For the first time since Ceres Evadne arrived in Aquilonis, the Empress Palace rang with laughter and unrestrained joy.
The royal indoor pool, an opulent feature Tuf had added when he reconstructed the palace, was alive with splashes and giggles. And at the heart of it all was Ceres, surrounded by her ten demi-human children.
Except for Alpha and Orso, who stood guard by the edge of the pool like silent sentinels, the others were in the water with her, splashing, racing, teasing. The Empress, dressed in what the conservative nobles of Aquilonis would undoubtedly deem scandalous, a swimsuit, seemed completely at ease. As if this chaotic, joy-filled moment was what she had been waiting for all her life.
And maybe it was.
Later that night, they gathered for a grand family feast.
The dining hall was filled with the aroma of roasted meats and sweet bread, the clinking of silverware, and the relentless banter of siblings catching up with their mother after lifetimes apart.
The younger ones took turns bragging to her, showing off their skills, recounting their roles in Velrathis, and trying to outdo one another in wit and charm. And, of course, Tuf never missed a beat in stirring chaos.
"No, she's mine!" Pixie shouted as Tuf tried to pull her away from Ceres's lap.
"Nope. I found her first. I call dibs," Tuf smirked as he leaned in to kiss Ceres on the cheek, only to block Pixie with his hand when she tried to do the same.
"Stop teasing your sister," Ceres laughed, playfully swatting Tuf's arm.
Soon enough, the others joined in on the mischief. It was a chaotic, delightful mess. For the humans of Aquilonis, it was a marvel, how a twenty-three-year-old Empress could mother beings who are far older than her. Some ancient, some wild, some calm as stone. But when they looked at her… there was no denying it.
They were hers.
And she was theirs.
The resemblance, the familiarity, the love, it was in every glance, every smile, every jab and joke exchanged between them.
But like all perfect moments… this too had to end.
Dinner faded into night. And it was Pixie who had the final victory. As the adults had to return to Velrathis.
"Bye-bye. Bleh!" Pixie stuck her tongue out triumphantly at her older siblings, especially Tuf, who scowled as the others laughed.
"Mother, this is unfair!" Tuf grumbled. "Tell Father I'm staying in your custody. He can pay child support."
Ceres chuckled. "Knowing your father? He might make you pay child support instead, for your siblings. These kids are staying here, you know. You better send their allowance regularly. Aquilonis isn't that rich."
"Neko's rich," Tuf pointed at his younger brother.
"Not as rich as you," Neko replied coolly.
"That's enough," Ceres smiled, gently waving her hand. "All adults, time to go home. Keep your father company. He needs you."
"Goodbye, Mother," Alpha said, embracing her with quiet affection and placing a kiss on her cheek. One by one, Orso, Nugget, Peanut, Tuf, and Luna followed, each goodbye different, but equally full of love.
"Neko," Alpha added before leaving, "You're in charge."
Neko gave a double thumbs-up, confident and calm as ever.
"You're always welcome here," Ceres said, her eyes sweeping over all of them. "Come back anytime your father allows it. I know he needs you now… but I'll be waiting."
"We're leaving Comet with you, Mother," Luna added as she stepped closer. "I know you have Seiryu, but just in case... Comet and Cosmo share a twinlink. If something happens, we'll know immediately. And frankly, I doubt your human attendants can handle these rascals alone."
"Thank you, kitten," Ceres whispered, pulling her into a tight embrace.
Then Vivi raised her hand and summoned a portal. The familiar shimmer cast shadows over the walls as it opened.
And of course, Tuf couldn't leave without one last dramatic display.
"MOTHER!!!" he howled, reaching for her as Orso effortlessly lifted him with one arm and dragged him toward the portal.
Ceres shook her head, laughing softly at her son's antics as Vivi finally closed the portal behind them.
"Now that it's just us left," Ceres said, glancing at the children still with her, Pixie in her arms, with Vivi, Milo, and Neko flanking her like loyal shadows, "a little birdie told me there's something called a video game in Velrathis… How about we play that in my room?"
