"Novaranimas?" Lyda asked. "Why do I feel like that name is familiar?"

"Tyler Novaranimas," Cyrus explained. "Was a member of the Novar Family, the last form of government Earth had before Rynovar took over. He was the servant and aid for Ryan Novar, the Family Head."

Lyda's eyes widened as she heard who she was standing before, both in shock and disbelief.

"But that's not possible!" She exclaimed. "You were said to only have a couple of elemental affinities! And you-you look at as young as we are! Younger, even! Yet you were human! Weren't you?"

"History has a tendency of forgetting some things," Ty told her. "To clarify on what happened, Ryan halted my aging, then after Cyrus learned how to manipulate mana veins, Ryan granted me an affinity for all elements and for high magics, turning me into a Jewel."

"Ryan?" Lyda asked. "He died when Rynovar took over, didn't he?"

Cyrus just shook his head as Tyler led them to a sitting room, where he ordered a servant to bring them something to eat.

"Lyda," Cyrus said once they had tea and small cakes to snack on. "It's in the name. He literally just removed the first 'a' and used only one 'n' while putting the two names together. That's how Rynovar came up with his god name."

"Wait," Lyda looked at Cyrus. "Are you saying that-"

"Rynovar is Ryan Novar, the last Family Head of the Novar Family," Ty finished. "Yes, he is. He never died, he simply changed his identity, had Kylnar raise an island out of the ocean into the sky, and then made his home up there as he declared himself the godking he rightfully was.

"When he came up with the idea for this quest," Ty continued. "He asked me if I would act as the final gate, the final boundary to the island. The activation of the transport requires two things. The Divine Token and my conscious and willing activation of it. He's given me full permission to come up with anything I wish for the requirement for my activation of it."

"Another question?" Lyda asked.

"Of sorts," Ty told her. "Rather, I decided that anyone who comes here must spend at least one night here. Not necessarily a full day, but if they show up too late in the day, I will delay it until the next afternoon."

"We have to wait a day?" Lyda asked.

"Yes," Ty told her. "You must spend at least one night here for one simple reason. Once I activate that transport, you will be meeting Rynovar, our godking."

"Cyrus told me-"

"That you have a wait so that Rynovar can get into position," Ty said. "Yes, that's also true, but he doesn't go until I tell him I'm preparing to activate it. Selar and Kylnar will be there as well."

"Will Cyrus's parents?" Lyda asked. "Or is it just for the main trinity?"

"Yes," Cyrus cleared his throat. "My parents will be there. They wouldn't miss it for anything."

"So you'll get to punch your father then, won't you?" Lyda asked.

"I'm going to punch him," Cyrus growled. "That bastard deserves it and a whole lot worse! I'm going to-"

"Cyrus," Ty calmly spoke, and Cyrus immediately stopped, took a breath, and apologize. "I understand why you are angry at him. In your position, I would probably have done the same thing."

"Let's get back to Lyda," Cyrus muttered.

"Let's," Ty smiled, then looked at Lyda. "The wait to go up to the island serves several purposes. The first is so that you can mentally prepare yourself for meeting our godking and the other gods who will be present. The second is so that you can think over your wish or question, in case you decide you wish to change it."

"Even though the Silver Oracle is meant to discuss it with us and tell us whether or not he'll accept it?" Lyda asked.

"She looks at two things," Ty told her. "The first is your current question or request. The second is what you will ask. She will always ensure that what is asked will be answered or granted."

"Oh," Lyda said. "Okay. So are those the only reasons for the wait? Or is there something else?"

"Those are the ones you need to know," Ty told her. "Once we finish our snack, I will take you to the transport ring, then we will have lunch in the dining room."

They finished their tea and cakes, then Ty led them out of the sitting room and to a courtyard of the mansion. On the ground was a black marble circle twenty feet in width with a gray marble pattern set into it, a hexagon with lines connecting each corner to the center, the emblem of Jewels, those with an affinity for high magics.

Surrounding the ring were six marble circles three feet in width, each patterned after the six normal tokens of the quest, each placed facing one of the six corners of the jewel in the larger circle.

"When it's time," Ty informed Lyda. "For you to make the trip, you'll stand on the central ring with me, and hand me the Divine Token. I'll then activate it, and you will be teleported up to the reception area of the island. Gods, Blessed Ones, and myself can accompany you if we wish."

Ty turned his gaze to Cyrus, who nodded.

"I'm going with her, Ty," Cyrus told him.

"Okay," Ty said. "I'm staying home. I was up there last night because Rynovar wanted-won't say."

Cyrus shrugged, then looked at Lyda, who was staring at the formation, lost in thought. While he wouldn't pretend to understand what she was going through, he did know what she was thinking about.

It was her last chance to back out, to try to advance her magic her own way and try to live the way she was, to make a living with the power she had.

After a few minutes, Cyrus's stomach rumbled, so the trio walked to the dining room, where they were served lunch. As they ate, six dogs entered the dining room, running up to Cyrus and Lyda and shoving their noses against their legs, tails wagging.

"I forgot about the dogs," Cyrus pushed one of them down as it attempted to lick his face. He looked at Ty as he bopped another dog on the nose. "Didn't you only have five before?"

"I got a new one a few years ago," Ty told him. "His name Seth, like the ancient Egyptian god."

"He really likes to lick faces, doesn't he?" Cyrus asked as he pushed the dog down again, that time sending a mental command to ensure he was understood.

"Yes, he does," Ty chuckled, then clicked his tongue, and all six dogs ran over to him, gathering around him. "Want to play fetch with us after lunch?"

"Sure," Cyrus answered.

