Amanda was in a foul mood. No. She was furious, pissed, livid, and murderous. But when she was two and a half inches high, it was a cute sight, no matter her mood.

She screamed and shouted some very unladylike words. She shot lightning bolt after lightning bolt at the Dungeon passage. The crackling sparks went a few feet before dissolving harmlessly in the already charged air of the Gurglock Ocean realm.

Fairy-Robert watched the pocket woman throw her tantrum with rapt fascination.

"It's amazing!" He mumbled.

Amanda fired expletives but not at him. Too absorbed with the study of the lattice of Space essence woven around the young woman, Robert noticed but paid it no mind.

"It's skintight and moves around with you and what you wore when we entered the realm. That's why objects held don't shrink."

Robert knew he had to Make Amanda Great Again soon, or she would blow a gasket. But no magical effect was permanent without a sustaining force. Some enchantments or curses had either a fragment of soul and we're able to feed off of ambient ether or their wearer's essence. These were unique and permanent items, respectively.

This was not the case with the effect that shrunk both of them. When he transformed into a fairy, he noticed the effect only shrunk his human form but returned when he changed back. It had a ridiculously dense essence reserves but it would fade in time. The shrinkage factor would also become smaller as this essence unraveled but he had no idea how long it would take. His best estimate was a couple of weeks to a month.

It was inconceivable how the Dungeon managed to pull it off. The volume of essence was impossible for any human, no matter how many stars they had piled up.

He picked the irate toy-sized girl up. "Let's rest in the liminal void for the time being. You can stay in the fairy house with me.

"Ugh, fine!" She grunted.

Robert used his main talent and deployed the artifice doll house. Once ready, he landed on the roof patio and gently placed Amanda on the floor.

The doll house was to Amanda what a normal house was to a fairy.

"I feel like a toddler!" She protested.

"It's okay. I understand. Now, come here," Robert put his hands under her armpits and picked her up, like, uhm, a toddler. He kissed her cheek. "Think about this, I'm going to tuck you in bed and attend to your every whim while you grow up."

"Ugh, fine! But I want milk, cookies, and bedtime stories!"

"Sure! How about a foot massage, too?"

He grinned. Despite her mood, she wasn't treating him badly. And something about her size made him want to spoil her. It was from his fairy side.

*

*

The first huge problem they faced was when Amanda undressed to take a bath. Minutes after she took them off, her clothes all returned to their original size.

Now, she had nothing to wear. But they were alone. Amanda resigned herself to wear some crude dresses Robert made for her using Life essence to weave live flower petals she grew using her magic.

"Rose petals will be the latest rage when I get back to Earth," she vowed as she walked around the house wearing a gown made of the eponymous plant parts.

"Sure," Robert said as he kept casting purge essence on himself to shed his own load of Space essence. It shouldn't be this hard but not only the essence lattice supporting the shrinking spell had a lot of essence to disperse, but it was also, extremely consistent, and tightly wounded. The spell could only shave it at the edges but still made some progress, even if minimal.

But it also created another problem. Robert was growing faster than Amanda.

"You should sit down and meditate to purge the essence faster," he told her.

But Amanda found that, in her foul state of mind, meditating was impossible. She grunted and hissed as she paced around the house like an irate toddler. The proportion between the furniture and her only reinforced the image.

"Hey," Robert stopped her. "I know what you need. What about riding a mink? It's a unique experience."

The rose-petal-clad woman stared at him. "No."

"Why not?" He could tell that the idea had drawn her attention but something made she changed her mind.

Amanda fidgeted with her crude clothing. She bit her lower lip and let her gaze drop to the ground. "I don't have underwear. I won't ride you bareback."

Robert raised an eyebrow and smirked. He huffed a suppressed laugh.

,Amanda's face became a deep shade of red. Anyone that knew something about her situation would know why she didn't want to…

"Oh. Sorry, sorry," Robert said as he took her hand. "I can make a saddle. Or remove the fur–"

Stolen novel; please report.

"Panties. Make me panties," she demanded. "I keep feeling this draft. I feel exposed and defenseless." Amanda confessed.

"Can't you weave cotton?"

"I tried. It's too coarse. At this size, I'm twenty-five times smaller."

"I can remove the fur and make smooth skin," Robert suggested.

"That might be even worse."

"Fine, forget about that. Let's do an experiment, it might help with minimal risk of injury," he said as he stood up. He was twice as tall as her but still forty percent of his fairy form.

They went to the patio. After explaining what he wanted to do, she begrudgingly accepted.

Holding a hand above her head with the pinky finger up, Amanda closes her eyes.

He held the finger and focused Life essence on the nail. With Amanda's consent, Robert grew it until it was two inches long.

Robert fired a void lance at the tip of her fingernail. The spell hit and caused Amanda to suddenly grow four inches, almost tripling on size. She lost her balance and landed on her butt. Naked.

"It worked!" Robert cheered.

Though it was skintight, the spell still wrapped around her. Void lance consumed both Ether and matter, whatever it hit first. In this case, it was the Dungeon's shrinking spell.

Amanda covered her assets and looked at him with a mix of relief, bashfulness, and indignation.

"Wanna continue?" He asked. "Or do you want to cover yourself?"

Amanda sighed. "It's not like you haven't seen everything already. It was just the scare of having everything suddenly become three times smaller. Let's do it so I can wear normal clothes again.

