After the three minutes had passed, Eve was left as confusingly deflated as she had been happy for what had amounted to about twenty minutes. All of us knew better than to press her for answers, so instead I just told Quatal to give her a big cuddle so I could finish talking and we can go back to the other side and have a family night.
The idea of that was enough to make Quatal forgive me, but I sensed Eve would have other ideas, as confusing as her behaviour was, I sensed motive, practice and measurement in her actions and she kept her eyes on my time piece every second she wasn't kissing me.
"First of all, apologies for scaring you all. Secondly, these men were sent by Sil, she has definitely not left the continent yet but there seems to be a lot of false information. She is covering her tracks masterfully. She must have heard about Eve and I, she wanted to hurt Eve, so she told those fools who worship her like some sort of goddess to come and find the phoenix bearer and perform a ritual. Even they didn't know it would cause a catastrophic magical implosion."
"So? Your verdict? What will you do with these men?" Vedna asked, still not entirely sold that such devastatingly destructive anger could be quelled by a few minutes of hugging.
"My verdict is, truth, total brutal honesty. I am going to hit them with absolutely every memory I have of Sil and the last one thousand life times. Make them witness all the horrors I can do for a duty I didn't want, make them imagine the ones I'll commit in my duty to protect my family... Truthfully I want to kill them, hurting Eve is unforgivable, but these idiots and many others are worshipping that psycho and martyrs are motivation I can't be bothered to deal with."
I stood and did as I said, removing their paralysis and the suicide pills I remembered them having, then stood them up as they shrank in fear. "Gentlemen. Might I ask you to do a favour for me?"
Their heads shook so furiously they nearly broke their own necks. "Course sir, we're idiots for believing that woman's lies, we just thought she was pretty."
"She's a whore." Eve muttered surprising us all in a way that we just pretended not to hear it.
"Mama, what's a whore?" Well almost everyone, but at least it was the only one not at risk of angering her.
"So, what I need you to do is simple. I see Eve has been using this little trick of mine to manipulate people indirectly, so you are going to take these two and pretend that they are from her, these are special though, watching them will make you ill and eventually the very sight of her will make everyone else as sick as it makes me."
The men took an orb each, still nodding their head vigorously. "Oh and if you tap one of hers against them, it will update the memory so it stays relevant. Now gentlemen, don't forget I am giving you this opportunity not because I don't want to kill you but because I desperately want a reason not to act on that desire. So be good and don't fall for anymore pretty girls who want you to blow up countries."
I then gave them the same kind of implants I had given myself at Eve's request, ignoring their screams. "Shh, shhh, shh. All done, all done, just needed to make sure we could keep an eye on you. See?" I asked as I conjured another display showing them that I could see their vitals.
"So you can make sure we're alright? That hurt a lot, but thank you mister."
"No worries at all lads, now run along and..."
"Stay away from pretty girls sir" The said cheerily in unison.
As they ran down the corridor, my face darkened and I cracked my neck. "Why did you really want to monitor them? To see if they died immediately to guess where she might be?"
"Nothing so wise, they meant to hurt my wife... I want to smile when these lines fall flat." My tone was colder than it had been in a long time, or at least in what felt like a long time.
Vedna looked at his daughter, clearly concerned by the sudden revelation of her increased sociological importance, Quatal's included.
With that we left, our business concluded, Hasleth accompanying us to stay close until his sister could be saved.
Eve spent a while longer talking to her father and strangely when they reemerged Vedna seemed much more relaxed about me. I checked to make sure she hadn't bewitched the pope but that was thankfully a negative so I just filed it under shock of the moment and waved goodbye as we all teleported back.
Fala had handled the situation expertly in my absence which was a stark contrast to the child she reverted to upon opening the sweetbox and finding so many missing. It revealed itself briefly as she investigated a few crumbs clinging to her cousin's dress, corners of her mouth and finger tips.
"You're so greedy Quatal!" Fala huffed before retreating with what was left, of course our girl then started crying and Eve had to explain that Fala wasn't technically wrong. In fact we were both well aware the gluttony ran deep in our daughter, a bottomless pit in the shape of a petite infant.
"Anyway! As endearing as I find this, Fala no point in staying here, I will set up the equipment to maintain this state autonomously. Sorry Hasleth, but pheonixes are powerful, anyone being close to her with typical magical resistances would be a meal."
"So what about the girl?"
"I awakened the girl's untapped potential, she now has more internal capacity than I do."
"Not to mention the fact that I can feel unfathomable fear radiating from her, it seems that it is innately terrified of Adam. Hey there, you should not that apart from Hasleth Adam loves everyone in this home like family and we just saw what he will do if you hurt any of them. Be good."
Suddenly Hasleth leaned over to me. "Did I offend her? that's the second time she singled me out."
"She is pissed because you are somewhat responsible for making her flinch away from me, that isn't going to end soon don't try just accept it." I explained, patting him on the shoulder as I pushed him out and shut up the lab.
We got Hasleth settle in then announced to everyone we were having family night on the other side again, everyone waved us off except for Fala who was still angry about the sweets.
When we got over there I took Quatal to the kitchen and decided we would make some more as a peace offering and Quatal was eager to make up with her cousin. We did have to make a few batches though, one to give to Fala, one that Quatal ate after she realised how good they were and another for when she inevitably came to pilfer more.
When we were finished, all three of us cuddled on the couch until we drifted off to sleep, where we remained for unknown length of time until Eve shook me awake and scooped up Quatal to take her to bed. "When I tuck her in, I'll meet you in bed, I've got that tension again." She whispered, an all too recognisable look in her eye that she had kept under control since the last time.
I nodded and made to stand up then made for the stairs, but then there was a familiar loud cracking noise, followed by Eve stamping her leg dramatically whilst trying not to awaken the girl in her arms and a glare thrown out the window in the direction of the cracks, which had stopped growing.
"That's right... She's an empath to, I best go tell her to come out already." I chuckled, realising that she likely felt what she interrupted and the subsequent frustration.
I walked outside and stood under the crack, projecting my amusement and the cracks began to spread again. Her descension was far less dramatic and far more comical that time round, rather than emerging from the veil of transcendence like a proud and noble soldier of the divine realm, she simply poked her head through and asked "How bad was my timing?"
I burst into laughter. "Oh you are in trouble, but too late to turn back, now come here and give me a hug I missed you and so did Eve, even if she doesn't remember right now and so did Quatal and everyone else. We need you to do something tomorrow, but first where are these sisters of yours?"
Astrael floated out, her cheeks turning a slightly greyer shade of black. Falling into a hug, she was closely followed by two other deva, one slightly taller and another slightly smaller, who hid behind the taller one.
"Girls, it's a pleasure to meet you. I don't know what she's told you exactly but welcome to our pocket dimension, we will go over to the real house tomorrow morning." Then the tallest slapped me, hard. Hard enough in fact that because Astrael was holding me both my spine and neck were broken in two loud grotesque crunches.