky coincidences combined with hard work and dedication to the cause.

It was Vela and Drake that had helped find the base city. In a strange twist of luck, Raile had won a relic in a card game, but no one seemed to know what it was for. Vela saw the relic, and with bright eyes, knew that it had something to do with a particularly deadly ruin she had visited once before. With Vela and Drake on the job, they braved the ruins, and found that the relic was a key to an ancient magical power source. Once it was switched on, the ruins came to life.

It took several months to discover what the ruins were; an ancient, long forgotten magical fortress. At first, Raile wasn’t sure what to do with it, but at a joke from Leilah, realized the potential it could have. And so, he started on the grand project…

“So much paperwork,” Raile muttered as he signed another document. He glanced out the window at the now illuminated city streets of Taevalinn. It was because of him that this was built, but it was still empty. “We already have several applications for business, but who knew it would be this much work…” He sat back in his large, leather chair. “A whole guild…a merchant’s paradise. But will it take off?” He sighed. Already his business was booming, as were Leilah’s and Kalina’s. Setting up their shop and equipment had been easy.

The other few ideas he had, though, had not been completed yet. The first was an offshoot of an idea that he and Vela had messed around with on the side. Putting it into an actual, full business idea was a little intimidating. And, of course, there was Fuxing and Jala, who had submitted a rather profitable idea. He smiled, thinking of the lucrative business that would flock to them once more and more realized the inane potential the Talongwind Trading Company possessed.

“Now if I could just finish the paperwork,” Raile repeated as he got back to work. With all of the work he had been doing, he was missing Leilah and Kalina.

“You know your hair is going to turn gray,” Leilah joked as she carried in two babes. The babies were what prompted them to act quickly after all. “They missed you.” They had full heads of brown hair and were in a wrap around her. They had only been born not that long ago as Leilah strolled in and took a spot on his lap. She laid her head against his shoulder and smiled up at him.

“They fuss a lot more when you aren’t home you know.” They now had a place big enough for all of their kids. Though they still regularly went to see Rhenakos and Osiria in Jayou. The twins were fussing and she rubbed their backs lightly. “Shhh… Daddy is right here you two… Judith… Raven…” She sang to them a little as they quieted down.

“It might be the pressure of being up so high. The only downside they hate it right now… They’ll get used to it though I know it.” She took his hand and put it around her before smirking up at him. “Your luck has gotten us into some really big problems. Four kids… and one set is identical.”

When Leilah came in, Raile’s mood immediately brightened. He missed seeing Leilah and his new babies, as well as Piper and Nyssa…wherever they got off to these days. The twin girls were starting their own ‘shop’, though knowing them, Raile was worried about what it might entail. It was honestly terrifying what they could get up to.

“My poor babies,” Raile cooed as they were put into his lap. “I know, I know…” he sighed, looking at Leilah with tired eyes. “”With Osiria taking over the Jayou branch, things have gotten a little easier. I’m glad they settled down there.” He looked over his paperwork, and pulled out a few documents. “So, what do you think of this idea?” The first document was a building design with the label “Heaven”.

“Vela and I used to do…more localized little side projects like this. Earned a pretty penny, and it was fun. At least, vela thought so. So I was thinking of bringing the idea to a bigger scope. Obviously, since Vela is busy, it would have to be without her. At least, while she’s gone…” He smirked. “When she’s here, it can be a limited time offer…think of the silver, Lei…” He cleared his throat. “Anyway…the dress designs are on the next page. We can have Kite work on them…I’m sure he won’t mind the work and publicity. And a cut of the profits…”

He sighed. “My luck…are you complaining?” Raile leaned over and kissed Leilah. “We have four, beautiful children together…I would say my luck is just fine…”

Leilah’s smile softened as soon as she saw Raile’s face light up when he saw her. “You are so tired. You need to rest up or you’ll miss so much of what these two are going to do.” She helped straighten the little caps on their heads that were keeping them warm. “I promise you these are for your own good,” Lei laughed a little as they now fussed at her. “Me too… I’m happy to see things working out for them.”

Leilah took the paper and looked it over, “A club? Vela has a great many talents… She is an odd woman.” There was a smirk, “It will be a good investment for us.”

The sigh earned him a kiss back and smirked down at him. “Hey… I never said it was so much a bad thing. The twins just do their own thing and sometimes it scares me. They were out on the corner the other day of Jayou and came back with six hundred silver. They never left… They just talked to people.”

