Chapter 10-315: Family Matters (1/2)
“I am probably the most powerful mortal spellcaster on the planet by a fair margin,” I informed them calmly. “Unlike this world, I come from a place with a fully developed magical tradition, and intensely specific knowledge on how to fight the undead. Releasing this knowledge here has allowed the people to start making immediate headway against the Shroud, and to start preparing for the world without it.”
Two sets of golden eyes were glowing as they stared at me.
“My daughter is the most powerful spellcaster in the world!” Morningfire promptly shouted in delight, clapping her hands gleefully, her smile absolutely radiant. “You will keep the name of Morningdark, of course, and you must teach your family this magic of yours!”
I lifted an eyebrow at that, definitely not expecting those words. She went on, “We will contact your uncle and his children, too, of course. And then,” her happy smile narrowed down to a breathlessly cold scowl, like a furnace about to explode, “we are going to hunt the bastards that did this to our family down to the ends of the Earth, and beyond!”
Well, I certainly couldn’t refute that, and ruefully reflected that, ignoring the fact that I could stomp all of them with one hand tied behind my back, I was now the baby girl of this family... and Morningfire was still my mother, and a Nuavan, who were not known for holding back on their emotions.
I might not have the emotional bonds, but there were still bonds, and I wasn’t the type of person to just burn those things for no reason.
“Instruction and advancement will require large amounts of murderous combat,” I warned them both. “The targets will definitely deserve everything you can do to them, but Azaia can confess to the sheer nastiness of it.” Said person promptly nodding hard in agreement, and sighing.
“They are horrible,” Azaia agreed. “But Master Traveler has shown me so much... “
“Tch!” Morningfire interrupted. “You are family. What is this Master stuff?” My eyebrow lifted higher. “She is your sister, and you will address her as such. You will address me as Mother, as is proper, but your sisters are Azaia and Brigette, or Wind and Flame, as you prefer. They will address you as Traveler or Dark,” she stated simply, as if the matter was already set and done, and the great looming mountain of propriety simply could not be overcome.
“Flame, you will immediately file a Leave of Absence in response to the simply traumatic experiences you have had, and if there are any questions from your superiors about such a thing, you will direct them to me.” Her golden eyes flared hotly, and the most feared fire Sorceress in Europe promptly buckled, nodding quickly. Those eyes snapped back to mine, and seemed to consider things for a moment as she studied me, and I didn’t give any ground at all.
“We will be going with Azaia on this training of yours, my dear Dark,” she declared firmly. “What do you need us to do? We will be completely ready to join you by tomorrow.” And if Flame wasn’t, she wasn’t going to say anything.
Well, the woman was definitely an elemental force of will, clearly very, very used to getting her way, and also very protective of her family. I found myself more amused than impressed, as I could push back at her very easily, and probably shock her with how firmly, too.
She had also promptly adopted me into that family without blinking an eye. Perhaps it wasn’t unusual, as she hadn’t truly known her real daughter or what had been made of her, and what I was doing stirred up all her joys and passions as a mother and a Nuavan.
“There are some videos you should watch, to get caught up properly... Mother,” I acquiesced, which only seemed to delight her more. “You will also have to get a Blessing from me, and get soul-drained down to a Three.”
Her rising expression faltered. “A Three?” she gasped, hands going to her chest. “Are you serious, Dark?” she couldn’t help but protest.
“Deadly serious, Mother,” Azaia promptly spoke up. “Unless you’d like to be stuck at Nine for the rest of your life.”
Her fine lips worked for a moment, and managed a delicate frown. “These must be very important videos,” she sighed at last. “What about this Blessing? This sounds exciting!” Her eyes lit up again.
“That should perhaps wait until you have seen the videos, Mother,” I replied calmly, pulling out a couple thin Tablet computers from my Masspack for them. “Azaia, if you could help them with these?” I asked politely. Yes, the model was actually called Tablet, alluding to historical methods of storing data.
“Of course.” She took them both from me swiftly, moved in between her mother and sister to hand over the devices. Her mother looked at it curiously, having no idea what it was, while her sister hesitantly began to touch it and bring up its Vaccine-style operating system. The software hadn’t changed that much in the last eight years...
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I exited the room while they began to find and watch the videos off Heavenbound Hall’s website. No need to distract them from the presentations, and it was going to take them a while to get through it all.
Legion was waiting with eternal patience, and remained silent until the door closed behind me. “I would have liked to hear you Sing at that tribute,” they admitted quietly. “Second-hand is not quite the same.”
“I understand you were in a bit of an excitable situation at the time, and Heavenbound Hall has this odd reputation of going outside the law to do the right things, which many parties in older nations look unfavorably upon.”
“I understand the mindset,” they said with a sigh. “Of course, telling them that Commander Morningflame had been recovered safely from the Deadzone, along with the wife of the Spanish ambassador to the European Council and several other people of note, proved to be a most influential diversion.”
“Odd that.” I tapped my crossed arms in thought. “It appears my family will be occupied for a short time, and it is simplicity itself to return when I need to.”
“You seem somewhat bemused,” Legion nodded, rising to their feet and looking down at me in consideration.
“Well, Morningfire is certainly not anything like the image I had of her, and since she hasn’t been herself since basically a day or two after Elrii was born, that is not surprising.” I could only roll my eyes. “She has just come off being the Consumed form of a Warlock, and finding out her newborn daughter is dead and replaced by a fully grown Wizardess of fantastic power. She’s either fantastically resilient or desperately looking for a coping mechanism to help her get through the trauma. Possibly both.”