“What?” Teafa asked again, no less confused than before. Lorna seemingly wasn’t in a hurry to supply an answer either, still standing over Teafa and growling more aggressively than her children had ever heard. Lorna’s lack of response didn’t extend to her kids though. Liam snapped out of his surprise within moments.

“Mom?” He asked tentatively, “What's wrong?” Lorna snapped out of whatever was going on in her mind and whirled around snarling at Liam, who flinched. His mom had never looked at him like that. Lorna, seemingly realizing what she was doing, stopped snarling at her adoptive son. Jerking her head side to side, she stalked back into the cave without a word. There was a protracted silence for a moment.

“Well, that was weird,” Jenozelle said tactlessly.

“You think?” Aloysia responded sarcastically.

“Is mom alright?” Tasi asked, ignoring her sisters, looking up at Liam. His brow furrowed, and he didn’t respond immediately.

“I don’t know Tasi. I’ve never seen Mom act like that.” He threw a questioning glance at Heather, the question in his eyes obvious to his eldest sister.

“Never seen it either. No clue.” Heather shook her head and spread her hands wide. “This is way out of character.” By this point, Teafa had risen from the ground and was standing looking at the cave with a speculative look on her face. She stopped when she felt several gazes settle on her. Looking around, she realized that all of Lorna’s children were looking at her quizzically. She was glad to see that there was no mistrust in their eyes. She had been worried that they might assume the worst of her considering their mother's reaction to her. Seeming to understand where her mind was at, Astra’s words scrawled across Liam’s face to answer the questions she hadn’t said.

If you were actually a threat then Lorna would have just killed you. We don’t know what’s wrong because she’s never acted like this. Teafa smirked slightly, though the expression carried more bitterness to it than amusement.

“Since you can seem to read my mind, why don’t you tell me what she’s thinking?” Teafa asked.

It’s hard to read Transcendent Beasts. Lorna’s mind is especially guarded. Also, I can’t read your mind either. Context clues are a thing. Teafa chuckled lightly, then sighed. She had expected an apology or a deflection, not blunt honesty.

“Well, I believe I might know what’s going on. I’ll speak to her.” Teafa said. Both Liam and Heather frowned.

“I-” Both started to say simultaneously. Glancing at each other, Liam nodded to Heather.

“I don’t know if that's a good idea,” Heather said, Liam, nodding along, obviously having intended to say the same thing. “Mom seems pretty angry at you.” Teafa nodded.

“Oh, she is. She has reason to be.” She admitted. She then gave both kids a warm smile. Walking up to them, she ruffled both of their hair. “You two are good kids for your mother,” Teafa said with genuine warmth and something Liam thought sounded like pride. “But this isn’t something for kids your age to deal with. This is between me and Lorna.”

“We’re not just kids,” Heather said after she pushed Teafa’s hand off her head. She was blushing slightly and pouting, just a bit. “ I’m the heir of a Transcendent Beast and Liam was chosen by the gods. We can handle ourselves.” Liam followed his sister's example, removing Teafa’s hand from his head and nodding along, though he winced when she brought up his status. Teafa’s smile only grew wider. She resisted the urge to hug these two, knowing they weren’t that familiar yet and now wasn’t the best time.

“I’m fully aware of how capable Liam is, and I’m sure you’re just as good Heather. This isn’t a matter of power and I’m not questioning your abilities. Lorna and I need to talk. It has nothing to do with either of you.” She said gently, an apologetic smile on her face soothing the sting that her words provoked. “We need to have a private conversation.” Heather’s frown intensified. She looked over at her brother, though from the way she wasn’t looking him in the eye, Liam could tell she wasn’t really looking at him. Astra concurred as she responded to Heather’s look.

I’ve got nothing. Might as well let her. Heather sighed mightily but nodded to Teafa. Taking it for the permission it was, Teafa walked into the cave. As she did the rest of the kids gathered around Liam and Heather, their curiosity growing beyond their control.

