Elizabeth noticed a trend, so she started taking notes of the vacation slots:
Veritalis, Zephyria: Vacation touring the most ancient cathedral.
Izanami, Kaguya: Vacation tour around the traditional temples.
Germania, Eldenstadt: Visit to the museum of war and espionage.
Britania, Camelot: Food tour around the best family and gourmet restaurants.
Nevrosk, Zarevia: Tour of the coldests spot and aurora borealis sightsee.
Avalon, Basement Home: Special gift, need some work.
Elizabeth's mind was abuzz with questions. Why had Mother chosen these specific places for their vacations? There was something more to it, something she was missing...
Elizabeth would need to speak with Rossie about that, if nothing else they could take vacations there and spend some quality time, take some pictures and continue filling the memory wall… Actually…
"Designate area; this will be a sacred memory, regard it as such and turn it into an [Anchor], protect and safeguard it; this will be updated as soon as a new memory is made, and a reflection shall be available within both my Soulscape and my Home." Elizabeth felt her Mana react, she could feel it starting moving her Shadow Mana, and she resisted it.
Elizabeth was resolute. She didn't want her Mother's cherished memories to be a mere shadow. They were important, they were important to her, and she was determined to make them matter.
No, she wanted them to matter, she wanted them to be important, she wanted them to become akin to the Divine. So she extended her hand forward and made a motion as if putting on something, as soon as she was about to place her hand on her head she felt ti materialize.
Her Crown of Pride, a gem shining strongly on it. Not one of the normal ones, no. She felt the newest gem of her collection shine. The Gem of Divinity, it wanted to pull no something else, something to compensate and help bridge what she desired.
So she let it extend forward, the other gems started shining in tandem with it, The Gem of Space, The Gem of Soul, The Gem of Divinity.
A trifecta of what Elizabeth didn't use that often and perhaps the most powerful gems she had access to.
"Let the space be twisted, to make a safe haven unique to my dearest memory and a tribute for those I love," Elizabeth declared and felt the space within her Soulscape twist, a new accessible spot opened, and with it, she felt a wave expand across space and time.
Similar places linking itself with this one, one here on what she thought was her home, a new door and wall materializing from thin air, she knew that if someone attempted to find this place without her permission, they would find nothing.
"Let the Soul of those I care for, those that earned a place within my heart be able to always find a safe haven here." The next gem that joined and fused with this was that of the Soul, a small fragment of her Soul ripped apart from her almost made her scream, Elizabeth didn't know how Rossie had survived when doing this before, and didn't know how Rena was so nonchalant with her Soul so strained.
As the small piece of her Soul was separated, Elizabeth felt a change. But it wasn't the transformation she had expected. It was something entirely different...
A smaller projection of a girl who looked suspiciously like how Elizabeth looked when she was little. The other girl smiled at her and turned into motes of light as she ran away… She hoped this would not turn into something that bit her later on.
That left only the last one, the one Gem Elizabeth wanted to wield the least…And the one that would help her accomplish this the most.
"And with the promised Divinity I am nurturing, I want this to be the keystone of my Realm. The people that I care the most, the memories I cherish the most…And those that made me who I am. Be it a story of tragedy or triumph, of missed opportunities and new encounters. Of love…and despair." So Elizabeth declared, and with this she felt the briefest of connections form, between her Soul, what made her her and a space that felt right.
Elizabeth got a glimpse of what was her Divine Domain.
"I know…But…these are also yours, so please…accept the memories of our parents, and add those that you cherish…" Elizabeth whispered as she felt the strain on her Mana Circuits, even so she continued enduring it, she wanted it to latch, to make sure this would be protected, that as long as Elizabeth was alive, this little part of her would never be stolen from her.
The wall flashed momentarily and soon returned to normal; the only difference now was that it felt Ethereal as if it would fade out of existence any second now, and for some reason, Elizabeth got the feeling that no matter how many pictures she stuck there, there would always be space.
At the top of it was all the pictures her Mother had taken of her while growing up, pictures with her family, with her parents.
On the middle, some of her selfies now stood on the middle, a couple of those photos she had taken with Rossie while on their first year, while messing around on their respective shifts, of the first time they kissed…
Others showed her unconscious, with Rossie crying on the side of a bed…Her lowest point so far. The pictures continued showing more and more of Rossie, all pictures after she met her. Rossie prowling around in the darkness, biting her nails cutely with crazed eyes, pictures of her bathed in blood (Hot), pictures of her staring at the moon with puffed-out eyes, glaring at the skies.
And after some time, pictures of Rossie smiling once more, pictures of them together after she woke up. Of them playing and messing around, of Rossie and Elizabeth with her newest shift. Of them walking around.
At the bottom, however, stood a lone picture of Rena. First, alone and crying, slowly the pictures shifted to her standing on the colosseum, when she fought against them, when she was defeated. Of her unconscious with Rossie's feet atop her, of her waking up with Elizabeth at the side. Of her clinging to Rossie crying.
Of them on an abandoned warehouse...what the hell had they done there?
