“What?” Gabbrielle asked nonchalantly.
Nita and Mira were both firmly locked in place, looking at the young chimera girl like she’d just said she had the cure for cancer.
“What do you mean he can still tell us?” Nita asked.
“Is sister joking with us?” said Mira.
Gabbrielle only gave her sister a pitying look. “You know I don’t understand humor.”
“T-Then how…?”
*Sigh.*
Sometimes, it was tough work to be the scholar of the family.
“Conditions to evolve are written on the souls of all natural born inhabitants of this world. Father has death magic and that means that he can control and manipulate souls.
Provided that he can read enochian, he should be able to see the writing inscribed on your souls or anyone else’s, provided that he is careful and does not destroy it on accident.”
If Abaddon mishandled the soul, he could just as easily erase it out of existence or cause damage to the memories and personality of the one he was trying to help.
It was a trick that would take quite a bit of time and concentration to master.
“Why haven’t you told father-in-law about this??”
“He didn’t ask?” Gabbrielle answered as if it was obvious.
“…Sister probably should have shared that information.” Mira said honestly.
The youngest princess merely shrugged and looked at the empty plate in front of her.
Picking it up cutely, she held it out in front of her while looking at Nita with large round eyes. “Can sister in law make more?”
“…Is that all that you care about?”
“At present, there is nothing else of greater concern so, yes.”
Nita sighed in defeat and stood up with both of the young princesses in her arms and carried them into the kitchen. “Alright, but can you promise not to eat them so fast this time?”
“No, I cannot.”
“I figured as much.”
“If sister-in-law is making muffins then can there also be cookies??” Mira begged.
In the end, Nita ended up baking two separate kinds of pastries for two gluttonous and adorable princesses.
Neither batch lasted a full twenty minutes.
–
In the backyard, the phoenix sisters Claire and Jasmine were lying side by side in the soft grass and staring up into the rich purple sky overhead.
How they had ended up like this was more instinctual than intentional, as both girls simply needed a bit of fresh air and a place to think freely.
“I didn’t really think that I would like coming here but… this place is so unfairly beautiful.” Jasmine said softly.
“It is… and everyone always seems so happy.”
“I almost don’t want to leave.”
“Then… what if we didn’t?” Claire suggested.
Jasmine suddenly sat up and looked at her sister like she was drunk.
“You know that we can’t do that… I will admit that this place is… special, but we don’t belong here.”
Claire fell silent for a long time and merely stared up at the myriad of colors in the sky.
“I didn’t sleep in my room last night… I went to see the prince.”
If this were a cartoon, Jasmine’s eyes would have leapt out of her skull from the sheer shock of her sister’s statement.
“You… did you give yourself to him…?”
The reddening of Claire’s cheeks and her unwillingness to speak was all the answer that her sister needed.
“You’re crazy… You know that mother has always told us that we must remain pure for our future betrothed!”
“I have already found mine…! And I will not be separated from him for any reason, nor will I be made to feel like I’ve made the wrong choice.”
“You’re being delusional…”
“I am being honest with my heart and my desires! If you would allow Thea to make you happy and stop rejecting her at every turn then you could be happy too!”
“I-I don’t like her, and there is nothing between us!” Jasmine’s high tone of voice and red cheeks made her lie all the more unconvincing.
“Now who’s being delusional? You can’t fool me, you’re just worried about how mother and elder brother will react!”
Claire’s words hurt Jasmine all the more because they were true.
As long as she had been alive, she had practically worshipped her mother just like all of their people.
Erica was powerful, beautiful, and she submitted to none under the sun, moon, or ocean.
She was the epitome of nobility, regality, and femininity.
Jasmine spent every day of her life trying to be like her mother, and cursing herself when she felt like she’d fallen short.
She wasn’t sure if falling in love with a woman would earn her mother’s disapproval, and the last thing Jasmine ever wanted was to earn her idol’s ire.
On the other hand, her elder brother had already proclaimed boldly that he had an interest in Thea, but he had been rejected by her all the same.
He was blindsided before when the girl he was crushing on started flirting with his sister, but if he found out the two of them actually entered a relationship, his reaction would be terrible.
If he couldn’t have something, why could she?
Be it a woman, a toy, or even the last treat on the tray, it made no real difference to him.
That was how he’d been ever since the three of them were kids, and it was how they would always be.
“…That’s low, Claire. I really wasn’t expecting that from you.”
Jasmine stormed off, clearly hurt by her sister’s words and a burning feeling spreading into her chest.
Before she could reach the manor, a pair of arms were wrapped around her and a familiar dainty frame was pressed against her back.
“I’m sorry… I know that wasn’t called for, but you should think of what will actually make you happy, instead of what the rest of our family would want for you.”
Even though she wanted to remain upset, her hand’s reflexively went to her sisters arms and held them in place.
