Luna stared, her mind refusing to process what she was seeing.

She had been here. Right here. Luna had seen her. Heard her. Felt the reality of her presence.

But now...nothing.

"Luca?" She said, her voice small and shaky.

He turned, a look of mild surprise on his face.

"Luna? What are you doing up? I thought you’d be asleep by now."

She didn’t answer. Instead, she rushed forward, her eyes scanning every inch of the balcony.

She looked over the railing—maybe the woman had jumped?

But no, the drop was 150 feet to the forest floor, and there was no body, no sound of impact.

She looked up—maybe she’d climbed?

But the branches above were empty.

She looked at the floor where the woman had stood.

There should have been...something. Blood, maybe. Some sign of her presence. But the wooden planks were clean. Unmarked.

"Luna?" Luca said again, his tone now concerned. "What’s wrong? You look...pale."

She turned to him, her eyes wide. "Where is she?"

"Where is who?"

"The woman! The woman you were talking to! The...The..." She gestured helplessly, unable to find words to describe what she’d seen. "The one with no skin! The one you were calling ’big sister’!"

Luca’s expression shifted from concern to confusion. He tilted his head, studying her face.

"What woman? Luna, I’ve been out here alone for the past hour. Just me and the moons."

"No!" She insisted, her voice rising. "No, I heard you! I heard both of you! You were talking about...about finding your place here. About how you wished you’d come sooner."

"S-She called you Lucci! You called her Big sis. You were...you were hugging her."

Luca’s confusion seemed to deepen. He stepped closer, reaching out to touch her forehead.

"Lucci? Big sis? Luna, are you feeling alright? Maybe the pregnancy...the stress..."

She pulled away from his touch.

"Don’t do that!.Don’t act like I’m imagining things! I saw her, Luca. I saw her with my own eyes. She was...she was horrible."

"She looked like she’d been...tortured. Mutilated. But she was holding you, and you looked...you looked like a child with his mother."

For just a fraction of a second, something flickered in Luca’s eyes. Something dark. Something pained.

But it was gone so quickly Luna almost thought she’d imagined it.

"Luna." He said gently, taking her hands in his. "Listen to me. There’s no one else here. There hasn’t been anyone else here."

"But you have been under a lot of stress—the pregnancy, the village, everything that happened tonight."

"Maybe you fell asleep for a moment? Had a dream?"

’Did I?’ She thought, the doubt creeping in now. ’Could I have dreamed it?’

The idea was tempting. It would explain everything.

The impossible woman. The unfamiliar Luca. The whole strange conversation.

But...

"I was awake." She said, though her conviction was wavering now. "I climbed the stairs. I came looking for you. I heard voices..."

"Maybe you heard me talking to myself." Luca suggested, his tone reasonable, calm. "I do that sometimes. Think out loud. And with everything that happened tonight...with the goddess, with the projections...maybe your mind filled in the rest."

He drew her into his arms, and the familiar scent of him washed over her. She felt the solid reality of his body against hers, the steady beat of his heart.

"It’s alright." He murmured into her hair, his voice the one she knew, the confident, reassuring one.

"I know you’re worried. About the baby. About the village. About everything."

"But you don’t have to be. I’m here. I’m going to take care of everything. Of you. Of our child."

"Of all of them."

The words, spoken with such certainty, such love, broke through the last of her resistance.

She sagged against him, the tension draining from her body.

’Maybe he’s right.’ She thought, burying her face in his chest. ’Maybe it was a dream. A waking dream. The stress, the exhaustion...’

It made sense. More sense than the alternative—that a skinless, mutilated woman who called Luca her little brother had been on their balcony and then vanished into thin air.

"Come on." Luca said, pulling back to look at her face.

He brushed a tear from her cheek—she hadn’t even realized she was crying.

"Let’s get you to bed. You need rest."

She nodded, allowing him to lead her back inside.

But as they passed through the balcony door, she glanced back one last time.

The empty balcony stared back at her.

—

Luca led her to the bedroom, his arm around her shoulders.

"So what brought you up here, anyway? I thought you’d be playing board games with your sister and the others."

Luna shook her head, rubbing her belly gently.

"I got sleepy. I wanted to ask you to come to bed with me."

She looked up at him, a small smile touching her lips.

"And...this little one wanted to sleep with its father too."

Luca’s expression softened. He crouched down, placing his hands on either side of her still-flat stomach.

"Is that so, little one? Do you want to sleep with daddy?"

He pressed his ear against her belly, listening intently.

Luna watched him, her heart swelling with love.

This was the Luca she knew. The gentle one. The loving one.

After a moment, he looked up, a mock-serious expression on his face.

"Little Luna isn’t responding."

Luna laughed softly, running her fingers through his hair.

"She’s shy. Like her mother. But she definitely said she wants to sleep with her father."

"Well." Luca said, standing and putting an arm around her shoulders again. "If little Luna and big Luna both want to sleep, then it’s my duty as husband and father to see that duty fulfilled."

He pulled her along to bed to Luna’s satisfaction.

But just as they were about to go to bed, suddenly the door to the bedroom burst open.

Bang!

Leona, Nyx, and Lulu came rushing in, their faces flushed with excitement.

Lulu looked especially breathless, almost as if she had come here in a hurry.

Luca raised his brow. "What’s going on, guys? Why do you look like you ran a marathon?"

His expression turned stern. "Don’t tell me you ran. If you did—"

He raised his hand in a spanking gesture, like he was going to deal out some punishment.

