{oOo}
Beryl was a Good Daughter, Terra mused as she contemplated her. Fine work done there. Good enough to not eat. She tried hard, brought home food; prey. A lot of different types of prey.
Even if they'd been intelligent, Terra really hadn't cared, as long as their processed corpses, pureed to sludge, could be of use in fertilizing her lands.
She owed her little daughter a boon. And yet... she didn't know what her daughter wanted.
{oOo}
"...Do you wish to be male?" The question came out of nowhere, startling Beryl badly enough that she straightened out of her now habitual position on her knees.
Whatever had brought this on?
Did she even want to know?
"...No." Beryl's response was fervent, quick, certain. "Very much no, mother."
Dark-haired, deceptively delicate, Terra frowned. "You bring me food, you ply my favour." It was clear the eldritch female didn't understand Beryl's motivations.
After thinking things over, Beryl decided to carefully choose her word, since any confusion would, apparently, result in her being gender changed. And she didn't even know if Fulgrim liked men that way! "Ah... there is a male I wish to reproduce with, if you would catch my drift." she offered cautiously, off-balance and nervous. "I think things would go better if I were fertile enough to give him children and... I am not very fertile at this point and you ARE fertility." she said, apologetically, twining a strand of long red hair back behind her ear tip.
"Come here." Terra commanded, and Beryl quickly obeyed. One doesn't disobey or disrespect a being capable of reducing you to a red smear with a thought, after all.
Pleased, Terra laid her hands on her abdomen, over the slight swell of fat at the cradle of her pelvis. "Good daughter. Worthy and strong. Variation and mutation not seen here...Did I make you?" Her hand is very warm, and patterns move under her skin as the fingertips phase through clothing and flesh like they weren't even there.
"Yes mother." Beryl ventured, still cautious, knowing her life and... various other bits were on the line if her answers were taken wrong."You made my ancestors." she said quietly.
The Great Mother looked... pensive. "I don't remember very well. There is no Elysium here, all these minds and they have no soul house, no place for mine." Energy, just tiny ripples from the center of her palm. They expanded out over her skin and into her body as well. "You brought me to him. I remember someone like him. She was silver and beautiful and love and power."
"Um. she married one of your sons, mother." Beryl says carefully. Truth. Try not to upset the mother of all things on earth."She was very very happy." She floundered for details.
"I don't think so. I think I married her. But she is not here and he is, and they both love so very very much." She pulled her hand back, "You are more fertile now, to enrich the next generation."
"Thank you, mother." Beryl says, still somewhat disoriented. "But we do not remember seeing you, mother. Not on the other earth. Not for a very long time." She frowns, tries to remember. "The last time there was a Sailor Terra was over 500 years before Prince Endymion was born."
"When I die I am reborn, from my precious children, or from my own flesh beneath their feet. I was, am, Queen, Princess...But..." Terra closed her eyes and her bust shrank eyes moved lightly further apart as her cheekbones became more apparent. Adam's apple, and her hips-almost moved. Rapidly her body returned to being fully female, unable to finish the transformation. "I am weak still."
"...I will bring you more biomass, mother." Beryl says, eyes filled with resolve and... was it relief? Relief that she now had a clear goal that would be less dangerous than this conversation. "There will be Hive ships, crushed, to feed you."
"It's not just that, good child." Terra said quietly.
"What do you need, mother?" Beryl asked, clearly confused.
"I poisoned myself to make you, after I bled. But here everyday I am poisoned. Are you his daughter as well?" She pointed up with one hand towards where the Emperor sat.
A slight frown was all Beryl showed as she took the news in stride. Confusing, but then, the Mother was very far from human. "How were you poisoned, mother?"
"Not his daughter, no." She doesn't understand. No matter. She is only human...
"Oxygen, daughter. Oxygen was poison at first." Terra chided her gently. A slow blink, "Then why do you do his duty, daughter mine?"
Beryl lowered her voice so hopefully only the Mother would hear it, embarrassed even though this was a private audience as she chose words she was sure the Mother would understand,
"... Because I wish to mate with one of his sons. " Beryl flushes. Then she started shyly showing Terra picts of Fulgrim hoping the Mother wouldn't bring it up in front of the male in question later.
Terra scrutinized the picture. "His hair is long and unbroken, though lacking in protective and camouflaging coloration. He has been well fed and healthy for," she ran her finger from the scalp of the picture to almost the end of his hair, "this long. His face is clear so he is un-poisoned. He is a good choice. It pleases me to know that my husband's seed is good."
She put her hands on her own abdomen, regretful. "I cannot have children of flesh alone yet, not when my bones are dead."
A moment's pause before she added, "I cannot tell you more about him with those coverings on him."
Beryl had flushed as red as a tomato. "Ah... That won't be necessary, mother." She floundered in all too human embarrassment.
"Are you certain?"Terra questioned her.
"Yes mother." If she turned any redder, Beryl was afraid her skin would match her hair.
The Eldritch female gave her a pat on the head. "Go make me grandchildren. Even if they seem faulty I promise I will not devour them."
"Er. Yes mother." Beryl said weakly, embarrassed beyond belief.
"I am mostly certain there will be no complications in your children if he is similar to his father and has no genetic defects." Terra promised. "Love them and each other strongly, good daughter."
Beryl couldn't even form a coherent answer to that anymore. "Erk."
{oOo}