Autumn rooted in the backyard, waving off any offers of additional comfort for the night. He didn't share his life story with her, but Lilia thought he was opened up after sharing a fistbump. He might think it a cute thing, but cute things have a way of worming into your heart! Lilia thought with evil laughter.

Serabelle didn't drag Lilia out of bed for her daily exercise routine of running and yoga. Serabelle smiled and said there was a surprise coming and wanted to get the house ready. Autumn made his way into the house with a subdued "Good morning to the two of you."

Tiny feet pounded on the hardwood floor as Lilia charged the Sproutling. A few feet away, gravity betrayed her, and she stumbled. Faster than she thought a plant man could move, Autumn caught her with one elongated arm and lifted her up.

"Hi Autumn!" she said brightly. As he set her down, she latched onto his leg, "Mornings also require the tradition of hugs!" The Sproutling hummed in a way that Lilia thought might mean laughter or amusement. Hard to tell.

Serabellle frowned at her daughter, but Lilia pretended not to notice, "Do you have plans today, Autumn? You are welcome to stay here, but I shall be accomplishing some errands before noon."

"This one will visit the local Guild and register with them. A quest or two will allow this one to contribute to the growth of your family as humans do."

"Autumn, you have accepted the shade of my house, and I do not expect you to pay for anything under this roof. My family is quite capable," her mother said. "Though I believe you mean more to stay busy while you are here in Hamblin, yes?"

"Ah, unlike many Sprouts, this one finds no ease in staying still for too long. This one finds growth in more than just meditation, as you well know," Autumn said, again making the amused humming.

"Growth in battle? Autumn, you impress me! Maybe we should duel when my husband returns. To see what you may receive from him, of course," Mother said with an evil glint in her eyes. Lilia shivered.

"Of course," the Sproutling hummed, this time with a bit more wavering in his tone.

The mother and daughter duo walked the Sproutling to the Guildhall. The warmth of the rising sun dissipated the bits of fog still hiding in the streets' shadows. Lilia was glad to see that she wasn't alone in staring at the Sproutling. At the same time, it made her question how out of the way Hamblin might be. The way her parents spoke of their time in Merch, she assumed that humans were far from being the only race.

Lilia tried to imagine what a city would be like with all the various races her mother described to her yesterday. Small people with horns and lizard folks with gleaming scales of steel. The towers of the magic academies promised to take even the most average mages and create something special out of them.

Magic was definitely something she wanted to be able to play with. Her parents kept giving her different magical toys to play with. She suspected that each might have a way of helping to awaken a magical affinity. Perhaps, a stretch of the imagination as neither of her brothers could do magic. They were nearing adulthood of Alma at fifteen and fourteen.

Her father's magic might be something with metal. He was a smith, after all. But Lilia didn't know enough to ask about it. Maybe asking was rude? Her mother's magic was definitely something to do with that spear she kept pulling out of nowhere.

Lost in her thoughts, she stumbled on a loose flagstone and fell with a yelp. She scrambled to her feet before her mother could pick her up, embarrassed. A new world, and I get the magic power of tripping. Awesome.

The Adventuring Guild was a truly massive structure in Hamblin. It dwarfed other buildings around in shape and majesty—three brightly painted wood stories engraved with magical-looking symbols. The words "Hamblin's Adventurers" stood out in neon red above the doors.

It may be more prudent to call them gates, actually, Lilia mused. Each door seemed to be made of a single piece of wood so dark as to call them obsidian. Twice the size of standard doors and with guards outside to boot.

Serabelle just nodded at them as they walked in. Each time she visited the Guild made her feel like she stepped into this world all over again. The doors led to a vast hall filled with tables of men and women carrying staves and swords. She imagined you could fit nearly an entire track around the outside of the room and finish off your run at the bar on one side of the room. Above it, a balcony had more tables and groups of people Lilia guessed were nobles or richer by their dress.

"Autumn, if you would join us for dinner, I am cooking a soup I learned from my time in the Elvish capital," Serabelle said.

"Registering should not take long, and this one will spend the time after learning of the area and making plans with various teams. This one would not miss such a meal," replied Autumn. His antennae twisting around.

