CH843 Thera’s Perspective

“Princess, doesn’t the morning mist make for such a lovely greeting?”

Not as nice as the smell of smoke, why not indulge? I hear mortals tend to find comfort in such things.”

Better to start the day energized,” Another voice said. “I’m pretty sure the subtle signals in your biochemistry will-”

“I don’t need to be electrocuted, thank you,” Thera said as she walked through the halls, surrounded by the new great spirits of the world as she dealt with a small side effect she hadn’t fully expected to have to handle when more of them were made.

Her family, the original members of it at least, were the eight great spirits who’d come to that new planet after the fall of their old one and for good or ill, their opinions of her hadn’t shifted anywhere near as radically as the regular spirits’ had when they’d changed how they viewed her. Now though, that was no longer true. Swarmed by the new great spirits who’d been born of those who loved her and inherited those feelings as well, it seemed that she wouldn’t be losing her place as their princess any time soon.

But with a place of ruling came the occasional need to be stern as she looked at all of them who surrounded her, keeping their original forms for the moment with nothing else picked like her father had and leaving her to speak up.

“All of you, I know you’re excited but you each have a lot to do, don’t you? Great spirits don’t get to rest so easily.”

Not just looking after the small ones, they had to figure out what part, if any, they wanted to play in the planet’s defense, all of them being given the same freedom of choice as Mora so long as what they wanted wasn’t going to actively hinder the others, and on top of that, they needed to devote time to understanding who they were as well.

Great spirits were less defined by their element than the regular ones could be but that didn’t mean it had no effect on them at all and they were each just so new. Even in the normal case where a great spirit would die and be replaced, the ones who would combine into a new one each had an eternity behind them to make up what they were but not so here. Except for Bloom and Grace, every combined great spirit had spent at most only seconds as the regular ones after they’d been born. The mana that made them up would carry some of the memories and information of the spirits who’d created them but they didn’t have experience as beings of their new combined affinities and all of them needed to put time into learning just who and what they were.

With the comment of their princess having the weight to make them go to start figuring it out, leaving one by one, just as cheerful as when they’d arrived with only a few parting words before giving her some breathing room.

I wonder if I’m ever going to get any downtime again after all of this? She couldn’t help but ask herself. Even then, her mana empowering was as stretched out as it could be with all of the new spirits taking advantage of it to help grow their numbers and while she had no issue with any of them seeking her out for help or even to chat, it felt like it was going to be coming a lot more.

Still, it’s for the best. She told herself, feeling a genuine smile touch her lips as she opened a door to the packed room beyond, with Lux watching over Seren and Mora, the toddler sitting comfortably on his technically younger cousin’s lap while Mora did his best to talk to a few of the soul spirits who were hanging around him, with none of them being the ones to notice her enter.

No, that privilege was reserved for both the fairy and the earth spirit among them, with the first darting forward to plant herself squarely on Thera’s face.

“Thera! It’s been too long!” Insia yelled out, her flames warm and muffling as Thera tried to reply.

“Sorry I haven’t been able to come by in a bit, Insia. Work’s been a lot and I’ve been…” Avoiding walking through here since I didn’t want to discuss Mora with my parents and- “Anyway, I’ll be popping through a bit more often again so I’ll make sure I stop to see you when I do, okay?”

“Okay!”

“And it’s good to see you too, Rocky. Have you been doing well?”

“As always.”

“Good, good, and I see you’ve both met Mora now? The family only ever gets bigger, huh?”

“Yeah, it’s great,” Insia laughed before flying over to her newest cousin. “The baby of the family!”

“I’m not a baby,” Mora said, still speaking with his mana to the spirits in the room as he answered.

“You’re not even a year old yet!”

“So?”

“So, that means you’re a baby! Not to worry though, if you have any issues, just come to your big cousin,” Insia told him, puffing out her chest proudly. “I’ll help you out.”

Thera chuckled at the small exchange, enjoying it for all it was worth. Even if Mora was being a bit quiet with Insia for now, she was comfortable chalking it up to shyness compared to what things had been like in the past. Even just yesterday he’d been a lot more talkative with both her and Ben, finally feeling like he was really opening up to them.

It’s nice.

While they had their little back and forth, her aunt patted the seat beside her, the invitation clear for Thera as she went to sit down, resting her head on Lux’s shoulder.

“Nice, isn’t it?” The light spirit asked.

“It is, I should have brought him sooner.”

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“Oh, don’t worry about such things too much. Parenthood is something you figure out as you go along.”

“Mmh.”

She still stood by that she was acting as his guardian but when it came down to it, it didn’t feel like there was really a difference so she held her tongue; for Mora’s sake too. She didn’t know how he’d feel personally if she kept insisting she wasn’t his parent and with things going so well, she didn’t want to risk ruining the progress they’d made with a thoughtless comment either.

And I guess it doesn’t really matter in the end. She told herself. The roles are the same, it would just be nice to know what he thinks about it too.