Thera woke up far earlier than she usually would, the emotions from the previous day leaving her with a poor sleep as she cracked open her eyes and found herself surprisingly close to Ben's face.

It took a moment but she remembered asking him to stay, she just hadn’t expected to wake up next to him, nor to have ended up using him as a pillow midway through the night.

Actually, haven’t I been in this same spot before? She thought to herself, thinking back to the dryad village before a horrifying possibility sprang to her mind. Wait, of all the times we’ve had to sleep in close quarters recently, isn’t this the only time I’ve woken up first? Don’t tell me this happens often?

Ben had never mentioned anything like that, but she didn’t think he would if that really was what was happening and felt her face grow warm as she tried to gently pull herself away without waking him.

The embarrassing potential managed to cover some of the hurt she’d felt yesterday, but she wasn’t exactly sure if she liked the trade-off and promptly decided to pretend nothing had happened. They were hunting partners which meant they’d find themselves in tight quarters occasionally, she would just tell herself it probably wasn’t a common occurrence and leave it at that.

Even awake though she wasn’t sure she was ready to face the day. She knew things were going to be uncomfortable when she left and actually started interacting with her family, she just didn’t know how she was going to handle it, so instead she put it off, grabbing a book from a shelf and reading for a little while until she heard her door open.

Her mother walked in and she cursed herself for not locking it the night before as Pelenia cast a look to the still sleeping Ben before seeing her daughter's blushing face.

Mercifully though, she didn’t make any comments, instead quietly asked Thera to join her and left the room, expecting her to follow.

She did as she was asked, knowing in her heart that even if it didn’t get any immediate comments she was going to regret being seen like that for the rest of her visit as they made their way down to the dining room and took a seat, a light breakfast already waiting for the two of them to enjoy.

As they sat, Thera decided to get things out of the way. “I’m sorry I acted like that yesterday, I was just a little… surprised I guess.”

“You have nothing to apologize for. I wish I’d known about what happened with the others though, me and your father would have tried to announce things a little differently.”

“Well what’s done is done,” She told her mom with a shrug as she started nibbling at the food in front of her, though her mother seemed to disagree.

“I wouldn’t quite say so. Your father is going to be gone for a few days as he… Deals with the spirits who seem to be attempting that sort of thing. As for Lux, well I spent a long time talking with her last night. Aside from the fact that she’s also feeling ready to kill the others, she swears she didn’t know. I was hoping you’d still be willing to work with her for a bit and talk things out?”

“Um, I guess that would be fine,” She said, already prepared to die from how awkward it would be if it was the truth. Considering that she only got along with half of the great spirits she should have given her aunt more trust before reacting like that, so now she needed to try and make things right.

“Excellent, in that case she’s waiting for you at the hospital, I know she really wants to talk to you as well so you should hurry over after eating.”

“Uh, I need to wait for Ben to make a life resistance amulet though, I wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt,” She explained to her mother, trying to delay things until she was more emotionally ready.

“That’s no issue. Sonya explained how you’d been doing things in Stonewall but when I passed that along to Lux she was sure she’d be able to compensate for any issues you might have so long as we have a dark resistance one on hand.”

Great. She thought as she looked to her plate, almost empty and let out a sigh. It seemed like she wouldn’t be putting things off.

She got to the main hospital of Anailia and immediately felt overwhelmed. Unlike the clinic where there’d be maybe a dozen people at most waiting to be treated at a given time, the hospital was packed with people, healers and patients alike constantly moving around and being treated as they were.

She’d never gone there herself, instead always receiving any treatments she needed from her mother while she lived in the nation, with a typical healer not being trusted enough to maintain their minds while working on her, so she’d never known the scale that an average person had to deal with.

Taking a breath as she went, she tried to relax as she went up to the closest person who seemed to work there and be free at the moment, asking them for directions to her aunt.

It wasn’t hard to get them, it seemed word had spread fast about such a powerful person being present, as well as the fact that she was waiting on the queen's daughter, and once the employee realized just who she was quickly showed her the way.

