I apologised to Quatal then asked her to change again. It was still as shocking as the first time, this type of divine beast was unique in all of creation I know of thee that exist Quetzalcoatl, his sister and one other I couldn't name. Rarity wasn't the unique trait though, they were both divine beast and humanoid divine, with the strength of both ranks combined and as strong as the deva when fully matured.
Luckily I only forced enough power into her to make her nine or ten, Eve and I had a few millennia to go before she reached that point.
As I approached, I could see myself reflected in a hundred scales. The surface is surprisingly warm to the touch.
"Are you going to come down so I can flood your feathers or do I have to climb up?" I grinned as my new daughter flew upward. "Your wings can't carry you far enough away yet, young lady!" I shouted before jumping up after her.
Her wings felt so soft it was more like falling with no ground to land on, then I noticed the skin peeling and feathers malting and told her to land. It seemed she was in the middle of an annual malt, but the issue was she couldn't do so in human form.
"Until you finish malting, you can only be human during meals ok? You might have problems if you don't do it properly." She made some weird motions that made me chuckle. "You can talk just fine, just think about telling me what you have to say, go on…" I left the instructions to linger as I rested my head against hers.
Teaching a feathered serpent how to use telepathy was not on my to-do list so I was clutching at straws. Sitting in silence for a good while, until I felt a weak connection. "Good. Now drip feed magic into it."
After a bit longer she was finally able to speak, but unlike other beasts couldn't make it two way so I had to talk out loud. I figured the deva might help, but then wondered how long she would even be around.
"Papaaa, foooood." When I heard those words I sighed, then told her to go grab a few boars while Eve and I got people prepped for an impromptu hog roast.
When word spread I was cooking boar, everyone chipped in to help prepare and just as we finished, Quatal carefully dropped a dozen boar that she had carefully woven into the coils of her body then changed back suddenly in the air and scaring the bejebus out of Eve and I and earning her first lecture.
She then clung firmly to Eve, who had to use reinforcement magic to stay upright with her brand new sentient outwear.
When food was ready we served everyone the first helping then prepped some plates for seconds, then finally seated ourselves with the manager.
"You're a busy man, sire." He said with a wink. "Sorry, I couldn't resist, please take care of our sweet little guardian. When she woke up, she wanted to rush to see you, but with the connection gone she couldn't and I couldn't send her back alone in good conscience. When she first transformed it was a rather awkward event."
I was interested to know her reaction to the retelling, but she was too busy eating to actually hear the conversation.
"Luckily the female cook was there and wrapped her in an apron. All I could do was send a guard back to Eden with a request for you and clothes. I gave her my cabin and I kept the office but I think we all know she doesn't belong here. Hearing her refer to you as Papa was quite a shock though, we thought she was referring to her deep snake forbear."
"Nuh uh! He ate the female who hatched me." Quatal exclaimed suddenly, offering a revelation we could have all lived without.
"Well thank you, if you salt the meat or smoke… Forget it, summon the cooks. I'll give them the memory." which I did, but rather than joy, they looked at the ludicrous amount of work they now had waiting and sighed.
With a heavy breakfast filling our stomachs, we weren't going anywhere fast, which was perfect as I wanted Quatal to slither in heavy slow movements to help her malt smoothen out.
When we finally set off she did just that, but as I tried to tell her how to slither, all I got back was, "I know how to slither Papa, been doing it my whole life…" Which made Eve fully snort through a laugh and me realise why so many parents treasured those years when the new child wasn't able to speak.
"Fine, just trying to help, but guess somebody is too grown up for daddy's help." I huffed jokingly as I crossed my arms and swung my head away.
This proved a costly mistake however, she coiled her around me and whipped me into her body with enough force to break my arm and ribs, making me cough blood and scaring herself, of course Eve once again showed herself to be much more maternal than I was aware of.
As Quatal changed back and cried over hurting me, Eve ran over and comforted her telling me to get on with healing myself despite the fact I had already healed. It did make me sure of one thing however, she was in dire need of strength control training, youthful inexperience, feathered serpent strength and mortals were a recipe for disaster.
