A month later the road to Skyhope is finished, although admittedly not used all that much. A handful of rchants walk it every week or so, but most aren't a fan of the fact that we only barter with goods rather than money. That's okay. I'm told these things take ti. Repeatedly, by Penelope, whenever I start getting impatient. Which is a lot. Thankfully, I've got her and also our Liriope-bound lumber, food, and water projects to keep busy.
"I'm still a little mad how much better this teleportation circle is compared to mine," Margarette grumbles, marking the tal strips we delivered with her forelegs.
"Liriope spatial magic is based on thousands of years of iteration and advancent," I remind her. "You made the portal to Penelope's house from scratch. That's way more impressive."
"Did we really have to take it apart and use it as materials, though?" Margarette whines. "That's like, insult to injury."
"I don't know what to tell you," I shrug, munching on a spare chunk of tal. "You're super aweso and smart, Margarette, that's the whole reason we're trusting you to build this in the first place. Don't sell yourself short."
"You're both short," Penelope announces, descending down from above us, a blue tint to her scales complenting her long, blue dress.
"Well hello to you too, Penny," I smirk, prompting her to whip her tail around my waist and lift high into the air, shaking a bit before eventually dangling my face upside-down in front of hers.
"Don't call Penny, you little bug," she insists firmly, though she can't hide her smirk.
"Yes, Lady Vesuvius," I say in my fanciest possible voice. "Of course, Lady Vesuvius."
She grabs my face and pulls in, planting a kiss on my forehead as I start laughing.
"Alright, do you mind if I steal Vita away, Margarette?" Penelope asks. "The usual Church liaison is arriving shortly and I need to hurt so things before I'm stuck talking to them for hours again."
"Why do you need Vita for that?" Margarette asks.
"I don't really, I just love her."
"Oh, fair enough," Margarette nods. "Yeah, there's plenty I can handle on my own for now. Have fun torturing monsters!"
"Technically, I am productively contributing to our at storage!" Penelope grins before dropping into her arms and flying off. I suppose I could fly under my own power, but this is pretty nice too. From up here it's easy to see the expansions we've made to the town, which actually has a na now: Mimas. Taal picked it out.
Mimas mostly looks the sa as it did a month ago, just bigger. Expanding outward in every direction, we've managed to fairly quickly construct enough hos for the slow trickle of new immigrants to our weird little town, which is the other reason I'm happy with our road. The draw of living here is pretty simple: we take anyone, no matter how poor and hungry, and we give them all their basic needs. We feed them, we clothe them, we give them a ho. Then, if they're able to work, they work. If they refuse to work, or they refuse to work well, we have a talk about whether or not this is the right place for them. So far, though, it hasn't been an issue; the sort of person desperate enough to ask the necromancers for help generally knows how to get a fucking job done.
Speaking of jobs, most of the jobs we have the mortals do involve the very things required to give them those basic needs in the first place, but a handful of volunteers do help direct Dregs for the non-town developnt projects, naly the resource collection and storage we're performing to prepare for the needs of Liriope. Part of which Penelope and I are contributing to now, by heading out into the middle of the forest and torturing animals.
Better than torturing people! It's important for giant dragon won to receive proper enrichnt.
True! Penelope has been doing a lot better, all things considered. She's mostly settled out, though her emotions are still a bit more volatile than they used to be. Bigger, stronger, and more prone to changing unexpectedly. Her soul still has a lot of motion in it, the bubbles roiling like a convection current with chunks of unanchored principle dancing around in the flow. She gigglesactually gigglesas we fly by so larger creatures in the deep woods and set their insides to a low boil, her scales rippling through various shades of blue. I don't comnt on it. She's pretty self-conscious about her mood swings, and there's no need to prod the issue while we're out here for so stress relief. She's not dangerously unstable or crazy or anything, just unused to feeling things, still. Perhaps there's so level of brokenness to it, but even though she gets a lot more upset than she used to, she's a lot happier as well. We both agree that's a net good.
Honestly, all things considered? Everything is going great. Taal and I are still two people yet also one person, which is weird, and Valka is still being a bunch of bigoted dumbasses, which is business as usual, but it's hard to argue that this is anything less than a top contender for the happiest ti in my life. There's just nothing pressing hanging over my head. No threats, no danger, no problems looming on the horizon. Even back in Liriope there was the stress of being outed as Vita followed by the stress of handling Verdantop's takeover. But now? Nothing. We have a plan and it's working. Life hasn't been this good since the last ti Penelope and I started dating. About three months after which a perception event hit the city I was living in. Which is about the sa tifra as when Liriope next passes over. But that's a coincidence, probably. Surely nothing like that will happen twice, right?
