"What's the cake for?" Lyda asked.

"You," Cyrus answered, then gave her a puzzled look. "Do you put strawberries on cake?"

"Well, you can," she told him. "But people generally don't."

"Oh, okay," he looked the strawberries, then at Lyda. "Do you want strawberries?"

"Sure!" She laughed. "Based on what you put on the cake, I take it the cake's for passing the trial?"

"Yes."

"The elemental told you?" She asked.

"Yes."

"You didn't have to do this for me," she told him.

"I know," Cyrus said. "I found myself doing it. I could've sworn I saw strawberries on cake."

"Probably cheesecake," Lyda told him. "Though whether that's a cake or a pie is up for debate."

Cyrus thought it over for a few minutes, then nodded.

"It was a cheesecake," he said. "Come on, let's celebrate you passing. I have ice cream, too."

"Thanks," she told him.

They served up the cake and ice cream, then moved to the couch to eat. After they finished, Cyrus washed the dishes and Lyda took out the Blessed Token and examined it, showing it to Cyrus when he joined her a few minutes later. It was deep blue in color, with a triskelion raised in gold on both sides.

"Why a triskelion?" She asked.

"It represents Rynovar, Selar, and Kylnar," Cyrus answered. "The triskelion is one of the oldest known symbols, and its origins are unknown. At the time of the Great Collapse, the oldest known triskelion was older than the oldest known usage of it. Our godking decided that it would make a nice symbol, and decided to stick it on the Blessed Tokens."

"Ah," Lyda said, turning the coin over in her hands a few times. "It's strange, I can't remember the trial. I mean, I have vague impressions of what went on, but it feels as if my mind was messed with."

"It was," Cyrus informed her. "That's done to protect the integrity of the trials. The more that's known about it to others, the less difficult it becomes. It's a spell woven into the token, too, so it's unavoidable. The token is only handed to the person who earned it, and it'll work even through gloves and such. The Blessed Ones also check to make sure there are no contingencies set to ensure knowledge of it is kept in some way."

"That sounds… like an extreme measure," Lyda told him. "But I suppose that if people knowing how it's done makes it easier, it makes sense Rynovar would want that. I'm only missing the Mystery Token and the Forest Token now. One of those is a waiting game. For the Forest Token, are we heading to one of the forest ruins now?"

"No," Cyrus answered. "The situation with the Dungeon my brothers destroyed needs a better touch than my mother can provide. Rynovar is probably going to send me an official request to step in sometime in the next few days, so I figured we should head down there and take care of it."

"With some of what you told me," Lyda said. "Is it safe for me to be there?"

"The effect on humans was only from the destruction itself," he nodded. "It won't affect you anymore. I can handle any of the other effects as a result of it. I have a plane booked out there for a few hours from now. Sorry to spring it on you so soon after you return, but it's something that needs taking care of."

"It's fine," Lyda smiled at him. "Even if you're helping me with my quest, I can't expect a god to stop everything just for it. It will be an opportunity to see your power at work, too. Outside of the Dungeon, I've only seen the one time, when you altered your makeup as part of an explanation of what you were a god of."

"What I do likely won't be all that impressive," Cyrus told her. "Most of it won't be visible to you, as I'll mostly be affecting the actual magic in the air."

"Okay," she said. "I take it I need to pack up and prepare to leave, then?"

"If you would," Cyrus nodded.

Lyda packed up the rest of her stuff, then Cyrus sent it to the warehouse. They made their way downstairs and checked out, then took a cab to the airport. A few hours later, they were on their way to the Dungeon Cyrus's brothers had destroyed, arriving at the nearest airport an hour before nightfall.

"Come on," Cyrus led Lyda to a car parked in the airport's parking lot.

"A car was waiting for you?" She asked.

"It's one of mine," he explained as they entered the car. "Mother's been borrowing it as she contains the situation and does other things."

Lyda snorted, and Cyrus gave her a curious look.

"Sorry," she said. "Just imagining a god driving around amuses me."

"I'm a god who drives around."

"I know," she told him. "It still amuses me, it just usually isn't stated as bluntly as with your mother driving."

