Brínea was distressed. She knew she shouldn't be listening to the conversation, feeling like it wasn't her business. Besides, the situation deeply saddened her, bringing back painful memories of when she was sold. Yet, she found herself unable to do anything; Pipi's hand still held hers. She made an effort to stay calm and avoid secreting poison, staying there while listening along with the others.
Her sisters, as Brínea referred to the other maids of the mansion, were seated in the long armchairs of the grand living room. Brínea was next to Pipi, the most playful and irresponsible of them all. Next to her was María, whom she considered the most serious sister, and next to María was Amelie, the most meddlesome and talkative of all, whose appearance, during the first days, Brínea confused with that of a young man.
The lizard maid glanced at the faces of her sisters, reflecting on their flaws and virtues to distract herself from the conversation that would surely sadden her. Her eyes landed on Narcisa, the loneliest of them all, who was sitting in the armchair across from hers. Narcisa wasn't very talkative and seemed to isolate herself, being the complete opposite of sister Amelie. However, Brínea noticed that Narcisa seemed more open and smiling when she was near Henry, leading her to think that perhaps she was only shy with her sisters.
Next to Narcisa was Cristina, the most presumptuous sister of all. She constantly claimed that she spent the most time with Henry, which annoyed the others. However, she had never shown herself like that with her, so Brínea only saw her as someone who wished to avoid loneliness and draw attention from the others.
Beside Cristina was Sara, who covered her eyes with both hands. The lizard girl considered her the most romantic sister of all, always sharing her dreams about Henry and fantasizing about being his princess while he was her prince. Brínea felt sorry for her; the other sisters, especially Amelie and Cristina, often mocked her dreams. Since Sara was younger than them, she found it difficult to defend herself. Nevertheless, Sara maintained a special bond with Brínea and Pipi; the three of them used to spend time together, chatting and playing board games. Being the youngest in the mansion, Brínea wondered if that was the reason they got along so well.
Beside her was Dalia, the smartest of all the sisters, easily identifiable by her maid outfit of a different color. While the others wore black dresses with white aprons and hems, hers stood out with a pink fabric and a white apron, as well as short sleeves that contrasted with the long sleeves worn by the other sisters. Dalia also acted as her personal teacher.
After spending a week in the mansion, Henry realized that she couldn't read, so he asked Dalia to instruct her in everything necessary. Although in the first lessons she used to fall asleep in the library due to the boredom caused by letters and mathematics, Dalia never scolded her. Instead, she made every effort to make the classes more fun every day, something Brínea greatly appreciated. Sometimes, she even looked forward to the afternoon to enjoy her lessons.
She glanced at the eighth sister, seated in the adjacent armchair to hers, noticing a small tear sliding down her teacher's face. It was Pando, known for being the toughest and strongest among all. When something needed to be lifted, like boxes or furniture, and none of them could do it, they always called her. She possessed immense strength, her masculine appearance and behavior making her more like a man than a woman. However, Brínea had witnessed how Pando smiled and adopted more feminine attitudes when talking to Henry. Still, she felt a certain fear towards her, even though Pando had never harmed her. There was something in her imposing appearance that intimidated her.
Her eyes lingered for a few seconds on the maid who had been crying inconsolably on the floor until a few minutes ago, Beatriz. The poor woman seemed to be on the verge of a new torrent of tears, Brínea reflected as she observed her hunched posture. She was sitting, staring at her legs, with her hands resting on them, as if trying to maintain her composure with her arms.
She didn't take long to divert her gaze towards Eliza, the maid who was the head of all, but whom her sisters referred to as 'mother'. However, Brínea refused to call her that; despite having been sold by her parents, she still loved and missed her real mother. Eliza maintained a worried look and seemed to be trying to keep a certain distance from her daughter, as if wanting to give her space on the large but crowded sofa.
Beside her was the most peculiar of all; her hair didn't follow the usual green pattern, but was red on one half and blue on the other, just like her eyes. She didn't wear flowers on her head and maintained a distant attitude, even towards Henry, which made him uncomfortable. The sisters seemed to avoid her, and she rarely spoke; Brínea had never heard her voice. However, Ceache always obeyed Henry, like the other maids, and wore a different uniform from the rest. She didn't wear a skirt, her clothes seemed to have a military influence, Brínea reflected. Also, she didn't help with the cleaning and spent her time in the library reading. She never left the mansion, so she dismissed the possibility of her being a bodyguard, since when Henry bought her, she wasn't present. Although Brínea, at first, considered her just another maid of the mansion. However, over time, she learned from the others and could no longer define her as part of the household, even though she obeyed like the others. After all, she had never lived in a mansion and there were many things she completely ignored.
