Chapter 1274: Dimension Pocket: Cradle Cut From Nothingness

"You might be subconsciously teaching our child that scolding Dad is normal family behavior."

Melissa stared at him.

Phei maintained a perfectly serious face.

Her mouth twitched.

That was the beginning of the end.

Melissa tried to preserve the glare for several seconds before laughter finally betrayed her, and Phei leaned over to steal another kiss while she was distracted.

"You’re impossible."

"And forgiven?"

Melissa sighed. "Temporarily."

"I’ll take it."

With the domestic crisis successfully survived, Phei turned his attention back toward Eira.

Healing Touch answered beneath his palm before a warm restorative essence moved carefully through the Familiar’s body, sinking into her depleted body and where her power had been scraped too thin. Phei did not try to wake her or force strength into reserves that clearly needed time rather than violence:

He simply nourished what he could, letting Healing Touch ease the strain while Eira’s own body handled the deeper restoration.

The difference appeared gradually.

A little more color returned to her face and her breathing deepened into a peaceful one and the tension that had remained faintly trapped between her brows softened until her expression became completely peaceful.

Phei watched every change.

Melissa watched him.

Perhaps that was why she noticed the next thing before asking about it.

Phei summoned the Spiritual Bond Ring.

The treasure appeared between his fingers with a soft glow, although Eira being his companions hardly needed help being found by him much less this Ring serving any useless use since their Master/Familiar bond already ran deeper than any ring could imitate.

Still...

Phei looked down at her sleeping face: "It wouldn’t hurt." He’d learnt a heard lesson you see.

Melissa tilted her head. "What wouldn’t?"

"This."

He pressed the ring gently against Eira’s hand and light spread across Eira’s fingers before dissolving beneath her skin before disappearing quietly into the connection already existing between Familiar and Master. Phei felt the difference almost immediately. It did not replace anything between them or deepen anything but instead another one certainty appeared beside it, precise and simple.

Eira. Here. Alive. Resting.

Phei smiled.

’Redundant perhaps.’

He liked redundancy when the subject was someone he cared about surviving. Melissa’s gaze softened as she watched him reposition Eira in his arms with absurd gentleness, supporting her head and carefully making certain neither wing bent awkwardly beneath her.

"You know," she said after a while, "you’re going to make a wonderful father."

Phei looked up.

A smile slowly spread across his face: "Why, thank you."

Then, because sincerity apparently frightened him if allowed to sit unattended for too long, he immediately exaggerated every movement. He adjusted Eira against his chest with the solemn concentration of someone transporting the final surviving heir of an extinct celestial dynasty, checked the angle of her head twice, tucked an invisible blanket beneath her chin and began rocking her so delicately that Melissa covered her mouth to hide another laugh.

Phei looked offended. "What?"

"Nothing."

"This is excellent paternal technique."

"Of course."

"I haven’t even started singing."

Melissa laughed harder.

Phei’s grin widened before he glanced down at Eira. "Oh, by the way, never say any of this when she’s awake."

Melissa wiped beneath one eye. "Why?"

"Just trust me."

She apparently assumed he was joking.

Phei graciously allowed her to keep that innocence; he had one final problem to solve.

There was absolutely no chance he was leaving Eira unconscious on his bed for potentially two weeks while his bedroom remained one of the least private locations in a household populated by women who had long since abandoned the concept of knocking reliably.

Phei looked toward Melissa. "Don’t freak out."

She blinked. "Why does saying that always make people more likely to freak out?"

"Fair point." Phei carefully laid Eira back onto the mattress for several seconds before bringing his hands together.

He clapped once and a dark opening formed above the bed.

Melissa’s amusement disappeared as she stared.

This was different from the portal from earlier:

The opening did not reveal another ordinary room or distant place. Beyond its edge existed deep seething black, with real Void moving within itself in slow currents that seemed constantly on the verge of spilling outward before some unseen will forced the darkness back. Black-white traces wandered through that depth, appearing and disappearing without rhythm while the hollow widened under Phei’s control.

For a few breaths it looked hostile enough that Melissa understood immediately why he had warned her.

Then Phei changed it; the violent darkness bent inward and Void-Ice spread across the hollow in delicate sheets, creating a stable floor and curving walls while the seething black retreated beyond them. A small chamber slowly took shape inside the pocket, protected on every side by Phei’s Void and decorated with far more care than the frightening entrance suggested.