Oh, Vita! Nawra pokes from inside the world of our oceans. By any chance are you available to work out that in-person eting we agreed to have? Your Athanatos side's Progenitor knows how to get to my island, if transportation is an issue.
Ugh. I should have known better than to have nice things.
Sure, Nawra, I send back. I should be ho in just under a quarter of a year? I expect to have ti then.
A year according to which island cluster? Nawra asks. Liriope's?
Um, yeah, I confirm. Are you not in our island cluster?
Islands don't orbit the entire Mistwatcher, they float around in big patterns with about a hundred other islands that form each other's day/night cycles by moving in a series of tight rings. This is an 'island cluster,' and is one of those facts that was really obvious to Malrosa but really mind-blowing to Vita.
No, darling, I'm trying to stay hidden. Why would I plant a scorched-earth bioweapon like the vrothizo in my own island cluster? Though now that I think about it I suppose that ans you should make sure they don't wipe out any islands nearby. That could get dangerous for you in a decade or two. Catch the wrong sort of attention, if you know what I an.
I see, I send back, resisting my temptation to call her an absolute fucking maniac. Thanks for the warning, Nawra.
Sorry, honey! I wouldn't have seeded my babies there if I knew you'd pop up underneath, honest!
And on one hand I really appreciate that. Really, I do. It's great to have soone as powerful as Nawra just kind of unconditionally in my corner. When I first t her, I was so surprised that a powerful person was genuinely happy to have around that I didn't really have it in to judge her all that much. Every day I spend working alongside mortals makes a little more frustrated at her casual disregard of them, though. I wonder if she's right or not. Will I lose touch as ti passes? Jelisa says I've been getting better, lately, but will that all reverse once she's gone? I could keep her around forever, I suppose, but I don't know if she wants that and maybe she'll eventually start agreeing with Nawra if she lives long enough, too. I want to say that won't happen. That it's unthinkable. But the person I am now would have been unthinkable to the Vita of three years ago. I am all-too-intimately aware of how drastically a person can change. I table those thoughts for now, though. I don't want Nawra picking up on any strong emotions on the subject.
Did you want to co alone? I ask her.
Oh, whatever you like! she answers. Bring friends or pets if you have any, I'd love to et them!
Okay, I'll see if anyone is interested, I tell her. Talk to you later.
See you soon, Vita!
I focus my senses back on the real world, a sowhat concerned Penelope eting my gaze.
"Everything alright?" she asks.
"Well," I sigh, "we've officially reached the stage in our relationship where you've been invited to et my family."
"Oh?" she asks. "Which one?"
"The dangerous one."
"Ah, good," Penelope says dryly. "All this lovely blue in my life has feeling a little off-kilter. Black and blue, though? That's more my elent."
"Black, blue, and yellow," I sigh. "My kind are just sort of a big 'ol bruise, aren't we?"
"I'm sure it won't be that bad," Penelope says, giving a reassuring squeeze. "With everything we've been through, how much more fucked up can it get?"
"That's the problem," I grumble. "I was really hoping we wouldn't have to find out."
She laughs, since she's in one of those laughing moods.
It's cute though. You can't say it doesn't lift our spirits.
Yeah, okay, she's fucking adorable, but I was being serious! I don't need this dread suffusing what should have been another good day. I don't like owing Nawra a favor. Not one bit.
I don't either, but as evil as she is, she genuinely likes us. We know that, we can feel that from her emotions. It won't be that bad. If we're important to her plans, we'll have a lot of room to negotiate. If we're not important to her plans, she won't expect much from us in the first place. I think she's more than happy with just staying out of each other's way and having each other's backs against the Mistwatcher.
Ugh, I know, I know. You're right. I'm just worried about it anyway, you know? Things don't get to go right for .
"...Talking to yourself, Zoi?" Penelope asks.
"Hmm? Oh, yeah, sorry," I nod. "Taal and I were just discussing Nawra."
"I have to admit, I'm sowhat excited to et her," Penelope smiles. "She's the most powerful biomancer we know of, possibly even the most powerful biomancer in the entire world. She can make entire species from scratch! It's making giddy to even think about."
