Ryan shifted so that he was on his hands and knees, gasping as he recovered from having traversed time and space to appear more than a century and a half in the past. As he did, he noticed the woman's concern rise more, her wariness steady.

She approached him as he managed to begin breathing properly once more, and she placed a hand on his shoulder, her touch gentle and concerned as she asked him something again. The moment she made physical contact with him, Ryan delved into her mind, pulling out the knowledge of the older form of English.

She was asking if he was okay.

"Will be," he answered, aware his accent was likely strong.

More than a dozen decades had passed since that form of the language was spoken, and it had evolved in that time, largely thanks to the Great Collapse shutting down what had slowed down the evolution of language.

"Where did you come from?" She asked, the wariness still in her mind, even if her voice was full of concern. "Where are your clothes?"

"Heh," Ryan chuckled. "It seems they didn't come with me. I wasn't expecting this."

"Huh?"

The young god turned on his sense of light and determined it was most likely night before shutting it off again.

"I need," he said. "Something to wear, I suppose. Don't call the authorities."

"A strange guy shows up, butt-naked, and tells me not to call the authorities," the concern in her voice disappeared in an instant as her hand pulled away and she took a step back. "Do you really expect me to not call them, now?"

"Well," Ryan said. "You could call them, but it wouldn't do you any good. I'd rather cause as few complications as possible while I'm here, and dealing with the police would cause some major complications."

He wasn't planning on attempting to return to his own time just yet. The reason for that was because if he had returned to the past, then one thing was quite clear: something would prevent him from returning to his own time. He could feel his magic, just as strong as ever, so he knew it would not be that.

The reason he knew this was because everything which had occurred in the past had already occurred in the past. Anything he did then, he had already done then before he traveled to the past. That was one of the absolute rules of time travel, something the Blessed Ones had assured him of, stating that the second and third Gray Mage had told them that.

His appearance in the past meant one thing, and Ryan was no idiot on the matter.

He was the first Gray Mage. That was why the Gray Mage disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared: he'd returned to his own time.

Ryan himself was the paradox which broke the seal preventing magic on Earth. He knew he would likely never receive the answer to how the paradox began, but that didn't matter to him. What mattered to him was figuring out what to do.

"What do you mean, some major complications?" She asked.

"First," Ryan said as he stood. "There'd be a record of the call, but no memory of them encountering me. If I remember my history correctly, authorities tend to have cameras, so they'd also have those recordings. However, the recordings would show them talking to me, then letting me leave. They'd have no memories relating to the event."

"You're delusional," she said.

"No," he said. "I'm Ryan, a god. I'm not actually from here, and ended up here by accident. It will take some time for me to return home, unfortunately."

He had a mess to initiate the cleanup on. A mess of his own creation. Mostly, he was curious about meeting the other two gods, the ones who raised his children.

The young god's lips curled down as he thought about the Blessed Ones. He was a paradox in more than one way. He caused magic to arrive on Earth, which was the only reason he existed in the first place. At the same time, he was his own great-great-great-great-great grandfather.

Knowing that he ended up having children didn't mean he'd be able to avoid it. As he knew, everything he'd already done, he'd end up doing because he had already done it. There was no avoiding that. Plus, he was quite horny, and while he'd managed to resist for a month, he knew that he would inevitably end up having sex in the past, thus creating his own lineage.

"You are very delusional," she said.

"Is anyone watching?" He asked.

"The neighbors," she answered, though he could tell that was a lie.

"I don't like being lied to," Ryan said as he manifested twelve points of water around him, then converted half of them into flames.

He watched with his senses as her eyes widened in shock as she stepped back in fear and shock.

"I am a god," he told her. "My mortal name is Ryan, as I said. You and I did not speak the same language before you touched me. When you made physical contact, I pulled the information of it out of your head. I actually found other information while doing so. I know that you recently broke up with your boyfriend, your favorite color is blue, you secretly fantasize about having ten children even if you'd never admit it aloud, your favorite food is vanilla yogurt… hrm. We don't have yogurt. At least, if we do, I've never had it."

As he spoke, Ryan played around with the water and fire while simultaneously sorting out what knowledge he needed for another spell. When he finished figuring it out, Ryan used his transmutation magic to weave together pants and a shirt from the air, already around his body. Some slight shaping was required in order to convince the pants to form properly and contain his erection at the same time, but other than that, everything went smoothly.

