CH259 Thera’s Perspective

With the contest over, Ben needed time to prepare dinner for everyone, giving Thera the leeway to get through the gate to Anailia and see what her mother wanted. The excitement of the day made her long to put off the request, but she assumed it wouldn’t be too long as she made her way to her family home, finding her mother in the middle of a meeting with those working under her as she did.

When Pelenia saw her she called an end to her business, dismissing the lot of them as she did. “Thera, so nice of you to come.”

“Yeah, well I can’t stay too long. What do you want mom?”

Instead of answering, Pelenia simply became amused. “Am I keeping you from some big plans?”

“I’m going to celebrate with Ben and his friends when I’m done here, I don’t want to be too late,” She admitted.

“Ha, lovely. I take it he won then? Both me and your father were curious about just how well he’d do when Falk seemed so confident in him.”

“Well, yeah he won, but he also awakened his crafting so that’s going to be a big part of it too.”

She still couldn’t believe she’d gotten to witness him awaken his skill in person and couldn’t have been more excited on his behalf. Her mother though took a far more thoughtful tone at the news.

“That reminds me, I still really need to fire the diplomat who didn’t make him an offer from our nation while we had the chance,” Pelenia said as she shook her head. “Really, what a blunder.”

“Don’t just go firing people on your whims! Besides, things worked out well enough so there’s nothing to complain about.”

“Mmh, true I suppose. And if we need him tied closer to the nation at all we can always take your engagement and turn it into a full-fledged marriage.”

“…Just tell me why you called for me already,” Thera sighed, in no mood for dealing with her mother’s nonsense. Especially not after Steph and the other girls had already left her head filled with thoughts about the nature of her relationship with Ben.

“Oh it’s the sweetest thing,” Pelenia gushed. “Little Seren has just started crawling. I know most people only care about milestones like walking and talking, but seeing him start to move around is so full of charm you’d think he was an incubus. It’s enough to make me want to give you a sibling. What do you say Thera, you’d be happy to be a big sister, wouldn’t you?”

She didn’t know how she was supposed to react to that. She’d always thought her mother might have wanted to have more children, only holding herself back so that no others would have to deal with the same issues she had, but with Ben and the other believers of his god around that was no longer a real issue. That didn’t change how surprising the idea felt considering how big the age difference would end up being, but it wasn’t exactly an issue.

“If you want to then do it, but was this really the only reason you called for me?”

“I mean, I thought you might like to see Seren move around too, and Lux would love to chat for a bit while you’re here.”

…Alright, since I’m here I guess I do want to see that.

Her little cousin was adorable and she loved her aunt, so why deny herself? She could stay for a little while before rushing back.

After spending more time than she’d intended chatting with her aunt and watching her baby cousin, Thera rushed back to the embassy where Ben was busy cooking food in his silly getup, with everyone else already there.

The smell of the spices he’d bought when they first arrived was thick in the air, as was the sound of Amy’s disbelief.

“I still can’t believe you decided to make us tacos.”

“A good surprised?” He asked happily as he stirred a pan.

“No, an ‘I can’t believe I’m reliving my last meal’ surprised. Didn’t our tour stop at a taco stand right before everything went down?”

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“Who cares!” Jake yelled as he shoved some sort of rolled pastry into his mouth. “This is delicious! Ben, you gotta share the recipe, I’d kill to have my cooks be able to make this!”