“There’s going to be trouble,” Lizandri called out, landing with a fluttery thump outside the door, carved with a dozen languages—only a few of which were native to the planet. “Miss Rachel? You’re going to want to see this.”

“I’ve seen.” Rachel glanced up with a tight smile for her avian friend, but she could see on Lizandri’s face that they were both more than a little concerned. The beam of light painting the sky red had only shown up twice before, and both times heralded a period of madness and violence which strained the refuge to their limits.

“You should get some rest while you still can,” the blue-winged woman suggested. “I doubt either of us is getting any sleep tonight.”

“All the more reason to prepare now.” Rachel gestured to the dozen bowls of salves in varying viscosities spread out on her worktable. Her hand moved steadily from one to the next as she continually infused them with arcana, drawing out and amplifying their natural healing properties to their greatest extent. “I definitely won’t have energy to spare once the raid groups start returning.”

“Assuming any of them do.” Lizandri shook out her feathered arms and flexed her claws with a grimace. “And speaking of, I should get back to it. Just had to be sure you were ready.” The sharp black eyes softened. “Do try to rest, if you can.”

“I don’t look that bad, do I?” Rachel laughed wryly. “Fly safe out there. Don’t trust any buzzing crows.”

“That happened once!”

“And if it happens again you might do worse than break a wing.”

Lizandri laughed and took off, arms and wings flapping in rapid syncopation as she climbed into the bloodstained sky, leaving Rachel to her preparation.

Rachel watched her go, absently continuing to cycle through her infusions.

They were all in for a rough few weeks.

It took her another three hours to finish her preparations, running her arcana dry in the process. She still had a few essence orbs tucked away in case of emergency, but it would be better for everyone if she didn’t need to use them.

Checking outside, the red beam still speared the evening sky, drowning out the sunset with its vibrancy. It was far enough away that there wouldn’t be any news yet for hours, but she couldn’t help but worry.

In the meantime, she had plenty of other things to occupy her. With an office full of documents needing transfer, a half-dozen [] to check up on, and her usual position with Rescue to coordinate, she really couldn’t afford to take any breaks. Maintaining the peace and calming anxious refugees would be more important than ever in the coming days.

Locking up the office, she triple-checked habitually and started toward the central administration building.

As she walked through the ridged stone walkways, she couldn’t help but admire how far the place had come in the past couple weeks. When it was first established, it had been nothing but three buildings that were slightly less destroyed than their neighbors. Now, with the help of their resident earth mage, the interior pathways were lined with enough sturdy little structures for everyone to stay securely out of sight.

Her office was one of the few buildings to be set truly ‘outdoors’, the rest artfully concealed within the wreckage of a half-dozen homes resembling the aftermath of a tornado. Aside from the homes and [] there were a half dozen storage and recovery vaults built deep underneath the crumbled streets, reinforced and shielded by more than just stone and steel.

The refuge was shaping up into a proper little fortress town, at this rate. Half the people living here weren’t even human, which was saying something even in these crazy times. For that, Rachel felt no small degree of personal pride. Her ABILITY allowed her to communicate with a wide variety of peoples. Paired with her healing specialty, that made her something of a local hub as far as human-adjacent visitors looking for… Well, just about anything, really. Shelter, directions, local gossip, you name it.

It could be exhausting, at times, keeping track of so many different people and cultures, trying to mediate between incredibly disparate groups when things grew heated, but Rachel couldn’t think of much more satisfying she could have been doing now.

With her family gone, though there was nothing she could do to help herself, at least there were other families she could give a little more hope to.

And if that meant dealing with distraught squabbling half the day, she told herself it was still worth it. Every minute.

After dealing with the minimal paperwork necessary for her supply requisitioning and preparations for the night, she checked in on each of the demihuman groups currently sheltering within their boundaries, reassuring them that they were safe and there was no need to panic. Some were reassured, some only worried more, but there was only so much she could do.

