Beyond?

“And there was a bright light which came from the sky. The goddess rode on a metal carriage when she arrived in Quinn. The people saw her artefacts, but they couldn't understand them.

So the goddess started teaching her children as much as they could understand with their limited minds.”

-Ch.234-32-45

***Free City States of Nict, Tri***

***Ivy***

Suddenly all of my alarms go off and my vision gets blocked by multiple warning windows. How can I work with so many distractions? My remotes detected that someone is moving through the mansion without permission.

I access the camera on the central corridor to take a look at the intruder while I rush there from my private quarters. The alarm came from above my quarters where the children's rooms are.

If the kids get hurt I have failed my duty as their protector. But what the camera shows me makes me stop in my tracks.

Rewinding the images and playing them with heightened speed brings me up to date within seconds.

“Higher!” Sariel balances on top of Zadkiel, who in turn is sitting on Zana's shoulders. They are performing an artistic feat which I didn't assume possible with their bodies.

“Can't hold you. Heavy!” Zana gasps under the weight of the twins.

“You have to. You are the oldest!” Zadkiel steadies himself by holding onto a broom.

“Have it!” Sariel's tiny hands grab the handle of the door.

The tower which was formed by three living bodies collapses and leaves Sariel hanging on the handle. “Now pry it open!”

Zana and Zadkiel hurry to open the door while Sariel keeps holding onto the handle. The door to the children's room has a specially made locking mechanism to ensure that small children can't get out.

The door doesn't move if you don't hold down the handle with force. A single small child isn't able to perform such a feat. I left them alone up there for half an hour and they are already trying to escape.

“Zana! You are the bait.” Sariel points at Zana who is a little bigger than the twins.

“I don't want to be bait!” The adopted child complains.

“You are big and slow.” Zadkiel sums up the essential points.

“And I am the brain.” Sariel pats her chest. “As soon as we step onto the corridor, the Ivy will know. That's why we need a distraction.”

“Yes, while you distract her, we can steal the cookies.” Zadkiel nods eagerly.

“But...” I can see Zana's brain working behind her forehead. “Then I don't get any cookies? And why do you always call her 'the Ivy'. She is a person, don't talk about people like they are things.”

“So you didn't notice the thing in her chest?” Zadkiel asks with a trembling voice. “From time to time when she thinks she is alone it gets out and crawls around.”

“Yes, creepy!” Sariel lets go of the handle and drops to the ground like a sack of potatoes, but still managing not to hurt herself. “We spied on her once! She is a monster!”

“I still have nightmares that the Ivy could hide under our bed when it's dark!” Zadkiel takes a careful look down the hallway behind the door. “The doors to the kitchen are all open! We can continue as planned.”

Sariel nods and gives further instructions to Zana. “Okay! You turn left and run directly towards the stairway to the servant's quarters.”

Zana's eyes widen horrified. “But that's exactly where Ivy will come from! And I still don't get any cookies!”

Zadkiel pats her shoulder. “We'll stow away a few. Then you can eat after our operation is a success.”

“How am I supposed to stop a monster? I am five!” She starts fiddling with her fingers while being on the verge of tears. “I am afraid.”

“Cookies?” Sariel asks and tilts her head in anticipation. “You just have to find a way to distract her long enough for us to get the cookies. We are counting on you as our elder!”

Zana looks at Sariel and then at Zadkiel who nods reassuringly. Then she looks down the corridor in the direction of my quarters.

Finally she gathers all her courage in a nonsensical scream and charges towards the staircase. “Uh... Uwaaaah!”

I still can't figure out the reason why children do that from time to time. Screaming doesn't serve any meaningful purpose. Yes, she is supposed to distract me, but there are so many ways to attempt this without announcing your presence to the whole house.

Having her eyes closed is also problematic. I calculate a possibility of ninety nine point nine percent that she'll trip if she attempts to run down the stairs with her eyes closed.

A few moments later my assumption is proven right. Zana trips and falls down the staircase spectacularly, flipping over several times.

At that point the video record catches up with real time and I can already hear Zana rumbling down the stairway. Coincidentally I stopped just in front of it, so I just have to wait until she arrives in front of me, which happens promptly.

Zana comes to a halt by falling flat onto her belly. For a few seconds she is just lying there, not moving, until she gets up and takes a look around.

Her eyes wander from my feet to my waist, then they keep sticking to my chest. There are several bumps and a nasty cut on her forehead. If my understanding of children is correct, then she'll start crying her eyes out any moment now.

“Hic...” Tears start forming in the corners of her eyes. “HuuaaaaAAA!” Even her chin is jitters miserably. I must admit that she is really good at that.

An organic being would probably fall for such a great display of pain and utter helplessness.

Yep. Exactly as I predicted. I bend down and place my palm on her forehead to cast a healing spell. “Heal.” The spell is executed perfectly and the bruises disappear.

The reason for the pain is gone, but she is still crying while looking up at me. “You... you won't hide under my bed?”

Rolling my eyes I pick her up. “We'll see about that. I only haunt naughty children.”

I walk with Zana up the staircase to collect the twins.

“I won't get cookies now?” Zana asks with a depressed voice.

“Cookies are for tea only and you'll get fat if you eat too many of them, so cookies are only allowed as a small snack.” I educate her properly. Those brats are eating too much of that sweet stuff.

Inside the kitchen I find Sariel and Zadkiel. They didn't get very far in their attempt to steal the cookie pot.

For obvious reasons I placed some protective charms and runes with Stella's help.

Zadkiel triggered one of Stella's gravity runes and is pinned to the ground right at the entrance.

Sariel got a little further into the room and actually reached the pot, avoiding several other magical traps. The cookie pot is standing in the centre of the kitchen table and she climbed onto a chair to get onto the table from there.

I was right to ward the cookies with ice charms. Sariel has a cookie in her mouth, but that's everything she achieved.

The ice charm triggers upon contact with spit and freezes the cookie to a temperature of minus twenty degrees. I doubt that Sariel will ever give in to her urges again. Having your mouth frozen by a lump of ice should be a very unpleasant feeling.

But Sariel is still sitting there with the frozen cookie in her mouth and glaring at the pot with yearning eyes.

A few minutes later I have the children fixed up and in their room again. I am sitting on a chair with my legs crossed. The three of them are kneeling in front of me. It's been like that for a while.

Zadkiel raises his hand. “Um, Ivy? What are you doing?”

“I am thinking.” I answer while I am studying them with squinted eyes. There are several courses of action open to me and I can't decide which one I should take.

“Ab... out... wh... at?” Sariel manages to say. Her tongue is still swollen since the damage by the ice spell wasn't small. In her greed she took a full bite which exposed a large area of her tongue to the spell.

“A proper punishment?” I ask. “What else should I be thinking about.”

“G... giving us cookies?” Zana asks hopefully.

Their earlier conversation comes to my mind and I smile. Unbuttoning my blouse I smirk at them and start disconnecting the nerve joints to my organic body. “I think I know exactly the right thing for this situation...”

“HIIII!” All three of them huddle together with wide eyes.

Does my mechanical core really look that frightening to children?

.