Chapter 61 – Little one

I look at the girl waving her hand in my direction, and I remember her image as she showed it to me some time ago. She looks exactly like I remember, and I'm not even sure what I remember of her. It's like... I remember my impression of her? That's the only way I can explain it.

She has quite a lot of Primordial Energy in her, though it's just a bit below one unit that would cause her to break through to the first rank, at least according to VOW. It feels a bit... messy? Varied? I can't exactly put it into words, because it's really weird, but I'm pretty sure it consists of various energies. Various affinities, maybe?

As I'm staring at her dumbly, not knowing what to make of my feelings and neither what to do, the girl waves her hand, beckoning me to her with a warm smile. Should I...?

"I'll... be back in a while." I mumble and let my Primordial Energy flow with the purpose to teleport me.

A moment later I find myself in a brightly lit white room with crimson lines decorating the otherwise mundane surfaces. I'm standing in the middle of it, while the person is more in the front, where the command deck and a long, round window is.

I turn to her, having teleported myself only in place, but not changing the direction I'm facing, and I freeze.

I look at the girl as she is smiling at me, and... I don't know.

"Hello, dear." She says, taking a step in my direction, and I nervously join my arms together before me without thinking and I feel something stinging my eyes.

I open my mouth to say something, but I don't let out a sound, I don't know what.

"Would you... would you mind if I called you my daughter?" I hear a hesitant voice and my head snaps upwards to finally look her into her eyes properly.

A pair of deep, bright, golden pupils looking at me with affection and with hesitance, like a pair of stars on her soft, white face, rounded by barely visible on the skin long white eyelashes.

Do I mind if she calls me her daughter? I don't mind it, I can tell it without thinking. I... want it. Why do I want it?

"I... why do I feel this way?" I mumble in response, unable to answer the way half of me really wants me to answer.

"Ah. You're a bit hung up on that, aren't you? Much more than I thought you would be." The girl muses. "Come, sit. I'll try to explain it as clearly as I can."

She waves her hand and I follow her out of the room, not registering anything around me and instead battling with my thoughts divided into two sides. One telling me to squeal happily and run up to the girl and embrace her like a toddler I probably am among Primordials, and another telling me it's completely unreasonable and unnatural to do that.

I'm instead staring at the girl and taking her looks in, because they are pretty peculiar, a fact some part of my mind seems to recognize as... my mom's. Holy shit, it's so weird.

She has short, soft, white fur over most of her visible skin, including her face, which looks kinda between a human face and a fox, uh, snout, and she has a pair of large, white fox ears on top of her head, plus a set of ten tails waving behind her as she walks. All white in color to my eyes, but each different to my magic sense, each representing an element, or maybe affinity going by VOW.

Damn, where my mind wanders now.

We arrive in another, smaller room, with two large seats on each side of a small tea table, and the girl sits in one of them, indicating me with a smile to sit across her. I do so, I sit in the seat, and stay silent, looking down at my hands and not knowing what to say.

"I will begin by explaining why you feel like you do, then I'll properly explain who I am, and then hopefully I will answer some other questions you must have." The girl starts. "Before all that though, I'm Shiva. Or that is the name I'm most often called with, because there are many more. When I was born, I was a Primordial, but that has changed a bit with time. I'll go back to that later. You, Helia, don't need to introduce yourself, for I've known about you for a long time." She pauses for a long while and sighs with a smile I see through my magic sense.

I notice a wave of some kind of supernatural energy as she waves her hand lightly and a tray with two cups of... something lightly steaming appear on the table, along with a plate with small cookies. Oh.

"Take a bite if you like." Shiva says with a smile and stays silent as I nod, taking the cup and smelling it, then take a sip.

It's... nice. A bit... tasteless, but in positive meaning, whatever it is. There's absolutely nothing I can complain about.

"Now, the reason for your feelings, to put short, is your Demonic Flame." The girl says and I look up at her in confusion.

Huh? Demonic Flame? How?

Hm.

...Like with Letty, when it was snuggling up to her?

Something on my face must have betrayed my thoughts as Shiva speaks a moment later with a small giggle.

"I think you already have a good idea what I'm talking about, but I'll explain it in more detail. Demonic Flame of a Primordial is a separate yet intrinsic part of your very essence. You wouldn't be far off comparing it to id, the concept of instinctual desires in your psyche, but it's much more than that. It's the intangible representation of your soul and mind, harboring every single one of your memories, thoughts, feelings, desires, strengths and weaknesses. Everything.