“Is Miss Teafa going to be alright?” Tasi was the first to ask. “Mom seems really mad.” Looking at his sister's worried expression, Liam gave a reassuring smile.

“I’m sure it will be fine. In the meantime,” Liam said, realizing a distraction was required “why don’t I show everyone all the stuff I got while I was out?” This was met with a resounding cheer from everyone. It seems that in the flurry of action that had occurred, they had all forgotten the reason why Teafa had been here in the first place. Liam smiled, relieved that he had stemmed off the tide of questions that he had no real answer to and that he could feel everyone else readying to follow Tasi’s. Heather smirked at him as he began pulling things out of his sack, starting with the jackletrout which caused Tasi to start squealing with excitement. She knew what her brother was doing, but since she approved of the distraction she didn’t interfere. Heather just looked on as Liam began to hand out various goodies that he had found on the trip.

{}

Inside the cave, Teafa heard the cheer go up moments after she entered. She wondered briefly what that could be about but quickly focused back on what she was here to do. Walking ever deeper into the cave, Teafa swiftly focused more internally than on where she was going. She had walked this path many times, to the point where even after so long it still felt instinctual. Much to her current detriment, as she really didn’t want to dwell on the thoughts currently running rampant in her mind. Nevertheless, these thoughts weighed on her. By the time she had neared her destination, Teafa’s mind was clouded in dark thoughts. Realizing she was nearly inside Lorna’s corner of the deceptively deep and expansive cave network inside this massive bone, Teafa gathered herself. She was ready to face her longtime friend and her justifiable anger.

Striding into Lorna’s room with more apparent confidence than she felt, she saw her friend lying curled up in her wolf form facing away from her against the back wall. Teafa glanced around the room briefly, idly noting that it was the same spartan bare empty cave it had always been. Apparently having children hadn’t changed Lorna’s longtime admiration of minimalism. The smooth walls of the roughly thirty-foot diameter circular room were completely bare, as was the floor. The only note that anyone occupied the room was some of Lorna’s stray hair on the floor and, oddly enough, a wooden figurine that, while crudely formed, bore a resemblance to Lorna herself positioned against the far wall. Focusing back on the task at hand, Teafa spoke with as much confidence as she could muster.

“Lorna. We should talk.” She said evenly, though her voice did waver a bit at the end. Lorna’s only response was a slight twitch of her lupine ears which Teafa could have easily missed if she hadn’t been looking for it. This was much more in line with Lorna’s normal personality than her earlier outburst of violence. Despite having reached seventh tier, an incredibly rare feat regardless of the Mana Beast’s race, Lorna had always been a quiet person, more prone to avoiding her problems with silence than a direct confrontation. Teafa had been immensely surprised at her heir’s seeming openness and pep in comparison.

“I know you can hear me,” Teafa said with a sigh. “Don’t just ignore me. Please.” Her last word came out in a much more pleading tone than she had intended. The plea seemed to do the job however, as Lorna did indeed shift from her spot lying on the ground. Slowly, she climbed to her feet and turned to face Teafa. Many might find it difficult to read the expression on her lupine face, but Teafa knew her too well. She could tell that Lorna wasn’t just angry, she was hurt. Deeply hurt. Knowing that made Teafa feel even worse than she already had. At this point, her guilt felt like it was eating away at her insides. Forging onward despite this, Teafa gave her longtime friend a lopsided grin that was much more melancholy than she really wanted it to be.

“Hello, love. How have you been?” She asked.

Lorna snorted and shook her head. She was silent for a long time before whispering something so quietly Teafa only heard the faintest of sounds.

“What?”

“Nine years!” Lorna roared. “I haven’t seen you for nine years! I thought you were dead! And you want to wander back in here like nothing happened?! I wanted you to raise my children with me! You and Chen would have been like another set of parents to them and could have taken care of them if something ever happened to me. But now! Now I don’t even know what to think!” Lorna took ragged gasps of air. She obviously was no less angry for what she had said but seemed to have run out of the breath to express her rage. Although from the hint of tears Teafa could see in her golden eyes, it seemed rage wasn’t the only emotion fueling her tirade.