They finished up their lunch, then made their way outside to the back lawn. Lyda sat on a pool chair as Cyrus and Ty began throwing tennis balls for the dogs to catch. Cyrus could tell Lyda wanted to swim in the large pool and soak in the hot tub, but was too nervous to ask. She felt that it would be rude of her to do so, especially as she was only there to visit the godking.

The young god exchanged a few mental messages with Ty, then tossed Lyda her bathing suit, resulting in the dogs running over to her, thinking he was throwing a toy to her.

"Hey!" Lyda exclaimed as she found herself buried by dogs. "Cyrus! Help!"

Ty clicked his tongue a few times, and the dogs abandoned Lyda to return to him and Cyrus, the two of them trying not to laugh as Lyda just shook her head.

"Sorry, "Cyrus told her. "I didn't realize they'd chase after you. There's a bathroom inside, down the hall on the left, third door on the right. It's not a problem for you to swim in the pool or use the hot tub. Ty does request that you wear swim clothes, though, like the bikini I just gave you."

"I can understand that," Lyda stood and picked up the swim wear, then went inside.

Cyrus and Ty returned to playing with the dogs until Cyrus decided to change into swim trunks and join Lyda in the pool, floating on an inflating pool chair. Tyler joined them after a few more minutes, and Lyda appraised him.

"You're not like," she said. "What I'd expect of someone hundreds of years old. Then again, none of them so far were, except maybe the Silver Oracle."

"Your brain changes as you age," Ty told her. "So while some maturation will continue as a result of experiences, if you stop aging, you don't have some of the maturation you'd have a result of the changing brain chemistry and balances. At heart, I'm a servant of Ryan's, but at the same time, I still enjoy having fun in things people your age would typically find fun. Swimming in a pool or at a beach, going to the sauna, going to a spa, video games, sex, hanging out with friends, streaking through town-"

"Streaking through town?" Lyda asked.

"I've refrained from doing that," Ty told her.

"Here," Cyrus said. "I've heard you've done that up on the island a few times."

"I'm going to point out that Ryan and Kylnar were with me, naked, and we weren't running through the settlement," Ty said. "We were sunbathing at the park."

"According to Mother," Cyrus said. "The three of you skipped from Kylnar's place to the park, sunbathed for two hours, then skipped back."

"We may have also been extremely drunk," Ty added. "Kylnar can make this beer that affects even gods."

"Really?" Cyrus asked. "When did he invent that? He hasn't mentioned it to me."

"He finished it about five years ago," Ty told him. "And he never mentioned it to you because he knew you'd want to get drunk on it and never sober up, the way things were with your brothers."

"Probably," Cyrus shrugged.

The three of them swam in the pool for awhile longer, then soaked in the hot tub for twenty minutes before returning inside the mansion to wash off, Cyrus and Lyda sharing a shower. Dressed back in normal clothes, Cyrus led Lyda to the gaming room Ty was playing in, already dressed from his shower as well.

"You're free to use the services of the mansion," Ty told her. "There's another gaming room, too, if you want to play something, or you can watch me if you want. The staff will let you know if you can or can't do something."

"Can you tell me about Rynovar?" Lyda asked. "From before he was Rynovar, I mean? Or is that not allowed?"

"It's allowed," Ty told her. "He hasn't really changed much, other than before he revealed himself to be a god and was still pretending to be a human, he would use his reset spell dozens to hundreds of times just to figure out how to make a single scenario play out exactly as he wanted. He may still do it, but if he does, he doesn't tell me.

Lyda opened her mouth, only to stop when Cyrus shook his head.

"Resetting over and over," he told her. "Is far more accurate for manipulating events than peering into the future for the simple fact that you are living the future, only resetting it after. So you know that is what will happen with those sets of events. It makes it easier to play with variables, things you might miss when simply viewing the future."

"Oh," she said. "Like if you realize while living through the time period that the reason event a happened was because of event b, which was seemingly unrelated and wouldn't have been in the knowledge of the future used by peering through time?"

"One case," Ty said. "Which Ryan did it, was with an assassination attempt on him. He knew it would happen, and he knew how to stop it. However, he wanted a specific outcome from it, where the assassin died and her friend became his ally. He could see the bigger picture if he peered through time, but in order to create the exact scenario he wanted, he needed to live through that hour time and again, changing small details each time until he had the final, desired result. And then ended up having an additional result he hadn't planned and mostly went after just to see if it would yield results."

Lyda looked at Ty in confused.

"He got laid," Cyrus told her.

"He manipulated an assassination so he'd get laid?" She asked.

"That's… not quite what happened, but yes," Ty told her. "The assassin's friend would have preferred me, but as I'm gay, I wasn't into her. So after seeing Ryan as he was, she decided to get with him when he asked. Though that happened in a reset that ended up getting reset over, so it never happened in the final, true timeline."

"Okay," Lyda said. "Anything else?"

Ty continued playing his game as he told Lyda about Rynovar, stopping when it was time for dinner. After dinner, Lyda and Cyrus swam in the pool, then showered off and went to bed, having sex for the last time before falling asleep.

When morning came, they ate breakfast, then Ty led them to the courtyard with the teleport setup. The three of them stepped onto the ring, then Ty met Lyda's gaze.

"Are you ready to go and meet Rynovar?" He asked.

"I am," she answered.

"Are you prepared to ask your question or make your request?" He asked.

"I am," she answered.

"Then hand me the token," he held out his hand, and she handed him the Divine Token.

Ty infused his magic into the token, then Lyda found herself in a new location, a warm, tropical island with sand-colored stone making up the floor of the space she was in, tropical trees, flowers, and bushes surrounding it.

Only thirty feet from her, sitting on a golden throne on a dais six steps above the rest of the ground, was a man who wore an entirely-gray outfit, along with a golden crown atop his head.

The moment she and Cyrus appeared, Cyrus launched himself at the man, punching him square in the face.