"Everything alright?" Samantha asked upon seeing Ichtvar tied around the wings while hanging from a support beam in the ceiling from a rope tied around his tail, Nathan eating pancakes nearby like nothing was strange.

She had arrived at the facility Nathan and Keith had purchased right after returning from destroying the Black Orb two weeks prior to find the bird hanging from a beam, tied up for whatever reason Nathan had. Cyrus was held in a baby carrier against her chest, and he was waving at the phoenix.

"He had another one of Ichtvar's BDSM fantasies," Keith told her. "He thinks that Ichtvar is doing them on purpose."

"Oh?" Samantha looked at the phoenix, which looked at her back. "Are you, Ichtvar?"

"I'm not responsible for them," the bird said plainly. "The dreams are Nathan's own subconscious doing that to him."

"Right," Nathan said. "They just happen to occur after I nearly die or majorly stress myself out. And this one, right after you return from showing Master Torzin where Evala's world is located."

"Total coincidences," Ichtvar said.

Samantha turned her attention to the gate, which Nathan, Keith, and the government agents had finished constructing the night before. It was an archway of metal and stone fifteen feet in height and ten wide, runes glowing along it and on the floor around it.

Nothing could be seen through the gate, but Samantha knew from the visits over the last two weeks that the lack of a view just meant it was off. Only Nathan and Keith could turn it on. Part of the reason the gate had taken them two weeks rather than the one to one and half they had expected was because it wasn't alone.

They had Master Torzin building an identical gate on the other side. The government had never managed to figure out how to construct them in pairs like that, but the pair of prodigies forged by the Well of Souls found that to be no obstacle and decided that it might be more efficient to work them in a pair rather than alone.

According to their preliminary test results, the gates took less mana to run when working as a pair than alone. It wasn't as if the cost actually mattered, with the mana orb hidden within each one able to supply it with all it needed, but there was a second bonus to it – stability.

The gates were much more stable when there was a connecting archway than when there wasn't. As a result, they were far less prone to weakening or turning off on their own due to the movements of planets within their own dimensions. It wasn't something Nathan and Keith knew happened, but the government was pleased to learn about it and how to create connecting gates.

They were already working on building a connecting pair for the resource planet, which they were also building a facility on using the magitech the pair of prodigies created to protect it and filter the air.

"You two are leaving right after you eat?" Samantha asked.

"Yes," Nathan answered.

"Are you sure there's no way I can convince you against taking Cyrus?" She asked. "Time passes two and a half times faster in that dimension than it does here, and I'd rather not have him go through an accelerated growth."

"It would take," Nathan said. "Something from the Ultimate Trinity showing up and offering to protect him while I'm gone to convince me of that. And I'd need to trust them. Ichtvar is coming with me and Endariv is still hiding because we haven't reached the two-year mark. So no, you cannot."

Samantha sighed, then sat beside Nathan, filling a plate with pancakes from the center of the table as Cyrus began blasting his father with orbs of green light.

"We really need to figure out what those mean," Samantha told Nathan. "I still can't figure it out, and that mental communication he doesn't isn't helpful with it."

"He's a baby, you're not meant to understand him," Nathan told her. "Where's Isabelle?"

"You haven't given her authorization to enter the facility," Samantha told him. "She's with Katie, trying to get to know her better."

Nathan nodded as he shoved another forkful of pancakes into his mouth. He was undecided on Isabelle, even after two weeks. Though he felt certain she had some ulterior goal, she seemed intent on being on everyone's good side as well. Keith also trusted her because of his sight and cyber investigations into her.

"Let her, then," Nathan told Samantha. "Don't go into the game while I'm gone, okay? You don't need to, so there's no reason to."

"I might do an extended Survival Challenge or two," Samantha told him. "Michael, William, Katie, and I are all individually better than Isabelle, and you two have made sure she holds no ill intent towards us. We can take her in and show her some training stuff. It would give me enough time to see if she's worthy of you."

"Fine," Nathan grumbled. "But you lead the journeys in, and no other Challenges or Dungeons, okay?"

He didn't want to come back and find out that she'd gotten hurt off in some Dungeon. Keith had given him an ominous warning about Samantha going into the game without him, the psychic's power informing him something bad would happen. All three of them knew what would happen if Samantha died.

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Nathan would lose control. They hadn't told Nathan about the condition placed upon his soul by the Well of Souls, but Nathan knew himself enough to know what would happen if the woman he loved died.

"I won't, I promise," Samantha told him. "Keith told me about his vision. I'd feel a lot safer if the two most powerful people I knew who could enter the game did so with me, if he had a random vision attack him saying I might suffer a bad injury, possibly even death, going into the game."

"Okay," Nathan let out a breath of relief. "Thank you."

They resumed eating in silence as Samantha looked at the handful of mages in the emptied-out warehouse Nathan had chosen to build the gate in. Two of them were busy constructing a second gate, while the other three were working on building some sort of machine.

The machine itself would be used for producing enchanted cards, the first thing they were producing. Four of the production lines would be created, tested, and then set to work. Then, the mages Nathan and Keith and interrogated and hired would begin work on some of the military units and their production lines.

