“Mom!” Mai cried out, rushing up to hug her mother. “Are you okay? What happened?”

“I’m fine.” Lilith chuckled, scooping Mai up into her arms. “I was being made a Sub-Administrator, so I could help your Ma out more.”

“Cool!” Mai replied, straightening up and giving Lilith a kiss on the cheek. “What are you helping with?”

Lilith couldn’t help but smile at her daughter’s exuberance. Mai and Aria, though they had only been her daughters for a few years, had become completely irreplaceable parts of her life. It was hard to believe that they had been anything other than the adorable kids they were now, but they, and Mai in particular, had once been the greatest threats on Kali’s planes.

Like Lilith, Mai was one of the Perfect Chimeras, special beings with a lot of Worship invested into them that took all the characteristics from each species found in Kali’s planes, and she had gone into hiding after defeating Errus, the first Perfect Chimera, and brainwashing him. After Lilith had rose to power and the system had changed to allow people from Earth magic once more, Mai had launched into a campaign to take over the world, brainwashing everyone into her minions.

Lilith had foiled that plan by turning the spell Mai was planning to use on Lilith against her, reducing her to the child she was now, both physically and mentally. Though she kept some vestiges of her past life, such as vague memories and some slight personality quirks, she had essentially become an entirely new person.

The recoil of reflecting the spell and gaining all of Mai’s abilities due to some of Lilith’s own had knocked Lilith out, and in that time, Mai had taken the liberty of casting the same spell on Errus and making them identical twins that looked like a young Lilith, leading to Aria. She had also brainwashed the leaders of magical society and made all her minions loyal to Lilith, and after much debate, Lilith had decided to not undo any of Mai’s brainwashing, both old and new.

The whole incident was completely and totally secret so as to avoid widespread panic, and the people Mai had already brainwashed beforehand had been gone for so long that trying to sort out new lives for them while erasing their memories was infeasible, and the leaders…well, it was a pragmatic decision, more than anything.

Lilith was the “High Arbiter”, someone with the job of making sure the integration of the magical and nonmagical communities went well, and of being the one who would mete out punishment for crimes against sapient life made on a national scale.

To that end, having a community of leaders in her pocket was an incredibly useful asset, even if she had used her newfound control over them incredibly sparingly. She wasn’t seeking to alter their lives or dictate their policy, it was just insurance in case they tried to do something stupid like take over countries from Earth, which had been a large worry for quite some time.

But, over the last few years, things had settled in nicely. Mai and Aria were attending kindergarten with Carmen, the daughter of Lilith’s childhood friends who had ended up moving into the dungeon that Lilith had made, and they were doing well. Mai was a rambunctious bundle of energy, but not more than could be expected from a kid her age, and Aria was quiet but performed admirably in her academics.

Well…admirably for what they were trying to do; both Mai and Aria had retained basic knowledge like how to read, write, and do basic math, so performing admirably was really just never forgetting to do her homework or complaining about how she already knew things; this was mostly a social exercise for the two of them, and she understood that.

“Mom?” Mai asked. “You okay?”

“Huh?” Lilith replied, snapped out of her recollection by her daughter’s words. “Sorry, I’m still waking up.”

“It’s okay, Mom.” Mai replied. “I was just asking what you’re helping with.”

“You’ll see.” Lilith said enigmatically. “But it’s something big. Where’s Aria?”

“She went to find Mama.” Mai said. “Anyway, can I help out too?”

“Maybe when you’re older.” Lilith replied, setting Mai down.

“You always say that.” Mai pouted.

“And it’s true.” Lilith said, smiling at her daughter. “You have maturing to do before you’re ready for this kind of thing, and that takes time. Don’t worry, though, this isn’t something that will be over before you’re ready to help, it’s going to take a very long time.”

“Fiiiine.” Mai said. “I guess I can wait.”

Lilith patted her head. “Good, I’m proud of you, I know waiting is hard.”

“Yeah! I’m gonna go eat lunch now, okay?”

“Okay, sweetie. Go find Raphi or Emily and see what they’re making, don’t just grab junk food from a pantry.”

“I – I wasn’t going to.” Mai said, averting her eyes from Lilith’s gaze.

“Your mother will be watching.” Lilith warned. “So don’t get any ideas.”

“Okay, okay.” Mai said, scampering around Lilith and heading towards one of the kitchens.

Around that time, Aria came into Eve’s view. “M-Mama?” She said timidly. “Are you okay?”