He walked off to the counter at the far end of the room, and Serabelle grabbed Lilia's hand. Lilia felt her tug and it jerked her attention away from the room. "Syndra? Is everything okay?"

Lilia knew she had a frown on her face. Bigger on the inside? Magic? "Mom, what kind of magic is it?"

"Magic?" seeing Lilia's eyes focused on the building, Serabelle guessed, "Did you see how the inside seems bigger?"

"Yes?"

"That is a funny story! Come," Lilia let her mother drag her into a building across the street.

It seemed inconspicuous at first glance. "The Never Inn'ding Storey" was ironically a single-story building with a sign of a bed and tankard hanging out of it.

A grumpy-looking man wore a checkered vest and sat at the counter in the middle of the room like a hotel receptionist. His weight forced the stool under him to creak as he looked up at them before returning his gaze to the worn book in his hand.

"What do you want, Sanmey?" he asked coolly.

"Ah, what a joy it is to see you, Michael. Tell me, how is business?" Mother asked in a cheerleader's mocking tone.

"Before you? Wonderful. Since you ruined it? Terrible. What do you want?" he turned the page without looking up. This wasn't the first time he'd had this particular conversation.

"Have you met my daughter, Syndra? She was so curious about why the Guild, you know the one across the street there? Yes, well, she wanted to know why it seemed bigger on the inside. I remembered my friend Michael Bux and thought, 'Michael is a space mage; he could explain better than me!' So here we are!" Serabelle was positively gushing now. Lilia might have thought it over the top, but the vein throbbing on Michael's head was growing bigger with every word.

Impressively, his tone did not fluctuate at all, "Sanmey, if you wish to flaunt your victory, perhaps wait until after you see my most recent work? I can see that the years are starting to wear on you, and I do not wish for any more wrinkles to appear on what was such a lovely face."

Serabelle's following words weren't as high pitched, "Oh? Are you sure you can make it there? I see you've been a bit too busy reading and snacking. Ironic that you make a building of stairs and never use it."

Triumph flashed in Michael's eyes, "Ah, but I do not seem to be alone in putting on weight?" he looked Serabelle up and down before catching Lilia's eye. He looked away with a blush, "Excuse me, little Syndra. Your mother often draws out the worst in me. Serabelle, if you two would follow me, I think you will be impressed." With that, he eased himself off his chair and waddled away. He is significantly pear-shaped. That is impressive, Lilia thought snidely.

"My weight? Really. I haven't even put on a kilo," Serabelle muttered but took Lilia's hand and followed to the door at the back of the room. She wasn't sure what she thought of Michael, but her gut feeling was that this would be interesting.

Going through the curtain on the other side of the door, Lilia expected an alleyway or a tavern. She went as far as to imagine a funhouse passageway into a chocolate river. She built up her hopes and was let down. It was, as her mom promised, a staircase.

"A staircase. Ingenious," Serabelle put a palm to her forehead, "How will the heavens compete with this?"

"Yes, yes, I have yet to shift everything down to this floor. It does make an amount of sense to keep the base foundations clear of magical constructs in case of fluctuations. Hamblin is not known for its mana density, but mana storms were once common," Michael began to lecture.

"Mana storms? In the last century? Tell me how you expect that these foundations would stand against a mana storm? You are still using the Risula-Hex base," Serabelle gestured at the wall next to them.

"Risula-Hex is the perfect base. You will see when we get to the next floor. I staged a double mandala and nearly had the entire structure fall over while the city lord was walking by. And your fascination with the Ursala rendition of Risula is blatantly overexaggerated."

It was going over Lilia's head but it seemed like Serabelle knew what he was talking about. After a few minutes of climbing steps, Lilia knew some magic was at play as they didn't seem to be making progress.

Her breath began to become labored, but before she tugged on Mother's hand, she was hoisted up and sat on her mother's shoulders. From this view, she could see over Michael's huge posterior and saw they were almost at a turn in the passage. And embarrassingly, Michael did not seem out of breath despite his weight.

I am still growing, she told herself. Looking back down, Lilia was shocked to see that they only climbed about ten stairs or so. The burning in her legs and her thoughts said they'd been walking for an ample amount of time. Even factoring in the walk from her house to the Guild didn't tire her that much.

