I was homeless. Armed with nothing but a letter from my mom and Lavender’s word that she was sending someone to pick me up, I sat in front of a 7-11 drinking a Slurpee.

The only good news was that my connection to Kalli was strong enough to communicate across dimensions. I heard her voice in my head as I sighed loudly. Don’t worry Mel. Just think of this as your next big adventure. Besides, you can come to visit anytime.

Memories of the random family in my mom’s house made me worry that teleportation may be difficult. I was spared from having to answer when a rather loud horn startled me.

Looking up, a smile spread across my face as a familiar cab that had been magically converted into a hummer pulled into the parking lot. I climbed to my feet and called out to him. “Lou! Long time no see.”

The driver waved a stubby arm out of the window and grinned, honking the horn again for good measure. “It has been a while, Mac! Welcome back to Earth.”

I climbed into the back seat after he pulled around in front of me. “How did you know I was on another planet?”

Lou looked back over his shoulder. “Lavender told me. She is my new biggest customer. She got me started in the magic business and now I’m driving for witches and wizards full time. Also, I don’t know what you did to my cab, but I don’t need to put gas in the tank no more.”

He turned back around and pressed a red button which caused the seatbelt to wrap around me like the vines of an aggressive plant. When I started to struggle with my bindings, he chuckled. “Lavender made a few modifications. Safety first. Stop struggling and it won’t hurt you.”

When I relaxed, the seatbelt loosened up enough so that I was comfortable and Lou took off. I could feel Kalli’s excitement through our connection. I can’t believe that’s really Lou. Tell him I said hi.

The drive to Lavender’s house was fairly uneventful. Lou made some small talk but I mostly chatted with Kalli. She was busy with her family and got distracted a lot. Even though she told me not to, I was sorely tempted to teleport back to Gaia. It felt as though Earth held nothing for me anymore.

When we arrived at the gate to Lavender’s property, it swung open allowing Lou to proceed toward the house. I leaned forward for a better view of the picturesque drive. “That’s new. She didn’t let you in last time.”

Lou grinned over his shoulder at me. “That’s because I didn’t work for her last time. This time I can take you all the way to the front door. Full service.”

When we arrived, there was a trio of people waiting for us. I recognized Lavender in her sparkling gown, looking every bit the supermodel. At her side were a couple of kids that I couldn’t place right away.

My mouth fell open when I inspected the boy.

Name

Eddison Thompson III

Class

Warlock

Level

12

Affection Level

Proud

Lou stopped the humcab and walked around to open the door for me. Only then did the seatbelt release me and I was able to climb out. Eddie smirked at me as I inspected the younger girl at his side. She appeared to be nine or ten years old.

Name

Sylvia Moreheart

Class

Affectionist

Level

2

Affection Level

Loving

Something about the girl felt strangely familiar. She had short blonde hair arranged in a pixie cut and amber-colored eyes. Sylvia also seemed to know me because she ran up and wrapped me in a hug as soon as I got out of the vehicle.

The instant we made contact I felt a spark of energy and mana seemed to radiate from her entire body. The mana flowed over me and through me, both washing away my fatigue and making me smile at the same time.

She looked up, her eyes like saucers. “Do you remember me, Melvin?”

I turned to Lavender mouthing the word "help", not remembering where I knew the kid from. The enchanter gave me a lopsided grin and said, “Don’t look at me. She’s yours. You made her.”

My ears began to ring as Kalli shrieked. Melvin Murphy! What is she talking about?

I covered my ears with my hands as I attempted to reason with my girlfriend.

Give me a break! The kid’s like ten years old. I would have had to have had her when I was six.

I felt Kalli’s mouth fall open and could see everyone staring at her in the throne room. Apparently, she was in the middle of something and had jumped to her feet in outrage. She answered with a short. Oh.

Lavender chuckled, likely having witnessed our internal conversation somehow. “Okay, fine. I’ll help you out. This here is Sylvia. She was supposed to die last year, and you prevented that. To top it off, you also awakened her. So here she is. A newborn mage. You are going to have to take responsibility and raise her. She now bears a great role in the future of this universe. You do as well, for the role you chose.”

It suddenly dawned on me how I knew the kid. She was dying of cancer and I had awakened her in the process of saving her. With tears coming to my eyes, I knelt in front of Sylvia and stroked her hair. “I knew it would grow back quickly.”

She blinked at me. “It grew back so fast. I had to get twelve haircuts since then. I don’t mind though. We gave my hair to the other sick kids.”

“She’s a healer.” Lavender pointed out from behind her. “She can heal wounds when she hugs someone. And she just loves to hug as you can see. Right now her power isn’t quite at the level that yours is at. She can’t cure cancer or anything fancy like that.”