"There we go," he released the flames, which vanished, and the water, which dropped to the grass. "That took me a minute to figure out, I've never actually transmuted the air before."

He could sense the confusion and fear in her mind, and held up a hand in response to that.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Ryan said. "I really did end up here by accident, and it really will take me awhile to return home. Due to… certain factors, something will interfere with my return until after I do other things."

"How did you just do that?" She asked him.

"Magic," he answered. "For a god, it's rather easy. For normal mages… it would be rather difficult."

Discussing magic caused the young god to realize why the air felt empty: there was no magic in it. In his own time, the world was full of magic, including the air. In the past, none of that was there, which cause the empty feeling. Only another moment of thought caused him to realize that magic was what he had sensed in the Blessed Ones and the Heisars, forces which overflowed with magic.

"Anyway," Ryan said. "I'm not here to hurt you. However… I don't now how long I'll need to be here for, and what I need to do hasn't come to pass yet. Until then, I'll need a place to stay and someone to help me adjust to your society."

Confusion filled her mind, and Ryan laughed.

"What?" He asked. "Even a god might want to lay low for a little bit. Plus, I'm more than a little curious about your society. I've heard a lot about it, but most knowledge of it isn't actually clear due to certain, ah, factors."

He wasn't exactly going to reveal that he was from her future. At least, not yet, if he ever did.

"This is a lot to take in," she told him. "You just used magic and are claiming to be a god."

"Not just claiming," he told her. "I am a god. An immortal entity of vast power beyond what any mortal mage can wield. As a god, I am ten thousand times as powerful, at minimum, than a Bl-than a demigod could ever be. Demigods are ten thousand times as powerful, at minimum, than a mortal could ever be. That's the difference in power between gods and mortals."

Confusion was still present in her mind, as well as wariness, but Ryan could tell that she was also believing him, even if she found it difficult to believe. He did use magic, so she at least accepted he was a magician of some sort.

"If you help me," Ryan pulled with his earth magics, drawing a clump of soil up from the ground. "I will help you back."

He transmuted the clump of dirt, which was smaller than his fist, into pure gold. Even if most of the knowledge of the era before the Great Collapse was lost, some things were obvious to the young god. Precious metals were valuable in both eras, and many pieces of jewelry predating the Great Collapse still existed. His mother had owned a large collection of it, including some of what was called Victorian jewelry, which fetched one of the highest prices for a single piece in the world.

Ryan could feel the young woman's gaze on the gold, the uncertainty in her eyes.

"It doesn't have to be gold," he told her, transmuting it into silver. "Or even metal," he reshaped it as he transmuted it into a ruby. "I am more than willing to help you out for helping me out. I wish to call as little attention to my existence as possible until what I need to do comes to pass, and I don't know how long that will be."

"And," she swallowed hard. "And if I refuse?"

"Then I erase your memories of this encounter," Ryan told her. "And find someone else to help me. There is a large difference between pulling information out of someone's head and being taught it, after all."

"Come-come inside," she told him.

Ryan followed her into the house, which smelled strange to him. Not bad, just different than he was used to. There was a fruity scent to the air, which he quickly identified the source of – a liquid resting in a small dish over a hot bulb. With his sense of lightning, Ryan was able to determine that electricity of that era felt quite different.

Electricity felt horrible to him, so he quickly shut that sense off.

"How does this work?" Ryan immediately walked over to the device and knelt down, examining it as he plucked the ruby out of the air.

In that era, no one knew he was blind, so he would portray the image of someone who could see.

"That's a wax warmer," she answered, her voice somewhat hesitant and dull. "It melts the wax with a lightbulb underneath, and the heat causes the scent to drift out of the wax as well, or something like that."

"I see," Ryan said. "Hm. We have a version of this which uses liquids, but there's usually a plain candle underneath. Or we just light a candle."

"Some people don't want to have a flame," she told him. "So we do this. What's it like, um, where you're from?"

"You don't have to be so scared," he stood and faced her, smiling a little. "You aren't my enemy, so I'm not going to hurt you."

"It's just," she hesitated for a moment. "In the myths, gods weren't exactly as personable and friendly as you're being. There was always the risk of something foul happening."

"Oh, that risk exists with me, too," Ryan laughed. "I actually came here after slaughtering a group of people."

Immediately, he realized that was probably the wrong thing to say, as fear filled her mind to the level he was surprised she wasn't literally radiating fear.

