Mina had gone inside to go to the bathroom, but now the back door slammed open and she rushed out in excitement, a familiar box in her hands.  Lieutenant Johannes followed warily, saying, "She'll be much happier returned to her natural habitat, I'm sure."

"Jin!  Mommy!" said Mina.  "Look!  Lady Murasaki's babies all hatched!"

Their mother valiantly replied, "That's nice, dear," although Aunt Lorna winced.  Mom stared down through the transparent lid, and added faintly, "My goodness, she has a lot of children, doesn't she?  Perhaps it's time to move them to a larger home."

Like us? thought Jin.  Let it be like us.  He eyed Consul Vorlynkin in fresh speculation.

"Lieutenant Johannes says I have to put them all out in the garden."  Mina frowned, evidently trying to decide if this was a good idea or not.  Behind her, Johannes made motions that seemed to indicate he didn't want to share the consulate with a hundred active spiderlings, which Jin thought quite narrow-minded of him.

"Excellent notion," said Vorlynkin, tactfully.  "I understand their webs look quite attractive in the morning light, after a heavy dew."

Jin embarked on a hasty tutorial about what kinds of spiders did and didn't spin webs, and the web designs of various species in relation to their prey, while Mina went off to find some especially pretty flowers on which to release the new family.

Johannes muttered to Vorlynkin, "When she shoved that box under my nose, I thought I was going to throw up."

Vorlynkin's eyes crinkled.  "I didn't know you were arachnophobic, Trev."

"You realize, the garden is going to be swarming with those gigantic spiders?"

"Actually," said Jin, "the chickens will probably eat some of them."

Johannes eyed the chickens with approval for perhaps the first time ever.

"Don't tell Mina," Jin added.

"Wouldn't dream of it," said Johannes, and, after a polite nod at Jin's mother and aunt, went back inside.

Not five minutes later, the back door opened more sedately, and Raven-sensei strolled through.  Jin had never been more glad for an interruption, as the grownups had started talking about Jin's missed school, and what was to be done about it, and how soon.  Raven-sensei gave a general wave to everyone—Mina waved back enthusiastically—and came to a stop at the table, with a lift of his eyebrows at Aunt Lorna.  "Ah.  Sister-san?"

Jin didn't think Aunt Lorna looked that much like her older sister, being both shorter and rounder, with bobbed hair, and more peevish, although any peeve evaporated as she stared up, wide eyed, at the Escobaran surgeon.  Vorlynkin hastened to introduce them, and Aunt Lorna actually smiled and shook hands, and, when Raven-sensei turned away to greet Mina, whispered to her sister, "You didn't tell me your doctor looked like that."

"Decorative and functional," Mom murmured back.  "His clinic has quite the reputation on Escobar, I'm told."