Zara threw George at him. “I said, ‘Why is there a ruler class being inside the school portal?’”

Zack set a disgruntled George to the side of Zelda. “I would guess that this is their territory. Why we were lucky or unlucky enough for it to appear here though, I have no idea.” He hesitated and then motioned her closer. “That’s not all though.” He relayed everything that had been said, looking for any insights she might have.

“Well, first off, I doubt mom and dad came from another world. They just weren’t that cool. Not to mention if they crossed worlds only to die here, it would be way too sad and lame.”

“What about our status pages never listing our last names? Could that have any relation to them not belonging as well, or just us not belonging?” Zack didn’t like pushing her on any subject about their parents. However, if they needed to mention them, it was better to get it done in one fell swoop instead of dragging it out.

The young girl sighed and pulled a willing bear onto her lap. At the same time, Zelda stood and hurried over to help comfort her. “Is there any point in speculating? We are never going to know in either case. No one knows how the system works at its core, and as for our parents, well, they are even worse!”

The venomous vitriol in her voice shouldn’t have shocked him, and yet it still managed to.

“They left no records, and we don’t know who we are. It doesn’t matter if mom and dad were regular travelers or people from another world that somehow found themselves displaced onto Aperra. The fact of the matter is, they didn’t tell us anything, and then they left. Leaving us alone. That is all that matters. Now, let’s move on.”

Zack coughed awkwardly and looked away sadly. He knew mentioning them had been a bad idea, and she wasn’t wrong for the most part. Unlike her, however, he had known them, no matter fuzzy and indistinct the memories of back then were. The warmth and love they had felt for their children had been real. He was sure of that.

“Okay, so we are back to it being whatever was done to us, and the portal all combined somehow changing us? If that is the case, then doesn’t it mean that it could be replicated?” Zack had kind of liked the feeling he felt when even the ruler class being had considered him something special.

Zara frowned, thinking the question over seriously before answering. “There were a lot of random variables involved in what they did to us, as well as that specific event. So, I’m going to say that the chances of it happening again are unlikely. Then again, who knows what the actual requirements are? We could have just barely met them, or been considered super-overachievers, you know? Sorry, I know that isn’t what you want to hear.”

“No, it isn’t, but it’s better to hear the truth, or at least your thoughts, than not.”

“Besides all that though, this Great Change business is interesting.” George, who had been a little slow on the uptake, finally stood and trundled over to join the bear pile developing on her lap. “I have some thoughts on that, and I’m sure you do as well. Particularly related to the power markers on the portals beginning to change at faster paces than before. Along with a certain portal at that research building.” She welcomed the new bear with an understanding and grateful smile.

Zelda was the exception, not the standard. She had been developing for years even before they were rescued. After the rescue, and unknowingly to them, even though her body had been dormant, her mind had not.

The other two bears were like toddlers mentally in comparison. Their initial growth would be fast, with them quickly passing into a more adolescence equivalent stage. It would take longer for them to reach nearly the same mental age as either Zelda or Zara.

“That is indeed where my thoughts went when this Change business was mentioned. Us being considered as keys by the Major is also rather serendipitous.”

“That’s one word for it. Suspicious is another somewhat more magical term.” Zelda nodded her head emphatically, before pushing George from the pile and proceeded to stand on him. The extra height elevating her enough to where she could pat Zara on the head.

Zack tapped the side of his nose in agreement and stood. “Come on, we should keep moving back towards the portal while we talk.”

Zara hugged Zelda and kissed the one clean spot on her face. She held Aisha and George’s paws and fell in beside her brother.

“That is actually what I was getting at before, and I know we’ve had this conversation before on other things. Most recently, when we learned about the power markers, how some portals moved, and more. The government is hiding information from us, from the travelers, probably from everyone except a privileged few.”

“Hold on, I think I know where you are going with this, and I just want to clarify something first.” Zara interrupted him, while Zelda clambered up his back, using the straps of the pack, and perched herself on his shoulders. “Earlier, when you were relaying everything that had happened, I couldn’t help but wonder about how intelligent the ruler sounded in the story. Tell me, was it really that intelligent, or did you smarten it up some to humanize what was an otherwise faceless blob, or something when you told it?”

“That’s my little sister, smart girl.” Zack smiled and passed the purple crystal to Zelda’s questing paws. It was great to see the smart girl he knew she was slowly beginning to come into her own. Living in that piece of crap, unsafe government-owned apartment had been doing them more harm than he realized. Not there had been another choice, regardless.

“But how? There is no way they could keep something that big a secret for over a hundred years?” She retorted in disbelief.

“I’m pretty sure the time limit, and how things are designed on our end, can be thanked for that one. Think about it, and I know you weren’t there for this, but Quinn somewhat talked about this issue in class the other day. What it boils down to is time equals money, travelers get paid by their corporation or government. That means they need to stay near the miners instead of exploring. The crystals come back after a bit, so there is no need for them to search for replacement sites. Then, of course, there are also the monsters they would need to contend with that get stronger the farther in you go.”

“That would mean the entire system would have to have been created and rigged from the very beginning to keep people from finding out.”

“No, I would say more that one was designed to keep people from venturing into places they shouldn’t. Something that doesn’t appear to apply to us, I might add. The other, the system designed by the governments of Aperra. That one is the issue here.”

“Still, it means that someone in the beginning knew a lot of powerful people, considering you rightly mentioned the different governments working together. It again begs the question about how word of intelligent beasts or monsters never made their way out?”

Zack wiped some of the dried grime from his face and gave the same answer he always did. “How do we know it didn’t? Face it, sis, we don’t know anything. Where would we have heard a rumor like that in the first place? School? I rarely went, and you never did. The Institute? The researchers were busy pretending our bodies were their playthings, and they were gods.”

Zelda smacked him on the head with the mana crystal.

“Ow!” He grabbed it from her and turned to face his sister. “Sorry, that came out harsher than I meant it to. What I’m trying to say is we live in a box. Rumors pertaining to the portals or travelers aren’t the kind of things you would hear on the streets where we lived before. We are still finding our feet in the academy, and for all we know, though I doubt it, their existence could be common knowledge to everyone but us.”

“You deserved that.” She high-fived the bear on his shoulders, releasing her grip on both George and Aisha. “No, you’re right, despite the way you said it. Our common knowledge is sadly lacking in a lot of ways. Unfortunately, by its very nature, it isn’t something we can easily fix right now. I’m sure Edith and even Tessa would be willing to help, but if they don’t think of something…” She sighed.

“Yeah, it does mean that we need to be more careful around Jean and the military though.”

“If only-“

“There are a lot of ‘if only's’ in life,” Zack cautioned her. “Don’t get caught up in wishing for something we can’t have.”