Alice made an adorable face, as if she had just rembered sothing important and slightly embarrassing. She scratched her cheek with a finger, looking away briefly.
"Hmm... Aunt Morgana's... busy," she said, slurring her words. "She said she was trying to decipher so ancient scrolls in the east tower and that no one should bother her. Not even ."
Vergil arched an eyebrow. "She said that even though she knew I'd be back today?"
Alice nodded vigorously. "She said that if I saw you before she did, I was supposed to hug you so hard that you wouldn't be able to get angry."
Vergil sighed, massaging the bridge of his nose.
"She still uses children as an emotional shield... typical Morgana."
Katharina laughed scornfully. "What did you expect? That she'd greet you at the door with flowers and a bottle of wine?"
"Maybe a bottle, at least," muttered Vergil.
Ada approached and gently wiped Alice's face with an enchanted handkerchief, removing the dust and traces of tears that had escaped from the reunion. "Let tell Morgana. She needs to know you've arrived, even if you're feigning disinterest."
"No, Ada," Vergil held up his hand, cutting off the proposal. "I'll speak to her myself."
He then stared at the mansion, eyes roaming the tall windows, the curtains fluttering in the wind. "I found you." He said, disappearing...
And reappearing inside the room where Morgana was.
He vanished in a whisper of shadows, his presence fading as if he had never been there - leaving Katharina snorting, Roxanne giggling evilly and Ada just raising her eyes to the sky. Alice? Well, she just crossed her arms and muttered sothing along the lines of "You always get ahead when I want to show you things..."
Vergil reappeared at the top of the east tower, just inside Morgana's chambers.
The room was spacious, bathed in warm light from the enchanted windows that mimicked moonlight, even in the heart of the Underworld. Walls covered with shelves full of grimoires, amulets floating in runic circles and an enchanted cauldron bubbling in the background. Nothing out of the ordinary... until he turned around.
And then he saw it.
Morgana was standing with her back to him, in front of a magic mirror that projected illusions for costu fittings. And her current outfit was... striking.
A tight black bodysuit, an enchanted fabric that fitted her curves perfectly, with provocative cut-outs on the side and a bare back. Lacy tights with intertwined arcane designs running up her thighs to her hips. Black doe eyes on the top of her head. And, yes, a ridiculous pompom attached to the base of her spine. Her expression in the mirror was one of absolute concentration - not of soone studying spells, but of soone assessing the fit of an accessory with almost scientific seriousness.
Vergil blinked. Once. Then again.
"Morgana."
She stopped. For a second, the world stopped. And then she turned around slowly, still wearing the costu, her eyes wide as if it were a vision - or a nightmare.
"...Vergil?" her voice ca out thin, incredulous.
He crossed his arms, impassive. "Interesting... So that's what required absolute silence in the mansion's most isolated tower?"
Morgana made a face that was half embarrassnt, half sheer stubbornness. "It's for an infiltration mission. I'm testing disguises."
"Mission. Infiltration." Vergil repeated, with an arched eyebrow.
"Yes! And it's a ritual! Cultural! Of... demonic seduction." She retorted too quickly.
Vergil approached slowly, his eyes scanning the scene. "If your aim was to make anyone vulnerable... you've probably succeeded."
Morgana crossed her arms over her chest, now realizing how revealing the costu was. "You could knock on the door, you know."
"I knock when it's an ordinary person's room. You let your energy out when Alice told about you. I knew you were here, so I ca." He then stared at her, straight ahead, eyes hardening. "You knew I'd be back today. And you didn't co down."
She lowered her eyes for a mont, her posture relaxing. "...I knew. But I didn't know what to say."
"'Welco back' usually works."
Morgana sighed in frustration, still facing the mirror. "I thought you'd be angry. For getting the Witch Queen interested in you. For..." she hesitated, and her voice ca a little lower - "that's why I put on that sexy little outfit. I thought... maybe if you saw like this, you'd fall for my charm. But... you don't seem to like like that, do you?"
Vergil remained silent for a mont. Then he uncrossed his arms and pointed his chin discreetly downwards.
Morgana frowned. "What?"
"Look down," he said, his voice low, but carrying sothing between defiance and patience.
She lowered her eyes slowly... and widened them the next instant.
"Ah..."
Vergil arched an eyebrow, with the sa ticulous calm as always. "Does that answer your question?"
Morgana opened and closed her mouth a few tis, a flush rising to her cheeks as quickly as a barely contained arcane explosion. She turned her face away, trying to compose so dignity as she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "You still suck at romantic words, you know that?"
'It fucking worked! He got hard! Morgana scread internally, clearly hiding her face.
"It's not with words that I usually demonstrate certain things, only with my wives," he muttered, taking a step closer.
She looked over her shoulder, eyes flickering between defiance and vulnerability. "Then show ."
The silence that followed needed no magic. It was too charged with everything that had been trapped in the ti between them: contained desire, buried hurts, affection that never died.
Vergil looked at her seriously. "Later... we'll talk about it." He said, "What's this about the Witch Queen wanting to see ?"
Morgana nodded slowly. "If you promise not to feign indifference..."
"If you promise to stop using bunny ears as a tactical distraction."
She laughed, low and warm. "No promises."
And he smiled. Just a little. She then sat down on the edge of the bed.
"I don't know if I told you that, but you probably overlooked it, I don't have a very good mory. But anyway." Morgana spoke and beca more serious... "Alice... created a new form of magic, a new way of using magic." Morgana spoke...
Vergil choked... "WHAT?!"
Morgana scratched her head... "I must not have spoken at all..."
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