"Yeah that will be pretty cool," I agree, reaching up to plant my face on her lips for a kiss. "I get the impression that she'll be pretty excited to show off her design process to soone that will actually understand it. She's super smart, and she loves to talk."
"It is kind of funny how the woman who keeps decrying the value of mortal relationships seems to have latched onto you like a particularly lonely kitten," Penelope muses when she pulls away from the kiss. "'Oh, I don't really need you, I'm very strong and independent and wait, don't go, keep paying attention to !'"
"She's not that clingy!" I protest, though I can't help but chuckle alongside her. "We only talk like once every couple tenday."
"Yes, and on the tifra she claims a mighty immortal of her noble peerage works on, that's practically every couple minutes. Do you honestly think there's anyone she both respects and actually communicates with as much as she does with you?"
"You might have a point," I concede. "I guess we'll find out when we et her in person."
"I guess we will," Penelope nods. "What do you think her body looks like?"
"I an, whatever she wants it to look like," I shrug.
"Yes, that's my question, silly," Penelope chuckles, booping where a nose would be if I had one. "She's a self-proclaid goddess whose favorite hobby is fucking abiogenesis. What does a biomancer like that do to herself?"
"I don't have the slightest clue," I admit. "Who knows what she started out like, but hmm. I guess my impression of her is that she's careful. Her first and biggest priority is avoiding the attention of the Mistwatcher, so I wouldn't be surprised if her body isn't really all that impressive. It's not like it actually matters to her if her body dies, so why spend a bunch of ti on it?"
"Hmm. Perhaps. I feel like she'd be able to find a middle ground between safety and vanity, though. She has to stay entertained sohow, and she certainly seems like she has an ego."
"Heh, I guess that's true," I agree. "I dunno. I get the impression that she wants it to be a surprise."
"Which ans it's more fun for everyone if we try to guess!" Penelope points out brightly.
"Okay, okay, I'll keep thinking about it, my lady," I agree, jabbing her lightly in the side. "You should get going to that eting, though."
"Oh fuck, I suppose I should," she groans, her scales shifting from blue to orange. "It's so hard to focus on administration when I'm like this. Downside of the bubbly days, I suppose."
"You'll manage," I assure her.
"I'll manage," she agrees. "I've destroyed armies and humbled nations, I'm not going to let a random mood swing stop . You get back to Margarette, I'm sure she's already lonely without you."
"Oh, no doubt," I smirk, since Margarette has almost certainly gotten so enraptured in spell formulae that she's forgotten I even exist. Honestly, she's probably the Revenant who has best adapted to the removed compulsions to love and obey . She just kind of does her own thing and doesn't seem bothered by our history at all. The sa cannot be said about everyone else.
Theodora rather understandably never wants to see again, and while she can't really leave and move to a different town due to being undead, she certainly doesn't want to be around . She has handed off the soul storage and recovery project to Penelope and Margarette, and as a courtesy I've been keeping track of her location in town and ensuring we don't run into each other. She seems to appreciate it, but she also gets a bit traumatized whenever she catches herself appreciating it, which is just I don't really know what to do. Jelisa has been talking to her, though, and I think that's been helping. Jelisa is great.
Most of my other Revenants have retained so level of affection towards , but our interactions have beco sowhat awkward. Vitamin is the worst of all. We haven't really talked about it, but she doesn't call 'mom' anymore. Which is honestly pretty fair. I haven't really done anything other than coo over her like she's a pet.
Having ti to relax and think about things isn't always all that fun, it turns out.
Then of course there's Norah, who still stubbornly refuses to give consent to un-mind-control her, and that's notably strange because I've made it very clear that I want to remove her compulsion to love, obey, and agree with , but she's still saying no, which contradicts that compulsion. I have no idea what that ans, but she freaks out whenever I bring it up and I just don't know how to breach the subject anymore. So that's just kind of in a holding pattern.
I have a theory on that, actually, Taal pipes up. In many ways, Norah's death was an act of betrayal by both sides. She tried to push us into sothing that would have ultimately ended up as an earlier stay in Site 4, and when we actually went to Site 4 we made sure she witnessed a lot of the torture they did to us, because we are spiteful assholes. That pretty obviously fucked her up and gave her a massive guilt complex, because of course being forced to watch soone you're incapable of not loving be tortured by sothing you tried to do to them would fuck soone up and give them a massive guilt complex. And yet, she still rembers what it was like to feel so certain that she was right, that we would be okay. She still rembers the horror at what we had done, the need to make us understand how evil necromancy is, and she's lucid enough to know that feeling will only multiply if she's freed. She'll hate us when we stop making her love us, and she loves us too much to want that. Unfortunately, understanding the problem doesn't actually supply us a workable soluuu huh. I'm in control of the body now. When did that happen?