I squatted next to her and tried to comfort her. "Heu, hey , hey. I'm fine, sweetie, come on now." Eve took a step back to let me try and settle her. "Come on, Papa is fine and I'm not angry, it was an accident. This was my fault for making you so strong so fast. Which is why we have a special teacher waiting for you at home."
"A teacher?..."
"Wait, Adam, you don't mean…"
"I do, the deva stays for as long as possible, if Halsan doesn't like it he will have to beat me at no-holds-barred fisticuffs. Hmmm, guess being a monarch does have its advantages."
Eve sighed and groaned, she knew I was only doing it for Quatal's sake but that didn't make it any less delicate a situation politically. An immature divine beast still had the power to wipe out a city in time, a deva could wipe out all life in time and we had both. Our mid-size frontier town had become a world wide super power in the span of a day.
"Before you go too far into whatever political rabbit hole you are staring at, I'm gonna create a pocket space for the two of them, neither will be seen in public after today on a regular basis… yet."
"I don't like the "yet" but honestly that's better than I hoped, so how are you gonna make this pocket space?"
"Not difficult, think of it like storage magic, layered with dominating illusion magic and that sensory-memory magic all rolled into one."
"That doesn't sound difficult. Are you sure it's gonna work?"
"Err, yeah… Already made the space, just trying to finish up the different biomes and weather patterns, might even put some animals in there for her to hunt, but they will need to establish themselves first. Oooo, I can make us a summer ho-" My expression was aggressively cut off.
"You are not building a home in a place you can escape to in an instant beyond anyone's reach."
"What are you talking about? You and even Fala will be able to open a door to the realm with your own power, for the rest of the house I'll build a fixed gate in the room."
"How exactly are you going to teach me the magic? No one else can use magic like you and you never bothered to lower yourself to normal human limits."
"The chants are dumb, kinda embarrassing and sensory magic, duh!" I was struck again, but expectedly on that occasion, it made Quatal chuckle though which was the plan. "Ok, baby girl, ready to see your new playground? Not finished yet and you will have to wait a while while the atmosphere stabilizes but here you go."
She stuck her head into the portal briefly, then pulled it out. "Mama, Papa went overboard." She said, making a gesture for Eve to peek into the window I had made.
I think anyone reading this already knows, but I got electrocuted quite badly for that one, so much so my heart actually stopped three times. What no one expected was for that to be my plan, since I had to redirect that current into the new dimensional space for it to carry the possibility for natural lightning storms and Eve had so much better control over that element it wasn't even funny.
Inferiority aside, Eve was not happy. She had thought my space would be like the ones created by the great mages of her time, several dozen square kilometers. That was not the case, mine was an entire world of different continents and oceans.
A replica of the prehistoric form of my time, when the super continent known as Pangea was still whole. The tectonic plates were even dynamic and would one cause continental drift, but that was the idea. My true gift to my daughter was a chance for her to one day see the world I was born to without human intervention.
A world truly free of needless suffering.
I didn't make that known though, I wanted her to experience that natural beauty with the curious wonder that can only come with not knowing.
"Anyway now that I have done all I can, how about a piggy back for Papa's little girl." I did wait for an answer, just grabbed her and let her wrap herself around me. I knew I should have told her to change back and help her malt but I was selfish and just wanted to coddle my new daughter as I relished in the paternal warmth I never thought I would know.
As we walked, we incidentally bumped into some adventurers, who had a lot of questions about our young companion, who was sleeping on my back. "Don't worry, just a child who had shown up at the mine, we decided that we would adopt her…" I said, not technically lying, but also saving the big reveal for after she had been introduced to the core group. "...Can you do me a favour? Let the others know we are going to delay getting back until dawn and keep it secret. We want to surprise everyone and I think if I play my cards right I can cripple Halsan's hairline." I added, with the tone of a cartoon villain from a past life.
"Sure thing Teach', want us to tell the seamstress to prep some clothes for the little one."
"Actually she already knows a bit, can you tell her we said to prepare the same again but in black and purple, purple and black and yellow and sky-blue." Eve suddenly chipped in as though she had been thinking about it since they met.
Realising it was best to defer to Eve's knowledge as opposed to my very male fashion sense and trash the little one's chances of having a halfway decent fashion sense. I simply said "What she said." then waved as they left.
