Epilogue 2
The heavy, serious atmosphere of the formal reunion did not last long. As soon as the main doors of the Grand Hall were closed to the public and the official guards stepped back to the periter, the air in the room changed completely. It shifted from a place of politics and strategy into a playground.
For the outside world, the children of Lloyd Ferrum were terrifying beings. They were the offspring of the most powerful man on the continent and his legendary wives. They held titles like "High Chief Justice" or "Grand Admiral." But inside the walls of the Ferrum Estate, behind closed doors, titles didn't matter much. Here, they were just brothers and sisters, and they had a lot of energy to burn.
The silence was broken by a high-pitched laugh that sounded like crackling electricity.
"You can’t catch ! You’re too slow!"
It was Raiden. At six years old, the son of Fang Fairy was a blur of motion. He didn't just run; he zipped across the marble floor like a bolt of blue lightning. His silver hair was a ss, and his eyes sparkled with mischief. He wasn't using his full power, of course—that was forbidden inside the house—but even his natural speed was faster than most horses.
Chasing after him was Ignis. At twelve years old, Ignis was tall for his age and had his mother Faria’s fiery temper. He was red in the face, panting hard as he tried to corner his little brother.
"Raiden, stop!" Ignis shouted. "Give it back! That paintbrush isn't a toy!"
"It is now!" Raiden yelled back, his voice echoing off the high ceiling. He darted between two massive stone pillars, using them as an obstacle course.
Ignis growled. He didn't use fire magic inside the house because his mother would ground him for a month, but the air around him got noticeably hotter. He tried to cut Raiden off by jumping over a decorative bench. He was athletic and strong, but he was trying to catch lightning with his bare hands. Every ti Ignis got close, Raiden would giggle and vanish in a blur of blue static, appearing ten feet away.
"I’m going to tell Father!" Ignis threatened, though it was an empty threat. He never told on his siblings. He preferred to handle things himself.
"You have to catch first!" Raiden teased.
He looked over his shoulder to make a face at Ignis, which was a mistake. Because he wasn't looking where he was going, Raiden didn't see the obstacle standing in the middle of the hallway.
The obstacle was Petra.
Petra was nine years old. She was the daughter of Spirit Jasmin. She was standing perfectly still, holding a small doll, watching the chaos with calm, dark eyes. She saw Raiden zooming toward her. She didn't move out of the way. She didn't scream. She simply braced her feet against the floor.
Her skin shimred for a split second, turning into a translucent, diamond-hard surface.
THUD.
Raiden slamd into his sister. It was like running full speed into a diamond wall. Raiden bounced off her with a squeak of surprise and landed on his bottom, sliding across the polished floor. The stolen paintbrush flew out of his hand and clattered away.
Petra didn't even wobble. She looked down at her little brother, her expression unimpressed.
"No running in the hall," Petra said simply. Her voice was quiet but solid as a rock.
Ignis finally caught up, breathing heavy. He bent over, hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. He looked at Petra and gave her a thumbs-up.
"Thanks, Petra," Ignis wheezed. "Good block."
"He was being loud," Petra shrugged. She picked up the paintbrush and handed it to Ignis. "He stepped on my doll's dress yesterday. Now we are even."
Raiden rubbed his nose, which was slightly red from the impact. He wasn't hurt—Ferrum children were tough—but his pride was a little bruised. He looked up at his sister with big, puppy-dog eyes.
"That was an," Raiden pouted. "You're too hard."
"I am supposed to be hard," Petra stated matter-of-factly. "That is my job."
While the physical chaos played out in the center of the room, a different kind of ga was happening in the shadows.
Voran, the fourteen-year-old son of Princess Amina, was nowhere to be seen. Or at least, he thought he was nowhere to be seen. Voran was the "Lord of Whispers" in training. He took his studies seriously. He wanted to know everything about everyone.
Currently, he was blending into the dark curtains near the side alcove. He was trying to eavesdrop on the older siblings—Sullivan, Eira, Caelum, and Luna—who were standing near the window discussing sothing that looked important. Voran held his breath. He controlled his heartbeat. He made himself as small and unnoticeable as possible. He was doing a perfect job.
Or so he thought.
A hand tapped him gently on the shoulder.
Voran jumped, nearly falling out of the curtains. He spun around, his heart hamring. Standing there, holding a plate of small cakes, was his sister Elowen.
Elowen was thirteen, the daughter of Queen Seraphina. She didn't have super speed or diamond skin or shadow magic. Her power was different. She noticed things. She understood people.
