Chapter 44: PAPA

Rhea moved before Baron’s order had completely faded from the square. The moment her attention settled on the cracked sphere in Sio’s arms, every other target stopped mattering, and the change was obvious enough that Sio immediately pulled it tighter against his chest.

Angle stepped into her path with fire wrapped around one leg while Arch moved from the opposite side with the Siphon Aegis raised. Rhea slipped between them rather than trying to overpower either one, orange hair snapping behind her as she ducked beneath Arch’s arm, used her tail to knock Angle’s burning leg off line and came straight for Sio.

He opened a portal beside his shoulder and shoved the sphere through it. The exit shifted behind Angle just in time for him to catch the cracked shell awkwardly against his chest, and his expression sharpened when Rhea abandoned Sio halfway through her charge and immediately turned toward him.

"You could warn me before throwing this at my face," Angle said as he retreated, keeping the sphere away from Rhea while the cracks beneath his fingers slowly widened. Sio shifted the portal exit again and told him to keep moving, because giving detailed instructions while a foxlike woman tried to tear them apart had become slightly difficult.

Rhea reached Angle before he could pass the sphere back. She feinted toward his left, forcing him to bring his fire across that side, then slipped underneath the heat and reached for what he was holding instead of attacking him directly.

Angle let the sphere fall.

Sio opened a portal beneath it before it touched the platform, moved the exit beside himself and caught it against his ribs. Rhea changed direction almost immediately, but Arch caught her shoulder from the side and tried to drag her away.

She turned with the pull instead of resisting it. Her tail wrapped around Arch’s forearm, her body rotated beneath his grip, and she used his momentum to throw herself closer to Sio while Arch was forced several steps in the opposite direction.

"Can you stop learning everything this quickly?" Sio muttered as he backed away. Rhea’s empty expression made it obvious the request had not entered the negotiation, while the sphere gave a faint tremor against his hands.

Another crack spread across its shell. Sio’s eyes dropped for half a second, and Rhea punished the distraction immediately by lunging toward him.

He opened an entrance between them and shifted the exit over her shoulder, but instead of chasing his body, Rhea drove one clawed hand toward the exit itself. Sio collapsed the portal before her arm could come through beside his face, and Angle cut across her path with a low burst of heat that rolled over the boards.

Rhea jumped the flame rather than slowing down. Arch met her in the air with his shoulder and knocked her sideways just enough that she landed several steps from Sio instead of directly on him.

"Keep moving," Arch said as he placed himself between them. "She doesn’t care about us unless we interfere with her target."

"I noticed the part where she keeps trying to destroy what I’m holding." Sio looked down again despite himself, because one section of shell had lifted slightly along the widening crack and something dark moved beneath it before disappearing.

Angle saw it too while circling toward Sio’s left. "That moved."

"I know." Sio tightened his grip, deeply uncomfortable with the fact that something inside the sphere was apparently moving. "I’m choosing to deal with that problem after the woman with claws."

Rhea made postponing the problem difficult. She feinted toward Arch, waited until he shifted the Aegis into her path and then broke away toward Angle instead, recognizing that he now stood between her and Sio.

Angle fired a compact burst from one palm. Rhea twisted around it, but the heat forced her tail inward for balance, and Sio used that instant to open an entrance beside Angle’s hip while shifting the exit behind himself.

"Throw it," Sio said while already moving through the opening. Angle sent the sphere after him without hesitation, and Sio caught it as he emerged from the other side.

The transfer cost him just enough attention.

Rhea was already there.

Her claws came down toward the sphere, and Sio turned around it on instinct rather than trying to block. The strike raked across his back, cutting through his coat and skin hard enough that his knees nearly folded beneath him.

Pain flashed white behind his eyes. Sio hit one hand against the platform to keep himself upright while the other arm stayed locked around the sphere, and Angle finally forced Rhea away with a kick that carried enough heat to make her abandon the follow-up.

"You better be worth this," Sio muttered through clenched teeth. The sphere answered with another violent tremor, and a fragment of shell broke loose near his thumb while something wet pressed briefly against the opening underneath.

Sio stared at it.

The dark shape withdrew before he could understand what he had seen, then another crack raced around the sphere and connected with the first. Baron’s voice cut across the platform from behind Rhea.

"Destroy it before it opens."

Rhea responded instantly, slipping past Arch’s next interception and coming straight for Sio again. There wasn’t enough time for another transfer, and the shell finally gave way in his hands.

