Eris' surprise was understandable.
Demons- at least biblical ones, hadn't been seen for a long, long time.
They went missing around the same time that the illustrious Lucifer did. And Michael too...
No one quite knew exactly where they had gone, or what they had been up to.
In fact they knew so little about them that even this news about their activities from several millennia ago were incredibly jarring.
But first and foremost, there was something more important that needed to be dealt with first.
Eris shuffled closer to Behemoth and Ziz so that she could wrap them both in her embrace.
"I'm sorry.. You both seem to have suffered a lot. I wish that we could have gotten to you sooner, but that's all in the past now. From now on, no one will hurt you again."
Courtney stood at the back of her room; watching in slight wonder.
Her mother seemed to have an uncanny ability to disarm anyone she came across and make them feel almost completely at ease.
She was love and warmth at it's purest. There was no one else in creation quite like her.
She inspired Courtney's decision to go into philanthropy. She wanted to help others and give them the same sense of security and relief that Eris gave... everyone.
She wasn't the strongest, the funniest, or the most graceful. And yet, she was the one with the greatest influence on creation itself.
Because without the idea of preserving love, or at least the pursuit of it, the world as we know it stops turning.
Which was why, if she had to pick which of her parents she found the coolest, Courtney would go with Eris every time.
"You're so cool, mom." She said unconsciously.
Eris smiled somewhat clumsily as she scratched her cheek in embarrassment. "Ehehehe...ehehhehehe..."
-
Shortly after Behemoth and Ziz left the room to go get dressed and settled, Eris moved to the bed where her daughters were already sitting together.
Yemaya and Yemaja left to go and aid the living dinosaur and the golden phoenix- leaving the duo of Mira and Courtney with the responsibility of debriefing their mother.
"So... Do either of you want to tell me why you brought those two into your room, Courtney?" Eris asked pointedly.
"...R-Random coincidence?" Mira sputtered.
"Try again, please."
"W-Well it certainly isn't because we took her on a mission!"
"Dude.." Courtney rubbed her temples.
Mira covered her mouth as if she were trying to keep more incriminating words from spilling out.
Eris lay back across the bed. She tapped both sides of her as if she were gesturing for the girls to do the same.
Once they were lying on either side of her, she took them both by one hand.
"Tell me what happened then. Start from the beginning."
The girls were silent for a minute but Courtney eventually spoke first.
"...I was such a badass, mom."
"That's not the beginning, sweetheart, but that's good to know."
"For the record, she was definitely not a badass, mom. I have a video." Mira pulled out her phone.
"H-Hey, you promised me you were going to delete that!"
"I don't remember that at all."
Eris racked her brain for away to explain it in a way that she would understand.
"You remember the first time your father gave you his blood, right? And the effect it had on you after?"
"I stopped getting sick and my eyes got all anime-like."
"...Well, yes. But more than that, you were altered on a genetic level, albeit very minutely. Less than 0.0000002% according to Lailah."
Courtney felt her heart beating rapidly. "...Are you trying to tell me I'm already a dragon?"
"Well... Do you remember when your father gave you your middle name when you started asking him to teach you to breathe fire?"
"... I might recall."
"Well, since you are technically part demon now, giving you a name means a lot more now than it did before.
By naming you Andrea, your father gave you something of a choice. You can have as much, or as little of your heritage as you want, when you want."
"...Why would he do that?"
Eris smiled softly. "We wanted to give you a choice, sweetheart. We never knew if you would want to walk away from your humanity, or if you wanted to be a 200 meter tall monster. So, we left it up to you."
Courtney felt like she had just been run over by a truck. "So... does the fact that I haven't changed yet mean that I want to be human deep down..?"
"I could see why you would think that, but not necessarily. You probably just never wanted a change bad enough before now."
Courtney couldn't really argue with that logic.
She only wanted to be able to breathe fire because she thought it would be faster than waiting for her food to get done in the microwave.
At one point she wanted a tail because she thought that it would be easier for her to wash her back tattoo with.
She never wanted horns though. She thought they would make her head look too big.
"How come you guys never told me any of this before?"
"Forgot." Eris shrugged innocently.
"..." Courtney was finding it really hard to just take that answer.
"We can put all of that behind us now though, darling. If you want wings, just close your eyes and think of your father.
Think of your love for him, and by extension, his love for you. Then, just imagine that love wrapping around you like the wings you are so desperate to have. "
"That's it..?"
"That's it." Eris nodded.
Courtney did as her mother said and closed her eyes.
For the longest time, she wasn't sure that it was working. She even almost dozed off a couple of times.
However, she knew that there was a change when she heard Mira suddenly whistle.
"Woah. Big... Hope those won't be too heavy for her."
"It'll be a small adjustment, but she should get used to them quickly." Eris shrugged. "It's not like they're any bigger than yours or Straga's."
Courtney opened her eyes and realized that her room was a bit darker now than it was a couple of seconds ago.
And she was part of the reason why.
Looking behind her back, there were two fourteen-foot black wings sticking out of her back.
They were just like her.
Edgy. Tatted. Intimidating as Fuck.
"...I'm such a badass..."