"Now don't take it like your previous life is sealed within, because that's not it. Demonic Flame is the core of your existence, in fact it is the superior part of it. So long as your Flame exists, you can regenerate your mind, body, and soul in the state your Flame remembers them." Shiva pauses for a while.

"How is that related to my feelings?" I ask quietly, unable to stop myself.

"I'm getting to that." She says with a smile, not impatient in the slightest. "You probably remember the description of your race from VOW, right? Star Demoness, of origin in collapsing star. That's the past your Flame holds, and that fundamentally is where your feelings stem from. Your Flame remembers the reason why the star you were collapsed and what shaped you into what you are now, essentially created you. It was me. You recognize this fact subconsciously, and hence you feel affection to me, though in completely different way than you do to Letty. I should also mention that because those feelings didn't have an outlet before, they are currently magnified greatly."

"...Okay." I mumble, trying not to get hung up on how ridiculous it sounds. "But... why did you collapse this star then? What did you do?"

"This is where we get to another part of my explanation, which is who I am." Shiva nods her head and looks at me with slight disapproval, but also kindness. "And remember, you were this star. Your Demonic Flame and the star are exactly as much you as this body you are in right now. What happened back then, was that a supermassive star, which was on the verge of collapsing and forming a black hole, effectively killing itself, was injected with Primordial Energy from me. I should probably mention that naturally stars are only filled with Astral Energy and are semi sentient, quite like plants.

"The Primordial Energy caused the star to change its nature fundamentally, and its collapse didn't create a black hole, instead birthing your Flame in place of the core that was there before. I won't be explaining the details, because there is no point and it would take too long, but in essence I saved the star from death, at the same time providing it with Primordial Energy and turning it into a Primordial. That's who you are now."

We both stay silent for a while till I ask a question that's been bugging me since the start of the explanation.

"But in that case, what was I doing in Zenon's body?"

Shiva sighs lightly and shakes her head. "To answer that, I'll need to go off tangent a bit. You see, creatures can be described in four basic ways. One is power, the lowest way. The Beholder below the island is a prime example of growth in this direction, but it's a way of brute strength, which won't take you far. The second is ability. You are the best example I have now, because with little power, you can achieve amazing things. The third, which is yet higher than ability in terms of it's... potential, is mind. I'm sure you understand that with very basic mind, for example that of an insect, you would never be able to do much even with great ability and power."

She pauses for a while, tilting her head. "This also means that an entity of much greater mind than yours would be hard, or even impossible for you to understand. This brings us to the fourth level... which might be hard to understand in itself for you. I'd call it presence, though it can't be accurately conveyed in this language. This is, well, you set out on this path when you got smacked on the head by one of the higher Rings..." Shiva's voice trails off and I raise my head in surprise.

"You mean... that message I received back on Abyssa?" I ask curiously.

"Well, yes. It was a message of pure meaning, mind to mind, without anything limiting it, but your low... level, let's say, in mind and presence made it impossible for you to understand this message properly. This brings us to the main point I'm making, which is who, or maybe what I am. You see, that message didn't come from me, as from the person sitting here, but from me, as from another mind in my collective consciousness. The easiest way for you to imagine me would be imagining a hive mind separated into multiple levels of minds, from the most basic, barely conscious ones, to those on such level that I, as the one sitting here, would get my brain fried if I tried to understand them."

"...I see." I mumble. I should have expected she wouldn't be simple, and that the message I received wasn't sent by her to have fun, but I didn't expect something like that. But it somehow... makes me happy? That my mom is so extraordinary? I... think so, though I can't make much sense of my feelings right now.

"The message you received was from the Third Ring, after limiting... itself, which is how I call the parts of me that are on the third level below the greatest of my minds in... let's say hierarchy, though I don't have any subservient or dependent relationships between my minds. I can't explain to you why she did as she did, what she wanted to achieve, or what was the reason she even did anything, because I, as the person sitting here, am on very similar level to you in all aspects and can't fully comprehend the actions of even seventh Rings, among eleven levels I have divided my existence into.

"Similarly to that message, going back to the previous topic, I can't explain to you what were the reasons and intentions of creating you as you are now or putting you in Zenon's body. I'm sorry about that, and I would have explained if I could, but there isn't anything I can do about it." She bows her head lightly, speaking apologetically. "You could try asking the higher Rings, but I doubt they would give you a clear answer."

"I... don't worry." I reply quickly, not wanting her to feel... apologetic. I think. "It's already... much more than I hoped for. I could have been left without any answer, after all." I say and stay silent for a moment. "Do you know how it affected me, at least? Both Zenon's body and the message."