Feeling tears well in her own eyes at seeing the anguish she had caused someone she thought of as a sister, Teafa took this opportunity to try and explain herself as best she could. “I was on mission, love.” She started out softly, “They said it would only take a week. Just a plant-based Beast wave. Nothing outstanding. It turned out to be a corrupted Dryad on the cusp of Transcendence with a war element and a deep hatred for the sentient races. It took years to clean up the mess she left behind. I tried, I tried so hard to get them to let me take a break, but the Sanhotagu board and CEO were hell-bent on having it fixed as quickly as possible. It was right next to Iroraranho and they were spooked. The Harvester’s Guild representative wasn’t willing to let it go either. They weren’t going to let me come home until I was finished. Please believe me. I couldn’t very well send you a message after all, and Chen went with me. It was supposed to be a bit of a vacation.” Teafa gave a short laugh. “We were going to have a quick visit to the capital, see the sights, then go home. I was so excited that you were talking about having pups. I wanted to be here for you.”

Teafa's words had become more and more impassioned as she spoke. The tears she had been holding back began to flow as she described her best friend’s children. “They’re beautiful, love. Every last one. I’m so, so sorry I wasn’t here to raise them with you, but I’m here now. And I’m never leaving again.”

At that, and hearing the stone-cold conviction in her friend's voice, Lorna, who up to this point had been sitting deliberately not looking at Teafa, perked up. “You won’t leave? What do you mean?” The she-wolf said against her own conviction to ignore Teafa until she left.

Immensely relieved that she was finally getting through to Lorna, Teafa gave a smirk and quirked brow to her longtime friend. “What, you think after they kept me away from my home, away from you, for nine Grimforsaken years that I was going to just continue on like nothing happened?” Teafa said sarcastically, with a bit of humor and a lot of anger. “Absolutely not. I may not be some godlike but I am an S rank and I wasn’t going to let them just walk all over me. So now I’m retired, with benefits. So is Chen.” The last sentence came out as almost an afterthought.

By the time she had finished talking, Lorna was staring at Teafa, her lupine eyes shining. “ So you’re staying?” She said hopefully.

Teafa smiled warmly. “Until my heart gives out.” She said seriously.

With that, Lorna rose to her feet and began to shift in much the same way as her daughter. The shadows of the cave surrounded her in impenetrable darkness before receding to reveal a woman who was undoubtedly Heather’s mother, with the same skin tone, general body type, and facial features. The only real difference being that this woman looked to be in her forties and was much taller, standing over six feet in height. She wore the same shadowy clothing as Heather had. She had a smile much the same as Teafa's on her face, and she strode forward to wrap her reunited friend in a massive hug. “ I missed you so much.” She whispered. “I was scared you were dead I would never even know.”

Teafa returned the hug with equal vigor as she felt tears falling on her shoulder. Lorna’s own shoulder soon had a similar problem. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” She whispered back, rubbing circles in between Lorna’s shoulder blades in a way that had always calmed her when they were younger. They held each other in silence for a long time, just drawing comfort from the other’s presence. After more than half an hour of silently reconnecting, both of them had shifted to sitting side by side leaning their backs against the bare cave wall. They were close enough to bump knees when they shifted.

Teafa was the first to break the long silence. “Sooooo. Eight kids huh?” She said with a smirk, bumping her shoulder into Lorna’s.

Lorna blushed heavily. “I guess I really wanted kids.” She responded weakly, Ducking her head so Teafa couldn’t see her face.

“Oh no, you don’t! Transcendent Beasts don’t just have seven kids in less than a decade! Fess up, what happened?” Teafa countered, poking Lorna’s shoulder lightly.

Lorna mumbled incoherently in response.

“Hmm? Speak up.” Teafa said as her smile grew wider and her poking grew more aggressive.

