First Demonic Dragon

Tatiana was humming while she worked over a hot stove. Many different pots and pans were already boiling in front of her.

A couple of paces behind her, Valerie and Lailah were sitting at a table with the new baby, Courtney, and her two guests Aj and Kayla.

Courtney was regretting her decision to not go out for breakfast today and instead stay here.

The reason being? Her moms were in one of those really weird moods again.

“My baby has really become so big and pretty… where has all of the time gone?” Valerie sniffled.

Courtney just said nothing as she allowed her mother to rub her face with the reason being that she physically couldn’t stop her.

“Mom…please, you’re embarrassing me.”

Valerie’s eyes watered as she insistently kept rubbing her daughter’s cheeks. “You didn’t miss me? After all of this time?”

“Ma, it’s only been one night, what’re you talking abo… Have you and Dad been doing that thing again where you mess with time in your room to be disgusting?”

“I wish…” Valerie slumped over.

“Eww!”

“Oh, don’t give me that. How do you think you got here?” Valerie rolled her eyes.

“I am adopted?”

Lailah, Tatiana, and Valerie stopped what they were doing and stared at Courtney like she’d just reminded them the sun was going to set again tonight.

“””…Oh, right.”””

Courtney was only growing more embarrassed by the minute.

“You guys all seem really close.”

Courtney looked up at Kayla, who was smiling from ear to ear and swiveling her vision through the group.

“I’m honestly kind of envious. Our birth mom didn’t really care about us all that much.” She admitted.

“K-Kayla…” Aj began.

“But then she and old dad bit the dust, so now we’re here.”

“And there it is.” Aj lowered his head.

“Sorry. I use humor to deflect from the trauma.” She shrugged.

Aj was internally mortified. But Courtney was just glad that she wasn’t the only one who had someone here to embarrass him.

“Babes, how do you want your eggs?” Tatiana called.

“Fertilized!” Valerie yelled back.

“MOM!”

Valerie blinked slowly as if she didn’t realize that the words had come out of her mouth.

Even little K’ael was staring at his mother like he couldn’t believe she’d just said that.

Valerie slowly put her head down on the table out of embarrassment. “Sorry, I just… really miss your dad.”

Aj and Kayla were trying their hardest not to burst out into fits of laughter.

“Good morning, all.”

“AAAHH!”

“KYAA!!”

Kayla and Aj both jumped out of their chairs and nearly flung themselves across the room.

Asherah suddenly appeared in one of the empty chairs at the table, surprising them almost to the point of bodily discharge.

“Hey, Asherah.”

“Hi, Gran-Gran.” Courtney waved as she gnawed on a bagel.

“Would you like some tea?” Lailah asked.

Asherah shook her head beneath her veil. “No, I’m… quite fine. Rather, I have come to procure information.”

“What could we know that the mother of creation doesn’t?” Lailah yawned.

“Oh, I don’t know… Maybe like why a giant automated robot bearing your auras and Valerie’s marks of craftsmanship suddenly bypassed the barrier surrounding my world and hovered over the continent that was formerly your home?”

“Oh, you met Argy??” Valerie asked with no small amount of pride.

Asherah said nothing and just stared at her.

“Argy? You building something again, Ma?” Courtney asked.

“It’s already built, dear.” Valerie smiled proudly. “One standard, state-of-the-art Maker robot already up and whirring about!”

“A … maker… robot..?” Asherah spoke as if the words were entirely foreign in her mouth.

“Yup. So that I don’t have to leave my family.” Valerie nodded.

Asherah understood why Valerie would have wanted to make such a thing. What she didn’t get, however, was the how.

At that moment, Tatiana came to the table and started putting down plates and bowls in front of everyone.

“Took a lot of time and a shit-ton of ingenuity, but eventually our little consortium of geniuses were able to put together a miracle.”

“But you said the construct came into your planet?” Lailah leaned forward with her arms folded. “Why? Where did it go?”

“Oh, I can tell you that.”

With a piece of bread in her mouth, Valerie reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone.

“You made an app for it…?” Lailah raised a brow.

“It was our son’s idea.” She shrugged.