"Yeah!" they all shouted in unison, their eyes sparkling with excitement.
Moments later, the grand Empress Bedchamber turned into a chaotic yet heartwarming playground. Comet, ever efficient, set up the sleek Velrathian console and holographic screen with practiced ease. The human workers could only watch in baffled awe, this level of magitech was something beyond even their wildest imaginings.
Even Seiryu, Delphine, Arwen, and Legion stood silently near the chamber's edge, watching the glowing interface. None of them had ever seen anything like it.
And so they played.
They screamed. They laughed. They lost and demanded rematches. Neko showed off his reflexes. Milo and Vivi argued like siblings born minutes apart. Pixie took over Ceres's lap like it was a throne, commanding her character with squeals and kicks.
They played until exhaustion claimed them.
Thanks to Seiryu, Ceres's bed had been magically expanded to twice its size. Now, it easily accommodated the Empress and her four demi-human children, tangled up in soft blankets, limbs flung over one another like puppies in a pile.
But even after they had all fallen asleep… Ceres could not.
She lay in the center, surrounded by the warmth of her children, yet her thoughts drifted elsewhere. To everything that had happened. Everything that shouldn't have happened. And yet did.
It all felt too surreal. Too precious.
She was afraid that when morning came, she would wake up and realize it had all been a dream. That Zeus hadn't reached through the portal. That her children hadn't come. That this new peace was just a fantasy her heart had conjured to soothe itself.
Unable to bear the weight of it, Ceres rose quietly, careful not to wake anyone, and stepped out to the veranda. The cold air kissed her skin, but she didn't mind. Her eyes lifted to the horizon, but unlike before, they weren't drawn to the moon.
They were drawn to the Black Tower.
Where he was.
Where Zeus was.
She wondered if he, too, was awake. If he stood on his own tower's balcony looking back at her. If he felt the same pull.
Ceres smiled at the thought.
And as the warmth bloomed in her chest, she realized just how deeply she had fallen. How far she had come from that woman who first met him with narrowed eyes and quiet contempt.
If someone had told her then that she would feel this for him now, she would've laughed.
Mocked them.
And yet… here she stood.
Still smiling, still lost in thought, she noticed something below.
Down in the Empress Garden, a shadow moved.
It was Delphine.
She was standing still, her gaze fixed on the very same Black Tower.
Ceres's smile turned softer.
Of all the people she owed thanks to, she hadn't yet said it to Delphine. Not properly. Not with the weight it deserved. Because without her presence in the Black Tower… the experiment, the message to Zeus, everything, they might not have worked.
Quietly, Ceres left her room and walked down into the moonlit garden.
Delphine didn't hear her approach. Her mind seemed far away. Her stance was still, her expression unreadable.
"Can't sleep either?" Ceres asked gently as she reached her, draping a warm blanket over Delphine's shoulders. "You were so deep in thought, you didn't even hear me coming."
Delphine stiffened slightly before turning, her face filled with surprise and something else, guilt.
"I'm sorry, Your Highness," she said quickly, lowering her gaze.
"It's fine." Ceres reached out, cupping her shoulder, then pulling her into a hug.
"Thank you," she whispered.
Delphine's arms returned the embrace slowly. "For what… Your Highness?"
"For all of this." Ceres's voice cracked with quiet emotion. "This moment. This day. None of it would've been possible if you hadn't been there. You were part of the reason I was able to reach him. I know I don't say thank you enough. And I've kept things from you. From Legion. But please know… I am where I am today because the two of you never left my side."
Tears slipped from her eyes, and she didn't hide them.
"I'm grateful for that. More than I'll ever be able to say."
Delphine froze in her arms. A knot formed in her throat, because this embrace, this kindness, this gratitude, it hurt.
Because buried beneath her loyalty… was a secret.
And a longing she had no right to feel.
One that would never be spoken.
"You don't need to thank me, Your Highness," Delphine said at last, gently pulling away and wiping the tears from Ceres's face before wiping her own.
