(Niko, 16)

"Lina," I say softly.

"Yes?" She gives me a curious look.

"Fewer people gave us the looks they have been giving us."

I believe that may be the result of Jaklenai's appearance on Felday and his statement. Even if people wish to portray it as a lie or a fabrication, everyone present will not truthfully deny that it was a god. Only a liar would claim otherwise. A god's aura is too unmistakable and undeniable for that.

Due to many people having come to Varilsy for the food exhibition this weekend, there were people from all over Varil present for it. As a result, word will spread all over Varil regarding what Jaklenai claimed.

"Hello Niko, Lina," Tasha sits in the seat in front of us. "Niko, I was wondering if you knew what Jason was doing? Jacob mentioned before he left for his own lessons that Jason would not answer a call, and the Sages were a little too busy to answer."

"I do not," I answer. "Lina has already asked me the same. I do know that Jason opened the Tombs of the Kings and Queens of Power, though."

It is likely what Jason did between Jaklenai leaving and Jason returning home to rest. Word has arrived from the several which are located within Varil that they opened up, and the documents inside are now being assessed.

As no one currently knows the ancient tongue well enough to decipher them, time will be taken, but they will eventually be deciphered, and people will learn from our journals what exactly we fought against.

"I heard about that," Tasha nods. "I forgot he mentioned he had the keys."

Our professor enters the lecture hall the moment the tone signals the start of lessons for today, and he is followed by Jaklenai, who now wears a student's robes. For first-year students in the S-Class. Other than that, he appears the same as he was described, piercing in his ear included. Jaklenai looks our age, rather than being around two or three years older in appearance, now. I forgot that some gods could change how old they appeared.

Everyone falls silent, as everyone present either saw him or heard his description. We Magi just stare at him in confusion.

"Hello," Professor Telmul greets us, and I can tell by his tone that he feels quite nervous. "This is Lord Jaklenai, the, uh, god who descended here on Felday to address the masses. He has decided to grace us with his presence and observe our lessons, asking to be treated as a student as he does."

If this is a god on well enough terms to hug Jason without having Reaper drawn, then there is no doubt in my mind that he might be a whimsical god, and chose to do this on a whim.

"Hello," Jaklenai greets us. "I have suppressed my divine aura so that it does not bother you as you study. As Professor Telmul said, please treat me as you would any of your other fellow students. I have never been to university before, and wish to see what it is like to be a student."

He is definitely a whimsical god.

"Also," he adds. "To help encourage that, you may call me by the shortened form of my name, Jake. That seems to be a more mundane name, which should help."

Based on the hug he gave Jason, I am sure they had a relationship in our last life here, which means that Nolan likely called him that.

Jaklenai dips his head to us, then assess the room before taking the empty seat beside me, where Jason usually sits. We do not have assigned seats, and it seems Jason is likely still recovering from his body rapidly recovering from his injuries. Sage Alyssa informed me that Jaklenai had given him a blessing to lift the curse of Enamas's ill intent.

"Mr. Jeshema," Professor Telmul says. "Will be joining us late today, one of the generators powering the light crystals for the university failed, and he is currently examining it to see if it needs replacing or just a quick repair."

With the way the system is set up here, each section of the university has three different mana generators powering the parts that are not wards. It is designed so that if one fails, only a third of things fail to work. So in the section the failed mana generator supplies, one third of the light crystals will be dim.

I am not sure how many mana generators actually power the university, but I know Jason mentioned that there are more than a dozen of them. It is not necessary, but was done to ensure redundancies.

Professor Telmul begins our lesson on magical theory, and I look at Jaklenai a few times. He does not answer any questions, though I know he has far more knowledge about magic and magical theory than any of us could possibly have.

At least, in these current lives of ours. As our true selves, we likely understand it even better than he does.

This lesson is to help us better understand magic itself and assist us in developing our own spells or coming up with solutions that play to our strengths, even if we lack good enough affinity with what should be used for the situation. A very helpful class to most.

Jason does not show up at all for it, and it is not until we are halfway into our Ancient Lore lesson, which Jaklenai has been studying with an intensity surprising me to come from a god in this lesson, when Jason arrives.