Finally, she directed her gaze towards the direction everyone was paying attention to. In the armchair in front of Eliza and the others, Henry was sitting, next to the devilish lady, who held his hand tenderly. Since his arrival, this woman had always shown manners that suggested she had lived her whole life in a mansion, a stark contrast to Brínea, who had to learn intensely how to behave and still moved with a certain clumsiness. Why did he choose me alongside her? She wondered as she prepared to listen attentively to what that man who had granted her a new life had to say.
"I thought this moment would never come," murmured Henry, a faint whisper that resonated in the room, capturing everyone's attention as he took a moment to gather the courage necessary. A dense silence settled in the atmosphere; expectant gazes focused on him as he took a moment to gather the courage necessary. "I too have hidden many things, I'm not one to judge anyone, but I had to get her out of there, I couldn't leave her."
Eliza looked terrified, as if she knew what he was going to say, but had long forgotten it, buried in the depths of her unconsciousness and now emerging to the surface of her consciousness.
Pando turned to look at her mother, seeing tears streaming down her face. The strong and muscular woman resisted the urge to hug her, feeling that it was a struggle she had to face alone, and yet she too was on the verge of tears.
"That tree was named Elisheba, the mother Fidonia," Henry continued.
"Elisheba?" some murmured quietly.
Dalia and María, sharper than the others, discreetly turned towards Eliza, realizing what Henry meant. Meanwhile, the other sisters remained confused, waiting for their beloved Henry's next words.
"The tree fed by absorbing the energy of hundreds of thousands of flowers, planted by Fidonias in an endless cycle," he explained with a too sad look. "When the young drakontos arrived, they took him like any other wealthy client. That's what everyone thought, even he himself who had only come with the intention of getting employees for his mansion."
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By then, Brínea and Pipi still didn't understand what Henry meant, while the other sisters were already facing the whirlwind of emotions and thoughts that his words had unleashed.
"That tree whispered in the ear of the drakontos asking for help, he heard it and remembered the war, the destruction, and death. He approached the imposing tree and began to feel its thick and rough body, then an idea came to him..."
Pipi was the last to realize what Henry meant. Tears began to flow from her large eyes and Brínea couldn't help but feel bad, so she tried to release herself from her sister's grip, but she wasn't successful, as Pipi held her tighter and tighter. Finally, she gave up and the venom in liquid form began, little by little, to come out of her scaly salamander body.
"One night of the full moon, when there was no one else but the flowers as witnesses, that drakontos who had spent years trying to master a spell that tormented him for so long, finally decided who he would test what he had learned against..." He wiped away a tear running down his cheek.
Sargonas shuddered with it and approached Henry even closer to calm his restless heart.
"He stepped back a few steps from the huge living being, took a firm position on the ground, and with his hands outstretched towards it, he recited a word he would never forget," he brought both hands to his heart, trying to calm his agitation, and said, "Bentaro."
All the maids were perplexed, unable to understand the meaning of that word. However, Eliza, Ceache, and Sargonas were the only ones who reacted, as they knew Henry's story in depth. Sargonas held onto him tighter, while Eliza remained seated, holding back the urge to scream. Instead, Ceache stood up and walked towards Henry, leaving the sisters surprised, as they didn't expect such a reaction from the most introverted person in the group.
"So, it was you who sealed the great tree Elisheba," she leaned slightly to be at Henry's height. "There is no doubt that it is impulsive, something only the person I fell in love with would do."
Ceache took Henry by the back of the head and began to kiss him passionately. Beatriz started crying once again, the sisters began to murmur to each other, and Sargonas was in shock from the unexpected kiss. After several seconds, Ceache separated from him. She sat down as if nothing had happened and remained silent for the rest of the conversation, ignoring the looks of the others as if she didn't care what they thought of her.
Henry stood still, watching as the family he had built slowly crumbled. On the other hand, Brínea didn't want her new family to fall apart, so, with an innocent question and with scales dripping venom, she shouted at the top of her lungs:
"Is Beatriz really the master's daughter!?"
All turned to see her. The vast majority of the sisters also harbored those questions in their heads, but they didn't dare to ask, as they didn't want to doubt the words of their mother and nervous about their master.
"Yes," Eliza responded without hesitation. "After all, when we met in the flower shop-"
"That's not true!" Henry interrupted Eliza and continued. "We met on the Fidonias' plains!"
"That's not true!" Eliza countered angrily and added. "Furthermore, I was the one who took you to see Elisheba!"
Beatriz suddenly stood up, and with every step she took, the ground transformed under her feet: the grass grew and the ground cracked. Her skin acquired a brown tone, as if the texture and appearance were the bark of a tree.
