"Let me guess, you liked the fight and now you wanna take it home?" Eve replied, annoyed and exasperated.
"Yes and no... I did and I do, but, I also want to contract it, evolve it with The Black, then interrogate it about Sil and Sinfree."
"Well I was gonna say no, now definitely not. I get it Adam, you want Sil dead for hurting Quatal. So you want to risk endangering us all yourself to get vengeance? Think about it please."
"Ok... You're right, I'll Kill it."
"Wait! What did we talk about all or nothings for? You can keep it as is, in a cage bigger and heavier than any you ever made. Just no evolving it, not until you can beat this one without whatever this is. What is this?"
"I can neither confirm nor deny it."
"That doesn't make sense."
"Don't worry 'bout it..."
"B-"
"Don't worry about it..."
Luckily Eve relented, though I could tell by Cosmael's expression she was disappointed in me, I certainly was. I don't care what people get up to, but the thought of that being my master-plan in a life or death situation made me question myself.
I was too worn out to actually create the cage at that point myself, so I gave the knowledge and plans to Cosmael when she could look at me and she went to The Garden and made it in my stead.
"Dad, I told Astrael, that's the least you deserve."
"I know Little one, I know."
That was the end of our first hunting mission.
We all called it a day after that, we explored the mountain range a bit looking for clues about Sil and Sinfree, but all we discovered was a note from Sil carved into the Crackling Jabber's lair:
Eve, you stole what is mine, I will take it back.
The message drove her made with fury, she released so much divine aura the girls passed out and, after she erased the wall from existence, she spent the rest of the night apologising.
Opposite, and somewhat hidden, there was another note etched in demon:
I must serve my mistress.
I realised then that I had undoubtedly bound Sinfree to a life of shame and self-loathing, she wanted no part in what they were doing.
The atmosphere was dark, Eve refused to let any of us go. Her family was her's, but knowing without a doubt that someone wanted to steal that family from her left her defensive and she refused to let even Bell go to The Garden that night.
She didn't sleep, she sat awake holding us, fiercely protective and all we could do was let her. I awoke several times in the night, my divinity resonating with hers, then she would stroke my hair and whisper until I returned to sleep.
"Sorry, my love, I thought I heard something, rest... Please."
Eve was driving herself mad.
The next morning I sent all the kids home, Eve and I needed to talk.
"Why did you send them home? What if she goes for them."
"Eve, she's in your head, stop, breathe, think."
"Get out of my way, we are going back, I'll keep you all safe."
"EVE! We are safe, you kept us safe and watched over us all night. Thank you, we're safe."
"Don't yell at me. How are they safe if they are unprotected." She was so far gone, she pushed passed me, as though she couldn't simply open a gate to The Garden from where she was.
I jumped back to try and talk to her again and she slapped me.
"Feel better?" I asked, spitting out some blood.
"Oh, what have I done? Adam I'm sorry..." She hadn't snapped out of it, she just reverted to her overbearing protectiveness.
"Stop. I am not a baby, I don't need babying Eve. I love that you love me, it means more than words could do justice, but stop, please."
"I told yo-"
"Yes until I give you a baby to baby. Unfortunately, you are making that difficult right now."
Eve's eyes narrowed, she wasn't angry, defensive, or maternal. It was pure predatory instinct, she was sizing me up for a fight.
"I see, you want a fight."
"Of course I do. Do you think you're the only one that needs to blow of some steam like that?"
"No, sorry. I of all people should have seen it. You were disappointed I left you in the cage, weren't you?"
"No, I'm not an idiot, I would have died. Your knowledge bridged the gap, but the fact she tamed that thing, it made me realise I was powerless as I am. You don't train me, you are so eager to keep me out of a fight you would prefer I stay weak so I have to."
"YOU!- aren't wrong." I mumbled my rage at the accusation dying in the face of its brutal honesty. "I was wrong, I truthfully didn't even realise I was doing it. I'm sorry, I'll train you from now on. Will you forgive me?"
"No. You can earn forgiveness when I rip out that woman's throat and my claim over you is undisputed. If of course you manage to go that long without creating another psycho-whore-stalker." She ranted, but the unusually colourful language made it clear she wasn't joking.
"Fine, but she made me watch Ever die... I get first dibs, if I mess up, then you can have your go."
