Not even an hour later, there’s another knock.

Thankfully Asterius is downstairs and is quick enough to sidestep in front of the growling demon, gently putting his hands on his shoulders and pushing him back.

Cadeyrn looks like he’s one wrong breath away from storming down the door, but he still eases backward, though he’s definitely not happy about it. “Let me answer the door.”

“No,” Asterius says firmly, shaking his head, “that will only cause more problems.”

“But what if he-,”

He cuts Cadeyrn off, “Solvieg isn’t stupid enough to start an internal war of the heavens.” And he believes it, Solvieg might be a temperamental pain, but he’s not a fool, “it will be alright.”

With a poof of feathers, Pluma shifts into his humanoid form, golden curls bouncing as he runs up next to him, “I can answer the door master!” he says, excitedly raising his hand like they are in school, “and I’ll give him a piece of my mind too! Make him stop being mean to master!”

“Pluma please,” he begs, not ready to deal with any of this right now.

The System blinks next to him, a little red at the edges, [Host careful.]

He quickly adjusts, switching his tone from tired to stern, “I can handle this myself.”

For some reason, that reassurance only seems to make both frown harder. He’s about to try again and hopefully actually settle them this time, but there’s another knock, harder and more insistent this time.

“Stay here,” he pleads, giving them both a hard stare, “I’ll see what he wants.”

“Just don’t open the door!” Pluma protests, latching onto Asteriu's arm like an overexcited kola and trailing behind despite what he just said, “Master doesn’t have to keep being nice to him!”

“HEY!” someone shouts from outside, “OPEN THE DOOR SPINSTER!”

They all pause as the words slowly register, but the most startling thing is not the demand but the notably feminine voice that is yelling them.

“Oh,” Pluma says, slowly slipping his hand off Asterius’s arm. “It’s her,” And he almost seems happy about it.

Asterius would like to agree, while he didn’t really want to talk to Vae (and think about why the system didn’t recognize her as a character), she wasn’t Solveig. Which already made her 10X better than the only other guest he’s had so far.

“HELLO?!”

“Ah coming-,” and he quickly takes the last few steps to the door, pulling it open. Vae is standing there with her arms crossed, glaring up at him with an annoyed frown. He can’t help the smile he gives back, it feels good to see her, even if she brings a mountain of questions along with her. She at least isn’t going to almost kill any of them (well he doesn’t think she will).

She quickly scans him up and down, eyes catching and lingering on the torn sleeve of his robe and the stark white bandage underneath. He shifts slightly, moving his arm behind his back, “Need something Vae?”

She startles, looking up at him with her large silver eyes.

He panics slightly. Were they not close enough to be on a first-name basis? Did he step too far? But his worries are erased when she smiles back, a truly happy thing despite her role as the Muse of Tragedy. “Just wanted to annoy you is all.” She glances around briefly, scanning the inside of the house, whatever she was looking for she doesn’t seem to find as she nods. “Is that Star Jasmine tea I smell?”

'Was it?' Asterius had no idea. He wasn’t even aware that the table was still set for tea, had mostly spent the last few minutes trying to wrangle down a fuming seraphim, while also having to stand still enough for Cadeyrn to bandage up his wound.

He knows he’s supposed to say something, so he once again talks before his brain or the System can veto the sentence, “It’s gone cold.”

‘Really?’ he scolds his own brain, ‘couldn’t think of anything better than that?’

Despite the dismissive statement Vae snickers, giving him a wide grin that shows off her too-white teeth, “It’s alright.” She says, humming a single high note, and with a twirl of her hand a small purple satchel appears in her palm, “I brought some tea of my own to share.”

‘Is it national tea day in the heavens?’ he thinks, confused as to why both Vae and Solveig decided to show up with tea. Either way, he steps aside letting her in.

Pluma huffs, giving Vae an annoyed side eye, before with a long sigh he shifts back into his griffin form. Cadeyrn hesitates a moment before stepping forward, giving a brief nod of respect towards the Muse of Tragedy before taking the offered tea and returning once more to the kitchen.

Vea’s eyes slip over to the angel watching them like a hawk from a nearby chair. She makes a gesture over her shoulder towards the kitchen.

Pluma huffs, making a show of ruffling his feathers, “I can listen in.”

