About a week had passed since Rohan, Iva and Hazel's misadventure in the Nine Levels of Circulorum Inferni. While Rohan had escaped most punishment due to the nature of what had happened, he'd certainly gotten a tongue lashing for disobeying his mother's orders to stay out of Adeluna and for putting Hazel at risk. He had been sent to Abed to heal in the medicinal waters of the bath-house there and grounded from being with Hazel until his mother, and hers, saw fit to lift the punishment. Iva got the brunt of the punishment, she being the eldest. She got quite the earful about how instead of just gallivanting off to try and reach Dalanesca on their own they should have returned to the shrine immediately where their MOTHER could take her brother to his Godmother to be cured. Her punishment? Two weeks confined to the grounds of Red Rose Manor, in addition to no visits to Adeluna for a month, even though the danger had sufficiently passed. 

Through all this, there was not a single word or sighting of the boy who had helped them reach Dalanesca. 

Drae knocked on Iva's door and pushed into the room, holding a cup of cocoa and a small plate of biscuits to try and cheer his daughter up. He, personally, thought Angela was being a bit harsh with the punishment, but he was certainly not the person to consult on such things. 

"Hey, Imp. Why don't you come and have a seat with me," he said as he came to sit by her window. 

Iva was sitting on her bed with a doll in her hands. Her grandmother had made it for her and while it wasn’t extravagant in any fashion, it meant the world to her. When Drae came into the room her brown eyes met his with a stubborn fury as she jumped around on the edge of the bed and crossed her arms.

The look on her face was one similar to Angela’s when she was upset. “Why? So you can yell at me some more?” Iva was growing up quickly. “It’s not fair, I am an adult. Most girls my age are married and having babies. I went to Adeluna BUT I didn’t know it was like that. Rohan is the one who dragged Hazel off. If he wasn’t so content with showing off to her like a moron we wouldn’t have gotten hurt.”

She got up stubbornly and went over to her father. She sat down and basically collapsed on him. “Daddy I don’t want to be bored anymore… Please let me go outside.”

"Don't put me in the same category as your mother when it comes to discipline," Drae said as he set the cup and plate on the window sill. "We both had very different upbringing, and we both have a very different ideas of how situations should have been handled," hej said. "I have no intention of yelling at you. What purpose would that serve, Imp?" Drae asked. 

"You are not an adult yet, love. You are not an adult until your body finishes developing. You may be capable of bearing children and being married, Love, but do you REALLY and TRULY want to be tethered to that life so soon into your young age?" Drae asked her. "Don't try to be so much like your mother, Love. The world only needs one of her. It needs an Iva, a special and unique Iva," he smiled. "It doesn't matter that you didn't know what was going on in Adeluna, Imp. Your mother told you to stay in the safety of the shrine. Like it or not, you disobeyed. Rohan is being punished too, so it isn't just you," he said. "I hate to break it to you, but that little bit of stupidity comes with being of the male gender, and I fear that it will only grow worse in your brother as he gets older. You'll see it soon enough in boys your own age, Imp." Drae said. "What is done is done, Imp. And all in all, I am actually proud of you through it all. You never panicked, and you showed a bit of moxie by going through the Circles. You were right, your mother couldn't have healed Rohan, but she could have gotten him to Dalanesca faster than you trying to go through the Circles on your own," he said. 

When she flopped down across him, Drae chuckled and patted her back. "Consequences, Imp," he said simply. "I can't overrule her orders, I wouldn't dare," he said as he pet her hair. 

She frowned at Drae and pouted at bit at him. “I don’t know… don’t dads usually yell at their disobedient daughters?”

The Rosenite let out a groan as he gave her a lecture though it wasn’t as bad as what her mother had done. Her mother had been quite cross and had resorted to yelling. Iva in all of her time had never heard her mother yell. It was so full of rage and hurt.

She nodded to him and thought about it. “I didn’t think about Mama being able to go to Auntie Dal faster… To be honest, I just knew that he had to get to her… I’m sorry I worried you and Mama.”

Iva relaxed as he pet her hair and she turned her brown eyes up to him. “I’m not asking for an overrule Daddy. I’m asking for you to try and get me a lighter sentence. Isn’t that what marriage about? Compromises?” There was a chuckle from her as she watched out the window.

“So did you just come here to lecture me?” She reached over and took a biscuit before chewing on it. “And to bring me cocoa?”

"Perhaps they do, but most daughters aren't the children of two gods," Drae pointed out. "Do you want me to you yell at you more? Would it make you feel better?" he asked her with a raised eyebrow. 

"You knew that Dalanesca was the answer, Iva. Most children your age would have panicked and lost their cool. You didn't, and that might have been what saved your brother's life," Drae said. He sighed as he pet her hair. "Marriage is about compromises, yes, but not necessarily parenting," he said softly. "Do you know what is the absolute worse thing your mother and I could ever face?" he asked her softly, ignoring the question about him just being their to lecture her. 

