Disclaimer: I don't own any IPs that might appear in the story
The Legacy of the Father
A Council of Thirteen universe story
One shot
Beta:
High in the Bavarian Alps there stood an isolated cabin that belonged to the Achleitner family and scattered around the living room of the house was Felicia Tredecim née Achleitner and her family as they warmed themselves in front of the blazing fireplace that dominated one side of the comfortable room.
"It was nice of your parents to loan us this cabin." Shirayuki, a yuki onna and one of Felicia's two wives, said as she lounged on the sofa furthest from the fire like a satisfied cat. "Especially during the winter. I'm sure they could rent it for a hefty profit otherwise considering how picturesque the view outside is."
"It's like a winter wonderland!" Fleda, the eldest Tredecim daughter, said radiating excitement and a clear desire to go out and play in the snow.
"Um," Chihiro mumbled in agreement as she nodded shyly from where she and her elder sister sat by the fire.
"Chihiro, use your words." Dominique, Felicia's other wife, chided their middle daughter as she walked in from the dining room.
"Sorry, Dom-mama." The little girl said with a chastised look. "I think all the snow outside is pretty too."
"Better," Felicia said, offering their shy daughter an encouraging smile even as she continued rocking the newest addition to their family, little Alyssa, in her arms. "I take it that dinner is ready, Dom?"
"It is," Dom agreed. "So Felda, Chihiro, go wash up!"
"'Kay~!" "Yes, Dom-mama." The two little girls chorused in reply as they scampered off towards the nearest bathroom.
"I'll go make sure they don't take the chance to have a water fight or start some other mischief." Shirayuki volunteered as she slipped off the sofa and followed after their two older daughters.
"Thanks," Dom said, offering their wife a smile before turning to Felicia and Alyssa.
"How are you feeling Felicia?" Dom asked worriedly as Felica stood from the loveseat she'd been occupying, their newborn daughter cradled safely in her arms.
"Still a little tired," Felicia confessed. "Having experienced it myself now, I honestly can't believe how quickly Shirayuki and you got over giving birth."
"My magic gives me an unfair advantage. My void element can literally eat concepts like exhaustion and even injury." Dom said with a shrug as they made their way to the dining room. "And Shirayuki's yuki onna constitution is just stronger than a human's."
"If we are giving birth to any more children, I'm opting out." Felicia said with a pout. "It's not fair that you two have it so much easier."
Dom giggled at that and nodded. "Sure. I don't mind and I doubt Shirayuki would either."
"I don't." The yuki onna confirmed as they walked into the dining room and found her overseeing Fleda and Chihiro as they took their seats around the long table laden with the dishes Dom had prepared for them. "Dom and I can take care of any future pregnancies if they happen."
"You have my thanks." Felicia said half teasing, half honest. Her pregnancy and birthing process with Alyssa really had taken a toll on her and she was leery of repeating it.
"No need for that, we're a team." Dom said as she gently took the sleeping Alyssa from Felicia's arms and lowered her lovingly into the crib set up by the dining table, where she could continue sleeping whilst the rest of their family had their meal.
"Thanks anyways," Felicia insisted more to elicit the feeling of fond exasperation from her wives over their bond than anything else, something they did not disappoint her at and which had her giggling in amusement.
Shirayuki rolled her eyes at her for that but Dom offered her a fond smile, as all three of them took their seats.
"Let's just ea-" Dom began only to suddenly cut herself off when a wave of unfamiliar magic washed over the entire area around the cabin as what felt distinctly like a powerful sealed space barrier was cast over it.
Immediately Fleda cried out in alarm and Chihiro whimpered in distress, prompting Shirayuki, who was sitting on the same side of the table as the two children to rush to comfort them. Felicia herself leapt to her feet and hurriedly picked up the wailing Alyssa and did her best to soothe her as well. Dom meanwhile was busy casting what Felicia recognised as her favored, and only, divination spells. It was sadly a school of magic that her wife, Lord of the Thirteen though she was, had little to no talent in.