Zoi doesn't answer , but that's okay. She might not be 'around,' so to speak, but she's de facto listening since our mories are identical even if we think in slightly different ways. I land next to Margarette and get to work, lanting how unnecessarily difficult this task is. If Vita hadn't hollowed out our mory core we might have been able to integrate it rather than subsuming Malrosa's soul in its entirety, and having a perfect mory of how to do this task would have made it a lot easier. As Malrosa we used to be able to follow mories almost automatically, letting our body suffuse itself with perfect knowledge of a task even if we'd never done it before in our life. Now we have to actually think about it, and it's kind of a pain.
We spend most of the day on the teleporter, and most of the next day, too. Ti seems to move oddly quickly when everything is peaceful, a relaxed body and mind sohow letting the minutes and hours slip by unnoticed. I find myself as Taal more than I find myself as Zoi, as I inherited more of Malrosa's outlook than Zoi did, and Malrosa was much more used to peaceful, happy days, not to ntion being at least trained in social maneuvering. Malrosa's mories have made us a lot better at that, but we're obviously still not the best. Personally, I think Malrosa had a lot of the sa problems Vita did in that area, which is part of why they shed so well. It's weird comparing the two people we were to the two people we are now, but I think the perspective is useful.
Another month passes before we know it, and soon that becos a month and change. It's hard not to get anxious as Liriope drifts closer, worries and fears about the supply of raw material not being enough to impress the Queens, but logically I know they shouldn't have any tangible objections. There's a lot more of ho to look forward to than there is to be afraid of. I'm sowhat annoyed that Nawra is calling to visit her so soon, honestly, because it'll necessarily cut into the ti I'm hoping to spend with my Athanatos family, introducing them to Verdantop friends and, of course, to Penelope. All the more reason to make the most of it, though. The teleporter is finished, and in just a few minutes Liriope will be close enough for us to test it. I'll be seeing Tala again soon.
Nearly everyone I care about on the island is here to see off. Lyn, Rowan, my human siblings, Altrix, To-Kill, Vitamin, Lark, Jelisa, and of course, Penelope. Only the last of that group is actually going to co with ; all my human relations agreed they'd be more comfortable eting Talanika if I bring her here. 'Hiverock,' as they insist on calling it, is still kind of a boogeyman to the people of Verdantop. To-Kill says he's happiest working for us, and the jobs we have him doing are here, and Lark just doesn't seem to have even the slightest bit of interest in Liriope culture or my family, and I can't say I bla her all that much for that. We've been getting along a lot better than we used to, but we're not exactly best friends. That's okay, though. Penelope is the most important one.
"I genuinely don't know if I'm up for this today," Penelope groans, her yellow eyes looking ever so slightly bloodshot. She's most likely been crying, and her scales are dark gray. Oh no.
"Sothing happen, or just one of those days?" I ask hesitantly.
"Just one of those days," she grumbles, wiping at her face. "I feel horrible, and I don't want my first impressions of your family to be colored by today's mood."
I have to force the urge to make a frustrated face away. That's annoying. Really annoying. We've been looking forward to introducing Penelope to Tala for months now! Sotis this just happens now, though, and we just have to roll with it.
"You can stay ho then," I tell her anyway. "I'll et with Malrosa's mother today and pick you up tomorrow."
"Thank you, honey," Penelope sighs exhaustedly, leaning down to kiss the top of my head. I tickle her cheeks with my antennae, and manage to get a smile out of her. Rare and precious, on days like these. "I'll et you there tomorrow, I promise."
I nod. Poor Penelope. Bad days are always hard. She was pretty overwheld at first after going from holding all emotions back to not being able to control them at all, but we've been getting a handle on things together. They seem to cycle, her general mood oscillating slowly up or down with each day that passes. There are patterns to it, but it's a guessing ga at best. Still, it's not like she doesn't have normal human emotionsshe can be happy, sad, angry, or anything else in response to normal stimuli. There's just an undercurrent to it, where sothing she'd barely even pay attention to on a normal day will make her break out in tears on a bad one. Usually this is just a minor annoyance for her that doesn't impact things much, but it's first thing in the morning and she's walking up to us with tears already in her eyes. That's a pretty solid sign that she probably can'tand shouldn'ttry to force herself to function normally.