She’d barely finished with that before Tisha, one of the local teens who’d taken on a role as messenger, came running up with news that a group of elves had brought in their almost-dead comrade and needed her immediately.

Rachel dropped everything and ran back to her office, exchanging quick assessments with the group’s apprentice healer—the unconscious and severely bloodied leader was their primary lifekeeper, naturally, but he’d underestimated the risk and taken too much of the collective damage before any of them realized how severe it would be.

They told the story in pieces as she and their apprentice worked to save their lifekeeper from bleeding out. Out of their depth in the top level zone gone mad, they’d barely escaped with their lives after an auburn-haired goddess swooped in to rescue them.

Rachel wasn’t sure how much stock to put in that description, elvish culture treated embellishment of stories as something of a given, which made understanding their reports a lot more complicated than anyone would believe. The gist of it was clear, but details tended to require external verification.

She’d have to ask Lizandri if she’d seen anything when she got back.

Thankfully, the hundred chimerae chasing them had turned back at the end of the zone, leaving them to only be pursued by a few dozen gremwolves that the elves, modestly, had obliterated without effort.

That left them with another many hours trip to find her, which somehow involved three side-quests for various other parties that she would have sworn would take weeks, not hours, but in the end they blessedly arrived at her door the very minute before their beloved leader would have expired.

She accepted their thanks graciously, gladly allowed their apprentice healer to join his arcana to hers in the healing process, and then nearly jumped out of her skin when her long-dead niece casually poked her head in a few minutes after the lifekeeper finally stabilized.

“There she is! The goddess that saved us!”

“Aunt… Rachel?” Disbelief turned to a blindly fast soaring niece. Olivia wrapped her arms around Rachel as tears poured freely from her eyes, but Rachel was still stunned. “We saw your house! We thought we were too late…”

“Oli?” Having lost her attention, the process of healing stuttered to a stop, much to the pained groans of the lifekeeper. “Wait, ‘we’ who?”

“Oh, god, Aiden! He’s probably… Well, who knows where he is, but… I’ll get him!” With a burst of wind, Olivia disengaged and blasted across the room, sending Rachel’s hanging herbs flying wildly in her wake. Once outside, she raised a hand and sent a brilliant flash of light into the sky.

“What are you doing?” Rachel hissed, rushing after her. “You’ll bring the monsters running if you flash around power like that!”

“Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure Aiden’s the only monster who’ll make it this far.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Is this something to do with your new position as Goddess?”

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Olivia looked at the sky for a long moment before shrugging. “That should be good enough.” She turned back to Rachel and tilted her head. “Wait, I’m a what now?”

Rachel gestured for them both to come back inside after she heard the elves' lifekeeper gurgling on his own blood. Apparently he wasn’t as stable as she’d thought. “Let's go back inside, honey. We've got a lot of catching up to do.”

A long, sad look passed over Olivia's face, and Rachel couldn't imagine what could make her bubbly niece look so melancholic. But then she nodded, and they stepped inside.

“What on Earth is going on?” Rachel asked when she saw the four hearty and hale elves bowing on their hands and knees. Giving Olivia a pensive look, she returned to her spot by the lifekeeper and started the healing process, again linking her arcana to the apprentice’s.

Her niece ignored the elves and took a spot across from Rachel, watching silently.

“We all thought you were dead, darling.”

“It's a long story, but I'm sure we've got plenty of time before Aiden gets here. And I'm sure he wouldn't like to rehash things.” She pointed to the still bowing elves. “But first, what's their deal?”

“Do you need to ask? After you single-handedly drove off a hundred chimerae? Of course they’re a bit in awe of you.”

Pealing laughter filled the room, and Olivia wiped away mirthful tears. When she caught her breath, she jammed a thumb their way. “Is that what they told you?”

“Of course. Elves would never attempt to deceive. You’ve had such an impact on their lives, Seri’Senyixa here has even offered you his kingdom if you would condescend to be his queen.” Rachel laughed lightly, then leaned in closer. “Just between us, I’m not convinced he’s actual royalty, but his proposal seems otherwise genuine.”

