The New Chimera

Some time in the distant future…

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“Ariaaaaaa!” Mai cried out, bursting into her room. “I got dumped again!”

Aria sighed, pausing her game and setting the console down on her bed. “That’s what, the fifth time this year? I told you, you’re too clingy.”

“Yeah, but Jared was different!” Mai sniffled. “He said he thought clingy girls were cute!”

“Didn’t…” Aria paused, thinking back. “I don’t remember her name, but your girlfriend three partners ago, didn’t she say that too?”

“Yeah, Arin said that, but she didn’t mean it. She just thought I was cute and liked me for my looks.” Mai flounced over to Aria’s bed and sat down, snuggling up to Aria. “Comfort me.” She whined. “I want hugs.”

Aria sighed again. “What are we going to do with you?” She asked, stroking Mai’s head gently. “You gotta learn to be a little less…eager. You’re driving everyone away.”

“B-but…they’re all so cute!” Mai whimpered. “I can’t help myself!”

“I tell you this every time, but their cuteness is no excuse to go crazy. You have to control yourself.”

“Stop scolding me, you’re supposed to be comforting me!” Mai pouted. “Besides, you don’t know what it’s like to constantly get your heart broken! You and Amanda have been together for like…ever!”

“It’s been six months.” Aria corrected, rolling her eyes. “That’s not that long.”

“Well…you haven’t even let her meet mom yet! If you’re not serious about it, you should just break up, so you can know how I feel!”

“I am serious about her, and you’re being unreasonable again. You know as well as I that we’re not allowed to bring our partners over and tell them the truth until at least six months.”

“Then why didn’t you do it as soon as the six months were up?!” Mai accused. “I would have!”

“And you’re the reason we have the rule in the first place! Could you imagine what would happen if the whole school found out who we are?!”

“They’d…think we’re cool, and even more people would want to date us?” Mai ventured.

Aria groaned. “No. I mean, in a sense…look, I have a time set up, we’re just working around Amanda’s schedule.”

“When?!” Mai asked.

“Why are you being so pushy? Aren’t you upset over your breakup and wanting comfort?”

“I’m living vicariously through you.” Mai said. “I need to know what it’s like so I can prepare myself for when I bring someone here.”

“You have to hold a partner down for that long first.” Aria reminded her. “What’s your record at this point?”

“Two months.” Mai sighed. “It’s not my fault they can’t handle me!” She leaned further into Aria, getting herself comfortable on Aria’s chest. “Thanks for helping me take my mind off of things, by the way.”

“Of course, that’s what sisters are for.” Aria replied. It was always like this when Mai had a breakup; she would come in upset, and then after only a few minutes of comforting she would be right as rain. It was their senior year of high school, and Aria was sure Mai had gone through at least two dozen partners in that time, so this was something that had become relatively routine for Aria.

“So, when are you bringing Amanda here?” Mai asked. “And why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

“Because I got busy and forgot.” Aria said defensively. “We’re…doing it on the fifth, I think.”

“Isn’t that today?”

Aria blinked, then pulled out her phone and checked the time. “Crap, I have to pick her up in an hour. You gotta help me clean this room up, I can’t have this place all messy when she comes to see it for the first time.”

Mai threw her head back and sighed dramatically. “I can’t, I’m grieving.” She said, “You’ll have to go on without me.”

“You are not getting out of this!” Aria said. “I swear most of this mess is yours, and this isn’t even your room anymore!”

“Fiiiine.” Mai said. “But only because this is important for you.” She rolled off of the bed and began to pick up the various items she had left lying around the room. Aria followed suit, and began to get everything all tidy in preparation for Amanda’s visit.

And, soon enough, the time had come for her to go and pick up her girlfriend. Aria hesitantly slipped on the ring that made her look human, took a deep breath, and went to her mothers’ room.

“Ma, it’s time to go pick up Amanda.” Aria said.

“Ah, good, I was just about to come get you.” Kali replied. “I’ve already got everything ready to go.”