She'll likely be sad tomorrow as well, if less so, but honestly, it's probably better that way. If she went to Liriope in a really excited mood she might start chatting about diseases and biology and genocide enough to freak out even an Athanatos. Also she might ask to torture the animals in the Pneuma practice grounds. She gets, uh, really excited about that kind of thing on those days. Eventually she's going to ask to let her vivisect us and I'll end up caving, I just know it. She's so wonderful and cute, though!
"We've got a ping response from Liriope," Margarette announces. "Initiating inanimate teleport test."
The finished teleportation platform is pretty darn huge, because it has to be in order to transport the sheer bulk of materials Liriope needs to import. For obvious reasons it's placed a good distance away from Mimas proper: the town has an anti-teleportation field, and even if it didn't, it's strategically foolish to put a large teleport platform inside your defenses, and even if it wasn't, we'd still want it closer to the infrastructure for gathering and storing the materials Liriope needs than to residential zones. Margarette taps a bony finger against the activation panel and pours a small burst of magic into it, and the single barrel of water we have there for testing vanishes.
"Okay affirmative response. Teleportation successful," Margarette grins happily. "Alright! Living matter test. Could we get the pubug onto the platform? Thank you."
One of the townsfolk whose na I don't know leads one of the giant dostic beetles we make chitin tools from onto the platform, then convinces it to stay by dropping so food there, too. Then he books it the fuck out of there, because for all I've been working to garner trust among the people of Mimas they still get intimidated by huge tal constructs made by skeletons and bug people. But nothing bad seems to happen, the pubug and food all simply vanish on cue.
"Alright, that looked good," Margarette grins, drumming her bony fingers against her thigh with a skeletal rattle. "Mont of truth, aaaand! Yes! We have the confirmation ping! Subject arrived without damage. You're good to go, Vita!"
"Thanks, Margarette," I smile, stepping up to give her a hug. She wraps her ribcage around my face, because that's a thing she likes to do for so reason.
"No problem, pleasure working with you!" Margarette chuckles, and I move on from there. The plan is for to only be gone a tenday or so, though that itinerary might end up extended due to going to see Nawra, especially if she's in a whole different island cluster. May as well get all the necessary hugs and cuddles out of the way now.
"Knock 'em dead, kiddo," Lyn says, approaching first and giving a firm squeeze.
"M'not a kiddo," I fire back automatically, and she laughs. "And I certainly hope I'm not going to be murdering any more family mbers."
"Y'know, I could ask who you an by 'more' but I think I'm learning to stay happy in ignorance."
"That's super fair," I nod, and move on to hug Rowan next. "See you later, dad."
"Bye, you horrifying abomination," he answers, rustling my head-setae. I chuckle.
"Vitamin," I look to next, giving her a firm nod.
"Vita," the little undead girl nods back, hands on her hips. "Don't adopt anyone else while you're out."
"No promises," I smirk. "Hey, Altrix."
"H-hey, Taal," Nix answers. "Y-you two be safe, alright?"
"Will do, Nix though hopefully you'll get a chance to tell that again before I actually go see anyone dangerous."
"I'll w-worry anyway," Nix admits, and I pull her in for a hug.
"I'll be fine," I promise her. "Love you three."
"We love you, too," Nix answers. Or did she an 'two?'
"You guys are all being really overdramatic for soone who's going to be away for barely ten days," Lark comnts loudly. "It's not like the world is going to end the mont she leaves our sight."
Everyone present turns to her, myself included, and just stares.
"Okay, yeah, you know what? Point retracted," Lark sighs. "I'll issue a formal apology to fate."
"See that you do," Jelisa says. "Probably won't help, but we need every advantage we can get. Taal, Zoi, I just want to say that I'm proud of you. You've really co a long way, and it's great to see. Don't hug , though."
"Wouldn't dream of it," I say, waving her goodbye."To-Kill, you're, uh, doing a great job. Keep it up."
"Yes, Princess Malrosa!" the bug man preens.
"Welp, bye everybody!" I announce, waving one last ti and turning towards the teleportation platform only to get tackled by all of my little siblings at once since I've been deliberately ignoring them as a joke. We laugh and wrestle for a bit, but I eventually extract myself to give them all actual goodbyes and depart for real. My months here on Verdantop have been productive, relaxing, and wonderful, but even though this is my ho well, it feels good to be going ho again.
