Both sisters stared at Vicky, baffled by her wisdom. They then glanced at each other, bursting into laughter simultaneously.
"Well, I guess you're right! Who knew soone so young would have such an interesting perspective!…"
Yvonne's praise ended abruptly, as sothing seemingly popped into her head, ruining her mood.
She looked away with embarrassnt and spoke in a tiny, barely audible voice.
"I just rembered why I ca here in the first place… My mother asked to apologize again for my behavior last week… Also, she wanted you to punish in so way!"
Vicky stared at the tall woman in confusion, while Thea just sighed sadly.
Luzia was always a righteous woman, with a perfectly clear moral compass. Her sense of justice also stayed clear, and she punished everyone to equal standards, including her children!
"I don't really want to punish you, but I do need soone to teach fighting, so I guess that could be your punishnt…"
A large grin twisted onto Yvonne's lips, but before she could've accepted, Thea interrupted.
"That wouldn't be much of a punishnt, since Yvonne loves sparring! Think of sothing else, Vicky. Is there so unpleasant task you need completing? Or maybe sothing you want to know? You can ask anything from her, and she will explain it!"
Vicky glanced towards the clear sky with a thoughtful expression, while Yvonne's eyes stared daggers into her little sister's overjoyed, smug face.
It took her a few minutes, but eventually, she recalled sothing Thea was supposed to teach her about.
The young Princess spoke with a curious, emotionless expression.
"Yvonne, are you a virgin? Have you ever had sex?"
Both sisters' eyes went wide with surprise. Yvonne even blushed from the abrupt and inappropriate question.
"W-why… Why do you ask?" Said Yvonne, with struggle.
Vicky raised an eyebrow at their weird reactions. She believed her question was normal and innocent, but it seed she missed so social cues.
"Aunt Cass said I need education about human reproduction, and I thought you could teach ! That's why I asked if you've ever had sex, since that's a big part of it… I think, at least!"
The explanation only made Yvonne's face turn redder, while her sister began chuckling at her sister's misery.
"Yeah, that's a perfect punishnt! I'll leave you to it!" Said Thea, while walking towards the mansion.
Yvonne just stared angrily at her sister's back, then turned towards earnest little Victoria, and sighed sadly.
"Dammit, why do I always have to run my mouth!" She silently cursed at herself, then began explaining human biology.
To her utter despair, Vicky seed interested in the subject, so they spent the next few hours talking about reproduction.
…
While Vicky educated herself about intimacy, Henry sat at the dining table alone, reading reports.
His untouched food had already turned cold, as his eyes widened more and more.
"What… The… Fuck?! How?! That doesn't make sense!"
Similar words echoed in the room. His confusion continued to grow as he read everything.
Absorbed in the reports, he failed to notice three people stepping inside the room.
Eventually, after minutes of pondering, Henry turned off his silver watch's holo-screen and looked up at the three newcors.
"Are those the reports from the outposts?" Asked Damien, while taking a seat near Henry. Lilith and Adam also done the sa.
Nobody else from the main group stayed in New Athens, so their gathering was awfully small.
Henry glanced at Damien's tired expression, trying to hide his gleeful smile.
"Yes… How's your wife?"
Damien just sighed with exhaustion and placed his head on the wooden table… Or more like head-butted it…
"Painful, and I'm not even the pregnant one! She constantly craves sothing weird, so I have to run errands nonstop! The baby will supposedly co in the next week… I can't wait!"
While the soon-to-be father groaned in inner pain, everyone else chuckled wholeheartedly at the table. However, once Henry glanced back at his watch, all the rrint ended, as grimness took over his face.
Everyone else beca silent too, and Damien lifted his head. All the exhaustion was gone from his icy-blue eyes, leaving only determination and curiosity.
Henry took one deep breath and summarized the reports.
"The reports are still mostly inconclusive. They tried gathering as much information as possible, however, they mostly received strange tales from the soldiers… It's not good, that's for sure!"
While talking, he forwarded the reports to all three so they could follow along.
Four people made reports altogether. linda from the Eastern Outposts, Asia. Lucy from the Northern Outposts, Northern Europe. Leslie from the Western Outposts, South Arica. David from the Southern Outposts, Antarctica.
