As Lyda told Gina about how she met Cyrus, the man in question used his tablet again to kill time before they arrived at the island. The moment the boat stopped, Cyrus stood and made his way off it, Lyda following close behind.

"We need a set of diving gear," Cyrus informed Gina. "And a boat to Nienack Island."

"Just one set?" Lyda asked. "Wait, we're not stopping for the night?"

"No," Cyrus answered. "And yes, just one set. I can use magic to handle things for myself."

Gina arranged for a diving set to be brought to them, then led them to the other end of the island to take a smaller, wooden boat to the indicated island.

"You're taking us yourself?" Cyrus asked.

"It's been awhile since I visited Nienack Island," Gina told him. "I'll do a little camping there tonight, it's quite relaxing."

"Okay," Cyrus said, then jumped as Lyda screamed, her voice filled with terror. "What the hell, lady? Are you trying to give Gina and me heart attacks?"

"Th-th-that!" Lyda exclaimed, pointing at a floating mass of water shifting in orbs and streams that had come up behind them.

"What?" Cyrus asked. "You scared the hell out of us over a water elemental sneaking up on us? Are you kidding me?"

"Cyrus," Gina said. "She's not one of your brothers, she's likely never seen an elemental before."

"Whatever," Cyrus muttered as twelve orbs of water appeared around him, then rapidly shifted, flowing around him as they did. "She made me think someone was trying to kill her."

"It's right in front of us!" Lyda gasped. "That's an elemental? Why is to close?"

"He wants to eat my magic," Cyrus told her, then began speaking to it, using the water he had manifested to communicate with it rather than his words. "Night Ocean, if you ever scare someone I'm with to the point they startle me ever again, I am going to turn you into steam."

"Steam would be lovely," Night Ocean responded.

"Go away," Cyrus said, and the elemental began floating away.

Cyrus threw his water at it, the elemental absorbing them into itself as it continued to float away, and the young man sighed, then looked at Gina.

"He does that on purpose."

"Of course he does," she smiled. "You know the elementals like to entertain themselves. You're able to talk with them, after all."

"Talk with them?" Lyda asked. "Is that what you were doing with the water? I thought the elemental was doing something to you."

"That was me," Cyrus told her. "Yes, I can talk to the elementals that way. They communicate through the elements. Come on, we don't have all night."

They boarded the rowboat, which Gina steered using a mix of water and air magics, taking them to one of the islands at the other edge of the chain, a trip which took them more than half of an hour. When they arrived, she bid them a good night and then left to set up her camp. Once Gina was gone, Cyrus led Lyda across the island.

"We're diving?" Lyda asked when he handed her the diving gear. "Not taking a boat to the Silver Oracle?"

"She lives underwater," Cyrus told her as he dragged a wooden boat out from under the brush it had been concealed beneath. "We still have a ways to go. Change now."

He stripped off his clothes, pulling on a pair of blue and green board shorts, then helped Lyda into the diving gear, handing her the mouthpiece and goggles to put on later.

"You're not wearing more than that?" She asked.

"I don't need my eyes to see," he told her. "It's an old trick that takes something special to do. Only a god could really learn it. As for breathing, I can create a water filter over my mouth and nose and combine the elements of water and air to draw out the oxygen. A trick which can only be performed by someone in the Ultimate Tiers. As for the temperature, I can regulate mine by heating the water in contact with my body, and the pressure doesn't bother me."

He had her board the boat as she tried to figure out where her pack had disappeared to, figuring he likely hid it where the boat was when she wasn't looking. Cyrus climbed onto the boat, then began using his magic to guide it out to sea, moving it much more quickly than Gina had guided her boat.

"I take it," Lyda told Cyrus. "Those are tricks you developed to handle underwater dungeons?"

"Some," he answered. "Others were out of boredom or adapted from other spells."

"How long did it take you to do that?" She asked. "I can't imagine most people I know being able to do that in ten to twenty years, and you're only nineteen."

"I'm a god," he said. "Magic is in my blood. Learning spells is relatively easy. All in all, I put probably fifteen hours into them, at most."

"Each?" She asked, the surprise in her voice quite obvious.

"Combined," he answered.

