Benny headed home to see his parents, taking Celine with him, and made plans to meet up with the rest of us later while we all headed into Valen proper. We were all staying with Callie's mom during the visit, and I was a bit worried she wouldn't have the space for us until Callie reassured me that her mom had gotten the house in the divorce when her dad left town, and the place was absurdly big compared to most single family homes. Amelia apparently lived alone at the moment, though she had several dogs.

Arriving at the house, I had to admit that I saw what Callie meant about the absurdity. Callie's mom didn't live in a mansion, she lived in a fucking compound. It was extremely pretty, but also very defensible. Despite being huge in terms of surface area, all the buildings were single story. The house was laid out in an interesting style I hadn't seen before. Short, reddish brown walls made of sandy stone were topped with sloped rooftops of terracotta tiles and lined with pretty stained glass windows that were tall and thin enough that they wouldn't provide an entrance even if broken.

Ivy grew along the walls, especially near the tops, and I could see roses blooming within the climbing vines, so subtly entwined they looked like they were the same plant unless you paid attention. The mosaic tiled courtyard at the entrance had a single large clay fountain inset with opals that shimmered in the sunlight, the light playing over the clear water as it poured forth from the spouts. It was pretty much the homiest and most welcoming fortress I had ever seen in my life.

I turned to Callie, my jaw dropping. "You grew up HERE?" Despite being a potential heir to a universal syndicate I hadn't really had access to much more than a comfortable level of wealth as a kid. Benny's family was incredibly well off however, and even he would have been a bit blown away by this place. I suppose it shouldn't surprise me after all I had seen, but Callie's mom was a mortal. Her scale for wealth should be closer to Benny's than ours. I mean, we could have a house like this built with our current funds, but we were REALLY rich for G-rankers after the ransoms.

She shrugged. "My father had it built for her when they got married. I think he wanted to make sure she stayed out of his hair. She adores this place. Spends almost all her time cleaning and maintaining it. There's a built in greenhouse in the center that acts as a sort of courtyard where she keeps her garden. It's a pretty place, I admit, but I have mixed feelings about it. I'd be fine if she just moved, but she has a lot of good memories of me growing up here and she's attached." Her voice lowered as she looked away. "She got a bit clingy with my childhood stuff when I ran away. That's on me so I can't really complain about it."

I could hear the shame and discomfort in her voice when she said that, but it was subtle enough that even with my Perception I wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't known her so well. Her expression melted into one of joy however, as she glanced over at the gate, which I saw was now opening to reveal a gorgeous dark haired woman with bright blue eyes that were the same shade as Callie's. The woman, presumably Amelia, looked about thirty as opposed to the early forties I expected from someone with a daughter who was nearly twenty.

"Baby girl!" She squealed happily, her arms flung wide for her daughter, who bolted across the courtyard and threw herself at Amelia, wrapping her up in a tight hug. Amelia was taller than Callie, which wasn't hard, especially since Cal had traded me an inch of height and gone down to four foot ten. "Look at you. You look wonderful." She pushed her back, gripping her shoulders as she raked her eyes over her daughter critically. "A bit smaller though. Did you lose weight..." She paused. "Or height somehow?" She shook off the thought after a moment. "Not important, how was the trip?"

Callie smiled at her mother, and the expression was beautiful for how relaxed and joyful it was. "It was fine mom. Uncle Alex gave us a lift. He came with us for the visit actually." She raised an eyebrow. "Speaking of Uncle Alex, we should have a talk later about keeping important information from your daughter. I can't believe you never told me I had an Uncle on dad's side of the family. Any other secrets you're keeping?"

Most people would have wilted under Callie's glare, my girlfriend had a formidable presence, but Amelia just raised a nearly identical eyebrow at her daughter. "Darling, I was married to a Unity Guild Master for over a decade. I know more secrets than you can imagine. As for Alexander...we hadn't spoken to him in a long time. I suspected he wanted to distance himself from Paul and I, and I respected that." She shifted her gaze over to where the man himself stood. "Though it appears his desire for distance has eroded with time. How have you been Alex?"

Alexander looked...flustered. Which was fucking weird to think about an E-ranker. "I've been well Amy. You look good. Haven't aged a day since I last saw you." There was some weird subtext in that statement that I couldn't and didn't really want to parse, but Amelia blushed slightly when he said it. Callie gave the two of them a suspicious look, and Alexander changed the subject quickly, striding across the courtyard to present the wine. "I brought this by the way. Claren Fal 4683. I know it's your favorite. A gift for my generous hostess." He smiled warmly, offering her the bottle with both hands, one around the base and one cradling the neck.