"Oh," he said, then turned on the car and pulled out of the parking spot and began driving. "It'll take us about twenty minutes to reach the zone. We'll pass through a barrier that will make your skin tingle. It's nothing harmful, it's just a side-effect of creating a barrier to contain the area and prevent people from wandering in. Since you're with me, another god, you'll be able to enter. Anyone else, their senses would become muddled and they'd find themselves turned around."

"Okay," Lyda said.

Cyrus drove in silence, grimacing once they finally reached and passed through the barrier. Barriers weren't his mother's strong suit, and he didn't like that it made him feel the tingle under his skin as well. He could tell it made Lyda uncomfortable by the way she wiggled in her seat, though she didn't make a comment, so he said nothing.

For the next hour, Cyrus carefully navigated the damaged road, sometimes exiting it just to continue driving. A few times, he swerved to avoid unexpected geysers of flame, lava, or steam, but other than that, nothing of note occurred on the drive.

He parked the car in a broken parking lot, the asphalt uneven, cracked and raised or sunken in places, then stepped out of the car. Lyda joined him as they approached Cyrus's mother, who stood at the edge of the former Dungeon.

While it was still a hole in the ground, it was full of rubble, of broken stone and dirt, the edges of it no longer clean and straight down, but slanted and uneven, stretching an extra forty yards from the original edge, overtaking part of the parking lot as well.

Cyrus's mother opened her mouth to say something, only for the winds to pick up, whipping at the three of them. Cyrus grabbed Lyda to keep her from blowing away as he shifted the air around the three of them to shield them.

"There's a tornado forming," Sarah told her son, pointing in the direction it would form. "It'll form over there, if the way the wind is moving is any indication."

Cyrus nodded, then released Lyda and turned to face the direction the tornado would form in. He stretched out his senses, feeling the air and its violent patterns. Summoning his powers, he began soothing it, dissipating the air when necessary, stopping it where possible, and countering it in other places.

The young god spent all of a single minute altering the wind, ending the tornado before it began, and when he finished, the air went still all around them.

"That was fun," Cyrus looked at his mother. "I've never had the wind fight me like that. There's so much raw magic in the air, too. You didn't tell me about that. If I weren't shielding Lyda, she'd have been crushed by it. Her magic isn't powerful enough to protect her on its own."

"Sorry," Sarah said. "I'm unused to mortal restrictions. I noticed the magic in the air, but didn't think it was worth mentioning, since it doesn't bother us and you'd deal with it once you arrived. Are you going to handle this now?"

"Yes," Cyrus nodded. "Take over shielding Lyda and step back. I take it you already tried reversing the time on the Dungeon?"

"It didn't work," his mother confirmed.

"Okay," Cyrus said. "Time to get to work, then."

Lyda and Sarah moved to the car, sitting on its hood, and Cyrus closed his eyes, sending his clothes to the warehouse, leaving himself naked. If he didn't, his outfit would burn away as he worked.

Reaching inside himself, Cyrus accessed the part of him which commanded aether, the fabric and basis of reality. Rather than simply tapping it like he did when he altered himself and Kylnar, he grasped it, feeling the flow of aether within him as it began to surround him. Even without opening his eyes, he knew that a purple, green, and blue fog dotted with tiny stars had begun to swirl around him.

Spreading his senses as far as they would go, Cyrus began his task. He pulled on the wild magics flowing through the air, centered around the destroyed Dungeon, and dominated them with the force of his will and magic.

The young god reached into the ground and the sky, into everything around him, and pulled, calling all of the wild magics to him. The aether flowing around him grew denser, dancing over his skin, causing a cool tingle through his body.

At the same time as he pulled on the magics in the air, Cyrus began flooding it back into the pit that was formerly a Dungeon. He pulled on the ground, restoring its borders and boundaries. Cyrus felt glad he had devoted time into studying Dungeons over the years, as it made his job easier.

Rather than recreating the tunnels and pits, caverns and caves of the Dungeon, Cyrus simply created a new Dungeon in its place, soothing the wild magics back to the magics of a Dungeon, concentrated and powerful. It would take only minutes for the Dungeon to begin developing its own holes, creatures, plants, crystals, and other resources.

As a result of Cyrus's actions, the Dungeon was larger than its original state, stretching a little more than two hundred feet in diameter, and he knew it would be around two hundred feet in depth as well, when it had been only three-quarters of that originally.

