When he woke up a day later, Merrick had simultaneously the worst hangover in the known universe and a compounded sense of cascading dread. The hangover, while huge, torturous, and absurdly uncomfortable, was nothing new. When he slipped his self-taught leash of control, it was common for him to sometimes hunt down magic sources and eat them. In the past, they were mostly already used charms and sometimes small witch tokens. Never had they been as delicious or as big as what he ate the night before.

Control slips tended to happen only in times of great stress.

He rolled over in his too-clean bed and sighed. His head hurt too much to go back to sleep.

Lady was probably going to kill him for being so much trouble. Kill him, kick the kids out, and then what would Em and Thom do? Those kids would probably be snapped up by the nearest low life that figured out what they were-- how they could be used-- and then they were going to be in the same fucked up situation that they had been running from this whole time, only now without him. All because he couldn't keep it together.

He slowly stumbled out of bed and put on a pair of too-expensive jeans and a shirt that had never been worn by another person before, both purchased by a suspiciously nice Lady, a creature. He wondered how this was his life now, and wondered when the ax would drop.

Nothing good ever happened to trash like him without the price being too high.

When he finally stumbled out of his room, Emma and Thom were quietly eating in the too-nice kitchen when he walked in. The afternoon light through the windows was diffused by fancy, gauzy curtains, and the light seared his brain. The low noises the kids were making bounced off the expensive hardwood flooring and were like an ice pick through his forehead. The air circulated by the brass gilded ceiling fan was too hot and too cold. He thought about puking. He had chills. He smelled like pain, sweat, anger, and fear.

"Should you be up? You look like shit and that's after being asleep for a whole day." Emma shout-whispered at him. She walked to the too-big sink in their too-nice kitchen and poured him a glass of too-cold water from the tap. She handed it to him and he guzzled it down like he'd been in a desert and not sleeping in a too-nice bed for over 24 hours.

He winced because his thoughts were hurting him. His brain was floating in a vat of pain. "I need to face the music with the Lady.” He grumbled. “I may have made some mistakes."

"Did you try to hit on her? Was that the mistake? Did she reject you so hard you went on an eating binge?" Thomas smirked. "That's what caused your binge last time. Did she laugh in your face or let you down easy?" The little shit dared to giggle at his pain.

"No, I didn't hit on Lady. I just ate all the magic I could get my jaws around, and there was a lot down there." Merrick took a deep breath. His voice in his head was like a glass shard tearing flesh. "I also tried to talk her into letting me eat someone. If she wants to kick us out, I'll ask her to only let me go. You guys can stay. I'll work something out. This was my fuck up." He sat on one of the backless stools at the kitchen island next to Thom. His spine slumped and he put his face in his hands. He put his palms on his eyes. Ground them in until he saw stars.

Em smelled like a spike of suppressed anger and had her back to them. She was stirring something that was sizzling in a pan on the stovetop. It smelled like seasoned eggs. The thought of food made his mouth fill with spit and he was undecided if it was a hungry drool or a queasy mouth sweat.

Em spun around to look at Thom and they both nodded. They both looked at Merrick and Em chuckled, "Dude, she carried your fuzzy ass up the stairs and tucked you in like a baby yesterday morning. You shoulda seen it. She's a skinny little lady and she hauled you around, YOU in your other form, like you were a godsdamned handbag." Em full-on laughed at him and Thom giggled, and it made his headache twinge in pain.

She continued, "She's not gonna kick us or you out. Honestly, I don't think she can anymore. You should have read what you signed. She gave me a copy yesterday." Em refilled his glass with water. "She did say she wanted to have a conversation with you when you woke up and said we needed to feed you a big breakfast. And she even left some herbs to get rid of your hangover symptoms." She patted his arm like he was the kid and she the adult, and turned back around to the stove to plate up what she had made.

"She's not getting rid of us for you going on a bender. I don't think she even cared you wanted to eat someone. I think she was miffed that you didn't tell her you ate magic before moving into a magic shop, but she wasn't mad. She spent more than a few hours yesterday helping us put up our new stuff and Miles taught us how to meditate." She slid a plate of what looked like omelets and toast over the island to him. "She acted like you were going to be mad at her because some asshole tried to break in."

He took a deep breath and hoped with everything inside of him that Em was right. He picked up his fork and took a bite. It was actually really good. "You are getting really good at cooking, Em."

"I was always good at cooking. I just hated it."

"Well, do you still hate it, or has that changed?"

