Welcome to Gaia! ::

Earendil nodded and tried to peer into the windows as they passed the building. It seemed that no one was in there at the moment, but he could see walls covered in books and long tables covered with all sorts of things.

"Looks like more than just books," he commented, seeing vials and other devices such as Shiro had used on their trip for his experiments.

Adonai was out gathering research materials for the day, and Shael was at the river, doing laundry, and so it was just Vergil and Cindy in the house. Vergil was busy copying out his lessons in Adonai's old study when he heard the knock, and he looked up from his work and called out, "Mother! Someone's at the door!"

Then he got up, brushed off his pants, and hopped from the table to the chair and to the floor before he skittered off in the direction of the front door.

Vergil caught up with Cindy just as Kara hugged her, and he looked up at the group. He was semi-delighted to see them all.

"More not-so-tall people!" he beamed, glad that there were others who weren't nearly as tall as the elves. "Great! I was starting to wonder if there was anyone else like that here!"

Earendil stared down at the boy. Where had he come from? And what was he talking about?

"Lin?" he questioned, nodding at the boy. "Who is this?"

Vergil looked back up at Lin. "I heard of her, so everyone must have," he told her plainly. "Because I don't listen very much, but everyone else usually does."

He looked up at Earendil. "So are you a relative of Adonai and Shael?" he asked him. "Because they're Aldriches too."

Earendil chuckled. "Yes, very distantly."

Vergil nodded. "I thought so. Mother, are they going to come in?" He looked up at Cindy, genuinely uncertain. After all, she preferred him to focus on his studies ...

Earendil chuckled and stood back so that the others could all enter first. "And the second time we've ever met," he replied. "So it can't be all that strange."

Vergil scampered back from the door so that he wouldn't get stepped on - a problem he had mostly at the ranch, where there were so many more people, but which occasionally happened out here as well.

"I hope you've been well," Earendil smiled. "I know you've been here for a very long time ... well, Rhea's nearly forty by now, so it has to have been at least thirty years for you."

Which was not long, for him, but then he was much older than ... well, many of the people here in the valley.

Once the door was closed, Earendil set Miyuki on the ground (after making sure that Lin's butterfly fans remained outside of course) before taking a seat on one of the chairs.

"I hear that Rhea caused quite a reaction when she told all of you about her engagement," he grinned at Cindy, making himself comfortable.

Vergil was curious about the children. They were also bigger than him, but not by a whole lot. He stood near them, watching them curiously.

Earendil chuckled. "I think it didn't help that she had introduced Aurin to everyone first, and then not explained until later," he grinned. "I mean, you wouldn't want to have someone you think is just a visitor and then it turns out they're marrying your daughter, right?"

That had probably been more of a shock than anything.