When she finally got her breathing under control, she asked Serabelle about the Guild again.

"It was a wonderful day in Hamblin, and your father and I were taking a stroll to the Guild to check on a mission we posted. This was before even your brother, Jackson, was born. To our surprise, we felt a big surge in mana in the area. A really big tower started to form in the middle of the city right by the Guild!" Serabelle said. Michael remained quiet but turned the corner, walking a bit faster.

"Your father and I heard screaming, so I ran really fast to the Guild and found that the tower was growing right across the street. People's houses were being absorbed by the tower so that it would grow even bigger! Quickly, your father started to organize people to evacuate the area and even pulled a little man to safety," Michael choked back a retort with some effort of will. Lilia started to put the pieces together. "It was all very heroic."

"I, on the other hand, set up a containment ritual using my magic. I could not believe that the spell the tower was created under was high level but formed without even the most basic of foundation limits. Realizing the mistake, it was simple for me to unravel the spell and pull the tower down and save the entire city!" Serabelle finished proudly.

"What kind of magic?" She asked but before her mother could answer she asked, "But what about the Guild?"

This time it was Michael who answered, "The Guild was damaged during the collapse. The mage who cast the Wizards Tower spell was forced to repair it and add protections against further mistakes. His punishment is another 72 years of city maintenance and relegated to running an Inn as his only form of income outside of a sewage worker's stipend."

Serabelle didn't mock the portly man this time, her tone flat, "You almost killed a lot of people for your pride. This building shows the amount of leniency you were given."

"Yes, Sera. I know and appreciate everything. I cannot thank you-and your husband-enough for saving my life. Still, it does get tiresome having you bring in every stray adventurer who is curious about a minor space-saving rune. It barely qualifies enough value to require the materials for its use!"

"Oh right! The Guild! Syndra, the Guild is bigger on the inside because Michael basically squished the outside of the building with runes so he could do silly things like building a fort around Guild. We just let businesses move in for an extra charge," Serabelle said with a dismissive air.

"No. Everything about that was wrong, Sanmey. Syndra, it is fairer to say the Adventurer's Guild building is its true size on the inside while the outside seems smaller," Michael said, turning to look at her. Addressing Serabelle, he said testily, "And it was not a bad idea to put walls around the Guild! I was tasked with protecting it, and it is one of the first buildings to be attacked in siege! Walls made sense. Though I admit the cafe would need to be moved within the walls in future plans…" the weird man mused.

"Cafe!" Lilia all but screamed. "Is there coffee?"

The fat man stopped on the stairs, "Yes? What else would you get from a cafe?"

Serabelle frowned at her youngest, but nothing could get through Lilia's joy at hearing how close coffee was. What good would you ever accomplish without the nectar of the gods after all?

They finally reached the top of the stairs then. "Was it necessary to build so high?" Serabelle asked.

"You might have missed it, but the floors below us are the rooms and bars. When I can finally open this place up to the world, I expect people will come from all over and fill these halls," Michael said grandly, both hands to the sky as if in triumph.

They stood on an aquamarine carpet in a room of glass; Lilia felt like she was walking in the clouds with the sun above. Lilia noticed that behind them, the door remained but could see no staircase from either side of it. Looking out the window was a bad idea. She realized they were a long way up. It reminded her of her trip through Sears Tower in Chicago. Lilias and heights do not go together. She choked back her nausea and focused back on the conversation.

"...We are in Hamblin," Serabelle pointed out.

"Yes, but with this design, I will stretch my business out across the lands, and people will come to visit my Never Inn'ding Storeys!"

Serabelle sighed and set Lilia down on one of the white couches. They were fewer couches and more overgrown pillows with wood backing but nice all the same.

"Again, Hamblin," Serabelle said. "But what are we doing here? Is this where you go to live out your power fantasies if your family ever took you back in?"

"I left them, not the other way around," he snapped. Family is a touchy subject, Lilia nodded sagely. The image of what she must look like sitting cross-legged in her yellow shirt on clouds made her giggle. I am the baby buddha. The two adults glanced at her but saw she was distracted by her thoughts.

