The great spirit didn’t get the chance to argue, Insia’s mother Ember dragged him along while she and Thera chatted, enjoying the sort of small talk that Thera had originally expected upon meeting her friend’s parents while the girl looked around not only the city, but the gate and then Anailia too as they walked through it all, taking in the new sights with Rocky before they finally arrived at their destination.
She had no trouble letting herself into her family home, nor did she have any issue finding her father now that he was finally back from helping uncle Falk. She could hear him training around back and found him with not only Karly and Glob, the two summoned both looking exhausted from whatever he’d put them through, but her two aunts as well, with both the light and dark spirits playing their parts in trying to work the two into the best shape they could until as one they seemed to notice all of them, each whipping to their direction and rushing over, their students forgotten.
“So you really did it,” Lux asked Insedis, rage in her voice. Without even having to say it, it was obvious in the eyes of all the great spirits what Insia was, they could feel it in the girl’s mana in a way that the mortal half spirits, Thera and Seren didn’t give off, the fact that she was purely mana-based making the fact so much more distinct.
It was obvious that they all had a lot more to say too, each of them feeling murderous in a way that was making the great fire spirit shrink back, but in an effort to make sure Insia didn’t develop a poor idea of her newfound family from how they very much wanted to treat her father, Thera spoke up, trying to come across as positive.
“Everyone, it looks like Uncle Insedis has a daughter! Can you believe we haven’t met her yet? This is Insia. Insia, this is your uncle Abrus and aunts Lux and Funa! Let’s all try and make a good impression on each other, okay?”
The fact that she of all people was saying that forced the others to calm down given how well-known it was that she hated her uncle, with Lux again being the first to speak up.
“My, where are my manners? Hello sweetheart, it’s so nice to meet you. This all must feel pretty surprising I’d guess.”
“Um, a little,” Insia laughed.
“Of course it is. Why don’t we all head inside and chat for a bit? You can meet your other cousin too. The family sure is getting big.”
“Other cousin?” Insedis asked, getting a barely suppressed glare in return.
“A lot has happened while you’ve been avoiding everyone. We can talk about it later. Karly and Glob, you both get the rest of the day off it looks like.”
The two on the ground didn’t respond but their hearts were filled with gratitude for whatever it was that distracted the spirits.
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“Oh my gosh, aren’t you just the sweetest thing!” Pelenia gushed after being pulled from a meeting to be introduced with the rest of them, with she and Writ taking the task of watching and distracting Insia while letting her get acquainted with her far younger cousin while Thera, Ember, and the great spirits all spoke at the side, suppressing their rage enough that it wasn’t immediately clear just how badly they wanted to tear him apart.
“So you really did it,” Abrus almost snarled. “You actually had a child,”
“You already knew?”
“We suspected,” Funa clarified. “Which wouldn’t be bad by itself, if we didn’t also know why.”
“...Who gave it away?”
“Me,” Thera told him. “I overheard you all talking about it when I was younger. You really… Ember, do you know why he had a child with you?”
“Oh, I didn’t until a little after she was born,” The fairy said brightly. “When I said wanting to kill him was the most natural thing in the world, I meant it.”
“Dear-”
“Quiet you, the rest of us are talking.”
“So why are you still with him?” Thera asked. “It’s a bit late now, but I feel like it would have been a better choice to just abandon him and raise Insia without him.”
As it was, she still couldn’t imagine letting him anywhere near Insia if she could help it, she just needed to figure out a good way of making sure he never could again without breaking the girl’s heart. Killing him outright would be so much easier if the other great spirits helped but that was no longer on the table.
While thinking about that problem though, she got to be shocked by his answer.
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“I was wrong,” Insedis told them, hanging his head. “When she was born I explained things to Ember after realizing I couldn’t do it.”
“...What?”
“To be more accurate, he had an emotional breakdown,” Ember told them, seeming uncomfortably pleased as she remembered the result. “I wasn’t exactly thrilled, but the difference in mana meant I couldn’t kill him and he mellowed out significantly afterward so I let him stick around as a trial. Since it didn’t seem he was going to change his mind again there was no reason to throw him away.”
“Dear, I’ve been doing my best to make up for it,” He said meekly, forcing Thera to really look at her uncle.
In her youth, he’d always seemed over the top and boisterous, but not now. Now he came off as almost a shell of who he used to be, the pride and passion gone, to be replaced with his new, milder attitude.
“So you aren’t going to make her fight,” She asked to be sure, with Ember being the one to answer, laughing at the very thought.
