“Father, we need to talk,” I announced, marching up to the throne where Merlin sat looking bored.

“Always with the theatrics,” he announced with a yawn. “What is it this time? Do you want me to name a city after you?”

“No!” I balked. “What’s your deal with Mom?”

He stared at me. “Well now. When two people love each other very much, they do this special hug and-“

He stopped talking when I flipped him a silver coin. “I know how babies are made. What I want to know is why my mom’s face is on this coin. And why does she look like she’s dressing up to go to a ren faire?”

Merlin ran his finger over mom’s image. “This isn’t your mother, son. Not exactly. Come take a seat. There is a story I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

“I’m not sitting on your knee,” I said when I saw there were no chairs.

Merlin chuckled, waving his hand. A chair materialized in front of me. He begin his story as I sat. “My bond with your mother is special. It began nearly five thousand years ago. Your mother was my first love. When I met her, she was known as Vivien. She was as beautiful and pure as the mother you know. I was instantly smitten with her and knew she was the one I wanted to spend all of eternity with.”

“Then why do you have a tower full of women?” I asked, looking toward the alcoves where hundreds of women watched us with rapt attention.

Merlin flashed a look of annoyance when he noticed and spoke in a loud voice. “Be gone.”

At first, I thought he meant me, but then everyone in the alcoves exited the chamber in a rush of commotion. It turned out there were doors behind each of the alcoves. I wondered if the alcoves were actually patios connected to living quarters for the women most important to Merlin. Once he was satisfied we were alone, Merlin turned his attention back to me. “Now we can speak privately. I need you to know that no woman other than your mother means anything to me. I have fathered no children since you were born. Your mother is the only woman I love.”

“Then why...?” I asked, trailing off when I couldn’t figure out exactly what I wanted to ask.

“Why do I have all these women here?” He asked, laughing. “Well, to explain that, I need to tell you a story. Vivien and I had a love for the ages. I was enchanted with her from the moment we met. There was only one problem. I am immortal. And your mother, well, she was not. Even though I tried everything in my power to convince her, she refused to accept my gift.”

“Yeah,” I muttered. “She wouldn’t let me awaken her either.”

A tired smile appeared on his face. “I tried that many times and each time she rebuffed me. While she loved me every time, she refused anything to do with the world of magic. My world. She told me if she was meant to be awakened, she would have been born that way.”

“That sure sounds like her,” I lamented, chuckling at the fact that my mom was still the same even in previous lives. “That still doesn’t explain why you left mom alone to raise me while you live here with the biggest harem of all time.”

Merlin laughed. “I haven’t been with a single woman since I found her again.”

“Then why did you leave her?” I asked, not understanding.

Merlin seemed to age in front of me as he considered his answer. “Every time she respawns, it’s the same. Sometimes we bear children, others we do not. In the end, she always dies. I can’t bear to be there when it happens.”

“So you left her to live in poverty and raise me alone?” I replied in an accusatory tone.

Merlin groaned. “That isn’t true. I offered her every luxury in life and she turned down every single one of them. You should have wanted for nothing growing up but she refused to let me spoil you. She says you are the only gift she ever wanted from me. Then, when you went off to Gaia, she disappeared. I don’t even know where she went.”

Where would mom go? Even I had no clue. I turned my thought back to the tower and the situation on Origin. “I still don’t understand why you keep all these women around. If you only love mom, why not just wait for her to be reincarnated again? Better yet, why don’t you spend as much time as you can with her? I would have loved to have a dad.”

“I did just that for many generations,” he replied. “And every time she was reborn as an unawakened. After a while, I started to wonder how I might increase the odds of her being awakened. In the end, I decided to produce heirs that will increase the chance of her being born with a magical affinity.”

“But then you would be related to her,” I said, trying not to look as weirded out as I felt.

He chuckled, picking up a grape from the bowl beside his chair. “When you are as old as I am, everyone is related to you.”

“Only when you have as many children as you do,” I replied.

“Besides,” he added, quickly moving on. “There are always a couple centuries between occurrences. I’m not sure why. Perhaps her soul needs time to recharge, or maybe she comes back as an animal sometimes. There is even a chance that I miss some occurrences and only notice others. After thousands of years, I still don’t know all the answers.”

I wanted to ask him if he spoke to Nir Vana on the subject but that would be admitting that I stole his ring. Not noticing the look on my face, Merlin continued. “I intend to continue down this path until your mother awakens. Then we can live together for eternity.”

“So you have a tower of women for the sole purpose of making my mother magical?” I asked, trying to sum up my dad’s ambitions.

