“The Ring?” Adaline said questioningly. “Why would the ring…” she started to say then her eyes glazed as she pulled up her personal interface. Tears started streaming down her face.

“Did you check your messages yet?” I asked hurriedly

“No, I was trying to think of the right way to tell you. We dragons don’t worry about such things when we come together to mate. We lay a couple of eggs, protect them until they hatch, and then leave. At least if I was still a black dragon that’s how’d I’d bring hatchlings into the world. I looked up how you humans have children, and your method is a lot messier and more clingy. Now that this elven form is one of my permanent ones, I thought to have our baby in this form.” She said.

“That’s awesome, I mean that. I’m so happy for you, for us, for her. But now I’m worried. What did you mean when you used the stasis function of the nanites?” I asked.

“I commanded the nanites in my system to maintain but halt the growth of the baby inside of me. I think that is referred to as stasis is it not?” she asked.

“Yes, that’s what stasis means,” I said as I reestablished my link to her nanites and then had them inspect the fetus in her womb. As my nanites focused on the fetus inside her I estimated that she was just over 10 weeks into her pregnancy. As I’d feared, there was the possibility that the baby could be developed enough to earn experience points. I focused my attention on her and inspected the fetus

Daughter of Adaline and Adamantadine, Name as Yet to be Determined

Race: Creature of Chaos

Primary Forms: Half-Human – Half Dark Elf / Shadow Dragon / Human / Dark Elf

Current Form: Dark Elf

Level 671

Experience: 225,000,000

That’s all I needed to see, I came back to myself and said, “Adaline, take the ring off and hand it to me now please, no arguments”

Knowing better than to argue when I was being that decisive she took off the ring and handed it to me. I immediately slipped it on, just in case the energy would continue going to its last wearer. As I did so Adaline asked, “Why?”

“Well, I have good news and I have bad news…”

Interrupting me, Adaline said, “None of that, what is the good news.”

“Okay, the good news is that our baby girl appears to be in stasis and healthy,” I said.

“And the bad news?” Adaline asked.

“The bad news, I’m pretty sure…hold on,” I said as I ordered Odin to convert the area outside of Adaline’s Lair into a fully equipped medical facility with a maternity ward and facilities to house anything up to a shadow dragon, just in case. There was plenty of room in the original vault. Also, that Place of Power was surrounded by ambient magic which I was pretty sure was going to be necessary for our baby girl to grow and thrive.

“Adam, stop zoning out and talk to me, what are you doing?”

“Getting everything ready. I think you are about to have a baby girl and there’s almost nothing we can do to stop it once it starts.”

“What do you mean I’m going to have a baby girl, she’s in stasis”

“Remember when I told you to check your Prompts, have you done that yet?” I asked gently

“Well, no, I was thinking about how to tell you I was pregnant, you’re taking that well by the way, and I was relaxing before you rejected me?”

“Why would I reject… never mind. That will not happen. In fact, the exact opposite needs to happen, we need to accept her as our child, and we need to accept that our child will be coming very soon right now.”

“You’re not making any sense,” Adaline said worriedly.

“Okay, you know that ring you put on just over three and a half hours ago and just took off. Well, it was transferring experience into you at a rate of one million experience per second. Yes, Yes, we’re stealing from Labyrinth’s again, Not Important.

What is important is that unlike me, when you hit level 5,000 your ability to earn experience stopped. You’re not ascendant and if you didn’t read your prompts you didn’t choose what you wanted to do next. That’s not what matters though

“What matters?”

“What matters is that the experience trying to go into you couldn’t, so it went somewhere else. If our baby hadn’t been fully formed yet, with no brain, not even the spark of a soul then I don’t think anything would have happened. In this case, though our baby girl is for all intents and purposes a fully developed small baby. Additionally, she reads as a creature of chaos, and at birth, I believe she’s going to automatically have four forms she can transform into. I’d bet good money that once she comes out of the stasis you put her in our daughter will immediately start growing and thinking. As a creature of Chaos, she might even be thinking now. She may be in the stasis field but nanites are only preventing growth. Her status page already reads her at level 671.”

“Level 671! So, what you’re afraid of is that when I shut down the stasis field I’m going to experience a sudden draining as she grows to full maturity in a second or so?” Adaline asked.

“Not really, I’m already taking steps to ensure that’s not an issue. With nanite and magical support, I should be able to easily maintain your health and help with the delivery. No, what I’m worried about is what kind of mind our daughter will have. Also, I wanted you to be able to control her to some extent, so we needed you to remove the ring so she’d stop gaining levels. Once we’re sure she’s mentally stable, in a hundred years or so,” I said with a smile, “I have to buy a shotgun to protect her honor don’t you know.”

“That won’t be an issue, she’s part dragon. One thing, is there any way you can create an area where she can fly free if she does have a dragon form? The vault is huge, but it is still a big box.” Adaline asked.