Everyone's eyes widened as they read the reports. Each telling about weird, inexplicable incidents happening at every outpost.
"Let's start with the West, Leslie's report… As you can all see, many soldiers experienced strange bouts of anger towards their comrades. A lot of these ended in fights breaking out. A few even beat each other to death…"
"Other soldiers had the sa symptoms while they were on patrol or hunting. They ruthlessly killed any monster coming their way, with no regard for self-preservation… Most of these people died in combat!"
Leslie thoroughly described each event and even provided a few photos of the fights' aftermath.
"Luckily, everyone who survived made quick recovery, but strangely, none of them rember what happened, or why they attacked their friends. They just felt a need to kill and destroy… Now onto the next type of incident in the West!"
They all brought up a different report, also made by Leslie. This one was less disturbing, but even weirder!
"In other outposts, the soldiers reported the exact opposite… Everything seed fine. Everyone went out on patrols, as usual. That's when, for so reason, they laid down on the ground, peacefully. The monsters teared most apart, the few left alive got saved by a Transcended!"
"They also recovered quickly, and rembered nothing about the incident, other than a strange feeling… Peace… Calm… Tranquility… Their minds totally gave up on fighting, and they all felt content lying down, even if it ant death!"
Henry only told a very basic summary. Everything was more complex in reality, however, he already jumped to the next part.
"David's report from Antarctica was awfully similar, however the people experienced different feelings, and died in even stranger ways. Also, unlike South Arica, even regular civilians from the city-states reported similar instances!"
David also provided pictures with his report, but everyone wished he hadn't. The photos depicted bloated corpses, people who literally fucked each other to death, and a few who simply stopped breathing until they suffocated!
"By the Goddess, what the fuck is happening?!" Exclaid Lilith, while continuing reading David's report.
"Nobody knows. David reported two types of deaths, ones from indulgence, others from starvation. So people felt extrely hungry, so they ate themselves to death. Others felt by lust, so they had sex until death…"
"They acted as if a strange famine consud their minds! They wanted nothing more than to satiate their deepest desires!"
Damien nodded, then looked at Henry, concerned. "And what about the other type? How did these people suffocate?"
"Those are the opposite of the famished. The few who survived told David how they felt… Prosperity… As if their bodies had plenty of resources, so they wanted to give back the air in their lungs to nature!"
Next to Lilith, Adam sighed and shook his head. He already read ahead, and knew how bad things had gotten in both North and East!
In the North, people experienced sudden death for seemingly no reason. Both monsters and humans died, but strangely, so of them resurrected soon after. As if life fought death for dominance.
A strange plague, which quickly killed off many consud the Eastern Outposts. linda managed to save a lot of people, however hundreds of Evolved still died in anguish.
The ones weren't affected by the plague, just knelt down and began praying. It didn't matter if a monster attacked, they just continued praying.
Henry introduced all this with a grim expression, then afterward stayed silent, waiting for their opinions.
"Are these attacks perpetrated by the Order of the Raven? They are extrely strange, however, the timing of their attack would make sense!"
Lilith and Damien nodded at Adam's words, each feeling the sa concern.
Quickly, Henry's dark blue eyes skimd through the reports once more, and he couldn't fail to note, yet again, how weird the attacks were. They weren't even attacks truly, more like sothing passively affected the weaker Evolved's minds.
"Maybe, although I don't think so. These attacks are random, and not very effective. If the Asian city-states wanted to destroy our outposts, they would've put a lot more effort into it… This is sothing different… Sothing worse!"
A shiver went down their spines then they continued reading the reports. They tried finding so hidden aning behind the attacks, however there wasn't much to learn.
For so reason, Henry's mind kept going back to the discoveries Mary and Jas made in one of Harold's labs.
"Dozens of locked Gates… Beings older than humanity… The Barrier's Maker locked them away… Bran damaged the Barrier and the locks on the Gates… Cracks big enough for creatures to slip through…"
Nobody else at the table understood Henry's mumbling, but soon he pushed away from the table and jumped to his feet. He seemingly figured sothing out, but instead of explaining himself, he just began furiously type on his watch.
A few minutes later, he seed to deflate, as if he just received so awful news.
"Another week, huh? Dammit Professor, we need your help now!"
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