Vigor Mortis

A month later the road to Skyhope is finished, although admittedly not used all that much. A handful of merchants walk it every week or so, but most aren't a fan of the fact that we only barter with goods rather than money. That's okay. I'm told these things take time. Repeatedly, by Penelope, whenever I start getting impatient. Which is a lot. Thankfully, I've got her and also our Liriope-bound lumber, food, and water projects to keep me busy.

"I'm still a little mad how much better this teleportation circle is compared to mine," Margarette grumbles, marking the metal strips we delivered with her forelegs.

"Liriope spatial magic is based on thousands of years of iteration and advancement," I remind her. "You made the portal to Penelope's house from scratch. That's way more impressive."

"Did we really have to take it apart and use it as materials, though?" Margarette whines. "That's like, insult to injury."

"I don't know what to tell you," I shrug, munching on a spare chunk of metal. "You're super awesome and smart, Margarette, that's the whole reason we're trusting you to build this in the first place. Don't sell yourself short."

"You're both short," Penelope announces, descending down from above us, a blue tint to her scales complementing her long, blue dress.

"Well hello to you too, Penny," I smirk, prompting her to whip her tail around my waist and lift me high into the air, shaking me a bit before eventually dangling my face upside-down in front of hers.

"Don't call me Penny, you little bug," she insists firmly, though she can't hide her smirk.

"Yes, Lady Vesuvius," I say in my fanciest possible voice. "Of course, Lady Vesuvius."

She grabs my face and pulls me in, planting a kiss on my forehead as I start laughing.

"Alright, do you mind if I steal Vita away, Margarette?" Penelope asks. "The usual Church liaison is arriving shortly and I need to hurt some things before I'm stuck talking to them for hours again."

"Why do you need Vita for that?" Margarette asks.

"I don't really, I just love her."

"Oh, fair enough," Margarette nods. "Yeah, there's plenty I can handle on my own for now. Have fun torturing monsters!"

"Technically, I am productively contributing to our meat storage!" Penelope grins before dropping me into her arms and flying off. I suppose I could fly under my own power, but this is pretty nice too. From up here it's easy to see the expansions we've made to the town, which actually has a name now: Mimas. Taal picked it out.

Mimas mostly looks the same as it did a month ago, just bigger. Expanding outward in every direction, we've managed to fairly quickly construct enough homes for the slow trickle of new immigrants to our weird little town, which is the other reason I'm happy with our road. The draw of living here is pretty simple: we take anyone, no matter how poor and hungry, and we give them all their basic needs. We feed them, we clothe them, we give them a home. Then, if they're able to work, they work. If they refuse to work, or they refuse to work well, we have a talk about whether or not this is the right place for them. So far, though, it hasn't been an issue; the sort of person desperate enough to ask the necromancers for help generally knows how to get a fucking job done.

Speaking of jobs, most of the jobs we have the mortals do involve the very things required to give them those basic needs in the first place, but a handful of volunteers do help direct Dregs for the non-town development projects, namely the resource collection and storage we're performing to prepare for the needs of Liriope. Part of which Penelope and I are contributing to now, by heading out into the middle of the forest and torturing animals.

Better than torturing people! It's important for giant dragon women to receive proper enrichment.

True! Penelope has been doing a lot better, all things considered. She's mostly settled out, though her emotions are still a bit more… volatile than they used to be. Bigger, stronger, and more prone to changing unexpectedly. Her soul still has a lot of motion in it, the bubbles roiling like a convection current with chunks of unanchored principle dancing around in the flow. She giggles—actually giggles—as we fly by some larger creatures in the deep woods and set their insides to a low boil, her scales rippling through various shades of blue. I don't comment on it. She's pretty self-conscious about her mood swings, and there's no need to prod the issue while we're out here for some stress relief. She's not dangerously unstable or crazy or anything, just… unused to feeling things, still. Perhaps there's some level of brokenness to it, but even though she gets a lot more upset than she used to, she's a lot happier as well. We both agree that's a net good.

Honestly, all things considered? Everything is going great. Taal and I are still two people yet also one person, which is weird, and Valka is still being a bunch of bigoted dumbasses, which is business as usual, but it's hard to argue that this is anything less than a top contender for the happiest time in my life. There's just… nothing pressing hanging over my head. No threats, no danger, no problems looming on the horizon. Even back in Liriope there was the stress of being outed as Vita followed by the stress of handling Verdantop's takeover. But now? Nothing. We have a plan and it's working. Life hasn't been this good since the last time Penelope and I started dating. …About three months after which a perception event hit the city I was living in. Which is about the same timeframe as when Liriope next passes over. But that's a coincidence, probably. Surely nothing like that will happen twice, right?