“I don’t know when it started, but eventually she and Nita just got underneath my skin, you know? I feel like I’m going insane.”
“Far from it.” Claire said gently. “Your heart already knows what it wants, so now your mind is trying to come to the same accord.”
“…How do you know so much when you spend all of your time alone?”
“I-I read lots of romance novels I’ll have you know! A-And stuff like this is common in yuri stories!”
“Yuri? Are those the dirty novels that you used to hide under your bed?”
“S-Some of them! But they are more than just dirty stories! Yuri is love, yuri is life!”
“Are you acting like an idiot to make me feel better?”
“Is it working?”
“Little bit.”
“Then yes.”
The sisters finally showed some signs of reconciling, and they embraced each other without saying a single word.
It seemed like they were going to stay there for a while, but the sound of the door opening from the inside of the manor caused them to separate.
When Apophis stepped outside, Claire’s face immediately lit up and she greeted him warmly.
He returned her greeting in a bit of a distracted nature, and she was admittedly confused over such a dry reply.
When Thea stepped outside after her brother, Jasmine hid behind her sister’s back and tried not to throw up from sheer nervousness.
‘I-I’m not ready yet! I just made up my mind and now I’ve been thrown into this undesirable situation! The mother goddess is truly cruel!!’
“We wanted to talk to the two of you about something important, do you have a moment?” Apophis asked.
The phoenix girls glanced at each other in surprise before nodding in agreement.
They found their way to the picnic table located in the backyard and sat down side by side with each other.
Thea and Apophis were shifting in their seats every five seconds, and looked to be wrestling with some kind of internal struggle.
‘…You tell them…’ Thea said.
‘I can’t…’ Apophis denied.
‘Neither can I but we have to… they absolutely deserve to know.’
“Are the two of you having a telepathic conversation?” Claire suddenly asked.
Thea and Apophis flinched and lowered their heads a bit in defeat, confirming the young girl’s suspicions to be true.
“The two of you have been acting strangely ever since you’ve come out here and you’re starting to scare us.” Jasmine said.
“Are you kicking us out…?” Claire asked shakily.
“”No! Never!!””
“Then why are you two acting like this?”𝒪𝓋𝐥xt.𝗰𝔬𝔪
Since Thea was unable to even look at Jasmine, Apophis swallowed his fear and decided not to drag things out any longer.
“Our father… he is going to declare war on your lands in around two months time…”
“”WHAT??””
Both girls stood up from their seats out of undiluted shock, as this was the last thing that they ever expected to hear from the mouths of their loved ones.
“D-Did he find out about the incident with the guards??”
“Why can’t he be satisfied with the lives of those men and leave Renanin out of it??”
“This isn’t about that… if he doesn’t conquer your lands, he will not be able to grow further.”
“What are you talking about??”
Apophis didn’t know how much of his father’s special back ground he was allowed to reveal, so he limited his words.
He spoke only of his father’s struggle against the abyss, and his prior ability to see his evolution conditions.
The girls were rather smart and quick on the uptake, so it didn’t take long for them to get a glimpse at the full picture.
Jasmine’s face was like a blank slate of shock as she pleaded with Thea to look at her.
“You knew that you would be going to war with us this whole time…? Was everything so far just some kind of ploy to gain an inside advantage and-“
“Of course not!”
Thea finally lifted her head from the grown and revealed eyes that were already red and puffy.
“I have never said anything to you that I didn’t mean! I want to be with you a-and it has nothing to do with my father or anyone else!”
“How am I supposed to believe you when you’ve kept something like this from us?! Everything that comes out of your mouth is just one big illusion to mess with my head!”
“N-No, I promise that’s not true…”
No one had seen Thea cry ever since she was a child, and yet today tears were falling freely from her beautiful face, and she was powerless to stop them.
Claire wasn’t as stone faced as her sister, and as Apophis watched the girl that he had come to love cry, his heart felt like it was being torn into two.
“Why are you only just saying this now… Why did you not tell me this before we…?”
Internally, Apophis was feeling the most guilt from this scenario.
When Claire came to his room last night, he knew that he shouldn’t have taken her to bed when she had yet to learn everything.
But in a moment of poor judgement, he had accepted her anyway.
The lie he told himself was that he was swayed by her beauty and innocent nature, but the truth was much worse.
In the back of his mind, he knew that in sleeping with her he would be robbing her of something integral as a princess, and she would be unable to leave him.
It was a very insensitive decision born out of love, obsession, and paranoia.
He who usually always knew what to say or do, could not even form a sentence as he stared into the face of the first girl he had learned to love.
The vision of this day would never leave him for the rest of his life.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, a familiar dark portal opened up in the backyard behind the children.
When Thea and Apophis saw their father’s portal, their hearts dropped even lower.
They weren’t sure if his sudden appearance was about to make things better, or worse.