He walks right over to Jaklenai, grabs him by the back of the cloak, and hauls him out of the seat, dropping him on the empty seat on the other side. That draws everyone's attentions.

"Sorry for my tardiness," Jason apologizes to our professor. "I was repairing one of the university's mana engines. I believe you were already warned I may be late as a result."

"…I was," the professor answers, clearly unsure what will happen as a result of Jason's actions.

"Niko, Jaklenai was putting pins in your robe," Jason says, and I look down to find more than fifty pins in my robe on the side Jaklenai had sat on. "Jaklenai, if you do that again, I will stick you with a pin."

Jaklenai opens his mouth to say something.

"I can change it to Harbinger, if you want."

Jaklenai closes his mouth, but grins.

"My apologies for the interruption," Jason tells our professor.

"Y-yes," the professor says. "Let us resume the lesson, then."

Everyone is still giving Jason and Jaklenai nervous looks, though the god seems amused and my friend just appears quite tired.

"As I was saying," our professor continues with the lesson. "Not much is known about the ruins found in the Kolma Forest. From what little we have been able to decipher of their texts, they worshiped a being called 'Rovos'."

Jason stiffens beside me.

"However," he continues. "Before that, they may have worshiped another deity, a goddess named Emnial. We believe she was a goddess of love and fertility, but-"

"She was a god of rape," Jason and Jaklenai say in unison, and everyone looks at them.

"She's also dead," Jason says. "I, uh, may have been Rovos, in my life as Nolan."

That is the second half of his original name in that life, is it not? Alorovos?

"And killed her when I found her," he adds. "She was directly killing any man powerful enough to successfully resist being raped by the women who served her. After she raped him for twelve hours."

Ah, right, gods have a lot of stamina.

"And she wasn't being worshiped," Jason says. "By any except the women there. If you were male, you feared her. When I found the settlement a few months after the end of the war, I killed her and rehabilitated them so that they'd stray away from a rape-happy culture. It wasn't easy, and I ended up leaving it to someone else in the end so that I could pursue other-oh, crap. That's what I did."

You did plenty of things, Jason, so why do you look so nervous and terrified now?

"Anyway," he shakes his head. "Kolmant is what the settlement was called, and when I left there, they were on their way to becoming a culture that valued sex for pleasure rather than dominance. And, uh, often. At any time. With, uh, anyone, not just a spouse. That last part was not my fault, but rather, a result of their upbringing under Emnial. They did a lot of pottery, too."

"So she didn't return to the underworld?" Jaklenai asks Jason.

"Nope," Jason answers. "She remained behind. When Nolan found her, she was weak enough for me to kill, so I did that rather than seal her away. She had just had to fend off a young dragon, which made it easy."

The lesson resumes after that, with Jason giving some input on a few things. Kayla as well, as it seems she was in the region that Nolan had left in our last life here.

A few minutes before the end of the lesson, Jaklenai yelps, and everyone turns to find him pulling a pin out of his hand.

"R-right," the professor looks nervous again, as even if he doesn't look it, Jason was definitely the one who poked the god with a pin. "This concludes the lesson for today. Your assignment will be to research the Kolma Forest's various cultures of ancient times, then write up an essay detailing the similarities and differences, and what may have caused them."

He allows us to spend the rest of the lesson talking, so I look at Jason.

"You seemed a bit worried," I tell him. "About whatever it is you realized you had done."

"Yes," Jason scratches the back of his neck. "I, uh, did a lot of stuff. I'm not the only one, considering Benjamin built a castle and four towers on a tall mountain, creating a culture which worships him even today."

I feel my face heat up as Jason's admission to knowing about the Cult of the Gargoyle, as I have taken to calling them. I was hoping he and Nolan never found out about it.

"I," Jason says. "Well, Nolan, noticed as soon as you created the statue, Niko. I actually remembered the castle when I was nine."

"And Quinn and Ethan," Lina adds. "Created what turned into Varil. What did you do, Jason? The thing which provoked that realization during the lesson?"