"You're breathing too loud, Voran," Elowen said with a sweet smile. She offered him a cake. "And your left foot was sticking out from under the drape."
Voran straightened his jacket, trying to recover his dignity. He took the cake because he was hungry, but he frowned.
"I was practicing," Voran whispered defensively. "I almost heard what Sullivan was saying about the trade routes."
"Sullivan was talking about how much he wants a nap," Elowen corrected him gently. "And Caelum was complaining that the Wi-Fi signal in the East Wing is spotty. It wasn't state secrets. It was just complaining."
Voran sighed, defeated. "I need to work on my stealth. Mother says a true spy is a ghost."
"A true spy also knows when to take a break and eat a strawberry cake," Elowen said. "Co on. Dinner is being set up. If we don't go now, Ignis will eat all the good rolls."
Voran grumbled, but he followed her. He knew Elowen was right. She was always right about people. She had a way of making everyone do what she wanted without them realizing they were being ordered around. It was a terrifying power in its own right.
As they moved toward the massive dining table that had been set up in the center of the hall, the noise level increased. The servants were bringing out platters of food—mountains of roasted ats, towers of fresh fruit, and huge tureens of soup.
It was a family dinner for a family of thirty-plus people, including the mothers and the children. It was less like a al and more like a logistical operation.
"I want to sit next to Solus!" Raiden shouted, having recovered from his collision with Petra.
"No, Solus is sitting with ," Ignis argued. "We need to talk about the new solar array design."
"I am sitting next to the bread," Petra announced, climbing into a chair and staking her claim.
Sullivan, the eighteen-year-old Crown Prince, stood at the head of the table. He looked exhausted. He loved his siblings, but herding them was harder than negotiating peace treaties between nations. He rubbed his temples.
"Everyone, please," Sullivan said, raising his voice just enough to be heard. "Just pick a seat. It doesn't matter where you sit. The food is the sa at both ends of the table."
"That is factually incorrect," Caelum, the twin genius, pushed up his glasses. "The roast beef is currently positioned at the north end. By the ti it is passed to the south end, the temperature will have decreased by approximately four degrees. Therefore, the north end is objectively better."
"Nerd," Luna, his twin sister, muttered, shoving him playfully. "Just sit down."
The argunt over seating arrangents was about to escalate into a wrestling match between Ignis and Raiden again when Elowen stepped in. She didn't shout. She just tapped a spoon against her glass. Ding. Ding. Ding.
The sharp sound cut through the noise. Everyone looked at her.
"If you don't sit down in five seconds," Elowen said pleasantly, "I will tell the kitchen to take the dessert away."
The threat was effective. Absolute silence fell over the room. Within four seconds, every child was in a chair.
"Thank you," Sullivan mouthed to Elowen.
She winked at him.
The dinner began. It was loud, ssy, and happy. Plates were passed around. Jokes were told. Drinks were spilled and cleaned up with magic. For a while, it seed like a normal, chaotic family al.
But then, down at the far end of the table, the youngest Ferrum decided he wasn't happy.
Aeon was four years old. He was the son of Zafira, the Spirit of Ti. He was a cute kid with big eyes and a ssy face covered in sauce. He was sitting in a high chair, playing with a small wooden toy soldier while he ate.
He was trying to make the soldier stand on the rim of his soup bowl. It was a precarious operation. He balanced it carefully. He let go.
Splash.
The toy soldier fell into the bowl of thick mushroom soup. It sank to the bottom, disappearing beneath the creamy surface.
Aeon stared at the bowl. His bottom lip began to tremble. His eyes filled with tears. He didn't want a soupy soldier. He wanted his toy back, clean and dry. He wanted the mistake to not have happened.
He started to cry. But when a child of the Ti Spirit cries because they want to "undo" sothing, the universe listens.
________________________________________
Sullivan was just lifting a spoon of mushroom soup to his lips. It was good soup—rich, creamy, and hot. He blew on it gently to cool it down. He opened his mouth.
Flash.
Suddenly, Sullivan felt a weird sensation in his stomach. It was like going over the top of a roller coaster, a lurching feeling of weightlessness. The world blurred for a microsecond.
When his vision cleared, Sullivan was holding his spoon. He was blowing on the soup. He was opening his mouth.
He paused. He blinked.
"Wait," Sullivan thought. "I just did this."
He looked around the table. Everyone else had paused, too.