She gave him a wry smile, along with that same raised eyebrow that looked so much like Callie it was almost eerie. "Yes." She said dryly as she took the gift. "This one bottle of wine is definitely enough to make up for your nearly two decades of avoiding me. I'm glad you're treating your actions with the gravity that they deserve." Her voice was as icy and poisonous as a cyanide popsicle, and just as sweet. Alexander paled slightly under her glare.

For a second it looked like she would glare him into a puddle, but then, as suddenly as it came, the icy rage melted into a sunny smile as she turned to me. "Now then, this must be the boy my daughter can't stop gushing about." She completely ignored Callie's mortified 'Mom!' in the background as she took my arm and dragged me toward the entrance to the house. "I want to hear all about your relationship. Dates, social outings, embarrassing stories I may have missed while she was away, spare no details. I assure you, I have plenty of stories to trade."

Callie's expression was no longer a raised eyebrow, her face had taken on the same petrified expression Alexander was wearing as I looked back at her, shrugging as her mother dragged me away. Amelia was pretty scary for a mortal, I was lucky she seemed to like me. As she dragged me inside I did my due diligence as a guest. "You have a lovely home by the way ma'am."

She patted me on the arm with amusement. "Yes dear, I know, I designed it. But thank you for the kind words. And please, call me Amy, I insist. My daughter has mentioned how close you two are, and how far out of your way you go to take care of her." She smirked at me. "She's also mentioned that you're a better cook than I am, which I hope I'll get to see for myself while you're here. Not tonight of course, you've only just arrived so I'll be preparing dinner this evening."

I chuckled at that. Something about Amy put me at ease. Probably the similarity to my girlfriend. Her mannerisms were all extremely close to her daughter's, and I could see how big of an impact she had on raising Callie. It shouldn't have been a surprise. I somehow doubted Midknight had been a hands on parent even before he left, so she must have been basically raising Callie on her own.

Smiling down at her, I gave a nod. "I'd be happy to cook for you sometime. As for taking care of her...well, I'd be dead a hundred times over without Callie. It would be more accurate to say I returned the favor. She means the world to me. She also THINKS the world of you. She was really nervous about us meeting, though also really excited. I can see why. She's a lot like you, you two must be close for her to have picked up so many of your mannerisms."

That got a smile. "Good catch. Yes, we have a close relationship. We've always had a very special bond. Well except..." She trailed off, her smile growing brittle for a moment. "Anyway, yes, we're very close. I'm glad to see you're so invested in her feelings on the matter. Most boys your age would have just assumed this was a meet the parents thing and put in a token effort. Or been too nervous to talk properly. It's good to see you're made of sterner stuff than that." She gave me a smirk and poked my side. "Quite a bit of it by the looks of things. What do they feed you kids these days?"

There was no logical reason for me to blush, but I did anyway, which got a giggle from Amelia. She dragged me through the house, showing me various rooms and hallways, commenting on the places Callie had liked to spend time as a kid, and the others caught up with us, following along. She showed me the greenhouse, which was gorgeous, and Jessie excitedly began asking her questions about nitrate levels in her fertilizers or some other gardening shit (no pun intended) that I zoned out.

Jessie loved plants and gardening, but she spent all her time with Ascendants now, and they tended to go more for the super than the natural aspect of supernatural plant growth. It was easy to forget my blonde teammate had grown up working with flowers before she ever got her ability. As soon as Amelia got distracted with Jessie, Callie swooped in and dragged me away, effectively putting herself between her mother and I to prevent any embarrassing stories from being told. Like she could physically stop me from hearing her dirty laundry by standing in front of me. It was unspeakably cute.

After a few hours, in which we were shown our rooms (mine was the guest room right next to Callie's childhood bedroom where she was staying, and Amelia's wink when she mentioned that made my girlfriend turn a shade of red I suspected to be unhealthy) we all headed into the kitchen, and Amelia made us all dinner. She had one of those flat grill surfaces you see in some restaurants, and she cooked us meat and vegetables and fried rice as we watched. Her knife work was actually pretty impressive for a mortal.

All in all, it was a fantastic day, and exactly what we needed. The feeling of relaxing without needing to worry about anything was just amazing. After dinner we arranged to meet up with Benny, Celine, and Maria the next day, which Jessie seemed excited about, and explore the city. Our elf friend and the Cark siblings had never been to Valen, and we wanted to show them all the sights, as well as possibly throw our weight around a bit since G-rankers were rare here, and there were only a few people higher than that in the whole city. I feel asleep smiling. This vacation had been a great idea.