The sun, at its highest point, didn't even return to its place after illuminating beneath bridges and trees, passing through cracks and edges, making the windows of buildings shine its image. Because it didn't set between the clouds, it didn't illuminate the shadows that gathered in droves, serving as servants for a queen who had just returned from the reign of another, forgotten king, Typhon.
— I want to know what those shadows are, Elizabeth!
"Honey, you don't need to talk to Elizabeth like that. She's a good person. She just got back from a battle that lasted for days. Let her eat a roll with butter in peace!"
—That's right, Hana. Even your loyal companion knows that, and you don't. Could Cassandra prepare that breakfast that only you know?
- Of course, boss. I'm going!
Cassandra nodded. Hana quickly understood and tossed her the apron that was on the table. At that moment, Daisy, running from the room after speaking to her mother, pulled up a chair. But one of the shadows reached for the girl, placing her on Elizabeth's lap. Elizabeth kissed Daisy on the forehead.
"Aunt Elizabeth missed you so much." He squeezed tightly. "I think I overdid it!"
— He took a deep breath and let it out. — No, it's okay. I see you've gained quite a bit of strength by merging with the Giant, what's his name again?
— A wide smile broke out. — You were wrongly nicknamed Eunuch. I'm glad my arms hold a waist as firm as an oak and as well-shaped as a sculpture. — He slapped his own forehead. — Excuse me for the Eunuch's rude words
.
"No way!" A shadow took off his boots and socks, beginning to massage his feet. "Luís, your daughter is better than you." She handed her glasses to her husband and sniffed. "These days I've had to make my nose whiter than a lifeguard's."
Even though she hid in the darkness and wanted to stay the same, the Shire family's youngest daughter's way of acting was unparalleled. At the same time, she had strict discipline aligned with the scientific method, and she liked bacon in her feijoada, something that went against any diet. Working at Apollo as a hard-working scientist, if she tested the company's new drugs, she received First Place before everyone else, as a bonus.
Within moments, Cassandra brought a very black coffee with almost no sugar to the table, along with a very yellow tapioca due to the high margarine content. Something of a health risk, but how could that affect a Shire? The millennia-old family is particularly distinguished by its muscular and vascular capacity, comparable to horses. Things that would harm or kill an ordinary person have no effect on a Shire.
"You smell so good, Cassandra, excellent as always." Calisto stared at her. "A frown is hunger for me! And you're not going to eat my food." He took Margarida from his lap and gave her to Luís. "Honey, this is worth our six-year marriage." He nodded. "Ask Luís anything."
—What are these creatures you use as servants?
— He snapped his fingers. — That's easy. — He pulled a shadow closer to him. — They are failed experiments of the fusion between Giants and Echidnas. Elizabeth made them part of our Dual Memory. — He handed a piece of bread to his daughter. — What else?
He poured some coffee into his cup. "How did you do that?" He drank. "Delicious, just the way I like it."
—Margarita got off his lap and went to eat with Elizabeth. — This is both difficult and easy. Elizabeth and I have memories linked to the underworld, which is bathed by the waters of the River Styx and its tributaries. We are like landowners concerned about the flooding of this river; our job is to prevent the waters from sweeping everything away. While Charon sails, he helps with the Promises of Styx and its tributaries. Just like you, linked to the River Leto, Cassandra linked to the River Phlegethon, Simoneta to Acheron, and Alexander to Cocytus. —Elizabeth smiled. —Today we have it!
Seemingly swept away by the flood, she dropped the cup to the floor, shattering it into pieces. Her attention drifted to the shadows drying the floor, leaving the pieces there. In response to fixing what she'd made, she took the shards to the table and began trying to put them back together. She wasn't trying to fix the cup, but rather to connect the things she'd heard, projecting them all into her mind.
The Charon they talked about so much was Igor, her foster father, Hana's father. The same one who used an Aix to connect his daughter's soul to her brother, giving her life again. He carried the dead back and forth, just like the ferryman Charon. He connected something else. After his daughter's death, Igor didn't want any parent to feel that way. He caused Simonetta's dead fetus to give birth to three children.
He woke up, taking the cup to the floor and slowly glued it together, turning it back into disconnected but complementary shapes.
— Wow Elizabeth, I think she had a stroke from Chaves. — He bent down and picked up the broken pieces of the cup one by one. — Are you okay, love?
"That was a lot of information all at once, not even NASA's computer can process it all at once." He picked up the margarine-stained plate. "Boss, I'm going to go wash things up."
"You were great as always, Cassandra. What your suit hides in your feminine curves, your hands, always uncovered from their gloves, reveal your qualities of a good woman." She pulled the young man close to her, below her breast. "Lucky you have a boy. Speaking of which, how's little Mamoru doing? Still resentful?"
He placed his head on her thighs, looking up. "I'm not mad at you. I always thought you were cool and funny, especially after you'd had a line." He grabbed the table and climbed up, getting up. "I'm going to go help Cassandra."
Darkness covered that place, but something was missing, what came with the night, brought by the howling winds, the cold was there watching with its two light brown eyes, it was holding tightly a child with blue eyes, he tried to get out of there, but was stopped.
— Mom, let me go talk to Aunt Elizabeth, please!
— Okay, you're free, little jockey.
Eugenio then took a lemon from his pocket and bit into it, peel and all, giving it enormous energy, using the trademark of a child who was on his father's lap, a double carp and a little star and landed on his aunt's lap.
— Look there's the son of the little brother with the old mare I call sister.
— I missed you too, big-tailed mare, the old mare's words.