“Aena?”

          “Yes, Babar?”

          “Something’s been bugging me.”

          Oh, no. He ignored the cute nickname. Little Vel was over to the side working on making Blackie’s burn medication. Now that I knew what to look for, his movements were very stiff. He didn’t let it impact his carving or the paint job, but it was clear that it hurt more than he was willing to admit.

          “Oh? By the way, why don’t you make your own medication? Surely it would be faster?”

          “Didn’t you say that they were miners with explosives?”

          I shot my gaze to Vel, but he was immersed in his mixture and didn’t hear. Quickly, I evaluated the odds of lying my way through without getting caught.

          “I’ll fact check with the brat when he’s done.”

          Drat.

          “Well, my dear…” How the ever-living saints and great Lord above am I supposed to explain a “glass” heart plate that explodes when it comes into contact with fire? And water. And blood. Honestly, I’m just glad it doesn’t explode when in contact with air.

          “Well?”

          “…Remember the heart plate?”

          “…What the he-ck is that thing made of?”

          “It all started many years ago when my dear, beloved and very departed husband decided to make lemonade...”

          “On second thought, somethings should be left alone. Boy, why do I smell something burning?” A little brown head popped and stated swearing quietly. “Also, where is the pocket-sized powder keg?”

          “I’ll go find it…”

          “You lost your unaccompanied travel privileges.”

          “I’ll bring Vel!”

          “No.”

          “We can’t leave him alone! What of he gets something in his mouth and choaks when we aren’t here?”

          Vel, now paying attention, “I’m not a toddler.”     

          “He’s just a baby…”

          I watched Blackie weigh the two of us in his mind. The old, wise angel who had been living for centuries on her own, the one who fought wars and faced down entire armies with not but a single blade weapon with several blades, I who-

          “Velris, we’ll be back in a few hours, hopefully. Don’t wander too far from the cave and don’t mess with the forge or what’s in that sealed chest. It will probably eat you.” He patted Vel with trust in his eyes. The child on the other hand was staring at the chest that held Gemi with alarm.

          “He’s kidding. Gemi is very nice when you get to know him! Or it, they get rather moody at times, but she calms down when bathed in the blood of our enemies! It has been a while since we went out to hunt though…yes it would be best to keep him locked for now.”

          “…just… don’t open it.” Babaris patted Vel’s shoulder slower this time and let it rest there with a bit of pity. “We’ll be back in a few hours even if we can’t find it. We can always go out and look again later.”

          “…I’ll work on the medicine.” Vel drooped.

          “Good boy, he’ll need it when we get back.”

          “…Millenia go by and I spend barely an hour total in light, I spend a week with you and I’m burned to a crisp.”

          “I meant to ask, but when your skin gets brittle, does that mean it can shatter or crumble easy?”

          “…now that I think of it, is the safety of the world more important than my heath?”

          “When was the world’s safety in danger?”

          “Right, it was only my first-row seats for the world’s doom versus my health.”

          “It’s just me going out to find my third child’s heart plate, when was the world facing it’s inevitable impending doom?” The plate was rather dangerous, but odds were it was lodged in a tree or a mountainside somewhere. The odds of it exploding again were-

          The ground shook, loose stones fell from the cave. Outside a light flared, over shining the clear sunlight before a cloud swept through as though a tidal wave covered and engulfed the sky. A sharp, drilling whistle sounded for less than a second from what must have been miles away before an anticlimactic smack occurred right above our heads.

          Blackie and I looked up to see a small plate protruding out of our ceiling,

          “Look! Blackie, I found it! I told you it wouldn’t take long!”

          My smile was met with a very flat look, he was clearly still having problems moving his facial features. We were very close together, the child safely between us as we crouched on the floor. I pointed to it excitedly again, keeping my other hand around the shaking little one. Poor thing was startled.

          “It made its way back home!”

          He shifted his head to look at the plate before looking back at me.

          “…What exactly makes it explode?”

          “Water, fire, and blood as far as I know!”

          “How did you protect the bandits?”

          “…I saw it falling out of my pocket and moved them into a pile and set us a shield.”

          “If you had time to do all of that, why didn’t you grab it before it fell?”

          “Well, first of all. I did not know it would explode when it hit the fire.”

          “Mhm.”       

          “Second, I may have wanted to see what would happen.”

          “Yeah, that fits.”

          “Third, I wasn’t wearing gloves.”

          Vel shook more, we patted him gently.

          “Do you own anything else we should be aware of?”

          “Anything else…cool?”

          “Anything else that will eat us, kill us in our sleep, or will explode with very little warning and is highly unstable.”

          “…no?”

          “I do not believe you.

          There was a muffled sound that escaped from the child, worried we did a sort of half hug to hold him up. Finally, he burst into laughter.

          “Great, now the kid’s gone into shock.” He glared at me like this was somehow my fault.

          “No- no… I’m sorry…” Vel gasped between breaths. He held onto us both as tightly as his little body could manage. He was taller than I was, which wasn’t hard, but still shorter than Blackie, which was.

          Blackie lightly smacked me with his free hand on the back of my head and we waited for the child to calm down.