“Thanks, ma.”

Kali donned a ring of her own and led Aria to their teleporter out. After a moment, they materialized a short distance from Amanda’s house, in an area no one was looking at. Teleportation wasn’t too out of the norm anymore, but they were trying to lay low, and their public personas weren’t supposed to be great with magic.

The two walked the couple of minutes it took to get to Amanda’s house, and Aria approached the door, giving a hesitant glance back at Kali.

“It’ll be fine, sweetie.” Kali assured her. “Amanda’s a nice girl, you know that.”

“Yeah, but…nice doesn’t necessarily translate into accepting. I’m just…nervous.” Aria admitted. “This is kind of a lot to dump on someone.”

Their conversation was cut short as the front door opened and Amanda flew out, catching Aria in a big hug. “Aria, I’m so excited!” She said, “So…how are we getting there? Do you have some sort of cool supercar hidden around here or something?”

Aria hugged her back. “No, nothing like that. What…makes you think we’d have something like that laying around?”

Amanda let go of the hug and rolled her eyes. “Please. Mrs. Clements reeks of refinement that you normally don’t see in a teacher, and you’ve been super cagey about your other mom. I’ve been pretty sure she’s some bigshot and you guys are super rich for a couple of months now.”

“Well, we’re not rich, not…exactly.” Aria said. “It’s complicated.”

“No, she’s got a point there.” Kali said. “We are a lot wealthier than you would think, we just never have anything to spend it on, so it never comes up.”

“Wait, really?” Aria replied, dumbfounded. “Since when?!”

“Since before you were born. Between my old job and your mama’s current job, we have way more money than we know what to do with.”

“And you never told me?!”

Kali laughed. “It was never important. Plus, you can already imagine how Mai would act if she knew. Now…we should talk about this more while we’re walking, we might as well get home and talk about it there.”

Amanda grabbed Aria’s hand and began to tow her down the driveway and to where Kali was waiting. “So…we’re walking? Where to?” She asked.

“You’ll see.” Kali said mischievously. “It’s not far, though, just a couple of minutes.”

The group set off back towards where Aria and Kali had teleported in, and Amanda kept up her barrage of questions. “So…how did you not know you’re rich?” She asked. “Surely with the amount of money your mom implied you have, you guys indulge in luxuries, right?”

“We do.” Kali confirmed.

“And you have to know that’s not normal, right?”

“Yeah, but…well, look, it’s complicated. Really complicated. You’ll understand when we get there, but we actually don’t buy anything, not in the traditional way. I know I have a lot of things other people don’t have, but that’s…well, it’s different. Mom just sort of…makes the stuff herself.”

“She…makes it herself? Are we talking about magic?” Amanda asked curiously.

“Basically, yeah.” Aria said.

“Alright, we’re here.” Kali said, ushering the two into a secluded nook just outside of the neighborhood. “Aria, sweetie, will you do the honors?”

Aria blinked. “Uh, yeah, I guess.” She reached into a pocket which had been enchanted with an extradimensional storage, and pulled out a vial of black ink. It wasn’t actually ink; it was some secretion her mother had made for the purpose of making magic circles on…well, almost anything.

She dipped a finger into the ink and expertly sketched out a circle that would bring the three of them back to the dungeon. It was something she had grown used to; Kali often had to stay at school later than Aria and Mai, so Aria had learned how to draw the circle and teleport them, so she and Mai didn’t have to wait.

“You…what?” Amanda asked, confused. “That’s…that’s a good circle.” She said, “The ones you draw in class aren’t anywhere near this good! That’s like…better than the teachers’ stuff, and you drew it way faster, too! Since when could you do this?”

“To be honest? The entire time. I’ve…well, we’ve been hiding a lot from you.” Aria admitted. “Prepare yourself, this is going to feel…weird.” She poured some Mana into the circle and activated it, bringing the group just outside of the dungeon, in the hall Kali had set up for people to teleport into.

