Sarisa nearly dropped the communication device in the soup.
Lara looked up from the stove at the exact same moment, spoon still in hand, and for one absurd second they both wore the same expression of startled guilt, as though Elysia might somehow be able to smell everything that had happened in the house through pure magical nosiness alone.
"Good afternoon," Sarisa said quickly.
"Good afternoon," Lara echoed a beat later, which only made it worse because now they sounded coordinated in exactly the way guilty people always did.
On the other end of the device, Elysia laughed.
It was soft, warm, and extremely dangerous.
"Well," she said. "So, how is your little honeymoon?"
Sarisa felt heat rise into her face at once. Lara, who should have known better, leaned one hip against the counter and looked entirely too pleased with herself.
"It's good," Sarisa said, trying and failing to sound calm.
"Very good," Lara added.
There was a crackle of sound through the device, then another voice cut in before Elysia could speak again.
Malvoria.
"I'm sure they just mated and fucked," she said brightly.
Sarisa made a noise somewhere between outrage and death.
Lara, however, had absolutely no shame left to preserve and leaned toward the device like a woman stepping into battle.
"Yes," she said. "But like you didn't do the same. Just to remind you, you and Elysia disappeared for one whole month and left Kaelith with us."
There was a delighted silence on the line.
Then Malvoria said, scandalized, "That was different."
Lara barked out a laugh. "How?"
"We were newly married."
"You are 'newly married' every time you want an excuse."
"That is because our love remains fresh."
"That is because you're both disgusting."
Sarisa had to press one hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing too loudly, which only made Lara's grin widen.
The room had gone all golden afternoon and herbs and simmering lunch, and somehow now it also contained the full chaos of Malvoria being offended in another castle.
Malvoria was not done.
"At least we had the decency to vanish with style," she said. "I assume you two are just rolling around in that tiny house with no standards."
Lara straightened with the offended dignity of a woman who had definitely rolled around with standards. "First of all, the house is beautiful. Second of all, Kaelith ate candied fruit for breakfast every day you were gone."
"That sounds like enrichment," Malvoria said.
"That sounds like a crime," Lara snapped.
"That sounds like parenting," Elysia corrected mildly in the background.
Sarisa could practically see her now, seated somewhere elegant with a cup in hand, wearing the expression of a woman long accustomed to managing impossible people and choosing, with great wisdom, only the most necessary moments to interrupt.
Lara pointed the spoon at the device as if Malvoria could somehow see it. "Do you know what else? She started calling the servants her council while you were gone."
"She does that now anyway," Malvoria replied.
"Yes, because you encouraged her."
"She has leadership instincts."
"She has extortion instincts."
Sarisa laughed aloud then, unable to help it any longer.
Lara turned toward her at once, smiling despite herself, and the warmth in that look would have ruined Sarisa if she had not already been thoroughly ruined beyond repair.
From the device, Malvoria made a triumphant sound. "See? I'm funny. Your mate agrees."
"She is laughing at you," Lara said.
"That still counts."
"No, it doesn't."
"Yes, it does."
Elysia sighed, loudly enough that even the magic carried the full shape of her patience wearing thin. "Just stop, you two."
That only made Lara and Malvoria answer at the exact same time.
"She started it."
"I started nothing."
Sarisa leaned against the table and closed her eyes for one second, smiling helplessly. "You really are siblings."
Lara looked offended. "I was born with more sense."
Malvoria gasped. "You were born in mud."
"That is slander."
"That is family history."
Elysia cut through them both with the precise ease of a woman who had likely been doing this for years.
"Enough," she said, and somehow the single word carried more authority than the entire Celestian military. "Lara, you have time. Please give a tour of the demon realm to Sarisa."
There was a beat.
Then Elysia added, sweeter and far more devastating for it, "Or are you only planning on feeding and fucking?"
Sarisa nearly choked on her own breath.
Lara stared at the device like it had personally betrayed her. "Elysia."
"What?" Elysia asked innocently.
"That was uncalled for."