"Hm. As for the body, then, well, what you have already experienced is basically all that matters. There might be some very slight changes to your soul, but nothing that matters in long term. What the Third Ring did though... it's much more important." Shiva sighs lightly and I notice her tails swishing behind her, maybe in agitation. "Basically, first she almost destroyed your soul, and subsequently healed it, effectively pushing the development of your soul by a couple thousand years." She says, looking at me with a wry smile, and I blink in surprise.

"Wait, you're suggesting the apology was for... oh." I cover my mouth reflexively, realizing something.

"Yup." Shiva nods her head with a giggle. "I am almost certain the apology was for the harm that came with intended damage, which she healed a moment later. The message could have been an excuse for all I know, but don't take it for granted. I have no idea what are the motivations of the Third Ring, and I won't even be trying to understand what and why it did. Though one thing I am quite sure of is that for some reason they judged you were too weak for what is to come."

"I see." I mumble. Huh. What is to come then?

"As for what exactly it did, was that it pushed your development along mind and presence axes greatly forward. Nowhere near enough to make your understanding of the world immediately different, but one effect you will definitely notice will be easier and more instinctual understanding of space and things connected to it, because that's what presence gives you in initial stage."

"Hm. Alright." I nod my head. Makes me concerned what the latter are if understanding of space is only initial, but well. Not like it matters to me now.

"Also, it might have slipped your mind, but you probably want to know about VOW, don't you?" Shiva asks and I look up at and nod vigorously.

Whatever happened to my body and to Letty is quite far from your ordinary experiences, no matter how one looks at it.

"Well, in that case there are three things I've to tell you. First is that Neva Ring Star, because that's how I call the world people are initially thrown into in VOW, is an artificial world created by my higher Rings, but it is as real as Gaia. As you can probably guess, I can't give you anything about the motivations of the higher Rings. Though I dare say it's supposed to be an experiment." Shiva tilts her head and stays silent for a moment.

"Second thing is that the people of Gaia and other worlds are sent there to train. That's a fact I'm certainly not going to deny, and as you have probably guessed, there will be mass transformations in a bit more than two months of Gaia's time. Essentially, what's going to happen is a wave of mana sweeping through whole worlds."

"Wait." I say in the small pause she makes. "You said worlds?"

"Yup." Shiva grins in response. "Every single star is a world. It's just that you won't see the barriers between them without appropriate senses."

"Oh." I only let out. I mean, it's pretty logical and almost obvious when you think about it, but I kinda didn't consider that possibility.

"The third thing," Shiva continues. "Despite the fact it's a sort of training world for you, you shouldn't treat Neva as a world where you can fool around. And I don't mean that people there are just as real, because you know that already, but what I mean is that you should be careful what and where you do."

"You mean other islands?"

"Yes, but not only. The Beholder on the downside of that island is only one of the least dangerous enemies you might encounter, especially if you travel around the islands or across fourth dimension, through spatial layers. Truth is that you won't die even if your soul gets destroyed, but you still should be careful, especially in places you don't know. So... stay safe dear, I would say." She finishes and I can almost hear the grin in her voice.

"Mhm." I nod my head, smiling wryly, and look up at Shiva, which immediately makes me drop my smile.

I look up at... at my mom.

I... I can't deny that. When she was speaking, I did one thing that told me what she said is correct. I looked at my Demonic Flame.

It is distinctly more lively than it is normally and it seems to be trying to stretch in Shiva's direction. It wants to hold her. I want to hold her, and I can't deny it, no matter how hard I try.

I feel my chest threatening to burst open as a sudden influx of feelings blooms and I abruptly stand up and run around the table, and throw my arms around the girl sitting in her seat with wide open eyes.

"I..." I begin and instantly feel tears stinging my eyes. "I... don't know yet what I want from you, but... but I want you to be my... mom." I say quickly, my voice thinning and becoming barely an emotional whisper by the end. "Even if not for the feelings I have because of my Flame, I want to have you, mom."

"I... alright." She says quietly. "I'm happy to have you, dear." She says and I feel the joy squeezing my chest and I hug her small, soft form tighter.

...

After I calmed down after my impromptu outburst, we have talked for a long while, and I got answers to quite a few questions I had unanswered. Though Shiva refused to explain to me things about mana or Primordial Energy that I didn't understand, because, quoting her, it's better to learn by yourself than rely on others.