"Sorry," he snorted. "That probably didn't reassure you. Where I'm from, that's not something that's talked about behind closed doors. They were kidnapping friends of mine for nefarious purposes. They were attempting to weaken a natural barrier so that when a certain other event happened, they could lay claim to a sort of mine that belonged to me, a mine which contained some pretty rare resources. Don't worry about offending me with your words. I'll know if it's intentional or not, and that makes a difference in how I react."

"O-okay," she said. "So you… are a wealthy god?"

"A wealthy god?" Ryan asked, then laughed. "I'm a godking. I rule an entire world."

Well, he didn't actually rule the world yet, but he would eventually. She didn't need to know that, however, as it was a rather minor detail in his opinion.

"You rule a world?" She asked.

"Yep!" He grinned. "So I'd say I'm fairly wealthy."

"I see," she said slowly. "You said you have a mortal name?"

"Yes," he responded. "A name I go by when I live among mortals, my identity hidden. 'Ryan' is that name."

"Mine is Kyra," she told him.

"Pleasure to meet you, Kyra Sol," he dipped his head to her, then laughed at her confusion. "I was already in your head, remember?"

Ryan turned his head, as if looking around. He could already sense everything within the house – and everything in the neighboring houses, too – but wanted to give the appearance of him having habits of people with eyes which could see.

"Are you alone here?" He looked at her. "I don't detect anyone else present but us."

"I am right now," she told him. "My brother is at his girlfriend's house, and our parents are on a vacation. They'll be gone all summer, leaving us the house."

Ryan felt a slight pang at that. Growing up, he'd never been given free reign as she and her brother apparently had, and he didn't have any siblings to enjoy the presence of. Or argue with. Tyler had told him several times about arguments and fights his servant had with siblings before being assigned to the heir. He did see Tyler as a brother in some ways, but the servant's status and actions as a result of it created a small distance between them.

"That's nice," he said, and noticed sudden concern in her voice.

"Did I… upset you?"

"No," he smiled. "Just made me remember something. You have a brother?"

"A twin," she answered. "Older by about twelve minutes. It's a running joke in our family about twins."

"A running joke?" He asked.

"Yes," she chuckled a little. "Mom comes from a family where it's common to have girl twins, and Dad comes from a family where it's common to have boy twins. Both of them were identical twins, even. So when they found out that they were having twins, they weren't surprised, and found it amusing that we weren't identical, but male and female. We turned eighteen in the spring, and Nick got his girlfriend pregnant the same night."

"Birthday sex?" Ryan asked as he noticed a small bit of depression in her.

"Yeah," she answered. "After our party here, Nick went back to her house, and a few weeks later, she found out she was pregnant. She didn't start to show until last week, though, so no one at school actually found out, since we only just graduated a couple of weeks ago."

"Congratulations," Ryan said. "I take it the depression I'm sensing is from breaking up with your boyfriend?"

"We dated since we were thirteen," she told him. "When we found out that Nick was pregnant… he made some rather unpleasant comments about Nick and his girlfriend, about them getting pregnant before marriage and how they were damned to hell for it."

She scoffed.

"I'd never seen an ugly side of him before," she told Ryan. "Even though we were together for almost five years. I guess he'd manage to keep it hidden, but I'm not going to put up with someone bad-talking my brother and his girlfriend like that."

"Good for you," Ryan told her. "You seem rather trusting, you know, letting a strange man into your house during the night while you're alone."

"Not to be rude," she laughed nervously. "But you can use magic. I can't. I highly doubt I could actually stop you, if you wanted to do something."

"Right," Ryan laughed. "I forgot about that. Where I'm from, everyone can use magic, even if only slightly, so a show like I did wouldn't intimidate someone unless they were pretty weak."

"Even though you're a god?" She asked.

"Can you feel my divinity?" Ryan asked, then watched as she realized that she couldn't. "I didn't actually prove I was a god, so a normal person wouldn't believe it, where I'm from."

"And turning dirt into stuff like that?" She indicated the ruby in his hand. "That's normal?"

"No," he answered. "Transmutation is actually an extremely rare thing among magicians, and most can't do it on the level I can. I only just started learning how to do it, too. It would tell them I'm powerful and talented, but that's it. As for proving I'm a god, that's much more difficult."

"Either way," she sighed. "You've proven you're capable of feats I can't."

"Exactly!" He grinned.