Beyond?

Not much time and adding more didn't feel right, so just a short connection chapter.

“When the world does what it wants, do what you want.”

-The Great Technomagus of the Free City States of Nict.

***Free City States of Nict, Capital***

***Stella***

I leave the conference room together with Azir. We had to listen to the summary of the aftermath and a detailed description of the battle itself. The military analyst who was making pretty eyes towards Louise liked to present the army's and his own achievements in an especially shining light.

Hopefully she invites him to her bedroom soon. I am not against flirting, but the brain of that guy simply shorts out when he sees Louise. And he doesn't look bad, so I don't understand why she didn't even look at him once.

It's unbelievable that she never realized his feelings for her. I had to address her on the subject. Isn't she the one who always gave me advise in regards to love? Rolling my eyes I remember the many hours we talked about this and that. Probably all her knowledge on the subject was just of intellectual nature? I never saw her with a guy... doesn't that make me a real idiot for trusting in her every word about relationships between men and women? And why did I still end up with Azir if her advise doesn't come from experience? Oh... damn! Thinking about this is really depressing! I have to talk her into accepting the analyst's requests for a date and I should start calling him by his name. What was it? Georg? Gregor?

“What are you thinking about?” Azir asks me while we are walking down the palace's corridor towards the stepper disc.

“Nothing important. Just about the situation with the remaining enemy fleet. I don't feel good about it.” I answer nonchalantly.

He nods, patting my shoulder to reassure me. “We'll manage. They don't have enough forces left to think about a serious invasion.”

I sigh. “But depending on where they attack, they can do a lot of damage. And I don't like their current course.” Their remaining fleet consists of three hundred and thirty-two flying dockyards, twelve scout ships, two hundred and eighty-three troop transports and three hundred and sixty-nine warrior class ships. Mere nine hundred and ninety-six ships.

Even if it's nothing compared to their previous strength they are surely able to cause trouble and our fortresses are slow as hell compared to them.

Louise got all the necessary resources to rebuild our drones as fast as possible, but it won't happen overnight. The battle at the archipelago emptied our drone reserves. We won a glorious victory in terms of statistics and invested resources, but it still feels like a defeat because the enemy is still coming at us.

And the worst of it is that it looks like their target is Nict's capital. “Azir, can we send the kids to your mother in Tri? I don't feel well about having them here when the enemy really decides to ignore our coastal cities and heads directly towards the capital.”

Azir forces himself to smile. “That's a good idea. My parents will have a lot of fun with the three of them.” Did I hear sarcasm in his voice?

We move on and don't stop walking while using the stepper disc to our house. From then on I follow Azir, searching the house for our youngsters. The bedroom and kitchen are empty, but there are voices coming from the living room. One of them seems to belong to a man.

Upon taking a look into our living room Azir freezes. I hurry to take a look past his shoulder, but my reaction is a little different from his. “What's he doing in our house! Get him out!” I scream, stabbing my finger at the scene in front of me before I can stop myself from making a scene. Biting my lip I try to control my emotions to not scare the kids.

Ivy is sitting with her legs crossed on a stool; pencil and notebook in her hands. Zadkiel and Zana are on the floor, playing cards. But what provokes my ire is Jeremiah who is using the couch with Sariel on his lap. There is a big collar around his neck and his face pales upon looking at us.

Sariel raises her hand, waving at us and curling her tail into a cute question mark. “Mom, Dad! Look whom Ivy brought with her. Uncle Jeremiah knows so many stories about heroes and princesses! He even saved a few himself!”

Jeremiah averts his eyes from us. “Somehow I feel very old right now.”

Ivy nods. “That's the first important step towards enlightenment.” She turns around to face us. “My excuses if this scene shocked you, but everything is under control. I got interested in Jeremiah's peculiar state of mind and decided that my next project is his re-socialisation. Having a subject on which all hope is lost wouldn't leave a bad aftertaste if I fail. So I decided to postpone the 'having children' experiment to test my educational skills to their limit instead.”

Gesturing at Jeremiah, Ivy smiles brightly. “He even has a magic-sealing collar which I made myself. The versions on his hands just weren't safe enough in my opinion. On the other hand I deem it very unlikely that he'll cut his head off to flee.”

“You aren't my beloved Sivali.” Jeremiah presses a tear out of his left eye.

“That's another important insight Jeremiah. You are getting better. Maybe we can go for a walk in the park tomorrow. If you behave I'll show you around the city.” She softly pats his head with her tail.

“It's been so long since I saw the sun.” He wipes the tear away. “Thank you.”

“He suffers from what I call the hero-syndrome. It makes you think that the world centres around you and that only your perception of good and evil counts. Jeremiah even went as far as seeing everything only as black and white. We'll work on that and return him to a proper world-view.”

“But first Jeremiah has to tell another story!” Sariel raises her hand, gesturing for Ivy to stop. “He is so good at it and it feels like he could go on telling stories for years!”

Azir turns around and leaves while grumbling. “Maybe that's because he isn't telling stories, but his own history! I don't care any more. I just want to sleep for now.” He enters the bedroom and slams the door shut. Is he jealous because Sariel bonded with Jeremiah?

I walk over to the kids, my expression an emotionless mask. “It's okay, but just one more story. And tomorrow you kids will go and visit grandmother Valda for a few days. Your father and I will be very busy, so it's better for you to stay there.”

“But we want to listen to Jeremiah's stories!” Zadkiel expresses his disapproval.

“Aunty! We'll go and visit aunty!” Zana starts jumping happily.

“There are many cats like Ghost at Valda's mansion.” I point out. “And nightmares!”

“What are nightmares?” Zadkiel furrows his eyebrows.

“You won't find out if you don't go.” I scratch my chin. “I think Azir mentioned that you may get young kittens from your grandfather if you behave.”

My last suggestion does the trick and Zadkiel nods eagerly. “Can we go today?”

“I thought you want to listen to another story from Jeremiah.” Staring at him I cross my arms in front of my chest.

Jeremiah sighs, stroking Sariel's head. “A long, long time ago there was a prince who fell in love with his maid...”

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