With dinner and the stories over, Empress Jevoi rings a phantom bell. "Let us retire then," she says, "As promised, I have agents ready to accompany you to bed, Mum."
Ling feels arms grab onto hers: lithe arms, yet a firm grasp; two people, nearly identical. Ling turns to see one then then the other.
They are a pair of vrow, but subtle traits in the eyes, brow, and ears hint at orc descent. They have a slight green tint to their violet skin,long raven hair, and shimmering yellow eyes. Both are clad in leotards with long gloves and boots and masks covering their mouths. One is in purple, the other pink.
"G'day," says Ling, "Didn't think ya were real."
"I made a promise," says Jevoi. She gestures to the ladies. "You know what to do."
"G'night, Dalini," says Ling as they haul her away, "Got some wizarding to do."
"G'night, Nana," yells Dalini, lifting her face off of her plate. "Have fun with your friends." She resumes sucking the plate clean.
After Ling has been removed from the room, Jevoi sighs. "This was a terrible mistake."
"It's not going to work," says Angustias.
"No," says Jevoi, alert again, "I mean the cake." She points to Dalini jittering about, now trying to eat the plate.
The dining hall is a grand display: many lengthy tables, elaborate chandeliers, fancy crystal 'candles', and cushioned chairs. Jevoi sits at the head of the table with Angustias on her right. Dalini sits on the left with an unimpressed Ling beside her.
Ling looks down the table into the empty room. "Where's the rest of them?" she asked.
"We're eating earlier than usual," says Jevoi, "I don't want to overwhelm Dalini."
"Don't want to be seen with me," accuses Ling, "Or want my eyes on ya?"
Before Jevoi can respond, a chime rings out and four covered plates float to the table.
"Eh, what's this display for?" asks Ling, "Why not some bloke?"
Jevoi pauses, as if realizing something, but disregards it.
The group uncover their food: Angustias has massive steak, Jevoi and Dalini have fruit salads with snails, and Ling has a large insect.
"Dire roach!" says Ling, "Ripper, the lobster of land." She breaks off a leg and begins sucking the meat out.
Dalini begins scooping fruit into her mouth by hand.
"Use a spoon, please," says Jevoi, pointing to the by Dalini's bowl, "It's rude to use your hands like that, Dalini."
"Okay," says Dalini, picking up the spoon and carefully trying to pick up the pieces.
"The fork may be more useful," says Angustias, cutting up the meat before her.
As Dalini stabs a strawberry, she asks, "So how did you meet?"
Jevoi swallows a bite of food and coughs. "That's- that's a bit of a story."
"We got time, Jevoi," says Ling, cracking open the roach's carapace, "And we got a third witness here too."
Gank briefly flickers behind Jevoi with a malicious grin, as Jevoi sighs. "I suppose we shouldn't keep it a secret."
Jevoi emerges from the bathroom speaking, "Now, get ready; she's right outside this door." She looks out to Angustias and licks her own eye.
Angustias prepares herself as Dalini steps out with Jevoi. Dalini is wearing an adorable pink dress with a little ribbon tied around her neck.
Dalini stops when she sees the snake-butted demon. "Wuuuuh?"
"Hello, little one," says Angustias, attempting to smile in a way that doesn't look like she's plotting murder, "I am Queen Angustias Maria Lilith Kun, bride of Empress Kun Jevoi, and thus," she lies her serpent body down to get closer to Dalini, "Your mother... er, other mother."
Dalini stares at Angustias; it's an unreadable expression that the gex are quite good at. "What are you?" she asks, "You're really pretty."
Angustias attempts to laugh in a way that doesn't sound she's committing murder. "I'm a marilith, a divine warrior, and that makes you," she says, then scooping Dalini up, "My little soldier." She tickles the princess.
To the side, Jevoi eyes Ling, who sits quietly. Too quietly. She projects a message into Ling's mind, 'Nothing to say, Mum? Not ruining the moment?'
'Don't have to,' Ling projects back, 'That whirlwind of rage will f**k this up eventually.'
'What makes you think that?' projects Jevoi, as Angustias spins around with Dalini laughing in her arms.
'Demons change when they change,' projects Ling, 'She's still war incarnate.'
'Proof?' projects Jevoi, walking up to her wife and daughter. They join in a hug. 'Or superstitious hearsay?'
'Seen it myself,' projects Ling, fiddling with her orb again, 'Succubus learned to love people became an angel.'
"Nana Ning," says Dalini from between her moms, "Come here too."
Angustias sneaks a look of disgust to Jevoi, who shakes her head ever so slightly.