Caelum was holding a fork halfway to his mouth, a confused expression on his face. Eira, the Grand Admiral, was mid-sentence, talking about ocean currents, but she had stopped talking and was looking around the room with narrow eyes.
"Did anyone else feel that?" Eira asked. "It felt like... a skip."
"Déjà vu," Luna said, shaking her head. "A glitch in the matrix."
"It wasn't a glitch," Caelum said, putting his fork down. "Look at the clock."
He pointed to the large grandfather clock in the corner of the hall. The second hand was ticking, but it seed to be stuttering.
Sullivan looked down the table. At the far end, little Aeon was staring at his soup bowl. His lip was trembling. A toy soldier fell into the soup with a distinct splash.
"No!" Aeon wailed. "My soldier!"
Sullivan sighed. He realized what was happening. "Oh no."
Before anyone could move, Aeon scrunched up his face and scread. He didn't want the soldier to be wet. He wanted to go back.
Flash.
The lurching feeling hit everyone again. The room spun. The sound was sucked out of the air.
When the world snapped back into focus, Sullivan was holding his spoon. He was blowing on the soup.
"Okay, this is getting annoying," Sullivan said, putting the spoon down with a clatter. "We are in a loop."
"It’s Aeon," Dizzle said from the middle of the table. The fourteen-year-old Chief Justice was calm, as always. He pointed his fork at the baby. "He keeps dropping his toy. He gets upset. He unconsciously triggers a localized temporal reset to try and fix it."
"He's four!" Ignis complained. "How does he have enough mana to reset ti for the whole room?"
"He's Zafira's son," Solus said, his eyes glowing faintly with solar light as he tried to resist the ti shift. "Ti doesn't have rules for him. It just does what he wants."
Down at the end of the table, the tragedy repeated itself. Aeon balanced the toy. The toy slipped.
Splash.
"Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry," Vala, who was sitting closest to the baby, whispered desperately. She tried to reach for the bowl, but she was too slow.
Aeon cried.
Flash.
Sullivan was holding his spoon. He was blowing on the soup.
"I hate mushroom soup," Raiden groaned. "I’ve eaten this sa spoonful three tis now. I’m full, but I’m still hungry. It’s confusing my stomach!"
"We have to stop him before he drops it," Eira said, standing up. "If he drops it, he resets. We need to intercept the target."
"This is a military operation now?" Ignis asked, grinning. "I'm in."
"No fire!" Sullivan ordered. "Elowen, talk to him. You're the diplomat."
"I can't talk to him if ti resets before I get there!" Elowen argued.
The loop reset again. Sullivan was holding his spoon.
"Okay," Sullivan said, dropping the spoon. "New plan. Speed. Raiden, you're up."
Raiden’s eyes lit up. This was his mont. "On it, boss!"
Down at the end of the table, Aeon was balancing the soldier. His little hand was shaking. The soldier wobbled.
"Go!" Sullivan shouted.
Raiden exploded into motion. He didn't run; he vanished in a streak of blue light. He zipped down the length of the long dining table, weaving between goblets and dodging roast chickens. The wind from his passing blew napkins off the laps of his siblings.
The toy soldier tipped forward. It began to fall toward the creamy, brown surface of the soup.
Gravity was pulling it down. Aeon’s face was scrunching up, getting ready to scream.
Raiden’s hand blurred.
Just as the toy’s plastic boots were about to touch the liquid, Raiden snatched it out of the air. He skidded to a halt at the end of the table, holding the toy soldier up in triumph like a trophy.
"Got it!" Raiden cheered.
The table held its breath. Everyone looked at Aeon.
The baby blinked. He looked at his soup. It was undisturbed. He looked at Raiden, who was holding the toy.
Aeon didn't cry. He clapped his hands and laughed. "Soldier fly!"
The tension in the room snapped. Everyone exhaled at the sa ti. The grandfather clock in the corner resud a steady, normal ticking rhythm. The loop was broken.
"Good job, Raiden," Sullivan called out, sinking back into his chair. He looked at his bowl of soup. He pushed it away. "I think I’m done with the soup course. Can we move to the main dish, please? Sothing solid that doesn't splash."
The servants, who had been frozen in the kitchen doorway, confused by the sense of déjà vu but unsure what was happening, hurried forward to clear the bowls.
The rest of the dinner was relatively peaceful, by Ferrum standards.
Raiden sat next to Aeon and kept the toy soldier safely in his pocket, entertaining the baby with funny faces instead. Ignis and Petra argued about whether diamond could lt if the fire was hot enough (Petra said no; Ignis said he just needed a bigger fire). Caelum and Luna debated the efficiency of the castle’s heating system.
