Silvi looked from Charles to Kira, and then finally to Myri. “Are you sure you want to come with us? You do know the kind of places that we go to, right? There will be monsters and starving, or sick people, not to mention bad people doing even worse things. If you come with us, you’ll see that. You shouldn’t have to deal with that, not yet, Myri.”

“Please?” She pleaded. “Don’t leave me behind, not today.”

“It was those nightmares you had last night, wasn’t it?” Silvi guessed. “Even if you don’t remember them, they left you all on edge.”

The little girl nodded. “I just don’t want you to leave right now, so please, don’t?” She begged in a soft voice.

Silvi dropped her head and closed her eyes in defeat. “Fine, you can come with us. Just remember what I said, this might not be pretty, and it could give you even more nightmares.”

Krystal looked mildly concerned, but didn’t say anything either way. It wasn’t her place. Myri had already become like a granddaughter to her, and she would abide by what her daughter and Charles decided. She had meant what she said before. Physically Myri would be safe with them.

It was her mental state that she was worried about. The girl was already on edge and was willing to go to extremes to stay with the person she had latched onto. She was just worried they would run into something that would push her over the edge.

“Charles?” He looked up. “The teams in the more tropical areas all reported fewer issues with the people for whatever reason. Maybe you should focus on the markings in those places today.” The hint couldn’t have been more obvious if she had wanted it to be.

“You know, it would be nice to visit Florida or the Carolinas during this time of year.” He agreed with a wink and a nod.

“We’ll let you get back to breakfast, then I guess, mom. We’ll talk to you when we get back.” Kira waved to her and pushed everyone off the porch and away from the house. “Did you just wink at my mom?” She joked, pushing him into the snow.

“Oh, you know me. I like the older women.”

“Aren’t I old enough for you?”

“Please, you’re only what, four or five years older than me? Your mom is…” Charles trailed off and shook his head. “Yeah, let’s not go there.”

“Smart.” Kira crushed the snowball she had started to pack into a firm, icy ball.

Behind them, Tessa and Zara giggled.

The scientists and other lab workers were all already focused on their projects when they entered a few minutes later. Charles wound through the tables and led them downstairs, to where his sister usually was lately. After she had finished with her project to get in touch with the ISS, most of her attention had been focused on the lower floors of the lab.

Sure enough, they found her down there sitting in front of her laptop, with papers spread all over the floor.

“Charlotte, what are you doing now?” Charles felt the phantom pains of a migraine coming on just watching her.

“I’m running a thought experiment right now, so hush. If you want Scott, he’s upstairs in our old apartment. Sierra stopped by earlier and said James would be stopping by this morning. I suggest you hang around up there with him until he arrives. Also, she said to avoid South Carolina today, Georgia or upper Florida would be best.”

Sierra was the champion of Odin and had the ‘Oracle’ class. She could see some of the future, though it wasn’t always guaranteed to happen. It was a possibility, nothing more; however, she could tell how likely it was to occur. The stronger the likelihood, the more intensely she would feel and see the vision.

That must have been what happened this time, and they would be fools not to heed her warning. Even on the off chance she was wrong, it rarely hurt to be careful.

“Got it. Thanks for letting us know.” Charles waved and backed everyone up the stairs and to the second floor, where Scott was.

“You know, I’m beginning to understand why your sister enjoys doing her experiments. It’s strangely freeing to just create something and see what happens without worrying about the consequences.” Scott said as a way of greeting as they entered.

“Well, that doesn’t sound worrying at all. What did you create?” Kira asked the alchemist.

“I have absolutely no idea! It’s a potion of some kind, that’s all I know. It could be a poison or something else. I’m still learning how everything interacts with my alchemy skills. It changes and enhances some of their properties in unexpected ways.” He turned to Charles. “What do you say? Will you analyze it for me?”

“Sure, I hope you at least wrote down how you made this in case it is something good.”

Scott nodded, “Of course, I would never not write down a formula. I’m not insane!”

Charles quickly used his ability and then looked at his brother-in-law with an amused smirk. “Well, you did create something interesting, I’ll give you that. You managed to create a mild diarrhetic and healing potion. It looks like you finally managed to create a working healing potion… after a fashion.”

“Indeed, maybe just letting my mind do what it wants is the right direction to take, after all. I’ve been trying to make one of these for a while now, and suddenly I pop one out as soon as I let go. Incredible!”

“I’ve been trying to tell you for years now that the subconscious mind can oftentimes be our greatest weapon.” The soft clack of his jaw bones clicking together announced the arrival of Gaia’s Champion, James.

“Professor! It’s been a while. Where have you been?” Scott put away the potion he had made and rushed to the door, greeting the man he looked at like a father figure.

“Just putting out fires for Gaia. After we captured all the dungeon fragments, a couple of new issues arose that have been troubling her.” He said for the others’ benefit. He had already had that discussion with Scott before.