Melissa’s expression changed again.

The little space was beautiful.

It looked faintly like the magnificent dome Phei had once created for Delilah, though all the romantic excess had been stripped away; no flowers arranged for seduction, glowing dinner table and private stars designed to make some woman’s heart abandon professional responsibilities.

This was simply somewhere safe to sleep.

At the center rested a small princess-like bed made from pale Void-Ice softened until it looked closer to pearl than crystal, covered in deep cushions and light blankets whose fabric Phei shaped from the same obedient power. A curved canopy rose over it, black-white threads hanging from its edges in delicate translucent curtains and small floating lights drifted near the ceiling, warm rather than bright, while several crystalline shelves formed along one wall even though Eira would not need them while sleeping.

Phei added another pillow.

Then another.

Melissa noticed: "You’ve already put four there."

"She might move; she’ll be asleep for two weeks. Plenty of time to move."

Melissa smiled helplessly.

Phei lifted Eira from the bed again and carried her toward the hollow.

The Void around the opening responded to him immediately.

Eira was equally accepted.

That was one of the stranger properties of these hollow pockets. Phei could survive within them because Void had become part of his very nature, while Eira’s existence was intertwined deeply enough with his Void and Void-Ice to be accepted beside him. Other living beings were another matter entirely, and Phei had no intention of experimenting merely to discover exactly how badly the Void objected them.

Lifeless possessions could remain there without difficulty.

Living guests?

’Very exclusive membership.’ Phei crossed into the pocket and lowered Eira onto the little bed at Melissa’s watch.

He arranged her wings carefully, drew the blanket over her and spent another embarrassing amount of time ensuring her hair was not trapped beneath her shoulder. Only after Healing Touch passed over her once more did he finally straighten.

Eira looked almost ridiculously peaceful there; a sleeping fairy beneath pale curtains, surrounded by black-white lights inside a private hollow hidden in the Void.

Phei smiled. "Goodnight, Eira."

The hollow folded after he stepped back into the bedroom, its curved walls collapsing inward beneath his control until the opening contracted and disappeared without leaving so much as a scar in ordinary space.

Melissa remained staring at where it had been.

Phei turned toward her.

"It’s one of my fancier abilities."

Her eyes moved slowly to him.

"I can create hollow pockets inside the Void," he explained, taking her hand again. "They’re separated from ordinary space and only I can access them. Eira can exist safely inside because of what she is but I wouldn’t put another living person in one. The Void isn’t exactly friendly to life just because it likes me."

Melissa nodded faintly.

Phei waited.

Her expression remained remarkably calm.

He became suspicious. "You’re taking that surprisingly well."

Melissa gave him a strange look. "You told me not to freak out."

"Yes."

"Phei, do you know the things I’ve seen since you got your powers?"

He opened his mouth.

Melissa continued before he could answer, glancing toward the place where the hollow had vanished. "You create portals, command that black-white ice, have a fairy Familiar I’ve apparently been living near without knowing, possess other things you refuse to explain..." She stopped herself before the last part could become more than inference and shook her head. "Actually, never mind. My point is that a little bedroom hidden somewhere inside the Void is surprisingly low on the list of things I have questions about." ℴ

Phei smiled.

Melissa studied him for a moment longer before her gaze softened. "You really care about her."

"Of course I do." Phei’s answer came easily.

Eira was irritating, shameless, secretive, ancient beyond reason and sometimes possessed the emotional restraint of a child who had discovered sugar shortly before being given access to explosives. She was also his Familiar, his companion, one of the people who had stood beside him when standing there cost something, she was basically the only person he could rely on for anything and most recently she had emptied herself almost completely so that he could survive.

Above all, he loved her.

Phei would never treat that lightly.

Melissa squeezed his hand.

He returned the gesture before leaning down to kiss her forehead."Come on."

"Where?"

Phei’s mouth curved as he guided her toward the bedroom door. "The whole family is waiting, remember?"

Melissa glanced toward her stomach, then back toward him, and whatever nervousness might have appeared was swallowed quickly beneath the happiness that had followed her from the villa.

Phei tightened his fingers around hers.

"Time to go tell them they’re getting a new family member."