Oh, Vita! Nawra pokes me from inside the world of our oceans. By any chance are you available to work out that in-person meeting we agreed to have? Your Athanatos side's Progenitor knows how to get to my island, if transportation is an issue.

Ugh. I should have known better than to have nice things.

Sure, Nawra, I send back. I should be home in just under a quarter of a year? I expect to have time then.

A year according to which island cluster? Nawra asks. Liriope's?

Um, yeah, I confirm. Are you not in our island cluster?

Islands don't orbit the entire Mistwatcher, they float around in big patterns with about a hundred other islands that form each other's day/night cycles by moving in a series of tight rings. This is an 'island cluster,' and is one of those facts that was really obvious to Malrosa but really mind-blowing to Vita.

No, darling, I'm trying to stay hidden. Why would I plant a scorched-earth bioweapon like the vrothizo in my own island cluster? …Though now that I think about it I suppose that means you should make sure they don't wipe out any islands nearby. That could get dangerous for you in a decade or two. Catch the wrong sort of attention, if you know what I mean.

…I see, I send back, resisting my temptation to call her an absolute fucking maniac. Thanks for the warning, Nawra.

Sorry, honey! I wouldn't have seeded my babies there if I knew you'd pop up underneath, honest!

And on one hand I really appreciate that. Really, I do. It's great to have someone as powerful as Nawra just kind of unconditionally in my corner. When I first met her, I was so surprised that a powerful person was genuinely happy to have me around that I didn't really have it in me to judge her all that much. Every day I spend working alongside mortals makes me a little more frustrated at her casual disregard of them, though. I wonder if she's right or not. Will I lose touch as time passes? Jelisa says I've been getting better, lately, but will that all reverse once she's gone? I could keep her around forever, I suppose, but I don't know if she wants that… and maybe she'll eventually start agreeing with Nawra if she lives long enough, too. I want to say that won't happen. That it's unthinkable. But the person I am now would have been unthinkable to the Vita of three years ago. I am all-too-intimately aware of how drastically a person can change. I table those thoughts for now, though. I don't want Nawra picking up on any strong emotions on the subject.

Did you want me to come alone? I ask her.

Oh, whatever you like! she answers. Bring friends or pets if you have any, I'd love to meet them!

Okay, I'll see if anyone is interested, I tell her. Talk to you later.

See you soon, Vita!

I focus my senses back on the real world, a somewhat concerned Penelope meeting my gaze.

"Everything alright?" she asks.

"Well," I sigh, "we've officially reached the stage in our relationship where you've been invited to meet my family."

"Oh?" she asks. "Which one?"

"The dangerous one."

"Ah, good," Penelope says dryly. "All this lovely blue in my life has me feeling a little off-kilter. Black and blue, though? That's more my element."

"Black, blue, and yellow," I sigh. "My kind are just sort of a big 'ol bruise, aren't we?"

"I'm sure it won't be that bad," Penelope says, giving me a reassuring squeeze. "With everything we've been through, how much more fucked up can it get?"

"That's the problem," I grumble. "I was really hoping we wouldn't have to find out."

She laughs, since she's in one of those laughing moods.

It's cute though. You can't say it doesn't lift our spirits.

Yeah, okay, she's fucking adorable, but I was being serious! I don't need this dread suffusing what should have been another good day. I don't like owing Nawra a favor. Not one bit.

I don't either, but as evil as she is, she genuinely likes us. We know that, we can feel that from her emotions. It won't be that bad. If we're important to her plans, we'll have a lot of room to negotiate. If we're not important to her plans, she won't expect much from us in the first place. I think she's more than happy with just staying out of each other's way and having each other's backs against the Mistwatcher.

Ugh, I know, I know. You're right. I'm just worried about it anyway, you know? Things don't get to go right for me.

"...Talking to yourself, Zoi?" Penelope asks.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, sorry," I nod. "Taal and I were just discussing Nawra."

"I have to admit, I'm somewhat excited to meet her," Penelope smiles. "She's the most powerful biomancer we know of, possibly even the most powerful biomancer in the entire world. She can make entire species from scratch! It's making me giddy to even think about."