Amanda swayed unsteadily for a moment before leaning on Aria. “Where…are we?”

“My house.” Aria replied. “Are you feeling alright?”

Amanda leaned on Aria for a moment more before standing up straight. “Yeah, it’s passing. Um…”

“Let’s get you sat down somewhere before we do any more than this.” Kali said. “This is probably going to be a lot to take in at once.”

“I-I mentally prepared myself!” Amanda insisted. “I can handle it!”

“You’re not prepared.” Kali replied flatly. “Trust me, you’re really not.”

“We have a lot to talk about anyway.” Aria said. “And the couches are comfy, I promise.”

“I…alright.” Amanda replied, allowing herself to be led away from the teleporter.

They made their way to one of the common rooms, which had apparently been cordoned off until Amanda had been brought up to speed. Nuwa had also taken the time to disable the dungeon’s greeting popup so Aria could take things one at a time.

“So…I’m sure you have a lot of questions.” Aria said. “What do you want to know first?”

“Um…where are we?” Amanda asked. “I haven’t seen any windows, and I’m assuming this place isn’t…close, since we had to teleport here.”

“We’re on another plane. It’s, um, a…special plane.” Aria said. “We’re in the underground part of the house right now, so it’s basically impossible to tell.”

“Another plane?” Amanda asked, eyes widening in surprise. “Why…how…how much Mana did teleporting us here take?! And if you live on an entirely separate plane, why do you go to school with us?!”

“Well…I didn’t do any of the optimizations or anything like that, and given where we landed and the number of people I teleported…something like ten or twenty thousand? And we go to this school because it’s where mom went when she was growing up.”

“Ten or twenty…isn’t that like…a lot?!”

Aria scratched the back of her neck sheepishly. “Yeah, I guess it is. I um…well, let’s just say it really isn’t an issue for me.”

Amanda swallowed. “So…I guess the elephant in the room is…who is your other mom, and…well, why are you so…strong?”

Aria fidgeted in place. “Um…she’s…kind of the High Arbiter?”

There was a long silence as Amanda processed that. “But…” she finally said, “you’re human.”

“I…um…technically yes?” Aria said.

“So…you’re not human then?” Amanda replied. “Not one hundred percent, anyway.”

“Umm…define one hundred percent?”

Amanda sighed. “Let’s back up. What, exactly is your species?”

Aria twisted the ring on her finger nervously, then slid it off. “Perfect Chimera?” She ventured.

“So…that means there are six of you around now? Seven if Mai is too?”

Aria shook her head. “Mai is, but…well, it’s a long story, but we’re basically reincarnations of Errus and Mai. Mai, was, of course, Mai, but I was…well, you know.”

There was another long pause, this time broken by Aria. “I’m sorry. I really didn’t want to keep it from you, but…we couldn’t afford to give out our secrets so easily, not with how Mai is. So, we had to lay down some ground rules that would go for both of us, in the spirit of fairness. Please don’t hate me.”

Amanda sighed. “Look, I get it, but it doesn’t make it…sting less, you know? I thought we were being completely open about ourselves, but…”

“I’m really not Errus, not really!” Aria said quickly. “I mean, I was, but…look, it’s a long story, and the summary is that I only have fragments of his memory, and our personalities are radically different. I’m an entirely new person now.”

“It’s not that. I don’t really care about that.” Amanda said. “It’s the…spirit of the thing.”

“Please don’t be too harsh on her.” Kali said. “She really did want to tell you earlier. She begged Lilith and I, but we were strict. We had to make sure you were someone that could be trusted,” she paused briefly before correcting herself, “trusted as much as any kid can be trusted. This was the first opportunity she had to tell you, and she did so. Doesn’t that count for something?”

“I suppose it does.” Amanda admitted. “But…that leaves me with another question. You’re not human either, are you? Would you be…”

Kali took off her ring. “The Administrator? Yes.”

“And…you’ve spent almost four years teaching psychology at a random high school because…?”