She rubbed the babies’ backs once more and looked at Raile, “We should go home… You could use a nice bath and I’m still pretty sore myself… from chasing the twins and all that noise.” She stretched. “Can’t be too upset at my body… the twins are only a week old. They still fuss over so much including the noises their sisters make.”

She put the paperwork neatly onto the desk and moved his chair back as gently as she could. “Come on now… It’s time to go.”

Nyssa and Piper were getting things done, which was no surprise to Raile. The two were quite the terrifying duo when they put their minds to use, but at least they were leaving Leilah alone for the time, which was a bonus. He just hoped that they weren’t causing too much trouble.

He sighed as he leaned back in his chair. “Home…” Even after all of this time, it was hard to get used to the new home they had built for themselves. The shop was their residence for so long, that anything otherwise felt odd. Still, as he looked out the window to the new house, he smiled. They had decided on a three story house, mostly for the individual spaces for everyone. Each of the kids had their own room, as well as a room each for Leilah, Kalina, and Raile himself, though neither Leilah nor Kalina used their rooms much. Leilah kept it tidy, mostly letting it be a ‘guest’ bedroom, while Kalina more or less lived in her own shop.

“That reminds me,” he said as he tidied up his paperwork, even as Leilah tried to pull him away. “I need to go visit Kalina this week. I’m sure she doesn’t even know what day it is, and I do miss her…” He stood up, handing the babies back to Leilah so he could stretch. “Here…I’ll take Raven.”

The two left the office, and exited into the streets. It was a much cooler temperature due to the altitude, but whatever magics that kept the city afloat, also kept the temperatures from dropping drastically. “It’s amazing, Leilah. If you’d have asked me five years ago if this was possible, I would have laughed it off….”

They neared the house, and Railed looked up. The rustic frame of the house was sturdy, with elegant glass windows on either side of the door on every floor. The overall design reminded him of the Terrowin Castle, but in house form. Elegant, but practical in this case.

When they walked in, Nyssa and Piper greeted them with charming smiles and a hello.

“Hi Daddy!” Nyssa said with a cheerful voice. “How much does it cost to start a business again?”

“Fifty silver. Why?” Raile asked.

“No reason,” Nyssa said as she glanced to her twin with a knowing look.

“Oookay,” Raile said. “Do you two mind watching the babies while your mother and I take a bath?”

“Of course, Daddy!” Piper chimed in. “Can we go visit Auntie Osiria while you do? We can leave you two alooonnneee…”

Lei gave him a bit of a frown at first knowing he missed their tiny little shop. He had been mad at first being stuck in one place but it had become all of their favorite place to be. They had a lot of their own family now thanks to having twins back to back and they needed the space upgrade. Especially with them having a boy now in their little sea of girls.

There was a chuckle from Leilah, “I’m sure she misses you too… She just doesn’t realize it yet. She has always worked way too hard even when it was just the two of us.” She handed him their son and adjusted Judith in her arms. “There, there. No need to fuss.”

Leilah gave him a look before laughing, “Even if you had laughed though you would have that glimmer in your eyes. The want to make it happen, it was just a matter of how for you. I believe in you like that, that you can do anything you put your mind to.”

“Hello, my sunflowers!” Leilah was ecstatic to see her identical daughters. (Even if they could be a bit mean sometimes).

“Hello, Mommy!” The girls answered back to her.

Leilah passed Judith off to Nyssa and nodded, “Sure, just make sure it’s alright with Osiria and Rhenakos if he is home. Okay?” The girls nodded and took off as soon as they had Raven. “They are going to be the death of us.” It was said as a joke but she did wonder how bad it would get. “Wonder what they are up to…”

She dragged him up to Raile’s room and shut the door. Locking it was a precaution she had gotten used to since the girls felt like they could bust in whenever they wanted to. “Hey…” Lei kissed Raile’s nose and smirked. “I love you.” It didn’t take long to activate the runes on the tub to fill it with hot water.

“You first. You look infinitely more stressed and achy than I do.” Lei threw her clothes off over a stand in the bathroom and did a cute stretch.

As the girls wandered off, Raile laughed at Leilah’s suggestion that they might be the death of them someday.

