Chương 166: Chapter 165: Mother Valeria's Coded Message

The fire had burned down to embers when the spatial ring on Lucian's finger warmed and threw off a curl of dark-violet flame. A letter wrapped in dragon-hide rose from the ring and unfolded itself in the air, carrying the familiar pressure of Valeria's magic. Her handwriting bloomed in the cold in Ancient Demon Script. The image resolved into the back garden of the Vance estate on Solaris.

In one corner, Sword Emperor Regulus — the man who had once split a mountain with a single stroke — was lashed to a banana tree with violet chains, a red apple wedged in his mouth, reduced to muffled, indignant kicking. Five meters off, under a wisteria gazebo, Lady Valeria sat in black silk, lifting a cup of tea with terrible serenity. Her voice came through warm and dangerous.

"Lucian, my darling. Two pieces of family news, in order of how much they'll annoy you. One. Your father heard the old sword-gash he left on the Bifrost is throwing sparks again and the Divine Realm has reopened the whole tiresome dispute over who damaged the Bridge. Naturally he decided the correct legal response was to march up there personally and settle it with his sword. Naturally I disagreed. He is currently disagreeing with a banana tree.

The Bifrost matter is not going away on its own, so do keep it in mind for when your Earth business is finished. Two. Something odder. Solaris astronomers logged an unfamiliar signal a fortnight ago — an observation ping from somewhere well outside charted space. Not an attack, not a message we can read, not anything the archives recognize. It simply looked. Then it went quiet. The court is nervous and pretending not to be. I mention it only so you aren't surprised later.

Come home when Earth can stand without you holding it upright — not before, I know you, don't you dare abandon a half-finished ledger. And bring Eleanor. That girl is practically family at this point, whatever you two are pretending not to be. I've set a place for her. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Love you enormously. Try to eat something that isn't optimized. Mother Valeria." Whoosh. The flame guttered out. Lucian stood very still on the darkening beach.

Then he clutched his head in both hands and tipped his face to the northern sky.

"DAD MARCHED INTO THE DIVINE REALM TO SUE A BRIDGE WITH A SWORD. AGAIN. DO YOU PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THAT LITIGATION HAS A PROCESS?" Pfft. Ha ha ha. Evelyn folded over in the sand, wheezing. Astra nearly inhaled her strawberry ice cream. Sylvia hid a laugh behind her sleeve. Eleanor just laughed openly, gold hair swaying in the last light. Eleanor stepped closer, wrapped both arms lightly around one of his, and rested her head on his shoulder.

"So. A bridge to fix, a mysterious watcher from beyond the star-charts, and a future mother-in-law who's decided which chair is mine at dinner." She tilted her head up, teasing.

"Do we panic about the cosmic stalker, or the seating chart?"

"The seating chart," Lucian said grimly.

"My mother is stricter about seating than the tax bureau is about deductions. The cosmic stalker at least won't judge how I hold a teacup." He looked north, where Victor had pointed a lifetime of worry ago, then out at the dark sea where the pressure smear still hadn't fully faded.

"None of this is today's problem, though." He turned back to the fire.

"The Nordic handover isn't signed off. Half the drone network's still coming down on a schedule. I've got a residual pressure anomaly nobody understands and a copycat management fad Sylvia keeps forwarding me articles about." He dropped back onto the sand by the embers.

"I'm not boarding any ship to the stars with a to-do list this long on Earth. Dad's bridge can spark. The watcher can watch. We finish here first." Ting. A single dim V2. 0 line, almost apologetic: [SYSTEM NOTE: Off-world signal logged as an unclassified external observation. No threat vector measurable. No further data. Filed for future review.] Lucian glanced at it and snorted."'Filed for future review.' My favorite genre. Somebody else's cliffhanger." He reached for a skewer.

"Astra, if that's the last strawberry ice cream on this beach, I want it on the record that I saw it first."