Blessed by Night

As of right now, the little princess was lying on the bedroom floor with her grandmother; drawing a cute little picture with crayons and not having a care in the world.

The subject material consisted of her entire family sitting on a bed of corral as they were serenaded by sharks.

Who just so happened to be singing- you guessed it: 'Baby Shark'.

"It's coming along so beautifully, my angel!" Nyx said proudly. "Are you going to put your Nana in the picture too?"

"Ba!"

Cami pointed to a corner of the drawing that was completely covered in black scribbles.

"Ah… should I go on a diet?" Nyx asked as she looked at her hips.

"?"

"…You know, I can't wait for you to get older so you can understand some of my jokes."

Cami shrugged like 'maybe one day' before she turned back to her drawings.

Nyx playfully ran her fingers through Cami's hair as she admired the wonders of having a grandchild, when she suddenly felt a strange chill run down her spine.

'How nasty…'

She stared absentmindedly into a particular corner of the room like she was observing something, or atleast trying to pinpoint it.

'Maybe it came from there?' She wondered.

Camille, who fell under the required spiritual attunement necessary to feel what her grandmother was thinking of, suddenly found something else to focus on.

Underneath the bed, she saw two large wooden boxes.

Abandoning her art project, she crawled underneath the bed and retrieved them safely before presenting them to her Nana.

"Gama! Bu?"

Nyx suddenly snapped out of her strange trance and turned her attention back to her grand daughter.

When she saw what she had found, her face darkened just a bit.

Not from anger or any other negative emotion; more like embarrassment from having an infant suddenly stumble upon a longtime secret.

"Ah… do you want to know what's inside?"

"Bu!"

Nyx held out her hand and raised her pinky finger.

"Your Nana doesn't mind telling you, but you would have to keep it as a super special super secret, okay? It has to stay just between us girls."

Camille put on the cutest little serious expression that she could muster as she nodded in confirmation.

The two of them performed the all important and heavenly right of the pinky swear, and Nyx finally opened up the boxes.

Immediately, Cami felt her little eyes sparkle.

"Ada! Aua!"

Inside of the boxes were an abundance of keepsakes, each for a specific child.

They were filled with old papers, photographs, old clothes, and even a small bear that came from the hospital on their date of birth- one blue and another one pink.

"Your other grandmother and grandfather… they made these baby boxes for your father and auntie when they were born and filled them up with all sorts of memories… they never wanted to forget anything for a single second."

Nyx handed Cami a picture.

It was clearly Halloween, and her Aunt Aubrey was in a princess costume while her father was dressed like a famous caped crime fighter.

But there was someone in the middle that she didn't recognize.

A young girl with black hair, deep blue eyes and an abundance of missing teeth; dressed as a famous Amazonian woman.

"Abu?"

"Ah, that's your Aunt Aisha, dear. I guess you've never seen her before she got her powers, huh?"

Cami shook her head and made Nyx chuckle.

"I guess it was worth going back to save these things then, if only to see this cute look on your face."

Suddenly, Cami fished another photo out of Malachi's box.

It was a picture of him when he was still a couple of months old, wrapped in a blanket and in the arms of a handsome man with dark skin and silver glasses.

A woman with curly hair and a lighter complexion hung off his arm, and the three of them could be seen posing in front of a Christmas tree.

"Ah… those are your grandparents too, sweetie. I'm sorry that you never got to meet them, but I just know they would have loved you just as much as the rest of us do… Though they would have strangled your dad."

"Uwah?!"

The goddess nearly fell over laughing.

"They aren't mean people per se, but they were somewhat traditional. The fact that your father had you out of wedlock would have definitely given Marcus a stroke." Nyx chuckled with sad eyes like she was remembering something fond, but painful.

Cami looked like she only understood around half of what was said.

Eventually, Nyx decided that since they were already sharing secrets, she may as well go all the way.

Rustling through the box, she found two very important keepsakes.

"Camille… what I am about to show you is my most cherished secret and prized treasure. You will be the only one other than your Aunty Keres who knows about this."

Nyx pulled out two documents from the baby boxes.

Birth certificates to be exact.

She flipped them both over and gestured to the back, on the bottom left corner.

Two names were written in faded Ancient Greek.

And they were certainly not the same as the ones on the front cover.

"Your grandparents picked out wonderful names that I love dearly. But I guess you could say I have… a bit of a tradition of picking ones of my own, just for me to use."

She pointed to the name on the left paper first.

"This is your Aunt. This name here means Caera."

Gracefully, she pointed her finger over to the other paper.

"And this is your father; Rasaka."

Nyx mischievously held her finger up to her lips in a shushing gesture.

Understanding that she had just been told a big secret, Cami mimicked the gesture exactly.

But eventually, curiosity got the best of her and she pointed at herself. "Bu?"

Understanding exactly what she was being asked, Nyx smiled.

"You sure do have one, my little wonder. Your name is Tiaane. And I will love you forever."

Using a warmth that only a grandmother could have, Nyx pulled in her granddaughter for a loving embrace that was more meaningful than any diamond or rubies.

She gave the young girl a series of kisses on her chubby cheeks before a sudden knock at the door interrupted their bonding.

Nyx waived her hand and opened the door to allow Keres to come in.

"Ah! You're just in time, my dear. Join us! We're looking through old memories."

Unfortunately, Keres put on a troubled expression as she shook her head in denial.

She waived her hand over Cami, and the little tyke's eyes started to become heavy before she fell asleep without even realizing it.

"Eh? Why would you do that, we were snuggling!"

"Mother, I'm sorry but we need to talk privately… something has gone wrong at the meeting." Keres said seriously.

Though she had no anatomy inside of her body, Nyx felt her heart drop all the way to the soles of her feet.