When we were alone again, Eve asked if we should really delay getting back, but I just kissed her and asked if she really wanted to go back just yet.
"No, I don't, but have that spell ready again and make the most of tonight, I'm kicking you out of my room until the wedding."
With a very Ever-style, sarcastic salute we continued until we were just two hours from town and stopped for the night, recreating the same kind of campsite I had made at the mine end of the journey.
When Quatal finally fell asleep, after a very long bedtime story. Eve and I went to bed as well, which is when I learned what awakened maternal instincts do to a woman.
The same woman who had been shy and reserved that whole time, suddenly became more aggressive. I had half rolled over to give her a hug when she pulled me over on top of her.
"I was going to climb onto you, but I know you wouldn't push me off if I got carried away, just promise you'll use the spell if I start to… cross the line." She then hooked her legs over mine so I couldn't move away and pulled me down to her.
She was right, I never would have pushed her off, I didn't particularly want it to stop at all. I was actually surprised but found my mind telling me to not stop, yet my body seemed awkwardly detached from the moment.
Every kiss felt soft and warm, leaving a slight taste of the berries I had picked to go with dessert. She was a lot more animated as well, and far more bold.
Whilst her left hand held my head in place to stop me retracting her right was exploring the contours of my body, following the outline of every section like she was trying to draw an image of me without sight.
Then her hand moved round to the base of my spine and her legs shifted up to me closer to her and I knew that was the last chance I had to cast the spell.
Slowly, the spell took effect, I could tell she was asking Ever to help resist the manipulation but luckily despite her tomboyish mannerisms and carefree temperament, she knew better than to get involved.
"Thank you… Adam, but… Next time… Just a little sooner… Or not at all… Yeah… Either works." Her breathing was heavy, her body seemed on the verge of overheating so I conjured some cold water for her. Which she not so subtly spilled a good amount of accidentally (on purpose) down herself.
Ultimately, I decided not to point out that the next time would be our wedding night. I had more important things to think about on the subject of that day, reaching the decision, that I had to be able to say truly and without doubt that I love her on that day.
In that moment, I decided, if I couldn't, I would have the deva strike me from the world. It would be far kinder to her in the long run and it would be a thousand years at least before Quatal had the strength to cross the veil of transcendence.
It was a lot to ask of such a proud being, but I had faith she wouldn't disobey an order from her lord.
I didn't know this at the time, but Eve could see I was thinking of doing something final, empaths were hard to hide things from. The more they knew you, your mannerisms, tone of voice, expressions and all the normally unnoticed idiosyncrasies… The less you could hide and between the guilt bubbling up inside of me, the turmoil, the hope and determination, I was practically an open book for her to read.
Eager to start working on my new goal, I held Eve until she fell asleep then slipped out of bed to meditate a while. I knew I had to visit that inner world, where Idir and myself would be waiting for me. 'They said I could only visit when I was completely exhausted. I'm in a time crunch and can't rely on a fight to that level and don't want to go looking for one, so a bit of sleep deprivation and forced energy expelling will have to do.' I thought as I started carefully expelling all the different energies I had bit by bit.
After a couple of hours I had barely made a dent, I considered expelling more but doing so would leave traces, which would only worry Eve and regardless I had a daughter to protect. I couldn't leave myself too vulnerable.
After several more hours the results were looking slow, very very slow. After a quick trip to the bushes I returned to bed, wanting to be there for Eve when she woke up, but kept myself awake, stroking her hair and arm.
When she finally turned it was clear I needed to use the spell yet again, as she twisted herself and tried to occupy the same space as me. "I could feel your hands on me even when I was asleep. You really don't play fair Adam." She muttered between her kissing my jaw and neck. "Do we need to wait… I really don't want to anymore…" She yawned whilst trying to lift my shirt up.
I tried to cast the spell several times by that point, but mana responds to will and even though I wasn't feeling the rush I'd heard people describe, my mind was screaming at me for even considering putting an end to it.
When she finally won the battle against clothing and exposed my chest, she started kissing there and that was when Quatal came to the rescue. "Mama, Papa, are you awake? What's for breakfast? Can we have boar again? Boars are tasty, no, the tastiest."
