"Something I want you to do?" Cyrus asked.

"Yeah," Lyda placed a hand on his stomach and gently traced his abs. "Anything?"

"Snuggle me," he answered, and Lyda laughed. "Did I answer wrong?"

"No," she answered. "That's just a 'you' answer. Let me get the light."

Lyda turned off the light, then joined Cyrus on the bed, and he wrapped an arm around her before falling asleep. Cyrus slept through the rest of the day, the night, and most of the next morning, waking to find himself alone in the bed. Sitting up, he stretched, feeling like new. He changed into a fresh pair of sweats, pulled on a hoodie, then met with Lyda and his mother in the main room of the suite.

"Good morning," he greeted them.

"Good morning," they responded.

"Feeling better?" Lyda asked.

"Much," he answered. "I feel more powerful, too. I suppose that's what happens when I channel that much raw aether through myself."

"Let's head back to the shop," his mother told him. "It's time to release your brothers."

"Okay," Cyrus nodded, before remembering the phone call between his mother and Rynovar.

The godking had some way of viewing into the time prison, which shouldn't have been possible. Rynovar told Cyrus's mother that the triplets were going catatonic, which he couldn't have known, yet had said with certainty.

He needed to patch up whatever exploit Rynovar was using to check inside. Knowing Kylnar, it was probably him who had found it, and Cyrus made a mental note to ask him what it was the next time they saw each other.

"Come here," Cyrus's mother pulled him over. "We're taking a pathway."

"Please, no," Cyrus muttered.

"I'd rather not leave them any longer, if they're going catatonic," his mother told him, grabbing his arm and Lyda's and pulling them against her. "Hold your breath."

"We have to for the pathways?" Lyda asked. "There's one here?"

"No," Cyrus answered. "We're about to teleport. Hold your breath."

Cyrus inhaled, then held his breath, and Lyda did the same. A few moments later, they were standing twenty yards from the rebuilt Dungeon.

"Exhale, then inhale again," Sarah said. "Take as much of a breath as possible, then exhale it all at once, as much as you can. Then hold."

Lyda obeyed, wondering why the pair of gods didn't seem to. Before she could think on it too much, however, Sarah pulled the three of them into a pathway, their bodies feeling as if they were being pressed through a tight space. The sensation lasted only a few seconds before it ended, the three of them in the kitchen at the back of Cyrus's shop.

"They're most likely up in their room," Cyrus led the way upstairs and the to the triplets' room.

A king-sized bed sat against the back wall, the walls themselves covered in shelves filled with books, stuffed animals, and gadgets. The bed was neatly made with dark green covers, the head of it covered in pillows wrapped in dark green pillow cases.

"I take it you sealed up the shop, too?" Cyrus asked. "How did their latest girlfriend react?"

"When she found herself unable to enter," his mother responded. "She decided it was 'just one of their things'. When they wouldn't respond, she decided to give up. If they approached her, she'd probably return to them."

"Right," Cyrus nodded, then looked at Lyda. "They'll probably try to get you in bed again after getting out, especially as they know we're a couple. The only reason they didn't come to the lodge and bother us after we started dating is because they were warned not to interfere in your training. It's also possible we'll be gone before they recover enough to try, though that just means they might track us down later."

"I'll handle them," she told him.

Cyrus nodded, then looked at his mother.

"Ready?" He asked.

"Yes," she reached under her shirt and pulled out an amulet forged with silver, platinum, and a metal Cyrus could only find in the deepest section of a single Dungeon, the amulet set with emeralds, sapphires, and amethysts, along with a variety of magic crystals. "Here we go."

The triplets appeared on their bed, each one sitting in a different spot on it, knees pulled up to their chests, eyes staring forward, vacant. Each one was wearing a pair of black shorts and a dark green t-shirt, showing that their bodies were thinner than they were last time Cyrus had seen them. He knew that their time in the time prison affected them heavily, if they had stopped taking care of themselves.

Sarah pulled off the amulet and handed it to Cyrus, then the amulet vanished, returned to its storage box.

Cyrus stepped up to one of them and waved his hand in front of his face, then looked at their mother.

"They really did go catatonic," Cyrus said. "Maybe you did leave them in there too long?"

"They'll recover," she said. "Come on, let's get you something to eat. You must be starved after repairing the damage, then sleeping for almost a day."

"I am," Cyrus nodded, his stomach rumbling in agreement.

Cyrus, his mother, and Lyda returned to the main room of the apartment, and his mother told him to take a seat while she prepared lunch. Cyrus sat on the couch while Lyda began looking at their recospheres to pick out a movie and Sarah entered the kitchen.