“We know the system is failing. Even with all the divinity she collected, it still can’t handle dealing with two actual High-Gods, even in their mostly unawakened states. Not to mention it also has to deal with what Alli, Kira, and Scott are now. Then we have our little otherworld visitors and their system. And I’m sure I’m missing a few things as well.” Charles commented, stopping the little bear Zelda from stabbing the professor’s thigh bone with her giant knife. “Would you stop that? He’s a friend.”

“You are, but yes. The system that kept everything under control is failing and it is having some interesting consequences all around the world. Not to mention nearly all the remaining gods are wanting to come down and join the fallen.”

Charles’ head snapped around at that. “Sorry, they’re what? What about my quest? How are they supposed to fill the quest reward if they lose all their powers from the fall?” He demanded angrily.

The necromancer held up a pair of gloved hands in an effort to placate him. “That will fall to Gaia to fulfill if they are unable to when the time comes.”

“Will she be able to?” Kira wondered, glancing at the kids.

“Maybe, yes, it shouldn’t be a problem. Her powers are stronger than ever. It’s the system that the gods created that is breaking. She’s already tried to do some updates and fix it. If you remember, she had Kate, Beth, and Inara help her with that. Unfortunately, she was only able to do what amounted to a surface level repair at the time.”

“She fixed the front-end, and user interface but because we’re all using it, she can’t work on the backend where everything is going on? She probably thought it would be fine until we all changed.” Charles’ mind put it into terms he could understand and then spewed it out for the rest to parse through.

“Quite so, and don’t forget the ‘Fledgling Yggdrasil’. That tree is causing her problems of its own.” The professor threw back his cowl and rubbed at his white skull.

The otherworlder kids gasped in shock, whereas Myri simply waved to him. “Hi, uncle Necro. How’s auntie Gaia?”

James rubbed his head harder. “Um, she’s having some difficulties at the moment, sweetie.”

“Okay, well, tell her I said hi,” Myri said before pulling Silvi over to the large chair in the corner.

“Uncle Necro?” Charles questioned in a soft laugh.

“Shut up! I don’t know where she got it from either, and she apparently decided that Gaia is my wife, or girlfriend, because she’s the only woman I ever talk about.”

“Wait, how many times have you and Myriam talked now?” Kira squinted at him suspiciously.

“I’ve run into her twice when I was coming to visit Scott. She was playing outside with the other kids, and I knew she was yours, so I stopped to say hello.”

“Okay, Unkie Necro. Just make sure she’s safe the next time you see her outside, please?” Kira snarked, a smirk crossing her face.

The large pile of walking bones groaned. “Not you too? Fine, I will. She’s cute enough for a tiny human I guess.” Even when he had been alive James hadn’t been exactly comfortable around kids.

******

“Okay, so plenty of problems, we’ll need to cover those later. Right now, we need to know how the system failing is going to affect us, and everyone else? Then we also need to talk about getting these kids back home to their own world.”

“The short answer is it shouldn’t affect the regular people, at least not yet. As for you all, it’s hard to say what might happen. You are the primary reasons it’s breaking after all. It could glitch and give you free levels but no stats, or it could take away levels while letting you keep your stats. The more likely answer is that parts of the system will simply stop working altogether for you.”

“Yeah, that has already started. My disciple system is completely broken, and I can’t even open my status page right now.”

“Well, it’s a good thing you’ve learned how to use your magic without the assistance of the system, then, isn’t it? That would have left you in quite the spot. In all seriousness, it will probably come and go like any other glitching software would.”

Scott chuckled. “You’re comparing the system that now controls and helps all of humanity and everything else on this planet to a program. What’s next? Are we going to see the infamous blue-screen of death?”

“That’s more or less what it is, and who knows, maybe,” James stated with a shrug. “I mean, it’s not written in any computer language we would be familiar with, but at its core, that’s exactly what it is. That’s why it’s failing. The Yggdrasil tree, Charles, Charlotte, and the rest of you are items it doesn’t know how to handle. It wasn’t made to process or deal with beings of such power. For now, the problems appear to be localized, but knowing programs, it will spread to other areas soon enough.”

“So, why doesn’t she just take it all down and fix it from the ground up already?” Charles demanded.

“She can’t! That was Gaia’s original plan, but by the time she was ready to start modifying everything, another system had appeared and was waging war with hers. As long as the kids and their system are here, she can’t take ours down.”

“Okay, and does she have any ideas on how to send them home?” Silvi asked when none of the three in question spoke up.

“Not yet, but she wants to examine them inside the tower later. I’ll bring them inside with me personally to get around the restrictions in place. She’s hoping to learn a few things about their system as well as how to get them home.”

Only Charles noticed how Zack and Zara stiffened at the mention of being examined.

He rubbed his temples. “Okay, so Gaia hopes to fix our system by examining theirs. I can understand that, plenty of programmers do the same. It sounds like what you’re saying is we need to continue as usual. The fallen gods are going to find and cause troubles for us.

“Nothing new there, and unless we hurry and finish building the rest of the towns, I’m going to be forced to depend on Gaia’s help to reach my parents. A being that needs to somehow, but non-invasively examine three kids just to figure out how they even arrived here in the first place. Is that about, right?”