“Of course I am, squirt.” Eve said, pulling Aria into a hug. Eve was in her preferred form, that of an angel child, so from an outside perspective it looked more like two sisters hugging than mother and daughter, but no one who lived in the dungeon saw Eve as a child. Or at least, didn’t after Eve had gotten angry a couple of times; that form was for confusing enemies, not her family and friends, and she was still more than capable of holding her own against the rest of the dungeon, sans Kali, combined.

The form had its limitations, mainly to do with height, but Eve was more than capable of working around it by aging herself up or flying up to whatever she needed. And, of course, she never used it when she was getting frisky, but that went without saying; regardless of her actual age it just felt too wrong to even kiss with a child’s body.

“G-good.” Aria said. “I don’t know what I would have done if something happened to you.”

“I’ve said it before, but you’re not getting rid of me that easily.” Eve chuckled, patting Aria’s head. “All four of us are fine.”

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Aria rested her head on Eve’s chest. “I love you, Mama.” She said. “I’m so happy you made me part of your family.’

“Where’s this coming from?” Eve asked, smiling gently. “It seems a little sudden.”

“I was just worried. Even though Errus said you’ll be fine, I couldn’t help but think of everything that might go wrong.”

Aria had a remnant of Errus’s personality within her, a leftover from the very beginning of their time with her. They had decided that it was their moral obligation to see if Errus wanted his life back, as he himself had done nothing wrong, and had used a Skill to create another personality within Aria, similar to Lilith’s Parallels.

He had stated that, as far as he was concerned, he was dead, and that Aria deserved this life more than he did. His personality then went to sleep, to wake only when Aria called on him. He had become something of a grandfather figure to Aria, someone she could trust when she was scared or needed help and her mothers weren’t around.

Eve hugged Aria a little tighter. “Remember, I’m a Higher Being; even if I die, I come back after a little bit. You’re stuck with me forever.”

That wasn’t strictly true, other Higher Beings or Administrators did have ways of permanently killing Higher Beings, but most “normal” methods of killing one would end with them resurrecting in a year or two, using some of their accumulated Worship in the process. If they didn’t have that Worship, then whatever Worship they would earn would be put towards that resurrection. The same went for Administrators, except all Worship that would be generated would go to them instead.

“Yeah, but…this is Administrator stuff, it’s different.” Aria said.

Lilith couldn’t help but smile as Eve internally cursed Aria’s perceptiveness. “Well, it’s all fine now. Are you hungry? Your sister is getting lunch right now, so I’m sure they’ll have something for you.”

“Maybe later…can I hug you more first?” Aria asked.

Eve gave a theatrical sigh and picked Aria up, aging up her body as she did. “I suppose we can take as much time as you want.” She said, walking out of the room and continuing her trek towards the library.

“Where are you going, Mama?” Aria asked.

“Your mom and I are going to read some books on Administrators.” Eve replied. “Pretty boring stuff, mostly.”

“Oh. I was…expecting some more exciting.”

“Not quite yet.” Eve replied. “We’ve got a bit more to learn before we’re ready for more exciting stuff.”

“So…we’re going to have to do school even when we’re older, then?”

“What?” Eve replied, taken aback. “No, not at all. If you want to do something new, you’re always going to have to learn how to do it before, but it’s not like school unless you choose to go to a school for it. There’s no homework or anything, and you can take things at your own pace. Your mothers and I have to be very careful with our stuff, since it affects entire planes, but for most things you won’t need to do much more than look it up on the internet.”

“Good.” Aria said. “School’s boring.”

“I know” Eve said soothingly. “Just give it a bit and you’ll start getting into history and other stuff you don’t know. If you really want, we can look into skipping you and Mai a few grades, and then wait until you’re older to put you back in school.”

“What about our friends?”

“You probably won’t be able to see them, sorry.” Eve replied.

“Then I can stay in school.” Aria said. “I don’t want to lose them, and Carmen will be lonely if we’re not there.”

“You’re sweet.” Eve said. “You know you’re allowed to think of yourself in these situations too, right? It’s okay to be a little selfish from time to time.”

“I’m not just saying that.” Aria said. “I really feel it.”

“Then, if that’s what you want, we’ll keep doing it. But if it gets to be too much, just let me know and we’ll figure something out, okay?”

Lilith reached the door to the library, and began to pay attention to herself once more. She entered the library, and to her surprise, found her aunt Judy already there, reading a book. Aside from Lilith’s parents, she was Lilith’s only living human relative, though she wasn’t quiet human anymore.