A picture followed next, but Elizabeth could not see anything for the picture was crimson red and nothing was visible, she may need to ask about that later. If it was here on the picture board, then it was important.
Pictures of them now together, of Rossie and Rena on the bed sleeping (cute), of them walking around on the outside...
Of Rena extending her hand towards Elizabeth...Was she not giving her enough love? Elizabeth would need to smooch more Rena.
Either way, this seemed to have worked. She would need to make many more happy moments with both girls, she needed more happy memories before showing it, as it was, there were more sad moments than happy moments.
And this wouldn't do, but before leaving, Elizabeth noted that at the top of the board a new picture was forming, weaving itself with golden threads of Mana that she couldn't recognize, it was only by the fact that these threads of Mana were interacting with the picture board that she was even able to perceive them.
The picture made Elizabeth smile as it had carved words at the bottom of it, 'Chloe and Alice sends their regards' it said.
It showed an image of a blonde girl well-dressed with gaudy make-up, the type that Elizabeth loathed to use because it was too much trouble to set up. Hugging her from the side was a red-eyed girl with black hair, smiling brightly, she had a more muted make-up and the more gaudy thing on her was the fact that she was wearing several piercings on her ears.
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Had both girls really diverged that much from Elizabeth already? Either way, Elizabeth liked the fact that they seemed to be happy, she couldn't really see what was there in the background. But she didn't care that much, that wasn't the important part, but the fact that this board could also be used by Chloe and Alice. That they also had a way to safeguard their important memories. She wanted that, she couldn't ever forgive herself for what happened to them, being thrown into this world that violently, just because one of her mistakes. Even if they had been supposed to be sublimated into her, they had earned the right to be alive. And Elizabeth would honor that.
With that done she copied the vacation spots that her Mother had prepared for them and exited the room, the door seemingly vanishing as soon as it was closed. That was...handy, Elizabeth tried to open the door once again and as soon as she did, she found herself with an empty closet, devoid of anything.
Clossing it an opening it again resulted on the same, it wasn't till she focused on the memory of the picture board that she managed to open the door into that place once again.
And even then, if she closed the door and opened it again, it was once more a closet devoid of things.
To experiment on it she placed a single chair with a book, closed it, and then opened summoning the room once again.
It showed as normal, with no evidence of the chair or the picture book she had left before. Closing it and opening it again, she found the closet with the picture book once more. This was good; she could use this without fear of anyone ever stealing some important memory, and whenever she felt down, she was a door away from good memories.
This...she could accept having that stupid Gem of Divinity if it meant having this. This would make it worth it, if she could make sure what was important for her could be safe just by having this? She could accept it.
It was, after all, her Divine Right, as some people had stated. Not as important to Elizabeth as it would be to others, perhaps even less important to her than it should, but what was next was important, she would sleep.
Rossie was sleeping, Rena was meditating, and all that she had left was to sleep, it was quite late after all.
So walking back to her old bedroom, Elizabeth took off her clothes and put on her old pajamas, the ones she hadn't worn in almost two years now. They still fit her quite well, did she not grow at all?
Or was it because she had made her body to be perfect, and she thought of her body already as something perfect, so in turn she didn't grow?
Chloe had seemed older on the picture they sent to her picture board, and Alice seemed younger, but then again, Alice had an Izanami bloodline, and those didn't grow old like normal people.
Either way, Elizabeth let herself fall into the bed and accepted the sweet, sweet embrace of sleep. Of course, she knew that she could probably go and sleep with Rossie, but for now…she wanted some time alone to process what had happened.
What she had found, the memories that her Mother had left for her…The gift that her parents had given her, and perhaps…perhaps the clues that they left for her.
—-----------------------------------------
"When I say gang gang, you say Kawai ~" Elizabeth heard her alarm sound. That was one of the older songs she liked. One that she hadn't heard recently, mostly because she hadn't had access to her personal discs.
It was one of those older songs that hadn't made it to popular mainstream, so it was harder to find a streaming service that had it.
She had gotten after screaming and crying on the floor for half and hour, she was very proud of managing to get her usually stoic Papa to walk into an underground concert. He fit quite perfectly with the somber mood, and she was even prouder of the fact that he hadn't punched anyone, considering most of the people attending were cosplaying as demons.
But no, Elizabeth was feeling that she was forgetting something important.
"Gang Gang ?~" The alarm continued sounding, so Elizabeth did the obvious.
"Kawai ?~!" And sang along it while stretching on the bed, she didn't had many memories of her just lazing around after her alarm sounded. And that was a very funny thought to have usually when it sounded, she always scrambled to get up and run to the bathroom so she could take a bath and get out as fast as possible.
Why? Because her Mother was clingy, she could bath only so many times with her Mother before she started becoming self-conscious about it.
But there was another reason, right? What was it? She knew it was important, something to do with Papa…
"When I say SEX, you say ?~ ?" The alarm carried on as if nothing. What was the next part?
Elizabeth knew the words were on Izanami, that weird language that used pictograms for letters instead of the usual character base.
Oh right.
"やりだ-(Yari ta-)" Elizabeth was about to finish saying that when her Insticts picked up on something.
