Tafel exhaled and stared at the tablets in front of her. She rubbed her eyes, which had dark bags underneath them, and reached to the side. She grabbed a cup and took a sip of the hot liquid inside. Grimmy was the one responsible for messing with the spatial coordinates, making Tafel’s portals unpredictable. However, since Grimmy’s parents were awake and no longer needed protection, the feature had been shut off—that, and the fact it was his parents’ mana that was powering the protective spell formation in the first place. Tafel lowered the cup in her hand and exhaled again.

“You’re still awake?” a voice asked from the entrance of the room.

“What do you want, Emile?” Tafel asked without turning her head. Her gaze was completely focused on the tablets in front of her as if she wanted to engrave their contents into the depths of her memory.

The sound of flapping wings filled the room as Emile flew over and landed on the stone block Tafel was using as a table. “Cupcakes!” he said and spread his wings out to the side. He wiggled his body before letting his wings settle down. “The one’s from Vur’s grandma’s place, please.”

Tafel’s expression darkened, and she opened a portal. She stuck the upper half of her body inside while Emile watched. A moment later, Tafel returned to an upright position with a tray of cookies in her hands, the portal closing behind her. “There weren’t any cupcakes left,” she said and slapped the tray onto the table beside Emile. The cookies bounced, almost falling out of the tray.

Emile stared at Tafel and cautiously stretched out one leg. He picked up a cookie and brought his head down. He kept his eyes trained on Tafel, bringing the cookie up to his beak with his foot. He bit into it and swallowed. Although the sound wasn’t loud, Tafel’s eye twitched upon hearing the cookie break. Emile repeated the process a few more times until the cookie was gone. Then, he picked up another cookie.

Tafel slapped the table and glared at Emile. “Can you eat somewhere else?” she asked. “Take the tray out to the living room or something. Share with Susan and the two babies.”

Emile cleared his throat and placed his cookie back onto the tray. “You’ve been awfully huffy lately,” he said. “Are you okay?” He glanced at the stone tablets. Just looking at the all the symbols sprawled out made him a bit dizzy. “Maybe you should take a break. Go outside, get some fresh air. You’ve been sitting here for a week.” He leaned close and sniffed Tafel before leaning back while covering his beak with his wing. “Have you even been bathing?”

“I have!” Tafel said and glared at Emile. “Maybe I wouldn’t be so huffy if you didn’t come in here every fifteen minutes to ask for something!”

Emile rolled his eyes. “I come here once a day to check on you, maybe two times at most, and that’s only if I really want a snack.”

“Well, Susan checks in on me once or twice a day; Gloria checks in on me once or twice a day; and Ramon checks in on me once or twice a day,” Tafel said. “Am I just a delivery system to the four of you?”

Emile cleared his throat and hopped onto the tray. “If you’re going to be so rude, I’m not going to entertain you any longer.” He spread his legs to grab the edges. Then, he flew away, carrying the tray out of the room.

Tafel took in a deep breath and picked up her cup. There was some red fuzz floating on top of it, evidently having caught some of down shedding from Emile. Tafel picked it out and flicked it aside before taking a sip. She closed her eyes, and forced herself to relax. Right when she calmed down and brought her mind back to a peaceful place meant for studying, a sharp voice echoed through the room.

“Tafel!” Lulu’s head poked through the doorway. “Can you do me a favor and open a portal to the swamp south of my home? I need to catch some toads to use in an experiment.”

Tafel’s eye twitched, and she turned her head to look at the half-silver, half-green dragon. “Did you get your mom’s permission?” the demon asked. “You’re still allowed to do experiments after what happened to you?”

“Doing experiments and playing around with seals are two completely different things,” Lulu said and crept into the room. She pressed a button on the wall to close the stone slab behind her. “Besides, it’s not like I have much to do until Grimmy figures out how to cure me.”

Tafel rubbed her eyes. “If you’re going to get in trouble, can you not make me your accomplice?” she asked. “Your mom might chide you, but she’ll do much worse things to me if she finds out.”

Lulu rolled her eyes. “My mom won’t touch you,” she said. “She won’t admit it, but she’s a bit scared of Vur. Speaking of which, where is he? Why aren’t you with him? Aren’t you two married?”

“Just because we’re married doesn’t mean we always have to be with each other,” Tafel said. “We do a lot of things together. Having time to ourselves is important.”

Lulu scratched her head. “Is that how it works?” She shrugged. “Anyways…, portal? I promise it’ll be quick; I just need one, no, two, err, four toads.” She nodded. “Four toads, that’s it. I’ll be back before you even know I’m gone.”

Tafel stared at Lulu, and after a moment, Tafel let out a long exhalation. The demon’s horns glowed silver, and a portal appeared next to her, causing Lulu to beam. The dragon took a step forward but froze when Tafel got up and walked through the portal. The portal winked out of existence, leaving a confused holy dragon behind. She looked around, but there wasn’t anyone there to ask what had just happened.