After finishing soothing the magics of the air, Cyrus began rewinding time on the objects in the area, restoring the roads, houses, businesses, parks, and other things. It wasn't something he needed to do, but he felt obliged to do it for the humans who would eventually return to the area. Those who had survived were evacuated, but they still had property there, and he would feel bad if they lost everything they had just because his brothers got up to no good and destroyed a Dungeon.

The only thing he couldn't fully restore was a small section of the parking lot, because the Dungeon took up part of its space, but everything else affected by the Dungeon that wasn't living, he restored to their state before his brothers destroyed it.

When Cyrus finished, the aether around him began to dissipate, and the young god realized he had overtaxed his powers. While he might have been far more powerful than even a Blessed One could ever hope to be, he still had his limitations. Manipulating wild magics and rebuilding a Dungeon were not things just anyone could do, nor were they things Cyrus had ever done before.

Feeling his body weaken, Cyrus did his best to remain standing, only for his mother and girlfriend to approach and grab him, each taking an arm and putting it across their shoulder to help him to the car. His mother opened the door to the back seat on the passenger side, and they helped him into the car, Cyrus laying on the seat, barely able to move.

"There's a duffel of clothes in the trunk," heard his mother tell Lyda as his vision swam. "Pull out a pair of sweats, so we can at least get that on him."

"I don't mind the view," Lyda said.

"I do," his mother snorted as Cyrus heard a phone ringing. "That's Rynovar, you get that while I take this call."

"Yes, ma'am," Lyda said.

Cyrus closed his eyes as he forced himself to remain awake and listen to his mother's conversation, his godly hearing allowing him to hear both ends of it.

"Hello," she said.

"Hey," Rynovar said. "Cyrus did a good job there. Other than the corpses and the mutated living things and the Dungeon, everything is back to normal. Also, Kylnar's now interested in how Cyrus made the Dungeon. We were watching, and it seems Kylnar can't figure out how Cyrus did that. He's theorizing it has to do with manipulating aether and wild magics, but he isn't sure, and-"

"Alright," Sarah interrupted him. "I'll let him know you appreciate his help in the matter."

"Thanks," Rynovar said. "Cyrus probably wasn't expecting that to wipe him out, so I'll let you know – he didn't book a room at a hotel. He was probably expecting you to let him stay in the suite you're staying in for the night."

"That's not a problem," Sarah responded as Cyrus felt someone's hands on his feet, slipping them into a pair of sweats. "Anything else?"

"You can let the triplets out," Rynovar told her. "They're going catatonic in there. It can wait until tomorrow, when Cyrus is more than, uh, well, what he is right now."

Cyrus felt Lyda tugging his pants up, and did his best to lift his hips so she could pull them all the way up. She had to help him, and he briefly thought that if he were someone else, he'd probably feel embarrassed over needing to be helped like that. The thought disappeared just as fast, however, as Cyrus didn't care about such things.

"Will do," Sarah said. "See you, Rynovar."

"See you," Rynovar responded, then the call ended.

"Alright," Sarah said. "Get Cyrus's feet in the car, then climb in. We're heading to the hotel I was staying at. I'll release my barrier before we go through it so that you don't have to go through it. Rynovar will probably have the Divine Enforcers make an announcement tomorrow saying that the situation here has been taken care of."

"Okay," Lyda said.

Cyrus heard them entering the car, then heard it power on and felt it begin moving. He faded in and out of consciousness through the drive, which took less time than the drive from the airport as a result of him repairing the road and his mother not needing to avoid random bursts caused by magic.

When they arrived at the hotel, Cyrus felt reacovered enough to walk, though he still leaned on Lyda for support. They made their way up to his mother's suite, and she showed them to the second room. Without hesitation, Cyrus collapsed onto the bed, his legs still hanging over.

"It's so weird," Lyda told Cyrus as she helped him move all the way onto the bed. "Seeing you like this. Until now, you've always come across as being this unstoppable force that didn't have a 'weakened' state."

"Don't mistake this," Cyrus took a few tries to roll over, then used air magic to simply flip himself over. "For me being weak. I could kill anyone with but a thought, if I wanted. My body just feels drained. I've never channeled that much aether through me at once before. A good rest, and I'll be just like new."

"Well," Lyda climbed onto the bed, stepping out of her shoes as he did. "Is there anything you want me to do while you're like this?"