Chapter 284: The Crimson Womb VII
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Sekhmet’s gaze sharpened at once. "How? What will you tell him?"
Seraphiel’s smile deepened. "That is my business."
Elena folded her arms. "That answer always means trouble. You always talked that way."
"Yes," Seraphiel said. "But it also means success with style and secrets."
Sekhmet was not in the mood for style.
"If you know a way, say it."
Seraphiel’s eyes moved over him carefully. "I do. But if I solve this for you, I want something in return."
He stared at her. "What?"
Her expression became almost innocent.
"From now on, you will call me Aunty. Not by my name, Lady Seraphiel."
Silence...
Absolute silence.
Elena turned her head away.
That was the first warning sign.
She was either suppressing a laugh or suppressing the memory of something even worse.
Sekhmet simply stared at Lady Seraphiel. The woman who had once loved his father for a few hundred years. The woman who looked too young to carry that history without offending ordinary time.
The woman who had interfered in battles, watching over him, and moved through his life like a beautifully dressed catastrophe.
Aunty!!!
He felt heat rise to his face so quickly that for one unguarded second he hated the existence of blood in all its forms.
Seraphiel saw it.
Naturally, she looked delighted.
"Oh my, your expression," she said softly. "That is even better than I expected."
Sekhmet’s voice came out flatter than he felt. "You cannot be serious?"
"I am entirely serious."
Elena finally looked back at him, and he immediately regretted that too because yes, she was absolutely suppressing amusement. Barely.
Sekhmet looked from Seraphiel to Elena and back again as if perhaps the room itself would offer an alternate solution out of pity.
None came.
He said, "You want me to call my father’s former lover Aunty..."
Seraphiel smiled with all the sweetness of sharpened glass. "Yes."
"That is cruel."
"That is family."
Elena made the tiniest sound in her throat.
Sekhmet turned on her at once. "Do not."
"I said nothing." Elena replied.
"You are thinking too loudly." Sekhmet said.
"That is not my fault." Elena answered.
Seraphiel looked pleased beyond decency now. "Well, what’s your decision?"
The problem, of course, was that she held all the cards in this particular moment. If she truly could solve the city lord issue, then his embarrassment meant nothing beside Lily’s safety. That knowledge made the choice no less humiliating.
Sekhmet inhaled once. Then said, with all the dignity he could force into it, "Fine."
Seraphiel tilted her head. "That was not the word."
His jaw tightened.
Elena was definitely enjoying this now.
He looked at Seraphiel and said, very clearly, "Fine, Aunty Seraphiel."
The title tasted like punishment.
Seraphiel, meanwhile, looked absurdly pleased with life.
"There," she said. "You see. It sounded so sweet and beautiful. We are progressing as a family."
Sekhmet considered leaving the room immediately just to preserve what remained of his self-respect.
He stayed because the answer still mattered more than pride.
"What are you going to do?"
Seraphiel’s smile softened into something more practical. "I will visit the city lord’s house personally. It will do it quietly and properly. I know enough of old lines and old names that if I choose the right approach, I can redirect concern rather than inflame it. Lily’s absence can be framed as temporary instruction under protection, not disappearance."
Elena’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "That may work."
"It will work," Seraphiel corrected. "Because I will be the one saying it."
That was unfortunately also true.
Very few people in Slik, noble or otherwise, would look at Lady Seraphiel, hear a controlled explanation from her mouth, and decide to challenge it immediately.
Sekhmet let out a slow breath. Relief did not arrive cleanly. But it arrived, that was enough.
"Thank you," he said.
Seraphiel’s gaze softened by a degree. "Do not thank me like I saved you. I only pushed the door open. You are the one walking through it."
The line settled in him more heavily than he expected.
Seraphiel moved toward the door then, stopping only long enough to glance back. "Try not to worsen things while I am being useful."
"No promises," he said automatically.
She laughed once. "That sounds like your father too."
Then she was gone. The room quieted behind her departure. For one brief moment it was only Sekhmet and Elena.
The air changed immediately. It was less theatrical. More grounded.
Elena looked at him with the expression she wore when a crisis had not ended but had at least chosen a shape practical enough to work with.
"Bat Bat," she said.
Sekhmet blinked once, the shift in topic almost too sharp.
"What about her?"
"She was supposed to be studying with me tonight."
He almost smiled despite everything. "She wished to remain in the Void Land and play with the forest spirit Leaf."
Elena closed her eyes for one second.
Of course Bat Bat did.
"When did she decide the spirit Leaf was more interesting than grammar."
"Possibly the moment grammar became involved."
Elena let out a very controlled breath. "That creature will someday build a philosophy of avoidance and call it genius."
Sekhmet replied, "She has already started."
That almost got her. She made a smiley face. But she didn’t laugh out loud. She controlled it very well.
Elena’s made her face composed, but the edges softened. "For now, let her stay. She has progressed more than she likes to pretend."
Sekhmet nodded. "She has."
"Elena’s mouth moved slightly. "Do not tell her I said that. She will become impossible."
"She already is." Sekhmet answered.
"Yes," Elena said. "But there are levels."
Sekhmet looked toward the window, already half gone in his mind.
Lily. The sphere. The Void Land.
He needed to get back to her.
Elena read that immediately.
"Go," she said.
He turned toward the door.
"She will still be there," Elena said. "And now the city lord problem is no longer yours alone." Her eyes sharpened slightly. "Do not stand here and worry uselessly when you could be beside her."
That was all he needed. He inclined his head once and left the room. The corridors felt shorter now on the return.
Not because his mind had calmed. Because it had narrowed.
By the time he reached his chamber again, he was already opening the Void Land.
As always the darkness folded. The hidden world opened.
And Sekhmet stepped back into the stillness where his wife Lily waited, carrying new knowledge, temporary relief, and the title Aunty burning like a secret humiliation in the back of his mind.