"Are you my son?"
Her question hung heavy in the air. The unspoken, but clear meaning behind her words brought an instant and abrupt end to the happy familial warmth they had just been thriving in.
The girls' hearts shuddered violently, their faces masks of worry and fear as they looked from Nevaris to Selunara.
The image of what Eizabeth had done to him just yesterday is still fresh in their minds. An image they would rather die than see again.
Nobody spoke.
Even the sound of breathing seemed to cease at that moment.
Nevaris stared into her eyes. She stared right back.
His face was still, a mask of calm that held a storm beneath its surface.
His thoughts twisted and churned. Wondering if he was exposed. If he should tell her the truth. If this was the end to the family he had just gained.
An end to the dream he had wished for in the deepest part of his heart.
But as he stared into those silver eyes so much like his own, he saw it. The tangled, messy web of emotions that no one other than her own flesh and blood could have possibly noticed.
The fear, the pain, the worry, and…the hope.
Before his mind could catch up, his lips were already moving. The words rolling off his tongue with a still-calm that didn't match the severity of the situation.
"Yes…"
Selunara's shoulders, hiding a tension none but him could see, began to relax, but tensed again immediately as he continued to speak.
"...and no."
The silence that followed was deafening.
His poor fiancees paled as their hands that had been holding onto their seats for dear life, tightened to the point they began to creak.
Selunara didn't lower her gaze. It didn't intensify like what they had assumed it would even seeing an imposter–a thief, wearing her son's skin.
There was no rage.
No hatred.
Just a quiet, steady calm that seemed to chill them in a way that sucked the very warmth of their blood from their bodies.
She didn't yell. She didn't even speak.
She just watched him silently, waiting. For what?
They did not know.
But Nevaris did. He knew what she was feeling wasn't calm. Knew that she was using every bit of her strength to hold back the urge to tear his soul apart from the seams.
But she held back. Held back because of the fear of what that would mean.
He smiled. A light, easy smile that she hadn't seen in…well, ever.
"If you're asking me whether I am your son. The child you toiled for months to give birth to. The child that loves you dearly. That wishes for nothing but your happiness and joy. Then yes, I am your son. The one and only."
The silence held. Her shoulders still tense, the muscles coiled like springs about to release. But without even realizing it, her eyes had already lost their sharpness.
They weren't the eyes of a hardened centuries old warrior assessing a threat. But the gaze of a parent, a mother seeking to listen. To understand her child, even when the words he was speaking were like knives digging into her own flesh.
"But if you are asking if I am the Nevaris that knelt before his oppressors. The weakling that chose to submit rather than fight. To grovel and whine when beaten. The bastard who watched his mother and his family suffer due to his weakness, and do nothing but lash out on them. Then no…"
His eyes grew heavy. The mercury within them seemed to swirl as if boiling, as the violet aurora on the edge of his pupils brightened.
"...that Nevaris is dead. Buried. Eviserated. Erased. He will never return so long as I live. All you have left is a son that is hopelessly idle, a son that is apparently somewhat mentally unstable, and a son that loves his mother dearly. The same mother that never gave up on him. The mother that wept silent tears when she had destroyed nations because of a bad day. A mother that even now, still loves her child despite all his failings and shortcomings. So take it or leave it Ma! This is the only version of me you're getting from now on!"
At the first sentence, Selunara's eyes shook. By the third, her shoulders were shaking uncontrollable, and by the end her body was wracked with sobs.
Her crying was ugly, undignified. A world away from the regal, cool demeanor of the warrior princess of the dragon race.
"Y-Y-You b-big d-d-d-dummy!" she finally wailed.
Before anyone could react, Selunara had thrown herself into Nevaris' now empty embrace. Ana had appeared in Lilith's arms as if her early seat in his lap had been nothing more than an illusion.
Seeing their mother-in-law devolve into a blubbering, sobbing mess. Both girls turned toward each with tearful smiles on their faces as their hands clasped together in sisterly warmth.
"D-D-Do you k-know h-h-how worried I-I've been??"
"I know Ma."
"S-S-Seeing you come home e-everyday s-so hurt. S-S-So b-broken!"
"I know."
Nevaris held his mother with a warm smile on his face. The two of them hugging as she belted out her grievances, worries, and fears one after the other.
He didn't interrupt her, just listened silently as he sank into her warmth.
And even through her snot and tears, she still held him like a treasure. She still stroked his gray hair like he was a child needing soothing.
A part of him, a part he never recognized or acknowledged. Felt healed. Felt whole once more.
'Yeah…this is nice.'
Nevaris' smile widened as he burrowed deeper into his mother's embrace.
"ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING MISTER??"
"Hahaha"
"WHAT'S SO FUNNY? ARE YOU LAUGHING AT YOUR AGGRIEVED MOMMY???"
"I love you, Ma."
"*sniff, sniff*...I love you too…"
…
Once again seated in her own seat, Selunara returned to her previously graceful poise.
Her face and demeanor not showing even a hint of the hysterical crying episode she had just had.
Selunara sipped her tea calmly under the bewildered gazes of her son and two new daughters.
The three of them looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes. Each seemingly communicating through them mentally to the others.
'Did she just…'
'Use near divinity level magic to fix her swollen face?'
''Yeah…''
'Yup. That's my mom folks.'
Sensing something, Selunara shot the three of them with a sharp glare.
"...Are you three saying unsavory things about this poor mother of yours?"
They all sat up ramrod straight in their chairs, shaking their heads so violently their pitiful necks would file a union lawsuit.
She narrowed her eyes before huffing, "That's what the hell I thought."