"Nathan," Samantha said. "Why is it that every time I'm here for the last week, there are mages who look like college students here? Don't tell me you found a dozen super-powerful mages who all happen to be interested in enchanting."

"No."

She stared at Nathan, who continued eating without elaborating, and after a minute, turned her attention to Keith.

"We decided to check the universities here and across the river," Keith explained. "For fresh, young talent who both met our requirements and whom we could trust. I had to haggle with Nathan a bit on that, but we managed to find fourteen young mages interested in magitech with the talent required and whom my sight said wouldn't betray us. Most of the guilds and families were willing to part with them."

"I find that hard to believe," Samantha said.

"It's not that hard," one of the employees spoke as they worked on the card machine. They weren't that far away from the trio, and none of them even needed the greater hearing that came with awakening magic to overhear the conversation. "Pretty much every major magical power in the world knows about Nathan and Keith. They're powerful, prodigious enchanters, are connected to an ancient, powerful mage, and one of them has a phoenix for a familiar. Our guilds and families are hoping that by allowing us to join Hunter-Ingram Magical Technologies, they manage to foster some goodwill, and possibly some connections as well."

"Meanwhile," Nathan said. "These guys just wanted a chance to work on enchantments that were exclusive. That's why we had them swear blood oaths."

"Blood oaths?" Samantha asked.

"They can't be broken," Keith informed her. "They use a mix of the blood and magic of the person who makes it to forge it, though a necromancer's touch is also required. As you know, I happen to be friends with a necromancer, and he was more than willing to help us."

"They also can only be made willingly," the employee added. "So you can't force a blood oath onto someone."

"It's a fail-safe from the Well of Souls," Ichtvar spoke up, incinerating the rope in an instant before flying over and landing on the table. "The necromancy is required because it's part of the soul, but not the immortal part, that works in the blood oaths. However, the magic woven into the souls to allow blood oaths was designed to know if someone made it willingly or under duress or force, and it won't register if it is. As you know, there are some things the Well of Souls doesn't like."

Samantha looked at the employees of the company, then back to Nathan and Keith, an eyebrow raised.

"They know about the game," Keith told her. "And we mentioned a little about the Well of Souls and how it wants it destroyed. None of the finer details."

"They also told us," one of the employees said. "That their company is aiming to help the government prepare for the reveal of magic, and that these gates will help them progress magitech pretty far, including their own research into how to destroy the game."

"That's correct," Keith nodded. "This first gate is intended on helping us with our major goal. We need it to get to a world to look into something relating to the game."

Samantha gave him a worried look.

"This entire room is set to light up," Keith told her. "If they listen in. And since our employees are over eighteen, their minds are sealed to the System. I did some checking, and they only connected people under the age of eighteen, since those older than that won't be initiated. They're also sworn into a blood oath to only discuss it in any form while in this room, when the alert is functioning and not lit up."

"What do you mean by 'lit up'?" Samantha asked.

"There are hidden runes all over this place," Keith explained. "They'll light up in white and purple in a very obvious manner if we're being observed by them. It'll be impossible to miss. Anyway, once we finish eating here, we'll-"

Keith cut off as his eyes glowed, and when they faded, he pulled out his phone. As he began dialing a number, his phone began to ring, showing the same number he was calling. He answered, putting the call on speakerphone.

"I'm with Nathan, Samantha, and Cyrus, at our headquarters," Keith said. "With our employees present as well. I'm already aware of the situation. Do you know what he's doing?"

"No," came the voice. "But it looks like the entire world is about to know. We're monitoring the situation now, but my guess is that he's heading straight towards you."

"Fuck," Keith said. "Okay. Did he give any warning about this?"

"No," the caller responded. "I called you the moment I received the report."

"I had a vision of it," Keith said. "I was getting ready to call you when you called me. If he's coming here, then we'll handle it. But there's nothing we can do. It'll be impossible to stop it from hitting the media, too."

"Right," the caller said. "How ready are you for production of the necessary goods?"

"We're still constructing the equipment," Keith told him. "Though Nathan and I have our own card printer ready, and a small arsenal of weapons we made over the last two weeks for Nathan's personal use, but we can loan some out. I'm sure he'll be fine with it."

"No, I won't be," Nathan muttered.

"I'll handle Nathan," Keith told the caller. "We'll get what we can made. I take it you'll try to do damage control until then?"

"Yes," the man said. "Thanks. I need to go and handle this on my end. Goodbye, Keith."

The call ended, and Keith rubbed his temples.

"What's wrong?" Samantha asked.

"Nathan, the government's going to need your weapons," Keith said.

"No. They're mine."

"We can make more," Keith said.

"They're mine."

"Nathan," Keith said. "Endariv left his den. He's on a path that will likely lead him here. Right now. The entire damn world is about to find out magic exists, and that means the law of secrecy the human governments have convinced magical beasts to follow with Master Torzin's help will no longer hold sway. Within a week, every damn magical creature in the world with a shred of intelligence and which isn't a hermit of some sort will stop hiding, and mages across the globe will not keep themselves hidden."