The sound of springs being released, the feeling of the pressure increasing on her body. The feeling of nostalgia as she felt the blankets being yanked away.
"A," Elizabeth now remembered why she couldn't spend time lazing around in the mornings. Her bed would quite literally throw her away, and most of the time, she would slam against either the wall or one of the gigantic plushies her Papa would get her.
Only…her room was quite bare at the moment, since her parents had packed most of her things, be it because they were going to send it to the MPI or because they expected her to arrive with more things. Perhaps it was preparations for the vacation?
Elizabeth couldn't say for sure. What she did know was that her body was different now than before; if she hit the wall, the wall would probably not survive, her wall.
So with a flick of her mana she made herself stop flying, easy enough. She didn't even need to use a spell or something more compl-
"[Detected use of space manipulation, deploying countermeasures, playing message: 'No cheating Eli-Eil, you wanted to stay sleeping? You deal with the punishment!' End of message.]"
"Wha?" Elizabeth hadn't even time to react when she felt her body be affected by a spell engraved on the floor, the thing latched into her and before she was able to dispell it she found herself shoved against the wall.
Against what she had expected she did in fact not destroy the wall, instead she only groaned as she fell against the floor like a slice of bread that had flied too far away from the toaster.
"Eli-Eli? Everything okay? We heard something falling off…" Her always lovely girlfriend said opening the door and walking in, she was wearing a cute pink (almost transparent) gown, behind her stood Rena wearing a white oversized t-shirt and she hoped a pair of trunks.
"Hahahahahaha," They both found Elizabeth laughing on the floor, Elizabeth had been humbled yet again. She had thought that she was above her parents shenanigans, she was wrong. "Nothing wrong, Papa's gift just took me by surprise."
The pink-haired girl looked around the room and found nothing out of place, same did Rena walking past her and letting Elizabeth get a good peek under the shirt (She was indeed wearing a pair of black shorts, dang it.)
"Everything seems fine…?" Rena said sitting on her bed, Elizabeth had almost a heart attack thinking that the bed would send the red-haired girl flying, but nothing happened.
"Let me cast a [Heal] just in case." Rossie said, summoning the magic circle and making it hover above Elizabeth, who was still lying on the floor. "Also…we need to talk."
Right…why did that sound so ominous?
"Sure, let's go to the lounge…or the dining table, I guess." Elizabeth said standing up slowly, of course she wasn't hurt nor needed the healing, but she liked the feeling of Rossie's Mana entering her body. It made her feel loved and also made her tingle all over the place, which was a nice bonus.
"Okay, I'll go and prepare the dishes for breakfast," Rossie said, nodding when Elizabeth stood, and before Elizabeth could even say anything, the pink-haired girl took a step and disappeared in a burst of golden mana.
That was one variation of her Shadow Step that she would need to check on later, was that Healing Step? Or Rossie's Step?
"Hmm….shy Rossie is also cute, don't you think Rena?" Elizabeth nodded while smiling, turning around to the red-haired girl who was sitting on her bed.
"Did you…want to sleep alone?" Rena suddenly said while looking at the floor and fidgeting.
"It was nice, but the wake-up could have been better," Elizabeth answered, finding it quite nostalgic, even after being shoved against a wall. "Did you sleep fine? No wait. Did you find the guest's room? Or did you sleep with Rossie?"
Elizabeth had been too tired both mentally and physically and hadn't thought about telling Rena about the guest room. Mostly because she hadn't thought about it, she had assumed that Rena would sleep with either her or Rossie…
"...I didn't sleep…" Rena said in a low voice, "I was keeping guard…in case someone…attacked…us?"
By the end, Rena was asking instead of answering.
"Rena…listen to me, please." Elizabeth said kneeling in front of the red-haired girl, this was the only way to make sure the other girl would look at her, since she was looking down, "I need you to sleep when you are tired, or even if you aren't if I'm sleeping, then you must sleep too. Be it with me or Rossie."
This was important, even if Rena wanted to keep guard, she couldn't just not sleep, that was not healthy.
"If you don't have a spot to sleep, I want you to wake me, hell. Throw me to the floor if needed, but you also deserve sleep." Elizabeth wouldn't mind being thrown around by Rena, but that was beside the point, "You doing this hurt me; I think of sleeping as something sacred. It is how we grow close to each other, so next time, if I haven't told you where to sleep, I want you to come to wherever I am and just cuddle me, okay? I would have slept way better if I had a Rena or a Rossie to cuddle with."
And that was 100% true.
"I didn't go to sleep with Rossie since she needed time, but I plan to sleep with Rossie today, and I will be a much happier girl if you also sleep with us. But I will not force that on you; all I ask you is to sleep in a bed, be it with us or alone. Or hell, if you want Rossie for yourself now and then I can deal with that too." It would hurt her to not be able to sleep every night with Rossie, but she could survive; it was part of the deal of having a three-way relationship after all.
"...okay…" Rena said slowly, "I can promise that I'll sleep either with you or Rossie then."
"That is all I ask," Elizabeth said, "Now let's go down, Rossie should have enough time to set up breakfast by now."