As Celestia continued to fly down toward Hell at the request of her creator, the young godling couldn't help but wonder why she was being summoned.
Whenever her creator required her assistance, he would always use magical scrolls to inform and call her.
But this time, he directly connected to her mind and commanded her to immediately return to the Pale City and into his main office.
And being the loyal servant she was, Celestia made haste toward the White Palace, going as fast as she could to reach her creator.
After only a few more minutes of flying, she finally made her way to the kingdom's edge, and continuing her flight, it didn't take her long to reach one of the windows that allowed her passage into the castle.
Once inside, Celestia continued to soar past the multiple guards, quickly making her way to her creator's office, and after passing multiple sets of doors, she had finally made it.
Inside was a kneeling Stygian. He was currently inspecting a rather young female imp.
The imp in question was sitting on a chair. She wore something a farmer would usually wear and was simply allowing her creator to inspect her.
"My lord! Your servant has arrived," Celestia announced herself to her creator before quickly kneeling.
Stygian turned to his creation and spoke.
"Celestia, I'm sorry for the sudden summon, but right now I need you to lock everything and make sure no one gets in," Stygian commanded.
Celestia, still unsure of the situation, simply complied with her creator's commands, and with a golden shine around her horn, the windows and doors began to lock, Celestia even adding a silencing spell to make sure no noise escaped the room.
"It is done, my lord," Celestia said, continuing to kneel.
"Thank you. For now, please stand. We have much to talk about," Stygian commanded his creation.
Standing up, Celestia looked over the sitting imp before looking back to her creator and speaking.
"My lord, what is so urgent that you connected to my mind?" Celestia asked her creator.
"Well, Celestia, this imp here is my friend, and right now we need to know why she's so young," Stygian answered.
"My lord… I still don't quite understand. What's wrong with her being so young?" Celestia asked.
"Well, for you to understand, you need to know that imps aren't as long-living as us. Sure, they live much longer than humans, but Maylin here is already 127, and the fact that her body changed so drastically is quite worrying," Stygian explained.
"Why would that be worrying? Isn't it a good thing she's become so young?" Celestia said.
"Normally, that would be the case… but when I tried looking into her mind and tried to find the specific memory of her turning younger, I could only find a shadowy figure looming in her vision, and when she went outside, the memory was almost gone," Stygian explained.
"That is worrying… but your friend here—Maylin—why don't you simply ask her what happened? Surely she has the answers," Celestia said.
"I tried, but every time I ask her, she keeps saying she's fine and that nothing happened," Stygian said, a bit frustrated.
"Nothing did happen! You need to stop worrying about me. I'm fine!" Maylin said.
"No, you're not! Do you even realize how dangerous this could be for you? Just… tell me the truth… please," Stygian said, his anger flaring for the first time in a long time.
"I… I'm fine… nothing's wrong with me… okay? I just wanted to visit my friend is all," Maylin said, almost pained.
But as Celestia watched the scene before her, she couldn't help but feel something was… off.
Why would Maylin visit her creator so suddenly? There isn't a special event happening right now, and if she really wanted, she could have sent a letter explaining her situation. But instead, she simply showed up unannounced, causing a bit of turmoil for her creator.
"Come on, May. Why are you lying to me? We've been friends for decades, and not once did I see you lie," Stygian said.
"I ain't lying… okay, I just wanted to see you," Maylin said, still a bit pained in the way she spoke.
And that's when it hit Celestia.
"My lord! Could I have the room, please?" Celestia said.
"What do you mean?" Stygian asked, turning to Celestia.
"I think I know why she's acting like this," Celestia said.
"Well… go ahead. You have the room," Stygian said, walking toward his desk and leaning on it.
"Thank you. Though I'm still not quite sure why she's lying, I think I have a theory," Celestia said, summoning a small golden hologram. "When you said Maylin was a friend of yours and that she never lied to you before, and suddenly now she is—what if… just what if she really isn't?" Celestia said.
Though still a bit skeptical, Stygian allowed her to continue.
"Right now, your friend is basically in her prime, and that would constitute her speaking the truth. But what really stumped me is, if she is, as she says, all right, why didn't she announce or inform you beforehand that she had regressed in age and become younger?" Celestia said.
"Yeah… that is rather strange," Stygian said before rubbing his chin.
"What if… she wanted us to question what was happening to her?" Celestia said.
"That would explain why she's suddenly here unannounced. She wanted us to question her and find out!" Stygian said before standing straight up and walking toward Maylin, then kneeling.
"May… with your permission, I'm going to enter your mind once more, and this time it might actually hurt," Stygian said, looking his friend straight in the eyes.
And Maylin, feeling her friend finally understood, simply smiled and closed her eyes before lowering her head toward him.
Stygian then raised his hand and placed it on top of her head. An orange glow began to shine from underneath his palm, and without missing a beat, his mind connected to hers.
---
(Dream Realm.)
Now inside Maylin's mind, Stygian began his search once more for the specific memory where Maylin had lost consciousness.
Once there, the scene before him played as usual, but this time he was going to enter that memory.
At first, Stygian simply watched and studied her memory of the moment, not really interfering for fear that it might damage her psyche. But right now, he needed to know what really happened.
So, moving closer to the memory, Stygian began to rip it open—but before he could, red tentacles appeared around it, trying to stop him.
Before he could summon his nail, the tentacles wrapped around him and threw him far away from the memory.
Landing on his feet, Stygian was now visibly confused about what was happening. But before he could act further, something began to emerge from the memory.
A slender figure wearing a large black hat that covered most of her face appeared. She was quite obviously female, and multiple apple designs surrounded her clothes.
Once she was finally out of the memory, the figure spoke to Stygian.
"Greetings… your majesty," the figure spoke, a sinister smile plastered on her face before bowing her head.
In this moment Stygian was currently unsure on who or what she was.
...
But I did.
The person standing in front of my grandson was none other than Eve—the first sinner and the mother of humanity.