Returning in a rather dirty state, Ceraunius and Gamelia gave Zeus and Hera quite the freight. But when they saw the several items they'd returned with, both gods shed a tear.
"You went to recover their items?" Hera asked, already knowing the answer. It was a question asked in shock.
"Please, set everything on the table, I'd like to inspect them before we clean them up." Zeus asked, reaching for one of the weapons… The memories of when each of his familia's children got the very pieces of equipment flooding his mind.
Ceraunius and Gamelia did as Zeus asked, leaving the twins to watch on in awe, and mild confusion, though they could feel it, each of those items carried a weight behind them, the stories of the heroes in their books… These pieces of equipment were now relics.
It was quiet for a while, until Ceraunius set the final pieces down, a pair of daggers a certain red eyed man wielded. Looking at them, the twins felt a closeness to the daggers.
"Uhm, Grandma? Who did those belong to?" Zaria asked, in a timid and questioning tone.
"I'd like to know too." Bell added in, making it doubly hard for the others to answer.
Hera looked to Zeus, and he sighed…
"Children, those daggers belonged to your father." Zeus said, with a tinge of suffering in his tone.
"So that's why they felt familiar?" Bell said, tilting his head.
"Probably… I hate to ask, but would you let your grandma and I have some time alone with these?" Zeus asked, barely keeping himself from trembling.
"Huh, oh yeah, the two of us could use a bath after that." Ceraunius chuckled nervously.
"Come you two, let's go get cleaned up." Gamelia said, appearing behind Bell and Zaria.
Bell, Ceraunius, Gamelia, and Zaria left for the bathing room that Hera demanded to be built larger for familia baths…
"Zeus, this was Empress' sword." Hera started whimpering as soon as the other four were gone.
"And this was Maxim's pauldron, and his offhand sword." Zeus said, gliding his finger across the clearly damaged blade.
"We should have stopped them before trying to fight it. They'd still be with us today." Hera cried, seeing that everything which remained of her familia's ladies lay on the table.
The bloodstained equipment covered the table, remnants of the once mighty force of their familias members… Their noble children… Gone from the world.
"Empress, Lyca, Caotan…" Hera whimpered, crying.
"Maxim, Gale, Perion, Alraj…" Zeus muttered, barely holding it together. And one of the few, yet precious times in his immortal life, became the comforting husband.
…
In the bath, Ceraunius helped wash Bell's hair and back, Gamelia did the same with Zaria. Both half spirits could tell that the twins wanted to ask something.
"What's on your mind, Zaria. Whatever it is, you can ask your big sister." Gamelia said, rinsing the soap suds out of Zaria's hair.
"Well… I'm wondering what my dad was like. Grandpa says he was a good guy, but a little pervy, but was there anything else?"
"He was an excellent adventurer, better than most." Gamelia answered, giggling a little. "But he's mostly just a massive perv."
"Pfft, you can say that again." Ceraunius chuckled. "It was always annoying having to block his view from peeping in the familia's bath house."
"Huh?" Bell panicked. "You bathed with the ladies?"
"Hmm? Yeah, Lady Hera was quite insistent on holding everything cute near her. Plus I doubled as a powerful weapon against the peeping toms."
Zaria seemed to smile, blinking at the realization just as much as Bell did. She bathed with her brother often, and even grandpa when they were younger. But now she was seeing Ceraunius and Gamelia, and felt comfortable around them.
"That must have been fun. Having a huge family to talk to." Zaria said. "Can…"
"Hmm?"
"Can you teach me how to dance like that?" Zaria asked, squirming.
"Pfft, of course we can. Bell can learn too." Gamelia smiled.
"And, how can I get a strong body like yours, big brother?" Bell asked.
"Pfft, lots of training. Your sister Zaria can train as well." Ceraunius chuckled.
"Will I get big boobs like yours, big sister?"
"We'll see what we can do, how's that?"
…
The next morning Morthios and Euphemia packed up and left the orphanage, heading for the house they saw in their dreams. They left on their own, just the two of them. They'd fought some beasts here and there. And found a few travelers.
"Oh wow, a couple of young travelers. Have you heard of the dancing clouds?"
"What?" Morthios asked, deciding to play dumb for this.
"Well there was a village in the mountains struggling with water, and then two travelers danced together, the sky danced with them, before weeping with joy at their love."
"Oh wow! That sounds lovely!!!" Euphemia cheered, and started staring at Morthios with an interested look in her eyes.
Morthios just sighed.
"Well it looks like you two are close. If you want to find those two, I think they're still in that village, their home is somewhere on the edge of the village."
"Thank you, Sir. Safe travels."
And so they continued walking on, leaving the traveler behind. Said traveler wore a feathered hat, and light clothing, a blue haired girl in white appeared from nowhere.
"Looks like those two are going to be outside of the city a little longer than expected."
"Lord Hermes, can you stop pushing me so much? Keeping up with you like this is too much. I need to rest."
"That's fine, we just need to deliver one more message to Orario. Astraea will want to know it'll be a little bit before those two return." Hermes smirked. "I wonder how I can set the stage for those twins?"
"Do you even have a need to do so?"
"Probably not, Ceraunius and Gamelia are serious, so it might be unneeded. But we can't be 100% sure just yet."
"You're going to run me ragged again aren't you…"
"Just a little longer. Hang in there Asfi. Tyche has already finished the last step we were a part of. So no need to worry any longer."
"You better not be lying."
…