"I'll pick you up an hour after first light tomorrow, okay Penelope?" I call back. "Just use the teleporter when you get an authorization."
"Will do," she nods. "Love you, Vita. Have fun."
I nod, step onto the platform, and let the spatial magic wash over . In an instant, I've gone from the humid forest of Verdantop to the dry caves of Liriope, my soul suddenly flooded with a barrage of altered information but the disorientation doesn't stop from grinning when I hear the voice I've been looking forward to most.
"Mal-Maaaaal!"
I catch Tala as she runs into , ignoring teleport-platform-protocol to rush forwards and nearly tackle to the ground. She squeezes with two arms, her other two scratching at my chest setae, fingers running through my fuzz in a wonderfully familiar show of affection.
"You're back!" she cries. "You're really back! Are you okay? Did you get hurt?"
"Of course not, I'm fine!" I laugh. "Nothing on that dinky little island can hurt except , and I already did that."
"Don't say thaaat," she whines. "Oh Progenitor, that's so morbid! I was super worried about you, you dork!"
"And I'd say the sa, but life up here is aweso," I chuckle. "It's good to be back, and great to see you again. Breakfast?"
"You haven't eaten?" she asks, tilting her head. I flick her in the eye with an antennae and she yelps, jumping back.
"You would not believe how much worse the food is down there, Tala. Seriously, To-Kill-From-Above is the only person that knows how to make Athanatos cuisine. One person I eat with does everything in her power to boil all of the flavor out of anything she puts in her mouth. Like she'll boil sothing, then dump the stock that makes and boil it again in fresh water."
"Holy shit!" Tala gulps. "Does she even get any nutrients that way? Is there any point to eating at all?"
"Right!?" I laugh. "I an, I still eat her cooking, food is food, but I'm starting to suspect she keeps feeding in an attempt to get to stop thinking that way, or sothing? And it's kind of working."
"Stop getting you to think that way? What way?"
"That all food is good food," I shrug. "Apparently getting anxious about food insecurity 'isn't healthy' when you're not actually food insecure anymore, but I dunno. I still feel like it's best to clean the plate, right?"
"Uh I guess I don't really know either," Tala laughs lightly. "Gosh, I forgot how weird you are. Co on, we'll go get breakfast at the usual place."
"Sounds great!"
We eat and talk, and I tell my sister about my Verdantop adventures: killing Ars, being convinced not to take over, brokering a hesitant peace with Valka, and then just kind of getting to relax instead of actually fighting the war I expected to be fighting.
"Gosh, that all sounds exciting," Tala says. "I guess it's easy to see why the humans don't like animancy if that Ars guy is all they had for reference, he sounds terrible. No wonder your soul is such a ss if that dude made it."
"Hey!" I protest. "He didn't really make it, he just copied it from sowhere, or sothing? I dunno, I didn't really grill him for information much. Maybe he found part of Red's soul or sothing."
"Who's Red?"
"Uhhh, well you-know-who ntioned that we used to have another brother who was killed by The One Below All, and his color was red."
"Oh. Huh. Yeah, maybe, who knows?" Tala says. "You coulda revived him and asked, I guess."
"Eh, it wasn't worth it," I shrug. "Where I co from doesn't matter to . I don't really care how Ars got his hands on whatever Anima ended up as Vita any more than I care about the fact that her original body was supposedly his biological son. You and I have blood ties, Tala, but the way I see it that's not what makes us sisters. The love is, and nothing else."
"Aww," Tala coos. "Though that sounds like a good transition to talking about mom."
"Yeah," I nod. "Yeah, I guess it is. Is she available?"
"For us? Pretty much always, yeah," Tala nods. "The Progenitor wants to talk to you as well, but apparently it's not urgent?"
"So no having her personal guards show up during alti, huh?" I smirk. "Well, that's nice. Honestly, I'd rather make the rounds tomorrow, because that's when I'm gonna show Penelope around. Don't want to have to say hello to everyone twice in a row."
"Oh yeah! I'm really looking forward to eting her," Tala says happily. "Though uh y'know, fair warning, not all the Queens or even all the n are likely to be nice to her."
"Eh, I doubt there's any vitriol they can throw at her she hasn't handled before," I dismiss, though privately I'm kind of worried. She'll probably still be a little fragile tomorrow, emotionally speaking hopefully it'll all be okay.