Just about the only thing she told me was about dimensions, planes, worlds, realms, and related things.

So basically, first there are planes. There is a hell lot of them, but the point is that they have no bounds. They exist everywhere, and it's impossible to exit out of planes, however weird it sounds, at most you can travel from one to another. Each plane is divided into layers in one dimension up, because there are not only three dimensional universes out there, and for example that strange mostly empty place I arrived in when travelling across fourth dimension to Letty was another layer. Now I know it was quite the roundabout way, and that it was incredibly dangerous, because if the layer's laws made it impossible for matter to exist, I'd die.

Anyway, going further, Universes are strewn around those planes, sometimes crossing to more than one of them, but always encompassing all the layers of the plane they are on, with Abyss between them. Their content is Void, worlds, and realms. Basically, worlds are created around massive semi-sentient magical objects such as stars, while realms are in essence the same, but hidden in separate pocket dimensions, or incomplete layers, however you call them, and normally impossible to enter without spatial magic.

That was Shiva's explanation when I asked for clarification on worlds. Not immediately useful, but it cleaned up bits of my knowledge.

And now we're sitting across each other again and continuing to talk about some lighter topics.

"I wanted to ask earlier, but why do you have no horns?" I ask curiously. "Because you are a Primordial, right? I was under the impression they all have horns."

"Hm, yes, normally all Primordials have horns. They signify the strength of an individual. Technically I am a Primordial as well, but that's not exactly true. This body was created from scratch by one of the higher Rings, so it doesn't adhere to some rules that apply to Primordials. I guess you could call me here an artificial Primordial." Shiva explains with a smile, playing with her tails.

"I see." I nod my head. "What are Primordials even?"

"Hm." Shiva tilts her head to the side with a thoughtful expression. "Short answer is that a Primordial is a being bearing a Demonic Flame, but I guess you're looking for something more." I nod. "I won't tell you much, largely because I don't know it myself that well, but Primordials are the technically the closest you can get to a perfect entity. They are overseers of universes and planes, sort of."

"Sort of?" I ask with a frown in the small pause she makes.

"Well, that was the role they took upon themselves, but with time it shifted more to observers than overseers. Currently the few that are still active serve as a reminder that there is someone stronger, basically. You could say they have no role, and you wouldn't really be wrong."

"Ah. What about my power, then? Because it's... quite unreal." I ask curiously, thinking back to the ease I did basically everything with.

"That's a good question." Shiva smiles and giggles, looking at me. "You are the pinnacle of power among Primordials, not because of your strength or anything, but because of what is disguised as Energy affinity." She raises her eyebrows, looking into my eyes.

"...What is it?" I ask finally.

"To put simply, reality manipulation." Huh. "Yours is really powerful, by the way, and I don't think you will ever find a person with greater manipulation than yourself anytime soon. It's arguably a really stupid thing to give you by the higher Rings, but who am I to question them." Shiva smirks and I frown again.

"What do you mean?"

"Basically, you have resemblance of human mentality and power of God. And I mean God, not a god. That combination rarely ends well, since humans developed with very little power. I don't want to suggest anything, but be careful with your actions." The girl says calmly and I blink in surprise.

"...Okay." I nod slowly. "How does this... reality manipulation work?"

"Hm. It's somewhat... simple and complicated at the same time." Shiva muses. "Similar to how matter affects space passively, you can affect your surroundings. So long as your intention and power are strong and clear enough, you can affect matter, movement, energy in broad meaning, even laws. For simplicity you can describe it as changing reality with your thoughts, though it's not exactly accurate." She sits up straighter and looks at me seriously. "What I want you to remember, is that reality manipulation has fundamentally no limits, including in the harm it can do."

"Ah. Okay, I'll remember it." I nod my head, thinking intensely. Doesn't that sound ominous. "By the way, if we're talking about powers, what about Letty? Her race, Deus Ex Machina, and her Nihility."

"Ah." Shiva lets out and smiles wryly. "That is an... interesting subject. Both of those, actually I'll answer about Nihility first since it's much shorter. To put it simply, Nihility is nothing, it is the lack of something, up to and including reality. But, just like void can be contained and exhibits certain behavior as it interacts with matter, Nihility can be controlled and can interact with what exists."

"...So it's somewhat like an object that has zero mass, zero energy, zero everything, but can interact with matter?" Normally if something has zero electric charge, it can't interact with electric charges... but I guess that even void has some ground energy, which is above zero... Hm.

