[Celeste Luminaris]:
Celeste Luminaris was having a hectic day, and she was not happy about it.
Her dad had recently officially named her heiress for inheriting the position as head of the family just a month prior, after being claimed by the Mother of light and day, the primordial goddess, Hemera, just days before that, but that only seemed to make her life even more stressful recently.
She knew primordials hardly ever interact with mortals and when they do, the mortals never really know that it's a primordial they're doing the deed with. Primordials also try their hardest not to interact with noble legacy houses, even more so with legacy great houses, considering the politics that come with said interactions and all, so, when Hemera claimed her that day, her dad was proud… So proud, in fact so, that he named her his heir instead of her older brother, Sean Luminaris, which, of course, had predictable results. Sean was not happy.
Sean used the next month after the news to make Celeste's life a living hell. Embarrassing her whenever she'd attend business trips to her father's various multibillion dollar businesses and corporate meetings she had to try to get used to by humiliating her in the most subtle but obvious ways, Sean would set up scenarios with dad's business associates where she'd have to answer questions about stocks and trades and other business topics that she had no idea about. Then, when Celeste, who's still quite new to the whole business side of her family's House, would inevitably make a mistake or stutter on something, he'd chuckle in her face, along with the handful of business associates present. It was humiliating.
In the last month, this has led Celeste to studying business and economics more, and she'd gotten better at the proper terminologies and technicalities that come with managing business. She was, after all, a genius demigod-legacy noble with high intellect and hailing from one of the 8 Great Noble families, after all. Learning something that typically would take years to fully comprehend in just under a month was child's play for her.
Sadly, Sean started a new tactic when this one stopped working: He took over her combat training sparring sessions. Sparring sessions with the sword and then physical sparring sessions in hand-to-hand combat. Physically, Celeste wasn't bad in terms of combatic practices, and she was a master in evasive and defensive hand-to-hand combat. She wasn't just good, but amongst the best in her whole household, below her father and brother, and a few high ranking guards in her family. And her ability with the blade was nothing to scoff at. She has earned the moniker of "The Princess of Defensive Combat," by her peers, amongst other monikers.
But Sean wanted her to learn offensive fighting styles. Apparently "A future house head should know not just how to defend but also how to throw a punch." It wounded like a legit reason and Celeste would've believed him if not for the deliberate face full of dirt and minor to mid cuts and wounds she would get when sparring with her way-too-rough older brother, who laughed[spelled "cackled"] whenever she tried to fight back, only to get a faceful of said dirt and more soreness than she could physically heal herself from. Eventually, she realized that Sean was using these "training sessions" to release his anger and frustrations over not being named "heir" of House Luminaris.
Even during the sword practice sessions, Celeste found herself eating dirt, sweating more and often getting practice wood to the lip. It was humiliating and annoying.
It wasn't like she was all that bad at swordplay, either. She was a demigod, and, like most demigods, she had affinity with the way of the sword. It was just that Sean was the better swordsman, like pretty much in everything else.
Like the week before, the sparring sessions with Sean led late into the evening from midday, all the way to the dusk of noon. By the time Celeste was done sparring, the Sun could be seen over the horizon.
The Luminaris Estate was one of the many estates the Luminaris family owned from across the world; it just happens to be the most secure and biggest of them. It is a large, medieval-like house that slightly resembles a castle, built in cobblestone intricacies and beautiful gardens that adorned the front of the manor's yard. It had a drive-by parking at the entrance as a cobblestone bricking road leading to the streets below. Various guards from both the mortal world and the demigod world patrolled the grounds of the estate 24/7. The mortals used handguns and the armed Legacy guards had spears in-hand and shields strapped to their back as they patrolled.
No one was ever worried for the guards that were mortals seeing the very strangely armored individuals aiding them in security patrols around the estates seeing something out of place. This was because the Veil ensured no mortal can see divine influence in a given situation. That's why it was created — For keeping mortals from seeing divine and supernatural events, and given that Earth is full of them, it's a good thing, too.
In addition to highly trained guards, the estate itself was heavily warded in Olympian runes. No monsters would be dumb enough to go near the estate, lest of all, any hostile individual with ill-intent, or otherwise.
As Celeste finished her showered and cleaned herself, she put on some sweatpants and a sweater, and did her hair for the night, she looked in the mirror and saw her own reflection looking back: a 15 year old, with beautiful blond-white hair with pearl-colored white undertones and matching pearl-like eyes on olive white, smooth skin and a lean build.