Michael walked to a wall and opened a window, revealing a closet. He brought over an apparatus of wires and metal sticks.

"Here is what I am thinking," he said, putting it on the table in front of them. He waved a hand over the pile of metal, and it flowed into a square tower. A few mutters, and the table glowed with runic script. Lilia leaned in closer and felt her mother do the same.

It looked like a dollhouse, fully furnished but all an illusion. When Lilia's hand went near it, the image faded away.

The first floor clearly the reception desk they saw when they entered the building. The second floor and third floor had a long hallway with rooms coming off of it. It looked just like a modern hotel. The fourth floor looked like a bar. Or would it be a tavern? Mead hall? What even makes them different? After that, the pattern repeated until standing nearly twenty floors tall.

Serabelle spoke up after carefully looking over the design, "So the 'never' in 'Never Inn'ding' means twenty? Seems like a design flaw. Is this it? What's changed?"

Michael scowled but pulled a figurine and stone out of a pocket, "Watch here." Off to the side, he formed a replica of the first three-stories and set the figurine inside. Lilia smiled in joy as the doll started pacing and tapping its foot as if impatient to begin. It looked like a hand-carved wooden mannequin one might use for a puppet show.

Michael muttered a few words, and his hand pulsed a dull green. A wave of energy rolled through her, and Lilia lost all interest in the magic dollhouses and the figurine. Something in her was drawn to the orb.

"What is that?" she asked breathlessly.

Serabelle frowned at Michael, "That is a core. A dangerous thing to be waving around in front of unawakened."

"Ahhh, right. I do need it in a minute, but I have to charge the formation first. Let me explain, then I will demonstrate," Michael touched the figurine and a string of light attached between him. "You know that I love playing with efficiency. And obviously, I do not like walking despite the number of stairs in my abode. No, this would not do. So I began playing with various ideas. Teleporting has far too many dangers, as you know. Eventually, I settled on this: Imagine walking into one door and coming out a floor higher!"

He waggled his finger, and the tiny mannequin walked through a door then levitated up to the next floor. Michael watched Serabelle's face as if a student waiting to get approval.

"What formation for the base would you use?" she asked quietly. "And are you trying to use a space-shrink or use the rift connection method?"

"Yuni-Polator base with a Twin Meralco connection to the doors. The formation itself I call the Bux formation, after myself."

The two went back and forth talking about "stability this" and "base-formation that" before Michael stood up in a huff, "A demonstration then!" Stalking over to the wall opposite the way they came in, he pressed a palm to the ground and held out the one holding the core.

Runic script lit up in the same green glow as the orb and outlined a window. A doorway identical to the one they came in from formed into reality as though pushing through the surface of the water. It stood a foot out from the windows with nothing on the otherside. When the glowing faded from the runes around it, Michael stood with an effort, pale, and walked back to them as if drunk.

"That takes a lot out of me. But it should be an annual cost," he said.

Serabelle didn't say anything but Lilia was impressed. She couldn't conjure a doorway through the fabrics of reality. Michael looked over his new door with a frown, "It was supposed to be directly against the wall. Hmm."

"Does it work? How extensively have you tested this?" Serabelle asked curiously.

"Oh yes, it should work," he said. He opened the door to see a second door. "As you can see, I merely condensed the space between the two doors, so there is no fear of disembodiment." And with that, he walked through and opened the second door.

Through it, Lilia saw the first-floor circulation desk. Lilia made to follow the fat man, but her mother stopped her. Confused, "What's wrong, Mommy?"

"Let me make sure it's safe first," Serabelle said. She snapped out a hand, and a silver wand with a blue crystal at the hilt appeared. Thinking for a second, she began slowly writing out runes in the air in front of her. Each glyph hovered until it was complete before floating away to either the doorway or the passage past it. Lilia watched the light show fascinated, and her mother only increased the speed of her writing.

Eventually Serabelle stopped and began a new pattern. Dark blue runes formed a glowing humanoid. Lilia could see through it in parts, but every inch of it was covered in runic scripts so thickly she thought she might be able to fit a finger in at places but not an arm inside it. It walked forward and began to touch the doorway with its blob of a hand. The glyph person, seemingly satisfied with touching the outside of the door, began touching the inside of the hallway.

