"Jesper," Wylan said one night, when it was just the two of them and they were getting ready for bed. "I think we should adopt."

Jesper, already in bed, rolled over. "Mmkay," he muttered sleepily.

.

"Auntie Inej!" came the squeal as Lisa was out of her highchair and barrelling towards the small woman who'd just stepped in the door within a heartbeat.

Kaz (naturally) was the first person to his feet once they'd processed what the little girl had said. But he made no move to go to greet his old spy and instead watched as Inej lifted Lisa up in a twirl, face split in a beaming smile, and kissed her on both cheeks.

"Hey, Lisa!"

Nina was the next up, resolutely shoving Kaz out the way so she could hug her friend. "You never mentioned you were coming back this soon! I thought I wouldn't be seeing you for months!"

Inej laughed, and shrugged. "It was surprisingly easy to track down our next target, he wasn't very stealthy." Nina coughed, so the sailor corrected, "Well, not by my standards, that is."

Nina reached out a hand, and the Suli girl took it. "Come inside; the whole family's here. I was coming round for my weekly tea, when this miser," she jerked her thumb at Kaz, "decided to actually be involved for once."

"It's a miracle," Inej chuckled, and Nina slipped into the next room. The Wraith paused next to Kaz on the way there, though, and said quietly, "Hello, Kaz."

He couldn't help it: he smiled at her. "Hello, Inej."

The moment was interrupted when Jesper shouted, "Let her come through, Kaz, and stop hogging the Wraith's attention!"

"Did you track down some more baddies, Auntie Inej?" Lisa asked, the moment they'd all sat down. Inej grinned at the little girl on her left, and ruffled her frizzy hair with one hand whilst the other hand dumped a scone on the plate Nina had deposited in front of her.

"Yup." Lisa giggled as Inej's fingers tickled her neck, and she squirmed away. "No more evil villains on the seas today, oh no!" She turned back to her scone and spread jam over it. The little girl reached over to break a piece off, and cram it into her mouth. Jam was smeared all over her face already.

Wylan tutted, and whipped out a napkin to reach over and wipe his daughter's face. "Your aunties spoil you so much, don't they, sweetheart?" Nina sat back with a smug grin as Lisa smiled sheepishly. "You can have another scone if you want, but don't go stealing Auntie Inej's without asking, okay?"

"Okay, Papa." She smiled at him, and Wylan's attempt at a stern look melted like butter. She turned back to the newcomer. "What adventures did you go on, Auntie Inej?"

Inej could feel the eyes of everyone on the table on her; she never spoke about what happened out on the True Sea except in the simplified, fairy tale versions of the stories she told Lisa. They knew enough about the world to be able to fill in the gaps she scraped dry for her niece's benefit.

"I followed the sun to where it goes to sleep at night," she began in a soft voice. "And in the sun's land there were many happy people, and they were always smiling and laughing and singing. Lots of them had fiery red hair, like the sun, and many lived in the woods that the sun disappeared into. We came to a village to stay the night before we set off into the woods to find the sun."

Lisa was completely enraptured. One day, when she was old enough, they would tell her the story of the heist they'd pulled on the Ice Court, of Kaz tearing down Pekka Rollins brick by brick, of Wylan and his dad; Jesper and his dad; Inej and her parents. They'd tell her why Auntie Nina never went out on the streets alone without telling anyone where she was going or when she'd be back. They'd tell her about Matthias, and what he'd been like, and all he'd stood for.

But not yet.

For now, fairy tales would do.

"And a villager said to us, 'Don't go into the woods, miss, for the sun is only sleeping and there is a dragon there who will surely eat you up!'" Lisa gasped, her scone forgotten. Her dark eyes were wide. "And we said, 'Thank you, sir, but we came looking for the dragon, and we will free the people he has locked up and eaten.

"So we went into the woods, and the wind made it very cold, and the clouds made it very dark. We were very scared, but we decided to be very brave and kept going."

"What happened next?"

"We came upon the massive dragon!" Lisa's mouth dropped open. "But it was asleep, so we tiptoed around it to find the people he had tied up. And they were very happy to see us, but we reminded them to be quiet because the dragon was still asleep. We decided to tiptoe away.

"And then the dragon woke up."

Lisa covered her face for a moment, then removed her hands. "What happened next?"

Inej allowed herself a smile to show her niece she was unharmed. "The dragon breathed fire at us!" Awed silence from her niece. "For it eats the sun every night, and that it why it had fiery powers! And we ran, but the dragon was chasing us, and then whoosh!" Inej threw her arms up, and Lisa squeaked in terror.

"A kind witch who had been travelling with us cast a spell on the dragon and put it to sleep, and we were saved!" She glanced at Nina for a moment, who smiled at the reference to the Heartrender who'd joined Inej's crew a few months ago. That was one thing that never changed about Inej's fairy tales: The 'witches' were always good. Always.

"And then we returned the dragon's prisoners to their families, and sailed home," she finished.

Lisa still looked awestruck, but Jesper led an entirely overenthusiastic round of applause.

"Well done, Inej! What a wonderful adventure!"

"A tale to be told throughout the ages," Kaz said, and she was only ninety percent sure he was being sarcastic. The next bit was genuine, though: "We're thrilled you're back home in one piece."

"I'm sure it will take more than a measly little dragon to defeat Inej," Nina scoffed. "To the Wraith!"

Everyone else raised their glasses. Even Lisa, who had no glass, punched the air. "The Wraith!"

"Can I come with you someday?" her niece asked, slightly mournfully. "I want to help you fight dragons, and sail the seas, and help people."

Inej glanced at the girl's fathers. Jesper grinned at his little renegade, and while Wylan looked slightly sad at the idea, he shrugged when she met his gaze. It was Lisa's choice, in the end.

So Inej bent down and said, "Maybe. When you're older," and the smile her niece gave her was brighter than the sun rising over the True Sea. "If you really want to."