'Saved by the child.' I said, more as a silent prayer than a statement. A sentiment that was proven wrong as Eve bit my left pec whilst holding a finger to my lips.
"Yes cutey, we're up, but boar isn't breakfast for humans so you should try other stuff. Why don't we wait until we are home though, we can surprise everyone with pancakes and you." Eve replied in a voice that belied the temptation, that was clearly still eating her up inside.
After a brief fight against Quatal's appetite, we headed for home. The compromise was that "Mommy" carried her for being mean, while "Papa" fed her a few berries every now and then.
Sensing how hungry the young one was getting though we picked up the pace with magic enhancement.
When the town came into view and a group of guards at the gate ran back and dispersed through town, we knew the house was going to be packed and could only hope that those who had heard already hadn't ruined the surprise.
I quickly camouflaged the extra party member and when we got home Eve took her upstairs to hide her until everyone arrived, whilst I got to work on the breakfast banquet I had gotten so used to making.
Just as I finished plating up and transferring everything to the table, the door opened and Fala ran in. "Uncle Adam!" I gave her a hug then told her and everyone I could see outside to come in and take a seat, but not to start until I said.
Judging by reactions, Halsan, Leeson and Kriel knew, though I couldn't rule out Valo since she had an impeccable poker face.
As planned I told everyone that Eve and I had an announcement to make, then the plan was swiftly ruined as I called Eve down and Quatal simply leapt down the stairs ahead of her asking if she could eat now.
Chuckling, though disappointed it didn't go to plan, Eve jogged down the stairs and simply said "Suuuprriiiiiseee. We have a daughter now."
To our surprise however everyone seemed genuinely shocked by that announcement, even the people who supposedly knew.
"Everyone this is Quatal, though you probably wouldn't guess this, you have met before. Ahem, though last time you met her she went by the name… Askel." I finally announced after being forced to yield my obstruction of the food and plant her in a seat.
Everyone was totally slack-jawed and had no idea where to even begin. It turned out that all they had heard was that there was a girl calling me "Papa" and begging to see me as soon as possible. They thought it was some kind of mistake, maybe an actual love child, of which I had been robbed of all memories.
After a very brief Q and A, I reinforced the eat, then talk rule. Then, as the last person finished, which was me as I had to give half my food to Quatal twice, the women got to work on their impulses; Eve turned into the doting mother and started cleaning her face, Valo was gushing over her and introducing herself as Auntie Valo, Fala was trying adorably hard to resist abandoning work to play with Quatal, Karla was asking questions about the change like a nerd after my own heart.
Whilst they did that, the men came over to help me clean dishes and ask their own questions and give their congratulations on the unexpected addition to the family.
Then Halsan took his turn, after waiting patiently. "As happy as I am, can we please talk about your latest summon… Why did she make me a leather strap with a metal tag that has my name?" The question crippled me with laughter and I had to shoot Byurik, Leeson and Rein a "tell you later" look. "Anyway that's not the point, I knew you were powerful, but a deva following orders so consistently, we are taught they look down on mortals."
As if summoned by the conversation, she phased through the wall and knelt before me, still awkwardly trying to stay lower than Eve's height. "Lo-Adam, I have guarded this land in your stead and watched the angry human for you. Do you have further need for me, or will my continued presence be unrequired?"
Halsan looked at me with hope in his eyes, which quickly turned to despair when I spoke. "Ther is something else actually, another surprise for everyone, but I need your help with it in another away."
"However I can assist you, Adam."
I opened up a gate wide enough for everyone to see the new dimensional space I had made, then told Quatal to jump in and show everyone how pretty she was, which she did without hesitation.
Everyone acted as I expected, becoming completely speechless once more, everyone except the deva who seemed to stifle a laugh, which I chose to ignore to get to work on time. "Before you laugh and feel bad, I have adopted this feathered serpent as my daughter…" The words didn't seem to surprise her as much as I thought it would, in fact she simply made a comment about my love for serpents. "Anyway… I need you to teach her how to control her strength in both forms and how to properly use telepathy. Can you do that?"
"Of course Lord, but I must say I never expected to play nanny for your offspring. I'm glad you experienced more than suffering." She bowed, then flew through the gate and led Quatal into the distance.