“He’s barely comfortable letting her go around our home by herself. The big, mean spirit turned into such a softy the moment his daughter was born. Speaking of big, how long do you plan on staying like that?”
“Ah, sorry.”
Before their eyes, her uncle shrunk down, returning to the state she’d first seen him in and leaving them with the question of where to go from there.
She still didn’t like him but it seemed that Insia wasn’t actually in any danger while he was around so it reduced her more murderous impulses, so in theory things should have been fine, but she was still bothered by the whole situation.
“Well, it’s nice to hear you don’t want to kill me anymore. Infinite hells Abrus, when did your daughter become so scary? She takes after you a little too much when she’s mad.”
“Gave you a run for your money, did she?” He laughed, not expecting what Insedis said next.
“A run for my money? I genuinely thought I was going to die! It was horrifying!”
The answer shocked the other three spirits. They knew Thera was becoming very powerful by that point, but she still shouldn’t have reached such an extreme and they all gave her questioning looks which she unhappily explained.
“Unfortunately, he probably wasn’t going to die, the difference in our mana and overall skill is still too much. It does give me a goal to work towards though.”
She knew she was incredibly low in her mana, or at least incredibly low for herself, not a typical mage and while she felt like there were a few more things she could have tried, they probably wouldn’t have worked well enough to give her the kill she’d wanted.
Plus things wouldn’t have gone so well if he’d tried to fight back seriously from the start, but that just means I need to improve. I’ll need to grow my mana more and from there raise my non-affinity magic a bit and otherwise…
“Look, I apologized, can you please stop thinking about how to kill me in the future?”
“...And it looks like the top of the list for things to do is figure out how to not accidentally talk with my mana,” She muttered, with her family looking surprised.
“Wait, you were doing that, weren’t you?” Her father asked, sounding excited. “Not moving your lips at all! That’s wonderful, sweetheart!”
“It’s really not but I’ll work on it later. Okay, so Insedis, you’ve managed to become slightly less of an asshole over the years so I guess that’s good, but I at least have one more question for you. Are you the reason the other fairies don’t get along with your daughter?”
Depending on how he answered she was prepared to spend the rest of her mana to eat into his, just to try and scare him again, but it was Ember who explained, looking sad as she did.
“Ah, you could say it’s both our faults. Since you were surprised about him, I guess Insia hasn’t mentioned her race name?”
“No. Wouldn’t it just be fairy-spirit hybrid or something along those lines?”
“You’d think, but no. It’s great fire fairy, with her also possessing great fire fairy magic. Combined with how much more mana she has compared to the rest of us, it’s created a complicated situation where they don’t know how to interact with her.”
“What, why’s that a problem? Any fairies I’ve met that match my affinities seem to love me because of the power I have?”
“You could think of that as a difference in perspective. You seem like a fairy in some senses but you’re not a fairy. Insia is a fairy but she doesn’t seem like one. When the rest of our race are all equal in strength, the fact that she has so much mana and an innate level of skill that puts her above what any of the rest of us can do, it makes her seem scary to others.”
Thera clenched her teeth hearing that, not liking the answer, nor the fact that there wasn't some obvious solution to the girl’s loneliness. It was still something she couldn’t help with, even as her aunt took a far more optimistic perspective.
“Well, if she doesn’t get along with fairies you’ll just have to bring her here,” Lux basically ordered. “It looks like she has plenty of family, she can enjoy our company if no one else is willing to give her some.”
“I will… try to make sure I come with her every couple of weeks,” Insedis gave in. “You’re right, it would be good for her.”
“Then don’t be such a pain. We aren’t that far off, come by every other day at least. It would be good for Seren too if he gets to develop a nice relationship with his cousin.”
“I can’t come that much Lux, I have work to do too you know.”
“Then let her visit by herself,” Funa sighed. “Really, what’s the big deal?”
“The big deal? What if she gets lost? Not to mention that she has a true body. I don’t need to tell you what that means!”
She’s a potential ingredient for any unscrupulous individual.
If it weren’t for the fact that she and Ben had only just encountered someone attempting to use a person to make potions, she would have thought her uncle was being a bit too worried, but now she couldn’t say that. Even if the girl had an overwhelming level of fire magic to her name, Thera would be worried about her passing through the gate network by herself, but those same thoughts gave her an answer to work with.
“Okay, so we just need to make sure that she doesn’t have to go so far. Easy. Dad, come with me, we’ll be right back.”
Without waiting for an answer she pulled her father along and went back to the gate to grab the person who she knew would be able to put together a simple solution to her problems.