One side split with a sharp series of cracks, fragments falling across Sio’s coat while something inside pushed outward with a soft, wet sound. Tiny tentacles emerged first, curled close around a dark slick body, followed by several small eyes opening slowly along its head and sides.

Sio forgot Rhea existed for one dangerous second.

The resemblance was unmistakable.

It looked like the entity inside the Impossible City, except the enormous thing that had filled streets and watched him with countless eyes had somehow been reduced to something small enough to fit against his chest. One tiny tentacle remained trapped beneath a piece of shell, and the creature struggled with it so awkwardly that the resemblance became considerably less terrifying.

Angle stared despite everything happening around them. "That came out of the sphere?"

"I’m watching the same thing you are," Sio replied, still trying to understand why a miniature nightmare was blinking several eyes at him.

Rhea attacked before any of them could decide what it was.

Her claws came directly for the newborn.

Sio tried to turn his shoulder between them, already expecting another cut across his back, but the creature reacted before he could finish. Its tiny body spread over his chest and shoulder with disturbing speed, tentacles flattening and widening into a dark living layer just as Rhea’s claws landed.

The force of the strike still drove into him, but her claws couldn’t catch properly. Every point that should have dug into flesh shifted beneath her fingers, and her hand slid sideways across the creature instead of tearing through Sio.

He staggered but stayed upright, then looked down at the strange layer covering him. "What did you just do?"

Several of its eyes turned toward him while the others remained fixed on Rhea.

She changed angles and attacked his ribs. Before Sio could twist away, the creature flowed around his side and met the claws there instead, causing them to skid across its surface a second time.

Angle watched from nearby while keeping his fire between Rhea and Sio. "It’s protecting you."

"I noticed," Sio said as Rhea kicked toward him. The creature spread farther around his ribs on its own, and although the impact still hurt, the shifting surface turned enough of the force aside that Sio staggered instead of being thrown across the platform.

Arch watched closely while stepping in to force Rhea back with the Aegis. "It isn’t waiting for you to tell it anything. It’s protecting you on its own."

Sio looked at the small eyes scattered across the living layer over his shoulder. "That is somehow more reassuring and more concerning at the same time."

Rhea lunged again before he could think about it further. The newborn reacted to her movement with an angry wet click, and one tentacle shot from Sio’s forearm to catch her wrist before the claws reached his throat.

Rhea tore free almost immediately, but the resistance spoiled her angle long enough for Angle to drive a burst of heat between them. The baby pulled the tentacle back against Sio and shifted closer around his chest, almost as though offended that Rhea had gotten near him again.

Sio stared at it for half a second. "You really don’t like her touching me, do you?"

The creature made another cluster of clicking sounds and tightened itself around his shoulder. Whether that meant agreement, anger or absolutely nothing, Sio had no idea.

The newborn didn’t make him invulnerable. Rhea was still much faster than him, her kicks still bruised through the strange protection, and whenever she struck a part of him the creature couldn’t reach in time, the pain remained very real.

But it kept trying.

When Rhea went high, part of its body stretched toward Sio’s neck. When she swept low, a tentacle caught the platform and tugged him just far enough that her claws missed the worst angle. At one point Sio tried to move left while the baby suddenly pulled him right instead, and Rhea’s hand cut through the exact space he had intended to step into.

Sio stumbled after the unexpected movement and stared at the creature wrapped around him. "Okay. Apparently you also get opinions."

Several of its eyes blinked at him.

Angle forced Rhea away with two short bursts of heat while Arch stepped across her retreat and made her change direction. For the first time since the shell broke open, Sio had enough room to breathe, and the dark layer covering him slowly began pulling itself together.

Its stretched form folded inward until the newborn was tiny again. It climbed Sio’s coat with awkward determination, little tentacles gripping the fabric wherever they could, then settled against the side of his neck as though the place had already been chosen.

Sio held still while several eyes blinked beside his face. "You understand that I have absolutely no idea what you’re saying or doing, right?"

The creature responded with a string of soft clicks and wet little noises directly beside his ear. Sio listened for several seconds and understood precisely none of it, though the baby seemed completely satisfied with whatever explanation it believed it had given.

Then something brushed against Sio’s mind.

It wasn’t a voice and didn’t sound like language. The meaning simply appeared inside him, simple enough that he understood it before he could question how anything had crossed the distance between them.

The creature nestled closer against his neck, several of its tiny eyes slowly closing. The meaning came again, warm and certain this time, carrying only a single word.

Papa.