Lucas and Selene/Neruite were currently at her villa, after Lucas had stopped by to give Selene yet another update on the Lilly situation - and Neruite gave Lucas an update on the Harriet one.
"It's not your fault." - Said Neruite, bluntly. She felt she was gonna have to give Lucas a bit of a shock treatment on this issue.
"But..." - Said Lucas.
"Not your fault. Period. Even if you weren't gonna prevent this, which you are. It's not your fault. If you make this your fault, you'll also have to get credit for any and all good events that came from you getting there. We can go to the Room of Fate right now and see how long the universe would last if you hadn't gone out there, had the near miss and helped me secure the Periphery. So, if you're gonna be at fault for a butterfly of doom in which you caused Lilly's death, you'd damn well better take credit for saving the entirety of creation." - Said Neruite.
"But it was you who did it. Plus someone was gonna have that idea anyways." - Said Lucas, shruggging.
"Maybe." - Said Neruite - "It would be a flimsy claim at best to say you saved the entirety of creation, but it would be an even flimsier claim to say you are responsible for Lilly's death. So, if you think you caused her death, you'll have to take credit for saving everything. And just to help you picture it, imagine yourself saving that gaming store you visit in your city, with everyone in it. Then your city. And then expand from it. A lot. Oh, also? Me. Yeah. And Venus. And Cass. Every single thing would owe their existence to you."
Lucas blushed.
"Okay... Point. I can't take credit for that, but that also means I can't take blame for Lilly..."
"Quite right. Anyways, you've got time to find Shi..." - Said Neruite.
"Yes. Moving on to your issue with Artemis, though... Not to put too fine a point on it, Neruite, but I don't think letting Artemis solve the issue by herself is doing the trick..." - Said Lucas.
Neruite sighed.
"There are rules. I can't just go there and magically make things right, or even really talk to them. Even sending Hermes would take a bigger issue than, well... Than a grown woman cowering in fear of the unknown."
"You said the woman's a Catholic. Let's work with that. By default she doesn't believe non-Catholics go to Hell. That's one good point. Furthermore, Catholics have saints. Polytheistic gods work sorta like saints, if you think about it, right?" - Said Lucas.
Neruite nodded.
"It's our own power, but, yeah, in some senses, it's more or less like it. I don't think it will solve things to say we are like saints and invite Artemis's mother for tea here."
"I could go." - Said Lucas, shrugging - "Heck, I could invite her for tea on my space, then you'd drop by..."
"And then you'd have to play the angel and confuse the woman further. Too risky..." - Said Neruite.
"Well... Tell me. The rules are made for gods, right?" - Said Lucas, smiling a very trollface-like smile.
Neruite looked strangely at Lucas.
"You know fully well that humans are not... Oh." - It dawned on her.
"Indeed, Celine Andrews, they are not. So convenient that you're human as well, innit?" - Said Lucas, smiling - "I'm not suggesting you teleport over there right now and clear things up, but it most certainly can be done. Plus..." - Lucas sighed a bit - "I'd not like to see a child being sent away like this... Even for one night, it's just not right..."
Neruite smiled a bit sadly.
"It's still not an easy situation to deal with. I will see what I can do, Lucas, but... I can't promise you anything, okay?"
"Okay, I'll acc-" - Lucas's phone rang.
"Hello? Oh, hey, Robert. What? Help with... What the... Aw, dammit! Don't these people ever learn? Okay. I have a plan. Yeah, I won't like it either, but it seems I'll have to do it to prevent these true-believer morons from abandoning their... Uhm, no, I don't know the first thing about child-rearing. Quite frankly, though, given that these guys did this, I'd trust just about anyone with the kid way more than I'd trust them." - Said Lucas.
Neruite watched.
"And you are a good person, so I think you'd do well too. Anyways, tell me your bank account number. Or the church's, or whatever. Yeah, if you decide to keep the kid around, just tell me and I'll make a transfer to help with some of the extra expenses. What? I got a nice inflow of cash, and it's in part thanks to you, innit? And to Neruite here."
Neruite smiled a bit.
"Yeah, she says hi. So, yeah. Why, yes, I still say I'm Chaotic Neutral, thanks for asking. Yeah, I'll call up some guys and set things up. Given that the parents are morons, though, it may be all well and good that they abandoned the kid, lest they tried to microwave her dry one of these days. Idiots. Anyways, yeah. Give me the account number, please. Just one sec, gotta find a..."
Neruite produced a notebook and a pen.
"...Thanks, Neruite. Yeah, go on. Right." - Lucas took the notes. - "Okay. Done. Good luck. Hey, wait. You know any Catholic priests? Yeah, I might need some help. Let me check one thing here."
Lucas turned to Neruite.
"Okay, what about trying to see if we can't have a priest clear things up with Artemis's mom?"
Neruite shrugged.
"We can try, sure, but we should avoid involving many people in this if we can help it. Can we just get his contact in case we need it?"
"Sure." - Said Lucas - "Yeah, I need the number of a priest you trust for now. We sorta need to solve some things and we might, emphasis on might, need it. Okay."
Lucas jotted down the number in her fairly horrible handwriting.
"Thanks, Robert. See ya. I'll see if I can do anything today. If not today, tomorrow it is. Laters."
The contents of the unseen side of this conversation should be fairly self-explanatory.
"So, yeah. Morons abandoned a kid because she looked like a devil."
- Said Lucas - "What the heck is wrong with these people?"
"Fear." - Said Neruite, evenly - "And you offered to help with quite a few things..." - She smiled a bit - "And yet you claim to be 'Chaotic Neutral', and not a good person. And Brutus is an honorable man, yes?"
"Yeah, yeah... So I'm a nice person." - Said Lucas, blushing - "I am still Chaotic, though, right?"
"The Chaotic alignment description will have your picture by its side in the Fifth Edition of D&D;, yes." - Joked Neruite.
Robert sighed. After calling 911, she had been told to wait for a car to escort her and the kid back to the police. It had been nice to know she could count on Lucas, even if the angel girl felt the need to be so... Acerbic about the parents. She cradled the girl in her arms gently.
"Don't worry, little one... You will be cared for..."
The baby giggled innocently, unaware of angels, demons or of the myths that governed the lives of so many, and that might cause her so much grief.
