The last thing Nathan expected to see when he stepped out of the bathroom after taking a shower was a girl their age sitting on the bed Keith had slept on the previous night, a box of donuts, and a disposable drinks tray with three to-go cups for hot drinks, which smelled like coffee.

Keith himself was dressed for the day already and was sitting on the bed Nathan had slept on, and the textbook that had been sitting on the room's table was missing, along with the enchanted card which had been beneath it. He supposed Keith had hidden the card away before answering the door, in case something happened while the young woman was in the room. While Keith could use his powers to know if something might happen, one never knew if the vision turned out wrong.

"And this is?" Nathan asked as he leaned against the wall to the bathroom, glaring at the young woman.

She had long, black hair and light green eyes. She either lacked the ability to restrain or magical aura, didn't care to, or wanted to show it off. The intensity of the blue suggested she was pretty strong. Comparable to the more powerful mages Nathan had killed the previous night. Thin, sparse threads of gray woven through her magic suggested she had begun learning necromancy as well, though he lacked the experience to know how much she knew, how good she was, or how far into her training she was just from the color of her aura.

"Isabelle Jackson," Keith answered. "Her father was the guy who ran the Black Orb, and I've already checked her, before you get hostile. While she's not exactly a pleasant person, neither are we. Her father forced her into the Black Orb."

"The college campus I was at," Isabelle told Nathan. "Was hit by the Tutorial about a week ago. I escaped before the feds arrived, and have been hiding ever since, my father believing me dead and waiting for confirmation of my corpse. I stayed near enough to keep an eye on the guild, but not so near they'd notice me. When I sensed immense magic attacking the place, I figured I'd check it out. Wasn't expecting to find it destroyed with a storm raging on."

A storm which was still raging, Nathan had learned. Upon waking up, he noticed the storm was over the town, and thought it had simply moved, as storms were wont to do. Instead, Keith had revealed to him that it turned out he'd put too much power into the spell.

While the storms distance had expanded to cover a diameter of around thirty miles overnight, it remained in a fixed location and the psychic couldn't figure out when the storm would end. It was constantly generating new water.

That would cause an effect on the environment, though Nathan didn't really care, and knew Keith didn't care enough to figure out how to cancel his spell. It would eventually run out of juice.

"Speaking of that," Keith said. "The Director of DoMA called while you were in the shower. She's not happy about the storm."

"She can deal," Nathan grunted. "What did you tell her?"

"That we better have a good explanation for why we made it during our attack."

"Why you made it," Nathan shook his head. "What did you tell her the reason was?"

"I'm a young man who was given access to unlimited mana."

Nathan let out a sharp laugh at Keith's response as Isabelle gave them a confused look.

"Unlimited mana?" She asked. "Did you tap into the Earth's ley lines or something?"

"No," Keith told her. "We designed a better version of the mana orb the Black Orb used. Ours produces mana on its own, and I can draw out of it approximately 40,000 Mana per second, when measuring by the System's measurements."

"See," Nathan said. "We offered a deal to the Black Orb. Instead of accepting it, they chose to mock us. They called an enchantment we created trivial, cheap, easy. And while Keith tends to act a little more on the rational side at times? I have a bit of a temper. And no issue killing people. Admittedly, this was the first time it was more than someone on the streets or some asshole who dissed me, but I didn't lose any sleep over it. I slept like a babe, thinking of my girlfriends and son and what it would be like to take Cyrus for a ride on Endariv's back."

"Yes," Keith shot Nathan an unimpressed look. "By the way, it appears my powers received a small surge. I was sensing your damn dreams as I slept. I highly doubt Endariv would go for loop-de-loops."

"Even if you have a source of unlimited mana," Isabelle said. "Which I don't believe in the first place, there's no way you'd ever manage to ride Endariv. From what I hear, he's refusing to accept Merlin died, and increases his tributes quite hard if anyone tries to change anything or approach him for anything than an offering."

"He's accepted my half-brother is dead," Nathan said. "After mistaking me for him. I'm sure that he'll let me ride him with Cyrus. Just need to figure out how to make a harness to keep Cyrus attached to me."

"And wait for the reveal," Keith told Nathan. "We gave them two years' notice."

"Yeah, yeah," Nathan muttered. "And we still have to wait about a week or so before we can get production of our shit underway. Anyway, the fuck are you doing here, Isabelle? Now that you know that Keith and I could eliminate you without any second thoughts or issues., it's time you tell me why the fuck you thought you should approach your father's killers."

"She wants to join us," Keith told him. "Or more specifically, she wants to date power. She apparently dreams of having a baby who's powerful, and wants to see the oath of silence broken."

"He told me 'no' when I asked if he'd be willing to enter a threesome with me and you," Isabelle said, a touch of sadness in her voice. "So I wanted to see if you were interested in dating a complete stranger. I'm not weak by any means, if that matters to you. I have 1,317 Magic and 787 Mana. And none of that is with anything more than what I earned from Challenges and Levels in the Tutorial. Nothing else."