"I have finally remembered everything," announced Beatriz with a different, cold and chilling voice, as she approached Henry. "My name is not Beatriz, I was never her daughter, and she is neither nor will she ever be my mother," she indicated, pointing at Eliza, and continued determinedly. "But all of you are my daughters, and he is the man who granted me a new life. I am Elisheba, the great mother Fidonia."
As she spoke, her body began to expand, growing both in size and height. Her eyes radiated a brightness akin to the sun itself. If she continued like this, she would soon hit the wooden ceiling.
"The spell, it's breaking!" Eleuteria shouted, full of fear.
None of the maids could believe what they were seeing, no one would have expected such an unexpected turn of events. Eliza and Henry trembled with fear. However, Ceache remained indifferent, looking from below at the huge tree that rose in the living room.
"I never lied!" Eliza shouted at Beatriz, exasperated, and continued. "I was on duty that night when I found Henry unconscious with a small seed in his hand. Furthermore, the tree was still standing, and there were no flowers planted around it. I assumed that seed could only have formed by sucking the life and magical energy from that unconscious man. I didn't know that mother had transformed into that seed and left an empty shell of bark."
With her hand full of viscous liquid, Brínea managed to free herself from Pipi's strong grip. She stood up and ran away scared, escaping from the place. Pipi was the only one who noticed and followed her to the grand hall, but she stumbled and fell to the ground.
"Sister!" Brínea shouted as she turned around after the crash.
However, she wasn't the only one who had fainted. All the maids, except for Eliza, barely standing, and Ceache, yawning with sleepiness.
"Teacher Dalia! What's going on!?" Brínea asked angrily, while making sure of her sister Pipi's well-being, who lay unconscious on the ground.
"I-it's absorbing our life energy... If it keeps growing, I fear we'll all die," Eliza replied with difficulty.
Henry was stunned, immobile, and with his eyes wide open, filled with terror. In contrast, the devil Eleuteria shook him to make him react, but he remained stuck to the ground, just like the tree that slowly made its way through the roof, dropping pieces of wood.
"You have to do something, sir!" Brínea shouted anxiously.
"T-this is my fault, if I hadn't spread the rumor that the master and Eleuteria were together, none of this would have happened," Pipi said with tears streaming down her face and falling onto the hands of the lizard girl holding her with both hands.
Brínea remembered the secret Pipi had confided in her. According to her, during a night when she was getting cleaning supplies, she had secretly seen a romantic moment between Henry and Eleuteria. What Brínea didn't know at that time was that Pipi hadn't kept that information just for her. The truth was that all the maids in the mansion were aware of that episode and commented on it in secret, always keeping that information away from Beatriz; who was no fool and was already aware of everything.
"Don't talk nonsense, it's not your fault," she said, wiping away tears with one hand while holding her head, but spilling, in the process, her venomous liquid all over her face. "Do something! I don't want to lose my family again!"
A rumble was heard when Beatriz broke through the roof. Her legs had disappeared, and now they were one; they had become a trunk. Henry reacted after Brínea's words and sprang into action.
"For your first time repeating my spell created just for you, it wasn't bad," Eleuteria told him, intertwining her fingers of her left hand with Henry's.
"Ceache! I want you to get all the girls out of the living room and take them to a safe place," Henry ordered.
Ceache made a strange salute and began to get all the sisters out. She started with Eliza, who collapsed, and before falling to the ground, was reached by Ceache in time. She took the sisters two by two with her super strength and deposited them carefully in a withered and dry garden, as if it had been abandoned a long time ago. The girls looked just like the poor flowers; their hair turned yellow and slowly fell off like dry leaves the flowers on their heads.
Finally, Ceache approached to attend to the door, as there was no one else available. She found two women and a young man with a suspicious appearance. The woman with white hair and eyes of different colors spoke first:
"Sorry for the interruption, we're looking for Henry Frank. I'm a fan of his books and I would like him to sign my favorite copy, The Mannequin," she said with a grin from ear to ear.
Ceache responded quickly:
"No Henry Frank lives here. If you don't leave soon, you'll have trouble."
She closed the double doors in their faces, without giving them a chance for more questions. As she walked away, she heard them arguing outside, but she didn't pay attention. She had unfinished business. When she reached the living room, she noticed an unusual silence.
She found Beatriz naked and asleep on the floor, while Henry and Sargonas were unconscious, holding hands.
"So, they joined forces to seal her again..." Ceache muttered, covering Beatriz with her dark blue coat. "I have to take care of this mess for the person I love and who gave me a new life."
Carefully, she lifted Henry and laid him on the couch. Then, she did the same procedure with Eleuteria. Finally, Ceache approached to pick up Beatriz from the floor and noticed that she was holding a tiny seed in her right hand.
"It seems that now you really are a father."