"Deal. First though, you haven't fully recovered from yesterday, so we are about even, so let's blow off some steam." Eve wasn't asking, that was her version of "3,2,1..Go!" and with it, she raised her fist, opened her fingers and our make shift house blew apart, then reassembled into a fist as she re-clenched her's. "Adam', you're better, I'm not stupid, I won't hold back, please only match my ability and a little bit more. I need to drag this out a while, try to teach me some things you realise about my fighting style as well, I know you stay quiet to not offend people to."
I nodded and the fist slammed down, or would have but I made the same move she did, except I broke it apart and reformed it into dozens of smaller ones, then I sent them all on a different trajectory.
"If you have created a lot of projectiles, people often launch them immediately, all on the same trajectory, because it's quicker. Take the time to envision and programme each one, yes it will be a slower set-up, but in time it will be no slower than the broader commands, you just need to practice. Lovely wordless casting though."
She smiled, faintly, but the most genuine expression she had worn since the wing display. "It's technically not, I'm just using absolute will to control the mana."
"Well stop it, just quietly ask the mana to do as you picture with the same authority as your absolute will naturally has, don't expend one weapon to use another."
She nodded and we both froze whilst she attempted it, the fists of rock reformed, then super-heated into magma and a grin spread across her face much more obvious than the last. She took the time to programme her new projectiles with different trajectories, she also read between the lines of my instruction and imposed different speeds and timings.
"Nicely done, but that one looks a little janky." I pointed to one at the far end which was ineffectually moving in circles. "The others are nice though, so I'll show you a real defence." I reached out a hand and trapped all the fists, even the ineffectual one in case it was a trap.
The barriers formed around each magma fist, which rapidly cooled and crumbled as the barriers began to glow. "This one is one of the spells that make up the glyph of final judgement. It absorbs all energy of an attack and redirects it, costly but effective." I snapped my fingers and the barriers blasted lasers of pure energy that grazed her limbs.
"I said match me and add a little bit."
"Well, either I overestimate you, or you underestimate yourself. You could do this in your sleep with your magic control and your smart enough to predict the lasers and you could have even blocked and sent them back at me with the barrier I just showed you."
"Clearly you overestimate me then."
"No, you're just not telling me what is wrong. You let that hit you."
"you kn-"
"Don't change the subject, I act like an idiot because being like this all the time makes others intolerable."
Eve frowned, annoyed I had not only interrupted her, but predicted exactly what she would say. "I slapped you, I owed you that, I can't do anything else to apologise so..."
"So you thought making me injure the one I love would make me feel better?"
"Well, when you put it like that it's stupid... Can you be an idiot please."
"Yes and no take backs." Eve was furious, being completely outmanoeuvred like that, was a mockery. She dropped the facade of training and turned this into what it was supposed to be, a way for her to blow off some steam and vent her frustration.
Her signature blades of light filled the sky above us both, but she also produced some behind herself. As she asked the blades to fall, I was a bit disappointed they all follow the same path and I effortlessly weaved between them.
"Eve, I th-" As I dodged the last blade, I turned to face her, to be met with several more that she had held behind her, which I thought she was keeping for defence at close range. I grabbed one of them and used it to deflect the others, then the light blades began raining down again.
I wasn't particularly threatened by the attack, which was what made me look at the one throwing it, which was when I noticed she was charging up one of the energy barriers with her own attacks.
The blades falling all around me and disintegrating made me miss the fact they were falling on her as well.
My future was clear, any second that barrier would reach saturation and I would be having to dodge countless and seemingly infinitely regenerating swords of light and a refocused energy beam at critical mass.
"Not bad Eve, not bad." I mused, as the laser fired. Unfortunately, after my earlier lesson about trajectories, my next move was well within her power.
I erected my own energy redirection barrier, absorbed her laser and a few swords, for the "and a little", then split the laser into countless little ones that pierced and shattered every light blade and both of Eve's feet, though those two were certainly too fine to cause any damage, it definitely stung.
"Owwwww! That was mean, so much for not hurting the woman you love."
"I train the woman I love, I don't fight her, would you really be able to blow off steam if I pulled my punches that much? I couldn't, hell the Crackling jabber didn't it simply knocked the wind out of my sails by making it difficult to think through the repeated stunning and disorientation."
"You're right, sorry that was mean."