Ryan waited for his father to enter the mansion, an entourage of servants and guards accompanying him. The Novar Family Head made straight for the dining hall as the staff began moving his luggage and theirs to their quarters.

"Hello, Father," Ryan said once his father had entered the dining room. "This is Alexa and her brother Tristan. He's awakened already, has been for a few weeks, and can hear the thoughts of elementals. An interesting spell, in my opinion. Meanwhile, she is hoping to escape being a Novarax and seduce her way into the branch families because she's fearful of what will happen to her, even if she's not a part of the plots of the Novarax."

Ryan sensed the amusement in his father's mind as the older man snorted, as well as the utter fear that filled Alexa's mind. His father took a seat at the head of the table, and was immediately served food.

"Ah," Ryan said. "I knew I'd been smelling more food being prepared, though I'd assumed the chef was making his own steak or something. You informed them you were arriving early?"

"Indeed," his father answered. "I thought I'd have dinner with my son tonight. Has there been any update on the information you've acquired since we spoke this morning?"

"Yes," Ryan answered. "The Novarax have been attempting to create phones which can reach out of Volnal. They've failed, of course, but they're trying anyway. According to my own eavesdropping, they wish to reestablish communications with Raxvar, now that Volnal is on lock-down."

He felt the surprise in Alexa's mind at the mention of Raxvar. Judging by how it felt to him, Ryan guessed she knew they were attempting to work with Raxvar, but didn't approve of it.

"They're working with Raxvar?" His father asked.

"Yes," Ryan answered. "However, the fact that Raxvar did not, in fact, leave a method for communication outside means they had an agent or several agents present in Volnal, but they were cleared out with the purge for my stay."

"So Raxvar knows about the manalirate?" His father asked.

"I'm not sure," Ryan shrugged. "I can give you a list of people who are heading the project, though."

It took Ryan a few days to be able to come up with that. The elementals were able to identify them, but Ryan then had to convince the elementals to show him which people they were, as things such as "Slow Mover" were not descriptive enough to tell him which people they were.

"Please do so," his father responded. "I want to begin interrogating them as quickly as possible."

"Can I join?" Ryan asked.

"No," his father answered.

"It's not like I haven't interrogated people before," Ryan said. "And it will give me a chance to practice some of my spells."

Ryan watched as his father's gaze turned to the pair of Novarax in the room, his father seemingly deciding to table the discussion for the time being.

"Seducing your way out of the Novarax isn't as easy as you might think, Alexa," Ryan's father said. "There isn't a single person among our staff who would fall for that. You have no worth to us. Your brother, on the other hand, is a Jewel, and I do like to polish those."

Ryan could feel the disappointment and annoyance in Alexa's mind, and he snorted.

"Don't be so surprised by that, Alexa," Ryan said. "It takes something truly monumental to cast behind the status of a Novarax the moment it's placed upon you, even for those born to it."

As she sulked, Ryan, his father, and his servant ate, the Family Head inquiring to Tristan about his life and hobbies. The boy didn't enjoy school much, but did like playing in the mud after a storm. He loudly declared he wished to be a master at mud magic, causing both Ryan and his father to chuckle.

After dinner concluded, Ryan's father placed a geas on both of the Novarax, then dismissed them and took Ryan and Tyler to a private room. Tyler retrieved the list Ryan had him write down of those involved at the head of the attempted attack on the way, rejoining them in the room after having done so.

"So," his father said. "Which spells were you interested in practicing? When I interrogate someone, I first check to see if their mind has a geas, then I proceed from there. Most of my interrogations are performed through mind magic. Once I begin, it's rather easy. It's the other interrogators in the Family who use more physical means."

"I was hoping to practice some mind magics," Ryan responded. "And some healing magics."

He had also decided already to reveal something to his father, knowing it would be impossible for his father to truly do anything in regards to it.

