Chapter 235: Of Questions Best Not Asked and Memories Best Left Buried
Chapter 235: Of Questions Best Not Asked and Memories Best Left Buried
Retheris and Thalira tilted their heads at the exact same angle.
It was uncanny.
Their expressions mirrored each other perfectly—brows furrowed, lips slightly pursed, small fingers lifting to rest thoughtfully against their chins as though they had been carved from the same mold and simply placed in two different positions.
They thought.
They considered.
Then, in flawless unison—
"What is havoc?"
Silence followed.
A deep, heavy, utterly exhausted silence.
Caleth closed his eyes.
And then he exhaled.
It was not a simple exhale. It was the kind that carried weight—years of patience, weeks of unrest, and a very recent accumulation of events that had tested the limits of even his composure.
"I..." he began and then stopped.
He opened his eyes again and looked at them.
They stared back at him, wide-eyed and expectant, as though they had just asked the most reasonable question in existence.
Which, technically, they had.
That was the problem.
Caleth released another sigh, quieter this time, though no less weary.
He loved his family.
He truly did.
There was no hesitation in that truth. No uncertainty.
But his children...
His gaze shifted slightly, landing on the woman standing beside them.
Faelyra.
Her posture was composed, her expression calm—but he knew her well enough to recognize the tension beneath it.
Their children had inherited her nature.
Not her restraint.
That was where the issue lay.
Faelyra was... vibrant. That was the most diplomatic word for it. She possessed a presence that filled space without effort, a personality that leaned toward mischief and movement, and a certain unapologetic boldness that had, at one point, been the very thing that had drawn him to her.
Well, and the fact that she had kidnapped him too.
She could be chaotic.
But she knew when to stop... most times.
She understood balance... most times too.
She understood consequence.
The twins did not.
Caleth dragged a hand slowly down his face.
It had been—what?—three days since the last nanny had left?
No.
Two.
Two days.
The one before that had lasted slightly longer.
A day and a half.
That had been a record.
Before that... it had been minutes, some seconds.
Yes, he counted.
He remembered one particularly unfortunate candidate who had lasted long enough to introduce herself, accept tea, and then witness Retheris accidentally redirect an entire indoor water current through the hallway ceiling.
She had left immediately after with a huff.
No farewell had been said.
Caleth could not blame her.
He shifted his gaze back to the twins.
They were still waiting.
Still expectant.
Still entirely unaware of the storm that followed them wherever they went.
He opened his mouth again.
"Havoc," he said slowly, "is—"
"Enough."
Faelyra’s voice cut in cleanly.
The twins turned to her.
So did Caleth.
She looked down at them, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly.
"I know that you know what havoc is," she said.
There was no room for argument in her tone.
"And I would appreciate it if you stopped testing your father."
The twins blinked.
Once.
Twice.
Then, as though pulled by the same invisible thread, they turned to look at each other.
A shared understanding passed between them.
And then they sighed.
Simultaneously.
"Mummy always spoils the fun," Retheris said with the air of a child in distress.
"Always," Thalira agreed with the same air.
There was nothing distressing about what their mother had just told them, though.
Caleth stared at them.
Faelyra did not react immediately.
She simply held their gaze.
And then she exhaled. It was the same sound Caleth had made some minutes ago, but this was from a different origin.
"Do you realize," he said, his voice calm despite everything as he looked at the twins, "that your mother is supposed to be attending a meeting right now?"
The twins turned back to him.
And nodded eagerly. That was enough to send Caleth on alert.
"Yes," Thalira said.
"We know," Retheris added.
"And?" Caleth prompted. He suspected there was something else the twins wanted to say, given how excited they were.
"We want to go too."
Caleth went very still.
Beside him, Faelyra did the same.
They did not look at each other immediately.
They did not need to.
The memory unfolded anyway.
It had been a year ago when Faelyra had misjudged that her children could control themselves if they came with her to the annual gathering.
The annual gathering of female demon rulers—a meeting that was basically just for gossip but a meeting nonetheless.
The establishment had been a high-end dining hall, owned and operated by a stone demon of considerable reputation.
Everything about it had been precise.
It was the kind of place where nothing moved unless it was meant to. At some point, Aurelixa had thought about buying it even though the establishment was already on her lands.
Faelyra was having a conversation with Ysera while Aurelixa was arguing with Seraphielle... no surprise there.
It was the perfect meeting. Everything was normal.
Until it wasn’t.
No one had been entirely sure what had triggered it.
A glass had tipped.
A current had moved.
A laugh had sounded just a little too loud.
And then there was water everywhere. A flood of water.
Tables overturned as currents surged across the floor, chairs lifted and carried by unseen force, dishes clattering as the carefully controlled environment dissolved into chaos.
Demons had stood.
Some had reacted.
Others had simply stared.
And at the center of it were the twins, who were laughing in delight, moving with the current.
Then came the rock.
No one had been entirely certain how it had happened.
One moment the owner had been shouting.
The next, a mass of stone had materialized above him and within seconds dropped, but he was lucky not to be hit by it.
Faelyra and her children had been banned from the establishment after that.
The aftermath had been... expensive.
Very expensive.
Caleth had paid.
Faelyra had apologized.
And the children had looked sad for only one week.
A record.
---
Caleth blinked then, and Faelyra exhaled.
Then, finally, they turned to each other.
And then turned to the twins, who were still smiling.
"No," they said.