Bethany shortened her stilts and unlocked a little front door within the much larger one and stepped through. Bethany looked back to talk but stopped when she had to look up, she coughed "right give me a minute I need to open the main door from the inside.”

Once inside Neo was surprised to find a high ceiling at least 10 feet tall and much like the Tinker's Castle there were pipes up the wall and along the ceiling and what looked like a mechanical engine attached to a platform that could move along rails, the hallway ran the length of the building with another door that looked into the garden, What was surprising to Neo was that he wasn't crouching down as Gnomes didn't need all this room.

Bethany set her stilts against the wall, she then chucked her shoes into a corner and disappeared into the first room on the left, with the stairs to the right heading up to the first floor.

Neo heard a bit of crashing, smiling to himself he took his shoes off and followed Bethany into the first room, seeing her with her hands full of plates and bowls. "Need a hand?"

"No thank you, make yourself at home." she murmured from behind the stack.

Looking around he found that the decor was pretty plain the walls had no paint or plaster on them giving it quite the original feel, there were no pictures hanging, but a lot of plates and bowls lying around.

There wasn't a television around so Neo couldn't think of why there would be so much food in a room which had nothing to entertain you while you ate, there wasn’t any radio either.

He followed Bethany into what he hoped was the kitchen, bringing some plates with him wanting to at least help with the dishes it was the least he could do.

When he entered the kitchen he found it in a similar state to the living room, dirty cutlery, used pots, pans and dirty stove. Everything was shorter and smaller he was going to be bending over quite a bit

Neo eyes where however drawn to a knife clean and shining lying on the top of the counter he walked over to the sink where Bethany was standing, Neo kneeled and placed the plates next to the sink. "You don't have to do anything Neo it's ok to leave it to me I should have washed up ages ago, I just haven't done it and it's been weeks since last time I washed anything it's embarrassing, I am sorry!" she said bowing her head

Neo thought about what he'd seen and wondered what she was apologising for. "It's ok I wouldn't be any better if I was on my own either, but let me help dry up at least, two pairs of hands are better than one."

Neo smiled at her, She looked a little wearily but smiled back and turned the taps on to fill the sink. Neo looked around for a cloth to use to dry, even if he was of the opinion of air drying it. He saw a clean looking one near the knife, and went to get the cloth, putting the knife back into the knife block as he went.

He turned around and found Bethany looking at the knife with an empty expression "Just putting it back don't want any accidents, with my clumsy self around it's bound to happen soon." Neo said with an innocence smile, which got the desired reactions he wanted as she smiled back he knelt back in front of the drying rack and waited.

It was an hour before the kitchen and the living room was cleared of tableware, and Neo had cleaned the work surfaces and hob.

He even suggested that he’d cook which seemed to spark a fire in Bethany when she adamantly said that she'd be fine and he was relegated to the living room to look for some reading material to ease the boredom.

Finding some old looking newspapers he started going through them finding many interesting things like a creature called a Shade had stolen some items of importance from a few noble houses. Complaints about the sewer system not being up to standard, complaints about taxes, gossip about the royal families something about some family members attending the local academy.

It was very informative but no different to the human world just replacing the superstars with royalty, and humans with magical and supernatural beings.

Neo hadn't realised how long he had been sitting on the sofa reading the Beacons T Paper when Bethany poked her head in "Dinners, ready!"

He looked up at the clock above the fireplace it showed 6 pm 'wow I got engrossed in reading time flew by.’

Placing the papers back where he found it, he entered the kitchen ducking under some pipes, he found a table had appeared, on it was some candles, clean knives and forks and a lovely looking plate of food "Looks lovely, If I may ask what dish is it?"

"It's a fish local to this bubble dish it is very nice to eat and safe and on the side, we have some basic vegetables in a tomato sauce placed on a garlic mash potato."

"Lovely, let's eat."

After sitting down Neo asked questions about her, she answered politely, he steered away from her parents and talked about her work and the different kind of magical beings out there and the castle occupants.

He learnt about Angels and Demons that they both had their own castles to represent themselves and they feuded quite often which didn't surprise Neo, the fact that they existed did and that they were a considered a mercenary kingdom and would work for the highest bidder.

The higher the bid the more powerful the Angel like being you got or Demon it was quite a quandary Neo wondered how that worked.

