Lilith sat back, content as the last of her changes impacted the new plane. The past month or so since Pandora started working on that odd sense of forgetting something had been mostly filled with the more menial work of prepping a new plane; making the cradle, seeding the plane with life and the other things that needed to be done before they could start putting people on it.

There was still the matter of making a system, but that was next on their list. According to Jerry, they were going to put the plane in a state of massively accelerated time while they worked on the system, allowing roughly one hundred million years to pass on the plane for each month spent in real time.

Apparently, that fast-forwarding could all be done at once, but that had a couple of downsides that made it significantly less attractive than doing it relatively slowly. For one, it was more Worship-intensive to do it that way, but two, it was much harder to guide the plane if its growth happened over the course of a moment.

Yes, three or four million years per day was a lot, but it wasn’t completely unmanageable. According to the numbers Mae ran, they were looking at approximately forty years of time passing per second, and that wasn’t long at all on an evolutionary scale. If Earth’s own time was put to that level, it would be roughly five and a half months from the start of the Cambrian explosion to current day, and that was…workable.

So long as they slowed things down every so often to make sure nothing had gone too awry, and the process was completely slowed whilst they were sleeping, it was relatively risk-free, if attention-demanding work. Kali was going to be the one in charge of that particular aspect of the plane, and while Lilith had to admit she was glad she wasn’t doing it, it also meant that their time together would be cut down as well, so it wasn’t all upside either.

“I’m done!” Lilith called out.

“Finally!” Amelia said. “I finished an hour or so ago.”

“Excellent work, ladies.” Kali said, looking up from her book. “I’ll call Jerry in and we’ll give it a once-over before we start speeding things up.”

Tell them I’ll send her your way in a minute. Pandora said.

“Pandora says she’ll send Jerry our way in a minute or so.” Lilith relayed. “It looks like they’re in the middle of tugging on one of the blocks in Eve’s mind.”

“How is that going, by the way?” Kali asked.

“So-so?” Lilith said. “We’ve gotten bits and pieces, but they don’t exactly make a lot of sense.”

As Pandora had worked, she rather quickly found that there were indeed traces of tampering in the minds of Lilith, Eve, and Amelia, and she and Jerry had dropped some of their other projects to focus on the matter. The wards Amelia had placed on her mind had turned out to be great assets in their quest, allowing Pandora to reverse-engineer some of the techniques that had been used against them.

It wasn’t perfect by any means, but she had successfully managed to block a memory from her own mind using eldritch means. She still recalled details around the memory, such as that the event happened at all, what time the event happened, and even a few context clues from the surrounding memories, but it was a huge step in the right direction.

And, using that as a base, she had sniffed out the blockages placed on Lilith and Eve’s minds, and had begun working to undo them. Still, they weren’t quite sure that they were getting accurate information out of it, because what they did uncover was simply baffling.

“For one, we’re getting images of Maven and her wives when they were young.” Lilith continued. “And Amelia and her wives as they were a couple of years ago, around the time you and I got married. Oh, and everyone’s in formal party wear for some reason.

“Even ignoring the obvious time discrepancies, the fact that everyone is relatively relaxed and we’re all seemingly dressed for a party makes the whole thing absurd. I mean, to be abducted for some sort of party and then put right back with no memory of it? I can’t fathom what the motive behind such an act would be.”

“Could it be that you’re somehow picking up memories from before you reincarnated?” Kali suggested. “It would explain Maven and her wives.”

“We considered that for a moment, but we don’t think so.” Lilith said. “For one, you’re there too, and you have your wedding ring on, and we have scenes of Maven and Amelia’s groups together. We only have stills at the moment, though, so we’re hoping that things will start making more sense once we get a chunk of unbroken memory.”

“Well, why don’t we tug at the memory from my end?” Amelia volunteered, prompting shocked looks from both Lilith and Kali. “…What? I want to know what this is too, and the time frame you just gave for me and my wives would put us at around when I felt the feeling. If I also have memories like that, then we know it’s not just an error in the process. It’s not like I’ve seen pictures of Maven and her wives when they were younger or anything, so it shouldn’t be a corruption of existing memories either.”