"Yeah… that will be pretty cool," I agree, reaching up to plant my face on her lips for a kiss. "I get the impression that she'll be pretty excited to show off her design process to someone that will actually understand it. She's super smart, and she loves to talk."

"It is kind of funny how the woman who keeps decrying the value of mortal relationships seems to have latched onto you like a particularly lonely kitten," Penelope muses when she pulls away from the kiss. "'Oh, I don't really need you, I'm very strong and independent and wait, don't go, keep paying attention to me!'"

"She's not that clingy!" I protest, though I can't help but chuckle alongside her. "We only talk like… once every couple tenday."

"Yes, and on the timeframe she claims a mighty immortal of her noble peerage works on, that's practically every couple minutes. Do you honestly think there's anyone she both respects and actually communicates with as much as she does with you?"

"You might have a point," I concede. "I guess we'll find out when we meet her in person."

"I guess we will," Penelope nods. "What do you think her body looks like?"

"I mean, whatever she wants it to look like," I shrug.

"Yes, that's my question, silly," Penelope chuckles, booping me where a nose would be if I had one. "She's a self-proclaimed goddess whose favorite hobby is fucking abiogenesis

"I don't have the slightest clue," I admit. "Who knows what she started out like, but… hmm. I guess my impression of her is that she's careful. Her first and biggest priority is avoiding the attention of the Mistwatcher, so I wouldn't be surprised if her body isn't really all that impressive. It's not like it actually matters to her if her body dies, so why spend a bunch of time on it?"

"Hmm. Perhaps. I feel like she'd be able to find a middle ground between safety and vanity, though. She has to stay entertained somehow, and she certainly seems like she has an ego."

"Heh, I guess that's true," I agree. "I dunno. I get the impression that she wants it to be a surprise."

"Which means it's more fun for everyone if we try to guess!" Penelope points out brightly.

"Okay, okay, I'll keep thinking about it, my lady," I agree, jabbing her lightly in the side. "You should get going to that meeting, though."

"Oh fuck, I suppose I should," she groans, her scales shifting from blue to orange. "It's so hard to focus on administration when I'm like this. Downside of the bubbly days, I suppose."

"You'll manage," I assure her.

"I'll manage," she agrees. "I've destroyed armies and humbled nations, I'm not going to let a random mood swing stop me. You get back to Margarette, I'm sure she's already lonely without you."

"Oh, no doubt," I smirk, since Margarette has almost certainly gotten so enraptured in spell formulae that she's forgotten I even exist. Honestly, she's probably the Revenant who has best adapted to the removed compulsions to love and obey me. She just kind of does her own thing and doesn't seem bothered by our history at all. The same cannot be said about everyone else.

Theodora rather understandably never wants to see me again, and while she can't really leave and move to a different town due to being undead, she certainly doesn't want to be around me. She has handed off the soul storage and recovery project to Penelope and Margarette, and as a courtesy I've been keeping track of her location in town and ensuring we don't run into each other. She seems to appreciate it, but she also gets a bit traumatized whenever she catches herself appreciating it, which is just… I don't really know what to do. Jelisa has been talking to her, though, and I think that's been helping. Jelisa is great.

Most of my other Revenants have retained some level of affection towards me, but our interactions have become somewhat awkward. Vitamin is the worst of all. We haven't really talked about it, but she doesn't call me 'mom' anymore. Which… is honestly pretty fair. I haven't really done anything other than coo over her like she's a pet.

Having time to relax and think about things isn't always all that fun, it turns out.

Then of course there's Norah, who still stubbornly refuses to give me consent to un-mind-control her, and that's notably strange because I've made it very clear that I want to remove her compulsion to love, obey, and agree with me, but she's still saying no, which contradicts that compulsion. I have no idea what that means, but she freaks out whenever I bring it up and I just don't know how to breach the subject anymore. So that's just kind of in a holding pattern.

I have a theory on that, actually, Taal pipes up. In many ways, Norah's death was an act of betrayal by both sides. She tried to push us into something that would have ultimately ended up as an earlier stay in Site 4, and when we actually went to Site 4 we made sure she witnessed a lot of the torture they did to us, because we are spiteful assholes. That pretty obviously fucked her up and gave her a massive guilt complex, because of course being forced to watch someone you're incapable of not loving be tortured by something you tried to do to them would fuck someone up and give them a massive guilt complex. And yet, she still remembers what it was like to feel so certain that she was right, that we would be okay. She still remembers the horror at what we had done, the need to make us understand how evil necromancy is, and she's lucid enough to know that feeling will only multiply if she's freed. She'll hate us when we stop making her love us, and she loves us too much to want that. Unfortunately, understanding the problem doesn't actually supply us a workable soluuu… huh. I'm in control of the body now. When did that happen?

