Lara crossed the last stretch of the garden in three long strides, bare feet still damp from the bath, hair only half-tied and falling over one shoulder.
She had heard Kaelith's shout first, then Neris's startled cry, and by the time she reached the playground she was already afraid she knew what she would find.
Neris was on the ground in the sand, staring up in shock for one beat too long before his face crumpled.
The cry came out sharp and humiliated, the kind of cry children hated because it happened before they could stop it.
His little wooden sword had landed a few feet away. Kaelith was frozen on the bridge, horrified.
And Aliyah stood there rigid, hands still half-lifted from the force of the shove, her face pale with the immediate realization that she had gone too far.
Lara went first to Neris.
Always first to the one who had fallen.
She crouched at once, one knee in the sand, and slid a careful hand beneath his arm. "Easy, easy," she murmured. "Come on, little guy."
Neris was crying, but not hard now. He bit down on it, angry with himself, little shoulders shaking as Lara helped him sit up and then stand.
Sand clung to the back of his tunic and to one cheek. Lara brushed it off as gently as she could.
"Are you alright?" she asked, voice low.
Neris sniffed hard, wiped under one eye with the heel of his hand, and nodded too quickly. "Yes."
Lara almost sighed. He said it the same way wounded soldiers did when they were trying to keep pride in place with bleeding ribs and one boot missing.
Yes. Fine. Nothing happened. She knew the lie because she had worn it for years.
Still, she did not call him on it right away. She only ran her eyes over him quickly. No blood. No twisted ankle. No obvious injury beyond bruised dignity and fear.
"Okay," she said softly, though her gaze said she knew better.
Then she stood and turned to Aliyah.
Aliyah had not moved. She looked small suddenly, smaller than she had looked one second ago when anger was holding her upright.
Her chin was set in that stubborn little way that meant tears were already close and she would rather set herself on fire than let them come out first.
Lara kept her voice calm.
"Come here, my baby. What was that?"
The words hit exactly where she intended them to, because Aliyah's face twisted at once.
She took one reluctant step forward, then another, dragging her feet through the sand as if every grain were accusing her.
Kaelith slid down from the bridge and hovered anxiously beside Neris, who had gone quiet again, one small hand fisted in the side of Lara's damp tunic as if he had not quite realized he was doing it.
Aliyah stopped a few feet away. "I just pushed him."
Lara lifted one brow. "You know exactly what I mean."
Aliyah's mouth flattened. "He was looking at me."
"That is not a crime."
Aliyah glared at the ground. "I know."
Lara crossed her arms, then immediately uncrossed them because she did not want to look like a judge. She wanted to look like Lara. Safe. Annoyed, yes, but safe.
"Try again," she said.
Aliyah looked up then, eyes too bright. "I don't like him."
The honesty of it landed harder than any excuse would have.
Neris stiffened beside Lara. Kaelith looked outraged on his behalf, little fists balling at her sides, but Lara lifted one hand slightly without looking and Kaelith stayed still.
"Why?" Lara asked.
Aliyah's jaw worked. She was trying to find the shape of something too big for her age and too ugly for her pride. "Because," she said at last, "because everything got bad and then he was there."
Lara's chest tightened.
Of course.
Of course that was it.
Aliyah took a shaky breath and the words started tumbling faster, messier.
"Grandma said he's my little brother and that's why you had to go away and then Mommy got sadder and there was the stupid wedding dress and everybody keeps saying weird things and he was just there with Kaelith and—"
She stopped, breathing hard, and then whispered with all the misery of a child who hates her own feelings, "I wanted everything to go back."
Lara shut her eyes for one beat.
When she opened them again, Aliyah was crying too.
Not loudly. Just standing there with furious tears running down her face as if she wanted to fight even those.
Lara held out a hand. "Come here."
Aliyah came at once this time, throwing herself hard enough into Lara that it nearly unbalanced all three of them.
Lara caught her automatically, one arm around her while keeping the other steady on Neris's shoulder. For one absurd second she had both children touching her and no idea how the hell her life had turned into this.
Aliyah buried her face against Lara's neck. "I'm sorry," she mumbled into damp skin. "I'm sorry but I'm still mad."
"That's allowed," Lara said. "Being mad is allowed. Pushing people because you're mad is not."
Aliyah nodded miserably against her.
Lara looked down at the dark head against one shoulder, then at the smaller one beside her, red-streaked and wary and trying very hard not to need anything.
The sight of them together made something ache deep and old in her.
She crouched again, so all of them were closer to the same height, and kept one hand on each child.
"Listen to me," she said. "All of you."
Kaelith, who had not technically been doing anything wrong but always assumed lectures might become interesting, nodded solemnly.
Aliyah sniffed and wiped her nose on Lara's shoulder without shame.
Neris looked at Lara, then away, then back again.
"What happened," Lara said carefully, "is not Neris's fault."
Aliyah did not argue, which told Lara she already knew that.
"And it's not your fault either," she added, because Aliyah's little body had gone too tense to miss it. "You had bad thoughts put in your head by grown-ups who should know better."
Aliyah pulled back just enough to look at her. "Grandma."
"Yeah," Lara said. "Grandma."
That drew the faintest offended snort from Kaelith, who clearly considered all grandmothers suspect unless proven otherwise.
Lara turned her gaze to Neris. "And you," she said, gentler now, "do not have to pretend you weren't scared. You can be upset if someone shoves you."
He looked down. "I didn't want to cry."
"Most people don't."
That earned her the smallest flicker of attention.
Lara inhaled slowly, choosing the next words with more care than she had chosen almost anything in years.
"Both of you are allowed to feel weird about this. I feel weird about this. Everyone does. But nobody gets to hurt each other because the adults made a mess."
Kaelith raised one hand. "What if the adults deserve it?"
Lara looked at her. "That is a separate discussion."
Kaelith seemed satisfied by this.
Aliyah twisted the fabric at Lara's collar in her fist. "I thought if I didn't like him enough maybe it would go away."
There it was. The child logic. Pure and painful and hopelessly human.
Lara kissed the top of her head. "That's not how people work, baby."
Aliyah sighed like this was the greatest injustice in the universe.
Lara shifted her attention to Neris again. He was still standing close, still not quite trusting enough to lean in but no longer pulling away either.
Sand clung to one knee of his trousers. He looked very small and very tired.
"You want to know what I think?" Lara asked him.
He hesitated, then nodded once.
"I think Aliyah was mean," Lara said plainly, and Aliyah made a wounded noise into her shoulder, "but I also think she's scared and confused. And I think you're scared and confused too. So before this gets any worse, there's going to be an apology."
Aliyah groaned. "Do I have to?"
"Yes."
"That's tyranny."
"That's consequences."
Aliyah sulked for three whole seconds, then turned her face just enough to look at Neris. "Sorry I pushed you."
Neris looked at her, serious and unreadable. "Sorry I looked at you."
Kaelith threw up both hands. "That is the worst apology I have ever heard."
Lara almost laughed.
Aliyah did too, a tiny broken little laugh that still had tears in it. Neris's mouth twitched despite himself.
Better.
Not fixed. Not even close.
But better.
Lara rose slowly and lifted Aliyah properly onto one hip, because she was still her baby even when she was being a menace. Then she looked down at Neris and held out her free hand.
Neris stared at it for a second.
Then he took it.
"All right," Lara said, glancing toward the castle where the first dinner lamps were beginning to glow behind the windows.
"We're going inside. And if either of you starts a war before supper, I am telling Elysia everything."
Kaelith gasped. "Cruel."
"Yes," Lara said. "Come on."