Transcendence?

***Norfolk, Sarn-Valley***

***Ascathon***

“~Do you want another piece of cake honey?~”

“Äh, sure?”

“~Say *Aaa*.~”

I am sitting at our kitchen table with Celestial directly beside me. Her personality changed completely from yesterday to tomorrow. She is even feeding pieces of chocolate cake to me.

It can't be that the little insight into her plans was everything that was needed? Sera just spilled ten sentences about her thoughts to me! Can it really be that Celestial is the type who completely forgets the past just over one successful night?

My eyes stroll into Sera's direction, who is grinning at us. I know that she pulled some strings! I simply know it! But should I really pry into the matter? To be honest, I like the meek, nice and loving Celestial. My instincts tell me that I could either be happy about the situation, or lose something important to me.

On the other hand, having her sitting right beside me instead at the opposite side of the table feels strange. Her parents and the kids are looking at us like they have a ghost right in front of them.

Just my mother is oblivious to Celestial's changed attitude. She isn't in my house for long enough to be aware of how unusual the current situation is.

I used the time during the few weeks to talk to her a little more. From her point of view, she was just the obeying wife to my father. It wasn't like she liked his actions, but she also never stood up to him. Unfortunately there are plenty of people like her.

If you never stand up for yourself in your life, you will never find happiness. At least she seems to be a good influence on Violetta. Sera is also widening her influence on the other two youngsters in the house.

Though that may be a little more troublesome than she anticipated. Violetta and Liandra dove into life threatening training exercises when they started to fear for their positions. That's what they are telling everyone who asks them about their training.

I am afraid to send them to a real school by now. They would probably be disappointed with their teachers and realize how far ahead of their own generation they are. Then they would surely become delinquents and establish a gang or something like that.

“I will excuse myself for now. There is still some work waiting for me in my laboratory. I want it done before Kane and his girlfriend arrive.” I smile at everyone.

“Kane and Tanith are coming!? I haven't heard anything!” Celestial sits straighter and looks at me.

“Ah, I forgot to tell you. There was so much going on. And Kane had much to do himself. The chaos all around the world is a nightmare for his family's trading empire. But he will most likely invite us to his marriage with Tanith. Their kid is almost one year old already. It's a boy.” I smirk at Sera, who stiffens suddenly.

Yeah... that's right! You didn't forget it. Let's see if the boy looks promising.

I turn, leaving the others behind and head directly towards my lab. At my destination, I enter the workshop for my big projects. In the middle of the room is my new armour. I lose no time and start working on the magical circuitry which is embedded between the metal plates.

The armour looks like a strange mixture of a modern day fighting suit and a medieval full body armour. The face-mask has four blue glowing crystals instead of eyes. It looks dangerous and inhuman, but that's intended. I want my enemies to fear me.

In the centre of the chest piece is the blue glowing mana crystal, which was created through an accident. I put all my efforts into researching the circumstances of its creation. By now I am quite sure that I can create new mana crystals, but I am not ready yet.

The magical power to create just one small mana crystal is enormous. I would have to fry another big mana core like the ones in my flying ships. The chance of a failure has stopped me from trying to do so. Maybe if I had a huge fleet of ships.

But right now with enemies all around us, I don't want to give up on a single ship. There is the problem with getting a firm hold of Norfolk too. The nobles might hold still for the moment, but there is no way to tell if I am not facing a civil war.

The need to beat them them into submission may still arise.

I continue to work on my suit until someone taps my shoulder and I look up. “Celestial. I didn't hear you enter?” I look back to the entrance.

“You are too absorbed into your work. Kane and Tanith are here. Uwah! This thing looks really nasty! Do you want to become some sort of action hero?”

I look at the suit. “No way! It just happens to look that way. Everything is pure functionality!” Well,  except for the eyes. I made them look evil on purpose. “Do you want one too?” I grin at her. “Maybe with spikes and big knuckles to crush your enemies? I wouldn't need to pay attention to its weight at all! You could carry armour with ten times the size of this one!”

Celestial crushes my dreams by shaking her head. “I want to be able to move! And my battle aura is more than enough protection.”

“Then weapons? Or do you always intend to crush our enemies with big and heavy objects?” I refer to my brother and the disobedient king.

“Crushing them with something heavy proved effective so far. And if you want to invest time in something for me, I would prefer two big daggers or short swords.” She grabs my hand and turns to leave while pulling me with her.

“Is something wrong?” I smile at her while following.

“Sera told me that you are intending to marry her off to the son of Kane?” She continues to walk and I finally understand where the wind is blowing from.

“And you don't like the idea of an arranged marriage?” I conclude.

“No. Not for Sera. She did very much for us. It would be bad manners if we forced something onto her which she doesn't like.” Celestial leaves the lab with me.

“I never said that I would force her into anything. She is an immortal like us and can make her own decisions. I was just teasing her. And if she has someone else to play with, her attention might deviate from us.” I try to defend my reasoning.

“You mean she would become less troublesome?” Celestial stops for a moment while thinking. Then she starts to walk again. “You may have a point.”

We enter the living room where I find Kane, Tanith and Sera. Tanith is on the couch with a one year old baby on her lap while Sera is beside her, looking at the baby with dubious eyes.

Kane turns towards us and spreads his arms when he sees me. We hug each other.

“Long time no see. Can't you finally change your headquarters to Sarn?” I smile at him after ending the greeting.

“That's troublesome, my family always tried to have as many independent offices as possible. Maybe I will do it in the future. Norfolk seems to be the last peaceful place which is available to me. And I even know the rulers of the damn country now. Hahaha...” He laughs heartily.

“So you have heard?” Celestial folds her hands and smiles.

“Yeah. He told me everything. Actually he was quite happy about the outcome.” Kane nods and Celestial's expression drops which causes him to change the topic.

“Actually, I am here to invite you two to my marriage with Tanith. I hope you still have the time for an event like that?”

“Of course.” Celestial smiles at Tanith who waves at us.

“And there is one other matter in which we want your advice. It's quite serious for us.” He turns and looks back at Sera and the baby.

Don't tell me that he has qualms about our little agreement? I understand that Sera is something like a princess now. But still.

Sera looks towards us. “I changed my mind. He is cute and after thinking over it for some time, I came to the conclusion that it's better to start training them young. Changing their behaviour to your preferences early should be easier than to wait until they are adults.”

Everyone looks at Sera who just spouted an incredible line.

The baby looks at Sera from Tanith's lap.

“I am not some kind of pet!”

The room becomes silent after the baby talked and it's the first time I see Sera with a shocked expression.

Kane turns back to me. “That's the matter I need your advice with.”

.