Zoi doesn't answer me, but that's okay. She might not be 'around,' so to speak, but she's de facto listening since our memories are identical even if we think in slightly different ways. I land next to Margarette and get to work, lamenting how unnecessarily difficult this task is. If Vita hadn't hollowed out our memory core we might have been able to integrate it rather than subsuming Malrosa's soul in its entirety, and having a perfect memory of how to do this task would have made it a lot easier. As Malrosa we used to be able to follow memories almost automatically, letting our body suffuse itself with perfect knowledge of a task even if we'd never done it before in our life. Now we have to actually think about it, and it's kind of a pain.

We spend most of the day on the teleporter, and most of the next day, too. Time seems to move oddly quickly when everything is peaceful, a relaxed body and mind somehow letting the minutes and hours slip by unnoticed. I find myself as Taal more than I find myself as Zoi, as I inherited more of Malrosa's outlook than Zoi did, and Malrosa was much more used to peaceful, happy days, not to mention being at least trained in social maneuvering. Malrosa's memories have made us a lot better at that, but we're obviously still not the best. Personally, I think Malrosa had a lot of the same problems Vita did in that area, which is part of why they meshed so well. It's weird comparing the two people we were to the two people we are now, but I think the perspective is useful.

Another month passes before we know it, and soon that becomes a month and change. It's hard not to get anxious as Liriope drifts closer, worries and fears about the supply of raw material not being enough to impress the Queens, but logically I know they shouldn't have any tangible objections. There's a lot more of home to look forward to than there is to be afraid of. I'm somewhat annoyed that Nawra is calling me to visit her so soon, honestly, because it'll necessarily cut into the time I'm hoping to spend with my Athanatos family, introducing them to Verdantop friends and, of course, to Penelope. All the more reason to make the most of it, though. The teleporter is finished, and in just a few minutes Liriope will be close enough for us to test it. I'll be seeing Tala again soon.

Nearly everyone I care about on the island is here to see me off. Lyn, Rowan, my human siblings, Altrix, To-Kill, Vitamin, Lark, Jelisa, and of course, Penelope. Only the last of that group is actually going to come with me; all my human relations agreed they'd be more comfortable meeting Talanika if I bring her here. 'Hiverock,' as they insist on calling it, is still kind of a boogeyman to the people of Verdantop. To-Kill says he's happiest working for us, and the jobs we have him doing are here, and Lark just doesn't seem to have even the slightest bit of interest in Liriope culture or my family, and I can't say I blame her all that much for that. We've been getting along a lot better than we used to, but we're not exactly best friends. That's okay, though. Penelope is the most important one.

"I genuinely don't know if I'm up for this today," Penelope groans, her yellow eyes looking ever so slightly bloodshot. She's most likely been crying, and her scales are dark gray. Oh no.

"Something happen, or just one of those days?" I ask hesitantly.

"Just one of those days," she grumbles, wiping at her face. "I feel horrible, and I don't want my first impressions of your family to be colored by today's mood."

I have to force the urge to make a frustrated face away. That's… annoying. Really annoying. We've been looking forward to introducing Penelope to Tala for months now! Sometimes this just happens now, though, and we just have to roll with it.

"You can stay home then," I tell her anyway. "I'll meet with Malrosa's mother today and pick you up tomorrow."

"Thank you, honey," Penelope sighs exhaustedly, leaning down to kiss the top of my head. I tickle her cheeks with my antennae, and manage to get a smile out of her. Rare and precious, on days like these. "I'll meet you there tomorrow, I promise."

I nod. Poor Penelope. Bad days are always hard. She was pretty overwhelmed at first after going from holding all emotions back to not being able to control them at all, but we've been getting a handle on things together. They seem to cycle, her general mood oscillating slowly up or down with each day that passes. There are patterns to it, but it's a guessing game at best. Still, it's not like she doesn't have normal human emotions—she can be happy, sad, angry, or anything else in response to normal stimuli. There's just an undercurrent to it, where something she'd barely even pay attention to on a normal day will make her break out in tears on a bad one. Usually this is just a minor annoyance for her that doesn't impact things much, but it's first thing in the morning and she's walking up to us with tears already in her eyes. That's a pretty solid sign that she probably can't—and shouldn't—try to force herself to function normally.

