For a mont after the initial revelation, there was only silence in the room.
Nyx was afraid to say or do anything that might worsen how her daughter envisioned her as a mother.
Aubrey was still unsure what exactly she had walked in on.
And Hera was too afraid to move out of fear that if she took a step Jasmine might behead her.
"What's... going on here?" Aubrey set her purse down on the counter and wandered further into the living room.
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Nyx ushed forward to try to block her. "A-Aubrey-honey, why don't you co into the next room with , and-"
Aubrey frowned at her mother and gently placed her hands in hers. "Human, not a baby, mom. Rember that?"
"I-It's all the sa to , really..."
"Mom."
Nyx gritted her teeth awkwardly. She knew what her daughter was insisting on, but she didn't know if she should allow it.
In fact, she was positive that she shouldn't. The absolute worst-case scenario was all that she could think about.
Just this once, she had to put her foot down.
"I-I don't-"
'You make that mistake, and you will regret it for the rest of your very long life.'
Nyx glared at Jasmine hard enough to smite her out of existence.
'Butt out of this, dragon. This is a family matter and you're not-'
'Last I checked, I am also scheduled to say my vows to Aubrey as well. Won't that make your daughter too?'
'Then the first lesson you should learn is that I like to be listened to.'
'Noted, but I'm the sa.' Jasmine quipped back. 'So you should listen to when I say that Aubrey loves you trendously. But she also doesn't have any delusions about what you are. Let. Her. Go.'
Nyx knew Jasmine well. She had a rather strong friendship with her mother.
Perhaps that was why she felt her wall of obstinacy beginning to crumble.
anwhile, Hera had suddenly gotten the courage to speak. Though her voice was a lot quieter than before.
"That's why The Creator decided to end the gas… you leveraged your relationship with his hunting dog..!"
Just for a mont, Jasmine's eyes shone dangerously. "Let's not resort to na calling, alright? I'm afraid any slander directed towards my Emperor cos with a heavy toll."
Jasmine's not-so veiled threat accidentally tripled the tension in the room.
At least it did until Aubrey poked a manicured nail into her cheek.
"Dial it back a bit, hun. She's family too, rember?"
Everyone seed surprised by Aubrey's response. Hera even more so.
Aubrey walked around her mother and ca to stand in front of Hera. Only now did the golden haired goddess notice the small bump in her stomach.
"Do you have a mont to talk? I just realized that we've never been properly acquainted."
-
The black garden is a section of Nyx's ho that she put in back when Malachi and the others were still living with her.
In an open greenhouse with a perfect view of Nyx's bright, starry sky overhead.
Rows of dark roses with verdant green stems were planted and maintained with a gentle hand.
Hera honestly couldn't believe that she had found sothing like this inside of her mother's realm.
"Perhaps she's being impersonated…" Hera murmured.
She hadn't spoken in upwards of five minutes, so Aubrey was more than a little surprised that her first words would be that.
"Our mom..?"
Hera felt the urge to scoff again at that word. Mom.
The affection behind it spoke loudly of a sentint that ca from a different life lived than her own.
"…She would have never construed sothing like this in the days of old. Nurturing things that yield no gratification is sothing she considers beneath her."
Aubrey reflexively placed a hand on her stomach as she sat down on the edge of the nearest flowerbed.
"You guys must have a lot of history together. Not all of it pretty, huh?"
Hera scoffed. "She's hated from the mont that I was born. I was never showered with the sa kind of love that she gave to Keres or the others. Or that she gives to you and your brother."
Aubrey didn't exactly know what to say to that. She didn't doubt that her mother had been a much cold and difficult person all those eons ago.
She did know that Nyx had put in a lot of work towards changing, but she couldn't just ask Hera to cast aside her previous experiences with her mother in favor of this new version she presented herself to be.
It was disingenuous. And rather selfish of her too.
No, rather the best thing to do now… was listen.
"Can you tell about what it was like back then?"
Aubrey patted the seat next to her in hopes that Hera would sit down.
For a mont, the goddess seed to take her ti weighing her options.
Of course she didn't have to entertain any part of this conversation.
She could leave right now and none would pursue her. Nyx would probably be glad that she was gone.
So despite everything, why did she feel herself sitting down and spilling all of her most personal stories with a girl not even a fraction of her age.
-
Nyx and Jasmine were standing in the house while the girls talked for the first ti.
Nyx was pacing back and forth nervously while chewing on her nails. She had already bitten them down to the nubs.
Jasmine was just kind of standing by, waiting and trying her best to keep Nyx from breaking her word and eavesdropping on the conversation.
"This is all a mistake… I'm going to stop this." Nyx decided.
"No you're not." Jasmine replied without looking up from her phone. "That's not what good mothers do."
"How would you know?"
Jasmine pulled out a book for new mothers that she was about halfway finished with.
"…Don't patronize , red-head." Nyx rolled her eyes.
She kept her gaze affixed to the garden outside the window, where the daughter she loved more than anything was having a conversation with the source of her greatest sha.
"…Want to talk about it?" Jasmine asked.
"… It may cause you to question everything that you know about ."
"Good thing I don't know all that much." She lied.
Nyx almost laughed. Almost.
Her chest tightened as she continued to stare at Aubrey through the glass and let her mind drift towards her absent son.
"I suppose it all started when she was born. And I , an endless darkness devoid of light, produced two children that were ever brighter than myself."
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