Leilah came with the boys and merely stopped at the sight they saw. “What.” It wasn’t possible. It shouldn’t have been possible. Leilah moved forward and the flames sparked to life. “They… are here but not here,” she spoke as she looked up at Xeik. “Simone and Lewis are nearing the edge of exhaustion so they are effectively putting themselves to sleep so the magic has more time. They must have felt the children… This shouldn’t be possible… Simone is barren.”

Looking back to Lucas and Rex she beckoned them. “You two should be able to get close to them. I need you to go and get the newborns. We’ll need to get them back to the castle before others show up and wonder what happened to this place.” All of the bodies were nothing but charred corpses at this point.

“The newborns have the same magic signature that Simone and Lewis have. Those twins… They are theirs.” Leilah explained at once. “I can feel the resonance between them all right now. It’s not as strong as it is with Lewis and Simone… I imagine that the resonance will fade after a time with the twins.” She beckoned Xeik to take a look at the magic. “You should be able to see it too. We need to get Mother as fast as possible. I’m not qualified to see if they are okay. She would be the only one to do it.”

Leilah put her hands on her hips, “Xeik, go tell Raine that you need to take talk to my mother. She can hear everything Raine lets her. Rhenakos, you and Raile work on getting those two home after the children get the babes.” She went and got Raile to help Rhenakos.

“Finally, we’ll have to stabilize their condition the best we can using rest until my mother shows up. We don’t want to separate them from the babies because they might burn the house down… So we’ll set up a bassinet in their room.”

With Leilah leading the charge, everyone went about their tasks. Xeik was the first to leave, going back to Elysia to tell Raine to bring Angela, giving a brief description of what had occurred. Even Raine was shocked at the events, and immediately relayed everything to Angela. With that out of the way, Xeik moved back to the Terrowin Estate.

Rhenakos, Raile, and the boys all helped in the move to get Lewis, Simone, and the twins back to the castle, and soon the two were resting in their bed, with the bassinet and the twins merely an arm’s reach away from the bed. Neither one of them seemed to stir, almost as if they were cursed to sleep forever, but they all knew better. This was something that Simone went through on a semi regular basis with her magic, only this time it was both of them.

Xeik never left the room once he got back, and instead was sitting on the couch on the other side of the room, leaning back. Due to his power from Angela, he could see the life energies of the babies radiating alongside Lewis and Simone. That azure power was lit up brilliantly, almost as if the wills of Simone and Lewis were protecting the newborns.

“This is…incredible,” he said. “Angela is going to flip…”

Angela ended whatever business she was doing citing a family emergency. “What do you mean Lewis and Simone had twins?” What the hell did that even mean? Raine was in too much a shock to even explain it right. Did they adopt? All she knew was there was an emergency.

Showing up at the Terrowin Castle she was greeted by the Talons almost immediately. Her eyes went up immediately to where the rooms are. “What the…”

“You can sense it to… It shouldn’t be possible.”

“No, this is a miracle that even I couldn’t perform at least… Not in the way this happened,” Angela said it almost in a whisper as she made her way upstairs and right into the bedroom. Her eyes landed on Xeik. “Thank you for contacting Raine… This is of more importance,” the goddess said as she got near the bed.

“They are exhausted,” Angela frowned a bit but looked over at the bassinet. The two little babies were almost picture-perfect for children of Lewis and Simone. Angela couldn’t have designed better children for them. “It’s alright now you two. They are safe at home,” Angela touched both Simone and Lewis as she filled them with more energy.

“Xeik will you have the house staff make food for them, please? I imagine the babies will need to eat soon. I will… need to do something for that. I might have an idea but first, we need Simone and Lewis to wake up…”

When Angela entered the room, Xeik jumped to his feet. He waited for her to look over the twins and Lewis and Simone, and once she made her assessment and asked for food to be made, Xeik left the room to find their help. It didn’t take long for him to find them, and at once the house help started preparing meals. The healer went back to the room, and back to Angela.

“So what’s the plan, then?” Xeik asked. “It’s one thing to take care of newborn phoenixes. It’s another thing entirely when…:” He looked between Simone and the babies. “She didn’t birth them…at least not traditionally. Their mana levels are really low, but not deadly…what kind of care do we even provide here?” This was less asking Angela, and more just spouting off ideas out loud. “Mana infusion to start would be easiest, but with the way that they’re eating through magic…would it even make a dent? I mean…from a Goddess, yes, but from someone like me…”

It took a little bit of time, but the house help came with a tray filled with various types of food, followed by a curious Lucas and Ezili. Rex had offered to stay with the other kids to entertain them with Leilah and the rest of the Talon family. Rhenakos had gone back to Jayou to see to Osiria and Reva, and let them know what had happened.

