“Absolutely not!”
“Why?!”
“We can fight!”
“I said no, and that’s final!” Claire raised her voice with May and Aleah, something she rarely did. But I could sympathize.
We were in a Zurück, temporarily living in an inn completely rented out for Bauer citizens.
“You are still children!” Claire said. “You have no business fighting the Demon Queen!”
The twins had told us they wanted to join the battle against the Demon Queen which, naturally, had Claire up in arms. Having foreseen this somewhat, we’d tried to deceive them by saying we were just heading out for some work, but they’d seen through us right away. Come to think of it, it should have been obvious they would, what with the telepathy from the Demon Queen and the pope, as well as their cleverness that went beyond their years.
“But we’re strong!” May said.
“Maybe even stronger than Mother Claire and Mother Rae!” Aleah said.
But strength wasn’t our problem here.
“Yes, I know you two are strong,” I said. “But Miss Claire and I refuse to take you with us.”
“Why, why, why?!”
“I don’t accept this!”
The twins stamped their feet in frustration.
Hmm…
“You girls are very important to us,” I said. “If something were to happen to you, then it wouldn’t matter if we defeated the Demon Queen. We’d have lost in a greater sense.”
When the girls heard that, they quieted down.
“You are strong, and I know that well. But now is not the time for you to fight. Wait until you’re adults and have found something important of your own to protect.”
I tried to hug them then, hoping I’d been convincing. But they swatted my hands aside.
“How can you say that, Mama Rae?!”
“We don’t want anything to happen to you either!”
The twins protested with tears spilling down their faces. I was speechless.
“We don’t want to lose Mama Rae and Mama Claire just as much as you don’t want to lose us!”
“We’re not babies—we can protect ourselves! Don’t think so little of us, Mothers!”
The girls didn’t relent. Their reaction was similar to the time we’d told them we were leaving them behind in Bauer and going to Nur. The thought of the two of us leaving them clearly echoed some trauma deep inside of them. But even so…
“No, not this time,” Claire said. “We won’t take you, no matter what you say.”
“Yeah. I’m sorry, girls,” I agreed.
We had no intention of compromising this time. Even if this choice hurt them, and even if they came to hate us for it, we refused to budge on that alone. Our children were just too precious to us.
“Don’t say that, let’s take them along,” said a voice by the entrance to the living room we were in.
“Lilly…? No, you’re TAIM, aren’t you?” Claire said.
Indeed, it was TAIM borrowing Lilly’s body. Lilly would never barge in like that without knocking.
“I don’t know what you’re thinking, but we’re not taking the girls, no matter what,” Claire said.
“There’s no need to be so stubborn. Please, think about it some more.”
“Tell me, then, what’s there to think about?” Claire asked, at least willing to hear TAIM out.
“If we lose the coming battle against the Demon Queen, then May Barbet and Aleah Barbet will die regardless. We should be doing whatever we can to win.”
“Absurd. Like Rae said, there’s no point in a victory against the Demon Queen at the expense of our children.”
“So you say, but what if I told you it would be impossible to defeat the Demon Queen without the children?”
“Based on what grounds?”
“My calculations. At my level, it is essentially precognition.”
“You can do something like that?” Claire gave TAIM a doubtful look.
TAIM ignored the question. “Let me reiterate: With humanity’s current power, you will not defeat the Demon Queen. The strength of May Barbet and Aleah Barbet is absolutely necessary. Their absence will spell humanity’s defeat.”
“Even so, I refuse. If they were to perish in the battle, part of us would die with them. A life without my daughters can’t be called living.”
“That’s right,” I said. “We’re not bringing them, TAIM.”
As Rod had brought up before, it was dangerous to believe everything TAIM claimed without question, as we had no idea where the truth lay. That being said, I would have still refused to bring the twins along even if I somehow knew TAIM was telling the absolute truth.
“Hmm… Perhaps I should change my methods,” TAIM said. “Claire François, Rae Taylor, take these girls along or I’ll kill them.”
“Wha—how dare you!” Claire exclaimed as she and I immediately pulled out our wands and stepped before the twins.
“Forgive me, but you’ve forced my hand. You won’t bend unless I make you,” TAIM said.
“Do you really think your empty threats will sway us?!” Claire snapped.
“This is not an empty threat. I mean what I say.” TAIM’s bearing of inhuman indifference didn’t break in the slightest.
“Then we’ll strike you down right here,” I said.
“Can you? This body belongs to Lilly Lilium. Are you truly capable of killing her, who knows nothing of what’s transpiring?” TAIM asked nonchalantly.
“You’re despicable!” Claire snarled, incensed.
I was still of calm mind, but my limits were being tested. “We could run away without fighting, you know?”
“That’d be pointless. I am the Loop System and can therefore appear wherever I want in this world, as you should already know.”
TAIM just might be an even nastier problem than the Demon Queen, I thought. Is she really on our side?
“I apologize for going to extremes,” she said. “However, I exist to ensure the continuance of mankind and am willing to do anything to that end.”
As though reading my mind, TAIM quickly turned apologetic and noble. But I had already abandoned any thought of honestly trusting TAIM. Maybe she didn’t lie, but she definitely spoke in half truths. She’d controlled humanity from the shadows since time immemorial. I couldn’t allow myself to fall for her words and end up her pawn.
But what could I do? Her threat to kill May and Aleah unless we brought them with us didn’t sound like a lie. If she’d concluded that they were necessary, then maybe she really would do anything to bring them. Still, that didn’t change the fact that I didn’t want the twins anywhere near the battle…
“Um, Mama Rae?” May said.
“We want to be living too,” Aleah said.