"That's right. The details are obviously much more complicated than that, and I'll leave them for her to discover, but that's the gist. As for the other thing..." She pauses. "Honestly, I can't tell you much because it was done by higher Rings and before I was born, but what I know should be enough. Deus ex Machina is a rather misleading name, considering what it means in Earth's Latin. You could say it's a pun by higher Rings. You see, Deus ex Machina is basically an attempt to create a dynamic soul, which, initially, was supposed to become a soul of a god by itself in a process analogous to how a program becomes self-aware. Letty's soul is not slowly developing and perfecting like yours, but prone to change, restructure, and improve itself, and she herself will be gaining a large degree of control over it with time."

"What does it mean for her?" I ask curiously.

"Hm. Not much, honestly. It's... I don't want to say a failed attempt, because it's not failed, but the result is a bit off from what was intended. Basically she will be able to guide the growth of her soul by herself and dynamically adjust it to suit her needs at the moment. I can't tell you much, because it's for her to discover, and I don't know much more." She pauses for a while.

"What about manipulating her soul? What does it... do?" I ask, frowning lightly. Not like I'm well versed on the subject, but that doesn't exactly sound safe.

"Hm. If you're worried about safety, then you have nothing to worry about. Her soul basically grants her intuitive and incredibly advanced soul manipulation, which can be used for too many things to list them all. Some of them include creating talents and abilities, and the most important for you at the moment is manipulating her body. In essence Letty's body is adjusting itself to match her soul, and the same goes for her Nihility, because that's essentially what she does when using Nihility. You remember how she told you that the only thing that matters is result when she uses Nihility? She basically shapes soul matter into the result, and Nihility achieves it by itself."

"...Okay." I nod my head. That's even more than I was hoping for. "You mentioned talents and abilities, right? That reminds me, what about VOW? I mean, what are the talents and abilities there?" I ask curiously.

"Ah, right. I haven't explained that yet." Shiva nods her head thoughtfully. "Alright. So, basically, the whole system of VOW, bar the abilities, is only there for convenience. It doesn't serve any important function. For example stats, where the numbers are only numerical representation of certain characteristics of body or soul. Abilities are slightly different though."

"How so?" That already sounds interesting.

"Well, for one, they are one of two parts of the system, the other being Spirit Marks, that actually does something. You see, every soul has something I call talent frame. Basically, this part grows along the development of the soul, and with some luck might birth some abilities. A good example would be Elisora from the Inquisition you've met recently, who has developed advanced lava Affinity. It's basically a construct in the talent frame that converts her own mana into that with lava Affinity and allows her to control it."

"I see." I nod my head thoughtfully. "And I assume the abilities Wayfarers have are related to the talent frames?"

"Yup, exactly." Shiva nods with a smile. "The system manipulates the talent frame to allow the use of the abilities. One thing I should point out is that abilities like lava manipulation are very rare. Much more common ones are very simple, like coating your body in flames. Quite many of them are almost useless as well."

"Okay." I nod. It's actually really simple if you explain it this way. "What about Spirit Marks? Because you mentioned them a moment ago."

"They are anchors that allow Wayfarers to return to Neva. And I should mention that it's absolutely possible to interact with them from Neva, so please refrain from leaving them in the open. Not like hiding it would stop a dedicated mage, but still."

"You mean..." I blink in surprise. "Someone can destroy it or something?"

"Well, destroy... not really. One would need really high level of soul magic or soul manipulation for that, and there is no one like that there. But it's a comparatively simple matter to uproot the mark and move it, or to see the connection between the mark and the person and follow it. Well, or build a cage around the mark, if we're on it."

"I see. So the people on Gaia aren't very safe, are they?"

"Well, depends how you look at it." Shiva shrugs. "If there are mages strong enough to do something to the mark, they are also strong enough to do it to the person instead of going through the mark."

"...Right."

"But don't concern yourself with that!" Shiva shifts in her seat and reassures me in lively voice. "Such beings could be counted on two hands on whole Neva Ring, and I doubt you'll run into any of them soon. And speaking about time, I made a small time dilation around this ship, which you will definitely notice if you look around, so that Letty won't wait long enough for you, but you still shouldn't linger." I blink in surprise. Wow, that's a smooth change of topic. "We'll meet again soon, and I'll take you to my hell then."

I blink in surprise at the second revelation. I mean, time dilation isn't anything particularly spectacular, and I welcome it with open arms, but... "To hell? Like where?" I ask with furrowed eyebrows.

