The ensuite bathroom in the guest bedroom of the Montrose Residence is quite spacious. It's not ridiculously big, nor so small that it's hard to move around. Its size is just perfect.
The amenities are well-prepared too. There's liquid body wash with a fresh fragrance, a very soft bath sponge that allows Theo to scrub Thea's body without directly touching it, and bubble bath in the same scent as the body wash.
He is currently sitting comfortably inside the bathtub, enjoying the fresh smell, the warm water, and the bubbles. It's the perfect bath situation for him.
He uses the bath sponge to clean Thea's body without touching it, while the bubbles cover her body enough that he doesn't need to keep his eyes closed the entire time. He's even wrapped her long hair in a towel—something Thea had shown him how to do.
Theo sighs in satisfaction. Ah, this is heaven. I'll definitely have this in my room.
Theo stays until his fingers are all pruned and feel funny. He gets out of the tub, paying extra careful not to glance at the mirror. He quickly dries and wraps a towel around his body and wears the panties. Then, he stares at the bra.
I've never seen any women wearing this. Did the women in my world also wear this? He picks up the bra. How…? Which way…? I think this is… the front. How am I supposed to hook…? Ah! Got it! Phew!
Theo is feeling elated having successfully putting on the bra. He can finally unwrap the towel and puts on the t-shirt and pants.
He looks at the mirror, and grins. Okay, now what? He closes his eyes and tries to search Thea's memories. Nothing else? I can go to bed?! Hooray!
He gathers up the old clothes he wore and puts them into the rattan laundry basket. As he walks out of the bathroom, he notices a toothbrush. That stops his steps; he glances up at the mirror and scolds softly, "Thea. Brushing your teeth before bed is a must." And he does just that.
Theo exhales loudly when he's finally on his bed, snug under the duvet. Goodnight, Thea.
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"Good morning, Julian." Leila greets her second child, who just entered the dining room.
"Good morning, Mother." Julian replies, sounding a bit tired.
"You sound tired. Late night?" Leila asks. There's a tablet in front of her instead of breakfast.
"Yeah, I didn't get back until one. The fire in the lab was hard to extinguish." Julian yawns and takes his seat.
Maurice, already sitting in his usual place at the head of the table, puts down the newspaper he's been reading and looks at Julian. "Anything I should be worried about?"
Julian yawns again before answering. "Not really. It was a typical heartstone fire. But this time, the flame was purple."
Arthur looks up from his phone. "Purple? That's a very hot fire, Jules. Any damage?"
Julian shakes his head, struggling to hold his next yawn. "No. The Aegis contained the purple fire perfectly."
"How did you finally extinguish it?" Arthur asks further.
Leila eats her egg and toast while listening to the conversation.
"This is where it gets interesting. We tried everything. The usual portable fire extinguishers, the localized sprinklers, we even tried the fire hose—the ones with high-pressure water? We've never had to use that, right? But nothing worked."
A beat, then he continues, "Oh, and we also tried sucking the oxygen out of the room. Nothing worked."
"But the weird thing was, the flame didn't get bigger or smaller! It stayed the same size—about the size of you, Art. And everything we did, it didn't affect it in any way."
That gets everyone's attention.
Julian looks around the room. "You know what finally did it? And it gave me an idea for our next product. Water infused with a heartstone. And it wasn't just any heartstone. It was the highest-quality heartstone we have—the one from your last exploration, Art."
Maurice frowns. "That is weird. How did the fire start in the first place?"
Julian shrugs. "It's another mystery. I've seen the security footage—it just appeared out of nowhere."
Everyone is baffled.
"Speaking of fire," Maurice breaks the silence. "Remember the breaking news I read last night?"
"There was a huge forest fire in Emeralis."
Everyone is stunned.
"How big?" Arthur asks.
"Big enough that it scared a lot of people," Maurice answers. He shakes his paper. "It's all over the news. You haven't read it?" he asks Arthur.
Arthur sighs. "No. I should've. But Sam hasn't contacted me. It means the Emeralians got it under control."
"Is that fire been extinguished yet?" Leila asks.
Maurice nods. "Yes, after few hours."
Arthur checks his messages. "Sam did contact me. I must've missed it. He said the fire didn't spread because the Emeralians used our Aegis Ultra to contain it."
He looks up. "This is good news. It'll blow up the sale."
He wipes his mouth with a napkin. "I need to go. I need to be prepared. I'll contact the Emeralians and see if they need further help. Montrose Corporation will donate the Aegis Ultra, as many as they need it."
Suddenly, Leila looks in another direction and smiles. "Good morning, Thea."
Everyone turns in his direction, and "good mornings" are thrown at Theo.
Theo is smiling from his heart. "Good morning!" he says cheerfully.
Maurice chuckles.
Leila lifts her eyebrows and smiles.
Arthur freezes. And Julian is grinning.
"Well," he says, "looks like someone had a really good night's sleep."
He turns to the other three. "I'm glad someone did."
Theo takes his seat beside Leila. "And you didn't?" Then he notices Julian's face. "You look tired, Julian. Something happened?"
Julian shakes his head slightly. "Nothing you should worry about."
"But I'd like to know," Theo adds. "If that's okay, of course."
Julian looks like he's remembering something and says, "Of course it's okay!" Then he fills Theo in about the purple flame.
Amethyst Blaze?!It's got to be Amethyst Blaze! Why did it occur here? And how? Theo is shocked.
In his knowledge, fire magic is not just producing fire. It has levels of power and danger. The first level, normal fire, is called Emberfire. The next level, Azureflame, is the bluish fire. And the most powerful one is called Amethyst Blaze. It's fire at its strongest and last form before turning into Stormfire, or lightning.
Amethyst Blaze was the highest level of fire magic that Theo could reach. He couldn't reach the Stormfire stage. He wasn't powerful enough.
It was very difficult and exhausting to produce even a small Amethyst Blaze, and it occurred here as big as Arthur—and it burned for a few hours?! Who powered it? Heartstone? This doesn't make any sense.
Arthur is watching Theo intently. He completely forgets that he was about to leave for work. He notices that Theo's face changes—from disbelief, to amazement, to curiosity.
Nothing amiss. She just shows slightly more interest in the incident. She's always wanted to know what's going on in the lab. Wait. Was it because she was thinking of sabotaging us? Now too?
Arthur actually doesn't believe that the current Thea is really thinking about staging another sabotage. Last night, he had seen and heard Thea's sincerity, and he believed it.
He wants to. He really wants to.