"No," Malvoria said immediately. "That was excellent."
Sarisa had gone red enough to rival a battlefield wound, which was deeply unfair because Lara, meanwhile, only looked half scandalized and half amused in a way that should have been illegal.
"She has a point," Sarisa muttered before she could stop herself.
Lara turned to her slowly. "Excuse me?"
Sarisa lifted her chin. "We have mostly eaten and… the other thing."
Malvoria made a delighted, wicked noise through the device. "Gods, I adore her."
"You are not helping," Lara said.
"I'm helping tremendously."
Elysia laughed softly. "You should see something besides the inside of that house, Sarisa. The realm is beautiful this time of year."
That eased something in Sarisa immediately. Not because the teasing vanished, but because the suggestion itself felt so ordinary and kind.
A tour. An afternoon. A world beyond the house. It reminded her, all at once, that what Lara had given her was not just escape from a wedding but access to another life entirely. Another sky. Another land. Another possible future.
She looked at Lara, who still had one hand on the spoon and the other braced against the counter as if arguing with her sister had physically rooted her there.
"I would like that," Sarisa said quietly.
Lara's face softened at once.
Of course it did.
"Well," Malvoria said, recovering first because shamelessness had always been her strongest survival trait, "make sure she sees the cliffs, the night markets, and the black lake."
"Do not show her the black lake first," Elysia said. "That's too much for a first outing."
"It's romantic."
"It's terrifying."
"It can be both."
Sarisa smiled. "That sounds familiar."
Lara laughed under her breath and finally set the spoon down. "Fine. I'll show her around."
"Good," Elysia said. "And preferably not while half-naked."
"No promises," Malvoria added.
"Absolutely no one asked you," Lara replied.
"Yet here I am, blessing this union anyway."
Sarisa took the device from where it rested against the fruit bowl and held it a little closer. "How are Aliyah and Kaelith?"
At once the tone on the line shifted, not becoming serious exactly, but warmer.
"Alive," Elysia said. "Loud. Sticky. I believe Kaelith has decided Aliyah is now her honorary war minister."
"That sounds right," Sarisa murmured.
"Aliyah asked if the old palace was still boring," Malvoria said. "I told her yes."
"That was a diplomatic answer," Lara said.
"I am diplomacy."
"No, you are a threat in jewelry."
"Still diplomacy."
Sarisa laughed softly and shook her head. "Tell Aliyah I miss her."
The answer came from Elysia first. "We will."
Then, after the smallest pause, Malvoria added in a voice stripped of some of its mischief, "She misses you too."
The warmth of that settled in Sarisa's chest with a small ache.
For a little while longer they talked like that. Not strategy. Not the queen. Not laboratories or missing evidence or what tomorrow's political outrage might look like. Just family. Children. The weather in one realm versus another.
Whether Kaelith should be trusted near ponies. Whether Aliyah had always been that sharp or if Lara's influence had accelerated the problem.
"Definitely Lara's influence," Elysia said.
"Rude," Lara replied.
"Accurate," Sarisa murmured.
At last the conversation began to wind down. Elysia had things to do. Malvoria had probably already started doing them in the wrong order.
The children would need corralling. The realms would keep turning.
"All right," Elysia said, warmth threading through her voice again. "We'll leave you two to your lunch and your realm tour."
"And your shameless domestic criminality," Malvoria added.
Lara rolled her eyes. "Goodbye, Malvoria."
"Goodbye, big sis. Don't bore your mate."
The device dimmed with Elysia's quiet farewell, and then the line went still.
The house seemed softer for a second after the magic faded.
Lara looked at Sarisa.
Sarisa looked back.
Then Lara said, with great dignity, "For the record, I was not only planning on feeding and fucking."
Sarisa lifted one brow. "No?"
"No. I was also planning on hovering dramatically and making soup."
"That is very reassuring."
"It should be."
Sarisa smiled, slow and real, and came around the table toward her. "Then I suppose," she said, "you'd better show me your realm, mate."