She'll likely be sad tomorrow as well, if less so, but honestly, it's probably better that way. If she went to Liriope in a really excited mood she might start chatting about diseases and biology and genocide enough to freak out even an Athanatos. Also she might ask to torture the animals in the Pneuma practice grounds. She gets, uh, really excited about that kind of thing on those days. Eventually she's going to ask me to let her vivisect us and I'll end up caving, I just know it. She's so wonderful and cute, though!

"We've got a ping response from Liriope," Margarette announces. "Initiating inanimate teleport test."

The finished teleportation platform is pretty darn huge, because it has to be in order to transport the sheer bulk of materials Liriope needs to import. For obvious reasons it's placed a good distance away from Mimas proper: the town has an anti-teleportation field, and even if it didn't, it's strategically foolish to put a large teleport platform inside your defenses, and even if it wasn't, we'd still want it closer to the infrastructure for gathering and storing the materials Liriope needs than to residential zones. Margarette taps a bony finger against the activation panel and pours a small burst of magic into it, and the single barrel of water we have there for testing vanishes.

"Okay… affirmative response. Teleportation successful," Margarette grins happily. "Alright! Living matter test. Could we get the pubug onto the platform? Thank you."

One of the townsfolk whose name I don't know leads one of the giant domestic beetles we make chitin tools from onto the platform, then convinces it to stay by dropping some food there, too. Then he books it the fuck out of there, because for all I've been working to garner trust among the people of Mimas they still get intimidated by huge metal constructs made by skeletons and bug people. But nothing bad seems to happen, the pubug and food all simply vanish on cue.

"Alright, that looked good," Margarette grins, drumming her bony fingers against her thigh with a skeletal rattle. "Moment of truth, aaaand…! Yes! We have the confirmation ping! Subject arrived without damage. You're good to go, Vita!"

"Thanks, Margarette," I smile, stepping up to give her a hug. She wraps her ribcage around my face, because that's a thing she likes to do for some reason.

"No problem, pleasure working with you!" Margarette chuckles, and I move on from there. The plan is for me to only be gone a tenday or so, though that itinerary might end up extended due to going to see Nawra, especially if she's in a whole different island cluster. May as well get all the necessary hugs and cuddles out of the way now.

"Knock 'em dead, kiddo," Lyn says, approaching first and giving me a firm squeeze.

"M'not a kiddo," I fire back automatically, and she laughs. "And I certainly hope I'm not going to be murdering any more family members."

"Y'know, I could ask who you mean by 'more' but I think I'm learning to stay happy in ignorance."

"That's super fair," I nod, and move on to hug Rowan next. "See you later, dad."

"Bye, you horrifying abomination," he answers, rustling my head-setae. I chuckle.

"Vitamin," I look to next, giving her a firm nod.

"Vita," the little undead girl nods back, hands on her hips. "Don't adopt anyone else while you're out."

"No promises," I smirk. "Hey, Altrix."

"H-hey, Taal," Nix answers. "Y-you two be safe, alright?"

"Will do, Nix… though hopefully you'll get a chance to tell me that again before I actually go see anyone dangerous."

"I'll w-worry anyway," Nix admits, and I pull her in for a hug.

"I'll be fine," I promise her. "Love you three."

"We love you, too," Nix answers. …Or did she mean 'two?'

"You guys are all being really overdramatic for someone who's going to be away for barely ten days," Lark comments loudly. "It's not like the world is going to end the moment she leaves our sight."

Everyone present turns to her, myself included, and just stares.

"Okay, yeah, you know what? Point retracted," Lark sighs. "I'll issue a formal apology to fate."

"See that you do," Jelisa says. "Probably won't help, but we need every advantage we can get. Taal, Zoi, I just want to say that I'm proud of you. You've really come a long way, and it's great to see. Don't hug me, though."

"Wouldn't dream of it," I say, waving her goodbye."To-Kill, you're, uh, doing a great job. Keep it up."

"Yes, Princess Malrosa!" the bug man preens.

"Welp, bye everybody!" I announce, waving one last time and turning towards the teleportation platform… only to get tackled by all of my little siblings at once since I've been deliberately ignoring them as a joke. We laugh and wrestle for a bit, but I eventually extract myself to give them all actual goodbyes and depart for real. My months here on Verdantop have been productive, relaxing, and wonderful, but even though this is my home… well, it feels good to be going home again.