Sensing the rising tension and deciding he’s had enough of that today, he gives the little seraphim a look, “Go join Cadeyrn. I’ll be there in a moment.”

Pluma pouts, flying extra slowly towards the kitchen, sending them a few pitiful puppy dog eyes. Asterius’s resolve wavers, but Vae huffs, and catching her deathly glare, he shakes his head no. Realizing that his begging isn’t going to work, he grumbles his way into the kitchen.

Vae turns to him suddenly, smile dropping. Asterius’s back tenses at the sudden oppressive force in the room. Vae’s form is flickering slightly, her True Form leaking out of her edges. Asterius is pretty sure she’s not doing it on purpose.

“I saw Solveig,” she announces without any warning, squaring her shoulders and placing her hands on her hips, watching his face intently, “his entire body was burning with his scarlet flames, I’ve never seen him that angry.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Asterius flinches at the stare, adjusting his stance again to slip his arm behind him, hiding the bandage from view, “it was a minor argument.”

“Asterius you-,” Vae heaves a deep sigh, and slowly the pressure eases as she becomes easier to look at, her Vessel Form properly holding her divinity again. “I don’t understand you at all. You’re the most powerful god in all of the Celestia right now and you let everyone treat you like this. I know you don’t want to be friends-,” and she cuts herself off with a cough, pointedly looking away, “and fine. Whatever I don’t need you as a friend either but-,” she lets out a frustrated hiss, shoulder’s sagging. “That is what we are though right?” she asks staring down at the floor, “I know you don’t really do this, and you have your stupid loner reputation and everything, but we are friends. Even if don’t want us to be.”

Guilt floods every inch of his bones. Honesty leaks from her words, along with an open hurt. This Vae is so confusing, she’s like a mirror from the Vae he remembers, almost exactly the same except for a few glaring imperfections. She’s just as brash, but there is a new kindness to her, along with deep pain.

Asterius doesn’t know what the past him did to earn such a friend (nor what he did to ruin their relationship so much it was never spoken of again), but he would be more than stupid to turn away the only person who could be his friend. Honestly, he’s a little annoyed at himself for not thinking of it earlier, but as Vae wasn’t affected by the system, he can actually be himself around her without worrying about being OOC.

He glances around, neither Cadeyrn nor Pluma is here, there’s no one to act for. He sighs, letting his own shoulders slump. He feels like a house of cards balanced on a ship’s deck, or a Jenga tower one block away from collapsing.

“I can’t tell him what he wants to know,” he admits, staring down at his hands, letting himself slip a tiny bit into the weave so that the silver threads flash briefly. Neither of them miss the intricate silvery rope that loops between the two of them. Even if the OG never let them say they were friends, this was the hard proof that they were, still are? Could he even say that knowing he's not the same person?

“The next Royal Sun,” Vae quickly catches on, dragging him out of his spiraling thoughts, “that’s why he’s been coming the past two weeks?”

He decides he doesn’t want to know why she knows that he’s been coming every day, so he nods. “Yes.” He agrees, walking forward towards the table. He hadn’t noticed before but there is a new silver stain across the crystal, luminescent and glittering, the blood of a god.

Vae frowns when she sees it, rounding once more on him, “I know he’s your brother, but you don’t have to answer the door every time.”

“I do,” he says, and he laces it with some of the helplessness he feels. He knows he can’t last 20 years of this. Cadeyrn doesn’t even seem like he’ll last a month without trying to start another war.

She must see the honesty in his words because she sighs, tugging on the edge of her braid as she whistles a sharp tune. Goosebumps run along his arms as she hums. When he looks up from the bloody table, she’s staring at him intently as she hums. Slowly she lets the tune die, her frown has gotten deeper.

“Sometimes I really hate the fact that you’re a major god.”

He has no idea what that has to do with anything, but he still nods his agreement, this whole affair would be so much easier if he wasn’t stuck being Asterius.

“Well even though you are an annoying spinster with zero social skills,” and Asterius really wonders what she’s going to say to recover from that insult, “for what it's worth happy creation day.”

He freezes, glancing over at her in confusion, “Happy what?”

“You-!” she hisses, throwing her hands into the air, “again Asterius!? How do you forget the day of your own creation?”