"Hold on, Da," says Ling, standing up, hat covering her eyes, "Aren't ya hungry? Your mum mentioned a chef."
"Right," says Jevoi, releasing the hold, "How about we prepare for dinner?"
"We'll be right outside," says Jevoi to Dalini, "If you need me, just speak up." She exits the room and scowls at Ling.
"Sorry, I don't have fancy pipes," mocks Ling, "Apocalypse is happening."
"It's not about the toilet, Mum," snaps Jevoi, "You're a wizard; you have magic."
"Always thinking magic'll solve everything." Ling shakes her head. "Never thinking about the consequences."
"You don't think it's terrible conditions you were raising her in?" asks Jevoi.
Ling walks over to the little table and stares at the mock tea set. "Better conditions that Nana Ning had... minus the eternal freezing night. At least I've done a better job than Nana Ting."
"Ting?" Jevoi's caught off-guard. "You've never told me anything about Ting."
"How could I?" laughs Ling, "I never met her."
Suddenly, the door from the hall opens and six-armed elf-esque woman with a serpentine lower body slithers into the room. She's wearing a green sweater and, for the brief moment that she was entering the room, a smile. But then, she saw Ling. Now, the smile is gone; replaced with rage.
"YOU!?" yells the raven-haired demon, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!? I"LL KILL YOU!" She conjures six swords and advances toward the wizard. "I'LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU!"
Ling sighs in resignation. "Not expecting to be forgiven, demon."
Jevoi jumps in front of the swordswoman. "Calm down, Angustias, my queen."
"Why are you stopping me?" asks Angustias, her eyes still trained on the wizard, "Why did you bring her here?"
"You know why," says Jevoi, pushing the swords down, "I want her dead too, but do you want to explain to your daughter why Nana Ling had to die?" Jevoi grabs the bronzed amazon's face and forces their eyes to meet. "She doesn't even know you yet. Don't lose sight of what matters, my queen."
Angustias drops her weapons, which fade away, and picks up Jevoi in six-armed hug. "Of course, my empress." The demon's eye briefly twitches in pain and she makes a threatening gesture toward Ling with one hand.
"Mum!" yells Dalini from the bath, "What do I do now?"
Jevoi dismounts her wife and races to the door. She hops quickly in place, alternating legs. "Oh, I'm going to help my daughter get dressed for the first time!" she squeals before calmly walking the door.
"She's stoked about this mum s***e, isn't she?" asks Ling.
"Don't f*****g talk to me," says Angustias, trying to figure out how to pose her arms in loving, motherly way.
The empress steps forth from a magical gate into a circular room decorated simplistically in black and gold. The wizard entering behind her recognizes the design instantly. This chamber is glorified teleportation room... and yet her daughter brought her here through a gate.
"The rest of palace is protected from external spatially effects," says Jevoi, "No teleporting into the throne room, or such nonsense."
Jevoi leads Dalini, whose eyes are wide and wandering, and Ling, whose eyes are narrow and plotting, through the door. The guards in dark armor on the other side salute their empress as she leads her family down the hall.
"Was it really a good idea to bring me here?" asks Ling, scanning the structure of the palace: the trims, the scones, the door, anything and everything. "What an oppressive atmosphere," she mutters.
"We can settle our issues later, Mum," says Jevoi, marching confidently, "Dalini comes first."
"Wait, was it?" asks Dalini, hopping after, "Where are we going?"
"Hold on," says Jevoi, sweetly, before her voice turns serious as she singles out an elven maid in the hallway, "You, inform the queen of my return and of our daughter's arrival." As the maid, takes off. Jevoi yells, "And the head chef. Inform him as well!" She continues marching. "Mum, don't stare at the servants' legs."
"Was not," mutters Ling, "Why the cute little dresses?"
Jevoi leads the duo to a door and leans down to Dalini. "Now, I had to make several assumptions," she says, "So if there's anything you want changed, we can be replace it." She stands up and opens the door, "Because this is your room, and it should be what you want it to be."
The room was bigger than the entirety of Ling's old home/lab. Fluffy white and soft pink with a few pastels of other colors stand in sharp contrast to the dark, foreboding palace halls. The walls are painted with a cloud motif. A simply massive bed sits opposite the door. A pile of stuffed toys and dolls lie in the left corner by the bed and a bedside table in the right. On the table is a black and gold bell. A mostly bare bookshelf stands in center of the left wall. There are a pair of doors on the right wall; one open: a closet. In the center of the room, under a fancy light, is a small table and chairs, with a mock tea set upon it.