"This spell allows me to check for traps or gives me an extra hand," she informed her daughter. "My magic is Ward Creation. These symbols allow me to focus my mana into various shapes and even change the nature of the mana. I will tell you more later but for now, let Mommy focus."

Lilia saw the rune-man efforts disturbed the dust on the door and walls-a surprising amount of dust-but no harm seemed to come to it. Serabelle breathed out a sigh and walked forward quickly with Lilia's hand behind the glyph person. A faint tingle ran across their skin as they passed over each threshold, but there was no pain.

Serabelle only smiled when she reached the other side. The grin widened at seeing the big man's hair plastered to his face.

"Michael Bux!" she shouted, startling the poor man. Lilia giggled. "I am impressed! You might have done something outstanding here!"

He let out a breath of relief. Wiping away the sweat, he asked meekly, "Really?" He grinned and began to speak in his lecture tone, picking up confidence, "Yes. It is outstanding. It needs a bit of visual work still-cannot be using tavern doors for such grand displays of magic. And it only works vertically because of the Meralco. And moving backward can be fatal, but it has to work." Serabelle's hand stiffened in hers. Lilia looked up to see her becoming cold. Lilia couldn't help but think of Arron. Oh no. Lilia hastily removed her hand just before her mother started moving.

"...I know with time, I will work out the kinks. I suspect the formation singl-"

Serabelle's slap cut off further words. "What did you say? About going backwards?"

Michael gasped, holding his face. "It... sometimes works?"

"Fatal! You said fatal! I brought my daughter through it, you fat frog!" Serabelle was pissed, and Lilia wisely took a couple steps away from them. Then a few more away from the apparently killer doorway.

When she was close to the desk, she nodded to herself. After all, I am the baby buddha, and it would be a travesty to be killed by a door.

Serabelle pointed her finger to the door, and the runic man who was watching stoically returned through the door. Midway through the portal, its leg began to unravel. Faster and faster, the script twisted apart before the being blew apart in a strong gust of wind. While the air did nothing but ruffle Lilia's hair, she saw Michael and Serabelle's faces lose all their color. The silence after the explosion was broken when Serabelle screamed wordlessly.

Lilia very politely asked to wait outside. Twice. As her reply was the sound of flesh hitting flesh, the baby buddha, in all her sagely wisdom, fled. The sound didn't carry far, but Michael was a heavy man. When the thuds against the building walls began to draw some attention from a passerby or two, Lilia just smiled at them and waved. Nothing to see here, folks!

Inwardly though, she thought she should be more terrified. Michael seemed nice enough, but he did almost just kill them. And it wasn't the first time he'd made mistakes like that. While she wasn't sure she agreed with her mother's method of correcting his behavior, Lilia wasn't sure what she'd do in her place.

Lilia didn't have to wait too long before the door opened. Her mother's voice carried onto the street, "...and do not think for a minute I will not report you to the city council if you keep building this Goddess-forsaken shithole higher!" Seeing Lilia, she said, "Sorry, honey, do not repeat that word."

Lilia appraised Serabelle as they left. Serabelle looked like a superstar; hair blowing in the wind and the last half hour's exertion added a feral aspect to her walk. Lilia followed along with a big grin, obviously proud of her badass mom. Who else could cast magic and beat the crap out of high-level mages?

Serabelle glanced at the sky, "Oh, I might have gotten carried away. Are you okay, love?"

Lilia followed her gaze and saw that the sun passed its zenith. "Yeah. Food?"

Serabelle smiled, "Food." The duo stepped away from the magic building that stole their morning. "But nothing heavy. I have not gained weight! Have I?" she asked a bit indignantly.

"Mommy, I heard there's a cafe here that has-"

"No coffee." The reply was so fast and so harsh! Did Serabelle know how dark her world was?

"Why do you hate me?" Lilia fake cried, not giving up on her eternal quest.

She would begin scheming ways to create a doorway to that cafe if her mother was fated to be such a killjoy. Mastering magic would be but one step on her journey to a good cuppa.