“Of course, non-invasively. Who do you think Gaia is? That’s about the whole of it, yeah.”

Zack and Zara relaxed a hair at that announcement.

Charles glanced at the young teens, barely biting back the vicious curse he wanted to fling out.

“Is there anything else we need to know?” Scott wondered, hoping to dispel the sudden tension in the room.

“Just a few more things, and then I’ll leave with the kids. We need to talk about the other problems that are coming, and the visitor who wants to see you.”

***

Charles collapsed against the door and slowly slid to the floor. “I was not expecting most of that.”

“No, neither was I. That was a lot of information in a short amount of time. There are going to be so many fallen gods coming down, not to mention their little kingdoms.”

“What was with your need to clarify that the examination would be non-invasive?” Kira sat down on the floor next to him, already feeling wrung out.

“Zack and Zara looked like they were close to freaking out when he mentioned the examination. I was just helping them to know it wouldn’t be anything like what they might have experienced on their world. The tech they have is behind ours, so the doctors probably still have to get all handsy when they check you for everything.”

“That isn’t how doctor exams have worked here for a very long time now…” Her brows furrowed in consternation. “But if it worked to calm them down, then who cares? It’s their story to tell, not ours to ask about.” Scott pulled the potion from before, back out of his inventory. “Now if you’ll excuse me? I have a date with perfecting the recipe for my healing potion. Stop by when you can, please Charles. I’ll need you to analyze them all for me again.”

With a grunt of assent, Charles stood and waved everyone over. “Come on, let’s head up to the station and then down to Georgia.”

***

“I can’t believe we never stopped by Savannah before this,” Kira muttered, looking around the historic city that had seen parts of it preserved in the same manner as when they established the town at Harvard.

“We couldn’t see the people or the marker from above. There was no reason to visit. Most of the other large cities we’ve stopped by have all been destroyed or overrun by monsters. I’m actually surprised they were able to keep as much of it intact as they were.”

“Where to next?” Silvi asked as they walked down a road lined with trees that had branches reaching across to create a natural tunnel. Myriam was staring up at them in awe. The sight had only become more impressive in recent months as mana supercharged their growth. The branches were now intertwined to create a dense canopy and a true tunnel of living wood and leaves.

“Well, the map has a few more locations marked on it with large enough groups that they should have markers. It shouldn’t be an issue creating a town at any of the distances involved from this map. It’ll just mean a little running and flying.”

“I want to fly!” Myri shouted, her head swiveling around.

“Of course you do. How do you have so much energy?” Charles pulled out a coat for her and draped it over his arm as they walked out of the city.

Kira tousled the girl’s red hair and then put her arm around Silvi. “I guess that means it’ll be you and me down here on the ground.”

“I guess so. It’ll be fun. A chance to just talk and enjoy each other’s company. We haven’t done that in a few weeks.”

“No, I guess we haven’t, and spending time together at home is a poor substitute for our little road trips like this.”

“You just ignore them Myri and have fun with me, and don’t-“ Charles strangled off the rest of his sentence at a sharp look from Kira.

It was better not to remind kids of the danger of things, that would get them thinking about it. He would just make sure she was strapped into the harness Kira used and let the little girl enjoy the ride while enjoying her innocence. There was no reason he needed to ruin it for her by telling her to not look down.

“Where are we headed?”

“According to the map, there is a smallish town about sixteen miles as the crow flies from here called Richmond Hill. That’s where the next group of people is located, and as long as there is a town marker there, we won’t have a problem. The gems won’t work this close to each other.”

“Why do you think there are so many people alive down here versus other places we’ve looked? I mean, remember the areas around Denver? They were all veritable ghost towns. Everyone still alive in Parker, Castle Rock, Colorado Springs, and everywhere in between got moved to the Denver and Buckley Air Force Base towns. Yet here there are enough survivors to create their own town a mere handful of miles away? It’s weird, that’s all I’m saying.”

Charles finished strapping Myri in before replying to Kira. “I agree, but remember what your mom said. All the teams down in the tropical areas reported fewer issues with the people. So maybe they actually banded together and fought the monsters off, instead of simply dying in droves.” He said the last part after covering Myri’s ears with his hands.

“Maybe,” Kira muttered doubtfully. “It’s more likely Florida Man saved them all.”

He snorted. “I agree, but we don’t know. Why don’t you ask them when we reach Richmond Hill? It’s possible they’ll have a good story for us to hear.” Charles let his wings form. The feathers made of hardened light, hovered about an inch away from his back and extended out over seven feet on each side.

Myri reached around and gave them a soft stroke and a giggle.

Charles shivered at the sensation and with a quick, hard flap, launched them into the air. “Come on, let’s get on the road.”

His passenger squealed with delight as they soared into the sky. He made sure to keep his arms around her, along with the harness, just to ensure she never doubted her safety as he took them higher.

It was only after they were a couple of thousand feet into the air, where it was slightly cooler, that he slowed and held still so she could look around.

“What do you think?”

“Pretty,” She responded in a soft, timid tone, her hand grasping tightly to his. “And small.”