Dalini stares, overwhelmed, unable to speak.
Jevoi takes her hand and gently walks her into the room. She flashes a smug look over her shoulder at Ling.
"This is-s-s my roooom?" asks Dalini.
"That's right," says her mother, leading her to the closet that has several dresses hung inside, "All of this belongs to you. So pick one out and let's get you clean."
Dalini picks out the pink dress in the center, her expression still mixed between disbelief and ecstasy, "I LOVE IT SO MUCH!"
Jevoi stops her daughter from removing her current clothes. "Wait, you need to take a bath first." She gestures with her head to the other door.
Dalini runs over to it and throws it open. It leads to an immaculate bathroom.
"Now, can you take a bath by yourself?" asks Jevoi leading her to the tub, "Do you know how these work?" She points to the knobs by the faucet. When her daughter shakes her head, Jevoi shows her what each part does.
"What's the bowl-chair for?" asks Dalini, as the tub fills with water.
Jevoi takes a few seconds to ruminate the implications of that question and scowls at Ling standing at the doorway. "How have you become worse at this, Mum?"
"Wait," says Jevoi, standing, "Are you telling me that we only started hanging out because my mum was paying you?"
Gank floats up to Jevoi, mimes the act of putting an arm over her shoulders, and laughs, "Ya think I was your friend immediately after I knocked ya out?" As Jevoi's face falls, Ganks continues, "I think ya know exactly when we became friends."
A little laugh comes out of Jevoi. "I think I do."
"Ripper," says Ling, "Now ya can leave."
"Do you think I'm going to leave just because we told a few stories?" asks Jevoi, stepping toward Ling.
"Do ya think I'm letting her leave just 'cause we did?" asks Ling, remaining on her chair.
"Family drama," mutters Gank, "I'm out." The ghost fades back into Jevoi's body.
"Why can't we go, Nana Ling?" asks Dalini, "I want to know what's going on."
Ling grimaces, then sighs. "I suppose," she says, looking at Jevoi, "That's really the only way forward."
"Great," says Jevoi, opening a magic gate beside her, "Come along then. You're going to love this, Dalini; I have so much to show you." She looks at Ling, who is slowly standing, and says, "And you too, Mum. Much to show you."
Dalini hops over to the door and Ling stumbles toward it. The wizard takes one last look at the ruins of her old home before following her family through the portal.
The three geckos remain sitting around the old brick house. The empress on her conjured throne, her daughter on the conjured stool, and her mother, the wizard, on her molded dirt chair.
"So, what happened next?" asks Dalini, "What did Gank do?"
Ling tips the brim of her violet wizard hat up to eye her daughter. "Yeah," she asks in a mock tone, "Who can continue the yarn?"
Jevoi rolls her eyes, "Oh, that would be-"
"ME!" yells a specter bursting out of Jevoi's body. The ghost of a four-armed lizard woman leaps into Dalini's face.
"A GHOST!" shrieks Dalini, running out of the room, crying.
"Gank!" yells Jevoi, "You said you were going to do something cool."
"That was cool," says Gank, floating back to Jevoi, "Look."
The adults peer over to Dalini hiding behind the doorframe. The young gecko is shivering in her tattered brown dress.
"No, Gank," says Jevoi, "What would have been cool was you saying, 'Hey,' from the doorway or while sitting next to her. Walking up from the wrong angle. We've been over this."
"I saw an opportunity and I took it," says Gank, crossing all of her arms smugly.
"Gank?" asks Dalini, slowly sneaking back to the group, "You're her friend?" Dalini looks the ghastly charda up and down. "Are you dead? ...Are you my other mother?"
"Yes. Yes," Gank says with a nod, "And NO." Firm head shake. "Your mom's already told you where she is. D'ya forget?"
"Why were you in my mum?" ask Dalini.
"That's where she lives now," says Ling. She waves to Gank, "How's unlife in my daughter treating ya? Speaking of, how's the missus feel 'bout it? Sharing her wife's a**e?"
"This is not an appropriate topic," says Jevoi, raising her hands in offense, "For several reasons, Mum."
"Same old, same old, Doc. Ling," says Gank, "And that's not a problem since-"
"STOP!" says Jevoi, clamping Gank's ghost mouth shut, "We're not talking about this!" She points at Ling. "You are the worst."
"So, what happened when you beat up my mum?" asks Dalini, now on the stool again.
"Yes, continue the story," says Jevoi, sitting down, "Please, anything else, right now."
