“James…” Scott began slowly. “Has been busy putting out a mass of proverbial fires for Gaia lately.”

Charles raised a brow, leaned against a nearby metal table, and folded his arms. “I thought that’s what we had been doing by eliminating the corrupted dungeon fragments for her?”

“It was.” His brother-in-law ran a hand through his hair and tossed his pencil onto the waiting pad of paper on the nearby desk. “And that’s the problem. Apparently, we also screwed everything up… when we helped fix everything.”

Charles cracked his neck with a sigh and a wry smile. “Somehow, I knew this was related to us and what we had done. Gaia has already had to make changes to the system the gods originally created. I doubt it was ever set up to handle ‘Unawakened High Gods’, ‘Demi-god High-Humans’, or ‘Great Elemental Shadow Spirits’, and ‘Otherworlders’. Face it, Scott, all of our presences’ are actively breaking what they made.”

The chemist turned alchemist slowly nodded. “That’s about what I’ve been able to gather, yeah. How’d you figure it out so quickly? I only worked it out through talking with the professor. Wait, did you just say ‘otherworlders’?”

He nodded. “Kira and I picked up three teens today on our way back from South America. They were dropped here over a week ago by an errant portal from their world. And apparently, their system is fighting with our system as well.

“The two are fighting for dominance or searching for the best parts of the other, I have no idea. Either way, theirs has been going haywire ever since they arrived, and it’s just one more issue for Gaia to deal with when she can. Speaking with you after them just gave me the final clue I needed is all.”

“What are we going to do?” Scott asked weakly, the old office chair he had salvaged from somewhere squeaked in protest as he leaned back.

“There’s nothing we can do. We are who we are now and there’s no changing that. It’s up to Gaia from here on out. The only thing we can do to help is send the kids back home before their system causes more damage than it already has. To do that though, I need to talk to the professor and see if this is something she can help with. I have no connection to them, so there is nothing I can use to trace back to their home for the ‘Zero Door’ spell.”

Charles could create a doorway near anywhere with the spell as long as he fulfilled a few conditions. None of which he could accomplish with their visitors.

Among others he had to have either been there, or could clearly see it. That was obviously out in this case. The other option was to have a connection to the person he was creating a doorway to. Which was also not super helpful under the circumstances.

Scott sighed and looked at the notes on his desk. “I can try getting in touch with him, but there is no guarantee it will work. Not right away at least.” He looked up with worried eyes. “And Charles, let’s keep this between ourselves for now, please? I don’t want Charlotte worrying about this.

“She has enough on her plate with training the students, repairing broken technology and making it better, programming the CNC machines to make the runes, then fixing them, and more. She’s running herself ragged, trying to do everything herself. I can’t stand to add one more thing onto her plate. Even with our increased stats, I can tell she is feeling the strain.”

“Why didn’t you say anything sooner? I knew she was always busy, but I had no idea she was taking on so many different projects.” Charles scratched at his head in frustration. Suddenly annoyed at his sister, who should have known better and even more so with himself for not noticing the signs.

“What would I have said?” Scott muttered with a roll of his eyes. “Hey Charles, your sister is being her normal self, but dialed up to eleven, could you have a talk with her? You know as well as I do how driven she gets with her projects. This is no different, just maybe a little more extreme.” He finished with a weak sigh. “I’ve already talked to her about it a few times, but she keeps saying that it’s necessary, that this is only temporary.”

Charles shook his head in confusion. “I have no idea what she’s talking about, or why it would only be temporary there is always another project. However, it sounds like she has a plan of some kind in place. She must be trying to get everything up to a certain standard as soon as possible…”

He suddenly had a feeling that his sister already knew about Gaia’s troubles.

“Maybe she just wants to take a long break over the holidays.” Scott joked. “Christmas is closing in, and who knows, maybe good-old Saint Nick will turn out to be real this year. Wouldn’t that be something?”

Charles shivered. “Please don’t joke about that. If he is real, then Krampus would be as well. In the original stories, the pair traveled together. Saint Nick, who later became Santa Claus, was responsible for the good children and their gifts while Krampus handled the naughty ones and their punishments. Ask Charlotte to tell you the original stories sometime, they’re… interesting.” He shook his head. “Regardless, make sure Charlotte uses the potion whenever she can, and let me know if the professor comes back or says anything.”

They chatted for a few more minutes before Charles excused himself.

Outside, the sun was still high in the sky, but he and Kira had already been up since early in the morning. Their sleep schedule had gotten completely out of whack after they started using the space station to find people. It was easier to spot fires in the night, and the different time zones played no favorites.

The only thing that made it bearable was the ability to come and go at will.

Even Myri had come with them on a few occasions, prompting Silvi to transform back into Alli, her ‘Great Elemental Shadow Spirit’ form to protect her. Alli tried to split her time between going with them and spending it with Myriam whenever possible. It was a struggle at times as the young girl had glomped back onto Alli with a single-minded focus. To the young red-haired girl, Alli, and even her more humanoid Silvi form were something familiar, and safe, and in all the ways that counted Alli was all the family that she had left.