"I don't mind it so much now. I think the problem I had with it was context. Thom hates cooking, though, so I thought I'd start taking over so he can stop bitching about it when you're not around. And you suck at it, and I don't want to starve." Em grinned at him like she used to, back before all the bullshit happened. Like she did before Ma and Pa died.

"I get that." He took slow bites and drank his second glass of water. Then he sipped a glass of juice Thom had gotten for him from their too-nice refrigerator. Thom sat down and the three of them tucked into the best meal he'd ever had that one of his siblings had made. He wasn't sure if it was just because it was flavored with his hunger, or if it was that good, but it didn't matter in the end.

He slowly finished his eggs and juice in silence while his siblings ate with him, and the kids had a conversation about a television show they had started watching last night with Miles. When he had taken his last bite, Em cleared her throat and said, "Whatever happened the other night, other than your foray into binge eating, spooked Miles and Lady both. When the alarm started clanging, Miles freaked out and led us into a bunker under the shop that looked more secure than a bank vault. He was terrified for us, not for him and not for Lady. He freaked the fuck out when he couldn’t find you. And then, when she brought you up here a few hours after we got the okay to come back up, she said she was sorry if we got scared and looked like she was about to cry. She told us to tell you that she was sorry and that she would find a way to fix it. She asked us not to let you leave until you two talked."

She looked him in the eye as if trying to show him that she was the most serious she had ever been in her life. "Miles won't talk about specifics and Lady is cagey, but I think they may have come from a situation just as bad, if not worse, than what we've seen. I think maybe they are like what we would be if we didn't get out and had to live through what the town wanted to do to us. Their secrecy seems like they survived something bad." Her eyebrows furrowed. "I don't know. It's just a thought." She looked away and Thom started picking up their dishes. "All I know is, me and Thom talked about it. We don't care that she's a Shining One. We think she and Miles are more like us than you'd think. We like it here and we aren't leaving. So don't try to make us."

"But she’s …" He tried to say.

"We don't care, Merri!” She yelled and pounded a fist on the countertop. “Fix this so we can move on. I didn't think you'd be the one who would bring the town's bullshit about how outsiders are dangerous— especially since we were considered outsiders to them, and we know what it’s like to get treated like shit—but you did and you need to stop." Em was resolute. She looked him in the eye like an alpha female. Squared her shoulders. He was somewhat cowed. Impressed, but cowed. He didn't think he had to worry about his actions pissing off his siblings, but apparently, they did.

Well, shit. I guess I'm acting like an intolerant asshole now.

Thom chimed in, "Unless you planned to leave us here without you, you should go and have that 'I'm sorry I did something dumb' conversation with her. I think she isn't as mad or as bad as you think. I think, out of the two of you, she’s the one that wants this to work more." Thom started loading a too-nice dishwasher a little loudly. Not like he was angry, but more frustrated than he was when Merrick walked in before breakfast.

Merrick stood up and was surprised at how much better he was feeling after a simple meal. He was going to question it when Em answered his thought. "We put the herbs she left for you in the juice because you would have questioned if they were poison or something. Because you’re being an asshole." Em said. "That's why you feel better. My cooking isn't magic."

"Oh, okay. I guess I'm gonna..." Merrick pointed at the door.

"Yeah, please do." She said, and then she and Thom both busied themselves in a way that made him feel frozen out.

I guess I know where they stand, then. I'll fix it.

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

After spending the day before unpacking the kids' things, hanging out with them to get to know them better, and a sleepless night of talking with Miles to hammer out some murky details, and asking herself some tough questions that she hated but accepted the answers to, Max made some decisions. She changed some things around. She wasn't quite sure about the timing or the execution, but in the end, it was what needed to happen and would probably eventually happen anyway.

We need to clear all of the air and I need to man/woman/other up. I've always known it was just a matter of time and my head has been in my ass. I've been scared over things that I shouldn't fear, and ignoring the things I should be afraid of. Dumbass me doing dumbass things.

Max had decided, after soul searching and coming up wanting, to stop being an idiot and coward. She had the knowledge and resources to make her base-- her home, the kids' home -- more fortified and secure than the center of the planet they were standing on. Fuck, she could make it to where if the planet exploded and spread out into ashes that dusted the galaxy, the shop and greenhouse could and would survive. Why the hells hadn't she started doing it? While it was just her and Miles, it was one thing, but these kids had been with her for days, and by the end of the first, she knew they were for keeps. She had the time now to prepare-- which she rarely got if she expected to live through a cycle-- and all of the raw resources she and Miles smuggled in. Why was she holding back? It was stupid. She was being stupid.

