It only took Aperio a few strides before she had caught up to Caethya and slung her arm and a wing across her shoulders. She pulled her love a little closer to herself, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath as the Demigoddess wrapped her own arm around her waist.
"You really need to take better care of yourself," Caethya whispered as she leaned herself more heavily against Aperio. "If you don't, I will figure out a way to enforce rest hours for you."
"Are you sure you can do that?" Laelia asked as she stepped past the couple to open the door, shooing some members of the church away. "Trying to get her to do anything she doesn't want seems like a exercise in futility."
"It is not," Aperio said as she ducked through the door that connected Laelia's office to a rather inconspicuous-looking hallway. At one point or another, she would have to fix all the doors in her temple: having to duck through most of them was not something she should have to do in her own home. "People seemingly think that, however, and simply never ask. I am willing to do a lot for those I consider friends."
"She also knows that I am right," Caethya added with a small smile. It only lasted for a moment before her gaze landed on the Scion and her expression became relatively serious once more. "This is also true for you, however. You need to take breaks or you will break yourself, and none of us want that."
"Perhaps I should simply make a holiday that forbids anyone from working?" Aperio asked with her head tilted ever-so-slightly to the side. "Maybe I could even disable the System for that day."
Her attempts at humour were met with a laugh from both Caethya and Laelia but brought wide-eyed stares from the other mortals that still called her temple their home. Aperio tried her best to ignore them, holding onto her love a bit tighter and focusing on the pleasant calm her presence brought to further distract herself.
"Better not," Laelia said with a small sigh and shake of her head. "I doubt that would end well."
"It was merely a joke," Aperio said. Too many things relied on the System for her to just turn it off. If I can even do that. The System was a part of her in some weird way, and over the long course of her disappearance it had accrued quite a lot of damage.
"When will Ferio join us?" Caethya asked in an obvious attempt to shift the conversation. "Your words made it seem like she was ready to go."
The All-Mother offered a shrug at the words. Ferio had told her she would let her know when she was ready, and so far her daughter had not said anything more. "I do not know. She will come whenever she wishes to do so."
One of the mortals — perhaps even a follower — stepped closer to Aperio and extended a shaking hand. The All-Mother stopped and tilted her head before a minuscule amount of her mana flowed through the mortal, trying to see if anything was wrong with them. Much to her surprise, they were in perfect health, just a little excited going by the rapid beating of their heart and the shaking of their limbs.
"Yes?" she asked, and for the first time since she had returned to her temple she made an attempt to restrain her voice a little.
The mortal did not speak, their mouth simply opening and closing a few times as they tried and failed to formulate a response. Aperio removed her arm and wing from her love and lowered herself slightly so she did not loom over the obviously scared mortal. Very carefully, she extended her own hand and took the one they offered.
Not hurting them took a not insignificant amount of concentration on her part, as the mortal was weaker than most anyone Aperio had encountered recently. Almost like a child… That was all she could think of. They were like a small child, and she was some Dragon trying its best not to hurt the curious Human that had come to its lair.
"What do you wish to say?" she asked, tilted her head to the other side. Her hair spilled over her shoulders as she exaggerated the motion, and as Caethya immediately began running her fingers through the long silver strands to remove the ones caught on her ears Aperio found herself smiling slightly.
"I don't think they want to say anything," Laelia replied for the mortal. "Most of them have chosen to follow you, but your status as the All-Mother makes them think they would never get to see you again. Or at all, for some."
"This is my home," Aperio said, tilting her head to the other side, somewhat invalidating the effort of her love to stop her hair turning into a mess. "I was simply busy the last few… weeks?" It was a guess on her part. She did not really know how much time had passed since her return and something told her that even though a few weeks felt right, it was too little.
"More like a few months," Laelia said with a slight shake of her head. "Do you even have a sense of time left? When I first met you it was already… questionable."
Caethya laughed at the words, causing Aperio to turn her head and look. The Demigoddess waved her off as she took a breath. "I just realised that your lack of time perception is rubbing off on me, but I guess that is to be expected." She chuckled. "Watch out, Laelia, you too will fall to the ignorance of the All-Mother."
Her Scion raised her hands and put on a frightened face that would convince nobody, then shook her head as she stepped back, stating in a deadpan voice, "The mere idea terrifies me."
Aperio turned her gaze back to the mortal whose hand she still held. She let go, making sure that they did not hurt themselves as she did. "I hope your stay here has been pleasant," she said, trying her best to offer a calming smile. "If you require anything, do not hesitate to ask."
The mortal did not move, only nodding after someone behind them poked a finger in their back. They offered another small nod before their eyes went to their hand and a smile spread across their face. Aperio only raised a brow in response as she stood to her full height again and took Caethya's hand into her own.
"Why are they looking at their hand like that?" Aperio whispered, a touch of her magic ensuring that nobody but her love would hear the question.
Caethya chuckled. The musicality of her laughter had been happening a lot lately, and the All-Mother found herself hoping that the trend would continue. "They just touched the Creator of everything there is; to most mortals that is a once in a lifetime experience."
"I guess?" She tilted her head. "You never reacted like that, though."
