"Four half braids into a big one, wasn't it?" I asked as I finished, completely oblivious to the change in atmosphere or that the deva had started sobbing into my shirt. "Sorry, I seem to upset you a lot Cosmael, want me to undo it?"
"No!" She shouted before jumping back and stroking her braid as Astrael huffed and went to comfort her.
After a while Celesael, who was starring at her smaller sister and also teary-eyed, spoke after clearing the emotion from her voice. "Our Creator gave her that style when she was a child wanting to stand out, he did it until..." Astrael suddenly glared at her, clearly about to say something taboo. "...Anyway neither of us could get our heads around it, so she practised and practised until she could do it herself, but she hasn't hid that she has missed him doing it for her."
I walked over and hugged her and Astrael. "Sorry girls, I dredged up painful memories, didn't I? I can't replace him and won't try, but if there is anything you miss from having him in your lives, just ask and I will do my best for my family."
Cosmael let go of her hair finally and hugged me. "Can you do my hair every morning please? I don't even mind if you want to try different things, but this one is special so every week at least." She was infinitely more immature than the other two, but she also seemed to have the most power, that's when I realised that they all had self-contradicting personalities and feelings.
"Of course I can Cosmael-"
"Call me, little one too."
"Fine, little one." I looked over my shoulder back at Eve. "I think we might have to adopt another Divine being at this rate." I chuckled.
"I am not being a mum to four, three of which are an eternity older than me, at twenty-five! Oh no. nuh uh... The little one does make me feel maternal th... Wait no, not yet... damn it." We watched Eve have whatever seizure she was in the middle of, then I said I was joking and the little one got teary-eyed. "OK. let me ask a question." Eve said suddenly
She had been very motherly with Quatal the last couple of days, and Cosmael managed to hit a weak spot, and at a weak moment. In the end Eve asked if she had anyway to go back to day one, which it turned out she could and then said she would think about it in future, but pointed out that would make them not identical triplets anymore and she had to think hard about whether she wanted to do that and how it would make her sisters feel.
"So I get a baby Auntie/Sister? That sounds weird." Quatal spoke after asking Celesael to explain things for her.
"Yes, it is. My sister has always been immature, maybe growing up again would fix that." She replied, before adding her own opinion to us. "I don't care what she does, but I want to be the girls Auntie, so no that if you do it, I will be your auntie to and not your sister anymore." The Celesael summarised.
"Dad would want you to do what makes you happy, as long as it isn't dating. Do whatever, just don't do that." Astrael added with absolutely no personal opinion either way.
I had to laugh, I thought the deva sisters were quirky, but for a creator, theirs sounded like an absolute screwball '...and a sucker for punishment.' I thought with internal mirth.
Eve snapped me from thought as she pulled me back from Cosmael and into her arms. "Oh my god, I know I said she needs to think about things, but she is an absolute cutie-pie with cherries on top." The phrase sounded familiar, but for the life of me I couldn't remember why.
"Anyway, we should deal with the phoenix." I reiterated as I pushed the phrase from my mind.
Luckily no one else said anything to hinder us further and we stepped through to the other side. "Where's the lab? You said it was just on the other side." Cosmael asked curiously as she stepped through, holding Quatal's hand and walking a step behind her.
"Right here." I said bluntly as the wall opened up and became the first thing to inspire emotion in Celesael that wan't related to her creator.
"Just like in the spy movies..." The words seemed to slip through her own defences, resulting in her look around as if sincerely ignorant of who had said it.
"If you like spy movies I remember several dozen, the guy who asked me to destroy The Everlife loved them, so yeah I can just may you some memory orbs for now and figure something permanent out later.
"If you could that would be greatly appreciated, I will part from you all and return to the other side, please summon me when food is ready. I would like to try some of the food prepared by the man that stopped our sister poisoning us again." With those words, and several memory orbs, she left at a slightly faster pace than she had moved at earlier.
"Please don't encourage her to be a neat... She already doesn't work enough." Astrael retorted somewhat bitterly.
"Who exactly moved to the mortal realm and lived off us the whole time and did little apart from play with Quatal... By the way, why did you tell our little girl that parents need to be alone together to be happy?" I started the interrogation, but she was saved by Hasleth reaching the basement.
"Sorry to interrupt but can we save my sister now?" He asked sarcastically without looking as we argued a mere three metres from our objective.
"Hasleth, meet two of the deva triplets. Astrael, the nanny and Cosmael, the Auntie for now, maybe sister later, nothing's set in stone yet." I rambled as he looked up and fro fear.
Unfortunately for him, they were not normal deva, a quick death may have been preferable over the way Astrael pinched his cheek patronisingly. "Aww, don't worry mortal, Adam told us not to harm anyone but that woman, so the only thing I de-skin is my adorable little niece whilst she is malting."
"Oh! Is that right? Lucky me, I thought I was gonner, sorry, I deeply regret my rudeness ladies..." It was painful watching him flounder in shock, but also funny, so I stepped away to watch from the side lines.
"My name is, Astrael"
"My name is, Cosmael."
"Ah, right... Astr-"
"Lady Astrael."
"... Of course, apologies again. Lady Astrael and Lady Cosmael."
"You do-" Cosmael started to say but it was quickly turning from painful to brutal so I interrupted.
"Yes, good, now I think it's time we got to work." I declared bringing an end to the poor cardinal's slow death of ego, but had to invest considerably effort into internalising my laughter when I received a telepathic message from Astrael.