Kali shrugged. “Because, to be frank, I don’t have much better to do. Keeping the universe maintained takes remarkably little attention, and it would help ease my mind to have someone keeping an eye on my daughters.”

“So…you became a teacher.”

“I figured…well, why not? It gives me something better to do than just sit on my hands all day.”

“Where’s the money come into this, though?” Aria asked.

“Oh, that. You know I used to be a Council member, and turns out being one of the top government officials comes with a hefty salary. And Eve is one of the world’s premier adventurers right now, so she’s raking in the dough.”

“Oh yeah, that reminds me, you know Carmen?” Aria asked.

“She lives here too. Her and her parents. They go way back with mom, and after everything happened, they ended up moving in. We’ve got the room for it, so…we figured why not, you know?”

“Yet you don’t spend any money.” Amanda said. “How?”

“Because I make everything in-house.” Lilith replied, walking in through one of the other doors. “This whole place is my dungeon, and as such, I can make almost anything here. In fact, I’ve decked this place out with almost every imaginable luxury, just because I can.”

“Ah, u-um…nice to meet you, ma’am, I-I’m Amanda.” Amanda said, suddenly sitting up straighter.

“Just Mrs. Clements is fine.” Lilith said. “And it’s a pleasure to formally meet you as well. We’ve actually met before, believe it or not.”

“We have?” Amanda said.

“We have.” Lilith confirmed. “Around the time you started dating Aria, I dropped by in disguise and had a relatively lengthy chat with you. I do that with all of my daughters’ partners, just to make sure we don’t get any real scumbags trying to take advantage of them somehow.”

Amanda shivered a bit. “And if I had…failed this test or whatever it was?”

“Then I would have let you go on your way and warned Aria about you.” Lilith said. “At the end of the day, it’s your relationship, not mine. Now, if it was still going six months in, I probably wouldn’t let you come meet me, but I doubt things would ever get that bad.”

Amanda nodded. “I’m…sorry if this is an insensitive question, but…what happens if Aria and I break up? This seems like kind of a big secret to just…let people walk around knowing.”

“Then we modify your memories so you won’t remember all of this, just a regular family. You won’t even be able to tell the difference, so don’t worry about it. Obviously, we would prefer to not have to do that, but, as you said, it’s too big a secret to let out.

“But, until the time comes when the status quo changes, you’re welcome here anytime. Aria, why don’t you show her around and get her used to the place? I’m sure you can find something to do.”

Aria nodded, grabbing Amanda’s hand and pulling her up. “So…do you want to start with the living area, the recreational area, or the training area?”

“How…big is this place?”

“Big enough that we use teleport pads because walking everywhere tires you out too quickly.” Aria responded. “So…at least as big as the school. It’s kind of hard to keep track with how much things can change and how rarely we actually walk end to end instead of teleporting.”

“And…where are we now?”

“Residential space. One of the common rooms, to be precise.”

“Let’s…um, start there, then?”

“Perfect.” Aria replied, giving Amanda a smile. “Let’s go, then!”

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Present day...

“What do you think they’re going to be like when they’re grown up?” Kali asked, looking down at the sleeping forms of Aria and Mai.

“I’m sure we’ll raise them to be fine young ladies.” Lilith said. “I was thinking we would send them to school with Carmen, what do you think?”

“Sounds like a great idea.” Kali replied, leaning over and giving Lilith a peck on the cheek. “We’ll have to do a little messing around to get it to all work out and not reveal that you’re their mom, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out.”

Lilith chuckled, pulling Kali in close. “I think I know just the thing.”

“Oh?” Kali replied, raising an eyebrow. “Do tell.”

“Remember back when I first joined Tunem’s academy? There was a ring that let me hide my non-human features. I’m sure we can whip up something like that for them, too.”

“Sounds like a plan, then. Now…we’ve got some unexpected free time due to not having to figure that out…what say you we have a little…fun?”

Lilith swept Kali off of her feet, carefully leaving the room and shutting the door behind her. “I say you’re on.”