"Do you ever," Ryan said. "Come across someone who has a geas which will kill them if they reveal information? A geas you cannot remove?"

"I have," his father responded. "They've been placed by the same person both times, and that person has not been within Volnal, so I will say there's a good chance I can interrogate everyone here without issue."

"Okay," Ryan said. "Theoretically, what happens if you come across that?"

"They become useless to me," his father said. "So I extract what little useful information I can, then kill them."

"Okay," Ryan said. "If, somehow, such a geas was placed on someone here, would you mind allowing me to try removing it?"

"You will fail," his father said, and Ryan grinned. "What's that grin for?"

"I might fail," Ryan said. "But remember when I said I was like Colin Novar?"

"I do," his father said. "It wasn't that long ago."

"Indeed," Ryan's grin grew further. "See, he could stop time, but that nearly it. I can do more than that, Father. I can reset time. It's a spell not even he could use. It allows me to return to a previous point in time. My memories and powers are intact, but everything else is reset back to that point.

"In other words," Ryan leaned forward. "I can try, fail, then reset to before I tried and try again. I can keep doing that until they don't die. Infinite tries. The actual delivery of the message from the elementals requesting my assistance came to me later than now, while I was at the Srentas Ski Resot. This isn't my first time running today, Father. I am doing everything I can to grow as powerful as possible."

"Why?" His father asked, though Ryan could feel the shock in the minds of his father and his servant.

"I have two reasons," Ryan answered. "The first is that I wish to become the next Gray Mage. In technicality, I am already there, but we can ignore that. The second is that once I am powerful enough, once I have enough grasp over my magics, I am going to perform a reset bigger than just a few months. I am going to reset a full decade."

Confusion filled his servant's mind, but Ryan felt realization and even greater shock fill his father's mind.

"You're going to save your mother," his father said.

"Indeed," Ryan answered. "Because the timeline is erased back to when I reset, if I reset to before her death, then she has never died, and I alone will be aware that she had. I know when she died, and where. Once I am ready, I will stop that death. I will stop the assassin himself. I could do it from the shower, even. The moment he enters the range of my elemental senses, I can end his life. Air bubble to the brain, stopping of the heart, removal of air from the lungs, a drowning, overheating, or any number of other methods. Right now, I'm also working on entering into people's minds and ripping information out of their head. It's easiest if I have physical contact with them, and when I do, I can slip in, pull out anything I want, and exit, and they aren't even aware I'd entered."

"Forgive… the inquiry," Tyler said, though Ryan knew it would likely come up as they were preparing for bed if his servant didn't bring it up then. "But why try to grow more powerful with your spells if you can already do that?"

Ryan realized he'd never considered that before. Ever since deciding to rescue his mother, he wanted to become even more powerful, not just to become the next Gray Mage, but to rescue his mother as well. There was no reason for it – he was not only a god, but at his current level, he was truly godly.

The assassin would be forced to bend to his will, unable to stop Ryan from entering his mind and ripping out every last piece of information about why he was there. He would be unable to stop Ryan from killing him.

Because of that, there was no reason at all for Ryan to actually need to continue training. He could, right then, return to the past and rescue his mother. As he thought it over, however, he realized there was a reason to continue growing stronger.

"Someone targets Mother once," Ryan said. "And the attack succeeds. But if I stop that attack, who is to say that the attacks do not continue, with more might every time? Until it is made clear to those who wish her dead that it is not happening, the attacks will grow worse. I need to be as powerful as possible for that, to ensure that they fail every time – even if not the first time that attempt occurs for me.

"One of the most important aspects to this," Ryan said. "Is strengthening my elemental senses and my ability to read through them. The more I can read with them, the better I will be able to act when it is necessary. My elemental senses are actually the reason I suffered POAMA after I woke up on my birthday – my body was adjusting to them, even if they weren't active."

"In other words," his father said. "You're making extra-sure you can do what is necessary to save her until saving her is no longer necessary."

