Chapter 370

After Fellia had left, the meeting wound down into something more relaxed. Most of the girls had people they were interested in spending time with here, so after they left too, it was only me, Bella, Grace, and Oceane left with our children.

I lifted up Cerulean, the snakekin child. "She's so pretty, Oceane. She looks a lot like you."

"Her patterning actually reminds me of my mother. A solid light blue is pretty rare," Oceane replied with a warm smile.

Cerulean's long snake tail curled around my arm, the smooth scales of her snakeskin rubbing against me as she twisted herself into my arms. She reminded me a bit of a boa constrictor I had held when I was in school.

"She seems to like you. She's sometimes shy with some of the other succubi," Oceane said with a smile.

Grace was holding Ashe, playing with her horns. "Ram horns on a deerkin is an unusual combination. She reminds me of Mimi."

I nodded. "I noticed that too. It's an interesting coincidence that Mimi chose to take on my horns when she originally shaped her form, and Ashe inherited my horns when she was born. They seem to be growing nicely. They had already broken the skin when she came out, so we didn't need to worry about that."

Bella was holding Cinnamon, Grace's child. "So, Cinnamon's sire was Oceane, and Cerulean's sire was Lia?"

Grace nodded. "Yes, Lia had already... helped us with that by the time we received the blessing from Velenthel. You should have seen Oceane that night... she was ravenous." Grace giggled at the memory. "That technically makes them half-sisters, not that it matters to us. I consider both of them my children, of course."

"How does Lia feel about it?" I asked.

Grace hummed. "She knows that she is Cerulean's sire, obviously, but she does not really consider herself Cerulean's mother. They see each other all the time, but Lia is rather hands off. I think she is intentionally keeping her distance in respect for our relationship, but she does not seem that interested in taking a more active role either, so it is probably for the best. From the beginning, Lia knew she would be a surrogate for us, and she seems to prefer things that way."

"That's better than the alternative," I said with a nod. "It would be a bit unfortunate if she suddenly wanted to be her mother too."

"Lia is not going anywhere, so she will be around to watch her grow regardless. I am sure we will tell Cerulean about how she came to be once she is old enough, but the two of us are happy to be these children's parents," Grace said happily.

Cerulean started reaching out to grab at my horns. "They always seem so interested in them," I said with a laugh.

"They are rather grabbable," Bella teased.

"Have you two had any issues raising them so far?" I asked.

Oceane shook her head. "No, both of them are very well behaved children. Maybe a bit eerily so. I wouldn't say I've been around a lot of children, but the ones I have been around cry a lot more. These two seem very smart, though I suppose they're rather hard to compare to most children since they were born so developed."

I cradled Cerulean and played with her little hands. "I've noticed that in Ashe too. She seems much smarter than I would have expected. She seems very empathetic too, though I've never been a mother before, so I can't really say what's normal and what's not."

"May I hold her?" Oceane asked.

I nodded. "Of course."

Grace handed Ashe over to Oceane. Ashe smiled up at her and seemed fascinated with rubbing her hands along Oceane's textured snake skin.

"She is very inquisitive. Has she reacted negatively to anyone?" Oceane asked.

I frowned. "Not so far, why?"

"I've had Cerulean or Cinnamon with me a few times when dealing with business partners from the city, and the babies occasionally glower at people. They've never reacted that way with any of the succubi, but occasionally they show strong negative emotions toward some of the people who visit me," Oceane explained.

"I've never noticed anything like that, and Ashe has met with just about everyone in the city after she was born," I replied.

"Interesting," Oceane noted. "Maybe they are sensing something that I don't. I'll keep that in mind when dealing with people my babies don't seem to like. The children, the 'Lilim' as you have been calling them, seem a bit different from us. I don't know if things will change when they're older, but they don't connect to the bond, and they don't absorb magic the same way."

I nodded. "We noticed that right away. I had Nelly check over Ashe when she was born. We're guessing it works that way because of my Origin title. I would have been very disturbed if our babies had to absorb lust magic to eat properly. That would have created... quite a few negative realities about their lives."

"I'm sure we would have found a way to work around it without subjecting the children to anything they shouldn't be, but I agree, this is a much better outcome. It seems that your Origin title must still be active without the system then," Oceane said.

I laughed. "If my titles stopped working, I probably wouldn't have been able to talk with any of you. One of my titles gives me the ability to speak languages."

Grace smiled. "Yes, your world traveler title."

Oceane nodded. "That's reassuring. Despite your assurances in your letters, this feels like proof that the magic underpinning the system does still exist."

"Yes, I'd guess the only things we've actually lost is the ability to allocate stat points as we like, and spell rewards for leveling magic skills," I replied.

"Do you believe skill levels still exist?" Oceane asked.

I nodded. "I'm fairly sure they do. I don't know anyone who lost any proficiency with anything after System's End, and I've noticed large jumps in skill that seem unnatural to me. The world I came from didn't have skills or skill levels in the same way the system did. Jumps like that wouldn't have been possible without the magic underpinning the system."

"Your world did not have a system?" Grace asked curiously.

I shook my head. "It didn't. The system seems just as magical to me as magic itself."