“So what do I have to do?” I asked, wondering how I was going to take responsibility. “I don’t know the first thing about raising a kid.”

“No, silly.” Sylvia giggled, letting me go. “You are going to teach me how to use my magic.”

I nodded absentmindedly. It was true that I could heal. Sylvia knew first hand as I had healed her. Nodding at the kid, I said, “Sure. I’ll teach you what I can.”

“Great!” Lavender said, clapping her hands together. “Now that that’s settled, let’s go inside.”

The inside of Lavender’s cottage was just as large as I remembered it. A red carpet lined the halls and a grand staircase filled the entryway. Lavender led us down one of the halls to a sitting room with several chairs around a lit fireplace. “Make yourselves at home. I will have some food brought out shortly. You kids take a few moments to get reacquainted.”

The moment she was out of earshot, Eddie’s smile faded and he muttered, “I still haven’t forgiven you for what you did to me.”

I yawned, gazing into the fire. “Well, your family did kidnap Kalli. What did you expect me to do?”

“I don’t know,” Eddie replied, glaring at me. “Maybe you could have trusted me to do the right thing and help you.”

Eddie was just too young to understand the situation I had been in. There was nobody in that house that I would have trusted while Kalli was locked up in the basement. I sighed and said, “Look. I’m sorry about what happened to you. You have to understand. Kalli was in danger.”

He folded his arms and turned his back on me. Sylvia chose that moment to sit on my lap. “Lavender tells me you went to another world. What was it like?”

I smiled at the kid as Eddie peeked back at us, obviously interested in my adventures. “The sky was green. That’s the first thing you notice when you go to Gaia. That’s what it’s called by the way. There is also a big planet called Luna in the sky that has rings. You know, like the ones on Saturn.”

Sylvia’s eyes widened as I told her stories about villagers with the plague and of the many different races I had met. Unable to contain a fit of the giggles, she asked, “Are trolls really that stinky? And they like it that way? I can’t believe it.”

“I’m not joking!” I laughed. “It’s really bad. Kalli had to give their leader a bath to get them to trust us. Her name is Esha.”

“The leader is a girl?” Sylvia asked, her voice full of wonder.

I nodded as Lavender returned with several plates of stew. Sylvia hopped off of my lap and made her way to a small table where she sat across from Eddie. Lavender set two bowls down for them and then made her way over to me with another. Once we were all served, she sat in a chair next to mine.

The stew was delicious. I knew better than to ask Lavender where she got it from. She watched me eat for a while before saying, “Let’s get down to business. I’ve been watching you. I see a great deal of what goes on in the universe but I must admit that some things are hidden from me. In your battle with Lady Mardella, did you use the ring on her?”

I swallowed hard. She had directly warned me not to do it and I had inadvertently trapped her within the ring and released Malric, whoever he was.

Admitting to using the ring felt like the equivalent of saying I opened Pandora’s box, so I lied. “No. I started to but remembered what you told me.”

Lavender heaved a sigh of relief. “I am very happy to hear that. You don’t want to know what could have happened if you misused that ring.”

“Can you tell me more about the ring?” I asked, running my finger over the glowing blue gemstone.

She watched me closely as I caressed it. “Not a whole lot is known about the ring. Like many artifacts, it chooses its owner. They say that the stone in that ring has existed since before time itself. Little is known about it because only its owner can ever truly know what it’s capable of. I have heard that this particular ring calls to its owner. As I warned you before, do not heed its words.”

I bit my tongue as I nodded silently. If Lavender knew who Malric the Magnificent was, she wasn’t telling. I figured it was for the best that I not mention it either. After all, he was probably out enjoying his newfound freedom on some tropical planet somewhere. Surely he wouldn’t use his second chance to live a life of evil.

After giving me plenty of time to reply, Lavender went on. “The true reason I brought you here is that you are not progressing fast enough. There will come a time when your chosen manipulator class will not be enough. As you have seen multiple times, you are weak when it comes to combat. We are going to have to remedy that.”

“How?” I asked, taking a bite of stew. “It’s not like I haven’t been trying to improve.”

She smiled deviously. “Nothing so crude as that. We are going to power level you. We have made a world specifically for that purpose.”

Meanwhile in a galaxy far far away…

Malric tended to her wounds. It was an interesting body, capable of both physical combat and magic. While Malric had never been a woman, she was quite scrawny in her past form so the difference wasn’t all that great.

Unfortunately, the body was wounded. She had been stabbed in the back quite literally. Time was needed to make a full recovery. Once that was complete, Malric planned to make full use of her second life to get revenge. Revenge against a certain man. A man that had robbed her of everything oh so long ago.