Even as Dom reviewed what her spells told her, Felicia decided to rely on a much more primitive observation tool, the Mark One Eyeball, and glanced out a window.
"We're trapped in a barrier," they both concluded at the same time.
"I think we've all figured that out, dearest." Shirayuki took a moment from reassuring Fleda and Chihiro to chide. "The question is whose? And why did they want to trap us?"
Felicia and Dom both blushed at the rebuke and Dom was about to reply, when a voice suddenly boomed from outside the cabin.
"Dominique Tredicim!" The magically enhanced voice shouted. "Come out and face me! In the name of vengeance for our father and to contest the mantle of the Thirteenth Lord, I, Alicia Lim, challenge you to a duel!"
Looking outside once more even as she rocked Alyssa harder as the baby startled at the sudden loud voice, Felicia saw a slender Chinese woman with long raven black hair, surrounded by a mantle of fire that included a pair of flaming wings and a rapier Mystic Code that was also aflame.
"Dom, since when did you have siblings?" Felicia asked her wife. There was little doubt in her mind that the woman outside was lying, the physical similarities between her and Dom were slight but noticeable but more importantly now that the connection was pointed out to her, the feel of the stranger's magic was unmistakably similar to her wife's.
"This is honestly the first I've heard of it." Dom admitted with a shrug. "But I'm not surprised. The previous Thirteenth Lords, including Father, were known for sowing their wild oats as widely as possible to ensure they always had children somewhere to succeed them."
"You never checked?" Shirayuki asked, her incredulity coming across so strongly over their bond that Felicia could almost taste it.
"No," Dom said with a shake of her head. "I had thought that Father had already killed all my siblings. More importantly…"
I didn't want to find out if I had any still living siblings. She continued mentally over their bond, too shaken to admit it in words. I didn't know how I'd react to finding out I had any who were still alive. And I didn't want to find out…
"Dominique Trediciam, you coward! Don't make me repeat myself! Come out and face me!" Dom's supposed sister shouted impatiently. "Or I'll burn that whole bloody cottage down!"
A month earlier, in Waverley Cemetery, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Alicia Lim, illegitimate and unrecognised daughter of the last Thirteenth Lord, found herself the last person standing by her mother's grave after the conclusion of the woman's funeral.
After decades of hard living doing every odd job she could find, even occasionally prostituting herself, to earn enough for the two of them to survive and for Alicia to have a better chance at life, her mother had finally died of a heart attack.
At least she has a nice grave. Alicia thought as she fought back tears whilst she admired the elaborate carved white marble headstone. A final gift from her maternal grandparents for the daughter they'd disowned. Or more accurately a last desperate attempt to cover up the part they played in her early death in her forties.
And all because they were shamed by Mother ruining a betrothal by getting pregnant with me outside of wedlock and with a man they did not approve. Alicia thought with disgust as she shot a dirty look in the direction of the limousine her maternal grandparents had departed in.
Such behavior was abhorrent by modern standards but mages like Alicia's hated grandparents operated by different, older rules. To them, bloodlines and marriage alliances were still of paramount importance. It even made sense considering magical talents were a matter of genetic inheritance. However, even by magi standards Alicia's grandparents reaction had been extreme and born more out of spite at her mother for foiling their plans to marry her off and secure an alliance they'd spent decades working towards than anything.
"You know everyone else has already left." Her mentor, Roy Mustang, a clean-shaven young looking man with dark hair and eyes dressed in a three-piece suit, a black tie, a scarf despite the balmy summer weather, polished dress shoes, an overcoat and gloves, said. "Come on, let me take you home too, kiddo."
"I'm not a kid." Alicia protested weakly even as with one last lingering look she turned away from her mother's grave to follow Roy as he led her to his car.
"You'll always be a kid to me, kiddo." Roy said with a teasing grin.
If it had been anyone else making fun of her like that, Alicia would have been furious but Roy was different. Besides her late mother, he was the only one alive who had a right to say do that. He was like a surrogate father to her. It had been him who had spotted her talent for magic and plucked her out of the slum which had been the only housing her mother could afford. He had been the one who had taken her under his wing and taught her everything that she knew. It was he who had done her best to help her mother, despite the woman's pride not allowing him to do half of what he wanted to do to assist her.