"I apparently saved more than one egg of the silver and gold dragons, after wiping them out."

Did you not already know that?

(Jacob, 16)

Jason made Jaklenai try out for his training group, rather than simply admitting the god into it. I did not believe the rumors which reached the Royal Knight University that claimed the god decided to pretend to be a student.

Not until I walked into the training hall at the Royal Magic University and found Jaklenai undergoing the tryout.

Tryouts seemed quite tense to me, and I can sympathize with everyone else. Having an actual god present the entire time was unnerving, especially as only Jason seems to know Jaklenai. The god seems to be quite physical with Jason, too, as he attempted to hug him several times.

He even succeeded once, hugging Jason from behind, and I sensed Alex getting annoyed, which I feel might be Jaklenai's goal. All Jason did was sigh and remind Jaklenai that they were not courting and to keep his hands to himself.

Now, the training session is over, and Jaklenai is using Jason's left shoulder as an armrest as Alex talks with them, the warrior looking increasingly frustrated.

"He is your son," Jason says in the ancient tongue, and Alex frowns as I start to actually focus on the conversation rather than wait for Tasha to finish speaking with Lina so I can bid her farewell. "The one I told you I courted as Nolan."

"My son?" Alex gives him a bewildered look, speaking in the ancient tongue as well. "Uh, no offense, but I think I would know if I had a son, and he's a god, Jason."

"Yeah," Jason says. "He's a god. Specifically, a powerful god of the Second Order, though if there were five orders rather than four, he would be an upper-level God of the Third Order. He comes from a pantheon older than the current one, which is why he's pretty different."

"Jason," Alex says. "Gods of the Second Order are children of the Divine Beasts."

"Full points for that answer," Jason says, and I realize he is attempting to lead Alex to the solution. He does not know yet? "But not for the test."

"I don't understa-" Alex begins, then frowns. "We ain't just people who met the Sacred Beasts, are we?"

Jason stares at Alex as Jaklenai grins.

"We're the Divine Beasts, ain't we?" Alex asks softly. If I were not so close to them, I would not have heard the inquiry. "But I thought you said the Divine Beasts ain't able to take on mortal forms?"

"Normally," Jaklenai responds in the ancient tongue. "But Their Majesties possess the power to send you into mortal forms. They made your bodies immortal as well, in order to contain such powerful souls."

I look around, and it seems only the three of us heard that statement. So now only Jason, Niko, Alex, and I know the truth. And Adam, maybe, as I believe Jason may have mentioned he knew as well.

"Congratulations," Jason claps Alex's shoulder. "You are the fifth Magus to realize the truth."

Fifth? Who else did?

"And," Jason says. "Jaklenai knows you and I are courting, and is quite happy for us. He comes from a vastly different culture than ours when it comes to how friends interact with each other. Think of something like in our lives on Earth."

Close friends were physical with each other on Earth?

"Jacob," Tasha draws my attention away as she and Lina approach. "You enjoy the rest of your evening."

"You as well," I give her a kiss, then she leaves, and I look at Lina. "Back to the palace we go."

"Yes," she nods. "You have a lot of reports to finish filling out, do you not?"

"I do," I confirm. "A couple of guilds are asking for permits for events as well. It seems Jason's exhibitions have given people ideas to do the same."

Bringing knowledge and ideas from his previous life seems to be a good idea for our society, and I can understand why he would have wanted to do that. From what I can remember, the Divine Dragon loves Midlaris more than any of his other children, and would want to help his son's children progress and grow.

"Let us return, now," I tell her.

With us having been keyed into the wards against gates and taught how to use the gates, it is easy for us to return to the palace now. I open up a gate and we step through, exiting into the dining hall where Lina and I have been meeting for dinner every day since Papa became incapacitated, when possible.

Sitting on the elegant seat at the head of the table today is Papa. Unable to help myself, I rush to him, hugging him.

"You have returned!" I exclaim as Lina joins me in hugging our papa.

"I have," Papa answers. "The goddess there said I might need another week to recover, but Jason arrived early yesterday afternoon with an item which repaired the rest of my wound. As you can see, David has returned as well."