She had managed to get the dirt off her face through strenuous scrubbing, thank the gods. She felt clean again, ever thankful. She didn't understand why she needed to be warrior if she was a healer at the core of her being, and a damn good one at that. Sure, she had offensive abilities like light manipulation and positive energy manipulation, which are pretty rare abilities in the cultivation world, that she inherited from both her family line and her godly parent, but she was perplexed why she needed to know offensive combat if she was already amongst or even the best healer in her family. And when one considers that House Luminaris made their way to becoming a Great House through their inherent family ability of healing and empathetic powers… Well, Celeste was reluctant in being the warrior she needed to become.
Her healing abilities that came with being a Luminaris were vastly more powerful than those of the already impressive members of House Luminaris, thanks to her mother being a primordial. It wasn't too far-fetched to say that she was the best in the family in that regard, and by far, too. And her mother being the goddess Hemera, known to be amongst the most powerful of the healing gods, Celeste guessed she had her to give her thanks to for her potential.
That said, she still couldn't heal her father of a strange sickness that he's recently acquired. It made her all the more worried that something may happen to him soon…
A sudden distant screech brought her out of her head, causing her to frown, as she heard a commotion outside the manor.
Quickly leaving the bathroom, Celeste followed a crowd of armed Legacy guards out the front door of the manor where her father and brother were busy looking at the sky and giving hurried orders.
Her father was a swole individual, built like a tank, with dirty blond hair and sky blue eyes, he was caucasian, and looked to be 42, but, considering legacies can be up to thousands of years old as they age many times slower than normal humans, there no way to really know how old he really was without asking him directly, and no one was insane enough to ask a house head of great noble family his age. He wore a white business shirt tucked below slacks and shiny dress shoes. He had a halbert in-hand that had a vanilla white, metallic shaft and a silver blade, both etched with intricate designs and runic writing, enchanting both the shaft and blade, the halbert's name is Brightdawn, and it was a high-level Cosmic-ranked weapon, belonging to their house for generations; it was currently soul-bound to the head of House Luminaris, Peter Luminaris.
Sean Luminaris, her brother, took after his dad, though he has his mom's cold blue eyes. He was a jock-ish build at 17 years old with caucasian skin and dirty blond hair. He wore blue jeans, and a white polo shirt with matching sneakers. He had the light leather armor from training still on and his great sword was still in-hand — Silver with a white hilt and intricate runes and designs etched into the majestic weapon. This great sword was a high-level Legendary-ranked weapon, named Judasbane.
The two were busy setting up a perimeter to see Celeste arriving, though for what, Celeste couldn't have been sure. Whatever monster was attacking must've been able to fly as they kept looking up, but Celeste had yet to see what was attacking her home.
"Dad? Sean? What's going on?" Celeste made her way over to them amiss guards rushing around, weapons and shields in hand at the command of Peter and Sean.
"A monster has breached the wardings," he father looked up at her. "It's been circling the estate for the last five or so minutes. We don't know what it is nor its intentions; we don;t even know what it wants. It hasn't attacked anyone yet, but we;re preparing for a worst case, just to be safe."
A sudden roar sounded to the right, and Celeste saw it.
Soaring high, descending slowly, the creature was nothing like Celeste had ever seen, it was perfectly blended to the night itself, making it slightly difficult for Celeste to see. What she did see had her gawking. It had wings twice the size of any bird of prey or Condor bird Celeste had ever seen, and the creature itself was big… Very big, she could tell from where she stood on the ground, maybe the size of a big cat, a lion, maybe. Celeste couldn't see much of anything else about the creature as it blended into the night pretty well and it was way to dark to see much.
"Sister, why don't you go inside? We wouldn't want the heiress of House Luminaris to get caught by a monster with no weapon on her, would we?" sneered Sean, eyeing Celeste with malice and amusement.
"Shut it, brother. I'll be just fine," Celeste shot back.
"You have no blade in and the battlefield is no place for a weaponless princess," Sean chuckled darkly, condescendingly.
Celeste was about to respond when the creature landed before them in all its glory.
"Is that… is thar a sphinx?" asked Sean, perplexed, slightly on edge.
"Not one I've ever seen… Perhaps its a new subspecies?" Peter said, eyeing the creature before turning to his men."Ready the spears! Prepare to throw them at my command!"