“I’ll check into that as we walk into the vault. I’ve created an area for you and her right outside your lair. I’m also going to be creating an estate in the vault nearby that will give you all the comforts of technology while being in an area of high magical density. Once she’s born I need to continue trying to figure out what’s going on. I would prefer it if you two would stay in that place of power just in case something bad happens. Except for the portals I create, that Place of Power is completely cut off. I will work on creating an area close by where you can both spread your wings and fly.”

Odin, how long on the nanites from the four Cosmos? -Adam

They’re done. Also, as you thought, the nodes to those cosmos went black. -Odin

How much space is left in the Soul Space? -Adam

A lot, as far as I can tell, there is no end, though I’m sure there is. It just seems to keep expanding as we draw closer to the edge. -Odin

Okay then, utilizing some of the nanites we absorbed, create a copy of Earth in my soul space. -Adam

The whole planet? -Odin

The whole planet. Adaline believes our daughter will need open spaces to fly in. How about a whole planet? If the area is big enough, make the entire solar system then set the nanites out at the Oort Cloud radius and provide false starlight, to make it seem natural. We have enough material to do something like that, don’t we? -Adam

Easily, I’ll get on it. -Odin

I turned my attention back to Adaline just as we stepped through the portal into the vault and went into the facility I’d created for her. Not knowing what was going to happen I led her to a room, which was more like a miniature stadium. It was big enough so that if Adaline shifted to Dragon form she wouldn’t feel cramped and had a retractable ceiling so she could get out if she needed to.

“Why do I suddenly feel like I’ve been led down to someone’s private dungeon and evil is afoot?” Adaline asked.

“Maybe your instincts are overriding your newly found tolerance for good people?” I said with a straight face.

“Good? You? Are you serious?” she asked with a straight face until three seconds later we both lost it and laughed.

“Seriously, I think you’ve watched too many horror movies over the years. I’d bet that you still took the time to watch horror movies wherever you were in the Cosmos if television existed”

“I had a tablet. I’d download movies before I went on assignment so I could get my fix during downtime, there was a lot of downtime and your nanites recharged it for me just fine.”

I knew she was stalling with small talk but just let her take her time walking around until we found ourselves at the birthing table.

Adaline looked at me seriously. “Adam, if this goes the way you think and there’s a growth spurt you need to leave as soon as she’s born. Dragons only imprint on their mothers, everything else is food. While we both know she won’t be able to harm you I need to establish dominance and also pass on those memories of mine that she will need to survive. How are you doing on providing a place for her to grow?”

“Odin’s working it…”

“Done!” Odin’s voice said from the air around both of us. “Adaline, just let me know that you want to go to Earth and I’ll open a portal that you can fit through even as a dragon. There won’t be any humans on it near where I open the portal. I can mimic animals for her to hunt or I can portal in real animals. Also, I didn’t put very many cities on this Earth. A few places for civilizations to sprout up if we need to put people somewhere in a hurry but the planet is mostly natural now.”

“Sound’s good,” Adaline said as she had the nanites in the room remove her clothing and moved into position in the chair as she placed her feet in the stirrups that helped keep her legs apart.

“Odin, keep them both alive, whatever the cost, with nanites. I’ll be watching and preparing magical healing if necessary. Also, try to block as much of the pain as you can for Adaline okay?”

“On it,” Odin said.

“You ready,” I said taking Adaline’s hand, kissing her then moving between her legs to catch the baby.

Adaline took a few deep breaths, grabbed the handholds that were constantly repairing themselves under her grasp then said, “Ready”

I reached within her and released the baby from the stasis field and immediately felt the nanites in the area being drawn through Adaline and into the fetus to help it grow and mature. Every second that went by was as if a week and 18 seconds later the baby was being ejected out of Adaline’s body through the birth canal, The nanites repair tissue as it was damaged and negated any pain she might have felt and suddenly I had a very beautiful baby girl in my arms as the umbilical cord was automatically severed and sealed, then melted away from both the baby and Adaline. As I held the baby she continued to grow. Already healed, Adaline dropped off the table and came to me with outstretched hands, “Hand her over then teleport out. Odin, once he’s gone have this room scrubbed of all foreign matter that might contain his scent within 100 feet of this location and any location we passed near.”

I handed Adaline our daughter, who was already twice the size she’d been when I caught her and teleported out. I watched through the nanites in the area as Adaline soothed the baby in her arms while she grew into a full-sized woman in 16 minutes. Our daughter looked to be a dark elf in nature and about the same size as Adaline.

Once the growth spurt seemed to stop Adaline looked at our daughter’s face waiting for her to open her eyes. As her eyes opened their gazes locked and my nanites detected the influx of memories into her newly born mind. As the process slowed, Adaline leaned back and said, “I name you Pandora, the All Gifted. There is a story of a woman with that name from your father’s world which is also appropriate. I dare say that if anyone ever gains your ire, they will wish they’d never done so. Odin, if you’d please open a portal to somewhere on Earth with a temperate sunny climate?”

