In a certain room held within the confines of the Origin Empire’s business fortress, a certain red-haired goddess awoke from her latest play session. Shara delicately removed the tiara from her head then sat it down. In an uncharacteristic manner, she allowed her overly gigglesome demeanor to fall away. In its wake there was left an expression of sincere consternation.

“Where have you gone?” she asked the monitor. On it, she saw Ashton and Sonja napping in her bedroom. They spent the entire day searching for Scott, but his scent and trail lead them all over town. Clearly, he had been busy in the last day or two.

The trail meandered through over a dozen homes and businesses where a fight had broken out the night before. Monsters had attacked the innocent. A demon had arisen to devour the wicked. It was that sort of story in every location. Whether the monsters were human or actual system spawned monstrosities proved to be the only actual variable.

It made no sense. Weeks had passed since his disappearance. Yet, he did not return. His ID could not be located, even by her connection to him. It was though that had been severed. In many ways it was like he no longer existed within the confines of that system architecture.

Shara rubbed her eyes gently then sighed. “He’s definitely alive. Silence has heard nothing from him, and he would automatically enter his realm space if he had died.”

“He’s in the system, but outside of it? That shouldn’t be possible for a mortal,” she said softly.

The truth was, she lacked the tech-savvy to figure out this situation. Her non-disclosure agreement would prevent her from getting someone else to look at the system to see if there was yet another bug in it.

Yet, despite that tidbit of divine lore a bright gleam came to Shara’s eyes. If Scott was no longer connected to the system architecture for that world project, then he was also outside of the non-disclosure agreement restrictions. This meant that she could elicit help, provided she could ask for it without triggering the project protections written into her contract.

Who could she ask, though? She could speak with Silence, but to be honest he was rather busy of late given that he was essentially playing an active role as the god of death on multiple worlds. The paperwork alone would destroy a lesser person.

Her sister was busy with her Scott, and Shara did not wish to steal her time away from that. That left only three options, given the fact that her father could not be brought into the situation at all.

“I suppose I could go ask Era,” whispered Shara. Though, she was a bit uncomfortable with that possibility. Era, or Ara-Ara as she liked to think of her, was basically the goddess of milfs. She was goddess of passionate love, motherhood, and of saying things like ‘Oh my.’ or ‘Dear Childe.’

It was not her stepmother’s personality she was concerned with, but their relationship. Era had never said an unkind word to her. She had even made efforts to treat her sweetly on occasion. Yet, whenever she saw her, Shara was reminded of the fact that her birth mother had basically thrown her out like trash when her brief romance ended with the patriarch of the Ardente family came to an end.

Era was everything her own mother was not, but it still hurt to realize how little the other divinity cared. She had tried to reach out to her on occasion, but her mother simply did not care.

“I… It’s not good to involve Ara-Ara…” mumbled Shara softly. It would probably instantly solve the problem. Era would no doubt jump at the chance to bring her youngest daughter some joy. Though, she also liked to request payment.

Shara shuddered at the thought of payment to Era. Her sister, Origin, was basically a goddess devoted to love of the romantic monogamous variety. Era was pretty much, interested in anyone with a pulse. Gaining her aid, would lead to ceaseless teasing and the sort of harem that Shara was not quite interested in due to her maternal abandonment issues.

Theta, the eldest sister, was no doubt busy creating that new continent for ARS and play testing the local physics. It was going to be released within the decade. It was hard to believe that its launch was just around the corner!

“I… have to ask Mid to help me,” muttered Shara.

Mid, the second oldest Ardent sister and the one whose personality was closest to their mother. In many ways she was a younger copy of their mother. Though, she did enjoy wearing fancy hats more than their mother ever did.

Shara sighed softly. “She’s going to tease me… but, I have to ask.”

She sent a message to Mid. In so doing, she attempted to make it as formal sounding as possible. Yet, her attempt was met with failure. Mid was immediately curious. Shara rarely asked her for anything.

“Goodness,” replied Mid in an amused tone of voice. “Does my cute little Shara need her big sister to help her find a man?”

Shara groaned loudly. It had begun already.

Cheeks reddening in embarrassment, Shara related as much of the situation as her disclosure agreement would allow. Admittedly, it was not much. However, Mid was a sharp one. She picked up on the situation clearly.

“I need to finish my inventory for Regal Alice, but I’ll be over shortly, dear one,” replied Mid.

“Inventory. Oh, that’s right… The Merchant Games…” said Shara.

“Indeed!” replied Mid over the messaging system. “Though, it’s an almost guaranteed win again this year.”

“Almost?” asked Shara. “Since when do you have competition?”

“Since that ridiculous old coot Dan decided to come out of retirement,” said Mid cheerfully. “I swear he’s popping up everywhere an even everywhen!”

“Dan’s back? That’s great. I miss his stores… Spacey Dan’s. Dungeon Dan’s. Ninja Dan’s. Dan’s Thot Emporium…” said Shara with a laugh.

“Here a Dan. There a Dan. Everywhere a Dan. Dan,” agreed Mid giddily.

They discussed the nature of Dan, and his multiple retail personalities for a moment, then ended their brief chat. Shara sighed to herself then nodded to her monitor. “She’ll tease me… but we’ll find you Scott. Mid is good at finding guys, even if she never seems interested in dating them.”

Shara smiled giddily as she realized what she had said. Anyone else listening would have thought that she was being critical of her older sister’s social life. The truth was, however, that Mid only wanted one thing from the men she had met. A significant increase in her profit margins.

“I swear, she should become Ashton’s patron goddess,” laughed Shara lightly.