He moved her to the surface of the island. Using the same method, he drained the essence in the shrink spell until she was her normal size. The last beam clipped the overgrown fingernail. But needing a manicure was the least of Amanda's worries.

She covered herself with her hands and let out a little shriek when she saw the two cartoon mice.

*

*

Fairy-Robert finally got to use the table and chair annexed to the master bedroom balcony. Amanda, dressed in casual clothes, sat on it while he entertained Mickey and Minnie. The two spirits had shrunk down to fairy-size and sat with him.

"We just came to check on you, Robert!" Mickey said. "You did something really dangerous back there," the mouse pointed in the general direction of the Carcinodon Sea.

"Was it you?"

"Us," Mickey grasped Minnie's hand. "That nasty spirit was about to break out of the shell. The only thing we could do was to take them to the void and let it take care of them."

Robert lowered his head, "thank you."

"Golly, Robert, we are friends! You are most welcome!" Mickey squeaked.

"Wait," Amanda interrupted. "You said, spirit?"

"Yes! When Robert killed a deviant monster, the Carcinodon, a while ago, he manifested a unique spirit. A really bad one. It was poisoning the waters and would grow to poison this entire world. Robert almost dominated it. But in the end, we had to get rid of it."

Amanda studied Robert's face. "You didn't tell me that," she accused, more than a little offended.

"I had no idea it was a unique spirit until I met it. And then, I was confused and ashamed. Until today, I didn't know what really happened." Robert used fairy-puppy eyes. "And then I woke up, almost drowning –"

"Stop. Just stop," Amanda raised a hand. "It's okay, you lost a unique spirit… what was its affinity?"

"Life and Unholy. And the unique life affinity would most likely be something related to cancer."

Amanda made a nervous titter. "Good riddance, then. You are better off without it," she said, made a pause, then raised a finger as her mood shifted. "However! You can't go on adventures without me. No more solo suicide missions."

"So long you don't get sucked into company business for weeks at a time. Otherwise, no guarantees."

Amanda waved a dismissive hand. "Oh, don't worry. My company is bankrupt, we spent an inordinate amount of money buying overpriced teleportation platforms. The Minotaur Dungeon would need to produce crystallized Ether chunks the size of elephants to pay it off."

Robert laughed.

"Thankfully," she continued. "My boyfriend had access to over five hundred realms nobody else has ever set foot on. No human, at least. So long it's not another roleplaying Dungeon. What other choices do we have for our next adventure?"

"I still have five big quests from Yolania's catalog to complete. Hard quests."

"Outstanding!" Amanda raised her teacup for a toast. "Give me a day to sell my shares and resign. And then we're off to adventure. Mickey, Minnie, thanks for looking after Robert."

"The pleasure is ours," Minnie giggled.

"I have to ask you guys one thing," Robert addressed the Mouse couple. "Did you know about the Emperor's Banquet?"

"We did," Mickey said with a bittersweet smile. "It was something Gwen designed into your Prime Vestige. Since you opened the Void Gates of Nirvana, it was bound to be the next evolution of your talent."

"Sorry to interrupt," Amanda interrupted. " But what are you talking about?"

Robert explained everything. About Gwen and her reincarnation plan, about how he regressed two stars to feed the Void Gates of Nirvana, and how he gained a new sub-talent when the Mouses fed him the unique spirit.

"I need some time to process all this," Amanda said, confused and in shock.

She deployed her box-bed and climbed inside. After taking one last look at Robert, she closed the curtains.

*

*

Amanda only came out after a couple of days. Robert spent this time with Mickey and Minnie, listening to stories of Gwen's antics after the void Cataclysm.

If not for her obsession with fixing the "mistake" she made when she opened her Void Gates of Nirvana and sacrificed only thirty percent of her third star, she would be among the four-star powerhouses who dominated today's society.

Fairy-Robert understood some of Gwen's feelings. He had almost seven times as much effect from the gates but almost hoped he had waited until the fourth star so he could sacrifice three stars to it.

But if the growth of his void heart were any measure of what could happen, his Void Gates of Nirvana would give him plenty essence as it was. One could argue that since he could withdraw into the liminal void and recharge anytime, the Gates' output was moot.

The curtains of the huge bed opened. Amanda's disheveled head poked out.

"Hey," she called out.

"Hey. How are you in this glorious day?" Robert asked with a clownish grin.

Amanda looked at the dark oppressive skies, the roiling ocean frozen in time, and the gloomy rocks of the island. "Heh," she scoffed. "I've had better."

She jumped out of the floating bed. "I'm okay now. You know, some Asian books have a term for people like you. They call it a 'Son of Heaven'."

She said that last part with the same cadence and tone as “Son of a Bitch.”

"More like the reincarnation of the daughter of the void," Robert joked. "Though I have no firsthand memory of Gwen's life."

"She didn't want that," Mickey said as he gently grasped Fairy-Robert's forearm.

"You didn't repeat her mistakes," Minnie added. "That's enough. Live your current life free of any shackles of the previous one."

"That's what Zaifyr said."

*

*

The Mouse couple went away, vanishing into the Netherecho. Robert and Amanda packed their artifice cubes and traveled to her arcology mansion. There, they talked about the five major missions left from Yolania's catalog and their lesson subjects. They appeared in her bedroom after the visit to the liminal Void was over.

Going outside the bedroom, Veronica quickly found them. She had a pained expression and a letter addressed to Robert.

He thanked her and checked the letter. It was a notice of eviction. Samson Housing Authority wanted him out of the arcology by tomorrow.