"Would you stop pacing, mother? I'm sure they're fine."
"Why does it seemed that you are so utterly unconcerned, Caelum? Your sisters should have been back weeks ago, yet I've heard nothing! Does that not worry you?"
"Not particularly." Caelum replied as he continued to flip through his book absentmindedly.
In Renanin, Erica Vermillion and her only son Caelum were on a terrace in their castle.
For over a month now, neither of them had received so much as a letter from the two princesses.
They had claimed that they were bored of being cooped up at home and wanted to go on a bit of a vacation and travel the world for a while.
Erica was surprised but... what could she do?
Her daughters literally never asked her for anything, so when she was confronted with such a simple request for the first time, she had no idea how to refuse.
She allowed them to go against her better judgement, but only after she had imposed the single stipulation that they take an armed escort with them.
"They said two weeks at most, but it has already been over a month!" Erica exclaimed as she ran her hands through her fiery red hair.
"The Greenwoods will arrive today, and they still have not returned!"
Caelum suddenly closed his book, and looked at his mother with a blank stare.
"Perhaps you should have told them about this agreement before they left. Maybe they are still out because they believe there is no need for them to come home."
"I had planned for this engagement to be a surprise for them, Caelum! The only reason you know is because you have a terrible habit of eavesdropping!"
As a response, the young prince shrugged his shoulders like he couldn't help the fact that his ears worked better than everyone else's.
"That's it, I'm sending out a search party at first light." She decided.
Caelum still believed that this may have been overkill, but he had been calming his mother down for all of these weeks now and he was honestly exhausted.
"Fine, but what will you do about the-"
Suddenly, the door to the terrace slid open and an enchanting young phoenix in a maid dress stepped out as she lowered her head.
"I am sorry to interrupt, My Queen."
"It's alright, I assume they've arrived already?" Erica said as she sighed in exhaustion.
"Indeed."
Erica sighed before gesturing for her son to stand up and follow behind her.
She wasn't sure how this was going to go, but it was far too late to put anything off now.
-
Valerica and Caelum were led to their throne room, where they found a small group already waiting for them.
There were four of them, and they were all clearly related as there was an older man and woman with two young men.
They all had tall, slim bodies that seemed like they had never seen a single day of hard work or a battlefield.
They al had the same long, blonde hair running down their backs, either tied up in a French braid or dangling freely.
Their green eyes were gentle and serene, contrasting perfectly with their olive skin and long pointed ears.
"It's wonderful to see you again, Cypress." Erica said as she entered the room.
The man she was speaking to was the oldest among the group, and he smiled warmly as he held out his hands in greeting.
"I feel the same, Erica. You become even more enchanting as the centuries go by."
"Hardly." The phoenix said as she clasped his hands and gave them a firm squeeze.
Pow!
"Urk!"
Cypress received a hard elbow in the side from his wife and he quickly got the message that his friendliness was not appreciated.
"Y-You remember my wife Jezebel, yes?"
"How can I forget? She punished you at our last meeting as well." Erica said with a laugh.
Cypress scratched his cheek as he stepped out of the way and allowed his wife to greet the phoenix queen.
"It is good to see you again, Erica." the elven woman said warmly. "I hope that you still have no plans to steal my husband away."
"He's still a bit too scrawny for my taste, so I assure you that there is nothing to worry about."She replied jokingly.
The two women laughed while Cypress poked at his arms and chest underneath his robe.
It wasn't his fault he was skinny... Elven physiology just doesn't promote much muscle growth.
'Times like this, I envy those dwarves and dragons. Such powerful figures that it is criminally unfair.' He thought despairingly.
"And these must be your sons." Erica suddenly said as she looked at the two younger elves in the room.
The brothers looked quite a bit alike, but the younger one was a bit taller than his elder brother and seemed to be a bit more outspoken as well.
"Yes, this is Koa and Alder. They've grown a bit sense you last saw them, no?"
"A hundred years will do that I suppose." Erica said with a chuckle.
The two young elves lowered their heads respectfully as they greeted her, and she silently approved of them in her mind.
"But where are your daughters? Don't tell me that they are feeling shy." Jezebel questioned.
Erica shook her head bitterly as she broke the news about the absence of her daughters. "Claire and Jazmine... they went on a trip over a month ago, and they've yet to return."
The elven king and his family immediately became concerned, and they bombarded the queen with questions.
"A trip? Do you have any idea about where exactly they could have gone?"