"Sarah?" Lyda hesitantly spoke after a couple of minutes.

"Yes?" Sarah asked.

"I know Cyrus and the triplets cook," Lyda said. "Because they live among mortals by themselves, but you cook, too? You don't have, like, a host of servants?"

"I have a host of servants," Sarah told her. "But over the centuries, I've learned how to cook, and only a god can really please a god's taste with their cooking. That's why my boys never bothered getting servants – they prefer their own cooking to a human's."

"Even though Cyrus eats fast food?" Lyda asked.

"It doesn't mean I like it," Cyrus told her. "Though I'm less inclined to dislike mortal cooking than most gods. I'm the exception, though, not the rule. It likely has to do with my domain."

"Reality?" She asked.

"And fantasy," he added.

"Ah," she said, then picked out a movie and put it in before joining him on the couch. "Will your brothers be okay? They seemed… really out of it."

"Yes, they'll be fine," Cyrus stretched out his empathy and senses to include his brothers in his range. "They're already beginning to come out of that state, having begun to process there were others there. I'm sure they'll come out here as soon as they start smelling Mother's cooking."

"Okay," Lyda snuggled against him. "This is okay, right?"

"Yes."

"Okay," she leaned her head on his shoulder. "What are we doing after this?"

"Resting for the rest of the day," he answered. "Then heading back to Madam Mara's Restaurant."

"Madam Mara's Crimson Restaurant," Lyda corrected. "Why there?"

"The forest outside your city," he said. "Contains one of Rynovar's Ruins. I thought you might want to see your friends there again before we went into it."

"There's one outside the city?" She asked in shock. "I've never heard of that. Wait, isn't there one in the forest a couple of hours from here?"

"Yes," he answered. "And the one outside of your hometown isn't well-known."

"Oh," she said, then went silent for a few minutes.

Cyrus could tell she was thinking about something, but decided to leave her to it as he turned his attention to the movie she had picked out. It was an adventure movie about a group of college wizards and witches, converted from the ancient format to a recosphere. He was glad it wasn't a sappy romance movie, as he wasn't in the mood for those.

"Lyda," Cyrus said when they were twenty minutes into the movie. "Sit up."

"Why?" She asked as she sat up.

"So I can get up," Cyrus stood and walked into the center of the room, looking at his mother. "You're making enough for them, right?"

"I am," she answered.

"Good," he nodded, then turned and faced his brothers' room.

A second later, the door opened and the triplets rushed out of their room, charging to Cyrus and wrapping their arms around him in a hug. All three of the young gods were sobbing into their brother, apologizing for causing him trouble and begging to never be put back in there again.

Cyrus let them without saying a word, simply rubbing their backs to reassure them. More than a month of reality's time in the time prison would have worn on nearly anyone's nerves, and he knew his brothers were likely to be traumatized over it for a long while.

Once they started to calm down, the triplets released Cyrus, their eyes red and puffy. They sniffled in unison, then walked over to their mother, quietly offering to set to the table.

"Go ahead," she told them. "I hope you learned your lesson."

"We did," the triplets answered together.

"How did you even destroy a Dungeon?" Cyrus asked. "Rynovar and Kylnar said they didn't know, and Kylnar said that he didn't even know it was possible, which makes it damn curious how you did it."

"Um," all three looked hesitant, then busied themselves with setting the table.

"Guys," Cyrus said as soon as they finished. "How did you destroy a Dungeon?"

"We don't want to say with a mortal around," the three decided to say, and Cyrus raised an eyebrow.

"It's not that mortals could do it," Owen said.

"It's just that it would frighten them," Max said.

"Much more than knowing that Dungeons can be destroyed," Luke said.

Cyrus sighed, then placed a hand on each brother's head in turn, extracting the information out of them. They allowed him without hesitation, something Cyrus knew only happened because of their imprisonment. Normally, the three would try to give him annoying memories or memories of a night with one of their lovers.

Groaning, Cyrus wanted to shove his brothers back into the time prison after finding out how they destroyed a Dungeon, but knew they felt guilty. Their session in the time prison had given them plenty of time to think on their actions, and it made them realize just how much of a problem they caused for their older brother, their mother, and for mortals.

Returning to the couch, Cyrus turned his attention back to the movie as his brothers assisted their mother with preparing lunch. It was more of a small feast, but Cyrus knew it was necessary. He and his brothers would all eat a lot.

When Sarah finished cooking lunch, Cyrus and Lyda joined the others at the table, and they dug in. The triplets began talking about the start of their time in the time prison, their voices subdued, lacking the enthusiasm they normally held.

