Chapter 1712 - Springtime (Part 2)

"Yes to both, dear." A wave of Ripha's hand made the nasty food disappear, replacing it with delicacies. "Did we ever tell you how we met?"

"No." Baby Solus put her brain in autopilot while stuffing her face with a soft and sweet sponge cake.

"Do you want to hear it?" Ripha asked while replacing the cake with a vegetable soup.

"No!" She protested at the blatant abuse of power. "I mean, can I have dessert first if I listen to your story?"

Baby Solus's tone was very serious, yet her parents seemed to find it hilarious.

"Of course, princess." Threin cried with laughter while handing the plate back to the kid and wondering if she would hear one word of what they said once she had what she wanted.

"You see, back then Mom was in a huge slump." Ripha said. "I had spent weeks holed up in my lab trying to make my latest creation work, but to no avail. Then, one day Aunt Lochra came looking for me."

Menadion conjured a hard-light sock puppet dressed like a Magus and another dressed with Menadion's dirty working overall, getting baby Solus's undivided attention.

"Good gods, Ripha, what is this smell? Metal doesn't stink and you would never keep fresh ingredients in the open. When was the last time that you took a bath?" Sock-Silverwing asked with a stern voice.

"I have no time for baths! I'm a finished Forgemaster. I have dozens of open projects and I can't make even one work." Sock-Menadion said with a petulant, childish voice.

"I know what's your problem. You need to get a life! Luckily for you, my girlfriend Quina knows just the guy for you."

"I'm tired of blind dates! Awakened always look good but as soon as they notice the streaks in my hair, they always start a measuring contest and when they discover that I'm more talented than them, they dump me!" Sock-Menadion whined.

"That's why I'm dating Quina and why she's going to introduce you to another non-mage. It's pointless to take your body out of the lab if your head stays there. You need someone who can help you unwind."

"What is he like?" Sock-Menadion asked while being forced to bathe like an unruly child.

"Cute. For human standards, at least."

"Hey! I resent that." Threin said. "Not everyone gets Awakened from youth. I was considered handsome, not cute!"

"He is also smart, funny, and he is an artist, just like you. I'm sure things will go great." Sock-Silverwing said, ignoring the booing peanut gallery.

The hologram moved to a picnic, in the same place Solus's family was in the memory. Menadion was much older than Threin, but she looked almost the same age as him.

As any maiden, she was supposed to be able to cook for their date. Yet the hologram showed Solus how Sock-Menadion preferred to craft an artifact that would do all the work for her.

"Mom has always been a genius so her creation produced dishes that looked and smelled delicious. Little did she know that the machine just shaped the ingredients and reproduced the sampled smells but it had no clue about tastes."

Sock-Menadion offered several dishes to a paint-dirt Sock-Threin.

"So they tasted horrible, but Dad fell in love at first sight with you. He ate everything and then you two married." Solus clapped at what she thought was the ending of the fairy tale.

"No. Dad was a rude jerk who spat out my food and accused me of trying to poison him." Menadion made the Sock-Threin emit retching sounds while squirming like a snake with a seizure.

"That's not true!" Threin said. "Your Mom was really pretty, almost like Aunt Lochra…"

"Almost?" Threin's sincerity earned him a piece of sponge cake right on his face.

Baby Solus ate off her father while Menadion laughed at his expense and Threin tried to keep the small hands out of his mouth.

"So I was really tense and wanted to make a good first impression. Yet the moment I took the first bite, I couldn't stand the disgusting taste. I spat it back on the plate and when Ripha started to call me names for disrespecting her hard work, I dared her to eat it herself."

"Then Mom realized her mistake, you two laughed it off, fell in love, and married." Baby Solus nodded, appreciating the plot twist.

"No. I tried my own food and for the first time in my life, I was so ashamed that I wished Mogar would swallow me. Yet I was too proud to admit my mistake so I double dared Threin to do better." Menadion said.

"The shortest date ever." Threin chuckled. "I accepted the challenge and invited her to my place for some real food."

"And then you married?" Baby Solus was quite confused at that point. Usually in fairy tales, things always kicked off good.

"No, Epphy. Real life is more complicated than that." Threin said. "I invited your mother over to impress her with my works and my cooking."

"The first part of the plan worked." Menadion said. "I never cared for art, but the moment I saw your father's paintings, they reminded me of the joy and the beauty of Mogar that I had almost forgotten after staying in my lab for so long."

"Thank you." Threin gave her a polite nod. "It took me two days to clean the place and the whole morning to clean myself so when Mom arrived, I was tired. So tired that I used the same bowl of the amaranth red for the tomato sauce."

"We got poisoned and if not for my magic, we would have died." Menadion said. "To make matters worse, back then Dad didn't know that I was a mage. I kept it a secret to not scare him."

"So when she cured me, I was both grateful and terrified for having offended a powerful mage. Yet she laughed off at my apologies and complimented me for my work before showing me hers." Threin said.

"Our second date brought us to a third and here we are now, Epphy." Menadion said. "We each prepare terrible food for our anniversary to never forget that good things can come out of the rockiest times."

The memory continued with Solus's parents doing their best to convince the small girl to eat something other than sweets before giving up and taking her for a stroll.

"Thanks, Aunt Loka." Solus said as the memory faded away while she could still feel the warmth of her parents holding her hands while they walked.

"You are welcome." Silverwing stood up, ready to leave. "I'm sorry I couldn't find more, but most of Threin's original paintings were stored in the tower. They must have been consumed by the power core along with the other treasures in order to keep you alive."

"Do you have more Removal units?" Solus asked.

She didn't want to leave Lith's side, just give him the option to have some real privacy if he ever needed it.

"No. They are old ass magic that very few know how to craft and I'm not among them. I just stole the one I brought here from a museum's archive without bothering to study its pseudo core simply because I never expected to need another.." Silverwing said.