Being left to his own thoughts, Lucius could finally address the entity he most of all needed a talk with.

So, Wrinkleface. Care to explain the point of all this?

It didn't take long for the Scourge to come forward, but not with the gleeful tone of accomplishment Lucius had expected.

"You're the one who owes me an explanation, or better yet an apology."

Lucius scoffed.

I'm the one who should apologise? These little monsters are yours, and you shoved them over to me like a fucking cuckoo.

"And then you ruined them."

A sharp 'ha' escaped Lucius.

You should know me better than thinking I'd just sit around and get devoured by parasites.

No reply came, so Lucius let his thoughts forward.

I may not be pleased by the outcome. I'd rather not have blights around me and it was a cowardly move to make them look like human children, but I'll choose to be happy that's all they are at the moment, because I'm certain it would have been a lot worse had they not been sealed.

"I would not celebrate yet." The Scourge, though still disgruntled, had a hint of mockery in its discordant voice. "I did not choose their form. As your friend suggested, they chose the one thing they knew of and then adapted to most of their mass being pulled into that ghastly prison, but you must be aware that 'all they are' is an inaccurate statement."

Lucius grimaced with the blood-cursed blight in mind.

How bad will it be?

"Aside from what I've seen of other game and how the so-called parenthood works?"

Ugh, don't remind me.

"They will still have urges. The strength of which I cannot tell yet, but I wouldn't let my guard down around them."

Because of the baby-shaped supernatural meal?

"The tainter is perhaps a more direct threat as things are now, yes, but I would not disregard the conjurer if I were you."

Lucius pursed his lips, turning over in his hammock to inspect the until now ignored baby only to jump in place as he laid eyes on another person.

"Oh, sorry, I thought you were sleeping." The woman Abram had hired as a wet nurse looked apologetic where she sat with the sleeping twins in each arm. "I didn't want to wake you up so I tried to be quiet."

"No, it's... Alright," Lucius dismissed it, mind still set on figuring the little monsters out. "... So, uh... How are they?"

"They're so precious." The woman brightened up, only for her smile to fade immediately after. "Um... I just— I wanted to say I'm so sorry for your loss."

Lucius could guess where this was going.

"... My wife?"

"Yes, it's such a dreadful—" The woman interrupted her sentence before she could enter nosy territory. "A— Anyway, my condolences."

Lucius pulled off an obligatory smile, but cursed Frey on the inside. Why had the wife lie from before survived into another scenario?

"Would it be alright if I had a look at them?" he then asked, and the woman laughed.

"You're asking me?" She rose from her chair to walk over. "They're your children."

"No, I— I don't need to..." He trailed off as the babies were placed on his chest, as if Lucius hadn't just removed them from there through a morbid ritual. "... Hold them."

"They need to bond with their parent," the wet nurse claimed, though seemed to have second thoughts as she watched the hammock swaying. "But perhaps it would be better if you sat up, just for a little while."

It was as good of an opportunity as any, he supposed as he stared down at the one referred to as a conjurer. The other one had a tell, and as long as her blood stayed inside her body it would be manageable so hopefully her sibling had something similar as well.

"And the others said you weren't too fond of them."

Lucius looked up with a wave of relief washing over him at the sight of Ethan in the doorway.

"I'm not," he still insisted while scanning the vampire's appearance. Other than his arm being wrapped in thick fabrics he looked as healthy as ever, so Lucius' bad conscience faded further.

"You're still holding them." Ethan looked smug, sitting down next to the wet nurse after giving her a nod. "So I'd say they're already growing on you."

He looked sheepish as Lucius' eyes narrowed into a scowl.

"Well... Poor choice of words, but..." He cleared his throat, deciding against addressing that part further with the other presence in the room in mind. "... Can I?"

He held his good arm forward, and with some hesitation Lucius handed over the baby with seemingly less cursed blood.

"What are you going to call them?" Ethan raised the baby to sniff its head. "I have a list of good names somewhere, but it's been a long time since I wrote it."

"I'll just call them blight one and blight two, or something." Lucius grimaced. "And do you really think it's a good idea to sniff them? With the whole blood thing?"

They both paused to send the wet nurse a cautious look, and she gave them an awkward smile.

"Do you... Perhaps want to talk in private?"

"Just for a while." Ethan gave her a fanged grin as she stood up to leave. "We'll call for you when they get hungry."

Then his smile dropped, and he gave Lucius a disapproving look.

"Blight one and two?" He huffed. "You'll have to do better than that, if nothing else then for Lucia's sake. And you can't tell me to not sniff a baby's head, blight or not."

"Fine, I'll think about it." Lucius let out a resigned sigh before meeting Ethan's gaze. "... So... How are you doing?"

Ethan's smile was wry as he glanced down at his covered arm.

"It's healing, at least. Sunburns just take some time, and needless to say it requires more to actually grow a whole body part back."

"I know there's nothing I can do to make up for it, but..." Lucius tried a comforting smile. "... For what it's worth, now I can go back and make things right."

To his confusion, Ethan's smile faded.

"Right... How?"

"Making sure Damien doesn't fuck things up, naturally." Lucius freed his hand from the baby in his arms. "But most importantly, I'll get Anthony back. I promise."

Ethan's smile still would not return, and after some hesitation he let out a sigh.

"I've... Been meaning to talk to you about that." He licked his lips, trying to find the right words. "Are you... Sure it's a good idea?"

Lucius blinked.