Nathan pulled a card from the orb around his neck, then stepped over to Isabelle as she looked between both the card and the orb with interest. He touched the card to her forehead as he activated it, ignoring her look of surprise as the screen formed above it to reveal her Status. The newest version of their card revealed both a person's Status in the System and their true Status – what they were without the System enhancing them.

"How did you do that?" Isabelle asked. "And with a card?"

"We developed an enchantment," Keith told her. "That can read the System's information. Nathan and I have spent extensive time in the game, in extended Survival Challenges, developing enchantments. We put enough effort into it that we have the basic foundation for the spells down. New cards take us maybe a week, at most. Nathan actually created a new one last night in about two hours."

"It worked?" Nathan asked.

"Yeah," Keith answered. "It worked. The reason you didn't notice was because I contained it within a barrier thick enough to mute out the sound."

"Ah," Nathan said. "I was listening to the music in my head rather than paying attention to the sounds out here. I'd assumed you were jacking off thinking about me in the shower and didn't want to hear it if that were the case."

"Thinking about-" Isabelle looked at Keith. "Wait. Oh. You rejected me because you're gay."

"He's the only one in this room who is," Nathan told Isabelle. "And I'd need a little more to go on than 'I'm powerful and like guys who are powerful' to date you. I don't even know you. Not just anyone can join my harem. First, I have to like you. Second, Samantha has to like you.

"That said," he said. "Michael just lost his most recent girlfriend to the game. He'd probably be willing to fuck you."

"Already checked that with my sight," Keith said. "She's into people with powerful magic, and even if Michael is powerful because of the System, she likes powerful mages. The kind who can contract upper-level creatures. Like us."

"I'm not a mage," Nathan told Isabelle. "I'm a warrior."

"That can be overlooked when the attacker can punch his way through the Black Orb's protective barrier," she said. "You're still powerful, and mix your magic into your martial arts."

Nathan glared at Keith, who shrugged.

"You're hot," Nathan told Isabelle. "But again, I don't know you well enough to decide to add you to my harem. You want in, you have to bring more to the table than looks and a little bit of magic, and I have to like you, and Samantha has to like you."

"Samantha is the girl in your… harem?" She asked. "You've only mentioned her, so is she the only one? Would she have an issue with you getting with someone else?"

"The one he actually loves," Keith informed her. "And the mother of his son. And he's with two right now. The question would be more if you had an issue with him getting with multiple women, as the two members of his harem don't mind. They both accept it's an inevitability, even if Samantha does wish – just a little – that he'd be exclusive to her."

"She does?" Nathan asked. "She never said anything. I'd be willing to turn-"

"Exclusive for her, yeah," Keith waved a hand dismissively, and Nathan put the card he'd used back into his orb, only remember then that he was still holding it. "She knows it, too. She also knows that she doesn't necessarily like all of the sexual stuff you do, and that you'd know she's not enjoying it. That's why she's fine with you having a harem – it lets you do other stuff you're interested in, and with people who might actually enjoy it. And now that she knows you're the son of a sex god, she cares even less."

"You're what?" Isabelle asked. "Okay, I dismissed the comment about Merlin being your half-brother, but-"

"He was the son of a sex god, too," Nathan looked at the donuts, then sighed. "I suppose it's a better breakfast than nothing."

Allowing Keith to fill Isabelle in on things, Nathan took a few donuts and sat beside Keith, eating them. He rated his breakfast as a one and made a mental note to cook himself a proper meal once he returned home. He also wanted to talk to Samantha about what Keith had said. While Keith might have noticed it with his powers, Nathan felt that Samantha might have said something to the psychic.

After licking his fingers clean of the donut glaze and wiping them off on the blanket, Nathan pulled out his phone and called his girlfriend, who answered almost immediately.

"How did it go?" She asked before he could speak.

"It went well," he said. "Would you really prefer that I went exclusive?"

"I don't mind you having a harem, Nathan," she said. "Yes, there's a part of me that wants to go exclusive, but another part wants me to see you enjoying yourself, and that other part wins. So promise me you won't just up and change yourself for me. I've accepted you for who you are, and so has Katie."

"Okay," Nathan said. "Why do you sound a little stressed?"

"Do you know how long it'll be before you're back?" She asked, a slight whine to her voice.

"What happened?" He demanded. "Are you okay? Did someone hurt you?"

"Cyrus misses you," Samantha told him. "And he's made that very clear. He keeps shooting orbs of white light around the place and is projecting 'I want Daddy' to me when he does that, too."

"He doesn't want you?" Nathan sounded upset.

"No, he's happy when he's in my arms," Samantha told him. "I'm rocking him right now. He seems to want both of us here, and if I put him down, I suddenly have to deal with dozens of white orbs floating around the place. Lucas finds it amusing, your parents, not so much."

"Keith and I were getting ready to check out and head to the airport," Nathan told her. "We'll be home… around lunchtime, I think. Also, we're taking some chick who wants to sleep with Keith and me. I'm going to see if I can pawn her off on Michael."