They fell silent as the boat continued sailing over the ocean, cutting through its waves. Lyda rested some, not sure if she could manage whatever dive he had planned as she attempted to figure out how someone could live under the ocean. She also watched Cyrus, admiring the way the moonlight caused his gently-tanned skin nearly glow, giving him an otherworldly beauty.

Cyrus, on the other hand, read a book, water magic effective at keeping the ocean spray from hitting it. After nearly two hours of sailing the boat, he put the book away and told Lyda to pull on her mouthpiece and goggles.

After checking to make sure she had them on securely, Cyrus had her jump into the ocean first, then he jumped in after her.

"Follow me," he told her, then sank under the surface and began swimming downwards.

Lyda followed him down, and he realized only as they swam that he never checked to see if she could swim. Her skills weren't great, so he knew she likely rarely swam, especially not going downward.

Cyrus ignored the fish that swam away from them or up to them on his way down, observing Lyda jerking a few times and needing to fix her mouthpiece on two separate occasions. When they reached the bottom, Cyrus allowed his feet to touch the sediment at the bottom, feeling its grainy texture between his toes.

He made a face, then walked to the entrance of an underwater cave, Lyda following behind him, though still swimming.

When he stepped through the entrance, he found himself in an empty, dry chamber. Or rather, a chamber that was dry until he entered it, water dripping off of him. Lyda fell onto the ground, having swum through the entrance without expecting the change.

"Ow," she groaned as she picked herself up, pulling the mouthpiece out. "I've never heard of a barrier spell like that before."

Her voice echoed softly in the stone tunnel, and Cyrus gave the barrier a brief glance before turning his gaze to her.

"There are several spells there," he told her. "One of them keeps the ocean from rushing in and another makes it invisible to marine life. They don't notice it at all. Just after passing through it, you pass through a gate into a reality marble, which we're inside of now."

"We're in a reality marble?" She asked.

"Yes," he answered. "The Silver Oracle is an expert at creating them, and she has lived here for more than four hundred years, I think. She's quite old, and even predates Rynovar's arrival."

"I've not heard of any mages that old," Lyda told him. "Except maybe the Seven Siblings."

"Chronomancers," he nodded. "The seven of them are demigods – children of Rynovar and mortals. Only a few of them are that old, the ones who are were born before Rynovar made his presence here public. The Silver Oracle is a chronomancer as well."

"What does that have to do with anything?" She asked.

"Chronomancers don't age after the first time they use time magics," he answered. "With the exception of any who use it as children. In cases like us, the aging stops the first time we use chronomancy at or after the normal awakening age. Come on."

Cyrus began walking, and Lyda pulled her goggles off and let them hang around her neck with the mouthpiece as they walked through the cave, eventually coming to a large open space illuminated by glowing crystals in the path and the waters surrounding it.

The sky itself was dark, though whether through a quirk of reality marbles or from it being night was a mystery to those who did not know how it worked. Cyrus walked along the sandy path as the one who did not know how reality marbles worked gazed upwards, then turned her gaze to their surroundings.

The roar of several waterfalls could be heard in the distance, while the ponds lining the path barely rippled in the light of the crystals. Fish swam through the water, sometimes under the path, and various things grew in the water, from coral to seaweed, to things Lyda could not identify and Cyrus did not care to, even if he could.

"That's a dolphin!" Lyda gasped as one swam beneath the path.

"Yes," Cyrus answered. "She keeps a few of them."

They reached a house of dark blue stone resting on a sandy island with tropical trees and several tropical plants growing on it, their vibrant colors muted by the soft glow of the green, blue, red, and violet crystals lighting the space.

"Here we are," Cyrus said as they walked up to the door.

Without Cyrus even raising his hand to knock, the door was answered by a woman who appeared to be no older than he did, her blond hair brushed neatly, a pink and orange flower resting in it, pinning it back above her left ear. Her dark blue eyes rivaled Cyrus's for depth, and she possessed the same inhuman beauty he did.

"Welcome back, Cyrus," she pulled him into a hug, causing Cyrus to stiffen. "It's been a long time since my favorite relative came to visit."

"I've been busy with the triplets."

"I know!" She laughed and pulled away, the young man only slightly relaxing. "After they filled a train with bouncy balls with an enchantment to make them slippery to the touch, you've been keeping a closer check on them. Come in, come in. I know why you've come."

