Clara sat back, pushing a way from the table with a sigh. Charlotte and Charles had just finished relating everything that had happened to them. “That’s a lot to take in, wow.”

“I can see why he said he didn’t break any rules now but bent them. He did indeed do that. He bent them so hard it’s nearly the wrong phrase.” Her husband Conor growled. “He toed that line so carefully if he hadn’t been after our daughter Cassy, I’d be impressed.”

“How are you handling everything, son?” Steve asked Charles. “What you did at the end there… I can tell it was bothering you when you told us about it.”

“Shouldn’t it bother me? I just murdered so many people and pronounced judgment on them. I-“ Charles struggled to find the right words to describe what he was feeling. “I don’t understand why I’m feeling this way!? I don’t know those people, and I don’t know any of the people at the towns. Something like this wouldn’t have bothered me before… Right?”

“No, sweetie, it still would have.” His mother answered gently. “Before you were simply able to ignore the ugliness of the world, I’m guessing. Under the right circumstances, it still would have found a way to force itself into your bubble. But you constantly exposing yourself to that ugliness certainly didn’t help.”

Charlotte studied her brother with new eyes. Now free from the calming influence of Dantanian’s realm, her emotions had come back. However, the time there had given her some valuable time to think clearly about the problem.

“Charles, you are going to have to move past this, and that’s on you to do. I want you to think about something for a moment though. For every Emperor, King, President, Chieftain, or Judge, that has ever lived what gave them the power or authority to control who lived and died? What made them better than you?

“Frankly, I would rather trust in what your eyes saw than some corrupt politician. You aren’t scared because you took someone’s life. You’re scared because you took a million or more all at once. A drop in the bucket compared to what the gods of Earth have taken with their little game. At least yours were justified.”

Conor and Clara watched this byplay with interest. They had rarely considered the lives of mortals as anything even worth considering. Yet here, their own grandson was castigating himself because he had wiped out a few. It was something that they would both need to think about more deeply in the future.

Steve let them talk for a few more minutes before distracting everyone with a question of his own. “I want to know more about the women in your life, Charles. How is it that as soon as we leave, you suddenly find a fiancé and two daughters?”

Clara focused her attention on them. “Yes, tell us more about this, Alli. I met Alaria briefly in the past when she was younger, and for her to do something like that is interesting. She is only a generation or two older than Cassy. She could have asked for help with her husband, but I do understand why she didn’t. It sounds like they were facing a rather interesting situation in regards to what he did.”

Cassy blushed. “Mother, don’t tell them that! They don’t know how old I am, or at least they didn’t before now.”

Charlotte gave her mother a sly grin. “Oh, you’re only a little younger than a woman who is old enough to have created her own world and civilization. I guess the saying, older than dirt, really applies to you then.”

The temperature around the table dropped instantly, as even Charles mentally face-palmed. For such a smart person, his sister could be incredibly stupid at times.

“Don’t think for a second that you are too old for me to discipline young lady.” Their mother snarled; her eyes narrowed in displeasure.

Charlotte looked away with a small whistle. “So, anyway, you all should meet Alli and Myriam. They are the absolute cutest girls you will ever meet on the planet.”

“I should hope so, considering what Dantanian did to the poor thing. Making her a soul companion is rarely done because of the effects it can have on the other party. Which, I might add it sounds like she experienced many of them. She wouldn’t have been able to control what she was getting from the connection.” Conor grumbled. “She must have been so confused.”

“She was at that, but I think we have mainly worked through those issues now,” Charles replied.

“That’s enough about us. What have you two been doing for the last three and a half months?” Charlotte asked, wanting to keep the conversation moving.

“It’s only been a few days for us, Char.” Her dad responded. “Time moves differently here. Something about the lower and higher dimensions all having different rates of time.”

Charles did some quick math in his head. They had already been there for an hour or two. Then there was the time they had spent in Dantanian’s dimension as well. All told they could have already been there for the equivalent of a couple of days, at least according to Earth time.

He cursed and hung his head. “We need to get back home. It must be nearly Christmas Eve right about now, I think.”

“You can’t,” Conor said with a shake of his head. “You haven’t finished awakening as a High God yet. Until you do, you won’t be able to restrict your powers and enter the lower dimensions.”

“Well, let’s get moving on that, then! Everyone must be worried sick about us. No one knew we were just going to leave like we did.” Even Charlotte was seeing the urgency of their situation. “Scott, Kira, and the rest just thought we were jumping down to Earth to talk to Gaia.”

“Well, don’t look at me! I’m useless right now. My powers are still sealed.” Cassy told her kids regretfully. “Mom and dad are going to have to be the ones who do all of this for you.” She looked at her parents. “Please, mom, dad? The holiday is important on our world, and it would mean a lot if they… If we could spend it all together.”

Clara stretched and stood. “Sweetie, of course, we’ll help. It’ll be a slight stretch to fully awaken them both in time, but I think we can do it. However, it would be impossible to teach them proper control in that same amount of time. However, I think we can get around that by placing a seal on them ourselves. It should hold while the three of us teach them proper control over the next few years.”

Cassandra smiled at her parents, a wave of happiness she hadn’t felt in years coursing through her. “You’re going to come back with us?”

“Of course we are,” Conor replied, taking his wife’s hand. “We just barely got you back in our lives. There isn’t a chance we are letting you simply leave again. We made that mistake once; we won’t do it again. Besides, we both want to spend time with our grandchildren and our two great-grandchildren.”

Clara nodded along. “We have a lot of time to make up for, and we intend to do exactly that. Not to mention, if we are there with you, then we can better help you against whatever Dantanian is planning to do.”

“It sounds like a plan to me. What do we have to do?” Charles didn’t want to waste any time.

He knew the people down in Dungeonville had been planning something big for Christmas. The community on the Space Station was new though, and he had simply abandoned them up there. They must all be panicking and worrying about what to do next.

He wasn’t worried about them being able to survive. That was taken care of already. The thought of being trapped up there might make some of them a little crazy. Then again, there was the dungeon, and other items to keep them busy. It was possible that most wouldn’t even notice that he and Charlotte were missing.

That didn’t stop him from wanting to spend the holiday with Kira, Myri, and Alli, or Sylvi, depending on the form she decided to take. It was a day meant to be spent with family, and he wanted to spend it with his. All of it, which now included the grandparents that he had just met.

“First drink this.” His grandmother handed him and Charlotte each a mug with a thick liquid she pulled from thin air. “It will help relax your mind and prepare it for what is to come.”

Charlotte looked at it suspiciously. “I think our grandmother just handed us a drug-laced drink.”

“Yeah, an LSD smoothie.” Charles sniffed it and shrugged when it didn’t have any smell. “Cheers.”

He downed the contents of the mug as quickly as he could in preparation for a nasty taste.

“What are you doing?” His father asked. “They’re Gods. They can literally create anything. That could have been the most delicious thing you ever drank, and you just gulped it down like an idiot.”

Charlotte took a cautious sip of hers and gagged in direct rejection of his words. “That’s foul! Ugh, I think my tongue is melting.”