"Welcome back," I dip my head to David as I step back. "How do you feel, Papa?"

"Quite well," he answers. "And more confident in what will happen when it is time for me to abdicate the throne."

"That is many years away," I tell him.

"Indeed," he tells me. "But having heard of what you did while I was unavailable, I am comfortable in knowing the kingdom will still be in good hands."

He turns his gaze to Lina.

"I received an interesting report while you two were at university," he says. "I was curious if it were true."

"About the god, Jaklenai?" She asks, and Papa gives her a slight nod. "Yes, he was there, in our lessons with us."

She laughs.

"He sat beside Niko while Jason was repairing the mana generator which went out," she says. "And when Jason returned, he just grabbed Jaklenai by the back of the robe and evicted him from the chair. I think everyone except for Jason was prepared for the university to be destroyed as Jason took his seat and casually informed Niko that Jaklenai had stuck pins in his robe. Niko had to spend a few minutes removing them all. We counted seventy-four of them total. Then, towards the end of the lesson, he tried doing the same to Jason, and Jason stuck him with a pin in response. It seems Jaklenai is one of the more friendly gods."

"According to Jason," I say. "Jaklenai comes from a previous pantheon of gods, which I assume means he predates any of the gods we fought during the war. He certainly acts quite different from them as well."

"Would you care to tell me about everything which has happened as we eat?" Papa asks. "From the attempted overthrow to the end of today's training session?"

"We can try," I tell him. "But it might take awhile longer than dinner."

"That is fine," he answers as I take my seat, Lina sitting across from me. "What happened after Sage Elena took me to the sanctuary?"

(Alex, 17)

I left with Jason, and Jaklenai came through the gate with us. Now, they are seated on the couch in Jason's living room, drinking tea and chatting about stuff which predates the war. Jason's face has lit up, and it's made me realize why he's been depressed lately.

He ain't got someone like him – the rest of us are still only ourselves from this life. Jason, on the other hand, has not just memories, but the actual lives of his past lives. He has hundreds of mortal years, and billions of immortal ones. To him, that must be quite lonely, and it's made me feel awful over it.

While he does enjoy talking with us and having fun in this life, it must be awful being the only truly ancient entity around. I turned on my aural sheath as soon as I realized this. Everyone in the house knows about it, so it acts as training. I must use it at every opportunity, so that I can catch up to him and Niko.

"Do you remember that time," Jaklenai says. "I fought against… what was his name?"

"Are you talking about Elmiana or Verulir?"

"Verulir!" Jaklenai exclaims. "I haven't seen him since you wiped the pantheon, did you end him as well?"

"No," Jason answers. "I have a recollection of meeting him some million years ago, after the wipe of the old pantheon. And yes, I remember that time you fought him. If I remember correctly, you two ended up destroying a world and blowing up its sun."

"Verulir blew up the star," Jaklenai says, and Jason gives him a hard stare. "Okay, maybe because I threw him at it, but it was still his action."

He threw another god at a star?

"And we only destroyed half of a planet," Jaklenai says. "I fixed it after, too."

Just how powerful were the gods from his era? I don't believe any of the current gods could destroy half of a planet just fighting another god.

"Yeah," Jason rolls his eyes. "If I remember correctly, that was after you two realized I was there, which happened after the star blew up."

"Yup!" Jaklenai gives Jason a peck on the cheek, and I feel my temper rising, even if I know it's not meant as a romantic thing or anything. "Well, I should get going, Dragon. There are a few places I want to check on before university tomorrow."

"See you," Jason says, and Jaklenai simply vanishes. I stare at the space he departed from, as his vanishing act is different from how gods normally depart, and it was not a form of spatial magic, either. "He didn't use a pathway, and that wasn't spatial magic. Gods from Jaklenai's pantheon can immediately warp to any of their shrines, anywhere in the universe. It doesn't use the pathways."

Jason stands and grins at me.

"Come on," he says. "I want to show you something."

I follow him into his workshop, aware that one of his mamas will probably be here to check on us in just a minute. They always do, to ensure we are following the rules and protocols.