Grinning, Olivia scooted closer to the supposed royal and gave him a wink. “Royalty, are we?”

“My niece would like to know where your kingdom is located,” Rachel translated, “so she may decide properly if you are worthy of her.”

Seri’Senyixa launched into an impassioned tale of betrayal and woe and banishment and reclamation and… Rachel stopped listening about ten minutes in, returning her primary attention to their recovering leader, while dutifully relaying his words to Olivia as the tale went on and on.

“Can I help with that?” Olivia asked, during a brief pause in the saga. She gestured for Seri’Senyixa to continue, but placed her hand over Rachel’s and joined her arcana to the two of them as they struggled to support the lifekeeper’s prolonged recovery.

Rachel gasped involuntarily as the depth of her niece’s arcana opened to her, a vast reservoir that dwarfed Rachel’s own steady wellspring by more measures of magnitude than she could calculate.

In a single moment, the entire restoration process completed, the passive spillover strong enough to leave Rachel herself feeling refreshed and more energized and full of Arcana than when she’d started.

She only stared down at the now peacefully sleeping, fully healed elf, mind unable to fully process what had just happened, while she went on automatically translating the ever more exuberant string of promises and requests from the enthusiastic would-be suitor.

“And that’s why he needs your help to conquer the first Seventh Tier zone in order to be reinstated to his rightful place,” she finished. “After which, the two of you can live in luxury for the rest of eternity.” Rachel paused as she regarded her niece. “How are you so strong? No wonder they thought you a divine.”

That same dark look passed over Olivia's face. She stepped away, returning to her initial spot across from Rachel and playfully blew Seri’Senyixa a kiss.

He looked at Olivia then over to Rachel. “Is that a yes?”

A shrug was all Rachel could bring herself to manage without cracking a smile. She ignored the anxiously blubbering elf in order to give Olivia her undivided attention. As she went to address Olivia, her whole body prickled. A cold sweat slickened her skin.

Her niece turned away, staring toward the doorway. “Wouldn't want to be over there right now. Even after all the training he made us suffer through, that ability is just too powerful.” Olivia looked back at Rachel with a wry, knowing grin. “It doesn't get better, but things don't tend to last long when he gets like this.”

“This… What is this?”

Rank Three Zone claimed by Aiden Pearce, Authority of Midrath.

“Right on time. Now we just need to wait— there it is.”

The pressure released, and Rachel breathed in deep as the mountain of intimidation crushing her very being faded. She leveled a shaken gaze at Olivia. “C-care to explain?”

“Just Aiden doing Aiden things.” She slapped her thighs and rose to her feet. “Be right back.” She made it to the doorway and held up a hand, flashing that radiant light. When she returned, she sighed. “Clean yourself up before he gets here, otherwise he'll be upset with himself. Okay?”

“That was Aiden…? How…? Just what have you both been doing in the last couple weeks?”

Olivia's face hardened. “Aunt Rachel, we've been gone for months, not weeks.”

Rachel shook her head. “No, sweetheart, the bomb blew up the school two weeks ago. Everyone thought you all were dead. There's a monument for all the students and staff where the school was in dedication.”

“You thought we were dead?” Olivia grimaced. “It wasn't a bomb. Everyone in the school was taken to another world, and we've been gone for months. That's how I'm so strong.” Olivia huffed a breath and muttered to herself. “Then again, with how many gods are involved in this mess, maybe it only felt like two weeks to the people on Earth.”

“How many gods… I can’t even sort out how many questions that statement raises. Another world?” Rachel passed a hand over her face and sighed. “I suppose it isn’t even surprising, I’m a magical healer and ambassador dealing with elves and avians on a regular basis now, why wouldn’t my niece be running around with gods in another world?”

“I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the giant portal we came out of, but we did kind of raise hell when we got here.”

Seri’Senyixa cleared his throat, and the aunt and niece pair regarded him. He wiped away a bead of sweat formed from the pressure of their combined gazes. “Sorry for my intrusion, but there's urgent, world-ending news to report.”