Tell her to make time for us tomorrow. Pandora said. This will actually be easier than working on you or Eve, since her mind is less tangled with eldritch background noise and she also probably mitigated the effects of whatever happened. Anyway, Jerry left a bit ago, she should be there any second.

“Pandora says that we’ll do it tomorrow, and that she’s pretty sure that your work on your mind will make it a lot easier than working on Eve and I. And Jerry should be arriving here soon, she’s on her way.”

“Excellent.” Amelia said. “It’s been driving me crazy, the sooner this is put to rest, the better. I doubt this party theory is correct, it’s probably just false memories implanted to cover up whatever actually happened.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.” Jerry said, walking through the open door and into the room. “We considered the possibility ourselves, and everything we found pointed to the memories being real. For one, none of the constructs we reverse-engineered had anything to do with creating false memories, and two…should we find that the memories we get from you match, then who’s to say it didn’t happen, even if the event never actually occurred?”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Amelia narrowed her eyes. “That makes no sense.” She said. “If it didn’t happen, it didn’t happen.”

“You would be tempted to say so, but I would posit that, though it didn’t happen in actuality, in effect it might as well have. If we assume that the event is just a party, and had no meaningful consequences outside of it, then so long as everyone involved remembers the event, and those memories match and don’t have inconsistencies with real life, it might as well have happened.”

“You could say the same thing about mass delusion.” Amelia pointed out.

“Perhaps so.” Jerry replied. “But most mass delusions have inconsistencies with how things really are. Now, let’s say the memories we unlock contain accurate information that the person would have no way of knowing otherwise, what then?”

“Then whatever is hiding things from us has successfully convinced us to stop digging for the truth.” Amelia said. “Seriously, why are you even considering this whole ‘party’ notion? It’s absurd.”

“Because it’d be entertaining.” Jerry said. “That’s the entire reason we’re in this situation; the Elder Gods are bored, and playing a game with us. The party idea is outlandish and absurd, yes, but that’s exactly what makes me unable to discount it. Of course, we’re not going to stop digging once we uncover the whole ‘party’ memory, but if progress stalls significantly after that then we’ll have to call it there. Regardless, we’ve gotten off-topic; I believe we were going to do our final checks on the plane?”

“Yeah.” Kali said. “Buckle in you two, this is gonna take a while.”

----------------------------------------

After hours of boring work, the double check of the plane was finally finished, and it was time to speed up its time. Lilith watched in fascination as the view of the plane became distorted, the movements of individual monsters becoming essentially unnoticeable due to the highly-increased flow of time. For the most part, all she could really see was the growth of plants and the occasional instance of a monster or group of monsters setting up large, long-lasting nests.

“I’ll take it from here.” Kali said, collapsing into a plush armchair. “The rest of you go have fun.”

“I’ll be taking my leave, then.” Jerry said. “Let me know if you have any troubles. Amelia, I believe your wives are currently relaxing somewhere around here, so I would not be too hasty in returning home.

“Thanks for letting me know.” Amelia said. “I’m gonna go find them now.”

She and Jerry left, but Lilith lingered for a bit longer. “Do you want company?” She asked. “I’m more than happy to stay here with you.”

“No, I’ll be fine.” Kali sighed. “In fact, it’s probably better if you don’t stay with me; I’m sure I’ll get distracted, and I don’t want to miss something important, not when so much rides on this plane.”

“If you say so.” Lilith said dubiously. “But if you ever need a break, let me know and I’ll be happy to take over for you.”

Kali turned and gave her a quick smile before returning to watching the plane. “I appreciate the sentiment, but I really should be the one to handle this. I do barely any work under normal circumstances, so it isn’t fair if I shirk my work now. Besides, you and Amelia will have your hands full designing the system for this plane, so I’d feel bad if you took on part of this work, too.”

If I think it’s affecting you too much, I will take over a shift or two. Nuwa said. I’m not helping out with the system in any significant fashion, so I might as well reduce the burden on you if I can. If we truly are going to share Administrative responsibilities over these planes, then we can’t split it fifty-fifty between you and the rest of us; there are more of us Parallels than there are of you, and we can handle more work, so we should naturally get a larger share of work.

“Alright, fine.” Kali said. “But only if it’s seriously affecting me. If I’m just tired, then leave it be; it’s part of the job, and I want to actually feel like I’m doing my part.”