If there was anyone she would allow to call her a child, that she would listen to, it was him.
"So what do you intend to do now, Alicia?" Roy asked, breaking the companionable silence that had descended over them as they continued their walk to his car.
"It's time to confront my sister." Alicia said firmly.
Roy froze at that and shot her a disapproving look. "Are you seriously considering picking a fight with the Thirteenth Lord?"
Alicia nodded as she kept walking. "I won't know peace until I know one thing."
"And what's that?" Roy asked as he took a couple of hurried steps to catch back up.
"Why?" Alicia said, her eyes narrowing in anger. "Why her? And why not me?"
"You know that your sister's childhood wasn't easy either, right?" Roy asked, easily cutting through the crux of her feelings for her sister.
"Maybe, but her life now is charmed as hell isn't it?" Alicia countered. "How's that fair?"
"Your life isn't half bad either." Roy tried. "You're a talented mage that has the opportunity to pursue many promising careers."
"Yes," Alicia allowed. "But I won't be able to properly pursue them until I exorcise my demons. Mother couldn't do that. Couldn't let go of her personal demon, her pride, and accept help when it was given. That was what, above all, killed her. I don't want to be like that."
"And your personal demon is?" Roy asked, his face etched with concern.
"Envy," Alicia admitted. "And until I confront its target, I will never be able to work past it."
"I get it." Roy conceded with a sigh. "Just, just, don't go overboard okay? Messing with a Lord of the Thirteen, especially the Assassin Lord is dangerous."
"I won't." Alicia reassured him. "I know my limits."
"-I'll do it you know! I will burn the house down with your family in it!" The woman who claimed to be her sister threatened for the second time, even as Dom swung the door to the cabin open and stepped outside.
"Keep my family out of this." Dom warned in a threatening hiss of her own. Sister or not, and Dom was fairly certain the woman was her sibling, she would not hesitate to kill anyone who threatened her wives and children. Though she was fairly certain that this woman, Alicia, was only bluffing.
Whilst she radiated plenty of anger towards herself for some reason, she did not seem to carry any true malice. So Dom felt it was unlikely she would drag innocents or uninvolved parties like her family into whatever feud she seemed to have with her.
That hesitation however did not extend to Dom herself though and upon seeing her stepping out of the cabin, with a cry Fire Cyclone, her sister sent at a fire bolt flying from her rapier towards her.
Reacting quickly, Dom raised a Void Shield over the cabin, just in time to shield it and herself as the fire bolt exploded into a flaming storm of fifteen feet in diameter.
"Impressive spellwork," Dom praised honestly as she stepped through her newly conjured barrier. She was familiar with the Fire Cyclone spell and knew for a fact that judging by the strength of the flames and the area of effect that her sister had managed, her iteration of it was on the upper end of what the spell was capable of. "But be careful where you target your spells, I accept your duel but if you hurt my family then all bets are off."
Alicia's only response to her warning was to flap those wings of fire that whatever enhancement spell or spells she'd cast on herself had given her and surged forward like a flaming bolt, bringing her rapier-like Mystic Code down to slash at Dom.
She's decently fast. Dom noted clinically even as she casually conjured a blade of her own using her Void Blade spell and parried the blow. The heat of her mantle is pretty damned hot too and judging by how it's only melting small patches of the snow around her, it's pretty focused too. She's good.
Not that Dom couldn't counter the heat Alicia's spells created easily enough. With a single thought, she wrapped herself in an aura of her void energy which was more than able to negate its effects.
Her failed attack didn't seem to dissuade her sister though and she quickly recovered from her failed slash to attempt a thrust instead. In response, Dom pirouetted out of the way and Alicia followed, even though she must've known that she was leading her away from the cabin.
Guess it's like I thought and she's really not interested in hurting innocents.
