Chapter 36 - Elise Aindrea P14
Chapter 36 - Elise Aindrea P14
~36.14~
*****
Luma said nothing. She swung her tail around, grabbed it, and rubbed the tip lightly. A gasp could be heard from everyone that knew what that meant, except Sanae and me. Alethea, Michelle, Adele, Mavel, and Mabel all were looking at Luma with wide eyes and open mouths. The rest of the room looked puzzled.
I giggled and took my seat. Sanae leaned over and whispered, "So how was it."
I smirked at her. "Oh, I'm not spoiling the surprise for you. You'll see."
"That good, eh?"
"Well, I'll at least take her on a date and dinner first."
I snickered. "That's what you think. You might take her on a date, but you're gonna be the dinner."
"Heh."
"Okay, you lot, back to your seats. I'm going to start the memory ma-"
As I was speaking, Joey stood up and walked over to Luma. She didn't say anything, just stood there."
"Joey?" Luma was puzzled. Even I wasn't sure what Joey was doing, but she let us know quickly enough. She wrapped Luma and her chair in silver mana, and pulled them away from the table a few inches. It was just enough for Joey to sit sideways across Luma's lap. "Joey, wh-"
Joey leaned against Luma and laid her head on the catgirl's shoulder. She was asleep in seconds. Joey's human ears faded away, and cat ears appeared on her head, as well as a tail.
"She's a cat?"
"Half human, quarter demon, quarter cat. You should remember."
"And since I augmented Kye, Sanae, Alethea, Joey, and Kaede's DNA," Mavel added, "they all have their living world genes. So, Alethea, Joey, and Kaede have cat person blood in them."
Then it clicked. "Right. In the living world, she was born to Elise and Maya." She looked at Mavel and Alethea with a raised eyebrow. "Okay, this is a strange family tree, thinking about it. She's your original's daughter, so role-wise, she'd be Mavel's daughter, but she's also Alethea's daughter, even though Alethea is also Mavel's daughter."
"Well, when you lay it all out like that," Alethea said, "it does sound a bit strange."
"Don't make it sound so bad," Mavel added. "Maya and Elise had her before we split, and later on Maya got herself pregnant intending to split her soul." She looked exasperated. "My first memory as me was being pregnant with the other half of my soul as the baby. Weird is normal with us, let's be honest."
"Wait, hold on a second," James said. "You said Maya and Elise had her. I understand how it worked here, but to my knowledge this was the first time Alethea was born like that. They were both girls in the living world, no?" He glanced at Alethea. "I apologize if this is coming across rude, I mean this purely academically."
"No, I imagine it wouldn't make sense if you didn't know about demons." She looked at Velarus, "Would you?"
"The demons of Nacht are hermaphrodites," Velarus said. "Our genders are not determined from the start. We let the child tell us what they are as they grow, which takes about three years from birth to the equivalent of eighteen. Then we stop aging. Dysphoria is common among demonkind, and we take it very seriously."
"In my daughter's case, she had very clear and severe dysphoria before her first birthday," Mavel said. "As soon as a child makes it clear which gender they are, or if they are neither, both, or something else entirely, a doctor will cast our special brand of illusion magic to hide any unwanted body parts. It was bad enough that I casted an extremely potent version of the illusion magic on her, then augmented her memories so that she wouldn't remember anything about herself that wasn't female."
"What about growing up?" James asked. "You and Lord Nacht are very distinct in your gender presenting appearances."
"The mind influences that," Velarus answered. "The child grows into the body appropriate for their mind. Think about the hormones testosterone and estrogen. Both sexes produce both, but males produce more testosterone and females produce more estrogen, thus bodies grow differently. Because we are born we both, our minds tell our bodies which one to prioritize."
"That's quite something. If other species could do that, it could make extreme progress toward relieving dysphoria in a majority of subjects."
I wish I had thought about it more. When I created this world back in the Transcendent Realm, it was nothing more than a project. I never imagined I'd see the inhabitants in a different light.
I couldn't keep it to myself. "I apologize for that."
"You do?" Layla asked.
I nodded. "Yes. The Creator and The Almighty are more than simply titles of the system in Elysium. We created this very world as Trascendents. We've created many worlds. At the time of creation, it was nothing more than a project, but when I was exiled I was sent here. It's easy to be detached when the entire relationship is just data on a screen. That changed drastically after coming here. None of you could ever be simply data on a screen to me now. Nor could any in the other worlds I've created. My experience here has taught me much that a Transcendent normally would never have the opportunity to learn. I've come to wish I had designed the species a bit differently. The hermaphroditic demons of Nacht are an example of how I think it should be for everyone."
Mabel stood up, walked over to me, and held out a hand. I took it then she pulled me to my feet and into a hug. "Thank you for the life you've given us. I've said this before, but it bares repeating. You may be The Creator, but just like how you can't see anyone here as data on a screen, I can't see you as anything other than my daughter-in-law. Everyone makes mistakes and has regrets. A perfect creation doesn't exist. Sex-gender mismatches are in the minority, so most people are born as they should be, but for the few that aren't... we have the tools to help them."
She let go and knelt down in front of me, holding my hands.
"As a parent, it is our responsibility to take care of our children. I'm so sorry you had to shoulder so much responsibility at your young age. We couldn't do enough against Phantom, so you took it upon yourself to stop that monster. When this is all said and done, I want you to take some time to relax. You, my daughter, your other partners, whoever you want to relax with."
I smiled. "Yeah. I'll do that."
Mabel gave me a warm smile then returned to her seat.
It'll all be okay. For all of their sakes, I'll win this war against Phantom.
"Okay. Let's continue," I said as I raised my hand and started casting memory magic.
*****
Revision: 2025-2-7