You say that now, but we’ll see how you’re feeling after a few weeks. Nuwa replied, a hint of amusement in her voice. Just let me know if you need to go nap for a shift or two and I’ll take over, okay?

“Yes, Mom.” Kali said in mock-exasperation.

As long as you understand. Nuwa said. I’d hate to see you work yourself to the bone when I’m sitting here doing nothing.

“It’s really not that strenuous,” Kali said, “it’s just tedious.”

Tedium is my duty. Mae said. I would also be willing to oversee things for a while, provided I am not doing anything else at the time.

“Well, I’m taking the first shift, no matter what.” Kali said firmly. “Now why don’t you go see what everyone’s doing in the common rooms? I do believe at least one of Maven’s wives is here too.”

“Alright, I won’t bug you about it anymore today.” Lilith said, walking over and planting a kiss on Kali’s forehead. “Love you.”

“I love you too.” Kali replied contentedly.

As Lilith left, she reached out mentally to Nuwa. Where is everyone right now? She asked.

In the living room closest to the kids’ rooms. Nuwa replied. It looks like they’re watching a movie.

Lilith made her way over to the room, where Lilith’s daughters, Amelia and her wives, Maven, and Tess were all watching what seemed to be some sort of poorly-acted action movie.

“Oh, Mom, are you coming to watch too?!” Mai asked excitedly, pausing the movie.

“Why not, I guess.” Lilith said, walking over to one of the couches. “What are we watching and what’d I miss?”

“Something called Swordguns 2: Sword Zombies.” Tess said. “It’s some straight to video movie that Mai suggested. And you didn’t miss much, it’s been twenty minutes and it seems that the main character’s ‘swordgun’ was turned into a zombie and she has to try and avoid using it or else turn other weapons into zombies.”

“And zombie weapons do…what, exactly?” Lilith asked, sitting down. The moment she did, she found her lap occupied by Mai, and her sides by Levia and Aria.

“Beats me.” Tess replied. “So far as I can tell it just makes them green.”

“I…think it’s supposed to make them break easier or something?” Lia ventured. “Marcy keeps talking about having to be careful or her weapon will break.”

“Her weapon has taken like five hits that would have broken an actually brittle weapon in the first ten minutes alone, though.” Connie argued. “Whoever made this has clearly never handled a weapon.”

“It could be magically strengthened.” Lilith suggested.

“This came out before the Merge, and there are no other signs of magic here, aside from the zombies.” Aria said quietly.

“And she’s being way more careful than she was in the first movie.” Mai added. “She blocked a cannonball with her sword in that one.”

“Um…I think we should just not question it.” Levia suggested. “I, um, don’t think we’re supposed to think about any of this.”

“I think half the fun in watching a movie like this is questioning it.” Rose said. “I certainly don’t think we’re watching it on its merits alone.”

“Whatever the case, let’s get back to the movie.” Amelia said. “We’ve spent far too long discussing this as is.”

Mai nodded, then unpaused the movie. The movie was, in a word, terrible. The acting was bad, the special effects were terrible, the plot made no sense, and it overall wasn’t a good experience. It wasn’t even so bad it was good, but the company was good, so it made the movie bearable.

“Please tell me there’s not a third.” Amelia said. “If that did well enough to merit a sequel, then I’ve lost all faith in your universe’s entertainment industry.”

“There’s not.” Mai said. “Thanks for watching with me, everyone!”

“It was our pleasure.” Maven said, giving Mai a smile. “It was nice to get away from it all and relax.”

“I have a lot more movies I want to watch, so let me know if you want to do this again!” Mai said happily. “But I’m hungry, so I’m going to go get a snack now, bye!”

“I suppose we should get going as well.” Tess said, standing up. “Ellie’s probably finished with her work by now.”

“It was nice to hang out with you guys.” Maven added. “We’ll talk to you soon!”

“I think we’ll head out too.” Lia said. “We’ve been away for long enough as it is.”

Everyone said their goodbyes, and soon Lilith was left alone with Levia and Aria. “Um, can we watch another movie?” Levia asked shyly. “I want to spend more time with you.”

“Of course, sweetie.” Lilith replied. “I’d love to.”