A portal popped into being and I received the notice that two individuals had entered my soul space. I designated both as friendly and contacted Odin.

Keep an eye on them and keep them healthy. At the first sign of trouble, they are to be put in the vault in the Place of Power immediately.”

I closed down that connection and checked on my family and the friends they’d brought with them. Not too many had taken up the offer though my whole family was there. I sent a message to Thor to explain to everyone how they could ask for anything they wanted and the various activities.

Odin and Thor, work together to provide a place on the Earth in the Soul Space, and the Moon where family and friends can go to get some fresh air or have a little fun in light gravity. Also, make sure that everyone understands that if I say to flee to their home I am specifically talking about where they are now. If something attacks the soul space I might not be able to protect them. If they’re in the place of power, the attacker would have to know to look inside the spec of nothing on the speaker to find all of you. Also, create a backup copy of everyone and place it in storage inside the vault in one of the sublevels that are not cordoned off to prevent paradoxes’ from sprouting up.

I felt both parts of my new expanded mentality acknowledge the requests, checked in one last time on Adaline and Pandora, and willed myself into Realm Space. Mom and daughter bonding time was going to take a while. Everyone else I loved and cared about that I could retrieve was in my soul space and it was time to figure out what the hell was going on. I shook my head and smiled. Pandora, what an appropriate name, and she hadn’t even asked me. Yet, the name was perfect for the daughter of a Shadow Dragon and a Creature of Chaos. I wonder if that meant she’d be able to break maximum-level restrictions like me. I’d need to make sure her mentality was stable before we tackled that question.

I double-checked to make sure everyone had been backed up. If something happened I wanted to be able to bring them back, all of them. Once I was sure that was done I sped off toward the primary node of this Realm. As I came back into node space I was horrified to discover that every node had gone black except two that were purple. Additionally, the spider web structures in Realm Space were gone. Evidence of Textrix and whoever the other Aspects were gone. What in the actual hell was going on? I’d only gone out into the fringe of this Realm for roughly four hours.

I needed to see what had happened. I could time travel but that was risky. I didn’t alter time. Instead, I cast a spell that allowed me to perceive time backward. I watched as the nodes were refilled with color and traced the origin of those changes. I watched as nodes became green and then disappeared. the farther into the past of this realm I viewed the fewer Cosmos existed until I came to a point where only the first layer of nodes surrounded the primary cosmos here. At that point, there were no purple, or locked, cosmos. Still, I wanted to try something because I thought I knew what was going on, I just didn’t know what I was up against.

I moved my point of view until I was right next to another node that would become locked then I tried to interact with the Cosmos

Please state the reference point or entity point sought

I thought “Johnathan Bennard”

Johnathan Bennard does not exist at this reference point would you like to search the known history of this Cosmos for Johnathan Bennard?

I chose yes and the Realm Space around me filled with nodes again. Not as many as when I’d first come to see them but enough. Also, the realm in front of me had turned purple.

Entry into this Cosmos is restricted. You do not have the appropriate level of clearance to enter or manifest into this cosmos.

Come again?

Entry into this Cosmos is restricted. You do not have the appropriate level of clearance to enter or manifest into this cosmos.

The interface had a sense of humor, nice to know. I thought I could bypass normally restricted Cosmos. I guess this one was abnormally restricted. I sent a query, “Is remote viewing allowed?”

Manifesting an Observer is allowed. Such manifestations cannot interact with the environment, beings, or other observers. Observing manifestations are invisible concerning each other so that they do not interfere with other observations. This is an administration function. Observing Manifestations do not earn experience for their soul. Would you like to create an Observing Manifestation for one Karmic Luck, Yes or No?

I chose “Yes”

Please set the parameters of observation.

Johnathan Bennard, from Birth forward.

Checking for Johnathan Bennard. Found

Checking Temporal Access. Accepted

Checking Requisite Soul Level. Accepted

Checking for Clearance Level to send Observer. Accepted.

Checking Karmic Luck. Accepted

Manifestation created and assigned. The manifestation observer will return when the conditions have been met, the subject observed dies, or the manifestation is recalled.

With the manifestation sent I released the spell allowing me to view into the past and found myself looking at a landscape of black nodes with only two purple nodes in this Realm The one in front of me and my purple node on the other side of the central node. I could leave the observing manifestation in this node to continue watching or I could recall it and see how my doppelganger had turned out. I could be completely wrong and something else could have caused that node to become locked, but my instincts were telling me that I had not yet met my opposite, only weak facsimiles of such. If I could get some insight into how that version of myself had formed I would be better prepared for what came next. There was only one way to find out.