Soon the classroom was filling up with young Paladins, awaiting their lessons. One of those young Paladins was their cousin, Charles. Even though he was the son of their uncle, Mai found him to be nice enough. He said little around Mai. Which may be the possibility that his father told him to not speak to Rainier’s wild children. He always offered a smile to his cousin, and she always returned one.

“Good morning, students,” the instructor chimed.

“Good morning, Madame Colette.”

“We will not have lessons today.”

After looking forward to lessons all morning, this made her heart sink.

“Instead, we will perform music that inspires you. You will pick pieces that you play in your spare time. So, come up here and look through my sheet music.”

Mai’s heart leapt. She knew exactly what piece of music she wanted to play. She always brought it with her to piano lessons in hopes she would be permitted to play it. It was one of the songs that Em requested over and over so she had plenty of practice.

“We will go in alphabetical order.”

Damn. Mai would be last to perform. She did not know if she had the restraint to wait that long to play. She would have to wait her turn after ten students. After Charles played his composition, it was finally Mai’s turn. Class was running late because it took some time for students to find their sheet music. Mai sat in front of the piano and stroked the keys lovingly. This was her element. This is where she was meant to be and she began to play.

Mai played an original composition that she had written. This composition was her sister's favorite, admitting to her sister once that it had a calming effect on her and would often ask Mai to play it. Maiolaine closed her eyes as her body swayed to the music and her fingers danced across the keys. Blue sparks emitted off the tips of Maiolaine’s fingers with each touch of a key.

The music instructor, Madame Colette, said that music comes naturally to Jovies. Mai recalled Madame Colette telling her mother that Em banged the piano's keys in frustration and nearly setting the piano on fire after Madame Colette said Berserkers did not have the natural patience that comes to learning musical instruments.

After the song finished, the room erupted with applause and cheers. Mai's cheeks heated under the attention.

“Bravo! Bravo! That was simply electrifying as usual. I apologize for this class running late. I will see you next week. Au revoir.” Madame Colette dismissed the class but placed a hand on Mai’s shoulder as she was gathering her things. “Could I speak with you for a moment?”

“Certainly, Madame.”

“Your mother has agreed to allow you to tutor students in this class. Your piano skills are like no other. Would you accept?”

Maiolaine slowly nodded her head in agreement and she caught the eye of her sister in the doorway.

“Of course, I will.”

Madame Colette clapped her hands.

“That’s great news. I will give you a list of students who will need help next week. Au revoir, Mademoiselle.”

“Au revoir, Madame Colette.”

Mai joined her sister in the hallway. As they made their way to the dining hall for lunch, Em stopped in front of her sister to look her in the eyes.

“Why did you accept to be a tutor?” Em asked.

“I don’t know. Madame Colette seemed so desperate. I didn’t want to let anyone down. I want to help.”

“But is it something that you want to do? You’re going to be leaving the instruction soon. You don’t want to be stuck here teaching like the rest of the Jovies, do you? I thought that’s what all this 'getting back to nature' crap was all about. To break away from the norm.”

“Thanks for the pep talk, sis.”

Mai sidestepped Em so that she could walk again.

“I’m sorry that you can’t handle how blunt I am.” Em said as she jogged to catch up. “It’s just sometimes I don’t understand you. You say you feel stuck, and that something is missing here and yet you seem to conform yourself to the traditions and all that crap.”

“We’re Trivetts. I think it’s expected of us to help in any way we can. Something like bringing dishonor to our family or whatever.”

“Mai-”

“Em, did you forget who we are? We will have to lead this clan one day. There is no escape!”

Mai stormed off to her room before Em could say anything else.

Mai pulled her door open and her eyes landed on the family picture that she broke yesterday. She picked the frame up and traced her finger over her father’s smiling face. They had not found him. After a couple of years, they believed him to be dead. Even after the telepathic connection between him and her mother was severed within the night, Olympe never stopped believing he was gone. But as the days passed by with no signs of Ranier anywhere, their mother lost hope that she would be reunited with her husband once more.

The days turned into months. Those months turned into years. Time went on without any hope of finding Rainier and Olympe made the difficult decision to halt the search and take up leadership of the clan.

“Don’t worry, Papa. Em and I will find you. We haven’t given up.”

She kissed his picture and sat the glassless frame back on her nightstand. The sisters have refused to move on. As Emmaline had so eloquently put it: if there’s no body, there’s no giving up hope.