Charles stared up at the ceiling of their bedroom early the next morning and thought about everything that had happened. There was so much to unpack mentally and emotionally, yet he found himself strangely relaxed. Knowing that the rescue teams were going through the same things he and Kira were, somehow helped. The knowledge they weren’t alone filled him with a small sense of belonging.

Quietly, he slipped from the bed, and after a quick wash and bathroom break; he headed to the kitchen. He was the one who usually made breakfast for everyone, and today he was making it for an additional three people as well.

Silvi was sitting on the couch, reading a book, when he walked in.

“This is rare. I don’t usually see you up before Myri.” He joked, ruffling her hair as he walked past.

“She didn’t sleep well. She had a nightmare.” Silvi rubbed a spot on her side with a soft smile. “She can kick really hard when she wants to.”

“How come you’re not still in there, then? I thought your tail fixed everything for her.”

“It usually does,” She agreed. “But not tonight. She just kept tossing and turning, no matter what I tried. I finally brought her out here a couple of hours ago and plopped her down in front of the TV. She fell asleep without an issue after she put on some weird cartoon with a shark in it.”

Charles peeked over the edge of the couch and saw Myri hugging the edge of it on the floor, Silvi’s tail grasped tight in her hand. “Poor kid, I guess you won’t be going with us again today.”

Her face fell. “Sorry, I know I should be there for both you and Kira, but I can’t just leave her alone, not when she needs me like this.”

He walked around the couch and sat beside her. “I’m not going to pretend we don’t miss you, well the Alli version of you going out with us. That said, both Kira and I understand how important Myri is to you.” He pulled her close before continuing.

“You wouldn’t be you if you could just leave her behind without a care to come join us every day. She’s family, same as us. She just needs more of your attention right now. We’ll survive on our own, without you, though I admit it is less fun without you around.”

The young girl sniffled and set her book to the side before giving him a hug. “I’m so confused Charles, everything seems to be changing and only Myri stayed the same. She’s my rock right now.”

“How have I changed?” He protested softly.

“You’ve changed the most out of everyone. You’ve grown from the man who rescued me and was alone to someone who has the power to rescue millions. You have your sister, Scott, Kira, Kate, Beth, Krystal, Kory, me, and Myri, now. You’re not alone, and your personality isn’t quite as cold or unwelcoming, or at least it wasn’t before the last couple of days.”

His brows drew together in thought. “Have I really changed that much? I mean, yes, our environment has, but has my personality really changed?”

“I think so, yeah.”

He hesitated, before deciding to broach the topic he had been avoiding since Charlotte mentioned it.

“Silvi, no Alli, are you still in love with me? Because I have to be honest with you, I truly do love and care for you, but if you wanted something more, taking the form of a young girl was a bad move. All I can see you as now is my daughter, a special one granted, but that’s all.”

A flood of new tears came to her eyes as she began to bawl against his shirt. “I don’t know either. It was something I was holding to so tightly before, and now… I’m just so confused! I want to say I am, but I just don’t know.”

Charles held her tight until the tears had slowed and began to talk. He gently and carefully worked through his own thoughts and those of his sister, holding nothing back. Before moving onto what he felt was the crux of the matter.

“You’ve been through a lot, Alli, and I was always there for you since this began, and I always will be. I just want you to be absolutely sure of your feelings before pushing for anything more. These are decisions that affect your life, mine, Kira’s, and maybe even Myri’s. Partners should be more than each other’s rock, okay?”

She nodded. Her one brilliant green eye and dark blue eye were both red and puffy from crying. “I understand, and I’ll think about it carefully before I give you an answer.”

Charles closed his eyes and felt his heart ease some. Alli might have said she needed some time, but deep in her heart, it seemed she had already made up her mind. He had just watched as her silver thread, a color unique to her had taken on a distinct greenish hue. It was now a striped, mix of the two colors.

Green threads were for family. Red represented threads of fate for couples like him and Kira, or Charlotte and Scott. They could be created with time; it wasn’t always a matter of true fate or predestination. There were other colors as well, but those were the ones he cared about the most at the moment.

He gave her a tight squeeze, his heart feeling more at ease than it had in a while. “Come on, let’s put Myri on your guy’s bed, and then you can run up and get our guests while I start on breakfast.”

She nodded and wiped her eyes before trying to cast a healing spell on them. She didn’t want the others to see her with red eyes like this. “Charles, I can’t use the disciple system. Did you remove me?”

He shook his head. He hadn’t given the disciple system much thought since initially filling up the five slots. Everyone seemed to save up the spells they could use from his list of available element each week. No one wanted to miss out on having healing when they needed it or extra attack power because they had wasted it. That meant the compliment of spells rarely got used in full, with most of the five simply choosing to focus on the healing spell they could use.

Each of the five got one spell per element each week, though most tended to cost more to cast. Regardless, it meant that they had access to multiple spells a week, as long as they were each from a different element.

Either way, unless someone mentioned it to him, he tended to forget about it entirely.

