Now that Ves had completed his daughter’s birthday gift, he had met all of his obligations for his daughter’s birthday party.
The evening before the big event was scheduled to begin, the kids all exhibited a lot of excitement.
They had changed into their pajamas and sat on the floor while being surrounded by plushies, toys and cats. The girls and boy frequently giggled as they speculated on what sort of birthday gifts their eldest would receive.
"I bet that you will get a Carmine mech from papa." Andraste said. "Though only in case your genetic aptitude is not good enough. If it is, he probably has a different gift in mind."
Marvaine shook his head. "I don’t think so. Aurelia doesn’t want to pilot mechs as badly as you. I think it will be a new cat, a cat of her own. Lucky and Clixie are nice and all, but Lucky belongs to papa and Clixie belongs to mama."
"Miaow!"
The Rubarthan Sentinel Cat objected to this description! Her original owner had abandoned her because of the perception that she was not good enough anymore.
Clixie wanted nothing to do with Gloriana anymore!
"Meow meow." Lucky leaned over and nuzzled his head against Clixie’s agitated body.
The two cats soon settled down and began to lick each other’s bodies.
"What do you think you will get, big sis?" Little Marvaine asked.
Aurelia cutely scrunched her face as she hugged a large green bear. "I have no idea, but that is what makes this fun. Papa and mama will definitely prepare an unforgettable gift. My birthday party has become a big event. They have invited so many people that we are not acquainted with but hold important positions in society. We will only be embarrassing ourselves if we do not let them go back with a stellar impression of our clan. As for what my gift will be, I do not really care."
"Huh? Why not, sis?"
"Because having mama and papa’s love is the best gift that we could ever have, hehe."
The children continued to talk with each other as their parents held a very different discussion in a different room.
Gloriana looked down at the floating golden-eyed girl with utter perplexment.
"Are you saying... that you made her?" She asked in a slightly dangerous tone.
Ves immediately raised his hands. "It’s not what you think! I created her by accident!"
"THAT MAKES IT WORSE!"
Marigold looked curiously at her progenitor and his wife. She was already familiar with the two, but she had never appeared in front of the latter in this particular form.
Before Ves could make this any worse, the humanized artifact chose to intervene.
Without prompting, she instantly switched over to her new umbrella form.
This immediately interrupted Gloriana’s tirade and caused her to look at Marigold’s current form with considerable shock.
"Is that... the new Flower Parasol?"
"That was what I was trying to tell you all along!" Ves said with an aggrieved voice. "I tinkered around with new and not-quite-tested methods and accidentally produced an artifact that can change into a human form. Do not be fooled by her human facade. She is not actually a human. She just looks like one on the surface. She is still an object, just... one that can walk and talk like us if she wants."
His wife completely froze at this time. She clearly had trouble processing this immense revelation.
Ves had already gotten over his shock, but the same did not apply to Gloriana. Ves actually felt a little satisfaction at seeing her react in this manner.
"H-How?"
"It’s a bit of a story. It started out with a gift that I received from the Cybers."
Ves quickly summarized the sequence of events, making sure to convey much of the information he had about the frozen wood elf, which was not a lot.
She instantly latched on to its importance.
"What a waste!" she cried! "Why did you use up this priceless treasure in a hurry? Why did you not do the sensible thing and conduct an exhausting examination of its properties before you decided to feed it to an umbrella of all choices? No offence, Marigold, but there are many other choices that can exploit this ability to turn into a human much better. Why did you not save it up for one of your Woodsap mechs that you are working on? It would have been easy for us to smuggle a mech indoors and in places where their entry was prohibited!"

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