His mind flashed to the conversation he’d seen in Thera’s memory during the trial of Anailia and he turned to his friend to see how she was reacting. Though the great light spirit wasn’t among the ones gathered at that time when they’d planned to try and give rise to a more successful spirit hybrid than Thera had been, what they were seeing couldn’t be ignored and he could see it in her eyes. Hurt and betrayal she hadn’t expected to experience so soon upon returning home.

“It’s so good to see you Thera, it’s been so long!” The spirit greeted as Thera ran out without a word, leaving everyone else stunned by the abrupt reaction.

“Um, I’m going to go check on her,” Ben awkwardly told them as he rushed after her only to be stopped in the hallway as he ran by Abrus and Pelenia.

“Before that, can you tell us what that was about?” Pelenia said as she grabbed his arm with more strength than she meant to exert. “She might need a few moments alone to pull herself together, and I’d rather understand the issue sooner than later.”

“Uh, sure. Just to be clear, the light spirit is pregnant, right?”

“Lux is with child,” Abrus confirmed. “Was that the issue? I would have thought Thera would be excited to have a cousin on the way, not to mention the fact that she wouldn’t be the only half spirit anymore. Is it a jealousy issue?”

Oh god they definitely don’t know, do they? It made sense they wouldn’t, he doubted they would have arranged such an immediately awkward meeting like that if they had, but he still needed to be sure. “Definitely not. Sorry, do you guys not know what the other spirits have been doing for the last decade?”

The question brought a surprised look to Pelenia’s face as Abrus took on one of rage.

“By the gods what have they done now?” He asked, anger painting his voice.

“Uh, well, I only know this because of the trial, but for the last decade and some the life, death, air, and fire spirits have been trying to produce a more powerful half spirit than Thera. She overheard them talking about it when she was a kid,” He went on to explain more while wanting to get out of there, partly to make sure Thera was okay, and partly because he was pretty sure Abrus was ready to do something drastic.

“I’m going to kill them,” He all but growled. “Give me a moment, I’ll confirm if Lux is involved with any of this nonsense.”

“You won’t,” Pelenia told him sternly. “I’ll talk to her; you can’t act the way I know you will with her while she’s pregnant,” Whatever guilt the spirit might have, Pelenia wouldn’t allow her husband to do anything rash with the child coming so soon, though she continued with a passing afterthought. “Of course, you’re free to kill the others he mentioned by name. Thank you for letting us know Ben, we'll sort this out so please make sure Thera’s doing okay.”

“On it,” he told them as he ran off, not wanting to see whatever chaos was going to unfold.

When he got to her room he gave a light knock on her door which was promptly ignored, though it didn’t stop him as he tried the handle and felt it give.

“I’m coming in,” He told her, finding her lying in her bed.

She briefly looked at him before going back to laying down. On the positive side at least it didn’t seem like she’d been crying at all, but he could tell she wasn’t feeling great.

Deciding to wait for her to speak, he walked over and laid down next to her, feeling patient for her to open up.

“You know, it will only be more of a nightmare being here if my mother walks in and sees you in bed next to me.”

“I’m sure it will be fine this time at least, your parents were pretty concerned.”

“I guess my exit was a bit much, I was just a little… overwhelmed.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“Uhg, I don’t know,” She said as she rubbed her eyes before turning over to face him. “I thought aunty Lux actually considered me family like Funa, the fact that she might be having a child to create a powerful half spirit… I guess it just hurts a bit. At least Vividus and the others were obvious enough about how they really feel, but I liked getting to see Lux whenever she’d come by.”

“Well your mom is going to talk to her and it sounds like your dad may possibly attempt to murder the other great spirits. I didn’t realize they didn’t know what happened when you were younger so I kind of revealed it to them.”

“Mmh, it’s fine, I don’t even know why I kept it hidden. I guess it felt embarrassing at the time with the way I felt like a failure and mom wanting me to be a dancer, but it doesn’t matter now. Still, family really does have a special way of making you feel bad.”

“Anything I can do to help you feel a bit better?”

“... Maybe just stay around for a bit? I could use the company.”

“Of course.”

“You don’t seem to have much luck in this nation,” Myriad said as Ben entered his realm.

“I’m pretty sure it’s more Thera who doesn’t have much luck with it. Still, it might just be a misunderstanding so fingers crossed, right?”

“It’s good to be positive I suppose. For example, I’m feeling pretty positive about you meeting my other believers. Some of my ones outside the nation are coming as well when their nations got the message you’d be coming to be making more braces. Feeling ready to act as an apostle?”

“It won’t be too hard so I’m sure it will be fine. Actually, do you think you could contact your others and I’ll aim to meet them all at once? I’ll ask Pelenia if she can set a day and some space aside for me to get them all out of the way.”

“Sure, there shouldn’t be any issue with that. It’s a bit of a shame you didn’t take holy craftsman, you might have been able to get a bit of experience out of it.”

“Maybe if you get a few more believers or if I’m feeling like I’ve hit a wall with connect, but for now it isn’t a priority.”