The cycles might be empty, the system might be dead, and the logic system wasn't issuing quests, but ordinary people died every day to normal things. Normal things rarely happened to her, so she needed to prepare for the extraordinary. She could make all the threats smaller.

Her cowardice was feeding into the expected narrative of loss -- she expected bad things to happen and so she didn't stop those bad things because ... why? Was she so cynical that she wouldn't do what she could? Was she so self-sabotaging that she would usher in the death of the children because it was going to happen anyway? Was she using the children’s current mortality as a godsdamned teaching tool to punish Miles for wanting not to be alone? Would she leave them defenseless simply because they... needed defense?

What the fuck, I’m being unintentionally evil.

When had she turned into someone past Max would have hated? Anais would have hated her. After her night of reflection, she could barely stand to look at herself.

She fed in another lump of ore to her smelter to make it into a bar that she could forge into things this world had never seen before. She worked the flue and pumped the bellows.

If we are gonna do this, then let’s fucking do this.

She made a mental blueprint of what she was wanting to do and decided on a mix of everything she liked from all genres she had lived. Wards, dimensional barriers, spacetime barriers, electronic snares, void shields, firewalls, actual walls made of fire when triggered, backup generators, mana-to-electricity converters, scanners of all kinds that could fit into the biggest godsdamned mainframe a thousand thousand worlds could dream up, automatic turrets with ballistic and magic artillery, and locks that only those who were Miles-blessed could enter. Pit traps tripped for those that didn't have a blessing. Mana generating water wells that could not be tampered with from the outside. Food synthesizers that would make supplies a non-issue in case the world did explode. Data nets applied to the skeleton of the world’s internet to preemptively see trouble coming. Scanners that alerted to anything ballsy or small or sneaky enough to breach them. Magic and adamantine reinforced walls. Null shielding, both magic and electronic.

A throat cleared behind her.

Since the problem was small and just a street gang, she and Miles decided to buy out the neighborhood and make the gang move along. If she had to, she’d buy the whole godsdamned city. But, fuck it, this won't be the end. This is probably just the opening salvo.

This world didn't get to kill her kids. They were hers now-- she was a parent again-- she went all-in and that was that.

The scum suckers and the thieves, the eventual heroes and villains, the uncontrolled or controlled monsters, the rogues' guilds and the crusading zealots of godlings, the footsoldiers of kings or armies of governments, the assassins and the spooks, the pack councils, the undead hordes, the mage conclaves, the witch covens, the witch hunters. None will be able to enter her space and the space of her kids --and the inevitable additions (don't tell Green but she knew he was right about that; she had an iota of self-awareness most of the time)-- without her saying so.

Since she had been made aware that one of the children was a Heavy, she assumed the others were, too. That's how it usually went when there was a logic system active, so she was going to go with that thinking and arm them as best as she could and hope for the godsdamned best. The world was going to try to kill them-- something, something, nature and vacuums, after all. She was going to arm them with all the tools she had and then put more on top. The two youngest weren't ready for all she could do, all she could give and grant and gift, but the Pup was another matter entirely.

She would build a fortress above, below, around, and inside her unassuming little greenhouse, and use everything she had ever learned to protect them. She would break rules since there were no gods or systems around to tell her she couldn't. She would make it where nothing would or could take them away. She would cheat death and defy the heavens. If she had to do drastic things to achieve that, then by all the gods and all the systems, she would.

She would love them with everything she had, and she would make them safe.

Maybe this time indeed. A fucking void wolf. Surprise! Like a fledgling rogue's guild wasn't enough.

“Lady? You wanted to talk?” She finally acknowledged him and interrupted her scheming. Puppy was talking to the floor. His posture was submissive and he looked sad.

Oh, poor puppy. You're so sad and we haven't even gotten to the beginning of the worst part yet. I'm probably about to fuck us both up because I'm overreacting to a non-threat, but here we are. You can pray with me that maybe this time it won't end in tragedy.

She showed him what she was doing with the smelter and moved over. "Pump these bellows while I feed in more ore while we talk, okay?”

They worked in concert silently for ten or so minutes, him pumping when the fire got lower than it was when he first arrived, and her feeding in the ore and skimming the slag off of the top of the crucible. "I know I said I wouldn’t ask questions, but turns out I kinda need to. Is that okay?” They both didn't look at each other but instead continued their tasks.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

”Yeah, we should probably talk about it.” He grumbled.

Better to just jump in and rip off the bandage. "So, you’re a void wolf, huh?”

He took a minute to answer. ”That's not what we call them here. Here we're called devourers. You know, on account of the magic eating. And the people eating. And some metals. And plants. Once I ate a car tire because I was bored, but that was right after I found my animal and it hasn't happened since. I have more control now than I had when I was younger." The poor puppy was embarrassed.