"I'm just glad…" she forced a smile, "that you found each other again. You two deserve it."
Ceres smiled again at Delphine's words, her gaze lingering on her face.
She gently guided Delphine to sit beside her on the garden bench, positioned directly in front of the Black Tower. The cool night air wrapped around them, silent and reverent, like even the world was listening.
"Tell me about him," Ceres said softly, her voice threaded with a deep, aching longing. Her eyes shimmered under the moonlight, fixed on the tower in the distance.
Delphine looked at her, then at the dark spire that loomed beyond the horizon.
"He looks like Tuf," she began, her voice slow and careful, "but a little older. Younger than Alpha… but more calm. More mature in how he thinks. He looks at people like he's peering straight into their soul."
Ceres didn't speak, but Delphine understood. She wanted to hear more. Needed to.
Delphine continued quietly, "He spoils the Regent as much as he can. Always. Though we seldom saw him inside the Black Tower itself. According to the Regent, he stays in his bedchamber most of the time. But the first time we saw him... he looked lost. Like something vital was missing."
Ceres slowly turned back to her, eyes now glassy again.
"But after Luna told him… told him that you were their mother… yesterday… he looked better," Delphine smiled faintly, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. "He actually dressed up. Just in case he could see you."
A long, quiet moment stretched between them. The kind of silence too heavy for words.
"I'm sorry, Your Highness," Delphine said eventually, her voice catching in her throat.
"For what?" Ceres asked gently.
Delphine's hands tightened in her lap. Her voice trembled.
"While we were staying in the tower and I was keeping the Regent company… I saw how much she longed for a mother's love. She's surrounded by aides and luxury, but… being the only child in that place, a child who doesn't age… she felt utterly alone."
She paused, collecting herself.
"And Lord Caelum… he spoils her when he's there. But she said… most of the time, he avoids her. She told me… she reminds him too much of his wife. At the time, I didn't understand. I thought, because she said her father was waiting for his wife to return, that… she had left him. That she abandoned them. Left a child like Pixie without a mother."
Delphine's voice broke.
"And I…" She couldn't finish.
"And you hated me," Ceres said softly, her tone full of understanding, not blame.
Delphine nodded slowly. "I didn't know it was you. I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Ceres replied. "If I were in your shoes, I would've hated me too."
Delphine let out a breath, half relief, half sorrow.
"But… it didn't last long," she added, her voice small.
"Why?" Ceres asked, genuinely curious.
Delphine looked at her with a sadness that cut deep.
"Because in that same conversation… Pixie told me something else." She swallowed hard. "She said her mother, Lord Caelum's wife… you, died in his arms."
Ceres froze.
Her breath caught in her throat.
"I…" her voice broke. "I died… in his arms?"
Delphine nodded.
Tears welled in Ceres's eyes instantly, and then fell, fast and heavy.
"Oh God… no. No…" she whispered, trembling.
Delphine reached out and embraced her, and Ceres collapsed into her arms.
She wept, deep, broken sobs that seemed to come from her very soul.
She had always known her death had broken him. She had always suspected that he blamed himself for not being there in time… for leaving her on the church stairway… for the accident that ended it all.
But now, knowing that she died in his arms, that he was there, holding her, when her last breath escaped her lips?
It must have shattered him.
It wasn't just grief.
It was self-hatred.
She could see it now, the way he avoided Pixie. The guilt. The silence. The thousand-year wait. The pain he carried every time he looked at her daughter and saw her.
And she hated him for loving her that much. For loving her with a kind of pain so consuming, it tore him apart.
But even more… she hated herself.
She hated that she hadn't recognized her feelings for him sooner. That she took for granted the way he stayed, the way he waited, the way he always placed her first.
Or maybe, maybe she did know.
In the little things.
In the way she trusted him more than she ever trusted Ryzel. In how her heart always seemed to ease when he was near.
But she had been too confident. Too proud. Too certain that he would always be there. That no matter how long she took, he would wait.
And he did.
He waited for her in that life.
And then waited again in this life.
For a thousand years.