"Fine," Kaylessa hissed. She was tired of everyone accusing her dad of killing Alina and Alden, but might as well investigate. She pulled out her home crystal and held out her hand to Ashryn, the only person she wasn't annoyed with at the moment.

"Let's go, I'm pretty sure my dad's home," Kaylessa said. Ashryn locked hands with her and everyone else followed. She let the ceiling light of Viessa's room shine through the clear crystal and pulled everyone through the beam of light.

They all appeared at the front door of their villa estate. She dropped Ashryn's hand and pushed the gate open and they stood in the center of three villas. She walked toward the house nearest to the ocean and waited for everyone to gather around her dad's house.

"Don't snoop on his stuff, okay?" Kaylessa asked before opening the door. She watched everyone file in and she glared at Raverie as she passed and stuck her tongue out.

She shut the door and motioned for everyone to look around. Everyone cringed at the large mess around them.

"He's a hoarder," Keryn muttered.

"Like you," Kaylessa rolled her eyes as she slumped down on her dad's trashy couch. Aymon walked into the kitchen and walked back out immediately.

"Well, there are so many dishes in the sink—is that lushberry juice on a plate?" Aymon asked, pointing to the anomaly on the coffee table.

"Yeah, and there's a glass of mallowmelt somewhere here. Have fun finding something!" Kaylessa said overenthusiastically as she turned on the lamps. Raverie grumbled something unintelligible and sorted through his dirty tunics on the ground.

Esarae leafed through several magazines strewn on the floor. Aqua, who was still clutched in Kaylessa's arms, meowed.

Her dad emerged from his bedroom and stopped at the sight of a bunch of teens wandering in his house.

"Why are hooligans in my house?" he asked. Kaylessa stifled a snort and laughed.

Keryn paused his snooping, "Did he just call us 'hooligans'?"

"Well deserved," Kaylessa mumbled. She scratched Aqua behind the ears as her dad stared at the strangers. "These 'hooligans' are my friends. Well, some of them." Kaylessa gave Keryn a stink-eye.

"Ah, okay. But, why are they touching my perfectly clean house? I have to clean up again!" Elion complained, he shooed Esarae from stacking his magazines. He knocked the tower down and crossed his arms.

"Perfectly clean house?" Raverie mumbled under her breath.

"They said they wanted to look around," Kaylessa explained.

"Looking isn't ruining my clean house," Elion glared at them. "I worked hard on getting to that state of perfection!" He huffed as he tossed a dirty tunic behind him.

"Perfection?" Keryn asked.

"His house, his rules. If he says it was perfection, you must listen to him," Kaylessa said, enjoying watching Keryn squirm a little.

"I gotta clean my house now, you can look around, but don't get your nasty fingers on my things," her dad stormed back into his room, picking up the plate of lushberry juice.

"Your dad's weird," Keryn mumbled after Elion left. So is he, Kaylessa said petting Aqua. He's the weirdo.

"Whatever. Did you find anything yet?" Kaylessa asked. This time, everyone glanced around and was sure not to disturb the mess.

"I won't be able to find anything in this house!" Kieran complained. Aymon, Keryn, and Raverie grumbled in agreement. Kaylessa rolled her eyes.

"You get used to the mess. After that, you can find anything," Kaylessa shrugged. Her dad was a slob, but she was used to it.

"Oh, sure," Raverie muttered walking off into a random part of the house. Moody bastard. Kaylessa let Aqua wander the house and the murcat instantly ran off into Elion's room. There was a faint hum of purring, a thud, and then a husky laugh.

Kaylessa shot up off the couch, her eyes wide. No one else had been paying attention to Aqua, all too busy to look around, but Kaylessa made her way down the white-painted hallways into her dad's room.

"Dad?" Kaylessa asked, hovering in the doorway of Elion Salvaxe's room.

"Yes?" her dad asked, chuckling. He was on the ground with Aqua sitting on his chest. She beamed at the murcat.

"Nothing," she said, backing out of the room. Her mood instantly lifted and she couldn't stop smiling. This was the first time she heard her dad laugh since her mom died.

She hummed as she walked back into the main room. Everyone was still scanning their eyes around the cluttered room. She swept her eyes around the mess and caught on the clock hanging crooked on the wall.

"Do you want dinner?" Kaylessa asked, realizing it was around five.

There was a round of agreement from everyone. Kaylessa nodded and went to the kitchen. She cleaned eight plates and reached into the fridge to serve a green glop. She sniffed it and it smelled fresh enough so she balanced three plates on her arms and went three rounds to pass out the food.

At first, everyone was hesitant to eat the food, but it turned out to have a slightly sweet taste so everyone swallowed the food.

When dinner was done, Kaylessa debated cleaning the dishes, but her dad might be annoyed so she left the plates in the sink with green food stains.

"So, did you find anything ye—" Kaylessa started but realized Raverie was missing from the group and there was a rapid whisper coming from the closet.

She slowly crept to the closed door and slammed the door open.

She saw Raverie hunched over whisper-screaming into a bracelet on her left wrist. She caught snips of the conversation.

"Did you find the—"

"No, but she's—"

"—jewelry—"

"—Kaylessa's mom."

At the mention of her name, she leaned against the doorframe and coughed. Raverie jumped up and hid her hands behind her back as she faced Kaylessa.

"Hello, Raven!"