‘Wait was she talking about-‘

[Oh, that is today,] the system notes absently, and Asterius really wishes it was physical so he could nicely give it a hard smack. [Don’t be mean to System!] it protests, [System was busy with other things, and it’s not like Host asked or anything-] ‘Why would he ask?’ [But if you need this great system to spell it out for you. She is trying to say, “Happy Birthday”.]

Oh no. Was that why Solveig was here? Had he just ruined some important brother-bonding moment?

[System is confused as to how Host’s brain works.] He gives it his best-affronted look for that, but it continues on as if it never saw anything, [Asterius is the villain, why would the Male Lead and Main Villain bond?]

And well… that was a fair point, but it doesn’t stop the guilt twisting in his veins, maybe he was being a bit too harsh on the guy who literally couldn’t control his anger. He did walk all this way to hand deliver a present.

Vae looks like she wants to scold him a bit more, but the kitchen door opens and she snaps her jaw shut.

Cadeyrn comes out holding a new tray, a different tea set laid out. With an amused huff Asterius realizes that this set is far more fancy than the set that was set out earlier for Solveig. Pluma takes a running leap and skillfully lands on Asterius’s shoulders, a place that seems to be the little angel’s favorite place to perch. The seraphim also takes a moment to give Vae the stink eye before nuzzling into Asterius’s hair like an overly affectionate cat.

He humors Pluma and gives him a little scratch behind his ears as they all take their seats around the dining room table. The tea is slightly more bearable this time, and at least he’s not overly stressed about getting “terminated”. He still has to be careful with what he says as Pluma and Cadeyrn are still here, but there’s certainly a lot more he’s able to get away with.

“So, Spinster,” Vae starts conversationally, leaning back in her chair such that the front feet are in the air, “have you heard about what the Summer sisters got caught doing?”

He doesn't, has no idea who they are even talking about, but Vae is more than happy to fill him in. Vae was always a bit of a gossip in the novel, and he feels the description of "a bit" is way off. She seems to know every piece of drama in both the heavens and the mortal realm.

Asterius nods along like he understands, but half of it goes over his head, he doesn’t recognize most of the names and places she mentions in her stories. Being a muse, storytelling is as easy as breathing for her, even if he doesn’t always know what she’s talking about, it's still fun to listen.

He's not sure how long they sit there happily chatting, but by the time they wrap up, the two suns left in the sky are well past noon.

“Well thank you for the tea, and your company was alright as well.”

Asterius huffs a laugh, now that he knows she doesn’t mean any of that, it's easy to hear the teasing tint to her words, “of course,” he agrees, escorting her to the door.

“But I do mean it, don’t go messing with any of my artists again, I don’t care if it’s your creation day I will make you pay.”

He nods along, the amused smile never leaving his face. He’s about to tease back when a weird feeling races down his spine, like a lance of heat curling around his spine. It’s uncomfortably warm and feels weirdly heavy. Suddenly it's hard to move the way he wants like there's cotton stuffed into his muscles.

“Asterius?” Vae says giving him a weird look, concern shining in her eyes.

“Sorry," he says shaking a head, trying to shake the sudden warmth off, "I’m tired,” and it’s not a lie, but he’s unsure of how to explain the weird sensation creeping along his back. Almost as though a tightly coiled lava snake was twining around his bones.

She looks like she’s about to fight him on that, but suddenly there’s a blast of cold on his back, and Cadeyrn is there, the customer service smile already plastered on his face. He says something to Vae, but Asterius’s attention is still too caught up in the weird warm feeling, along with the cold hand resting on his hip like it’s the most natural thing in the world.

‘One day this demon really will be the death of me,’ he thinks far less distressed by this situation than he probably should be. But to his credit, it’s hard to focus on anything with the overwhelming heat filling his body and the very distracting demon at his back.

“Master,” Cadeyrn whispers, right into the shell of his ear and it is doing unprofessional things to his brain, it's highly unfair-, wait. Why does he sound… scared?

He jolts at that realization, abandoning the forbidden fantasies filling his brain, confusion and worry pooling in his gut, cutting sharply through the warm haze, “What do you-,”

The cold air circling around them drops sharply, the hand at his hip tightening, as Cadeyrn growls, “He’s here.”