Working in the children's wing, she was focused on healing one child at a time, while also preparing illusions as she did to entertain the kids as they waited for their turn to be healed. Thera couldn’t help but find it a little strange, knowing that with the power her aunt wielded she should have been able to treat everyone present in the room almost instantaneously, but ignored that as she went inside, giving a small wave as Lux noticed her.

“Alright children, I’ll be back in just a few minutes so behave until then and I’ll make sure to show you some more interesting scenes.”

As a round of okay’s and yes’s filled the air she left the room, taking Thera with her.

She immediately went to bow her head and apologize for how she’d acted, but before she could she was pulled into a hug.

“Thera I’m so sorry, I had no idea the others had been doing something so stupid!”

“What, no. Aunty Lux, I should have talked to you instead of just running off like that, I’m the one that’s sorry.”

Her aunt smiled down at her as she shifted the colours of her radiating light to give her a more distinct face. “I’m just glad we were able to resolve this quickly. Now, why don’t we talk while we practice your magic, come on.”

They went back into the room as Lux brought them to the next child and Thera placed the amulet on them to be safe. Even though there was a good chance they would be fine without it since they were succubus children and her charm was being suppressed by the band, it never hurt to be cautious.

Lux was easily able to determine their conditions as she looked to them and told Thera what needed to be done as she prepared another illusion to keep them all entertained.

It was like that Thera got to work using her life magic, having to try to use more complex spells than she’d usually need when just treating an injury while her aunt placed a hand on the child's back, ensuring Thera’s mana didn’t cause any harm.

“I really am grateful to have your help Thera, unfortunately I can’t access my full strength at the moment so the extra hands are a blessing.”

“Is something wrong?” Unlike a regular spirit who’d have a slower mana recovery rate and might have their ability to regenerate mana impaired by different events, a great spirit should have none of those issues. They had enough mana and regeneration that her father had completely altered the world's economy by materializing large quantities of magic materials each day, the thought that anything could weaken her aunt was beyond worrying.

In the face of her concerns though, Lux just gave a small laugh. “It seems that keeping a body that isn’t meant for such things as reproduction bearing a child is more mana intense than I’d ever expected. I’ll be better in a couple weeks once it’s born.”

“You’re due so soon? I can’t believe my parents didn’t say anything sooner.”

“They only found out a few weeks ago themselves. I originally planned on keeping it to myself until they were born, but well… I guess I began getting a little nervous. This will only be the second time a spirit has had a child with a mortal after all, I wanted to ask for some advice from your parents.”

“I see,” She’d heard from her mother when she was young about how panicked her father had been right until her birth, the idea being completely foreign to him at the time and horrified that something might go wrong, but had always assumed she’d been exaggerating. How could someone as powerful as her dad have anything to fear about that? Seeing her aunt now though made it a bit more believable. “So do you mind if I asked how this all happened?”

“Has nobody ever given you the basics of how babies are made?” Lux asked with a playful wink.

“You know what I mean.”

“Haha, I met Writ, my partner as I was traveling to meet the various light spirits in the land a few years ago. I’d always been a bit closer to mortals than some of the other spirits as a result of my affinity having healing properties and met him in a hospital I’d stopped in along the way. He was on the verge of death when I got to him with almost half of his body missing at the time, making it exhausting even for me to save him, but the moment he opened his eyes he expressed his undying love for me. I immediately went to treat his head, thinking I’d missed something but once I was sure he was fine he was still persistent, and I guess you could say I felt amused. I didn’t give in to his advances, but I decided to let him travel with me for a while. From there, what can I say? We grew closer and before I knew it we had a child on the way.” She said as she smiled, gently rubbing her stomach while Thera was stuck on the beginning of her story.

“I’m sorry, half of his body was missing?”

“Ah that? Well, an armored dragon was attacking a town and like a fool, he went to face it alone. I guess he was attempting to awaken his unarmed combat skill so he could rank up as an adventurer but almost died fighting the thing. Honesty, he’s such a handful,” She said with a shake of her head as Thera was left to process the fact that her aunt's lover had decided to fight a dragon with his bare hands.