Of course, that meant the young girl was family to him now as well, by extension. He couldn’t help it, but Charles was progressively coming to view Alli, or rather Silvi as his daughter more and more. Which meant that Myri was also now his daughter…

Charles shook his head and went to find everyone. His mother was going to have kittens whenever they got them back and she learned that he not only had a fiancé, but two daughters already. His father would probably laugh and tell him good job.

He really needed to talk to Alli and make sure that she had worked out her feelings properly. It was not a discussion he was looking forward to, but he owed it to her to make sure that they both understood where the other stood. It was a talk that needed to happen before much longer, even though he was afraid it was already too late for him.

It would be nearly impossible to view her as anything more than his precious soul companion and daughter. However, if she truly was set on having something more, then he would try, for her sake. As long as she was willing to stop turning into a kid at least, that was truly too much. She could control her human age to a certain extent.

He found everyone standing around on the bridge, looking down into the churning, muddy water of the river that ran through the edge of town.

“What are we all doing?” He asked Kate, who was standing beside Beth and the bright red-haired otherworlder Tessa. “Where are Alli, Inara, and those three teddy bears?”

“Oh, hey Charles.” Kate smiled in surprise, while the normally painfully shy Beth gave a small wave. The fact that she didn’t duck behind Kate was a marked improvement from before.

“Hi Beth, Kate, it’s been a couple of days.” They stared at him for a moment. “The bears?” He prompted.

“Oh, right, they went with Alli and Inara to tour the town some more. Apparently, they don’t need to stay super close to Zara or anything, and they wanted to explore.”

He blinked and breathed out in exasperation. “Whatever, I don’t care. If that’s what makes them happy, then I say go for it. Just as long as they’re all back in time for dinner-“ He stopped. “Um, Tessa, do the bears eat anything special we should prepare for tonight? This is my first time running across something like them. I’m not sure if they eat mana, meat, or cotton fluffing.”

The girl giggled and spoke, her words coming across with a slight accent he couldn’t place. “That’s silly, they don’t eat at all. They get everything they need from Zara. Maybe someday when she grows stronger, she might be able to modify them in such a way. For now, at least, though, while they can feel, they have no mouths or tongues.”

Kira looked up when she heard his voice and smiled. Beside her, the brother and sister duo, Zack, and Zara were talking with little Myri while staring down at the water.

“Do you all want to stay out here, or do you want to get some lunch and watch some TV while we wait for the others to return?” Charles offered the group, feeling his stomach agree with the idea. It could definitely go for some food.

“Food?” Zara’s head snapped around. A line of drool trickling down at the magic words. “Real food? Not something foraged, or cut off a monster and then cooked over a fire with no spices?” She swallowed her saliva and continued with shining eyes. “It’s not something spoiled and old, where it’s so rotten, even the street animals won’t eat it?”

******

Charles’ felt his eye twitch. “I have so many questions right now.” He waved his hands, deciding to mess with her. “First off, that is a very high list of demands. I mean, as you can see, we’re barely holding everything together here.”

Her face fell, and all the excitement left her face.

Suddenly, he felt as though he had taken candy from a baby. “Sorry, I was just messing with you. Yes, it’s real food, with spices and fresh vegetables. Some of it is canned or comes from a box, but that’s life. Nothing is spoiled or rotten.”

She searched his face for several seconds, making sure he was serious before the smile returned to her face.

“Just how did the two of you used to live?” He couldn’t help but ask Zack as they walked toward the apartment building.

“We’re orphans,” He replied simply as though that answered everything.

“Okay? Does your world not take care of orphans or something?”

“Yours does?” Zack returned in surprise.

Charles hesitated, unsure of how to reply. “I’m not entirely sure, actually. I know there was a system in place to help them, but I had heard a lot of stories that frankly made me doubt its effectiveness.”

“It was similar where we’re from.” Zack nodded. “Zara and I, we got lucky in some ways. Our housing was taken care of, but that was it. If we needed food, clothes, or shampoo, then we needed to buy them ourselves. Which meant I had to work any job I could find, and we needed to buy the absolute cheapest food we could find.”

“So, you two grew up on the expired items that the merchants were about to throw out anyway?”

Zack laughed bitterly. “They wouldn’t have thrown them out. There were too many other people in desperate need of cheap food for them to do that. But yeah, that’s how we survived.”

Kira, who was listening in, glanced at Charles. “I’m half tempted to have them talk to Sierra about their experiences. This is what she was training for in school, kind of. She wasn’t a social worker but…” She let the thought dangle with a shrug.

“It’s up to you and them, but it sounds like things have gotten better for them, at least.” Charles directed the last part at Zack and Zara.

The young teen girl nodded, her eyes locked on him with a quizzical expression.

“They have. A lot of things have changed for the better, for us at least recently.” Zack glanced at his sister and took a step toward her. “What do you see?” He asked softly, unaware they would still hear him.

“Nothing, he just appears as a glowing golden figure filled with immense power, not as a monster. It’s beautiful. Kira looks more or less like herself, but with scars crisscrossing every visible inch of her body that are slowly healing. Each one of them is a mix of green, yellow, and red. I can’t figure them out. Everyone else here is a mix of monster and normal, but these two, and Alli, are different.”