"I'll pick you up an hour after first light tomorrow, okay Penelope?" I call back. "Just use the teleporter when you get an authorization."

"Will do," she nods. "Love you, Vita. Have fun."

I nod, step onto the platform, and let the spatial magic wash over me. In an instant, I've gone from the humid forest of Verdantop to the dry caves of Liriope, my soul suddenly flooded with a barrage of altered information… but the disorientation doesn't stop me from grinning when I hear the voice I've been looking forward to most.

"Mal-Maaaaal!"

I catch Tala as she runs into me, ignoring teleport-platform-protocol to rush forwards and nearly tackle me to the ground. She squeezes me with two arms, her other two scratching at my chest setae, fingers running through my fuzz in a wonderfully familiar show of affection.

"You're back!" she cries. "You're really back! Are you okay? Did you get hurt?"

"Of course not, I'm fine!" I laugh. "Nothing on that dinky little island can hurt me except me, and I already did that."

"Don't say thaaat," she whines. "Oh Progenitor, that's so morbid! I was super worried about you, you dork!"

"And I'd say the same, but life up here is awesome," I chuckle. "It's good to be back, and great to see you again. Breakfast?"

"You haven't eaten?" she asks, tilting her head. I flick her in the eye with an antennae and she yelps, jumping back.

"You would not believe how much worse the food is down there, Tala. Seriously, To-Kill-From-Above is the only person that knows how to make Athanatos cuisine. One person I eat with does everything in her power to boil all of the flavor out of anything she puts in her mouth. Like she'll boil something, then dump the stock that makes and boil it again in fresh water."

"Holy shit!" Tala gulps. "Does she even get any nutrients that way? Is there any point to eating at all?"

"Right!?" I laugh. "I mean, I still eat her cooking, food is food, but I'm starting to suspect she keeps feeding me in an attempt to get me to stop thinking that way, or something? And it's kind of working."

"Stop getting you to think that way? What way?"

"That all food is good food," I shrug. "Apparently getting anxious about food insecurity 'isn't healthy' when you're not actually food insecure anymore, but I dunno. I still feel like it's best to clean the plate, right?"

"Uh… I guess I don't really know either," Tala laughs lightly. "Gosh, I forgot how weird you are. Come on, we'll go get breakfast at the usual place."

"Sounds great!"

We eat and talk, and I tell my sister about my Verdantop adventures: killing Ars, being convinced not to take over, brokering a hesitant peace with Valka, and then just kind of getting to relax instead of actually fighting the war I expected to be fighting.

"Gosh, that all sounds exciting," Tala says. "I guess it's easy to see why the humans don't like animancy if that Ars guy is all they had for reference, he sounds terrible. No wonder your soul is such a mess if that dude made it."

"Hey!" I protest. "He didn't really make it, he just… copied it from somewhere, or something? I dunno, I didn't really grill him for information much. Maybe he found part of Red's soul or something."

"Who's Red?"

"Uhhh, well you-know-who mentioned that we used to have another brother who was killed by The One Below All, and his color was red."

"Oh. Huh. Yeah, maybe, who knows?" Tala says. "You coulda revived him and asked, I guess."

"Eh, it wasn't worth it," I shrug. "Where I come from doesn't matter to me. I don't really care how Ars got his hands on whatever Anima ended up as Vita any more than I care about the fact that her original body was supposedly his biological son. You and I have blood ties, Tala, but the way I see it that's not what makes us sisters. The love is, and nothing else."

"Aww," Tala coos. "Though… that sounds like a good transition to talking about mom."

"Yeah," I nod. "Yeah, I guess it is. Is she available?"

"For us? Pretty much always, yeah," Tala nods. "The Progenitor wants to talk to you as well, but apparently it's not urgent?"

"So no having her personal guards show up during mealtime, huh?" I smirk. "Well, that's nice. Honestly, I'd rather make the rounds tomorrow, because that's when I'm gonna show Penelope around. Don't want to have to say hello to everyone twice in a row."

"Oh yeah! I'm really looking forward to meeting her," Tala says happily. "Though uh… y'know, fair warning, not all the Queens or even all the men are likely to be nice to her."

"Eh, I doubt there's any vitriol they can throw at her she hasn't handled before," I dismiss, though privately I'm kind of worried. She'll probably still be a little fragile tomorrow, emotionally speaking… hopefully it'll all be okay.