“I-it was m-more like five years,” Lorna said quietly. Teafa was stunned for a moment. That wasn’t just rare, it was unheard of. Transcendent Beasts found it difficult to bear children considering the absolutely insane density of mana in their body, making it difficult for a viable child to occur. When they did have kids, it was normally decades apart, not within less than a year from each other. It was one of the main reasons that Beasts hadn’t completely overrun the sentient races. There just weren’t that many extremely powerful Beasts.

Coming out of her momentary surprise, Teafa was even more curious. “Really, spill it. I have to hear this.” She said with conviction, turning to face Lorna directly.

Sighing massively, Lorna turned in kind to face Teafa. “Alright, alright. Though it's not nearly as crazy as I think you’re assuming it is.” and as Lorna began to explain just how her children had come about, she felt like a weight had been lifted from her and she could breathe properly for the first time in almost a decade. After all, the woman she saw as a sister was alive and here with her.

{}

Liam sat cross-legged with his back leaning up against one of the Founders. He was still smiling from the commotion all his siblings had created from what he had brought back. It had been roughly an hour since then, and the night had truly begun. Fortunately, the Founders put off enough light that Liam could see just fine normal, not even including his Darkvision. Currently, all the kids were sleeping in a pile not too far from him in their wolf forms. Even Lorelie had shown up a few minutes after Teafa entered the cave. Normally everyone would be sleeping in the cave in their own rooms, but Astra, Liam, and Heather all agreed it was probably a better idea to give Lorna and Teafa space to resolve whatever their problems were. So, it turned into a big snuggle pile in the middle of the clearing with everyone centered around Ziac, since his hellhound body gave off enough heat to counter the chill of an autumn night.

Thinking of the weather, Liam looked up into the night sky at the multitude of stars and kaleidoscopic colors of vast celestial gases he could see. It was looking like winter was right around the corner, if his astrology was correct. His idle curiosity fulfilled, he focused back on what he was doing. In his hands were a chunk of Founder wood, freely given at Aloysia’s request, and the Core Shard. The truth was, Liam couldn’t sleep. His mind was awash with worry and anger and frustration at his encounter with the greater arboreal ape. He was afraid that if there was one Beast out there just waiting to kill his family, how many more were hiding in the forest, just waiting to strike? It wasn’t like he had been completely unaware of the possibility before. It was a harsh world, even more so for Beasts. It had just never felt so real. So he was doing the one thing that always seemed to calm him. Whittling.

Liam loved whittling. He had actually learned it from a member of his mother’s court. A seven thousand-year-old astral fox. He was a rather unique existence, considering he was rather old even in Beast terms but had never surpassed sixth tier. Whenever Liam asked him about it, he would give a sly smile and say some nonsense about there being more than one path to power and an old fox needing a few secrets. Then he would take a big puff from his pipe and blow the smoke in Liam’s face while laughing like it was the best joke he ever told. After his laughter dies down, the silver-haired Beast would ask to see Liam’s latest creation and give him pointers on how to improve. Thanks to that and Liam’s own dedication to the craftsman, it was one of only three skills Liam had at the Adept rank.

Currently, he wasn’t really attempting to do any grand work. In fact, he was barely paying any attention to the wood in his hands. He was just idly cutting away at it while letting his mind wander. It was soothing. As he continued cutting, Astra decided it was time to talk. His arm lit up.

So are you going to talk to me?

Sigh. “About what?”

What’s bothering you.

Liam but on his best poker face. “I’m perfectly fine.”

Yeah, no, you still suck at lying. Spill.

Liam made an especially vicious cut. “How many Beasts are in this forest that could fight Mom?”

Like, fifty? Kinda a rough count, but around there. If you include the grassland to the east or the colder areas to the south, it's a lot more. Hundreds. Lorna’s territory isn’t all that large.

“And I couldn’t fight any of them.”

Maybe a few? Some have abilities that would make it easy for them to fight Lorna, but hard to fight you, considering how different your combat styles are.

