The rain fell throughout the city, leaving the ground muddy and the grass wet. The sun might have been hidden, but it wouldn't be for long. The group of young people who had gone on a small hunt in the forest were walking along the curb, carrying with their boots the water that the drain hadn't carried away.
"So that's why Mary is mad at Aunt Elizabeth?" Hana went ahead. "I understand a little, but Aunt Elizabeth still did the right thing."
"Why do you call Mrs. Elizabeth Aunt?" Cassandra was now dressed in the suit her brother had made. "What are you like?"
"I'm nothing. It's just a figure of speech." He turned to Cassandra. "She's always been interested in my father's work. Even when she was young, she had a vocation for this scientific thing."
"Speaking of which." Calisto pulled the paper from her pocket. "The location it says here is the old house where Mamoru, Hana, and I lived. It's cozy just reading the house number."
Hana smiled automatically when Calisto finished her sentence. She, Mamoru, and Hana had lived together since Mamoru's mother died. Hana was Igor's daughter from a past relationship.
— Calisto, do you remember when Mamoru saw you for the first time?
"Of course. You always locked your room and left it a mess, a minefield. Not wanting to risk your traps, I climbed in through the window."
— Yes. When Mamoru opened the door, you were sitting by the window. He was surprised, since you usually spent time in my father's lab.
—The valley to see again, we're almost at the bar. I think Mary has already prepared the potion Elizabeth asked for.
Nearby, Margarida watched the group's arrival through the window. She couldn't be present to see the battle because of the bogeymen. Judging by the state the group was in, she could have guessed what had happened. Calisto's pants were ripped at the leg, his arms were red, and one of his eyes was black. Cassandra changed suits; based on the observer's experience, she burned her other suit in a tribal ritual.
Amélia rested her chin on her daughter's head, her focus clearly on the young man with long brown hair, tied with a hair tie, with his ripped pants, flip-flops and wearing a simple green shirt.
—Mom, I don't think we're fighting, Mom. — It wasn't even Eunuch who said that. — Why are you looking at Heleno?
— Can't I look at a handsome young man?— She couldn't hold back a sigh. — Besides being handsome, he smells good and he's affectionate.
—he focused his attention on Amélia. —I'm going to have a little brother?
— He laughed. — No. The blacksmith hasn't put his sword in the oven yet. I want it to be special for him. — He stroked Daisy's head. — He's a nice guy. Seriously, shall we eat?
Even before Margarida could perform the famous Eunuch somersault, her mother caught her, and with her quick ear-pulling technique, tamed the lion she called her daughter. She smiled, surely malicious, and like a rabid cat turning its belly for its owner to pet, Margarida happily left to enjoy the afternoon snack prepared by Uncle Marengo.
The door opened, and the empty bottles went straight to the sink, where Heleno began filling them. Hana pulled out a chair for Calisto to sit in. Cassandra threw her bag on the floor and walked to the end of the long hallway.
"Hey, was that hard?" Mary was rummaging through some boxes. "From the looks of you, you looked so well dressed, you took a beating, you even had to use your regeneration."
"I fought a giant Cockroach, while Calisto/Shizuko fought the swamp monster." He leaned against the wall. "Did you manage to make the promise to the Styx?"
—he opened the small safe beneath the boxes, removing a bottle. —It's offensive to think that a beverage artisan couldn't finish something like that.
"You can stay, I'll get it before we leave to get the hermaphrodite Aix." He smiled. "If I weren't married, I'd give you a kiss of thanks, bye!"
Mary shook her head in disbelief at Cassandra's jokes and insults as she put the flask in her pocket. Her mood wasn't good because she was storing the drinks from the failed opening.
The bottles were full again, taken by Heleno to the fridge, while his eyes focused not on the sister who had just arrived in the room, but on the mother of the little lioness who was threatening him very quietly.
"Amélia, how are you? Did you sleep well?" she tried to put away the bottles. "And how are you, little one?"
— Better than you. Walks in the shadows. — a mix of Daisy and Eunuch. — if you do anything to my mommy, the planet will come and get you!
"Is it really small? That's great." He closed the refrigerator and leaned against it. "Actually, you forgot to tell me how you met Gaia. You owe me."
— He released his daughter. — I'll tell you. Just go to my room. — He saw Cassandra arriving. — I'm going, let's go, daughter!
That moment was captured from two people's perspectives. Cassandra came in from the hallway, running a little to hear the conversation, while paying attention to her brother's failed attempt to put away the bottles.
Margarida felt trapped; no matter how much she struggled, at that moment, she wasn't the center of the world, neither she nor Gaia's son. She craned her neck, seeing beads of sweat dripping from her mother's forehead. She and Amélia shifted when Cassandra approached, and Amélia gave her a thumbs-up.
"Helen. I need to know where Antares and Argos are." He took the paper from his pocket. "We will leave tomorrow for that location; it will be an extremely dangerous mission."
— Then our Dual Memory alone won't be enough. — He placed his hand on his chin. — Have you called Dionysus yet?
"Of course. He'll be here later today." He patted his brother on the back. "So, are you meeting Amélia in the dark?"
"It's not what you think, Cassandra. Amelia and I are inciting a relationship, after both of us suffered in our last relationships." He let out a Hana-level laugh. "A blacksmith should always have his sword sharp and ready to thrust... I'll call Antares and Argos."
Heleno closed his eyes, opened his hands, began to chant an incantation, and quickly Antares and Argos arrived in the room.
"Lady Pythia, I am at your service, at Antares's!" The peacock bowed.
— Me too. — the scorpion folded its legs and curved its tail.
"Great. Tomorrow we'll go on a rescue mission to Aix, Hermaphrodite to be precise. I've already contacted Dionysus; he's on his way. For now, I'll put you in your restrained form."
— Yes, ma'am!— Argos and Antares confirmed.
Cassandra bit her lip, her piercings emerging bathed in her blood. Her hand lightly reached for the peacock's forehead, and the other for the scorpion's. Her eyes turned crimson. One piercing was carved in the shape of a feather, the other in the shape of a scorpion's tail.
— A peacock, a scorpion, you who kept the ring I gave Calisto. And now your piercings take shape. I know which is your Dual Memory.
— Hana, shhh... It'll ruin the surprise, but you can already imagine what my Dual\Memory form is like.