"I still can't believe you're dating an immortal bipedal dragon," Tala whines. "With a self-designed body! She's like a young Progenitor, it's so cool!"
"Penelope is very cool," I agree, appreciating all the praise about my aweso girlfriend. "Though to get back on topic, uh y'know. Do you think mom would get along with her? Or I guess more generally, what's mom even like?"
"Yeah, you don't rember her all that well, huh?" Tala frowns. "I don't really know how much I should say. I guess I dunno. Her default mood is 'bitter,' but outside of that she's not so bad. She loves us, she just y'know. Hates Liriope. And we don't."
"She's under house arrest for treason, right?" I ask. "What did she do, exactly?"
"Wait, you don't rember that?" Tala asks. "Seriously? Co on, Mal-Mal, it was treason. What do you think she did?"
"Uh I an, I don't rember how it works here, but in Skyhope there's apparently like a bajillion things you can do to get convicted of treason. It basically just ans 'you annoyed the King.'"
"Wait, they have a King? Ew, that's disgusting."
"Focus, Tala."
"Oh, um, I an that's basically what Treason is here. You make grandmama mad enough, you get convicted of Treason. But like, you've talked with her. She gets annoyed easily, but actually making her mad? Seriously, you get one guess. What do you think mom did?"
"I dunno, try to kill her?" I guess randomly. It certainly makes mad when people do that.
"Ding ding ding! You got it," Tala confirms.
I stare at her in surprise.
"Wait, seriously?"
"Yeah, seriously. She got her ass kicked and her magical knowledge locked away, naturally, but she tried."
"Woah. How old were we when this happened, again?"
"Gosh, I was pretty young," she muses. "Probably only like four or so."
"Wow."
She's just been stuck in her house for decades? No wonder she's bitter.
Oh, hey Zoi.
Sup.
"Yeah, wow. I have no idea how she feels about the current you, honestly, but I did tell her you were coming."
"Thanks, Tala," I nod.
"Did you want to co with you to see her?" she asks.
"Nah, it's fine," I assure her. "I have lots of practice dealing with moms I don't really rember. Thanks for the offer, though."
She chuckles, flicking a smile at with her eyes.
"It is really weird having you back, Mal-Mal," she says. "But it's a really good weird. Welco ho."
"Happy to be here," I agree, standing up. "Ti to go to mom's ho, I guess. Catch you afterwards?"
"Sure," Tala allows. "See you then."
We exit the restaurant and then I lift off into the sky, flying lazily towards my destination. I don't really rember Malrosa's mom, but I do know her naQueen Galrottaand I know where she lives. While she is trapped inside the ho she built before being convicted of treason, it's still the ho of a Queen and it's substantially more fancy than my own house here in Liriope. An imposing three stories, Galrotta's house juts upwards like a castle's tower. It's harsher, sharper, and more utilitarian than the hos around it, indicating our mother was probably a proud War Queen. Perhaps that's where we get the inclination.
We land outside, a respectful distance away from the n guarding the place. House arrest is still arrested, after all, so while Galrotta has male servants they perform the double duty of keeping an eye on her and preventing her from leaving. She's still a Queen of Liriope, so I doubt she's wanting for much, but it probably grates to know your own servants aren't really on your side.
"Princess Malrosa, here to see Queen Galrotta," I announce, and the guards wordlessly let inside. Hmm. Sparse decorations in the entry hall. Intentional, or were the old decorations removed and never replaced? A War Queen might decorate their front hallway with weapons. A treasonous Queen wouldn't be allowed to keep them.
I don't really know the layout of the house, but it's pretty easy to assu the only Queen here is Galrotta, so I make my way over to her. She's on the ground floor, so it doesn't take long for to find the wide, flat room with padded floors that she's currently inside, practicing so sort of martial art. Definitely a War Queen then, wow. No magic, no weapons, but still a fighter. I kinda like her.
"Queen Galrotta," I greet her, nodding respectfully. She doesn't respond at first, completing her current set of motions before turning to , a perfectly-controlled blank expression on her face. As if an expression would help us know what she's feeling. She's surprised, relieved, frustrated, and a little hurt by our chosen address.
"Have I been downgraded from 'mother' so soon?" she sighs, her voice flat. "I was hoping to at least manage to keep the title until you were an adult."
"Apologies," I answer. "I did Tala not tell you?"