Whether she was or not, the other woman kept up her relentless assault as she shot forward in another burst of speed and launched into a series of blindingly fast thrusts. Dom was however ready for her, and with the help of a simple Haste, she was more than able to keep up and parry every one of the other woman's thrusts even as she kept drawing her away from her family.
Her continued failure to breach Dom's guard seemed to frustrate the fire mage though and she decided to up the ante.
"Greater Fireburst!" Alicia incanted, unleashing a flaming shockwave that forced Dom to use Shadow Step to teleport a safe distance away.
Her evasion however seemed to play into Alicia's plans and she launched into a full blown bombardment, shooting a hail of Fireballs and a Flamespin Barrage at Dom, sending balls of flame and vertical wheels of fire hurtling towards her.
Raising an eyebrow at the admittedly withering barrage, Dom simply used a series of Shadow Steps to evade the incoming projectiles. Something that seemed to once more frustrate her opponent and cause her to escalate.
"Meteor Swarm!" Alicia roared as she pointed her Mystic Code at Dom and sent five meteors flying in a straight line at the Thirteenth Lord, leaving trails of fiery sparks behind them.
"You mentioned wanting to avenge our father?" Dom asked as she once more used Shadow Step to teleport out of the large blast zone created by Alicia's powerful attack. "Why would you want to do that? That he was a monster is a well known fact."
"He was still our father!" Alicia shot back, as she switched back to a barrage of Fireballs that had Dom once more teleporting around with Shadow Step to evade them. "That alone is enough for me to want to avenge him. Besides, the stories about his 'crimes' were propagated by you and your foster parents. How could I trust them!?"
"They were corroborated by third parties."
"Third parties in your pockets!" Alicia shot back defiantly as she swung her sword at Dom, sending a particularly fast moving bolt of fire at her.
Realizing she couldn't Shadow Step out of the way in time, Dom cast a quicker Void Barrier instead and let the fiery explosion unleashed by Alicia's spell wash over the shield of void energy her defensive spell had created.
"Incendiary Sword." Alicia cast, enshrouding her rapier in flames again before she flapped her fiery wings and shot towards Dom once more.
She swung her blade at Dom in a powerful slash but the Thirteenth Lord matched it, locking her own newly conjured Void Blade against Alicia's Mystic Code.
I really should consider forging a Mystic Code of my own. Dom mused distractedly as her Void Blade strained against the rapier. The only reason she hadn't was because of the difficulty in producing something that could withstand the entropic effects of being subjected to her void magic. Every attempt on her part so far had failed and she'd been forced to give up on the idea.
Though I might want to reconsider. Dom thought to herself as her Void Blade cracked from holding back Alicia's Mystic Code, a problem she was sure a proper Mystic Code of her own would not have.
But that's something to consider another time. Dom concluded as she refreshed her spell and used the repaired blade to push back on Alicia's rapier.
"Why do you care about Father so much that you're risking your life fighting me for him?" Dom asked. She was not one to brag but she was the Thirteenth Lord, the most infamous of the Lords of the Thirteen. It was thus a wholly legitimate question. "Did you even know him?"
"No! And that's your fault! It's because of you that I won't ever have the chance to do so!" Alicia shouted as she disengaged from the prolonged blade lock and leapt back, shooting Flamespins at Dom as she did.
"Would you truly want to have known him?" Dom questioned as she shot the incoming projectiles out of the air with Void Missiles of her own,
"I would." Alicia insisted as she wordlessly cast a Flame Cyclone at Dom. "I wanted to at least ask him why he abandoned Mother without a word! Did he know the hardships that would bring her?"
Using Shadow Step to teleport behind Alicia and completely evading the fire mage's spell, Dom replied. "He probably did and didn't care. He was a terrible person like that."
Spinning around and charging her at high speed, Alicia attempted to cut Dom down with a slash once more all whilst she spat back her own reply. "It was my right to find that out firsthand! To be given the chance to decide what to do if that was the case."
Parrying Alicia's blow and once again entering into a dance of blades with the other woman who she was increasingly sure was her sister, Dom continued the conversation unperturbed by the fact that she was doing so in the middle of a potentially deadly duel. "What would you have done if it was?"
