When she woke up in the day the sun had already risen; from the looks of it, it had been for a few hours. She had been feeling emotionally drained by the time she got to her room in the night so she had promptly fallen asleep. Now that she was up though she took some time to put her small amount of luggage away and pulled out some clothing she hadn’t worn in the time since she’d left home.

Once that was done she turned to the bookshelf in her room. When she left her homeland she had taken only a few of her favourites, but by this time she had re-read them enough that she needed a change, and grabbed one off the shelf to dip into for a while. It was the legend of a lone Scilia hero, and how they fought off a small army of invaders on their homeworld, giving as much time as possible for people to escape. Like any story about the fall of a world, this one didn’t have a happy ending. The world was still lost, but thanks to that one legendary figure's actions, scores of people had been saved. She was just about to open it for a read when she heard a knock on the door, so she left it at her bedside and went to answer.

It was one of the house servants, asking her to come down to enjoy a late brunch with her mother. Since everyone should have an amulet on she hadn’t bothered to wear her cloak, but when she saw the look in their eyes she immediately went back to grab it before letting herself be led down to the dining room.

The armbrace Ben made her should have put her comfortably in the safe range for the amulets, where even weaker-willed people would be safe, but that wouldn’t change the fear people felt. It was one thing to know a tool would keep you safe, but another to really put your trust in it. At least when she wore her cloak it put something more visible between them. It made it easier for people if they couldn't actually see her.

They made their way down to the dining room and found her mother already seated, with plates of food spread out in front of her and waiting. Pelenia gave her a silent look, no doubt wondering why she was still wearing her cloak inside, before dismissing the servant, but immediately cut to the heart of the matter once they were gone.

“What did she do?”

“Nothing, they just looked like they would feel more comfortable if I wore this, don’t worry about it.” Can we not make a big deal of this for once. She silently begged, but it never worked out that conveniently.

“Hm. I’ll relieve them of their duties here immediately then.”

“You don’t need to fire her, you know, just give her some leave while I’m here.” She had seen plenty of staff let go over the years for not being able to tolerate her magic, and the guilt was there each time. Her mother had a different view of things though.

“If the staff aren’t fit to serve my daughter then they aren’t fit to work for me. Don’t worry, I’ll set her up with a decent job elsewhere, but I can’t have someone here who isn’t comfortable doing the work.”

Thera held in a sigh. She always hated dealing with the staff her mother hired. If they weren’t falling to the effects of her magic then they look at her with discomfort in their eyes, always afraid that either the amulets or her cloak would fail and that they would unexpectedly find themselves in a new line of work. Sure there were some decent ones here she could interact with normally, but people had lives and would move on to other things if the need arose, finding out how any new hires would react was always tough.

Her mother, used to seeing where her train of thoughts was leading, brushed off the current topic of conversation in favour of a new one. “So Thera, are you enjoying living out in Stonewall, barring all of the ugliness of the last month of course?”

She thought that there was a lot more ugliness than just the last month when it all came to a head, but if she ignored that the answer was obvious to her. “Yes, I’ve been having a lot of fun recently.” A bright smile painting her face despite herself.

And why wouldn’t she be? Her hunts had been going more successful, she finally leveled up her earth magic, and soon she would be able to change her job from apprentice mage which she’d been stuck on for a while. Not to mention that she had been eating decent meals when Sanya was working late at the clinic, she was winning a lot of lowmage, and she had someone to talk to on a regular basis. Of course her mother could see right though where her line of thought was going.

“It looks like your new friend has been good for you.” She said with a teasing smile, though Thera could only groan as she thought back to the way her parents had acted the night before.

“Forget about it mom. Why did you have to be like that? It was mortifying.”

“I just wanted to see what the first young man my daughter’s grown close to was like, what's wrong with that?”

“Okay but did you have to say all that stuff about dating and grandchildren? Were you trying to traumatize me, or did you just want to make sure I never bring a guest again?”

“He’s not really your guest, he’s here on Falk's request.” Still she was willing to relent a bit. “Though I admit I may have gone a bit overboard, I just wanted to get a feel for the boy my daughter may be spending her life with.”

“Gods, you call that relenting? Why are you insisting that that’s going to happen? I’m just happy having someone who isn’t going to go insane around me. That isn’t even to mention the issues of our lifespans. Ben will maybe live another 80 years tops, and I, well who knows how long I will.” It felt like her mother always knew what to say to get a rise out of her, whether the queen intended to or not, and it made her miss staying with her aunt all the more. At least Sonya was never this outrageous.

Romance between races would always have to take into account lifespan. While a mixbreed could typically estimate their lifespan by averaging that of their parent races, spirits didn’t have a limited lifespan, instead only dying if they were killed or their mana was used up too rapidly. Thera, being a cross between that and a succubi, which could expect roughly two hundred years of life, wouldn’t be able to know how long her lifespan would be until she had reached its end.

A small chuckle came from behind her and a voice spoke up. “It seems a tad silly to worry about a difference in lifespans with the fate of the world in the balance in the next few years, but why don’t we put this on hold for now, hmm Pelenia?”

Thera turned and found what looked like a cloud of darkness, shaped in the form of a succubi standing behind her, and she broke into a grin. “Aunty Funa! I didn’t realise you were here!”

Funa opened her shadowy arms and invited Thera in for a hug. “Your mother asked me to handle Karly’s training and I couldn’t refuse. It’s wonderful to see you child.”

Funa’s establishment as Theras' aunt was a lot like Falk's relationship as her uncle. There was no blood between them, it was more to do with her relationship with her parents. Namely that she was the great darkness spirit, someone who had known her father since before the loss of their world, and essentially a living avatar of dark magic.

“Well, we’ll at least put the conversation on hold for now.” Pelenia relented. “Now come have a seat so we can enjoy breakfast.”

They all sat down to chat and catch each other up on life, Thera once again talking about the events of the last few months while Funa discussed how Karly’s training had been progressing, she was essentially her first apprentice and she was quite proud of the work her student was putting in.

“Of course the offer to help train you is always open as well you know.” Funa said, not for the first time, but Thera politely declined. Perhaps one day she would want to take the time to train up her charm magic to get it to a level where she could control it, but for now it would only make her life more difficult if its power increased before it could get to that point.

She was lucky her aunt was nowhere near as pushy as her mother and was willing to gracefully drop the topic without a fight.

They continued on for a while longer before everyone finished eating and Pelenia decided she wanted to move on to her next task of the day.

“Thera, I’m going to check on how things are going for your friend, would you care to join me? You’re of course welcome to join as well Funa.”

“I’ll have to pass this time,” Funa told them. “I’ll need to meet with Karly soon for her lessons.”

“I’ll join you, I told Ben I would show him around the town for a bit when he was done today so it would be good to see how far off he is.”

Her mother could only laugh. “Well I think that will have to be moved to tomorrow sorry, I scheduled enough appointments for the boy that he probably won’t finish them until late into the night If he doesn’t need to stop to rest. I just thought I would challenge him a little.”

She was about to tell her mom off but the way Ben treated his work passed through her mind, and she decided that it would probably be fine. “Alright, well let's go.”

Her lack of reaction left Pelenia confused for a moment before she brushed it off and they walked out to where Ben was working.

A small guest building had been constructed around back, she suspected by her father, and it was apparently where Ben was working to enchant all of the braces. As they neared it though her mother seemed to be confused.

“Did they wander off while they wait? Maybe just taking a break?” Pelenia muttered to herself.

“Something wrong mom?”

“Oh no just thinking out loud. Come on, let's see how things are going.”

They stepped into the room to find Ben and her father alone in the room and on the ground talking, with a long tube of metal between them.