Cyrus followed her inside, Lyda following after only a moment's hesitation. The inside of the house was lit as a normal house, with wicker furniture rather than wooden, the tables made of glass.

"You must be exhausted," she told Lyda. "You'll have to forgive Cyrus for bringing you here immediately, he doesn't work on the same level of stamina and energy as us normal folks."

"Normal?" Lyda asked.

"Yes, normal," the Silver Oracle answered. "Cyrus tends to ignore his exhaustion until he is ready to sleep. Then he allows it to strike him all at once. As a result, he tends to forget that normal people cannot function as well as he does as long as he does. I am sure you are sore and tired from your dive. Would you like a hot tea first? Or to go straight to bed? With how much you are shivering, a warm bed is no doubt a must."

"I don't think I can stay awake much longer," Lyda admitted to her.

"Come," the Silver Oracle said. "Right this way, Lyda."

"You know my name?" Lyda asked.

"I am known for my powers of notice," the Silver Oracle smiled. "Though the famous stories that have survived say I know the future, I also know the present and the past. I peer through time, that is my main time spell, though the triplets are even more talented at it than me."

"The triplets?" Lyda asked as the Silver Oracle led her up the stairs at the back of the room.

Cyrus pulled out his tablet and began using it again as he waited for the Silver Oracle to return downstairs. Ten minutes passed, then he looked up, watching as the lady of the home descended the stairs.

"I don't even need my powers to know you were on that before I was at the top of the stairs," she told him.

"I'm a busy person," he told her. "You finally gave your reality marble internet. You didn't have that the last time I was here."

"I did it just for you," she told him. "More than four centuries without it, then I finally get it just for one person. I take it you already figured out the password?"

"It wasn't hard," he told her as he put his tablet away.

"What are you doing?"

"Debating on if I want to swim for a bit or go to bed."

"I mean," she went to the kitchen and began preparing tea. "With Lyda, Cyrus. I've never seen you take an interest in someone else before, yet you decided to bring her to me for her quest."

"I wanted to ask you about her," he said, then explained his situation.

"Cyrus," the Silver Oracle sighed. "Sometimes, I forget how dense or oblivious you can be."

"What does that mean?" He asked.

"I mean," she pulled two glasses down from a cabinet, then looked at him. "That you are depressed, Cyrus. I've seen the signs for awhile now, that's why I contacted your mother. You had a 'fuck it' moment with Lyda, where you just didn't care any more, even if it meant physical contact with someone else. She asked me about the hug, and why you didn't pull away."

"You always hug me," he muttered. "It's annoying."

"Yet you allow me anyway," she returned to the family room and set one glass in front of him, then sat across and took a sip of her own tea. "Cyrus, there is nothing remarkable about Lyda. You care about people very little, you have no real interest in them, but you are also starting to lose care about yourself. That's all it is."

Cyrus picked up his glass and stared into the steaming amber liquid as he thought over what she said. After some thought, he admitted to himself that he was starting to care very little about anything at all. He was tired, and containing his brothers had worn him down. His mind drifted, and another question came to the front of his mind.

"She came with me, even though I could have been a kidnapper."

"I asked her about that," the Silver Oracle informed him. "She said that she knew you might have been acting the entire time, well enough to fool her."

"Yet she came anyway."

"She is similar to you," the Silver Oracle told him. "She doesn't care about what happens to her. She is weak, and there isn't much she can do. It takes nearly all of her income to pay for her apartment and bills. She was surprised upon arriving to find that you actually did know how to find me and that you were not, in fact, a kidnapper. I told her we can discuss her quest in the morning, then set her to take a shower before going to bed."

"So there is nothing special about her, then?" He asked.

"There is not," the Silver Oracle answered. "Her quest is done for selfish reasons. As a more powerful mage with more affinities, she could do more. Did you know that she has been blacklisted from nearly every employment place in town? It seems she refused to sleep with a very powerful man, before she worked for Madam Mara, and he made her life hell. She can't afford to move, so she lives where she does and works with Madam Mara, one of the only people he couldn't influence. With more power, she could try to earn more money, even if it took her a few years of training. Then, she could buy a ticket, move far away, and never look back."

"Rynovar would grant her that wish," Cyrus continued to stare into his tea. "I have seen her honest desire for it."

"He would," the Silver Oracle nodded. "And you lied to her."