Their blades locked once more and by unspoken consent, they both took a breather. Though neither was willing to let down their guard entirely and continued to push lightly against the other's blade.
"I would've challenged him to a duel and tried to teach him a lesson."
"Like you're doing now?" Dom asked, honestly amused. Was her sister projecting what she'd wanted to do to their father onto her instead? It certainly seemed like it.
"Exactly!" Alicia shouted as she unleashed a Greater Fireburst. "You took away my chance for answers. For revenge! It's only fair you pay for it!"
"You hate him too don't you?" Dom concluded as she rematerialised after using Shadow Step to evade the fiery shockwave that Alicia's spell had created.
"Of course I do!" Alicia said, her voice dripping with hate as she pointed her blade skyward and cast an overpowered Meteor Swarm. "My mother lost everything because he knocked her up with me. She was engaged to be married to a man who would've taken care of her for the rest of her life before that man seduced her! But her fiancé didn't want her after she became used and discarded goods and she was forced to raise me on her own after her family disowned her for ruining the betrothal they'd worked so hard to secure for her. She was a pampered girl before that, one who never knew a day of hardship. Can you imagine how she suffered? How I suffered as she struggled to make ends meet!? All the degrading things she had to endure to make sure we survived!? How that life eventually killed her, leaving me an orphan!"
"And I had to live in fear of constantly being killed by him for not meeting his expectations in one way or another." Dom shot back, even as she conjured a host of magic circles behind her that spat out a storm of matter devouring Void Missiles that destroyed the meteors Alicia had summoned. "Father was a monster! He never showed me an ounce of love! Ever! All he ever did was test me with one life threatening challenge after another with the prospect of death at his hands should I ever fail to live up to his standards! At least your mother loved you! I didn't even know what that meant until I'd killed Father and Sakura-sama and Tomoyo-sama took me in!"
"At least you had a chance for revenge!" Alicia shouted as she thrust her Mystic Code at Dom, channeling a large amount of magic into the spell she was crafting as she did. "Fireball!"
A massive fireball screamed at Dom. One whose size honestly left the Thirteenth Lord impressed. Just from the strength of this one spell alone, she could guess that her sister was likely in the top 1% of all magic users on the planet.
She however was a Lord of the Thirteen. And that put her firmly into an entirely different league.
"Void Cannon," Dom whispered as she pointed her right hand at the incoming fireball, unleashing a beam of raw nothingness that collided with the fiery projectile in a massive explosion that threw up a massive cloud of snow.
As the snow settled, it was accompanied by the sound of shattering glass as Alicia's entrapping barrier was shattered.
"Dom-chan!" Sakura-sama and Tomoyo-sama shouted in unison as they raced through the still disintegrating barrier to Dom's side, a number of Sakura-sama's Card spirits shooting ahead of her to circle Dom protectively.
"Sakura-sama, Tomoyo-sama?" Dom asked, blinking in confusion at her foster mothers. "Why are you two here?"
"The Twelfth told us you were in danger." Sakura-sama began as she cast a host of diagnostic spells on Dom.
"We came immediately." Tomoyo-sama added, something attested to the fact that both she and Sakura-sama seemed to be dressed in pajamas with winter coats having been thrown over as afterthoughts.
"Three Lords?" Alicia said with a defeated laugh. "I surrender."
"Alicia-" Dom began but was cut off when her sister continued speaking.
"I'm glad he's dead." Alicia confessed as she collapsed to her knees, dismissing her flaming wings and mantle and dropping her Mystic Code. "I just wish that I'd been the one to kill him."
"You don't." Dom said, gently pushing a concerned Sakura-sama aside and walking over to tentatively pull her sister into a hug. "Even though I hate him with all my being, I still regret having done the deed. Let me bear that burden, sister."
"I-I'm older than you, I s-should be the one to take burdens like t-that." Alicia said, as she cried in Dom's arms. "I'm t-the o-older sister."