"Ah. Should have explained earlier." Shiva mumbles, deflating a bit, but regains her vigor a moment later. "Hell, or hell realm, is basically how we call artificial worlds created by Primordials for them to live in. I also have one. Well, I have more than one, but I could take you to where I live."

"Oh, okay. That reminds me, about Vulcan, what are the Hellcarvers? Because I felt something strange when I was talking to him, and the name suggests there is a connection." I ask curiously.

"Mhm, there is, though don't bet on words in such cases. A language can convey only so much, which is also the reason why Primordials are referred to as Demons. Just like Mazoku, Yokai, Miasmatic beings, and many others." Shiva leans back in her seat. "But yes, Hellcarvers are closely related to Primordials. They are the results of my attempts at creating servants to maintain hell realms. Are you worried about potential effects on his and your minds?"

"Well, you can put it this way." I nod. "It wasn't intrusive or anything, but I found it strange."

"Yeah, that's how I designed it." The girl smiles lightly. "To put short, Hellcarvers will feel gentle compulsion to follow Primordial's orders, and Primordials will be nudged to treat them well and make use of their abilities. But it's very light and you can ignore it entirely if you realize it's there."

"I see. That's reassuring." I wasn't very worried about that personally, but I'll need to explain it to him properly.

"Well, anyway, you should go. Before you do though, I want to ask you one thing. You don't have to give me an answer now."

"Yes?" I perk up, sensing this is going to be a serious question.

"Who do you want me to be?" She asks as she tilts her head with a smile and I freeze for a long while. "You don't have to tell me now if you want more time to think about it. Neither of us will be going anywhere in tens of years, I assume."

I shake my head at that, feeling conflicting emotions in my chest and yet certain I don't want to put it off. It's not a question I can leave hanging. "I..." I start, looking up at Shiva as she sits there with a soft smile, waiting patiently. "I want you just to be my mom." I mumble. "I mean, I don't think I want to specify it more? I'm not sure myself... but, um, yeah." I look to the side with kinda golden cheeks.

"That's a good answer like any other." Shiva stands up with a smile and walks up to me, and pulls me up before I'm able to react. "Thanks for telling me. I'll remember it, and hopefully I'll live up to your expectations." I glance at her and see her with a massive, happy grin on her face, which causes my face to mirror her involuntarily.

"For now, you should go back to Letty. I'm sure she's worried. I'll contact you when I'll be able to take you two to my hell later, okay? Because I'm not sure when I'll have enough time."

"Oh, okay, yeah. I'll be going." I mumble, suddenly assaulted by a feeling of reluctance, and I catch myself holing onto Shiva's arm. Mmm.

But I focus on searching for the ship nevertheless. "You won't be coming, the way you phrased it?" I ask her.

"No, sorry. Very few of my minds are free, and I similarly have business to attend to. I probably wouldn't even come here if it wasn't conveniently on the way to where I'm going, and I'm pretty short on time. I'm sure I could make some, but I'd rather talk with you more in peace and without anything else on my mind." She shakes her head lightly. "You can give your family my regards instead." She grins and I glance at her, and rush forward and hug her tightly as a sudden influx of feelings blooms in my chest.

"You're also my family." I mumble to Shiva's surprised face and her face splits into a huge smile again.

"Well, my words still stand." She replies, raising her hand and patting my head lightly, making me purr involuntarily. "Go now, they're waiting for you."

"Mhm. See you later." I mumble, separating from Shiva... from my mom. Gosh, it's an amazing feeling to have a mom like her. Not that I've experience in that regard, but it's like... I just feel warm with her. I give her another squeeze, making her giggle as I separate again, and teleport back to the ship next to Letty.

And I instantly hug her tightly to reassure her. "I'm back, Letty. Everything's alright." I say quickly into her ear and she whirls around in my arms and wraps her own around me, burying her face in my shoulder.

"Helia! Don't go off just like that!" She accuses me quietly and I feel a little pang in my chest as I see her slightly teary expression.

"Mhm, I'm sorry." I hold her tight and I gently caress her back. "I'll try not to. But, in my defense, I had a very good reason."

"What is it?" Letty asks curiously, though not without a small glare, as she looks up at me.

"I met my mom. Like, my Demon mom. That will probably sound like an excuse, and it kinda is... but, uh, I didn't want to introduce you two when I didn't even really know her, so... yeah. Sorry about that." I reply and giggle happily when my girlfriend sucks in a deep breath of air in surprise. "But I know her now, and she answered a lot of my questions, so you'll definitely meet her the next time there's a chance."