He tried to pull up the menu for the disciple system and frowned when it didn’t appear right away. “What’s going on?” He muttered, trying again. The menu flickered into existence for a brief second, showing a garbled mess of information before vanishing. Charles hesitated for a moment before trying a third time. This time, the information it displayed was mostly correct, but it still closed after only a second.

“I think the disciple system is broken for now. We should let Kate and Beth know before they head into the tower today.” He healed the puffy, redness from Silvi’s eyes before carrying Myri into the room they shared.

“This is worrying,” Charles softly muttered to the empty room after he tried unsuccessfully to open his own status page. It seemed as though the system was breaking down faster than expected. The only question was whether he was the only one affected, or if everyone was?

The smell of sizzling bacon wafted through the apartment, waking Kira a few minutes later. The closed-door kept the delicious smell from making its way into Myriam’s room and waking her from her exhausted slumber. The little girl needed all the sleep she could get.

With the multiple greenhouses spread around the town, and the mana in the air encouraging everything to grow faster, organic food had become a staple for everyone’s diet. The bacon and eggs were wrapped in giant leaves of lettuce, with strips of red and yellow peppers on top for an extra added crunch.

Gone were the days of pancakes with loads of sugary syrup, or muffins. You could still find them, but getting wheat in a sufficient amount was proving to be a problem. Unlike a lot of the items they wanted to grow, it wouldn’t work inside a greenhouse. It needed room and a lot of it. There were a few crop plants they had run into where that was the determining factor for them not being able to grow it.

Luckily, there was still plenty of wheat and pancake mixture that had been recovered and stored in the town’s inventory. The various teams salvaged more of everything every day as well, though they were finding that more of it had spoiled by this point.

Charles pushed a second platter of eggs to the side and began cutting up the peppers. A steaming cup of tea was waiting for Kira on the counter when she wandered in a few moments later.

“Do you think I should change my hairstyle?” She asked after taking a tentative sip of the hot beverage.

The knife slipped, gouging a deep groove into the cutting board. “Why?” He asked suspiciously, wondering if there was some kind of hidden meaning in her question.

“No reason, it’s just been growing longer again. I’ve been wondering if it’s finally time for a change is all. Everything else has changed. It might be time to let go of the haircut I picked out as a troubled teen from an animated movie I liked. I had mom trim everything a couple of weeks ago, but now I’m wondering if I should just let it grow out.”

“It was Titan A.E. right?” She nodded. “And I wouldn’t say you were a troubled teen, at least not in the traditional sense. You had a reason for everything you were going through at the time.”

Charles pushed the ruined cutting board to the side and walked over to his fiancé. “Just as long as you don’t get rid of these, I’ll be fine with whatever you decide.” He said, playing with her purple highlights.

Kira rolled her eyes. “You only say that because they are literally a part of my natural hair color now. Now come on, give me an honest answer.”

“Okay fine,” He took a step back and tried to imagine her with different hairstyles. “I think you would look good if you did change it up, so that shouldn’t be a concern if you were worried about that. I don’t know, Kira. Sometimes change like this can be a good thing. All I can say is do it in small steps. That way, you can walk it back if you don’t like it.”

She took a deep breath in and held it. “Alright, I guess I’ll think about it some more then. You’re right, change can be a good thing, and there’s no reason to rush it. We have plenty of time together.”

“That’s right.” He brushed the ring he had made for her. “We’re going to have plenty of time together. Just us, and our two kids that we seem to have already adopted from the side of the road.”

“No, no, no,” She laughed. “Get it right, we got Alli from an alley, and Myri from what, an orphanage? We need something less sad sounding for her.”

“How about Myri was the lost princess, waiting for her protector to come and find her? Which she did, in a room of lost children.” Charles grinned, feeling proud of himself.

“I think you switched up metaphors there.”

“Are you going to kiss now? Because I think you’re both crazy. I’m not a princess, I’m a Myri.” She yawned out through the cracked opening in her door.

“I thought you were asleep?”

“I was, but Sil, I mean Alli’s gone. I can’t sleep without her.”

Charles pushed open the door and picked the young girl up. “She said you were having nightmares last night. How are you feeling right now?”

She snuggled against him for a second and yawned again. “I’m fine now, just tired. I don’t remember what they were about. Clean me please?” She extended her arms and closed her eyes.

He snapped his finger twice and a cleaning spell engulfed him and Myri, while a second one went to work on Kira. The spinning spell cleaned their teeth, bodies, and clothes. When it was finished, it deposited all the grime on the floor at their feet for them to sweep away.

It was easily the spell Charles used the most often, beating out his ‘Zero Door’ and healing spells. People underestimated just how useful lifestyle spells could be. He had even used the spell to clean the interior of a carburetor before.

Spells weren’t limited by design; people and their imaginations are what limited them.

“That tickles,” Myriam giggled. “I should go change before everyone shows up for breakfast.”

“Speaking of which, where are they?” Charles wondered after setting her down.

Kira walked over to the front door of the apartment while he swept up their mess. “I see them. They’re coming inside right now. It looks like she took them shopping for some new clothes.”