Eh? A rare moment of crass language from my royal mother? Is she embarrassed?
He then noticed the slightly pink tips of her partially scaled ears.
'C-Cute!'
Just then a black missile burst through the ceiling and landed on the floor.
"YOU BITCH! YOU NEARLY KILLED ME AGAIN!!" Elizabeth roared as she stepped into view.
The trio of youngsters blinked as different key words stuck out to them.
Ana: 'Nearly killed? You weren't dead already?'
Lilith: 'Did she just call MY mother a BITCH!?'
Nevaris: 'Killed again?...'
But as they watched the homicidal vampire's impotent rage, they all reached the same conclusive thought.
'''THIS BITCH!'''
Still calmly sipping tea, Selunara didn't even look at her, replying simply, "You would have come back even if you did."
Elizabeth was speechless as her closest friend (and ONLY friend) casually dismissed the possibility of her demise with an unsympathetic shoulder shrug.
"Y-You–!"
Elizabeth pointed a shaky finger at her.
"Pfft~"
"Kekeke"
Hearing the poorly stifled whispered giggles, Elizabeth whipped her head to lock a smoldering glare at the three impudent brats huddled together, laughing at her expense.
'T-This damn family!' she gritted internally.
But the unconscious smile that appeared on her face showed a happiness she would try to deny.
It had been…a long time since she had felt this way. So long she forgot this feeling even existed at all.
She huffed and plopped down on one of the open seats. Maybe subconsciously wanting to avoid disturbing the warm atmosphere, she decided to address these transgressions at a later date.
…
The four of them settled into a somewhat peaceful rhythm. The girls conversed with his mother as they talked about small tidbits of their lives.
Elizabeth making some off hand comments and getting skewered by three sharp glares.
It felt easy. Almost normal.
Nevaris watched this strange family of his get to know each other as they bantered and laughed. His heart full.
As if remembering something, he turned to his mother and asked off-handedly, "So my father was a god?"
The world seemed to fall silent. Lilith and Ana to their credit, didn't show as visceral a reaction as before. Maybe they had begun the process of finding Nevaris' sudden mind-blowing offhand comments somewhat manageable now.
Or maybe they were just desensitizing themselves…yeah probably the ladder.
Elizabeth choked on the suspiciously red cookie she had been chewing and looked at Selunara in undisguised shock.
"You got knocked up by a god!?"
Selunara blinked a few times in surprise before her expression settled into one of quiet curiosity instead of avoidance. Of course, ignoring the vulgar vampire she had begrudgingly called a friend for the last few centuries.
"How—how did you know?"
Nevaris replied nonchalantly as he used the moment to pilfer a cookie from the stupefied Elizabeth.
"Well when I was evolving the other day, I realized that my body had grown significantly stronger. And based on some books I read in the past I figured it was due to my blood. So I guessed."
He bullshitted the explanation without a change in expression. Well, that was until the taste of iron and copper mixed with an overwhelming sweetness in a diabolical amalgamation of bakery.
At that moment Nevaris confirmed that whether he was human or serpent-dragon hybrid, blood cookies would have the same nasty consequences on his palate…and psyche.
As he tossed away the horrid abomination of a pastry, Selunara placed her tea cup down slowly, her expression somewhat distant, as though using her memories to travel back decades.
"...Your father was…unique," she said softly.
Nevaris paused mid-gag, not expecting to hear his mother talk about his deadbeat of a father.
"He was lazy. Hehe, impossibly so…but he was also content with himself. Not exactly happy per say. But comfortable with who he was in his entirety."
A wistful look settled on her face as she reminisced about the man she so clearly hadn't let go of.
"He was a jerk. Yet at the same time, a gentleman. So petty that he would never let me win an argument, even if that wasn't the point of the fight," she laughed lightly as memories played like reels behind her eyes, "And he was a real bastard, that man. Never letting me carry his weight. Always shouldering all his pain, worries, and sorrows by himself when we were supposed to be one."
The last part was said with a bit of resentment, but the longing in her voice kept his internal judgments at bay.
"But no matter what anyone says, no matter how you may feel about him, Nevi. He was a good man. A good man who didn't believe he could be a good father."
Nevaris' face was unreadable. Turning his head to look toward the city in the distance through the hole in his wall.
"Is that why he left?"
Selunara let out a bitter smile. Her eyes became glassy for a moment as she looked for the right words.
"He would have you believe that but…" her gaze shifted.
The shift wasn't subtle. The look was also one he knew very well. A look she had given him for eighteen years of his life.
"I know that he wouldn't abandon us. Abandon me."
The startling conviction in her voice landed like a weight in everyone's hearts.
Nevaris stayed quiet for a moment before shaking his head and chuckling, "Normally isn't that where the parent is supposed to say, 'He would never abandon you, son!'. Trying to break convention?"
Selunara noticed the subtle change of topic. A clear sign of avoidance and sighed internally.
But on the outside she let out an arrogant huff, her entire body exuding a pride that only a dragon QUEEN such as herself could have.
"Of course, I'm the best thing that ever happened to him and the most important existence in his eons of lazy willfulness. And if he ever tries to deny it for anyone, even you…"
She flashed a half smile full of meaning and promise.
"I will remind him why he stays under me, and not on top~"
Ana and Lilith were dazzled by her sacred aura. Lilith was practically salivating like a degenerate.
Elizabeth nodded her head with pride, her expression clearly saying, 'That's my girl!'.
Nevaris…
Well, he just looked horrified and disgusted.
"Ma…gross."
"Get used to honey~. When I drag your father back here will be a lot more where that came from~~"
"I think I'm gonna be sick…"
"I love you too, Nevi~"