"The absolute worst thing that could happen, is losing one of our children. You, Rohan, Poppy, Lark, even your older siblings… it would crush us to lose any of you. You remember how Auntie Dal reacted when she lost her unborn baby… just after Rohan was born?" he asked her as he handed her her mug of cocoa.

“Yeah that is a pain in the butt,” Iva frowned a bit. “Not really no, I thought you were going to yell at me more.”

She tilted her head a bit. “Most children don’t have nightmares of what the future is going to have either Daddy. I’m not normal and never have been.” She chuckled now and closed her eyes.

She took the cocoa as she listened to him and nodded. “I know…” she blew on the cocoa and sipped on it gently. “I just… I wanted to save Rohan and I knew that was the way. I knew it would work I just didn’t know how. So I did it without question because that’s how it's always been. I know things and I do them knowing the outcome. I wouldn’t have let Ro die.” She mused softly.

“I remember that because Mama ended up gone… I don’t ever want that again. Everyone was crying and even you were Da. I just… I just knew that everything would be alright. I think sometimes Ma forgets I know. I think that she doesn’t remember that I see things most don’t. I knew we would be okay. I just… I just knew.”

Drae sighed and lifted Iva's chin. "I think she does forget sometimes, Imp. Since Rohan came along you haven't woken up with nightmares as often. And where she and I don't have the luxury of knowing what will happen, it rather scares us," he said as he pulled her into a hug. "But there are times when we remember that, and it reassures us. But it also makes us fearful for you. You are still learning to use your gift, and there are people out there who will try to take advantage of it," he said. He kissed her forehead. 

"Just remember, if anything were to happen to you, or your siblings… that the way Dalanesca felt and acted after she lost the child she didn't even get to know… will be even greater for us…" he told her. "We would tear apart the very fabric of reality to bring you back, and that would have severe consequences for us as Deities and upon the world," he told her. He looked over and took one of the biscuits. 

"Hey are you going to eat these or am I?" he asked as he took a bite of the biscuit. 

Iva smiled at her father and thought about it for a minute or two. “Yeah I guess I can understand why she would be afraid.” She snuggled into her father and sipped on her drink.

She looked up at him for a moment. “Can you get Winston for me Da?” It would make her happier to have her bare. His black fur was a bit duller than it had been ten years before but she loved him all the same. “It would make this place a lot better if I had him here with me.”

She got a biscuit and ate with him. “We can share, I don’t mind.” For a few minutes, she was quiet before she spoke up. “Where’s the boy that Auntie Dal said had to watch me and Ro? The one that sniffed me?” She now pulled Winston into her arms as she thought about it. She drained the cup of cocoa and put her chin on the now much smaller bear. "It always seemed like Winston was so much bigger than he actually is… am I just getting taller Da?" There was a laugh as she thought about it once more. "Aaryona had to fix Winston's eye for me the other day, it came right out it did. Aaryona is really good at sewing and she was home to talk to Lucian. So I asked her to fix him… But… Somehow he ended up back in the shrine when she was done. Probably forgot I'm not going there anytime soon."

The request for the stuffed bear was a simple one, and Drae was happy to oblige. He pointed to the window sill next to the plate of biscuits and the stuffed bear appeared. He had clearly seen better days, the once luxurious fur missing in a couple different clumps and was rather matted now from years of love and affection. 

"Good old Winston," Drae chuckled. He remembered quite fondly when he had brought her the bear as a gift. It had been early on in his relationship with Angela. "Well, when you were little he was almost as big as you were," Drae chuckled. "It would only make sense that you are growing, Imp. That's what flowers do, after all," he smiled. "Aary probably forgot you were going to be living here to do your training," he said as he pet her hair again.

"As for the boy," Drae answered slowly "I have not had word yet. I know that the curse that was put on him required a little bit of research, but I have faith Dalanesca will sort it out in time. She may also giving him a little proper training… Iria is a very different place than Sularia," Drae pointed out. "She may also be training De'Zhelis for his new duties inside Domus Tenebris."

Iva laughed with her father and nodded. “You used to make him dance for me when I was scared.” She gave him a grin. “I am not a flower. Basselina told me I am a mighty shield maiden and I bash my enemies in. Mom just makes me wear dresses and act like a lady.” She scoffed a bit.

However, she was still just a girl who wanted her teddy bear as she held him closer and finished her drink. Tilting her head she nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure that Aary just forgot… She is really busy with all that nonsense other in Kurayo going… do you see her when you go to Koschei?” Iva tilted her head. “Do you think she’ll be ok with the deal Mom made?”

Iva was wide eyed as she bounced a bit almost knocking the tray over. “Does that mean he will really get to come here to Sularia?” For whatever reason De’Zhelis was missed and he had been good company when they were running through the circles of hell. “Is he going to be alright?”