“Ah, yeah, we should have thought of that yesterday. Their uniforms weren’t exactly in the best condition, combined with how much colder it is here versus where we found them… I’m impressed none of them complained or said anything earlier.”

“Did Lars give you any issues?” Kira asked, holding the door open for them.

“SILVI!” A short red-haired rocket screamed as it ran past them and into the girl in question.

Silvi caught Myri with a well-practiced swing of her arm and deposited her onto her back. “No, he was polite for the most part. It’s mostly only Charles he’s rude with. Although it was odd, he ignored them the entire time we were there, so maybe he was being rude after all. I’ve never seen him do that before.”

“Huh, that is odd, even for him.” She agreed.

The bears tromped on in, running to the TV and plopping themselves down in front of it.

Charles looked over his shoulder and flicked it on with the nearby remote. He made sure to turn it to the same show they had been watching the day before.

“Are you all hungry?” He asked as everyone crowded inside.

Zara stared at each of them in that odd way she had before nodding.

“Is there anything we can do around here to help?” Zack inquired a few minutes later, after the food was all gone. “Since we don’t know how long we’ll be here, we need to do something to earn our keep. We can’t just sponge off you forever. We need to be able to provide for ourselves during our time here.”

Charles shared a look with Kira, who shrugged. “There are a few options available to you if that is what you want to do.”

All three nodded.

“Alright. The first thing you need to know is that we’ll be meeting with someone later today, hopefully anyway. Who you’ll undoubtedly want to talk to as well. With any luck, he’ll have more information on how to get you home. As for work, you can talk to anyone in the town and see if they are willing to hire you or take your chances in the tower.

“However, there are two problems with either of those options. Our system is different from yours, and all our money runs through it. The second problem is to enter the tower or any of the buildings in town, you will need to be a town citizen. It’s easy enough to join. We’re just not sure if you can because of the first issue.”

“That is a problem,” Tessa replied, with the same accent all three had. It wasn’t an unpleasant accent to the ear, simply one he had never heard before. “What about this man we are supposed to meet later? Will he have a solution for that as well?”

“I don’t know, he might, but I couldn’t say as to what effects it might have on you. It could put you back at level one when you went back or do something else entirely. There are a lot of unknowns with your situation. Make sure you remember that.” Charles made sure each of them understood before standing. “Alright, well, since we have finished eating and talking, why don’t we head on out? Silvi, what are you and Myri up to today?”

“Actually, I’m going with you today. Myri is going to be staying with Kira’s parents for a while and then playing with the other kids in town.” To the side, they all saw Myri pouting, with her cheeks puffed up adorably. “We’ve been trying to expand her group of friends, first with me there, and now without. We’ll see how it goes.”

Silvi brushed her hand over Myriam’s slightly curly red hair affectionately.

“It’ll be nice to have you back with us. We’ll have a busy day ahead of us going through all the places on the maps Kira’s parents gave us.” Charles placed all the dishes they had used in the sink and cleaned them with a quick judicious use of a spell.

“Where are we supposed to meet this person?” Zack asked as they left the apartment.

“Not sure, but at the lab, next door, is always a good bet,” Charles replied as they followed Silvi over to the sole house in town, the one that had been built back at the very beginning of everything.

She knocked lightly on the door, while a sad little girl clung tightly to her other arm.

Krystal opened the door with a frazzled smile. “Silvi, Myri, everyone, we were just finishing up breakfast if you want to come in?”

Silvi shook her head. “We’re just here to drop off Myri before heading to the lab and then up to the space station. Are you still up to looking after her for a while until all the other kids are ready to play?”

“Absolutely.” She knelt down in front of Myri. “Are you ready?”

The pale little girl gave a tentative nod, her green eyes glistening with the tears she was trying to hold back. “I… I think so.”

Silvi gently pried her arm away and took a step back. “We’ll be back tonight, Myri. You know this. It’s no different from the other times.”

Her lower lip quivered. “Don’t go, just stay with me! Or I’ll come with you all. Charles is strong enough to make sure nothing happens to me. Please, just don’t leave me behind, not again!” Myri sniffled, her pitiful cries tugging at the heartstrings of all present.

Kira’s mother sat back on her heels and sighed. “She’s right, you know? Between the three of you, only something on the level of a fallen god would stand a chance of even hurting you. Even then, Charles could probably beat it by himself now. I’m sure his new powers have added a fair punch to everything.”

“I still haven’t learned how to control my new powers, remember? However, all my stats did get increased a fair bit after we defeated Leri in Wales. So did Kira and Alli… err, Silvi, for that matter. Nothing we’ve run into lately has been able to stand up to us.”

Charles ran a hand through his hair. “It’s up to you, Silvi. I guess I don’t mind. The places we’re going to today were already cleared by the other teams, so they should be safe enough for her.” He was worried about her seeing anything terrible, something that would scar her for life. It was inevitable in the new world they found themselves a part of, but it would be nice if they could protect her for a couple more years.