Lailah didn’t know if she believed that, but she was choosing to ignore it for now because a screen suddenly popped up on the tablet confirming her worst fears.

The color almost left her face and her knuckles turned white.

“No…This… No.”

She snatched the tablet from Valerie’s hands and stood up before bolting down the hallway.

Valerie and Tatiana called after her, but she didn’t show even an inkling of turning back.

“What’s wrong with Mom??” Courtney asked with clear worry on her face.

Valerie opened and closed her mouth several times while searching for something to say.

There were a lot of things Cortney still didn’t know about the family. No one was necessarily trying to hide things from her, but she was still young.

Some things she had simply.. missed out on.

And other things were intentionally supposed to stay buried.

“I..” Valerie racked her brain for something to say but found that she would need at least an hour to properly rehash all of that old history.

And even then, there was a large chance that Lailah might not have actually wanted her to.

“..Your mom’s just a little bit upset, dear. Some old insects just so happened to crawl out of their place.” Valerie finished.

“Though that shouldn’t exactly be possible.” Tatiana stared hard at Asherah.

“I was just as surprised as you.” The blue goddess shook her head. “In fact, it may be even more so given that I have absolutely no knowledge of this new contraption that can apparently invade even my world and detect alterations to the universe as they are happening.”

Valerie just shrugged with a slightly smug undertone. “It just kind of happened like that.”

“Valerie…” Asherah rubbed her temples.

“Oh, don’t give me that, Gran-Gran.” Valerie waved her hand dismissively. “I was responsible. I made sure not to send my construct out into the world without proper countermeasures to make sure that it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.”

Asherah still seemed even more exhausted than normal.

“…You alright, Granny?” Courtney asked as she took her hand.

Asherah gave the young girl a firm, but gentle squeeze back. “I am quite fine, child. You needn’t worry about me. I suppose I have just.. grown far too comfortable with knowing far too much for all this time.”

An enemy that had suddenly snuck into Asherah’s world without being invited in.

A giant robot that had broken through the fabric of her world and went hunting for the intruder without her even having a modicum of knowledge about its construction.

Asherah wouldn’t admit it, but she was beginning to feel like a relic of the past. Both out of touch and unneeded.

But perhaps more than anything else, she missed Yesh.

It is a great agony to have only one partner and confidant for as long as time has existed, and then have them suddenly ripped away from you. Perfectly within your reach, and yet also an impossibly far distance away.

“… Never mind me.” Asherah shook her head.

She turned back to Valerie with a much more put-together attitude. “This automation of yours. How was it able to invade my world and make landfall without collapsing it?”

Valerie leaned back in her chair while folding her arms.

“As for how it was able to get in… You can say the Agronomist is like a master key. It’s able to bypass barriers and impediments because its nature is not to harm or cause discord. It is a tool for repair and restoration.

The reason for why it is able to stand on your realm is a little different. Because we made it with world tree bark, it’s more a part of nature than a force of it.

The magic it reverberates is designed to act as a sort of harmonizing feature that adjusts the density of it’s power in direct correlation to the world that it is currently standing on so as not to cause any unwanted weather events or magical phenomena.”

Courtney, Aj, and Kayla had headaches. Tatiana had tuned everything out a long time ago and was only thinking about how pretty Valerie looked when she was being all smart and knowledgeable.

Asherah once again felt as if Valerie just had too much time on her hands.

“I… alright. Putting that aside for now, is it possible that your robot can not only hunt for errors, but the ones causing them as well?”

Valerie had started to sip her tea but put it down slowly once again. “Asherah… The Agronomist is my daughter’s brainchild. It’s not a weapon It fixes things that break, but it doesn’t go after the one breaking them.”

Asherah nodded slowly as she ran her fingers along the grooves in her hand. “Yes, I understand… In that case, then, I have another request in which I’d like you to consider.”

The shift in Asherah’s tone meant that she knew she was about to ask for something the Tathamets wouldn’t like.

“And that is…?”

“I need help tracking and hunting the one responsible for causing all of this panic. I have endeavored to track him on my own, but my efforts have proved less than fruitful.”

“Who do you have in mind?” Valerie’s eyes narrowed.

“Well…” Asherah began.