"You don't think they're getting cold feet about the marriage, do you?"
Erica shook her head and immediately dismissed both concerns as quickly as they formed.
"They claimed that they wanted to see the world a bit, and I haven't informed them of their betrothal yet. "
She grabbed both the elven king and queen by each of their hands and spoke to them sincerely.
"I am sorry that the both of you have come all this way for nothing. I am planning on putting out search parties for them as soon as the sun rises tomorrow, but for now you all should stay here so that your trip is not a total waste."
Cypress and Jezebel looked at each other like they were trying to come to some sort of telepathic agreement.
"Well, Renanin is lovely so we will not object to staying here for a bit longer. It will be nice to spend some time together since we are all going to become family soon." Cypress said.
"Then have you all eaten? Let's dine together." Erica said politely.
"That sounds lovely."
-
In a lavish dining room, the elves and the phoenixes were seated around a table, enjoying a simple yet oddly similar meal.
Out of respect for Cypress and his family's customs, there was no meat being served and instead there was only a nice salad and a selection of the best vegetables and fruits.
Caelum was pissed.
'I would give my left testicle for a chicken wing in this moment.' He thought annoyedly.
"Have you heard bout the war? Apparently the new ruler of demons is currently locked in battle against that old drunkard Darius." Cypress suddenly said.
Erica nodded as her eyes fell into a deep sense of contemplation. "He thought that might happen but... I never imagined that it would be this soon."
"I wonder what his goal is." Jezebel said. "What drives a man like that to rush off to one battle after the next?"
"He seems to be more demon than dragon, my wife. And you know that their lust for barbarity and conquest is practically insatiable."
"But why the dwarves? I would have thought that the humans would have been the first ones that he battled against."
"There is always a chance that he simply needed the weaponry and manpower. Perhaps his goal is to conquer all the lands one by one, before crushing the humans last."
"I'm not so sure..."
Cypress and Jezebel ceased their conversation as they stared at the phoenix queen who seemed to be locked in her own mind.
"I've met the man once before and he is a walking talking enigma. He looks at no women but his own, his children are spoiled to no end and he is... pleasant?
If you interacted with him without knowing a thing about him, you would never believe the stories. He just seems like such a gentle man that I can't see him doing these things."
"A gentle man that can subjugate demigods despite having only evolved twice? I don't believe I've ever seen such a thing." Jezebel said.
Erica leaned back into her seat and tried to look at things from a logical standpoint.
"I do not believe that he did it himself as they say. It is more likely that his wife Audrina or Seras helped him since he still lacks the power."
"No... he did it ." Cypress suddenly said solemnly.
"...How can you be sure?"
The elven king suddenly lifted up a finger, and a pulse of light left his nail.
Suddenly, the room was filled with floating balls of light the size of a baby's fist.
"The spirits... they usually tell me things, and I can command them to bring me information on the outside world without ever leaving the roots of the mother tree."
Erica took in the sight of her old friend's ability after not seeing it for several hundred years and smiled as fond memories filled her brain.
"I'm aware, but what does that have to do with his power?"
Cypress shuddered and it looked like he was oddly uncomfortable discussing this.
"They usually bring me information on anyone or anything but... not him. They fear him. His existence to them is... terrible and utterly horrifying."
His explanation caused Queen Erica's own blood to run cold.
As Cypress mentioned, his control over spirits allowed him to spy on anyone discreetly.
Even the golden dragon Helios, and the former sin of pride Lucifer.
So for him to say that they refused to be anywhere near the scarlet emperor was... terrifying.
It meant that they considered his existence to be even more monstrous and unholy than the apex being of this world.
"For them to react like this... I absolutely believe that he has the power to kill demigods." Cypress said solemnly.
The room became understandably heavy afterwards, and for a while there was nothing more than pure silence.
And then it happened.
All of the spirits that were floating about so happily within the room suddenly became agitated, and moved about as if they were in a mass panic.
"W-What is wrong with them!?"
"I don't know, they won't stop to talk to me!"
After a few more seconds of trying to communicate with the spirts, they suddenly rushed through a nearby window and phased through it, leaving without so much as a goodbye.
The dining rom fell into another dead silence as they tried to process what had just happened, when a young maid suddenly knocked on the door and poked her head inside.
"My queen, please forgive this one for disturbing your meal but the princesses have arrived home safely.... however... it seems as though they've brought guests."
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