“Of course. I’ll get an incident sheet ready.” She switched back to English long enough to tell Olivia, “I’ve got some paperwork to take care of real quick, we’ll continue this after, okay?” then bustled to her desk and started filling out the basic information. “What is it you’re here to report?”

“An invasion gate the size of the sky, a heralding that the end times are upon us.”

Rachel wrote the words down, dotted her t's and crossed her i's, then returned her attention to Olivia. “Just heard about it. An invasion gate the size of the sky?”

“It was a large portal, but I'm not sure it's up to the sky. Very visible from all around though.”

She puckered her lips and raised a single brow, the sign she was contemplating something either concerning or very deeply. Rachel's bet, both.

“Are there other gates like ours?” Olivia asked, slightly tilting her head.

“Not that I’ve heard of. Normal gates, sure. They pop up pretty regularly these days. Something on that magnitude? Never. No wonder these guys are so spooked. Normally elves don’t do reckless things like rush into one of the Impossible zones, and definitely not without a solid extraction plan.” Or six. They tended to overprepare as much as they exaggerated. To be caught out like this, they’d clearly been beyond distracted. “Given the circumstances, you definitely saved all their lives. Without you forcing them to move, they’d never have survived in there.”

Olivia nodded. “They reminded me of new recruits. With the war for the throne going on—”

“War?!” Rachel held up her hand. “Okay, start from the beginning.

With a nod, Olivia talked. And talked. Many of the things she learned about what her niece and nephew, as well as all the others that went to this mystical land between worlds, made her want to find everyone involved, give them hugs, and lock them away from the cruelty of the world.

“Wow…” Rachel finally said after Olivia finished. “Just… wow.”

A knock from the door startled her, and she turned to see Aiden standing in the doorframe, leaning there casually with a hard face. The way his blank eyes regarded her hurt.

“Figured I'd let her finish before interrupting,” he said, those hard eyes regarding Olivia. “Guess your tantrum ended up doing some good after all.”

Seri’Senyixa eyed Aiden, moving ever-so closer to Olivia's side before wincing and freezing under Aiden’s glare. The elf moved back to where he was… and then some for safe measure.

Rachel stood and walked over to him, throwing her arms around him. His body tensed under her embrace and didn't unstiffen until she moved away.

“I'm so glad both of you are okay.” She looked between them, smiling and ignoring the awkward tension in the air. “I thought I’d never see you again.”

He looked so different from her memories, it hurt to see. There was an invisible distance between them that felt like an unapproachable chasm.

She rested a hand on his shoulder. “You've been busy. I can't imagine what you've been through.”

He held up a hand and shrugged hers off. “I'm just glad you're okay. I…can't stay for long.”

“Aiden!” Olivia shouted, hopping up with a maelstrom raging around her. The elves backed away, afraid of the Goddess’ ire potentially being turned on them. “You can't be serious? You just got here, and now you want us to leave?”

“You're staying.” His voice carried the weight of the world and the depth of the burdens he beared, brokering no argument. “This isn't a discussion.”

“No fighting inside, we have injured and traumatized people in here!” That wasn’t what she’d intended to say, but it slipped out, and once she started there was no stopping. “I thought I raised you better than this. Just because you have unstoppable magical powers now is no excuse.” She pointed at Olivia. “You, stop with the wind thing.” Then she pointed at Aiden. “And you, the dark and mysterious commanding thing can be left back in Midrath! Now, you've got about five seconds before I put you both in the corner so you can talk through whatever,” she gestured at both of them, “all this nonsense is. We can figure it out civilly, or I can treat you like children. Got it?”

The winds around Olivia settled down, her auburn hair resting flawlessly back on her shoulders. She must've practiced that.

Aiden stood there for a moment longer, looking between his sister, her, and the frightened elves. He scratched the back of his head and smirked. “It's good to see you again, Aunt Rachel. Let's step inside then.”