"I never really felt in awe of you," Caethya said. "Not after I first met you, that is. I just... feel calm when I am with you. My thoughts are finally quiet enough for me to focus. Before you, that was something I had never felt before." She moved herself a little closer. "There was always a kind of fog on my mind, a mess of thoughts that moved from one thing to the next before I could do anything.
"It was exhausting," her love continued. She looked up, closed her eyes, and smiled. "But then I found you and there was this clarity, and this feeling in my stomach that I cannot quite describe. I trusted this feeling and it turned out to be correct." Caethya stood on her toes and placed a quick kiss on Aperio's cheek. "Now I know that the feeling I couldn't place was love, and I don't regret following it."
Aperio remained silent, her mind unable to come up with any sort of reply that would even come close to expressing how she felt. Luckily, she did not need words, and a thought was all the All-Mother needed to show her love how she felt; what she had felt when they first met.
Her experience was quite unlike what Caethya had described. She had feared that the blessing she had given her would twist her mind, force her to feel what she did for her because her magic was simply too strong to resist. That her mere presence would force her love to do things she did not want.
In the end, her worry had turned out to be unneeded. If anything, the blessing she had given her had made Caethya — and by extension Maria, and now Laelia — more resistant to the effects her mana had on everything. They all could still feel her emotions, Caethya more so than the rest, but it no longer seemed to influence them. Finally something good.
Her love's smile widened a little as she linked her arm with Aperio's, nudging her slightly so she would begin following Laelia again. The All-Mother obliged, starting to walk. While this was likely not the break Caethya had meant, the last few moments had meant more to Aperio than her love probably knew. Understanding why Caethya felt this way about her was doomed to be an exercise in futility, and neither did she really want to go there anymore.
For one reason or another, her usual hesitation was not present with Caethya. She could trust her love, and that knowledge alone brought Aperio a sense of comfort she could not put into words. Instead of trying, Aperio simply wrapped a wing around her love and pulled her closer.
She extended her other wing, tapping it against Laelia's back as it was out of reach for her arms. Once her Scion was looking at her, Aperio gestured to her side and a small flex of her mental muscles caused reality to twist itself apart, creating a portal to the House of Healing. That is where they had wanted to go, after all, and Aperio saw little reason to wander the streets of Ebenlowe for no reason. And I want to talk to Adam about his home world.
Figuring out how mortals lived — and maybe even thrived — without meddling deities was something that was of great interest to her. Perhaps it would be able to remove the last bit of doubt that mortals were always doomed to fall to greed from her mind. It was only a faint hope, sure, but it was still there and that is what counted in Aperio's mind.
Laelia only shook her head as she passed through the portal Aperio had made, mumbling something about restraint and common sense that the All-Mother did not quite understand. She was already restraining herself, and the portal was much easier to understand for a mortal than her simply disappearing the three of them.
Aperio simply shrugged, taking care to not move the wing she had wrapped around her love too much, before she passed through the portal with Caethya. She had contemplated saying something to the mortals that had still been looking at them but, in the end, she had decided against it. What Laelia had said made it seem like the less she interacted with them, the better.
The tear in reality closed behind Aperio without much fanfare, something that could not be said about the girl that was practically launching herself at the All-Mother. She untangled her arm from Caethya's and took a slight step backwards as she caught Brenia in an effort to soften the impact on the child.
"Hello," Aperio said as she adjusted her hold on the girl slightly in hopes of making it a little bit more comfortable. "Please do not jump at people, okay? You might hurt yourself."
Brenia looked at her mother, saying something in the language Aperio had still not learned despite telling herself she would. Another reason to talk to Adam. He came from an entirely different world and he had no problem understanding her, so something existed that did the translation for him. And if it existed, Aperio could have it. Probably.
"She is very sure that you would never hurt her," Laelia said, her voice filled with exasperation. She clearly was not happy with Brenia’s actions, but the All-Mother knew that her Scion valued her adopted daughter's happiness over the breaking of a social rule.
"Not on purpose," Aperio agreed, shifting her gaze back to Brenia. "But my skin breaks metal, and I can just walk through walls. I doubt her body is equally tough."
"Most definitely not," Laelia agreed. "She regularly gets paper cuts from turning pages too fast."
Caethya brushed her hand against Aperio's arm, a thought letting her know that she could take the girl accompanying the motion. "You wanted to talk to Adam, no?"
"I did," Aperio said, giving Brenia a smile before she carefully handed her over to her love. "Could you tell her that I will be back in a little while?"
"Of course," Caethya replied as she took Laelia's daughter and started walking towards a couch.
"Adam should be with… his teacher in the courtyard," Laelia said, causing Aperio to raise a brow.
She had spotted the man and the fallen God as soon as they had arrived, but it seemed that her Scion had gotten used to people not knowing about everything in their general vicinity. What a blessing. Aperio might have figured out a somewhat viable way to not know everything at all times, but what surrounded her was still always in her mind.
"I see them," she said. "Should I expect anything from Natio?"
"No," Laelia said, "he has been behaving remarkably well. He’s also a good teacher, for some reason."
"A pleasant surprise," the All-Mother said, her words not entirely truthful. "I guess I will observe their training for a bit." She looked at her love. "I am supposed to take a break, after all."
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Delightful chapter! Nice to see Aperio loosen up a bit; is that the first joke we've seen her make?
Not the first, but I think we are still below ten.
thanks for chapter.
TFTC!