At first, the triplets didn't think much of it, just assuming it was some sort of prank Cyrus decided to play on them because they could detect his touch in the magic. Then the day repeated itself a few more times past what they knew Cyrus would have done as a prank. A few more times past that, they began attempting to unweave the spell, only to find their powers over time ineffective.

As time passed in the time prison, they began to worry they would never escape, and while they could entertain themselves without others around, that only lasted a few weeks before they found themselves going crazy. They weren't certain, but they believed they had entered the catatonic state a week before release.

"It was awful," Owen said.

"I never want to go through that again," Max said.

"We're really, really sorry," Luke said.

"Wait," Lyda said. "The time prison looped the day over and over for a little more than a month?"

"No," Cyrus said. "It created a day that it looped over and over, but time in the time prison is ten times the speed of time outside of it. They spent more than a year in there. I could only do something like that because it was a reality marble, not an isolated pocket of time."

"So they're older than you, now?" Lyda asked.

"No," the triplets answered.

"We're still younger than Cyrus," Owen said.

"We played over the same day," Max said.

"Until the prison ended," Luke said.

"Then we were released into today," all three said.

"Though we did," Owen say.

"On occasion," Max said.

"Live another day," Luke said.

Lyda gave Cyrus a confused look.

"It… it's complicated," he told her. "They 'lived' for only one month in there, even though they were in it for about a year. Or rather, they only actually aged, even mentally, a single day. Only their powers of time allowed them to even be aware they were living days beyond what they lived, and that's part of why they started to go insane, then catatonic."

"Okay," she said. "I think I'm going to just… not think about this anymore."

"That's for the best," Owen told her.

"We'd rather forget it, too," Max told her.

"It was a terrible experience," Luke told her.

"We don't ever want to go through it again," all three said.

"That part of them hasn't changed," Cyrus muttered.

"That part probably never will," his mother said with a slight smile.

They finished their lunch without another word, then Cyrus and Lyda cleared the table, washed and dried the dishes, and put them away. The rest of the day was spent with Cyrus watching the shop, Lyda helping him, and the triplets out in town, enjoying being around people again.

"I'm going to go say goodbye to the triplets," Sarah told Cyrus after a few hours. "Then I'm returning home. Anything you want me to tell your father?"

"Yeah," Cyrus growled. "You tell him that I'm going to beat the living crap out of him the next time I see him! He stole the cash from the register and left a note in it saying 'should've kept a better eye on it' in it's place!"

"I'll make him return it," she told him. "Goodbye, Cyrus."

"Bye, Mother," he gave her a hug, then she returned to the back as he looked at Lyda. "I hate my father. I really, really hate him, and wish he would just screw off to another world."

Lyda just snorted, then they returned to watching the shop until close. Cyrus led Lyda upstairs and made enough dinner for them and triplets, and as he expected, his brothers arrived just as it finished. Everyone ate in silence, then the triplets washed the dishes as Cyrus and Lyda watched a movie together.

After the movie, the triplets went to bed, alone, and Lyda took a shower before going to Cyrus's room to sleep, Cyrus himself not feeling tired.

Once he sensed that everyone was asleep, Cyrus made his way into his brothers' room. It was the first time they had been to bed without a lover in it with them in quite awhile, excluding their period in the time prison, and Cyrus was amused to see much hadn't changed from before they were old enough for sex.

The three slept separately, with large stuffed bears in pajamas separating them on their king-sized bed. Each of the triplets was stark-naked as well, though their blanket covered them and the bears. Cyrus walked around to the side of the bed with Owen on it. With a small bit of force magic, he pulled the blanket down to their waists, keeping their lower halves covered while exposing their chests.

Placing a hand on Owen's chest, Cyrus closed his eyes and felt for his brother's mana veins. After their imprisonment, he doubted they would abuse their powers to annoy him again for a long while.

Manipulating his brother's veins for high magics, Cyrus restored Owen's ability to use soul magic back to the level he should have been able to. He repeated this for his other brothers, floating in the air to fix Max's veins, then landing on the other side of the bed to mend Luke's.

Finished, Cyrus pulled the comforter back up over his brothers and the stuffed bears, then gave his brothers a regretful look.

"Sorry," he whispered. "I had hoped we never needed to use it. I would have done something different, but Rynovar told Mother to do that."

He knew they would forgive him, but he still felt guilty over it. At the very least, repairing their ability to use soul magics made him feel better, as if he had made it up to them a little bit.

Cyrus returned to the main room and sat on the couch, watching movies until morning, then he began preparing breakfast. Lyda and his brothers came out as the smell filled the apartment, then they ate in relative silence.

"So," Cyrus looked at Lyda once they finished breakfast. "Are you ready to head out?"