"Which one? The Damien one or the Anthony one? Though either way yes, yes I'm sure."

"I know you don't want to hear this," Ethan began, to Lucius' immediate disgruntlement. "But I don't think you're good for each other... Not right now."

"Not...?" Lucius gawked. "... Me and Anthony?"

Ethan nodded, already appearing to regret what he was about to say.

"I know it's rough to hear, but he's... Not in a good place, and I believe you might not be either. Last I heard from him was that you chose the town before him, and—"

"That wasn't me, that was... Some— Something else," Lucius tried, unable to explain the Scourge's grip on his mind. "I want to be with him. I— I blew up a building for him. I can't... I can't be without him."

Ethan's frown remained, or perhaps it even deepened.

"Which confirms my other worry," he revealed, as if having waited for Lucius to play right into a trap. "Your love for him... Sounds more like an obsession."

"A..." Lucius couldn't believe his ears, and to his remorse an anger began building inside him no matter how little he wanted to explode at Ethan of all people.

"I'm not saying there aren't genuine feelings in there," Ethan hurried to add. "It's just that from day one when I met you, you've gone on and on about him as if you've been together for years in some perfect fantasy world, but then I found out it had been a couple of months."

"People can fall in love within months," Lucius protested a little too loudly, making both babies let out a low whine. "How could I not? He's per—"

"He's not perfect, Lucius," Ethan cut off his sentence. "My brother is kind, and he's understanding, but you've put him on a pedestal. You've ignored the bad things he's done. The things he's let happen in South Kerilia just as much as our father. You've conjured a personality in your mind that is not him. Just who you want him to be, and of course you want that person back. I'm sorry to be harsh with you, but your love is currently built on an obsession. An unhealthy attachment that might tear the two of you apart even more than our father has."

"So— So what?" Lucius was shaking, holding the baby tight to make sure he wouldn't toss it into the basket out of anger. "You're saying what Damien did was good? That he did the right thing by separating us?"

"No." Ethan shook his head with as calm of a voice as he could muster. "Of course he was in the wrong, but I think what I'm saying to you now is something you would have had to deal with eventually anyway. It does not excuse what Father did, because you should have gotten the chance to work on that yourselves."

"Except now we can't," Lucius growled through gritted teeth. "Not unless I get him back."

"But that would mean aggravating Father even further." Ethan finally faltered with his gaze, turning his head away as he spoke. "He agreed to leave you alone with the sole condition that Anthony would leave. If you try to bring him back, he won't have to uphold that agreement anymore, so... Is it worth risking your safety for a person you don't actually know that w—?"

"I know him!" Lucius couldn't hold his rage back anymore, almost dropping the child as he stood up from the hammock only to stumble forward in immediate dizziness. "I— I know what he's like. What he likes, what he dislikes, what makes him laugh... I know he understands me, and I understand him, and..."

He trailed off, blaming the nausea for his sudden lack of words before sinking down into the hammock again, and Ethan quietly moved over to sit next to him.

"Maybe this is not the time." Ethan lowered his voice, letting Lucius lean his head against his shoulder while supporting the twins in their laps. "I'm sorry to have upset you. I just... Don't want you to run into danger without thinking first."

"There were definitely other ways to put it." Lucius' words dripped with criticism. "And I still don't agree with you."

Ethan sighed again, accepting defeat or at least the fact that Lucius wouldn't listen to any claims he could make at the time, so he let his eyes shift to the twins.

"Well, I won't say the strategy of telling everyone these are Anthony's can't work," he attempted, though not sounding too convinced. "And if nothing else, it will frustrate Father to no end, so that might be fun."

Lucius had to laugh quietly at that. Amidst the horror of parenthood and relationship accusations, at least he could remain a thorn in Damien's side.

"So... Lucius?" Ethan then continued with a cautious tone Lucius did not appreciate. "I've wanted to ask for some time... These, uh... Babies... It wasn't a coincidence that they ended up on you, was it?"

Lucius paled, not even struggling for words as his mind was thrown into too much tumult to think of responding.

"I figured as much." Ethan took his silence as confirmation, but he didn't look particularly upset. "I had a feeling about you already from the beginning but I couldn't place my finger on it, so when the veins appeared I tried to not jump to conclusions and instead blamed the failed exorcism, but... I've been around long enough to know when I'm looking at something supernatural— or, unhallowed, to be precise— and... Normal human eyes don't glow like yours just did when you lost your temper."

Lucius couldn't breathe. Even though Ethan was the person he'd been most likely to tell, he hadn't expected him to find out on his own.

"I won't tell anyone," Ethan assured him as he watched his horrorstruck expression. "And while I don't have all the details, I know you're a good person deep down, so... No reason to worry, is there?"

It was almost laughable. No reason to worry? Was Ethan really that gullible? Had he forgotten what had happened to his arm already? Had the Scourge's influence melted his brain that much when it came to Lucius?

Another whine escaped the blood-cursed baby then, and the sound was apparently enough to trigger the other one, resulting in a gradually increasing wailing from the two of them, and Lucius wrinkled his nose.

"I thought me being in the room would prevent this?"

"More like they won't be doing this constantly when you're around," Ethan raised his voice to reach over the crying. "I reckon they're still gonna behave like normal babies, with needs thereafter."

Lucius' groan was not loud enough to overpower the bawling little monsters but his expression still said it all, and Ethan gave him a sympathetic smile before raising his voice again.

"Welcome to parenthood."