"I still can't believe you're dating an immortal bipedal dragon," Tala whines. "With a self-designed body! She's like a young Progenitor, it's so cool!"

"Penelope is very cool," I agree, appreciating all the praise about my awesome girlfriend. "Though to get back on topic, uh… y'know. Do you think mom would get along with her? Or I guess more generally, what's mom even like?"

"Yeah, you don't remember her all that well, huh?" Tala frowns. "I don't really know how much I should say. I guess… I dunno. Her default mood is 'bitter,' but outside of that she's not so bad. She loves us, she just… y'know. Hates Liriope. And we don't."

"She's under house arrest for treason, right?" I ask. "What did she do, exactly?"

"Wait, you don't remember that?" Tala asks. "Seriously? Come on, Mal-Mal, it was treason. What do you think she did?"

"Uh… I mean, I don't remember how it works here, but in Skyhope there's apparently like a bajillion things you can do to get convicted of treason. It basically just means 'you annoyed the King.'"

"Wait, they have a King? Ew, that's disgusting."

"Focus, Tala."

"Oh, um, I mean that's basically what Treason is here. You make grandmama mad enough, you get convicted of Treason. But like, you've talked with her. She gets annoyed easily, but actually making her mad? Seriously, you get one guess. What do you think mom did?"

"I dunno, try to kill her?" I guess randomly. It certainly makes me mad when people do that.

"Ding ding ding! You got it," Tala confirms.

I stare at her in surprise.

"Wait, seriously?"

"Yeah, seriously. She got her ass kicked and her magical knowledge locked away, naturally, but she tried."

"Woah. How old were we when this happened, again?"

"Gosh, I was pretty young," she muses. "Probably only like four or so."

"Wow."

She's just been stuck in her house for decades? No wonder she's bitter.

Oh, hey Zoi.

Sup.

"Yeah, wow. I have no idea how she feels about the current you, honestly, but I did tell her you were coming."

"Thanks, Tala," I nod.

"Did you want me to come with you to see her?" she asks.

"Nah, it's fine," I assure her. "I have lots of practice dealing with moms I don't really remember. Thanks for the offer, though."

She chuckles, flicking a smile at me with her eyes.

"It is… really weird having you back, Mal-Mal," she says. "But it's a really good weird. Welcome home."

"Happy to be here," I agree, standing up. "Time to go to mom's home, I guess. Catch you afterwards?"

"Sure," Tala allows. "See you then."

We exit the restaurant and then I lift off into the sky, flying lazily towards my destination. I don't really remember Malrosa's mom, but I do know her name—Queen Galrotta—and I know where she lives. While she is trapped inside the home she built before being convicted of treason, it's still the home of a Queen and it's substantially more fancy than my own house here in Liriope. An imposing three stories, Galrotta's house juts upwards like a castle's tower. It's harsher, sharper, and more utilitarian than the homes around it, indicating our mother was probably a proud War Queen. Perhaps that's where we get the inclination.

We land outside, a respectful distance away from the men guarding the place. House arrest is still arrested, after all, so while Galrotta has male servants they perform the double duty of keeping an eye on her and preventing her from leaving. She's still a Queen of Liriope, so I doubt she's wanting for much, but it probably grates to know your own servants aren't really on your side.

"Princess Malrosa, here to see Queen Galrotta," I announce, and the guards wordlessly let me inside. Hmm. Sparse decorations in the entry hall. Intentional, or were the old decorations removed and never replaced? A War Queen might decorate their front hallway with weapons. A treasonous Queen wouldn't be allowed to keep them.

I don't really know the layout of the house, but it's pretty easy to assume the only Queen here is Galrotta, so I make my way over to her. She's on the ground floor, so it doesn't take long for me to find the wide, flat room with padded floors that she's currently inside, practicing some sort of martial art. Definitely a War Queen then, wow. No magic, no weapons, but still a fighter. I kinda like her.

"Queen Galrotta," I greet her, nodding respectfully. She doesn't respond at first, completing her current set of motions before turning to me, a perfectly-controlled blank expression on her face. As if an expression would help us know what she's feeling. She's surprised, relieved, frustrated, and a little hurt by our chosen address.

"Have I been downgraded from 'mother' so soon?" she sighs, her voice flat. "I was hoping to at least manage to keep the title until you were an adult."

"Apologies," I answer. "I… did Tala not tell you…?"