"She inford of the salient points, yes," Queen Galrotta answers. "That you fused with soone from another island. That you don't rember . I suppose part of didn't want to believe it."
"Only part of you didn't want to believe that your daughter doesn't rember who you are?" I ask, walking further into the room. "Was our relationship that bad?"
I'd been afraid that it was, honestly. What little mory I do have of Queen Galrotta is vague, but pretty universally unpleasant. Not in a devoid-of-love way, but I think we argued a lot.
"Well," she shrugs, "I did try to assassinate the Progenitor. Like most of us, you could never understand why. Though maybe you can now."
I can. Most people I know wanted to destroy Liriope before I beca a part of it, myself included. Part of that was ignorance, of course: only seeing the faceless enemy of Hiverock without even a hint of the beauty it holds inside. But I know a lot of humans that would want to destroy this place on principle. The sheer difference in role between worker and Queen here is anathema to how most humans comprehend justice, despite the fact that they self-perpetuate and self-justify dramatically worse systems as a matter of routine.
"I've certainly broadened my perspective," I nod. "But that's the thing: I can very easily understand why a mber of a different species would try to destroy Liriope, but not why a Queen would want to. And what other purpose but destabilizing our society does killing the Progenitor serve?"
She shrugs.
"It was never about the city of Liriope," she answers. "Not really. It was about the nation, the ideal. The Progenitor would have us be isolationists, taking what we need to survive and ignoring everything else. She not only does not care about the world outside our borders, she actively discourages people from caring. We could stop so much pain and suffering if we just put in the effort."
Huh? That doesn't add up at all.
"That was pretty much my argunt on why I should be allowed to handle the conquest of my own island," I tell her. "And grandmama pretty much just said 'sure, go for it.' She didn't care, and I bet she wouldn't have cared if you went to other islands and helped people. If helping people is what you wanted it seems like that'd make a lot more sense than trying to assassinate her."
"Well that's all I would have done, if the Progenitor hadn't decided to beco part of the problem."
"What problem, exactly?" I ask.
She turns away from , scowling. This feels familiar. Like we might have had this conversation before, when Malrosa was less cool-headed. I think that sothing about the answer she's going to give really frustrated back then.
"I can't tell you."
Ah, I an yeah, that would do it.
"You can't tell ?" I ask. "Is it classified? Why didn't they remove classified information from your mories?"
"Because punishing soone for sothing but not letting them rember the reason they committed their cri would be monstrous, Malrosa," she answers. "And I'll admit the Progenitor has so basic idea of decency. Just not where it counts."
"Well, is there anything you can tell ?" I ask. "A hint or sothing? I guess it's not a huge deal, but I am pretty curious."
I manage to break her even expression when I say that, which I find oddly satisfying.
"Not a huge deal?" she chuckles humorlessly. "The reason your mother is trapped, hated, and shunned by your entire society isn't a 'huge deal' to you anymore?"
"You'll outlive the punishnt," I shrug. "And I don't particularly care what anyone else thinks of you. I form my own opinions. I don't have my mories of you, so our relationship will never be the sa again. But I can tell you care about Tala and I, and you seem reasonable enough. So yeah, I'm curious. Why sacrifice so much and risk fighting one of the most powerful won in the world for a chance at whatever it was you wanted?"
"I told you already, I can't wait." She gives an odd look. "'One of' the most powerful won in the world? You think there's soone stronger than the Progenitor?"
Aw shoot that's right, I'm not supposed to talk about Nawra here.
"Uh well," I stutter. "Y'know. World's a big place. Logically there's probably soone out there stronger than grandmama."
Galrotta gives us a look. She doesn't buy it. Crap.
"I'm just I'm just saying, hypothetically, if there was sothing, it'd be sothing the Progenitor lifted off the ground by the throat over, so I'm not really super keen on getting grilled for information on the subject," I supply.
"...You know about Nawra," Galrotta concludes. "You have to. You used to not even have the conception of soone stronger than the Progenitor. I don't even think there's anyone else she suppresses information on."
"Wait, you know about Nawra?" I ask. "Oh, are you do you an?"
"Yes, exactly," Queen Galrotta nods. "Malrosa, I tried to kill the Progenitor because she entered an alliance with Nawra. Tolerating that thing is morally inconsolable."
"Oh," I answer hesitantly. "So, uh, I guess you're probably not going to like hearing that you're related to her now, huh?"
She does not, in fact, like hearing it. Go figure.
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