When the group could no longer hear the sound of Kaela's clawed feet frantically scraping the marble floors, Seraphina turned her gaze to her mother who'd been staring at her like she'd seen a dead woman.
"Miriel… would you mind giving me and my mother a moment alone?" Seraphina asked politely.
"Oh? Sure-"
"No. My daughter stays." Selene suddenly said.
She had a firmness in her voice that alerted the both of them that they were not allowed to argue.
"I-I really don't mind-" Miriel tried to protest, but Seraphina realized the error of her ways as well.
"No...mother is right, you should stay."
After all, Miriel was family and it was high time that she started treating her like it.
She was still learning to navigate these sudden new relationships, but she could not deny the need she felt to keep both of these women in her life.
Miriel blushed but she listened to her mother-in-law and wife and slowly sat back down.
'She's cute...'
Shaking her head to focus, Seraphina turned back towards her mother and asked her a very unexpected question.
"My father was a oni?"
Immediately, the tension in the room increased tenfold.
"H-How do you...?"
"You're free to think of it as a hunch, mother." She said with a small smile.
Selene had a bewildered expression on her face for several minutes before she patted the space beside her on the bed as a gesture for her to come and sit down.
Seraphina flinched momentarily.
While acting like a doting daughter was one thing, she still had issues with displaying physical affection.
Her experiences with her own mother had thoroughly traumatized her, making it difficult to accept that a maternal figure would not hurt her.
"Come here, my daughter. There's much I have to tell you." Selene said with a sad sweetness in her voice.
A shudder ran down Seraphina's spine.
Selene's tone was so warm and inviting that she melted all of her resistance away.
Before she knew what she was doing, she had stood up and come to sit on the bed alongside her.
Selene's violet eyes also fell on Miriel and she gestured for her to come up as well.
"You too, Miriel. I want the both of you to hear this story."
This world is known as Vaelthoria. There are ten continents, each divided up among the leading ten races: Dragons, Demons, Vampires, Dwarves, Phoenixes, Witches, Humans, Fairies, and Semihumans.
In this world, beings can undergo a mystical process called evolution upon fulfilling a secret set of conditions set from birth.
Essentially, you had to live in blind faith that you were filling out the conditions necessary for your evolution, and you would never learn what they were until you had finally completed them and the voice of the world spoke to you.
The voice of the world was an entity dubbed Vaelthoria, and there was almost no information about her.
Upon completing one evolution, you would immediately have a new set of evolution conditions carved into your soul.
To say evolving is a difficult task is a gross understatement. The highest number of recorded evolutions for a single individual is only six, which is an incredible feat in itself.
All of the leaders of each race have evolved six times each and have been dubbed 'demigods' by the people and by Vaelthoria herself.
Seraphina's grandfather is the current Elf King and has been reigning for over nine hundred years.
To the masses, he is simply known as Phoebus, The Dark Tide, and is The Elf Demigod of Endless War.
Selene is the youngest of three siblings and the only princess of the elf empire, Vegaon.
Even as an elf famed for bloodshed and death, Phoebus loved his daughter with everything that he had.
She was spoiled endlessly, yet despite that, she maintained a kind and gentle aura befitting of a storybook princess.
However, her life was not picture perfect.
Despite being over two hundred years old, she had only ever evolved once and was considered the laughingstock of her siblings who were already on their second or third evolution.
For a race that values magic above all else, such as elves, there was no greater shame.
Thirty years ago, Selene had finally had enough.
One night, she approached her father in a drunken rage, blaming his constant coddling as the reason why she was never able to grow as an individual.
Phoebus, was devastated to know she felt that way, but in front of his daughter, he could offer no defense.
She simply reminded him too much of the woman who was once his sole reason for living.
That night, she left a letter on her dresser to her father apologizing for the harsh words that were said before she fled from the castle under the light of a full moon.
Desperate to experience combat and growth as a warrior, she fled to the one place where she could experience all of that in droves while living without the supervision of her father.
She chose to go to the demon continent of Samael, where demons ,onis and humans engage in near constant battle.
It was on one of these battlefields where she found the love of her life and the women she had pledged herself to for all eternity.