When we made it back to town, we didn't go straight to bed despite the hour. First of all, we picked Leeson up from his bed just in front of the front door, then we all sat at the table while I made some coffee.
I had cured his impending hangover and was using magic to hydrate him on a cellular level, honestly it wasn't something I could have done so seamlessly before but my mental capacity had exploded as if I had a second brain implanted.
Multitasking was as that, without even looking at him, whilst making coffee and talking was extreme even by my standards. "So, can I assume you were all in on Eve's plan? I don't believe for a second that you didn't see her acting like... Acting like Ever" I said as I started portioning out coffee and sugar into each mug.
"Sorry friend, you know how it is, sometimes you have to hurt the ones you love to see through the hard times. We did what we believed best, but did it work?" He asked already looking and sounding much better.
"Halfway, you helped her break a barrier I never could have without you all doing this. Thank you, you are the best friends I could ask for... I'll get you back for it of course, you don't gaslight a guy like me without consequences, but with any luck it with be laxatives in your liquor or slip glyph on your boots."
"You're welcome, I guess, what's in store for Eve in that case?"
"Oh were actually already even. She's marrying me, imagine her spending the rest of her life with my whims." Leeson looked annoyed at first, then after a few seconds, tilted his head and nodded in agreement.
We chuckled a bit, then Eve asked the golden question. "So, this is halfway you said? What do we do next?"
"Glad you asked... I have to blow my head up a little bit." I said casually as I planted the their mugs on the table and blew on mine. "Ooo, that's good coffee."
"Good coffee can bloody wait!" Eve yelled. "What do you mean blow your head up? Is this your guilt about Ever?"
"No, I actually think you were right. That girl deserves a fresh start more than anyone, when she returns and grows up, I will offer her them back, between you and I we have most of them I'm sure... I mean they put something in my head back when I was in that facility watching over Ever's body. In order to be whole again, I need to remove it, but I don't know where."
"This is too dangerous, even with your healing-"
"Look, between me, you, Fala, the three deva and our resident regeneration of body and soul expert... I think we both know I'll be fine even if I did it with a grenade... don't worry, not important... even if I blew it up with a fireball and rock spikes at the same time..."
"Maybe, but there has to be a better way."
"There is, if you would be so kind as to let me detail the plan."
"Oh yeah... You two are definitely even." Leeson interjected.
"Shut up!" We replied in unison.
"Look I can pinpoint it, the implant itself is likely tiny, too big I would have noticed. The problem is that I can't do this alone and as much as I'd love to use this to give Fala some brain surgery experience... that might be too extreme for a child."
"Right... So, plan?"
"Plan is simple, I pinpoint, observe and guide. You, Fala, two deva and the phoenix balance the rate of healing, too much we go back to square one, too little I die... AND! Before you say it, if we don't I never get over this... If I had more information on the device I would simply hit it with a magic laser, but it could react badly."
"Right... OK, you have at least thought it through, but what aren't you telling me?"
"Do you remember those warheads that killed me? They were antithesis weapons, they infect their target. If this implant, was "irradiated" for lack of a better word, none can touch it barehanded under any circumstance or even graze it with active mana... again, do that I die. or someone else does."
"No other way?"
"No... Actually, maybe but it will take two days and we will need everyone ready in case it doesn't. Oh boy this is gonna hurt though."
"Chance of death?"
"New plan A about thirty-three percent, plan B about seventy-two."
"So I have an average fifty-two-ish percent chance of you dying in two days?"
"I mean is that really much higher than usual with the stuff I do?" Eve didn't reply after that, simply finished her coffee and led me upstairs to bed, where she held me like it was her last chance to.
The next day, after breakfast, we caught everybody up, about the revelation, my condition, the plans to deal with it and finally about Ever. The last bit hit Fala quite hard, I didn't know, but Ever would apparently tell Fala stories about me which she adored hearing.
I held Fala, but she was almost inconsolable and in the end, she went with Quatal to play with Auntie Astra and watch movies with Auntie Celesael.
"Cosmael, is something wrong little one?" I asked when she was hovering between the basement stairs and the table.
"You pr... never mind..."
"If you mean your hair, I was waiting for you to come here and get in position you dozy girl." I chuckled and her face lit up the room and she knelt in-front, facing away from me humming. "Less humming more speaking, favourite or something new?"
"Whatever you want." She spoke as quickly as possible so she could resume humming so I decided a braided bun would be a nice change.
"Where did you even learn to do girls hair?" Valo asked, as she watched with appreciation.
"Truth be told, I don't know, I remember Ever asked me to do it for her once and I just did it..." I stopped to laugh, at myself before continuing. "Truth be told, I just felt like I used to do it a lot, but apart from sisters-in-arms between missions, I don't actually recall doing it before. Actually, when I first did Ever's it was similar to your favourite little one, but with two going into one, then a loose ponytail." Cosmael spun around.
"I love you dad."
"I love you as well, little one, but remember you need to think about that decision carefully, don't neglect it or we won't accept it." She nodded and stroked her new bun which I was barely managing to hold in place. "Will any hairpin work with you, or do you have one that will?" She produced one from her palm and handed it over, hugging me until I had secured it and called declared it finished.
"Thank you Adam." She said as she rushed down to join whatever games the others were playing.
"Hard to believe she is the scariest when she gets made." Eve laughed, leaning over to me.
"Yep, their creator was really not trying to make life easy for people in a way that I respect, I imagine the others trying to wrangle those three as infants were stretched half to death." I laughed, before cracking my neck and heading to the lab to start work on my plan.
It was simple really, given the age that it was made, it had to be metal of some kind, so I was making a sophisticated MRI machine. The Raijin system was an electrical resonance system that had several orbs float in a rotating circle at the back of the patient, I was planning to merge the two ideas.
Several smaller orbs that resonated magnetically would float in a rotating circle centralised on the shallowest side. It would be an incredibly messy and barbaric way for anyone else, but with my toughness it was simply efficient and less invasive.
I explained all that to Eve, who watched me like a hawk to make sure I didn't rush. "So this thing will simply pull it out just like that? So why still thirty-three percent chance of death?"
"Well, magnetic induction will heat the metal, if it is metal, in my brain. Healing cauterised brain matter quickly and well is difficult. I will be a mess, since it will destroy my motor functions, memory, everything... You girls will also have to avoid the metal still but i'll do my best to layer up a mana absorbing glyphs in it's trajectory that will shatter a given time after it passes through to delay the spread of everyone's mana enough that we are all as safe as possible.
"Have i ever told you, you're mind is your best and worst feature?"
"Have I ever told you, that in a thousand lifetimes of being willing to die for whatever I believed in, you were the first thing that made me want to live?... Can I be honest?" I asked the last question as I stopped drawing up blueprints.
"Of course, what is it?" She moved closer and held my hands, getting teary as she realised she was now fully free to do so, but also when she felt my hands shaking and I dropped the emotional aurora I had secretly developed to try and mess with her.
"I'm scared... I don't want to die now... I want to live, to be a father for the children we have adopted and I want to try and give you one that is truly ours... The only thing giving me courage to do this, is wanting to fully feel those bonds."
"I'm glad you said that my love. If you said you were doing this for anyone but you, I would have stopped you, we all love you as you are and you don't need to change for us. Don't underestimate fear, it's what keeps us mortals alive."