“I feel that the risks far outweigh the benefits.” Takano protested.

“Noted.” Caeden sighed. This was not the first time he’d brought it up. Many of his children had protested this new plan, though some were far more understanding of the potential or possibly just sympathetic to Caeden’s desires. “We’ll continue anyway. Realistically, the risks are minimal, considering my near-immutability in the Blade Forge. I don’t think it's possible for me to die here.”

“Father, I’m not worried about you dying.”

‘That’s cold, my child,” Caeden tried to joke.

“I’m worried,” Takano pressed on, ignoring his father’s terrible humor, “About you causing yourself irrevocable harm. Something that the Forge will not fix as part of its function. We still know far too little to jump at such risk so readily. The possible damage to your mind-”

“Is by and large mitigated by how we’re choosing to do this. I can afford to lose a little.” Caeden gently interjected. “We’re not going at this half-assed, Takano. The risk assessment was favorable. The risk assessment you did. What’s really bothering you?”

A rapid series of fluctuations ran through Takano’s energy matrix, shifting it from blue and red to a mix of white and yellow. A sign of frustration and discomfort.

“Talk to me,” Caeden said quietly.

“No matter what, this process will injure you in a way we can’t test or account for. We’re guessing that it will be fine. By all rights, we have no reason to believe it won’t. But I can’t overlook the inherent risk. You are our Father. We do not wish to hurt you. Least of all, me.” Takano floated back and forth, matrix swirling.

“So, you feel responsible for the project, at least in part. And you can’t make peace with the idea that something you helped build will hurt me.” Caeden clarified.

“Yes, exactly!” Takano exclaimed. “This is not why I went to school, Father. This is not what I trained for, strived for. I wanted to work with you, help you. I never wanted to hurt you. The fact that it is necessary does not make it better.”

“But it is necessary. At least, if we want things to continue smoothly.” Caeden pressed.

“Father, is there truly no other way for you?” Takano pleaded.

Caeden sighed. He was being unreasonable, but he was slowly losing his mind staying in the Blade Forge. Constantly jumping back and forth between the Starry Sea and the Blade Forge was also less than ideal. If he had to endure a little pain to avoid that, then he would. The problem arose from how his children saw him.

In the Blade Forge, Caeden was invincible and borderline invulnerable. To his children, he was basically a god. The idea of uncertainty about his health was completely unknown to them. Those he worked with closely, like Takano, had been especially affected.

This hadn’t happened with the Exit Blade. There had never been a concern that he would be harmed in any meaningful way. The danger had actually been that the Bladeborne, the entire space within the Blade Forge domain, might have disappeared when he left. The only danger to Caeden was that the Exit Blade wouldn’t work, and he’d just remain in the Forge.

Now they were dealing with something that could, potentially, hurt Caeden. If the projections were correct, it was about as likely as being struck by lightning on a clear day, but that was enough to upset a significant number of his children. Caeden, having been used to the idea of random death and damage from a young age, was far more willing to accept the risks than they were with their limited experience.

Bladeborne died, but it was a known thing. Random, violent death was not a part of life in the Blade Forge. Further, injuries were hardly ever permanent since Caeden could repair practically any damage, and the means of harming a Bladeborne were few and far between. They were an inherently durable people, far more than humans.

“I understand your concern, Takano. But you all will have to come to terms with the dangers of the world if you ever want to leave the Forge. Few places are anywhere near as same as here. Most of the time on the Starry Sea, I’m in more danger of random death than the odds of something going wrong with this. It’s just how life is outside the Forge. Death happens. You’re going to have to accept that.” Caeden said, not for the first time. It was one of the larger reasons he wanted his children to experience life outside the Forge. They were too sheltered.

“Alright, let’s do this!” Caeden called out, signaling for all the Bladeborne in the room that had been pretending not to eavesdrop that it was time to get back to work.

They were once again in the third depth, with the newly improved Exit Blade in the center of the room. Much had changed over the last few years of work. The space, previously more of a stopgap in a mining operation, had been transformed into a forging and ethertech lab with banks of CV screens and ethertech machines with hundreds of different sensor arrays all aimed at the powered Exit Blade.

The Exit Blade itself was a nonstandard model set up specifically for this. It was not just a sharp-edged ring of ethertech but also had two extra rings attached to it in parallel, widening its profile. All necessary additions to pull off the first step in Caeden’s plan to solve all his problems in one shot.

“Father, we’re ready to go.” One of the Bladeborne signaled from a bank of screens, the readouts all lines on graphs, each with perfectly synchronous sine waves.

“Cleared to go!” Another called a moment later.

“Ready!”

“All checks are clear, and we’re ready to begin!”

Calls came from across the room as everyone triple-checked all the safety measures they’d put in place. Caeden thought they were a bit overzealous with the whole setup, but it gave them some peace of mind, so he just let it go. Plus, after he’d agreed to all the safety measures, most of his children had stopped bugging him about the danger, so that was a plus.