"No!" Lulu said quickly, shaking her head so hard her golden hair flew around her face.

"No, we walked! We definitely walked! It was just...a fast walk."

Leona and Nyx nodded in agreement.

Luca studied them, his arms crossed.

"Alright. So what’s so important that it couldn’t wait until morning?"

The three women exchanged glances, then all started talking at once.

"We were playing board games—"

"—and we were talking about names—"

"—for the babies—"

"—but then we realized—"

"One at a time!" Luca said, holding up a hand. He pointed at Nyx. "You. Explain."

Nyx took a deep breath. "We were playing board games, Hero—"

"I was winning." Leona interjected.

"You cheated." Nyx shot back without missing a beat.

"Only because you stole two of my cards!"

"You only noticed after the game was over."

Luca sighed. "The point, ladies?"

Nyx cleared her throat. "While we were playing, we started talking about what names to give our children. We went through dozens of options. Lulu suggested some...creative ones."

"Chickalina!" Lulu said proudly. "For a girl! Or Roosterton for a boy!"

Everyone stared at her in dismay, wondering when her brain would start to grow.

"Moving on." Leona said dryly. "Like Lulu suggested, we had our own names in mind."

"But while we were thinking that, we realized that we were only thinking about the first name and weren’t even thinking about the the surname at all."

Luca shrugged. "Well, shouldn’t that be obvious? They’ll take your surnames, won’t they? Silverleaf?"

"Traditionally, yes. Surnames are inherited from the male side. But even if we don’t follow tradition..."

She stepped closer, her expression softening.

"We want our children to have your surname, Luca."

Luca blinked in surprise.

"Not because of social constructs, but because...because they’re yours."

"Because we want that connection. That visible, undeniable proof that they’re your children."

Luca couldn’t help but smile at the thought they had put into this matter.

She continued. "And that’s when we realized—we don’t know your surname at all!"

But this made Luna confused.

"What are you talking about, Mother? Luca definitely told us his surname."

She glanced up at him before looking back at them.

"It’s actually Luca Fa...Fa..."

But then she narrowed her eyes and tried to say a certain name out loud, repeating.

"Fa...Fa..."

But for some reason, no matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t recall it at all.

"That’s strange. I know he told us. I remember him introducing himself to the whole village. But I can’t...I can’t quite recall..."

Lulu nodded vigorously. "Exactly! We were all trying to remember! And none of us could!

"I actually have a really good memory." Nyx had a difficult look on her face. "So the fact that not only I don’t remember it, but even Leona and no one here remembers it as well is a bit strange."

She looked at Luca with curiosity. "That’s why we came over here to ask you about that."

"What exactly is your surname, Hero?"

The four women stared at him, waiting for an answer, their eyes filled with curiosity and love.

Luca himself wore a wry smile on his face, knowing precisely why they had forgotten about his name.

But he didn’t want to elaborate on it too much. Some things were better left unsaid

So he simply let out a soft, resigned sigh and said,

"Faust. It’s Luca Faust."

The moment he said it, it was as if a veil had been lifted from their memories.

"Faust!" Leona said, smacking her palm with her fist. "Of course! How could I forget something so simple?"

"Truly..." Nyx furrowed her brow, her expression one of deep confusion.

"It doesn’t sound like a complicated name like some other races like the goblins possess."

"So how is it possible that I actually forgot it?"

Lulu herself kept on repeating "Faust, Faust, Faust" under her breath like a mantra, as if she didn’t want to forget ever again.

She was determined to sear the name into her memory.

Luna took it a step further.

She pulled out her small notebook from the pocket of her dress and carefully wrote down the name in her neat handwriting.

She underlined it twice for good measure, making sure she would never forget once again.

But then she thought of something and looked up at Luca, her expression curious and thoughtful.

"Luca." She began, her voice soft. "What exactly does ’Faust’ mean?"

"What do you mean by that?" Luca asked in return, his confusion evident. "It’s just a name, right?"

"No, Luca." Leona gently corrected her, shaking her head. "In our customs, every surname has a certain meaning to it."

"For example, the name Silverleaf was derived from the Holy Tree itself and how the Holy Tree actually has silver leaves all around it."

"As the first royal family in the elven race, we’ve had the honor of having that name passed down from generation to generation."

All the family members had a proud look on their faces, as if it was truly a great honor to be having such a name.

The weight of centuries of tradition rested on their shoulders, and they carried it with dignity.

Leona then looked at Luca with curiosity gleaming in her eyes.

"So now, we want to know what exactly the meaning of your surname is."

"Maybe his surname doesn’t have a meaning at all."

Nyx chimed in, her voice thoughtful.

"He is human after all, from another world. Maybe they don’t have any different meanings to them..."

"That’s boring!" Lulu pouted. "Names should mean something!"

"Cerulean means my Selma’s ancestors came from the cerulean springs! Nightshade means Auntie Nyx’s mother’s family were scouts that moved through the darkness like shadows.!"

"Faust should mean something too!"

Luna nodded in agreement. "So what is it, Luca? Does your surname Faust have any meaning to it? Or a title or anything like that? An epithet perhaps?"

They all looked at him curiously once again, their eyes filled with anticipation and wonder.

Honestly, right now, Luca did not want to answer this question at all.

It was going into risky territory, dangerous ground that he had carefully avoided for so long.

But still, seeing all of their gazes that were looking at him so curiously and also realizing that maybe this wasn’t too big of a deal, he just let out a sigh.

"Faust. It means..."

He said, the word heavy in the air.

"The One who made a Deal with the Devil."