"She informed me of the salient points, yes," Queen Galrotta answers. "That you fused with someone from another island. That you don't remember me. I suppose part of me didn't want to believe it."

"Only part of you didn't want to believe that your daughter doesn't remember who you are?" I ask, walking further into the room. "Was our relationship that bad?"

I'd been afraid that it was, honestly. What little memory I do have of Queen Galrotta is vague, but pretty universally unpleasant. Not in a devoid-of-love way, but… I think we argued a lot.

"Well," she shrugs, "I did try to assassinate the Progenitor. Like most of us, you could never understand why. Though… maybe you can now."

I can. Most people I know wanted to destroy Liriope before I became a part of it, myself included. Part of that was ignorance, of course: only seeing the faceless enemy of Hiverock without even a hint of the beauty it holds inside. But I know a lot of humans that would want to destroy this place on principle. The sheer difference in role between worker and Queen here is anathema to how most humans comprehend justice, despite the fact that they self-perpetuate and self-justify dramatically worse systems as a matter of routine.

"I've certainly broadened my perspective," I nod. "But that's the thing: I can very easily understand why a member of a different species would try to destroy Liriope, but not why a Queen would want to. And what other purpose but destabilizing our society does killing the Progenitor serve?"

She shrugs.

"It was never about the city of Liriope," she answers. "Not really. It was about the nation, the ideal. The Progenitor would have us be isolationists, taking what we need to survive and ignoring everything else. She not only does not care about the world outside our borders, she actively discourages people from caring. We could stop so much pain and suffering if we just put in the effort."

Huh? That doesn't add up at all.

"That… was pretty much my argument on why I should be allowed to handle the conquest of my own island," I tell her. "And grandmama pretty much just said 'sure, go for it.' She didn't care, and I bet she wouldn't have cared if you went to other islands and helped people. If helping people is what you wanted it seems like that'd make a lot more sense than trying to assassinate her."

"Well that's all I would have done, if the Progenitor hadn't decided to become part of the problem."

"What problem, exactly?" I ask.

She turns away from me, scowling. This feels… familiar. Like we might have had this conversation before, when Malrosa was less cool-headed. I think that something about the answer she's going to give me really frustrated me back then.

"I can't tell you."

Ah, I mean yeah, that would do it.

"You can't tell me?" I ask. "Is it classified? …Why didn't they remove classified information from your memories?"

"Because punishing someone for something but not letting them remember the reason they committed their crime would be monstrous, Malrosa," she answers. "And I'll admit the Progenitor has some basic idea of decency. Just… not where it counts."

"Well, is there anything you can tell me?" I ask. "A hint or something? I guess it's not a huge deal, but I am pretty curious."

I manage to break her even expression when I say that, which I find oddly satisfying.

"Not a huge deal?" she chuckles humorlessly. "The reason your mother is trapped, hated, and shunned by your entire society isn't a 'huge deal' to you anymore?"

"You'll outlive the punishment," I shrug. "And I don't particularly care what anyone else thinks of you. I form my own opinions. I don't have my memories of you, so our relationship will never be the same again. But I can tell you care about Tala and I, and you seem reasonable enough. So yeah, I'm curious. Why sacrifice so much and risk fighting one of the most powerful women in the world for a chance at whatever it was you wanted?"

"I told you already, I can't… wait." She gives me an odd look. "'One of' the most powerful women in the world? You think there's someone stronger than the Progenitor?"

Aw shoot that's right, I'm not supposed to talk about Nawra here.

"Uh… well," I stutter. "Y'know. World's a big place. Logically there's probably someone out there stronger than grandmama."

Galrotta gives us a look. She doesn't buy it. Crap.

"I'm just… I'm just saying, hypothetically, if there was something, it'd be something the Progenitor lifted me off the ground by the throat over, so I'm not really super keen on getting grilled for information on the subject," I supply.

"...You know about Nawra," Galrotta concludes. "You have to. You used to not even have the conception of someone stronger than the Progenitor. I don't even think there's anyone else she suppresses information on."

"Wait, you know about Nawra?" I ask. "Oh, are you… do you mean…?"

"Yes, exactly," Queen Galrotta nods. "Malrosa, I tried to kill the Progenitor because she entered an alliance with Nawra. Tolerating that thing is morally inconsolable."

"Oh," I answer hesitantly. "So, uh, I guess you're probably not going to like hearing that you're related to her now, huh?"

She does not, in fact, like hearing it. Go figure.