“Then why don’t they just take over? If it's so easy?”

Hmm, I suppose we never talked that much about this, did we? Well, most Transcendent Beasts establish a territory around a place of power, like your mom did. Some just roam around, but most don’t. They become the King or Queen of that given area. The reason that it's rare for territory disputes or usurpation is the size of the world and the amount of unclaimed land. Why fight for a territory already taken when you can just move into a place that's unoccupied? Besides that, attacking another Transcendent Beast always runs the risk of death. Even if you win, you leave yourself open for an attack from another King or Queen. Lorna is especially safe, considering she settled relatively close to a godblessed city. Most Beasts know that the sentient races set contingencies for the nearest King or Queen to one of their cities, and chose to live farther away.

Up to this point, Liam had been nodding along. What Astra said made sense to him. It still left him with a very important question, though. “So then what was going on with that ape?” After all, the actions of that creature went against everything that Astra had just said.

That’s… I don’t know. He was acting strange, and I couldn’t read him accurately, even though he was a Transcendent Beast yet.

“Was it because of his bloodline? You said he had some Transcendent blood.”

No, That doesn’t properly explain why everything was so difficult to read. After all, all your siblings are the direct children of a Transcendent Beast, and I can read them just fine, including Heather, who is probably stronger than that ape was.

Liam grunted. His face twisted into a scowl, and he continued attacking the wood in his hand. “So?”

I...I think it was godly interference.

There was a crack, and Liam hissed in pain. He had gripped the wood in his hand so hard it split, and several splinters lodged deep into his hand. Dropping the ruined whittling project, Liam began to try and laboriously pull splinters out of his hand one by one. He wasn’t having much success until a small, green hand grasped his uninjured one. Looking up, he saw Aloysia looking at him with a bit of a smirk. She failed to hide the worry in her eyes, though.

“I swear, I just fixed you up, and you go ahead and do this. Honestly,” Aloysia said in a pseudo-amused tone. Again, Liam could hear the worry in her words.

Glancing past her, Liam could see that all of the others were still asleep. It seems that only Aloysia had been awakened. “Thanks,” Liam replied sheepishly. It was true, Aloysia was the only one of them with any real abilities for healing outside of his own Low Regeneration, which required mana to work, and Liam was completely spent.

Noticing his glance behind her, Aloysia spoke quietly while continuing to magically remove the splinters from his hand and heal the resulting holes. “I made sure no one else was disturbed. Tasi is deep into her transition. She needs sleep and she wouldn’t if she saw you like this,”

Liam flinched at that. He was ashamed and angry at himself. The last thing he wanted was to worry his family more. But as soon as Astra stated that she thought that ape was sent by the gods? He saw red. They had messed with both his and Astra’s lives since the moment he was born. Why couldn’t they just leave well enough alone!? He stewed in silence until Aloysia was wrapping up. His hand had completely healed like nothing ever happened.

Aloysia finished, patting his hand gently. “There. Now, I’m going back to sleep, and you should too,” She stuck him with a signature glare. “It's late enough. Besides, I’m sure you and Heather are going to have to deal with whatever was going on with Mom tomorrow.”

Liam nodded at that. She had a point. He smiled ruefully. “Thanks, Sia. I’ll go to sleep in a bit. I think me and Astra still have a bit to talk about yet, or else I won’t be able to rest,” He said, slightly abashed that he had sat in silence while Aloysia was healing him. His arm flashed as Astra acknowledged what he said.

We’ll be just a minute, Sia. Promise.

Aloysia gave a sharp nod at that. “Well, I trust Astra to get you to sleep, so I’ll leave it at that.” Having said her piece, she turned, shifting into her lupine form with a rustle of leaves, and settled back into the cuddle pile everyone was in.

After he was relatively sure that everyone else was back asleep, Liam spoke. “So, you were saying?”