"Okay. Are there lots of you guys? Are the other two kids also like you?” She skimmed more slag.

”Devourers happen rarely every few generations. Ma said they happen just when people forget about them or they turn into myths, and then one'll pop up in a random wolf family. The others are different.” Pump, pump, pump.

”Different how?” She fed in more ore.

”Em can’t find her animal yet like she told you. Usually, the pack 'mercy' kills the ones who hit 20 without one after using them bad for a half-decade before. They said that they can turn into uncontrollable monsters, but it's probably a shitty lie. Thom is a raven, which we’ve also told you,” he pointedly said.

She'd give him the benefit of the doubt and ignore how he sounded so mouthy. She took a minute to formulate the next question.

”Why is a raven shifter different than a wolf shifter? How common are they?”

”No one told us details. I don’t know any. Just that the pack had to control them. I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't even dangerous. I think they just wanted a slave.”

”Okay. I can work with that." Her eyes went unfocused and she started thinking hard about what kind of Heavy Flower might be. "Might be a quetzal or phoenix strain or something?" She trailed off. Could be anything. It didn't matter. He was hers, anyway. All she could do was teach the little guy control and morals and let him know he was safe, the others were safe, and that she was safe.

Pup seemed to make up his mind about something and his back straightened. “You’re not kicking us out, are you?”

”What?” She was shocked. Stopped feeding ore. The project was kind of busy work to keep them occupied so they could talk about dangerous, feely things and not have to look directly at each other so Puppy would be comfortable. She decided it was time to dump the liquid metal into the brick mold and wrap up craft time.

Apparently, these kids --or this one, at least-- didn't read the papers he signed. There was no 'out'. He was in and would be until he died or the world ended. This kid, I swear to all the gods.

”Is me being a devourer a dealbreaker?” He looked like he was holding his breath. He looked sad like he was waiting for a blow he expected to land.

His former pack was full of idiots if they thought they could kill him off-hand just to get to the other kids. As far as she knew, it took an army, a prayer to a properly functioning deity, whatever the world's version of a magic bullet was, all at the same time, and a cargo ship's hull full of luck, to kill a starved void wolf if you were anyone else but Max. Fully fed voids were in the category of petitioning entire pantheons for aid. That’s usually when [Legendary Heroes] were summoned in. There was a reason seeing one made her flinch during his dramatic unveiling. I mean, I could do it, but the shit pack probably would have just pissed him off. And he doesn't even know how absolutely dangerous he is. The amount of control he has to have to not eat everything he sees is absurd.

"No. I didn't plan on kicking you kids out. You're in my household. That means things you obviously missed. I should probably get you a copy of what you signed just so you know what you agreed to when you joined." She decided the distraction wasn't working and they did need to look at each other. She took off her gloves once the molds were filled. "It does change the role I had planned for you and a few other plans I had in the works, but I’m not kicking you out. Unless you wanted out. Do you want to leave?”

She looked at him directly for the first time since he walked in. He was sweaty and looked tired, but she didn't know if he was still feeling the effects of eating most of her godsdamned wards, the background low-level magic she was spinning for her project, or if he was suffering only physically from their metal forging project. Pumping bellows for a solid twenty minutes was hard work for people without str or con buffs.

”No.” He pumped the bellows a few more times, even if she had decided to stop, he apparently needed to keep going. Tough shit, kid. ”What do you mean it changes my role?”

She racked her tools and started banking the fire. She motioned for him to stop pumping. ”How old are you?”

"I turn nineteen next month." Without something to do with his hands, he looked like he felt awkward. Like he was still braced for a hit.

Miles stopped pretending he wasn't hiding in a corner eavesdropping and scuttled front and center. He crawled up on the workbench and silently joined the conversation.

”Well, for starters, I’m changing the paperwork and retroactively acknowledging you as an adult that came into your majority for your eighteenth birthday. In addition to what that usually means for regular kin, it's going to be coupled with something else unique to our house. You'd be more like a brother to me and less like my child. I had already planned to wait to do it for a month or so, just so you could acclimate, but now that I know you could kill the whole city but didn't, I'm thinking you can handle a little more responsibility than I had originally planned on giving you. The direction and training will probably be good for you." She scoffed good-naturedly. "Don't get too excited, though. It means a heavier workload and an accelerated trial period.”