He choked on a grape, coughing violently for a few moments. Then with a straight face, he cleared his throat. “Ahem, pretty much. Something like that.”

The idea of my dad chasing the woman he loved across time and space sounded eerily similar to my own quest. “You know, Dad, we’re pretty much the same, you and I. You move heaven and Earth to be with Mom and I’m doing to do the same thing to be with Kalli. Do you think she’s been reincarnated? How do I find her?”

Merlin shook his head sadly. “I refuse to let you walk down the same path as me. You’re still young. Live a little. Enjoy your experiences. There are thousands of beautiful women here on Origin. Pick one. I’ve set all of their affection levels to friendly.”

That reminded me of Kalli’s masked affection level which Lavender kindly set to “Indifferent” to throw me off. Was that the reason Ulli and Marcelle were nice to me? Other than being assigned to me that was. My voice was a little harsh when I asked, “Dad, did you edit people to make them like me? Isn’t that taking away their free will?”

Merlin laughed. “You are mistaken. That part of the menu doesn’t control a person’s free will. It just influences emotions. I’m surprised you haven’t played with it. You can make yourself feel all sorts of things.”

“Why is it called Affection Level if it’s something simple like that?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. It seemed like a good idea at the time. You’re the first person besides me to ever see it. System sight is a mysterious thing. Even though I created it, I have no clue how some can see it and others can’t. While you see them like menus in a video game, some hear voices, and others interact with it through an intermediary. While my system governs magic, magic is still mysterious.”

“All the same, I’d prefer you don’t mess with anyone’s affections levels when it comes to me,” I replied.

“Consider it done,” he replied. “I’ll reset everyone’s affection for you to default. Is there anything else?”

I thought about it for a second. “Yeah, what is that place we go into when we teleport? I took someone with me today and they froze.”

Merlin replied. “Most people can’t exist outside of reality. When you teleport, you become mana. Like that movie from your world, mana flows through everything and exists everywhere. When you teleport, you briefly become a part of that and stop existing on this plane. While you can function and direct yourself in there, others have to trust the magic to do its job and take them where they hope to go.”

“So they just freeze?” I asked incredulously.

“They cease to exist for that moment,” he explained. “Speaking of which, I advise against spending too much time in there. Time will not pass in the outside world while you reside within the void.”

“Can I make time stand still?” I asked.

Merlin shook his head. “Not exactly. Teleportation breaks the rules of reality. Time does not exist there. I do not advise staying in there too long. Even I don’t know what might happen if you do.”

I decided to take a page from my dad’s book and twisted mana over myself, entering the void. From there, I returned to Origin and zoomed in on the tower.

How do I teleport indoors? I used to do this all the time the old way.

Zooming in further, I discovered I could pass into the structure by focusing on it. Tiny figures stood frozen in miniature rooms and hallways as I scanned for the room I was looking for. Finding what I wanted, I appeared in my room right in between Ulli and Marcelle. “Surprise!”

Ulli screamed and dove onto the bed. I turned just in time to see a fist collide with my left cheek. The next thing I knew, someone stroked my hair while they whispered urgently back and forth.

“Do you think you killed him?”

“No. His head is harder than that. He might banish me though.”

“He wouldn’t do that.”

“I never hit him before. He might.”

“Don’t worry. Nobody’s getting banished,” I groaned, opening my eyes and sitting up. “That really hurt. Are you sure, Strategist isn’t a combat class?”

“I am so sorry,” Marcelle said stiffly. “I may have overreacted. May I implore you to not do that in the future? Also, please don’t leave the tower by yourself. It reflects poorly on us. And don’t tell me The Creator doesn’t find out. He knows everything.”

Somehow, I doubted he knew everything. The problem was determining how what exactly he knew. I had a feeling he wasn’t aware of the conversations I had outside of the tower but I had no doubts he was tracking where I teleported to. I needed to make absolutely certain that I knew what to do the day I teleported to Atlantis. Something told me I wouldn’t get a second chance.

Looking up at Marcelle staring me down, I sighed. “I’ll try to take you with me. Give me a break though. I need at least some privacy.”

“Is there another girl?” Ulli asked in a quiet tone.

Was she jealous? I took her hand in mine. “Look, Ulli, the only girl I can think about is Kalli. The last thing I’m going to do is sneak off to find a different one. If it makes you feel better, think of everything I do as part of a plan to be reunited with her.”

“I’d like to meet her,” she replied.

“Me too,” Marcelle said.

I smiled. “Someday. I swear it. I am going to find her and then I’ll introduce her to you both.”