"Maybe. But I've been saddled with it and so let me shoulder it for you. I'm happy to do so, Sister." Dom reassured her sister.
Alicia just sobbed as she completely broke down in Dom's arms.
A month later, Dom and Alicia were meeting with Sakura-sama and Tomoyo-sama in the gazebo in the Daidouji Mansion where she'd shared meals with her adoptive mothers on many, many occasions. Though at the moment none of that nostalgia registered with her as she read through the documents that her fellow Lords had handed to her.
"Are these accurate?" Dom asked, as she put the set of the documents down. "All of our unaccounted for siblings are dead?"
Next to her Alicia winced as she too finished reading the results of the Council's investigations on any possible children of their father that like Alicia she had not previously been aware of.
"Unfortunately that does appear to be the case," Sakura-sama said, reaching over to take a hold of her hand and give it a comforting squeeze. "They have been dead for some time."
"By his hand," Alicia spat in disgust.
"Yes, I'm afraid so." Tomoyo-sama confirmed with a frown. "Apparently as part of tests to determine whether they were suitable to be his successor. Or to replace his chosen successor at that time."
"That monster… To kill his own children."
"Surviving wasn't necessarily a good thing," Dom said, shivering as a brief memory of some of the torture she'd endured whilst under her father's tutelage flashed through her mind.
"I can't even imagine." Alicia said with a shake of her head. "If he was willing to kill our siblings just to taste their worthiness then whatever he did to those he actually trained must have been unimaginable."
"It was," Dom said, shivering again and prompting Sakura-sama to stand and walk over to pull her into a hug.
"I'm glad you killed him, Dom. I really am." Alicia said with a nod. "And I'm sorry you had to go through the hell he put you through."
"Thank you, Alicia." Dom said, offering her sister a brittle smile and squeezing Sakura-sama's arm lightly to tell her that she was okay.
Her adoptive mother shot her a worried, questioning look but Dom nodded.
Sakura-sama sighed but let go, walking back to her side of the table.
"I have a question though," Alicia said as Sakura-sama retook her seat. "How did that man miss me? He never returned to test me like he seemed to have done to all our other siblings."
"It appears that you have your mentor to thank for that," Tomoyo-sama explained. "Generally speaking, your siblings did not have anything resembling such. They developed their talents either through regular methods of instruction or teaching themselves. It seems your father believed it would be best to let you complete your training under Mustang-san before testing you."
"And by the time you had completed your training-"
"You'd succeeded him." Alicia said, cutting Dom off and shooting her a grateful look.
"That appears to be the case." Sakura-sama concluded.
"It seems I have many things to be thankful to you about, Sister." Alicia said, offering Dom a smile.
"No need to thank me," Dom reassured her older sister. "We're family. There is no need for thanks between family."
Years later, the Tredecim family were visiting the Murasaki, Shirayuki's family's, ancestral home, a traditional Japanese manor, on the slopes of Mount Asahi in the town of Higashikawa, Hokkaido. And after a quiet day of relaxing, they were about to settle down for dinner. Except two of their number were missing.
"Chihiro and Aunt Alicia are late." Dom heard Alyssa say as she finished laying out the dishes she'd helped the manor's staff prepare for her family. "What's keeping them? I'm hungry!"
"Last I heard they went off to go train." Fleda said as she fidgeted. Sitting on the floor in the traditional Japanese style was not something her eldest was the most comfortable with it seemed, and not even three days of being forced to do so had helped in that regard.
"They did." Felicia confirmed. "They probably just forgot the time again. You know how they get when they go off to practice."
This was met with exasperated sighs from everyone around the table.
Dom was grateful that her sister had taken Chihiro under her wing as something of an apprentice in the years since they had reconciled. Especially since this was in addition to Alicia's duties as a spell developer and researcher of magical biology at the Blue Mountains Magical University and part-time monster hunter for the Australian government's Department of Magic. Commitments which made for a hectic schedule on Alicia's part and which led to both Alicia and Chihiro seeking to make the most out of the times where they could train together. Something that unfortunately was often to the detriment of any other commitments around such training sessions.
