Having the seal placed on them was a shock to Charles and Charlotte as it muted the senses that had just been enhanced. In an instant, everything returned back to the way it had been before, to their previous normal. Only now they could feel something was missing.

Delving inside himself, Charles saw a barrier obscuring and blocking access to large parts of his statue core. That was how the seal worked, it literally blocked off a part of yourself.

“Your eyes,” Charlotte muttered, blinking as she swayed. “They’re no longer glowing.”

“Neither are yours.”

“Good, Scott complained that they were keeping him up at night.” Charlotte shook her head and took a shaky step forward. “Wow, that really messed with my balance for a moment.”

“I hope this fixes the issue with Gaia, now I just need to send those kids home for her.” Charles grimaced.

She had asked him to do that before they left to go find their parents. She was not going to be happy with them, and the fact that they hadn’t meant to do it likely wouldn’t matter.

“You can go ahead and open a doorway home for all of us now,” Conor told him. “We’ll teach you how to transfer the spell to your sister after you have gained sufficient control in the future as well.”

“I don’t think I can. I’ve already used it the max number of times possible today.” Charles told them about the restrictions on the spell.

“Interesting. What a novel way to make sure someone keeps pushing themselves to learn more.” Clara grinned, clearly approving of the idea behind it. “However, you are forgetting. The you from before, and the you now are completely different. You hadn’t fully come into what you are yet when you used it earlier. Now, even if it is mostly sealed because of us, you have. Don’t underestimate the small, rippling effects such a thing can exhibit.”

Charles threw his hands into the air, not fully understanding what she was saying. Regardless, he got the gist of it. She believed that because he had now been fully awakened, it would have some kind of effect on his ‘Zero Door’ spell. Well, there was only one way to find out.

He grabbed hold of the thread belonging to Kira, focusing on her to the exclusion of all else. Then, feeling the mana beginning to drain from his body, he opened a doorway across dimensions. This was different from how he and Charlotte had first left Earth. The doorway had a little more heft to it and was thicker than normal. Otherwise, it was still a simple step through, just like they had always experienced before.

There was no viewing of the impossible number of threads that made up the dimensions, or anything else they had caught glimpses of. It was boring and somewhat shocking to them at how utterly normal it was. Before, they had been under Dantanian’s compulsion and hadn’t been able to appreciate what he’d done.

Kira was sitting at the dinner table in her parent’s apartment with Silvi, Myri, Scott, and everyone else gathered around it. They were continuing the game they had started the night before he had abruptly left.

“Hey, that’s not fair. Why are you playing without me?” He joked playfully, stepping through the dimensional doorway first.

Charlotte and his parents soon followed; the somewhat young-looking grandparents came last. They had adjusted their looks, so they appeared to be in their mid-fifties instead of the thirty-year-old’s they normally were. It was was still a little too young, but even Gods suffered from vanity.

The next few minutes were hectic as hugs abounded, along with introductions. Conor and Clara halted Cassy and Steve’s integration into the system. Leaving it until when they would be alone later that night. Until Cassy had a chance to change certain things about her seal they needed to manage everything for her.

Charles, meanwhile was doing his best to ignore the messages that had popped up into his vision the moment they reappeared on the station. This moment was for them. All of that could wait until later. They weren’t going anywhere.

His mom and dad were currently glued to Kira, getting to know her. Meanwhile, the great-grandparents had latched onto Silvi and Myriam.

Scott was mercifully being left alone for the most part, although he knew his time would come. They had already promised him that, for now, he was just enjoying having his wife back with him.

“So, what now?” Krystal asked Charles as he watched everything with a smile. “You’ve been working towards getting your parents back from the very beginning, and now they are. What’s next for the world’s only ‘Archmage’?” She curled her lips into a grin of her own.

“Next is celebrating Christmas,” He stopped and glanced around the room empty of decorations. “We didn’t miss it, right?”

“No, you haven’t. It’s Christmas Eve right now, we just didn’t have anything to put up.”

“I’ll bring everyone down to Dungeonville to celebrate then tomorrow. Unless you all managed to whip something up?”

“No, I had informed then that was the plan. I was hoping you would be back in time. The only ones who knew you were missing in the first place are in this room. If you hadn’t made it back in time it would have gotten awkward.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. It was kind of beyond our control.”

“Yeah, we saw what you did,” Kory whispered.

Charles sighed and looked at the floor. “Who else knows it was me that was behind that storm?”

“The gods all know for sure, beyond them, only the two of us, Kira and Alli.” Krystal stared at him, searching for an answer. “Tell us what exactly happened, Charles. Explain please, so we don’t continue thinking the worse.”

He tilted his head up at the ceiling and nodded with a sigh. “Fine, but not in here, and let me grab Kira so she can hear this at the same time.” He separated his fiancé from his parents and moved the four of them into a separate room for privacy.

Kira crossed her arms as the door closed behind them. “Okay, now tell us what you saw that prompted something like that.”

“It wasn’t anything particularly bad, we’ve seen worse. It was more that it was simply the last straw. Here’s what happened…” Charles began the tale from the point where he and Charlotte realized they had been surrounded.

Kory leaned against the small desk in Kate’s room, lost in thought. Krystal was equally silent, unsure how to process the enormity of what he had done.

Only Kira didn’t need any time to think his unconscious action over. “Good, I say the world is better off without them. Neither of you has seen firsthand what some people have turned into, but it makes what I went through look like a walk in the park. And I say that as the person who actually experienced it as a child. Trust me when I say he did everyone a favor.”

Her father spoke first, his eyes holding hers. “I believe you. It’s just the number that is shocking.”

“Yeah, I know,” Charles replied softly. “I’ve been trying not to think about it honestly. It’s so many that it’s sickening and yet, I know I did it. Or at least a part of me did it. All I can cling to right now is that what I did will help keep a lot of people from suffering needlessly. That helps, while I work through my own issues with it.”

Kira grabbed him and held him tight. “I’m here for you, don’t worry. No matter what. I understand the desire to do what you did, and I stand by what I said. I think you did everyone a favor.”

Charles felt a part of himself relax as she said that. He hadn’t even known how worried he was that Kira would turn away from him because of it, until that moment. Now he only needed to talk to Alli and see how she responded.

***

“Do you think your parents liked me?” Kira asked after they had all separated for the night.

Charles snorted. “You could have three heads and they would still like you. I think they were convinced I would end up alone. I always wanted to meet someone, but I wasn’t very outgoing when it came to people.”

“I can see that.” She was quiet for a moment as she stared up at the ceiling of their bedroom. “Do you want to talk about what you did, what happened, any of it?”

His hand found hers and gave it a solid, welcoming squeeze. “Not right now. I’m all talked out at the moment. Why don’t you tell me what you all have been doing while I was gone instead?”

She turned onto her side and smiled. “Well, first off, Myri is convinced that you were gone getting some awesome Christmas present for her and Silvi. So, I hope you can whip something up in the morning.”

He chuckled and gave her a light push. “And I’m sure she had absolutely no help coming up with that idea, did she?”

“I had to keep her distracted somehow. The poor thing was so sad that first day I had to tell her something, and that was the first thing that came to mind. It’s a good thing she’s too young to understand that you can come home from literally almost anywhere without an issue.” Kira snuggled closer to him. “She wasn’t the only one distraught for that matter. Me and Alli were rather sad as well. Thankfully, she was able to tell that you were still alive through the connection you two share.”