Celeste was entranced. The creature was beautiful, for lack of a better word. At least the size of a lion, with wings, and a sphinx's head, but it's body and eyes seemed different than any other sphinx she's read about. It's body was solid but also as dark as night itself, and seemed to radiate a shadowy smoke from it like an aura made corporal. Its eyes were like white flames as pale white as anything Celeste had ever seen. And there was something else…
"Ready!" Peter's voice began, readying their spears.
Celeste tilted her head, noticing something was on the creature's back…
"Aim!" Peter yelled, and the guards aimed their spears at the creature.
"Wait!" But before he could yell fire, Celeste stepped forward, between her father's men and the creature.
"Celeste, get out of the way!" snapped her father.
"Yes, sister, move!" sneered Sean.
"No, look closely at it," she pointed at the creature. "There's something wrong."
The others, perplexed, looked at the creature. Now that they could get a closer look at it, it was definitely the size of a lion, with a great wingspan and a mighty maw. On it;s back, three bodies lay unconscious it seemed, maybe even dead. Two boys, one girl. Two of the bodies Celeste immediately recognized as they were her friends, Achlys Keresa, of House Kerresa — A loyal noble, high-level house in the cultivation world — and Cimon Alexander Morpheus, of House Morpheus — The son of the god Hypnos, and the heir to House Morpheus, another powerful high-level noble house of the cultivation world. Celeste didn't recognize the second boy, but she was certain that he was with her friends for some reason.
Slowly, everyone lowered their weapons upon seeing the passengers on the beast. Gradually, the beast stopped growling defensively, as if sensing the change, but it still maintained its defensive stance, hunched and ready to take off at the most minut of aggression shown by Celeste or her family guards. It slowly stepped forward, and knelt, laying down the three passengers.
This action shocked the group of guards. They knew sphinxes were intelligent monsters, but they were never gentle like the one seen before them. They were used to guard key places in ancient ruins and places of treasures, as they are fiercely offensive. And yet this one is gently letting three passengers off its back, most likely seeking aid from legacies intent on killing it? This was unheard of.
Celeste was the first to break from her shock. She put her hands up, as she approached the creature slowly, showing it she meant it no harm and she wasn't armed. The creature let out a slight growl but let her approach the trio. When she reached them, she had to cover her mouth.
"Oh, gods," she exclaimed upon seeing their condition.
Peter and Sean exchanged looks. They weren't sure what she saw, but to exclaim to the gods as she had, it must have been troubling. But they couldn't join her. The creature made it clear that it would attack if they took any step forward with their weapons in hand.
"Sweety, what's wrong? What do you see?" Peter asked, eyeing the creature and his daughter back and forth. "What is it?"
"Quick! They need medical attention!" Celeste checked their pulses, thankful they were still breathing. "Help me carry them inside! Quickly!"
Peter wasn't sure what was going on, but he trusted his daughter whole-heartedly, immediately ordering his men to sheath their weapons and help lift whoever these three were and bring them to the house. The men immediately obeyed. They followed Peter and Sean and helped their leader carry the trio inside, each gasping at the condition of the children in question upon seeing them.
Some of them recognized Achlys and Cimon, but no one recognized the third individual, but they were in too much of a hurry to worry about them. As Peter and Sean helped the men carry the trio inside, they tried reaching for the third individual and the creature growled as someone reached for the pale-white haired boy.
"Must be his summons," realized Celeste out loud, noticing the creature wasn't letting anyone reach the boy without a growl. Celeste was able to do the lifting of this one, though.
"Never seen a summons like that thing before," Sean voiced his doubts.
"How do you explain the protective aggression, then, brother?" Celeste asked. "Come on, let's get them inside; bring the summons along, too. I doubt it'll let us bring in its master without its supervision."
"You want to let this beast into our house?" exclaimed Sean, in astonishment, eyeing his sister. "Can it even fit through the door?"
"This beast won't let us take its master without it," Celeste pointed out, pointing. "Besides, look."
As they made it to the threshold of the manor, the beast shrunk in size until it was proportionally the size of a dog.
Everyone was shocked to see this.
"Interesting…," Peter observed, as he set Cimon down on the coach in the living room and Sean set Achlys down on the next couch. "Let the summons in.:
As Celeste and a guard laid the third boy down, Celeste watched as the summoned creature began whining like a kicked pet, licling its master's face, as if to comfort his unconscious form.
