A lot of surprises all around!

Rhea was not a woman who surprised easily. In her centuries upon this planet, she had seen and encoutered a lot, especially when it came to not trusting humans. That monster Nemesis had slain her mother - it was only right that she take his Crest of Flames to try and help bring her back. She barely trusted anyone at the Church, using her identity as 'Rhea' to keep them on her side.

Yes, humanity had lost her trust. Even Jeralt, whom she still appreciated for serving him and giving her a chance at reclaiming her mother Sothis, needed to be kept at arms reach. So, to hear the child in which she had planted her mother's heart with the Crest of Flames to bring back from still birth, in the hopes their body would house her spirit suddenly say ask about that very act - yes, it shocked her greatly. Her eyes grew wide at the question, wondering how much they actually knew. It was fortunate for her, then, that she had experience lying to humans.

"That is an unexpected thing to accuse me of doing. Put the goddess in your head? Why would you think that?" It was best to try and figure out how much he knew, as well as take stock of his motives. She had no idea why he had come here - had he come to kill her? Byleth may have relinquished his sword, but there was every chance he could try magic or a concealed knife.

"Well, she's been living there since before I got to the monastery. And taken to floating out of it and around the academy." Byleth explained in his naturally neutral tone. Those two sentences made Rhea go through a whirlwind of intense emotions. She was excited that her attempts had begun to bear fruit, frustration at this human's natural poker face keeping her from figuring it out, hope that she would be able to resurrect her mother very soon, and fear as to what Byleth was planning to do with this information.

She had thought she'd felt the essence of her mother floating about the room last time he was here, but it had been too much to hope her essence had grown in such a short time. If this was the case, perhaps it was time to move the new professor to the holy tomb-

"And she's also been quite horny since she appeared-"

And there was the familiar spike of murderous rage she had come to expect towards humanity. If he wasn't housing her mother's heart and his comment so out of place. she would have just ordered Seteth back in and demanded his execution. "I'm sorry, Professor. I must have misheard you. It sounded almost like you were referring to the Goddess as if she were a common whore." She did her best to keep her voice level as she clenched her hand tightly around her own concealed dagger beneath her robes, her smile becoming more forced. Had this human housing Sothis just implied she was some 'lady of the night'?

Byleth could definitely feel a spike of murderous intent as soon as he had said that. Things were not going well. He could simply try reversing time (Sothis was in his head screaming 'Turn back time turn back time TURN BACK TIME!') But he felt like it might be best if Rhea had all the facts, and the emergency wishing could potentially help him if rewinding time wasn't enough. "Sothis, could you please come out?" He said out loud, confusing the archbishop more. She seemed even more so when Sothis actually did, able to sense her presence as she floated next to him. "All right, since I'm clearly very bad at explaining this, I think you should hear it from her."

"Are you sure about this, Master?" Sothis looked panicked at the suggestion while Byleth simply nodded. "Sothis, I wish Rhea could see and hear you until the end of this meeting."

Rhea never felt so out of the loop before, on top of all her other emotions, she was nearly paralyzed with confusion. She had been about to demand a straight answer as to what he meant when he made the wish... and she fell to her knees, her knife forgotten in the sheathe. She almost felt like a dam had burst inside her as her memories took her to the last time she had felt truly happy in this world.

"Mother..."

The visage of her mother responded to her exclamation with a word that perfectly summarized everything she had felt during this meeting.

"What."