'Adam, I think a collar would suit this one to, he is just adorable. Even more timid than Cosmael.' Obviously a deva's idea of timid was born from interactions with other deva, in fact as far as mortal reactions go his was incredibly courageous and noble.
As we approached the phoenix girl, layaera, the phoenix controlling her dropped the unconscious act and backed into the corner of the containment chamber as it sensed the deva approaching. More specifically, it sensed the suffocating blood lust pouring out of them.
"What are two daughters of b-" Its question was interrupted as its lips melted together at the raising of Cosmael's hand, the disgusted expression on her face rendering her entire outlook different. She had gone from the shy and awkward youngest daughter who just wants to be coddled and babied to an avatar prideful rage and the fact that the phoenix didn't self-destruct out of terror was quite praise-worthy.
"Please don't speak, your filthy voices always made dad mad and makes my skin crawl. Sister, you do the rest, these things are so slimy I always get creeped out and burn away more than I need to." She said dropping the hand and backing away slightly as if every inch further away was salvation.
"Fiiiine..." Astrael sighed, phasing through the glass, then the room was filled with white-hot flame that spewed forth from the phoenix, then filled again with the sound of laughter, the most mocking laugh Astrael could muster and finally the flames simply became Ice.
No gradual freezing over, instant change, from ten-thousand degrees above, to absolute zero. "Look, I'm not my sister, I don't get grossed out, just go back to the white and live to body-snatch another day, little fire chicken."
The insult, didn't even come across as offensive, it was just a matter of perspective and the power difference between the two beings was so vast, the insult was simply an observation. all that legendary creature amounted to in the eyes of the cool headed, quirky woman my daughter called Auntie Astra, was a fire chicken.
Cosmael begrudgingly gave it its mouth back at a look from her sister, unfortunately, this fire chicken proved an unintelligent one and tried to bargain. The room was instantly filled with a shriek that cut through everything, shattering the ice that the flames had become and threatening the same to our eardrums.
Eve instinctively covered Quatal's ears, I instinctively covered hers and endured the worst of it myself. Cosmael moved closer to try and cover mine, but then the shriek stopped dead and turned back into her timid, immature self and began to sulk.
I made my way other to comfort her, unashamedly prioritising my family over anyone else and whilst I did that, Astrael laid the now truly unconcious girl onto a non scorched bed. "Unfortunately since I couldn't convince the phoenix to do so, I can't do anything more. She will retain her memories, personality and tastes, but she is no longer human, the metamorphosis was already quite advanced." Astrael explained, implementing her best bedside manner.
"What does that mean?" He looked away from Astrael and over to me, as though our acquaintance would make the diagnosis change, or better to hear.
"It means there is nothing we can do, but what I told you in her bedroom. She is not a human anymore and she will be better off in the company of other non/barely humans like us. Obviously you are welcome to visit and stay whenever, but you should give it time. If you don't she could hurt you and if you were very close, that could shatter her mind, trust me on that."
Hasleth nodded, tears dampening his cheeks and robbing him of his usual stoicism. "Can we have a moment alone please?" He practically begged me, but Astrael was shaking her head behind him.
"No you can't. She is a phoenix and will wake up any second, if she takes the news badly she will set the room aflame. Of course, if you were thinking of killing her to save her from this "tragedy" I will kill you myself as I told your bigot cousin."
He gritted his teeth and went to snap at me but Cosmael sealed his mouth shut as she had the phoenix. "Do not lie to us mortal, what is it? Shame? Sister you are the empath. Oh and Eve as well, please tell me what this man was feeling." I waved a hand to put an end to this fiasco.
"She's your sister. How could you even consider..." I sighed, remembering it was questions like that that broke me before, I had too much to lose to do so again. "...Eve, get Leeson to escort him, back to Abelegia, directly to your father. Little one, can you hide from sight and follow him, if he acts up, paralyse him, but stay hidden." She briefly returned to timid form as I called her little one and petted her head.
When Eve returned with Leeson, she looked appalled by a man she once respected, Leeson looked disappointed but was trying to remain straight faced.
I was just tired and waved them away, Leeson nodding slightly as he could read it as the same weariness I felt after single-handedly beating the Kanelsian forces.
"Astrael, I'm done. Can you watch the pa... Layaera, when she wakes up bring her across then tell her the truth, keep her over there though. We will leave Quatal with your sister watching spy movies."
With that I did exactly as planned, I had had enough of the human world for one day and wanted nothing but the loving embrace of my fiance's arms, I could tell Eve was out of sorts as well, she had known the cardinal a long time, but she had felt his disgust immediately. Was he always a bigot? Is this the memories of the war still being raw? Were all non/demi-humans being persecuted? She wanted answers to these questions as a person but needed them as a mother to one such being and family to several others.
When we got to bed she started shaking and crying on the bed. "I'm sorry. I know you need me to, but how?... How, could he think that?... Will people be ashamed of growing up with Quatal, with any other children we might have? How can we raise them with such awful people?..." I held her tightly, Cosmael wasn't the only one to catch her in a weak spot at a weak moment, however she wasn't a brooding woman wanting children now.
She was a protective mother, weighing her family's happiness and safety against the rest of the world and after one of the people she had known the longest and trusted the most showed such a horrible side she couldn't help but wonder whether she should be weighing those things she wished to protect against the world she knew, or the one she doesn't.
For a moment, Eve looked utterly defeated, then she smiled and looked me in the eyes. "That was heavy huh, Adam?" she finally said before puffing her cheeks and exhaling heavily.
This wasn't the Eve I was trying so hard to love, but Ever, of that I was certain.