Charles’ eyes widened in surprise, risking a glance at Kira. He had no idea what this young girl was seeing, but she had just described the colors of Kira’s elemental core. This was the first time he had heard of someone seeing things in such a manner.

He was curious, but it wasn’t his place to pry. Everyone had a right to their secrets, and so far, the siblings hadn’t hurt them or given them a reason to distrust them.

Kate held the door open for everyone, while Myri excitedly ran ahead and got the door to their apartment.

He flicked on the TV and tossed the remote to Beth before heading to the kitchen with Kira. The supply of movies and TV shows on their shelf had expanded considerably as more items were sorted through the various towns.

Each town now had a hefty collection of shows and movies in every format imaginable. However, they also had a limited amount of electricity for the most part, and even fewer working TV’s and other needed items.

Charlotte was the only one who could fix them still, and there was only so much she could do. Until the factories were up and running again or someone found another workaround, she was the bottleneck. Everyone, thankfully, retained enough awareness to not pressure her for anything either. Not after the first few, in any case.

Dungeonville was luckier than the others in regard to creature comforts and electricity generation. It came with having direct access to her and the lab she and Scott had set up.

“So, what are we making for lunch?” Kira asked, opening the fridge.

“There should be some of that dough we made in there for pizza. Why don’t we use the rest of that, and then some sandwiches?” He and Kira had been experimenting with different pizza dough recipes they had found in cookbooks, trying to find the best one.

This last batch was the best one yet.

“I think that sounds tasty.” She looked over her shoulder to where the TV was running through the opening animation for a show. “Are we going to talk about what Zara saw?” She asked, her voice dropping to a whisper.

“We could, but honestly, I’m not sure what she saw. Those colors were obviously your elemental core, but I don’t recognize the rest of it.” He shrugged. “I say we let them keep their secrets. It didn’t sound dangerous. Besides, she said the scars were healing.” He gave her a gentle smile. “Which we both know is slowly happening. Your emotional and mental scars are slowly being healed. Maybe she sees the truth hiding inside people or something.”

“Maybe,” She muttered doubtfully, handing him the cold dough to warm with his magic while she gathered the rest of the ingredients.

“I take it your world doesn’t have TV of any kind?” Charles called out after he saw how amazed the three otherworlder teens were.

The two siblings looked at Tessa, who wobbled her head. “We sort of have something similar, but they don’t show color and are large boxy contraptions. I’ve only ever seen them used by security personnel before, and not for entertainment purposes.”

“Hmm, sounds like their world is around fifty or sixty years behind ours then in technology. As a guess.” He muttered.

“What do you all do for fun, then?” Myri asked, pausing the show.

“We play board games mainly, or at least that’s what we’ve been doing lately. Tessa’s butler found some really fun ones that we’ve been working our way through.” Zara explained to the young girl.

Zack nodded. “When we’re not doing that, we’re either training, going to school, or entering the portals to become stronger.”

Charles listened with half his attention as he finished warming the dough and began cutting it into sections. Gradually, the pizzas began to take shape as the group relaxed and began getting to know each other better.

Behind him, he could hear Kate, and even Beth getting involved in the conversation.

Kira gave him a small smile as he finished putting the cheese on top of one and passed it to her. “Maybe you were right. They might make decent friends for the girls. We know nothing about their skills though. So, I’m still against them joining their party. What does your ‘Analyze’ ability say about them?”

“It just gives me a mess of information when it comes to them. It’ll display their names and elemental affinities, but everything else is a garbled mess.”

Alli and Inara walked in with the bears sitting on their backs and head, just as the pizzas were finished cooking.

“Silv- I mean Alli!” Myri cried out as two of the bears hopped off her large shadow-tinged silver form.

Alli ran from the room so she could change forms. She hadn’t quite gotten the hang of speed-equipping her clothes just yet. She had nearly managed it several times, but inevitably something would end up forgotten. It wasn’t a big deal when she was with Myri or Kira, but others were a different matter entirely.

A glow of golden light burst out of the room and quickly subsided as she shifted forms with practiced ease. This part she had gotten down without an issue. She had made sure to remember everything the Goddess Alaria had done to her before. Everything after that was simply up to her memory and constant practice.

Thankfully, her memory had been up to the task. Then again, the Goddess had known it would be. It was part of why she had been imparted with the knowledge required to help guide Charles, and by extension, Charlotte.

Something that was a struggle to do as they learned how to control their divine powers. It was a problem that Alaria either had forgotten about or didn’t consider they would have. They were the first of their kind, after all. They hadn’t grown up with their powers like a normal High God would.

A young girl in jeans and a t-shirt walked out of the room a few moments later. She had silver hair with a pair of delicate wolf ears that twitched at every sound, and a long silver tail sticking out from her rear.

“Silvi!” Myri shouted, getting the girl’s name right this time.

Alli had adopted the name Silvi for her mostly human form, and kept Alli for her normal form. It was a nod to the growing importance Myri had to them and her wanting to keep the name she had once been known by. It worked out well, since to the rest of the town, the strange girl with the wolf ears and tail was only called Silvi, plain and simple.