"I've been arrogant and stupid, but that won't happen anymore. I've learned my lesson, and I promise you that from now on I'll be much more careful." "You better, kid." Orion checked Friya with Invigoration until he was sure that her life force was weird but undamaged. "Otherwise, once I'm done with the one who hurt you, I'll come for you next." "I owe you an apology, Friya." Jirni wrung her hands. "You made the right decision, and I should have trusted your judgment more." "What are you talking about, Mom?" Friya asked in confusion. "You've never questioned my pact with Faluel. At least in my face." "Of course I didn't." Jirni dismissed her daughter's suspicious look with a sweep of her hand. "Sure, I don't like the terms of the pact, but without it you wouldn't have found your path in life and met Nalrond. "The only thing I've always wanted for all my children is to be happy. On top of that, after today, I consider Faluel a member of this family. It's only thanks to her that you're still alive." Friya had glossed over the part about the tower and Lith's contribution, leaving the Hydra the lion's share of the glory. In the version of the story they had fed the Ernas, Faluel had kept a Warp Array at the ready and intervened before it was too late. "I was referring to your choice to delay having children." Jirni's words made Friya and Nalrond spit out their tea. "If not for that, your father and I would have lost a grandchild, if not two. "Not to mention the complications that becoming a Harbinger might have caused to the babies, even if they survived your wounding." 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺 "Damn! I hadn't thought about that." Orion slapped his own leg, his face losing its color. "Language!" Jirni repeated. "Mom, that part of my life is not up for debate. I-" "Damn!" Dripha cut Friya's short. "What did you say, baby girl?" Jirni's smile as she took Dripha in her arms didn't extend to her eyes, especially when she looked at Orion. "She's just a few weeks old. There's no way she has already learned her first word." He raised his hands in apology. "Also, I don't say… that word so often." Dripha smiled at Jirni and made a few baby noises, confirming Orion's words. "Maybe we have misheard." Lith pondered. "Maybe she said, 'Dad'." "Say Dad, sweetie pie. Say Dad." Orion waved his hand to Dripha, obtaining a smile in return but nothing more. After a few more failed attempts to make the baby talk, Jirni sighed in relief and went back to the original topic. "Friya, I don't want to pressure you, but Quylla is right. This is the perfect moment to start your family. You are Faluel's Harbinger now. You might die during one of her missions, or because she died at the hands of her enemies. "Your future doesn't belong only to you anymore. You must start planning your life accordingly. On top of that, if my plan to deal with the Gernoffs fails, I won't get to know your children, but at least I will see them with Invigoration." "Mom!" Friya had no idea if Jirni was being sincere or just attempting to manipulate her, but she went pale anyway. "Don't talk like that. I-" "Damn!" Dripha said, and the room fell silent. "Dear, please, raise your voice at me." Jirni said while never averting her eyes from the baby. "Jirni, I would never do that! This must be a mistake." "I said, raise your voice-" "Damn!" "Did she learn that if she does that, everyone calms down?" Protector asked, finding it hard to believe his own hypothesis. "This is preposterous!" Orion jumped up from his seat, and Dripha repeated: "Damn!" "Normally, I would blame Manohar, but he's dead and Dhiral is too young to manipulate someone's life force, isn't he?" Lith asked, obtaining only silence and suspicions as an answer. *** Later that night, Friya and Nalrond decided to make the most of the privacy of their room and the distance from Faluel to talk openly. Becoming a Harbinger had forever changed Friya not only as an Awakened but also as a woman. The event's ripples would sooner or later affect every aspect of her life, and their relationship would be no exception. "Mom is right." Friya said through the bathroom door as she took her time showering. No matter how much she scrubbed her body, she could still feel Faluel's dense blood sticking to her skin. "My future isn't only mine anymore. "Also, Jinx too is right. There is only one Agni on the entire Mogar. With all the craziness in our lives, we don't know how long we have left, and I could never forgive myself if the Agni race went extinct because of me." "A fair point." Nalrond took several bouquets of irises, Friya's favourite flowers, out of his dimensional amulet along with candles and a bottle of good wine. "What point does it have to carry this stuff everywhere? It just takes space that I could use to store something actually useful." He had asked Lith right after Friya had received her first infusion of Faluel's blood. "The point is that sooner or later Friya will become Faluel's Harbinger, and when that happens, things are going to change." Lith had replied. "You can't control the when or why, but you can prepare to make it a magical moment instead of a traumatic event. "As you and I know, magic is no miracle. You must make it happen. Now shut the fuck up and do as I say. One day you'll thank me for it." 'Thank you, Lith.' Nalrond thought while arranging the bouquets and candles around the room, turning the magical lights off, and covering the bedsheets with a handful of petals. "I'm still shaken from what happened today." Friya turned the water off before continuing. "I thought I was going to die. I felt my life slipping through my fingers and knew there was nothing anyone could do about it. "Even though I acted brave and said all those nice things, I felt the full weight of my mortality. In those moments, I realized what is truly important to me and how many things I've kept postponing because I thought I still had plenty of time ahead of me." She got out of the bathtub and put on a soft cotton bathrobe that stuck to her skin like a warm hug. "I was scared, Nalrond. Scared of fading away like Phloria and never achieving my dreams. Yet I was even more scared of becoming one of Lith's Demons. I desperately wanted to live, but only on my terms. "I would have never become a puppet in someone else's hands. Being able to see you, my parents, and siblings only if and when my master allows it would have been unbearable. Yet that's exactly what happened. "I've become a Harbinger instead of a Demon, but the result isn't much different. Ever since I woke up in that pool of blood, I didn't know whether to be angry or grateful to you. "Angry because you made the choice for me before I could make peace with it, and now, I'm Faluel's property."