“Great, let’s do this.” Caeden stepped up to the Exit Blade. He smiled, thinking about how similar this was to what he’d done not that long ago but in a wholly different context. Leaving the Blade Forge had been far more uncertain than what they were doing now. It was funny to him how much more concerned everyone was about this. No one here was really afraid of failure, just him getting hurt in a way that couldn’t be fixed.

“Ready?”

“READY!” The reply sounded from all around.

Bracing himself, Caeden placed his hand on the side of the Exit Blade, triggering its additional functions and stepping through. Immediately, pain seared through his mind. Like glass being shoved through his brain, Caeden felt the agony spike deep into his head before settling there.

Through the pain, Caeden registered that he was back on the Starry Sea. Quickly, he pushed his will through the worst migraine ever and focused. His senses extended back to the Blade Forge, and, with his focus, he forced time to flow there, even though he wasn’t present. It was hard, but he managed, though the mental effort only compounded the pain he was feeling.

Then, like the sky clearing of rain, his need to focus disappeared. He was back in the Blade Forge, his children all around him. But he was also on the Starry Sea, recovering from the monster of all headaches that just wouldn’t go away. The dissonance, so jarring at first, slowly vanished. And once more, he was just on the Starry Sea.

Immediately, Caeden willed himself back to the Blade Forge, where his headache disappeared in seconds. He was by the Exit Blade. And right next to him was also Caeden.

They stared at each other, all the Bladeborne silent. Slowly, they both raised their hands. Finally, they simultaneously, violently thrust out at a speed too fast for the Bladeborne to follow, striking…

Palm to palm, in a massive high-five that shook the room from the sheer force of it. What followed was a series of hand gestures and body movements in the most overly complex secret handshake ever. Both Caeden’s ended it laughing with each other, shaking hands for real.

“Well, that worked.” One said to the other.

“Right? I was a bit worried there when I popped back in. No real way to know, you know?” The other agreed.

“This is going to break some things. You should talk to the researcher. Soon.” The first warned.

“I know.”

“I know, you know. I’m you.” the first laughed. The second joined in.

“So, designations? It’s confusing for everyone if we’re treated the same.” The second asked.

“Well, the kids call us Father. I might as well take up that moniker.” Father shrugged.

“So, what? I just stay Caeden?”

“That seems fine. You’ll be going back to what we were doing when we were you.”

“I guess that works.” Caeden shrugged.

With the creation of Father, his plan’s first stage was a massive success. He had formed the first inklings of this idea when he’d been testing his own immortality here. At that time, Caeden had theorized that Blade Forge could and would reform him from even the smallest scrap of his existence while he was inside it. Basically, nothing could kill him so long as his soul didn’t get destroyed since his soul was what allowed him to connect the Blade Forge in the first place.

The rest of the details had come together once he left through the Exit Blade the first time. The complete lack of time passing on the Starry Sea had planted an idea firmly in his head. What if he could be in both places at once?

The idea of being able to, at any moment, abuse the massive time difference between the Blade Forge and the Starry Sea was too tempting. Plus, it would let him see his friends and help the Bladeborne at the same time. At least, to his perception. Which would get rid of the constant guilt he’d feel at leaving the Bladeborne and the constant loneliness of not seeing his friends. A win-win for his mental health.

Caeden first confirmed that he could control the time flow inside the Blade Forge, which he could. In fact, he could affect basically anything about his domain if he actually tried. Though ongoing changes required his constant attention.

With that confirmed, he built the new Exit Blade. It was the same as the original, with one extra added. As he passed through it, the Exit Blade had carved out a part of his metaphysical consciousness. That piece was left behind in the Blade Forge while the rest of him went to the Starry Sea. From there, he forced time to move, causing the Forge to regenerate Caeden from that scrap of consciousness, Creating a carbon copy of himself. And that was how he’d made Father.

Now, there would be at least one Caeden present in the Blade Forge at all times, working with the Bladeborne and continuing their growth. The other would go back to the Starry Sea for both of their sanities. And, since they shared the same soul, both could communicate, as they’d just tested with the elaborate high-five. Caeden could feed his knowledge and memories to Father and vice-versa. Literally the best of both worlds.

But this was only the first step in Caeden’s master plan. He and Father had so much more work to do if they wanted to get this done. Because Caeden wasn’t content with just doubling up himself. It was a monumental change, but one that only affected him.

No, Caeden wanted to expand his gains. He’d grown so much just from gaining Blade Forge. That didn’t even include everything he’d done since. Powerwise, he was leagues beyond where he’d been less than a day ago in Starry Sea time. That was awesome! But Caeden couldn’t help but think about his friends.

All of them would be significantly weaker than him now. In a very real way, that wasn’t a problem. Who cared if he was stronger than them? It could hardly be called a bad thing. But the world they lived in was power-centric in the most fundamental way possible, and he didn’t want to leave his friends behind. He wanted to find a way to share his gains.

But first, it was time to have one last conversation with the researcher.