"You think I'll let you keep her in this hovel?" asks Jevoi, her eyes scanning the broken shelves and piles of refuse in the corners.
"As much as ya'd think I'd let ya take her to your fortress," says Ling.
"I'm willing to let YOU in," Jevoi's voice rises as small flames sparkle around her briefly, "I have a lab and a library."
"And I do not care."
Jevoi pauses. Her face slipping back into a smug malevolence. "There's also a pair of half-orc-"
"No."
"-Vrow twin-"
"NO."
"-Princess assassins-"
"n-n-no."
"-and their girlfriends are just dying to meet you."
The old lizard hissed and rasped. "Ya- ya- ya can't get me that easy." Ling pulls her hat down over her face.
"What else do you want?" Jevoi swings her arm into air. "Why would you rather live in trash?"
"This trash," seethes Ling, removing her hat, "Was your home. I spent half my life in this house and ya spent most of yours." She hops to her feet. "I built it. My life's work was done here." The room itself begins to shake. "Work ya destroyed."
Jevoi's eyes track Dalini, scurrying toward the back door. "Let's stay calm, Mum," she says, "We can still fix this. It's not too late. You don't know how many of your old friends are working for me now."
"Like who?" Ling scoffs, "Melandria? You think she's good for a brain?"
"She kept your old notes," says Jevoi, gesturing over to the glowing pod, "But there's so many others."
"Fine," says Ling, sitting down as the room stops shaking, "But first I need to tell ya 'bout how I met her."
"Why?" asks Jevoi.
"Story time!" shouts Dalini, racing back toward the fire.
"She's the first one to fund this," says Ling, "And we promised Dalini a yarn. So, sit down."
Jevoi summons an elaborate cushioned black throne to sit on; Dalini lies on the floor. "Oh, no," says the Empress, "Don't sit on the floor." She summons a matching stool which her daughter throws herself onto.
"Righto," says Ling, puffing up the fire, "Here's how I met the Shadow Queen."
"Do ya remember," asks Ling to Dalini, "What I told ya about the sun?"
"Yeah," says the little one, releasing her grip on the wizard's robe, "The sun used to shoot light of the hole in it: shoosh." She wiggles her arms in front of her. "And it span around and around: woooo woooo woooo." The older geckos watched her twirl about. "But you didn't say why it stopped," she said, pouting and no longer rotating.
"Should we tell her?" asks Ling, "Why doesn't the sun shine?"
Jevoi scowls. "Sure, let's tell her... exactly why. Let's tell her everything about that happened that day." Jevoi's face contorted into a wicked smile. "Let's not leave out a single detail."
Ling looked away. "Maybe it's too soon."
Dalini hopped around into Ling's view. "But you said-"
Ling raised her hand. "That story's too... long."
"Dalini," says Jevoi, "We can tell that story later, like after you come home." She cracks a little smile. "Do you know what a palace is?"
Dalini shakes her head.
"It's a big castle filled with all sorts of things. We can go there and you can meet your other mother, my wife. We can get you new clothes and your own room and anything you want to put in it."
Dalini's eyes sparkle in the light. She inhaled an audible gasp.
"She isn't going," says Ling, "Without me."
"Very w-"
"I'm not going, so rack off."
The wizard's daughter loosened her posture as she stared into the dark backroom. "Please, come out here," she says, her eyes aglow.
At the sound of shuffling behind the wizard, the old gecko sighs, "Fine, do it."
A smaller gecko in a ragged brown dress scurries quickly next to, and hides behind, the wizard. "Nana Ling," she whispers, "Who is that?"
"Don't act like ya weren't listening," says the wizard Ling, her focus still on her own daughter.
Said daughter takes a few steps forward, around the fire, and leans down. "I'm Jevoi, your mother," she says, smiling for the first time in months. "What's your name?"
The little gecko leans out from behind Ling and looks at her nana. Upon seeing a faint nod, she says, "Dalini. My name's Dalini."
"Dalini," Jevoi repeats, "What a beautiful name: Princess Dalini." Dalini tilts her head in confusion. In response, Jevoi stands tall again. "That's right," she says, "I am the Dead Sun Empress, ruler of the Inner Dark." She pauses, looking over her little doppelganger. "And that makes you-"
Ling scoffs. "Still trying to rename Inner Glow?"
"It hasn't glowed in eight years, Mum," says Jevoi, her eyes darting to the wizard's bone-infused hat rim which masks her.
"And whose fault is that, Jevoi?" asks Ling, leaning back so that Jevoi could see her face again, the face they share.