Lucas was wide eyed as he looked at the new twins. “Wow…she looks like Simone. And…he looks like Lewis. They’re so…small, too…”

Angela tapped her finger to her chin, “The magic consumption should end once they realize they are safe. Until then they can eat my magic so they stabilize. As for the twins they will need actual milk… I’m working on that. Once I had a woman who wanted to experience motherhood without birthing… So I made her capable of producing. I should be able to do the same for Simone.”

Pulling a chair over she sat down and took both their hands. Her magic glowed bright green as it flowed from her to them. “ I have enough for everyone.” She smiled up at Xeik.

Ezili got close to the babies and she looked amazed, “They are so small… I love them already!” She quieted herself down as not to scare them.

Angela fed them their magic until Simone began to stir. “Mmm,” she rolled over into Lewis. “Not… So loud. I hear you…”

Angela got curious, “What do you hear Simone?”

“The babies… they are yelling for us.” Simone yawned a bit as she burrowed herself into Lewis.

“So… The babies are capable of communicating through the resonance,” she looked at Xeik. “We should be taking notes for the future just in case.”

Simone shot up, “Babies?!” She was breathing heavily as she got dizzy.

“Simone,” Angela got up and pushed her back down.

“I want my babies Angela!”

“They are right here. They aren’t far but you and Lewis are in no condition to be acting rash.”

As Xeik took down notes, Lewis stirred as well, groaning. “So loud…” He grumbled, and when Simone shot up asking for her babies, Lewis’s eyes bolted open. He wasn’t quite prepared to move, but he was ready to, his muscles tensed. But as Angela pushed Simone back down, he relaxed. He could feel them, like he could Simone. They were safe, and while he barely trusted Angela, he did know that they would come to no harm.

“How long have we been out?” he asked, yawning. “What’s even happening right now?”

Xeik looked up from his notebook. “Well, short version. Magic babies. Long version…well, we can go over that later. You’ve been out for a few hours now. Can either of you eat anything?” he asked. “You’ll need to get your strength up. We’ve got some food here…”

Simone was bewildered but with Lewis’s cool she calmed down and moped. She wanted her babies and the want was more of a need as her eyes looked over to the little bassinet. “What are they saying?” Angela was curious.

“Just Ma and Da. When they were upset… they were just screaming it.” Simone looked up at both of them. “How?”

Angela shook her head, “Xeik is right. The how can wait. I need you two to eat especially since Simone will now be producing to feed the twins.”

“What?”

“I’m going to make you breastfeed. Didn’t you want to do that?” Angela poked at Simone’s belly. “You two are tired because you both gave birth. It was an unconventional birth but I believe you two have been cultivating these babies for a long time now. Their magic isn’t new which means they’ve been growing for a while now. Cultivation and act of your love.”

“I thought you said the explanation could wait…” Simone was tired just hearing it as she took some of the food and tried to eat. “…How long?”

“Probably since the very first time you and Lewis became one. Slowly acting magic to them until they manifested when you two split. It’s not unheard of for powerful magic being to split into two people… so you two splitting into twins… It’s possible but it’s almost unheard of for newborns to come of it. These two little ones aren’t copies of you. They are entirely new beings born of a desire to be parents.”

At the mention of food, Lewis’ stomach rumbled in protest at the lack thereof, and Xeik brought over two bowls of porridge. “I had them make something easy to go down,” the healer said. “Wasn’t sure what kind of state either of you would be in, but it’s edible.” The two of them did not complain, though, and practically inhaled the food. Angela and Xeik both went to chastise them at the speed they were eating, and while they did slow down, the meal didn’t last more than a few minutes before both bowls were emptied.

“Okay,” Xeik said as he took away the platters. “There’s more stuff here. Some more solids if you need and-”

“Twins. Now.” That was a command from Simone. The healer rolled his eyes, and handed over the girl first to Simone, and then the boy to Lewis. At first, they each complained that they were being moved, but as their parents held them, they settled down.

As Lewis held the boy, he and Simone had a quick conversation between the two of them. “Janus, huh? I like it…” He looked over to Simone and their daughter. “Lila. It does suit them, doesn’t it?” There it was again…his uncharacteristic smile. Xeik was starting to get used to it.

“Do I need to step out?” Xeik asked.