"Very good!" Noble called from beside the cook pan. "Our sons make an excellent team, don't they?"
She kissed her surprised husband on the cheek.
Fort blinked at her sudden appearance.
"Indeed, they do." Recovering quickly, he stole a second kiss. "Perhaps their team needs another…"
"None of that!" Noble clicked her tongue playfully.
Thankfully, the boys were too enraptured by what had just happened to comment on their father's proposal to give them another sibling.
Slack-jawed, they looked between the sofa where their mother had been and then the kitchen.
Brock was the first to recover. "Did you just transport!?"
"Not exactly." Noble would have loved something that could transfer her from one place to another instantly. That would have been phenomenal.
That power would have not only allowed her extra flexibility in battle, but also a chance to travel between spots in the Dream Realm or the waking world with ease.
'Maybe next Memory.'
"It isn't teleportation. It's something about being deceptive," Blaze reminded Brock.
"You are getting closer." Noble crossed her arms, enjoying watching her children at work.
"Not instant travel, but mom was there one moment and across the room the next." Brock tapped his forehead. "If she didn't move instantly, then how did she…"
The pair gasped at the same time.
"It was a hologram!"
They looked to Noble for confirmation, but her arms refused to uncross.
"I prefer to think of it as an afterimage," Noble answered from the staircase.
Blaze whipped his head around so fast that he nearly knocked himself off the couch.
The woman with crossed arms dissipated, leaving the real Noble to be the only one in the room.
That was a relief. She had had quite enough of seeing her face worn around by an imposter. At least this one couldn't talk or move.
'Very interesting.'
The two data points had given her much to consider.
She looked at the runes of her Memory a second time.
Memory Name: [Spinnerets]
[Description]: "Oh what a tangled web we weave…"
The Spell hadn't even seen fit to complete the saying, though both Noble and Blaze had come up with it easily enough. Though her version only dated back to just before the dark times. Perhaps there was an ancient ending that was far more sinister.
However the Spell had intended to end the rhyme, Noble had gotten the message.
And the results were impressive. She had been able to fool her children and husband twice back-to-back, meaning that the effect did not wear off after the trick was discovered. That was good to know.
"Whoa!" Brock leapt from his seat to check and make sure his mother was really on the stairs. "That's uncanny. Does that mean you can look like you are somewhere you aren't indefinitely? That would have come in handy back when I slept through…I mean, I paid close attention to all my classes always!"
The elder twin coughed.
"Always a model student," Noble shook her head. Brock was smart, but books had never drawn him in like his younger brother. "But to answer your question, no. I cannot keep the image there forever. It seems to rely in part on how long since I summoned it. When I used it, the clock reset, which is why my second try was much shorter than the first."
The Memory also required essence to activate, but it was so little that Noble did not feel that it was worth mentioning. All in all, it was a fantastic addition to her collection.
Noble pulled the needles from her hair. They were much smaller than the spinnerets on the parasitic spider.
Those would have been unwieldy in any situation. But that wasn't what made Noble release the bun from her hair. There was one more thing she wanted to try before she dismissed her new toy, and the young man beside her was the perfect assistant.
She held out one of the needles. "Hold this."
The headstrong young man didn't need to be told twice. Fully trusting his mother, he took the needle in his left hand. She grabbed his right.
"What now?" Brock tilted his head.
Noble floated him toward the ceiling, across the top of the room and then set them both down beside the door.
Brock looked back at the stairs.
"What in two worlds?!"
There he was on the stairs with his mother while also being here. His position had been awkward since he hadn't known when his mother would act, but he was right there in perfect stasis until the image wavered and faded from existence.
"Pretty amazing, isn't it?" Noble said as much to herself as to her son.
She could include someone else in the illusion!
'One seems to be the limit, though. I could feel the Memory working very hard. I don't want to stretch it too far while I'm still learning…'
"My turn!" Blaze raised his hand.
Noble took the needle from the elder twin with a small smile and sat beside the younger on the couch. She held it out.
"Are you sure?"
The mischief in her voice gave Blaze a moment of pause before he grabbed it eagerly.
"Absolutely." Blaze shut his eyes.
Brock laughed. "You won't be able to see what happens if your eyes are closed."
But Blaze's eyes didn't open.
"They are already gone, son." Fort wiped off his hands on his apron.
The elder twin squinted. "You sure?"
He could have sworn that his mother's smirk had changed. Was his mind playing tricks on him? Eventually, the image faded, leaving no one left on the couch.
Brock looked around, searching for the missing pair.
"Where did they…"
At that moment, the front door swung open, nearly hitting Brock in the nose.
He caught the swinging object, happy for his above average reflexes.
"Ha! You thought you'd get me. That was pretty impressive, though. How'd you get outside?"
Brock peeked around the door, but he did not find his mother's and brother's smiling faces. Instead, he encountered a dark-haired young lady with a confused expression.
"What do you mean, how did I get outside? I went through the door yesterday. And speaking of doors, why are you behind this one?" Rain pressed her lips together.
Brock turned away, scouring the room. "Where did you go?"
"What do you mean? I'm right here. Have you gone blind?" Rain waved her hand in front of the boy's face.
Little brothers were very strange sometimes, and that was saying something coming from her.
"He's a little preoccupied," Fort chuckled as Brock ran up the stairs. "Come in, Sweetheart. Your timing is impeccable, though I'm surprised to see you. I would have thought you would be at the reward boards by now."
Rain had been frequenting the boards every morning lately, looking for just the right opportunity.
Rain shrugged.
"I was there, but someone said they had seen Queen Bee come through the gate this morning. I wasn't sure who else they could mean except mom, so I came home hoping that…"
"Missing!" Brock came back down the stairs, out of breath.
Rain's breath hitched. "What's missing?"
"Mom! Blaze! The Memory…poof!" Brock began tearing at the pillows on the couch.
"Are you saying that Mom was here a minute ago, but now she and Blaze have gone missing due to one of Mom's Memories?" Rain's eyes opened wide.
"You got all that from his words?" Fort crossed his arms.
"It wouldn't be the first time a Memory of hers has gone rogue…" Rain's mind began to race.
She hadn't even gotten to say welcome home, and already her mother was missing.
Hadn't she already been through this before? Rain needed to remain calm. They just needed to figure out what happened to her mom and brother and then find them…
"Calm down, both of you." Fort smothered a grin. "Think for a moment. Where is a Queen Bee most likely to be?"
Rain and Brock thought for a moment before both of their eyes trailed the only logical direction.
Up.
Tears formed in Rain's eyes.