“I at least hope that they’d take over the business.” As the twins wandered off, presumably to go visit Jayou, Leilah and Raile escaped upstairs. Leilah locked the door, which earned a mischievous smile from Raile. It was one of those nights. Not that he was going to complain. When she kissed him on the nose, he smiled, and booped his nose to hers.

“Love you too,” he replied as she wandered off to get the bath drawn. Raile stripped out of his work clothes, and wandered up behind Leilah, who had thrown her own clothes off and stretched. He wrapped his arms around her from behind, and gave her a quick squeeze. The water neared the top of the elegant

The bath was a rather large, elegant basin made of black marble. Surprisingly, it was Kalina who had suggested it, wanting the opportunity for all three of them to relax at the same time, though the blacksmith was never around to use it. Raile would have to drag her back to the house some day to take advantage of it. It had been some time since the three of them had been together all at once.

Raile slowly dipped himself into the tub, letting out a moan as the hot waters soaked into his weary muscles. “Oh gods this is amazing…” He couldn’t remember the last time he had actually taken the time to soak, instead opting for quick rinses at the office. He smiled, looking at Leilah’s form as he motioned for her. “C’mon…get in! You deserve to relax too!”

That smile from Raile earned one from her too. It wasn’t often they could shove all four of the kids off to Osiria, who owed them for them always taking Reva and Izzy when she was younger. Once she was stripped she jumped a bit when he came behind her and she laughed before snuggling into him. Out of the two sisters, Leilah was the softer one and easily spooked sometimes.

She tied up all of her red hair into a bun near the top of her head so it stayed out of the water. “I think it’s been… five days? Since Kali has even been here. She came here for some breakfast which she ate on her way out. I swear I think she sleeps on her anvil these days. Something about the babies would keep her up anyways.”

There was a chuckle from her lips as she watched him get in and let out the tension. “Okay, okay,” she made her way into the tub and got on his lap facing him. “Better?” She splashed him lightly and looked out the window to the skyline. “Maybe we should have packed them an overnight bag… Knowing them though they probably thought so far ahead of us that they already took stuff there.” What was Lei gonna do with them?

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and leaned into him so she could relax against him. “Felt like ages since we last relaxed like this…” She thought about it some more. “…Before the first set of twins?” She joked.

As Leilah sunk into the water, Raile blushed. She moved onto his lap, facing him, and he kissed her softly, enjoying her close presence. She wasn’t wrong. It was probably a year ago when they were able to relax like this. The memories brought a sly smile to his face, especially considering where he was sitting.

“You mean what resulted in the twins?” he said, kissing her as he wrapped his arms around her. “We better be careful, or we’ll have another two on the way…” It was meant as a joke, but he could see the conflicting look Leilah was giving. “I’m just kidding, Lei. I don’t think we can handle anymore. At least…not for a while. Unlike Simone and Lewis, I actually enjoy keeping busy.” It was a slight jab at them, but he knew that Simone and Lewis did a lot of work keeping track and raising all of their children. That was more of a full time job than even Raile was willing to take on.

Raile squeezed Leilah tight, his hands traveling to her butt. “Of course…while we’re here…” he said, his voice dropping to a lower, sultry tone. “It has been awhile…”

Leilah groaned playfully, “Yes.” She chuckled and kissed him. “If I remember right… You weren’t busy for some reason and came to see me in my workspace…” She let a finger trail his chest before lightly taking his face. “And we broke some bottles… and the next thing we know we’re getting told we’re having twins again. Might explain why they are most comfortable in the apothecary shop while I’m working.” She winked at him.

However, the joke about more got a groan from her. “Raven cries. Judith cries. Raven calms down. Judith wants milk and so she fusses so Raven fusses.” She laughed a bit more. “I honestly don’t know how they do it because I couldn’t. They have so many little kids. It would be different if they were more spread apart.”

He got a giggle from her as she leaned in and kissed him. “Yeah…” Moving her hands up she ran her fingers through his hair before drowning in him completely. After a while, the water was cold and Raile easily picked her up and carried her to their large bed. It had been a custom order to Tempest of all people. A big bed comfortable for all three of them if they so wished it.

Plush. Comfortable. Raile easily tossed her onto it and she pulled him down with her. It was morning before she knew it and she opened her eyes to the light shining in her face. “I guess they did stay there… They probably knew better.” She chuckled and snuggled into Raile. “Kali still didn’t come home.” She turned her face as she was snuggled with her back to his chest. Kissing his lips gently.

“Few more minutes or do we need to get up now?”