Sullivan sat back and watched them. He took a sip of water. He felt a deep, heavy tiredness in his bones, the kind of tiredness that cos from managing a hurricane.
Being the oldest brother of this family was a full-ti job. They were demigods. They were geniuses. They could freeze oceans, burn forests, and rewind ti because they dropped a spoon.
But as he looked at them—Raiden making Aeon laugh, Elowen sharing her dessert with Voran, Petra letting Ignis use her arm as a drum—Sullivan smiled. It wasn't a politic smile. It was a real, soft smile.
"They're monsters," Sullivan whispered to himself. "But they're my monsters."
Extra Chapter: The list of the children:
Sullivan Ferrum (Male, Age: 18)
Mother: Mina SiddikRole: Crown Prince & Heir Apparent [ACTIVE]The firstborn. He manages the global administration of the unified kingdoms, acting as the primary diator between human and devil political factions.Eira Ferrum (Female, Age: 17)Mother: Rosa SiddikRole: Grand Admiral of the Imperial Fleet [ACTIVE]A Sovereign-level ice user. She is responsible for the absolute security of Riverio’s airspace and the containnt of deep-sea anomalies.Caelum Ferrum (Male, Age: 16) – Twin AMother: Song Eun-ha (Leviathan)Role: Director of the Nexus [ACTIVE]The software genius. He manages the "Logic-Gate" systems and digital-spirit infrastructure that run the Empire’s economy and communications.Luna Ferrum (Female, Age: 16) – Twin BMother: Song Eun-ha (Leviathan)Role: Chief chatronics Engineer [ACTIVE]The hardware expert. She oversees the developnt and maintenance of the Aegis Mark VIII "God-Slayer" suits and industrial automation.Solus Ferrum (Male, Age: 15)Mother: Airin (Anastasia)Role: High Priest of the Solar Order [ACTIVE]Possessing a perfected Solar Core, he is responsible for energy sustainability and providing the "Artificial Sun" arrays for the Northern territories.Dizzle Ferrum (Male, Age: 14)Mother: Rosa Siddik (Second Child)Role: High Chief Justice [ACTIVE - THE PRODIGY]Despite being under 15, Dizzle is an intellectual marvel. He is the only child allowed to hold an active role early, using his ntal acuity and the "Seal of Absolute Truth" to govern the High Courts.Voran Ferrum (Male, Age: 14)Mother: Princess AminaTitle: Lord of Whispers [INACTIVE - STUDENT]Titular head of intelligence, currently forbidden from field operations while he finishes his studies in statecraft and cryptography.Elowen Ferrum (Female, Age: 13)Mother: Queen SeraphinaTitle: Chancellor of Diplomacy [INACTIVE - STUDENT]The final child with an official title. She shadows her mother in diplomatic etings but holds no voting power or official negotiation rights.Ignis Ferrum (Male, Age: 12)Mother: Faria KrutsStatus: [INACTIVE - STUDENT]Spends his ti in the art galleries and weapon-testing ranges; he has no official title or duties.Valen Ferrum (Male, Age: 11)Mother: Princess IsabellaStatus: [INACTIVE - STUDENT]A student at the Royal Military Academy, currently focused purely on athletics and academic history.i-Ling Ferrum (Female, Age: 10)Mother: i JingStatus: [INACTIVE - CHILD]A child of the household, currently focused on learning mathematics and basic logistics.Petra Ferrum (Female, Age: 9)Mother: Spirit JasminStatus: [INACTIVE - CHILD]Known for her incredible physical durability, she spends her days playing and acting as a companion to the younger siblings.Astra Ferrum (Female, Age: 7)Mother: Airin (Anastasia) (Second Child)Status: [INACTIVE - CHILD]Passionate about the natural world, she spends most of her ti in the palace gardens.Raiden Ferrum (Male, Age: 6)Mother: Fang FairyStatus: [INACTIVE - CHILD]An incredibly energetic child with natural speed; he is encouraged to focus purely on play and discovery.Yuki Ferrum (Female, Age: 5)Mother: BingyuStatus: [INACTIVE - CHILD]A quiet child who creates small snow-sculptures for the nursery; she is kept far away from the complexities of the Empire.Aeon Ferrum (Male, Age: 4)Mother: ZafiraStatus: [INACTIVE - CHILD]The youngest and most protected. He has a passive temporal-reset ability that makes him effectively impossible to injure, allowing him to explore the palace safely.
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