"Correct," Ryan nodded. "And if I'm being completely honest, I'm also doing a little bit of intelligence gathering. I'm sure I'll remember most of this stuff when I reach eighteen again."

"Intelligence gathering," his father snorted. "And resets. That explains why you said the Mierias had an Heisar, then. I only managed to convince Damien to be honest with me by offering the services of one of our excavators even if for a price."

"Yeah," Ryan said. "When I was actually visiting the island, he flat-out admitted it to us because it would be inevitable for us to find out. He wants to forge a connection between our Families – to merge the Mierias into the Novar before the Novar and Veloas Families marry."

"I'm not surprised you know that," his father sighed. "But how does he know?"

"He's suspecting it," Ryan answered. "Raxvar Corporation is as well – that's why they have an assassin aimed at me. That assassin is actually the main reason I wanted this place cleared – it prevents her from being able to reach me while I'm doing this thing for the elementals. I wanted as little interference as possible, though now I know it's something that takes longer than I'd expected."

Ryan sighed.

"Her companion, who wasn't an assassin, was rather nice to play with."

"Play with?" His father asked.

"Yes," Ryan grinned. "She was actually interested in Tyler, but since he's got not feelings of romance or sex for her, she decided she might as well sleep with me since I was interested. I was mostly just wanting someone to have sex with regularly. Kind of selfish, but hey, who cares? It's not like there will be long-term consequences of it once I reset, considering it never happened."

His father sighed, causing Ryan to snicker.

"That explains," his father said. "Why you asked me if I could bring a girl your age who 'had a nice voice and a nice body' to have sex with. You do know women exist for more than sex, don't you?"

"Of course I know that," Ryan scoffed. "Trust me, Father, I know that. In my last run, I had dozens of girls trying to get with Tyler. I could have taken my pick of any of them if I really wanted. I've only slept with three across the runs. The first is Jonathan's future wife, who wants to have a child with the most powerful person she can when it comes to status. The second was Bethany, Damien's niece, who was there specifically for the purpose of sleeping with me in an effort to merge our Families by blood before a dilution through the Veloas occurred. The third was Amy, a former classmate of Tyler's who's also an intelligence agent of Raxvar Corporation, and she agreed to it partly because it was something for both of us. We were both horny, and she hoped it might help turn me to Raxvar. I might have suggested that."

His father snorted at the comment, then sighed.

"And these hordes of women?"

"They really wanted in Tyler's pants," Ryan sighed. "I didn't realize just how much more attractive he was than me until we were at the resort. I'm not going to lie, I wanted to throttle Tyler for being so attractive that women were bothering me in an effort to gain his attention.

"So," he said. "Did you bring someone? Because there are only Novarax here, and I will never sleep with one of those."

"I did," his father said, and Ryan noticed the exasperation in the man's mind. "Just in case you had an actual reason for why you should be allowed to sleep with her before your wedding."

"Our wedding?" Ryan asked. "What do you mean by that? You've given me no indication of such a thing happening in any previous run."

Ryan felt his father's indecision, then final decision to say whatever it was.

"Yes," his father said. "I have been in talks with a certain person for a few years now about having you marry once you turned eighteen. We agreed on the wedding taking place this coming summer. It is even more secret than the merging of the Veloas to our Family. Like you, she is a Jewel, and an Ultimate Jewel at that."

"How old is she?" Ryan asked.

"Eighteen," his father answered. "Her birthday is in the summer, so she is only a few months older than you. The plan for the union between her and you to occur after the Veloas union into our Family was to ensure we would have the might and resources necessary to defend against anyone who attempted to get in our way."

"Why?" Ryan asked. "With the Novar and the Veloas, our Family will effectively rule the world."

He didn't include that they technically already did through Colin and Emily, his father didn't need to know about that.

"Because," his father said. "She is Kacy Raxvar, sole daughter of the owner of Raxvar Corporation."