Jason wastes no time removing his university robe and his vest, hanging them over the back of his chair.

"Look!" He grabs my right hand and has me feel his damaged arm and torso.

I have felt the magic that stitched him together and replaced his arm before, and they felt different than they do now. It actually feels like flesh, and I lift my left hand up and try to feel everywhere I can remember seeing magical stitching on his torso. Nothing at all. It all feels like actual flesh and blood.

"Ya didn't tell me," I say. "That Jaklenai is powerful enough to lift the curse of a god's ill intent."

I had assumed it after Jason's comment about how powerful Jaklenai is, but didn't realize the god had lifted the curse.

"Ya healed in a day and a half?" I ask, dropping my hands back to my side.

"Yeah," he grins. "Actually, I healed in about two hours, then fell asleep for eighteen. I woke up yesterday, finished making a thing to try and undo the damage caused by the dagger used against Uncle Zach, then went and tested it on him. He, ah, scolded me for using him as a test subject, but it was either him or David, and I care about him more than David."

I snort as Jason's enthusiasm, then step forward and hug him, wrapping my arms around him as tightly as possible as I rest my head on his shoulder. Only a moment later does he return the tight hug, his head resting on my shoulder.

Being grey in magical power and having trained his body since he was a small child, Jason has a lot more strength than me, and is using a great deal of it in his hug. It hurts, but I don't care. I'm happy he's healed up now.

After a minute, I realize he's relaxing his hug and adjusting the strength of it so he doesn't hurt me while still hugging me as tightly as he can. I chuckle against him as I realize that, and he tilts his head suddenly, smacking mine with it. That was definitely intentional, and he knows exactly why I was chuckling.

"Jason," I breathe. "I'm so happy ya're better now. Ya've been scaring me a lot, and I've been so worried about you."

"I know," he responds softly. "I'm glad Jaklenai was around. He apparently took a nap after we left Midlaris last time and only just woke back up."

"What?" I release Jason and step back, his grip lightening so that I can. "He took a nap for three thousand years?"

"Yeah," Jason nods. "Jaklenai is a god of the sea. He is as shifting and wild as it, but also as calm and steady. It's easy to tell that when you look at his personality as a whole and know him as well as I do. He has a tendency to nap for several thousand years at a time."

The runes light up on the panel by the door as they ping to inform us someone is attempting to contact Jason from the other side. I tap the appropriate runes.

"Open up," Sage Elena says. "I know you're both in there alone."

I open the door, and Sage Elena enters, then gives us a disapproving stare.

"We ain't doing anything inappropriate" I tell her. "Jason was letting me feel that the injuries were gone. Not a trace of the force magic that was holding him together. Then we started talking about Jaklenai, and he didn't pull his vest back on."

Jason swiftly grabs his vest and pulls it on, lacing it up as Sage Elena looks around the room.

"You have a new project," she fixes her gaze on his desk.

"Hm?" Jason looks at the desk. "Oh, yeah, that. Actually, Papa Jared and I have been working on it for awhile. Actually, I wanted Alex's input on it, and that's why I brought him in here. But then I saw the concern on his face and decided to show him I was all better."

Either he's lying to cover himself, or he's as much of the lovable goofball that he's always been.

"What is it?" I ask as he takes a seat.

"A few months ago," Jason tells me as Sage Elena and I move to get a better look at it. "You mentioned to me some of your memories from Kris. About movies and shows where they had magical games. Not like what I have with the posts, but on a smaller scale.

"You mentioned," he picks up the stone wyvern figure. "That a few years ago, you'd made a few enchanted carvings and would play games with them with some of your crew because of those memories. We've been attempting to emulate this, but haven't managed to find a way to do it properly without it being far too costly for a children's game."

Jason has around a dozen figures carved out of stone on the desk.

"I figured," he says. "Even if you haven't made them in awhile, you probably still remembered what you did. So far, we can manage to get the pieces to act, but we can't find an efficient way to give them commands to follow the rules of the game."

He pauses for a moment.

"So Papa Jared asked me," he says. "To ask you if it actually was a game, or if you really just had them attacking each other."