Oceane looked down at Ashe in her arms. "That does make me wonder if the succubi are different from the Lilim. Will they turn into succubi as they get older? Or are succubi only transformed as we were, rather than born at all?"

"I have no idea. We'll just have to wait and see," I said with a sigh.

Bella frowned. "I suppose they might have to take the oath to become a succubus when they're adults if they want to become one. Yet they still have some of the traits our true forms have, like the wings and tails."

"There's also the difference between succubi and greater succubi. The system was destroyed before I could get a good sense for what the difference is. So far I'd guess access to our true forms, but past that, I don't have much idea." I turned to Oceane. "Have you noticed a pattern in people who have unlocked their true forms?"

Oceane turned to Grace. "You would likely know better than I would.

Grace cupped her chin and leaned back on the sofa. "Hmm... I would have to check my records, but I think one thing I have noticed is people who have lovers seem to unlock it sooner than others. Be that other succubi within the brothel, or even 'clients' they grow attached to."

"I've noticed that too. Morrigan and Torien both unlocked their true forms sooner than others who had been succubi longer," I added.

Grace nodded. "There must be some connection then."

"I've noticed different flavors of magic in the air while having sex with loved ones. I see it more with Lilith and Morrigan than with others that join us in bed," Bella added. "Though Nelly and Kal'daeryn haven't unlocked theirs yet, and they love each other very much."

"Strange. There must be more to it, then," Grace said, tilting her head.

"It might require both love and lust, as much as it makes me roll my eyes to think that 'love magic' actually exists," I said.

"Why wouldn't it exist?" Bella asked.

I sighed. "It's not that I don't think something like that could exist. It's just... it feels very cliché based on the tropes of my world."

"I have no idea what that word means," Bella said blankly.

"Cliché or tropes?" I asked.

"Either?" Bella said.

"Never mind, it's not important. It's just a bit of a hangup for me to think that love magic exists, but if other arbitrary things like luck magic exist, then why wouldn't something like love magic exist too?"

Oceane leaned back, cradling Ashe in her arms. "If some kind of castable love magic existed, it would surely fall into Morkinnen's domain. Though none exists to my knowledge. I am a bit curious what kinds of things 'love magic' would even accomplish."

"Making someone fall in love with you?" Bella asked.

Oceane shook her head. "No, that sounds too similar to magic that affects the mind. I don't think magic like that would be the kind of magic a god like Morkinnen would approve of. It would stray too close to the realm of monsters."

"Perhaps that is why castable love magic does not exist," Grace said thoughtfully.

"It's hard to say. Morkinnen is thought of as more of a martial god. Neither love nor beauty magic exist, though the domains of gods don't always connect cleanly with a type of magic in the first place. Neither 'knowledge' nor 'innovation' magic exist either, and if there was any god that would have taken the opportunity to create magic from their domains, it would have been Sorsette," Oceane said.

"So what determines what mana exists then?" I asked. "Maybe the reason something like knowledge magic doesn't exist is because there's no mana for it. But we know for sure that lust mana exists, yet there aren't any spells that tap into that mana."

Oceane grinned mischievously. "Well, to my knowledge, there's no god or goddess of lust, so maybe learning to control that type of mana will set you on the path of godhood."

"Learning to harness a new kind of mana source sounds like the kind of thing that Morrigan would be interested in," Bella said. "She might be busy with teaching others to use magic, but considering her skill with wild magic, there probably isn't someone better to experiment with in that field."

"It helps that the two of you are lovers. There should be no issue gathering the lust required for your experiments," Grace teased.

I rolled my eyes. "You guys are incorrigible. I'll talk with her about it later. Though, we'll need to prioritize teaching the soldiers, provided things work out on that front. Most of the world can't even use magic anymore, and you guys are trying to get me to explore new kinds."

Oceane smiled and shrugged. "Who would benefit more from lust magic than a brothel full of whores?"

I sighed. "I'll look into it. I admit that the idea of lust magic does sound rather interesting. It might give us some clues about how succubi advance into their true forms, and maybe even what the differences between succubi and lilim are."

Bella was taking Ashe back from Oceane when something happened that took all of our attention away from our conversation.

"Ma ma." Ashe smiled up at Bella as she held her, and Bella's eyes filled with happy tears.

Bella kissed Ashe on the forehead. "Yes! I'm your mama."

"Ma ma!" Ashe said excitedly.

I handed Cerulean back over to Oceane, and Grace turned Cinnamon to face her. I chuckled as the room suddenly turned into the three parents trying to convince their children to say 'mama' for them.

Both Oceane and Grace seemed like different people when their babies were involved. The cutthroat Oceane and the intimidating Grace were completely gone when interacting with their children. All three of them looked happy while cooing at their babies, and I felt my heart swell with pride as I heard Ashe call Bella her mama again and again. It did make me wonder a bit what she would call me. Would I be her mama too? Would she call me her dada instead? Strangely, I don't think I would mind that. I'm not sure what part of my heart made these rules, but if it was Ashe, she could call me whatever she wanted.

I scooched closer to Bella so I could look down at Ashe. Bella was still overjoyed and kept trying to get Ashe to say mama for her over and over again. But when Ashe looked over at me and smiled, her second words shocked all of us. "Li li!"