Interlude 4
“This is a good place to stop.” The Lord of Darkness spoke calmly with a warm reminiscent smile still on his face.
Amaranth set her pen down and rubbed her writing hand with her other one. “What about Mr. Nobody?” She questioned.
Isaac waved her off. “That was far more complicated than what I told you when you were little.” He explained and then nodded towards the door. “Besides, someone is here to see you.” His statement was punctuated by rapid small steps getting louder as they approached at what sounded like a sprint. The rapid steps suddenly tried to stop and a small weight impacted the door. The impact was followed by a little girl’s giggle and another set of footsteps became audible.
There were some muffled voices outside the door before Amaranth’s door was thrown open and a blur of cherry red hair and stone gray skin in a cherry red dress threw herself at the still seated Amaranth. “Sissy!” The little girl yelled while airborne.
Amaranth barely caught the little bundle of giggles and despite some of the wind getting knocked out of her she was glad that she wasn’t in her armor. “Oof.” Amaranth grunted at the impact. She turned the girl and sat her on her lap so they could look eye to eye. “Hello Celeste. I missed you.”
The little girl’s blazing red eyes widened slightly before falling along with her smile. “Did, did I do something wrong?” She asked meekly.
Amaranth looked at her sister with a confused look on her face. “No. I do not think so. Why?” She questioned and gently caressed the side of the little girl’s face.
“Mummy only calls me Celeste when I’m in trouble.” The little one said in a voice barely louder than a whisper.
Amaranth chuckled. “No silly, I called you Celeste because it is your name.” She tickled her sister’s sides and the little one started to squirm and kick while giggling. “Would you prefer if I only called you Cel?” She asked and stopped her tickling.
Little Celeste looked to think far too hard about her answer for a long moment. “No. It’s okay.” She eventually told her sister. “You can call me Celeste.”
Amaranth smiled brightly. “I thank you Lady Celeste for the honor.” She replied and bowed her head.
Celeste giggled and pushed her sister’s head back up by her forehead. “Are you done with helping daddy?” She asked with wide expectant eyes.
Amaranth wrinkled her nose and poked Celeste’s. “For now. We will have more to write later but we found a good place to stop.” She explained.
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“So you can play with me?” Celeste asked with ever widening eyes.
Amaranth chuckled and rose to her feet while transitioning Celeste from her lap to her hip. “For a little while. I still have work to do but we can play for a while.” She assured the little one. She looked up and saw her mother’s warm smile watching the two of them. “Hello mother.”
“Ama, you should visit more.” Lenna chastised but her warm smile never dimmed. “Don’t let your father hold you hostage for too long at a time.”
“I’m not holding her hostage.” Isaac replied with an amused smirk. “I can hold you hostage for a while though if Ama is going to watch Cel.”
“Father!” Amaranth snapped. “Celeste and I are right here. Go flirt somewhere else.”
Isaac rose to his feet and Lenna walked over to him. “Maybe I will.” He replied and an orb of shadows formed around the two of them before collapsing in on itself leaving only Amaranth and Celeste in the room.
It was then that Amaranth realized the precarious situation that she had just found herself in. “Let’s go to the yard to play Celeste.” She told her sister and left her office with haste. Once she was a few dozen steps away from the very flammable paper that she had just spent the last, far too many, days writing on she breathed a sigh of relief. “You are doing good Celeste. Your practice on keeping your fire inside is going very well.” She complimented the little inferno sitting on her hip.
“Thanks!” Celeste cheered. “Daddy’s been teaching me.” She explained. Isaac had been in two places at once the entire time that they were writing down his story. He had been teaching Celeste to control the absurd amount of fire power flowing through her mana pathways and recounting old conversations and battles with Amaranth without either daughter being any wiser of his split attention.
They were most of the way to the yard when Celeste looked like she had to sneeze. ‘Oh no.’ Amaranth thought. “Hold your breath Cele-” Her voice was cut off by an abrupt blast of fire in her face. It was hot enough that her defensive enchantment activated and a handful of dinner plate sized shards of reality formed to direct the flames away from her.
Celeste rubbed her nose and then noticed the reality shields. She looked around and saw the painting that had just burst into flames right next to them. “Oops.”
—
“Thanks for watching Cel.” Isaac said as he carefully received the sleeping phoenix in half elf skin.
Amaranth smiled as she took a step back after the trade off. “She only had one accident.” She explained but there was a very high probability that Isaac was already aware. “She fell asleep as soon as her hair turned gray, just like you said.”
Isaac nodded and shifted the sleeping bundle slightly. “She’s just like me; mana exhaustion only lasts a few seconds, just long enough for her to pass out.” He explained.
“I do have a question about her biology.” Amaranth began. “Why do her hair and eyes change color with how much mana she has in reserve?”
“As far as I can tell it is the simplest answer.” Isaac explained. “She only takes in red mana so that is the only color they could change to. As to the exact reason her hair and eyes can even change color? I doubt we’ll ever know.”
“So it really is just a magical mutation then?” Amaranth asked rhetorically.
“I think so.” Isaac replied. “We are going to go on a trip for the next few weeks, visit a few of our old battlefields with Cel. If you need anything, well, I’ll know.”
Amaranth nodded. “Alright. I’ll have Claus step up patrols while you are gone.” She responded.
“Thanks but that’s not necessary. My shadows do most of the work themselves anyway.” Isaac reminded her and then turned to leave. As he turned shadows reached up from the ground into the rough shape of a door. Amaranth felt the ludicrous amount of power flowing through Isaac as he reached his hand into the door and pulled to the side. A sliver opened up but what could be seen was not the other side of Amaranth’s yard but instead was Celeste’s bedroom. He walked through the opening, through the space only shadows reside in and was gone, without saying goodbye of course.
Amaranth stretched and headed back inside. She had a mountain of paperwork to handle, a husband to spend time with, and a new spell to make. She needed something to keep Celeste from torching another painting. “Well, looks like I will be busy until father returns for volume three. I wonder what he’ll name it?”