Then there were the Arachne the weaving beings, Tinker's clan being a combination of Dwarf and Gnome Kingdoms, Beastkin Clan an amalgamation of tribes of beastkind, The Elf Kingdoms, Drakan kingdom, Undead Imperium, Grove’s Domain, Frost Dwellers, Aquarius Kingdoms, Mage Guilds and the Eastern Imperium.

She also explained that all houses are build to a standard of 10 foot tall ceilings very few beings get taller than 9 feet tall and those that do like giants get an entire district build entirely for them with doors up to 30 feet tall that included shops, toilets all made 3 times taller to accommodate for giants and other beings that are much taller than the average.

She informed Neo that magic flows like the wind from the west and travels throughout the world, there were theories of where magic came from and how the magical creatures developed from the magic but there are no records. It is also thought that the bubbles developed when magic collected in pools and somehow connected to the material world and formed themselves into bubbles.

Neo asked how they thought they evolved which she replied that most people believe that they're all evolved from humans, although she did say that it was an illegal theory and you could be punished if you say anything about this theory.

Bethany informed Neo that there were purists saying that Humans were devolved from us and once had magic, not the other way round.

Taking the plates into the kitchen Neo helped with washing up, and asked why they didn’t have television or electricity, Bethany walked over to a switch and pushed it. the room brightened as a light bulb illuminated the room.

“Haha….” Neo burst, “Is that magic?”

“Yes and no it uses electric as the power source but can be converted from magical energy.”

“Then why don’t you have television or radio, do they work within the bubbles?"

“We don’t have radios, simply because the radio waves don’t work the same way here, we do have cable but it too expensive for me after rebuilding the house.”

Neo nodded in understanding answering his own question ‘the cables must be underground, what about the internet?’

“What about the Internet?”

“No, and yes we have it although it's less used as we can't attach it to the human world as the wires won't connect through the walls of the bubble so we had to make our own. Which of course makes it smaller than the human internet and is constricted to the individual bubble and wifi don't work for the same reason as the radio.”

After a little more talking Bethany said

“Anyway it getting a bit late for me, we gnomes may be able to stay awake but when we do sleep it’ll be for about 9 to 10 hours for a good night sleep. Your room is the second door as you go up the stairs.”

Neo finding himself quite tired informed Bethany “I’ll head off to bed too.” He was concerned that Bethany would worry more with a stranger wandering around in her house.

She nodded and moved towards the stair, “I’ll show you your room then.”

Reaching the first floor Bethany pointed to the first door “Toilet”

She then pointed to the next door “this will be your room.”

There were 2 more rooms she pointed to the next room “mine!” then the last room “another spare room” before vanishing into her own.

Seeing so many spare rooms must have been a large family Neo thought and she’s now alone, man I’m making myself sad just thinking about it and wiped away a tear.

Neo entered the room finding the walls had actually been plastered and painted in a light blue, there were two made beds, and looking around he found teddy bears, toys and childish pictures and paintings.

‘Maybe she was sure they were coming back so rebuilt their rooms, maybe they were just injured and would still be coming back but are in a coma. Maybe she can’t get past the deaths of her family and is stuck?’

Neo would have picked a bed but they were too small. Deciding to sleep on the floor, he removed the blankets and pillows from the beds and made himself as comfortable as possible.

Neo decided to look up how many souls he gathered yesterday “Soul Shop”

The ancient scroll appeared in a flash of light, checking the number in the top right he saw 211 souls had been collected.

'That's 46 souls last night! Did I kill all those men, don't I have any control over it? No wonder Thra was so sad this morning.” A deep seed of guilt sprouted in his chest causing him to toss and turned all night.

The next morning Bethany came into the room waking him whom she apologised for, walking in on him, Neo just replied “There is nothing for you to apologise for as there is nothing for you to see.” as he’d fallen asleep fully clothed.

“Bethany I’ll be going shopping today to get the basics,” he said a bit red faced. He asked Bethany where he could find somewhere to get clothes and everyday items and she gives him some directions to the desired shop but with time being at a premium as Neo had to get to his new job soon he would have to get the stuff after work if the shops where open after he finished. He left the home and Bethany informed him that she had the day off and would be staying at her home.