"Do you want to see the bus stop now, or do you want to learn how the appliances work?" asks Melody, walking with Catherine through it at a somewhat slower pace. "This door here opens directly into my unit - it's entirely your choice whether to leave it open all the time or not, but with five children I'm expecting you'll want one or two or possibly all three of us over most of the time, which is easier this way -"

"I am sure the children will be glad for friends. I - doubt I will be able to learn everything at once, but perhaps if there are a few essential things to know?"

Sigrun shoots a look at Tyr, as if to ask what their plan is. Tyr chews his lip.

"I think the most essential one is this." She demonstrates the functions of a toilet and a sink. 

Oooh, indoor plumbing. A concept. Ingolfr wants to play with the sink.

Sigrun and Tyr head to one of the bedrooms, probably to conspire.

"How does the - bus stop - work, they can return to their father at any time?"

"Tomorrow we'll go to a judge, and the judge will talk with you and with the kids and try to understand everything relevant to this situation. It's really hard to make general rules here, every family's situation is very different. For the children too young to have an opinion, they will almost certainly stay here with you, with their father assisted in visiting them regularly. - we arrange the visits so you never, ever have to see him again. For the older children, unless returning is going to put them or anybody else in danger, they'll get to choose how they spend their time.

I know their father has committed horrific crimes. I take it they do not know very much of that?"

"Oh no, they - well, they aren't aware of all of the details, but Sigrun and Tyr are perfectly aware that he oversees human sacrifices and has kidnapped women from all corners of Europe."

"It takes fairly unusual circumstances for a judge to decide to restrict a child's travel but that certainly sounds like a situation where it'd be really important to us that they grow up in a better environment than that. I'm sorry I can't give you a better answer than that, I know it's nowhere near good enough. I can say that I've seen a lot of complicated situations and they can make for very painful intermediate stages but - kids are smart, and they pick up pretty fast on what's okay and what isn't, once they're around people who'll say out loud that evil is evil. I really believe that they'll figure him out, at their own pace, if they haven't started to already."

"...well, we can pray. Tyr - adores him, I think. There are very many people who adore him."

"We can pray for all of them."

"Yes. Oh, but you must have churches here. I haven't attended mass since I was a child. The children never have."

"That sounds so hard. Yes, we do, three houses down from here. I go on Wednesdays and Sundays but there's events there almost all the time, you could go every day if you'd like."

"I might."

"One of my friends is bringing dinner over for us tonight. Do you want a little time to yourself before that? I could take your baby out for a walk, my daughter loved the fresh air and the smell of the water when she was so very small..."

"I - perhaps if Sigrun will go with you? Someone should stay with her, but I've hardly had a moment apart from her since she was born."

"Hey, Sigrun! Do you want to go for a walk with your sister and I? We could go down to my office and get you your money, if you'd like, or we could walk to the zoo from here."

"Money sounds useful," says Sigrun, poking her head out of the other room. She looks back in for a moment. "Tyr will come, too."

"Great!" She takes the baby from Catherine. "Money is useful. You'll want something to hold it in securely, do you have anything that might do for that?"

"We don't have objects," says Sigrun. "Everything we have is in Akershus."

"We'll have to stop by a store so you can get something suitable, then." She snuggles the baby and heads out the front door. 

Sigrun glares a little at her mother, who is not entirely sure what in particular has earned her the scorn of her oldest daughter, and then follows Melody and Ragna out the door. Tyr follows; he doesn't bother glaring.

She checks that Ingolfr and Frey are playing nicely together, then shuts herself in the bathroom and silently cries.

Melody walks down the street with them. In her office, she pulls out shiny coins like the ones Vignis has been collecting. "So the way this works is that everyone who lives on a member planet gets ten of these a week. You can collect more for work you do, and you can spend them on pretty much everything - including houses and boats and magic and resurrections. About the only thing that doesn't take currency is demons. You get a thousand for starting out, because starting out is really hard and having some money makes it easier."

"You shouldn't buy things from demons anyway," says Sigrun, accepting her coins.

"You absolutely shouldn't. You should have nothing to do with demons. Loki does, but that's one thing, she's Loki. Do you want to go to a store and get a pouch for all of those?"

"Yeah, OK."

The store sells backpacks and purses and hip packs and holsters and stealthy bags you tape to your spine and boots with hidden compartments and shirts with hidden compartments and jackets with hidden compartments and backpacks with dozens of hidden compartments. Melody demonstrates zippers and velcro. Most things cost between twenty and thirty coins.