It had Celeste mystified. Summons weren't supposed to be able to show empathy and intellect. They were oftentimes robotic in their actions, following their master's directions to the letter. And yet this one obviously has both. It seemed more like a familiar than a summons…
Celeste shook her head, gathering her thoughts and began to work on the third boy who had much greater injuries than her friends had. She began distributing orders to her father and her brother and the Luminaris guards. They may have been leaders in combat, but, when it came to healing others, that was Celeste's domain. They moved swiftly and without complaint.
"Gather our top healers and nurses!" Celeste ordered, her hands to the boy's chest, healing golden rays of light encircled her hands, as she began using her healing powers to heal a rib she sensed was broken. "Have them handle the other two injured. And be swift. We do not know the true extent of the damages they have acquired in whatever conflict they found themselves in. Their injuries shouldn't be as bad as this one's, from what I'm sensing. I sense head trauma on the girl and mid to minor wounds on the boy. They should be able to handle them just fine, but there's no telling when these injuries may worsen, so be quick!"
As if spurred by the words she said, Celeste watched as two of the gawking guards rushed deeper into the manor. By the time she had finished healing the rib cage on Corven, the other two healer nurses were already working on her friends. By this time, Celeste took a deep breath before continuing her tasks. The wounds on this boy were so severe, it was costing a lot of energy just to heal one part of his body.
"Daughter… Are you okay?" Peter asked, bring her a cup of nectordrop-mixed water for her to drink. "Here, drink this. It should help reinvigorate your mana."
"Thanks," Celeste took a sip, immediately feeling the life and mana energy she had expended to heal the boy's rib cage replenished. She then continued on her healing process, healing vital organs, her brow pinched in bewilderment and concentration. "Weird…".
"What's weird?" Sean asked, his eyebrow raised, curious.
"He had a rib injury, but it's strange," Celeste began, her brows furrowed. "His healing factor is incredible, even compared to me, the daughter of a primordial, he's healing just as fast — He's definitely a demigod, most likely of a powerful deity. He has incredibly dense soul energy, as well as life force energy. His mana isn't bad, but it doesn't look like he's cultivated a day in his life. It's almost as if he was born with incredible talent that's only now awakening.
"Yet, at the rate at which he;s healing, he should've been healed already. It's almost as if he was in a fight before whatever happened, happened. Maybe there was also outside factors to his healing factor, like how I can heal faster during daytime and in a lighted space; maybe he heals faster at night…
"I-I can say that he'll survive. His other injuries are mostly dwarfed by his exhaustion. Whatever the three of them were fighting was powerful, deadly and wanted to kill them."
Sean and Peter looked alarmed by Celeste's words and exchanged glances. Something seemed to pass through them before something metallic and black caught Peter's eye.
Tentatively, Peter reached out his outstretched hand to the boy's necklace, and almost gasped in either horror or shock, maybe both, as he recoiled backwards, and fell to his bum.
His children who had never seen their father act that way before, as he's always cool and collected, looked at the pendant on Corven's neck, curious, but they didn't recognize the symbol: A circular ring with wings either side of it.
"Father?" Celeste looked to her father as she finished healing Corven's head.
The two of them watched as Peter began breathing heavily before getting himself together.
"When he wakes, ask him what's his relation to House Umbrovante," he commanded, after gathering himself, and getting to his feet.
"I don't understand," Sean tried, looking to Corven before turning back to his father. "Is he an enemy?"
"If he is who I think he is, then we need to do our very best to make friends with him," Peter said, matter of factly. He then turned to Celeste. "When you are done healing him, put him in one of the spare rooms… The comfier ones."
Then, to his childrens' surprise, Peter quickly, almost staggeringly, left as if to get away as fast and as far as he can.
Sean and Celeste exchanged looks before Sean shrugged and went towards his room, leaving Celeste with two healers and a few burly guards of her house, and her own thoughts, as she did her job of healing a stranger to the best of her ability.
"Who are you?" she thought out loud to the sleeping boy. "And just what is House Umbrovante?"
Yet, despite her obliviousness, Celeste couldn't help nor shake the feeling that she had a connection to this boy — she could feel a sense of a mysterious connection to the boy, as if she could trust this stranger and he wouldn't let her down. It was strange, but not unwelcoming…