Dom had tried to convince Alicia that Chihiro didn't need the special attention of a dedicated mentor but her sister had insisted, arguing that as Fleda and Alyssa could get special instruction in their magic from Shirayuki and Felicia respectively thanks to their shared elemental affinities it was only right that Chihiro got something similar. She would feel left out otherwise. Besides, she was more than happy to take time to train her niece.
I must really try to talk to her about it again. Dom concluded. She might not mind, but I can't help but feel bad about taking up her spare time like this. She has precious little of it. Especially if she wants to find a man to start a family of her own like I know she wants to.
Making a mental note to do that later, Dominique turned to her eldest daughter.
"Fleda go find your aunt and sister and let them know to come to dinner."
"Mother, it would be easier if I used my access to the surveillance networks or my divination magic to locate them." Legion suggested via his android avatar.
"No, Legion. Let Fleda do it." Shirayuki said with a shake of her head. "I told her earlier to remind her sister to be on time for dinner so now that she's late, it's her job to go fetch Chihiro and Alicia."
"Plus it's not nice to hog all the work, Legion-kun." Fleda teased as she practically jumped to her feet. "Let Onee-chan do her fair share too."
"Very well," Legion said with a nod, though he pouted nonetheless.
He's adorable. Felicia cooed through their bond, giving voice to the motherly amusement she, Dom and Shirayuki shared at his behavior.
If Alyssa's stifled giggling and Fleda's grin were any indication, his sisters found him just as endearingly amusing.
"Okay, I'll be back in a minute." Fleda said as she finished shaking feeling back into her legs and moved towards the shōji paper sliding doors of the dining room.
She was just about to slide them open when they slid open to reveal Chihiro and Alicia.
"Sorry we're late." Alicia apologized. "We lost track of time."
"It was my fault." Chihiro jumped in. "I was the one who kept bugging Sensei to keep going."
Alyssa snickered at that. "Oh, I can totally see you doing that Chi-nee."
Chihiro pouted and shot her little sister a frown, which for the usually reserved fire mage was as good as a glare.
But before she could say anything, Shirayuki cut in to defuse the situation.
"It's not a problem, Alicia, Chihiro." Dom's yuki onna wife said whilst shooting Alyssa a warning look. "We haven't started yet so you're not really late."
"And Alyssa?"
"Yes, Felicia-mama?" Their youngest biological daughter asked warily.
"Don't poke fun at your sisters."
The blonde pouted but nodded.
"Alright, sit down everyone and let's eat dinner." Dom said welcomingly, gesturing to the empty seats around the table.
As her sister and daughters took their seats, Fleda doing so with a groan much to her sisters' amusement, Dom couldn't help but smile as she was overcome by the simple joy of being able to share a meal with her family.
If only the whole family were here though. She thought wistfully as her mind wandered to her adoptive mothers and children and apprentices.
Don't fret, love. Shirayuki sent over their bond, having sensed the direction her thoughts had taken. We'll organise something where everyone can be in attendance soon.
Perhaps for your birthday, Dom? Felicia suggested. It's coming up soon.
I'd like that. Dom said honestly, the mere idea of what her wives were suggesting eliciting a sense of happy expectation.
Then it's settled.
What Shirayuki said. Felicia added. Leave the planning to us.
In the meantime…
"Let's enjoy the meal everyone." The beautiful yuki onna said with a smile. "Itadakimasu!"
"Itadakimasu!" Everyone chorused as they began their family dinner at last.
And done!
I hope you guys are enjoying this series of one-shots as much as I am because I really am having a ball with them. They are allowing me to explore/expand upon plot threads/ideas that were either undeveloped or outright abandoned in the main story, allowing me flesh out the world in ways I don't think any of the extra collections I've written for my other verses have ever been able to, purely because unlike those this one isn't as tightly wedded to the post-main story timeframe like they were. I am appreciating this freedom immensely. Again, I hope that you guys share my view.
Alright, that's all for this chapter so till next time servus!