"It was a game," I tell him. "Um, you know a chess board?"

"Yeah."

"We'd use four of those," I explain. "I'd enchant them as well to act as the base for the game. We could issue simple commands, like 'forward two', 'right three', and so on, as well as one or two basic attacks or actions based on which the piece was. We had to constantly feed the boards mana, though, but it was worth it whenever things were feeling bad."

"You fed the boards-" Jason pauses for a moment, then snaps his gaze to mine. "The railroad tracks. This is where you got that idea from, isn't it?"

"No," I answer, then remember something. "Actually, yeah, I'd just forgotten it until now. I'd remembered about the tracks a few years ago, too, and thought that might be a good way to get the pieces to move, since it would be a pain to move each one individually."

"Can you show me the enchantments you used?" He asks.

"Sure," I tell him.

Jason pulls out a chessboard, and we get to work. Sage Elena leaves us alone after a bit, though the workshop door has to remain open. Tiger Alpha counts as supervision, but I suppose he's busy right now since I haven't seen him at all.

Cecilia brings us dinner as we work, Jason talking with me about the enchantments and us improving them. Being a few years older and having gone through lessons on enchanting by experts such as Sage Alyssa and Sage Jared, I'm a bit wiser now.

As we design the stuff and create the enchantments, I make suggestions that if we're doing a game, we also have different terrains for the boards as well. Forests, mountains, a river snaking through the board, and so on.

Jason eventually passes out, and I realize that it's past midnight. He must have put in a lot of effort to stay awake, I know he ain't fully recovered from his healing yet, due to how much energy has been expended healing over the last couple of months.

I give him a kiss on the cheek.

"Good night," I whisper. "You roped me into your habits."

His enthusiasm for enchanting and fun rubbed off on me tonight, it seems. I leave the workshop and close the door, and when I head for the front door, I'm startled by Sage Alyssa coming out of the kitchen holding a cup of steaming tea.

"Hello, Alex," she says. "How do you think the session went?"

"Jason roped me into his bad habits," I tell her, and she laughs. "It was fun, though. Not living here any more, I've missed seeing the way his face lights up when he works on his enchanting."

"He misses you being here, too," she tells me. "Says he cannot wait until after graduation so that you two can marry without the mess of university."

"Ain't that really to avoid having babies during university?" I ask, and she nods. "I guess that ain't something which really applies to us, though. I'm sure we'll still be together in four and a half years, but agree that some wait is healthy, just to make sure we really do want to."

"That's a good idea," she nods. "Jason and Jared have come to me a few times for advice about that game, Jason was really hoping to get it made for you as a surprise."

"Yeah," I shrug. "I know ya guys will probably sell it through your company, but I'm glad to help."

"The game," she says. "Is based off of your design, Alex. Especially after tonight, when they finally received what they needed to finish working on the game. We were starting to think we were trying to make it too complex in the enchantments, and you confirmed that to us, as well as that we were missing some information regarding it. With tonight's session, all of it is based off the version you created a few years ago.

"Because of that," she says. "The game's rights go to you. If we want to sell it, we will be buying the right to do so from you, and you will earn income based on the sales. That is how the patents work."

"Ah," I say.

The railroad track mana enchantment was suggested by me, though Jason and Sage Jared worked on it in the entirety. Man, I would probably be rich if that were by me.

"And if you're thinking of the railroad tracks," Sage Alyssa tells me, and I realize that my expression must have told her. "The thought was yours, even if the design is entirely theirs. When Harold registered the patent for them, he had you listed as one of the contributors. Should any other company wish to use it, they will be forced to pay money for using a patented work, and you will earn some of that income.

"As it is," she says. "I believe Harold is already factoring in a payment for you for the ones placed by our company. I know he is calculating how much it would cost if we were placing them at a request to connect two places."

"Wait," I say. "I'm getting paid for that?"

"Yes," she answers. "And you will for the game, if you wish to allow us to sell it. As I said, though Jason had intended on it being a surprise for you, it now uses your foundation for its design."

My fortune during the Twelve Honors… spoke of wealth, among other things.

Was this what it meant?