Right well, the only thing that tracks with what I know is that this Beast wasn’t nearly strong enough to have the level of protection against scrying that he had. To that end, I have to assume that one of our gods or maybe one of the older ninth tiers interfered. If it was a Beast, it would almost certainly have to be one of the ten Primals. That seems really unlikely as they shouldn’t know about you or really care at all. That just leaves the gods. Probably Gun. It’s the sort of thing he would do. Not exactly subtle.

Liam sighed in frustration. “But why, though? I’m not old enough or strong enough for them to care yet. You said so yourself!” He groaned.

If it was Gun, he probably did it because he was bored.

“Seriously!? Boredom!?” Liam whispered furiously. He wanted to scream in frustration but didn’t want to wake any of his siblings.

Yeah.

Liam took a deep, shuddering breath. He was finding it hard to control his anger. He had nearly died. His family could have died, all for a god's amusement. Before he could lose his composure, Astra’s gently pulsing light drew his attention from the path his thoughts had been taking him down.

You going to tell me what's going on?

With that, Liam found it much easier to manage his overwhelming rage. “Right, sorry.” He said with a huff. “I wanted to understand why this happened, why it hadn’t happened before, and if it will happen again.”

Well, Lorna has had several challengers for her territory.

“Really? How come I never noticed?” Liam said quizzically.

There hasn’t been one for several years. You wouldn’t remember. Still, that ape was really abnormal. It’s almost universally considered bad taste to attack a Transcendent Beast’s children as a means of forcing them out of their territory. Honestly, doing so is a taboo that would almost certainly make all the Kings and Queens in the area attack you out of hand. Beasts as a whole are much more lawless than the sentient races, but they do have some rules. Beasts with a mentality like that brutes usually die before they can do any real harm. No one tolerates such rampantly monstrous behavior. It makes me think he grew up in an unruled territory.

“Oh? Where’s the nearest one of those?” Liam said interestedly. Normally, listening to Astra talk out one of her theories was more of a chore, but this had his attention, especially since it wasn’t about magic.

Technically, northwest in the plains that surround the nearest godblessed city, but that doesn’t count. The closest one that fits the criteria for raising a clan of arboreal apes is directly east of here. It runs out into the grasslands a bit until it meets the territory of a King eighth tier archlion. There are two other territories in between here and there, though.

“And made it all the way here?”

Probably.

Liam nodded and smiled slightly. “Ok. I feel better now. You’re sure it's unlikely for that to happen again?” He said in a much calmer tone.

Very unlikely. Even the gods have limits on how much they can influence the world. Gun couldn’t raise another creature like that with any amount of power for a long time. Especially given how far we are from the seat of his power. It’s not a huge distance, but we’re much closer to Levity’s control than his. I doubt she would let him mess with Beasts like that if she knew about it.

At this point, Liam was nodding along rather enthusiastically. He had been feeling like this was something that could happen at any time, especially if a god was involved. Astra’s words had done much to assure him. “Good. Thanks, Astra.” He said warmly, his word relieved. “Did you want to talk about that Berserk… thing?” He said awkwardly after a moment. Liam knew that Astra had been thinking about it. She always got heavily involved in anything that she couldn’t immediately explain. Unfortunately, these discussions tended to lose him after a short period of time. That said, he felt bad for grilling Astra for information without offering the same thing to her.

No. You really should sleep. I know you probably feel fine, but you aren’t entirely recovered. You need to sleep and eat a big breakfast tomorrow to get your mana regenerating again. As it is, your mana gland is dry as a bone. Thanks for offering, though.

Liam nodded, both to the thanks and the comment about his mana gland. He didn’t run dry often, but he had enough to know the signs. His back felt tight and cold all along his spine, and his thought felt like his brain was in a jar of honey. He sighed and, stowing away the Core Shard, rolled over until he pressed up against the closest of his siblings, which happened to be Lorelie. Liam got comfortable and closed his eyes.

Sleep well. We’ll talk in the morning, Flashed across Liam’s vision before sleep claimed him.