She had taken up an apprenticeship as an intelligence operative with Kali, and in the process had chosen to have her species changes, so as to better facilitate her work. She specialized in subverting insects, animals, and other creatures without a soul to becoming part of her “swarm”, which she could manipulate at will.

It was a little more complicated than that, something about being able to send her consciousness into them and receive information back from them, but, however it worked, she had become the go-to person for any information on events on either of Kali’s planes, Earth or Haven.

“Hey, you. You’re finally awake.” Judy said, looking up from her book with a twinkle in her eyes. “You were trying to cross the border, right?”

Lilith rolled her eyes. “I’ve heard that one before.” She said. “Right around when this all started.”

“I know.” Judy giggled. “How are you feeling?”

“There’s a bit of an itch in our brains, but other than that we’re fine.” Lilith replied. “Kali said it should go away in a day or two.”

“Good to hear.” Judy said. “I assume you’re here to study something?”

“Yeah. Kali’s given us full access to the library, and I’m going to be reading up on Administrator politics. Eve’s planning to study texts for new Administrators, and Nuwa’s going to be looking for anything else useful.”

In particular, I’m looking for stuff on the eldritch. Nuwa added. It seems…quite relevant.

“Oh?” Judy said. “What do you mean by that?”

Lilith sighed. “It’s something of a long story.” She said. “I’m sure we’re going to be having a meeting with the adults about it sometime soon, but the long of the short of it is that I got a vision form the Elder Gods and now we’re pretty sure there’s going to be an Administrator World War again, so we’re prepping now. Jerry’s giving us a plane and we’re going to be working on making a system using some new stuff he’s been theorizing about. If it works, we’re in a pretty good shape.”

“That’s…concerning, to say the least.” Judy replied. “Why us? We’re pretty weak as far as universes go, right?”

“I seem to be the ‘game piece’ of the Elder Gods for our faction. Jerry thinks having me and everyone else who was involved in the Elder Gods’ meddling do it will be our best shot. I imagine that, if this works like he hopes, we’re going to end up changing the system here again, because we really do need the strength in case we’re attacked.”

“Joy.” Judy said sarcastically. “I’m sure that’s going to go over well.”

“Yeah, I’m not looking forward to it. Ideally, it’ll be something that will largely be unnoticeable, just under the hood stuff, but I’m not holding my breath.”

“How are you planning to break the news to people?”

“I don’t know.” Lilith admitted. “I’m going to have to discuss it with Kali. My guess is that we’ll claim something along the lines of the current system being a transitional one or something.”

“Something along those lines.” Kali said, walking into the room and giving Lilith a hug. “We’ll figure it out later. Right now, I have some business with Judy.”

“Oh?” Judy said, raising an eyebrow. “What’s that?”

“How much has Lilith told you about what’s happening?”

“Just that the Elder Gods have given her a vision and war is likely.”

“Okay, so, basically, the Elder Gods have been meddling and giving nudges and ‘gifts’ to people, and while we assumed Lilith was the only one on our planes, Jerry found that the one he thought on his plane was not, in fact, the ‘main’ one, and was merely someone related to her. He’s hypothesizing that there might be more people related to the ones we’ve picked out that have been given alterations, so I’m going through and checking everyone in the dungeon right now, just to be sure.”

“Any hits?” Lilith asked.

“Myself, and our daughters.” Kali replied. “Though I’m afraid I can’t quite tell what they’ve given us, I’m not getting an instinctual knowledge like Jerry and Amy report getting, not unless I’m looking at you.”

“What’s this procedure like?” Judy asked, standing up and walking over to Kali.

Kali placed a finger on Judy’s forehead, held it there for a moment, then withdrew it. “Done, and it looks like you’ve got it as well. I’ll have Jerry come take a look at us when he visits here in a couple of days, but I highly doubt it’s anything harmful. As far as we can tell we’ve had them our entire lives, and they do seem to want to ‘win’ this game they’re playing, so it’s…probably fine?”

“And…no one noticed, not even Administrators?” Judy said flatly.

“Yup, just like people didn’t notice that Lilith was gone when I made her High Arbiter.” Kali said. “The Elder Gods wield a power foreign to us and are capable of influencing our actions or making us forget things, we have no reason to believe they can’t make us unable to notice something.”

“That…makes sense.” Judy said slowly. “So, what now?”

“Now, I go check everyone else.” Kali said. “You two keep reading, we’ll have a meeting about all of this tomorrow, okay?”

Lilith leaned down and gave her wife a quick kiss. “Sounds good. I’ll see you later.”

Kali gave her a happy smile. “See you later.”