She stopped being amused and decided it was brass tacks time. "I would like it if you and I could [Bargain] as family, simply so we can both have a concrete explanation of what we can expect out of each other-- one that’s backed up with magic penalties, so we both know beyond any doubts that the other won’t go back on their word. No trust needed.” She made sure that he understood the next part because he seemed slow on the uptake and needed things spelled out. Just not on contracts, because he wouldn't bother reading them. "This would be for your benefit and not mine. I know you are probably struggling with the issue of trust, so we can just jump the hurdle now and make it a non-issue. You seem to think I'll throw you away over any issue, and I want to prove that I won't, but we don't have the time for me to put in the evidence. So, we're gonna cut some corners but achieve the same goal."

She sat down on the stool she used to draft plans on the workbench. She had the spare stool set out earlier for this part of the conversation. She pushed it out and toward him with her foot.

She motioned for him to sit and continued, "To make a family [Bargain] we would both be happy with, I need to know what you want the most, so we can both work toward achieving that for you and me. In return, I will tell you what I want, and we both will work toward that, too. And don't factor in the kids, because they are already taken care of."

"But.."

She realized she again needed to spell out the obvious to him since he couldn't be bothered to read the fine print of a contract he signed. She should probably make sure he doesn't do that again. Because, in hindsight, it was really godsdamned stupid. He should feel really lucky she wasn't in the bartering of souls business, really.

She interrupted the stupid thing he was about to say, because she just knew he was about to insult her without realizing what he was about to say would be offensive. "Let me explain. The kids are in my household. That means they are legally, magically, and hopefully soon, emotionally, my family. It means they are of us. It means, excluding biologically, they are now the same as if they shot out of my own nethers. That means they will inherit all my stuff if I die, and have access to my knowledge while I live. It means they will have access to protection, education, magic, money, and all the power I can give them when they hit their majority and forever after until the stars don't shine anymore. That is what being in my household means. That is what it means to be of us. Kicking them out would be no easier than removing my own lungs. They are now my children and will be members of my household until they die." He looked thunderstruck. "So, you can't bargain with me for them, because they are already taken care of. They are already mine. As are you. And you have the same privileges, rights, and responsibilities that they do. And you have these things not because I thought you were a few years younger than you really are, but because all of you were drowning and Miles saw that we could help. He insisted. So we did."

He swallowed thickly. "Oh, so that's what that meant."

"Yup." She nodded.

She looked him in the eye and asked the hardest question anyone ever gets asked. "What you can [Bargain] for is what you will do now. What do you want for you? Now that survival isn’t an issue. What do you want to do? What would make you happy? Now that you’ve found out you lucked into a jackpot, what will make you want to stay for the kids that need you here? Because Flower is half convinced you’re going to find a way to leave as soon as you can since you aren’t burdened with them anymore. I think I might kill all the adults in your hometown soon for letting you kids down so hard. Beasty just thinks you’re being an obtuse idiot.” She paused. “…and maybe a bigot.”

Puppy looked like his heart was breaking.

He will ask for something stupid or set the bar too low. Or high.

She decided to throw it all out there, even if it showed him all of her ugly vulnerabilities and stresses. "I'll start. I will ask this as my [Bargain] because it is what I want, and it's something I think worthy to [Bargain] a family member for. You can decide if it is a worthy enough goal for us to work toward together." She took a deep breath. "If I give you the limitless ability to do so and train you how to, will you help me build me, Miles, you, the kids, and anyone who comes after into a pack— a real pack that protects and cares and fights for their pack mates, like a real pack should be— and help me turn us into a force that no one on this planet or the next can ever fuck with, ever again? I want us to be able to rely on each other like a real family. I want us to be able to spit in the eye of anyone who would take us away from each other. In exchange, I ask for honesty and secrecy for us both.” She thought about her wording. “For clarification, I don't want to rule the world or anything stupid like that. I just want me and mine to be safe from whatever the world can throw at us. Miles and I can survive whatever comes, but now that you and the children are here, it changes things. I want them and you to survive, too."

He took a long time to think about it. Surprisingly, he didn't come to the dumbest conclusion. "Are you..." his voice cracked and he cleared his throat. He started over. "Are you bargaining with me for me to assist in my own safety? Are you asking if I want to help you make me and Em and Thom safe? Because if I disregard the kids as already taken care of, you're asking for my input?" The pup seemed hopeful.

"In essence, yes. They are mine, but they are yours, too. This way, it wouldn't be all on you anymore, but you would still be needed."

Puppy breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe the issue wasn't so much that he was going to run away, but more that he expected Max to push him out.

Silly Puppy. You still don't get it.

"After you were fully trained, what role do you want to fill? You don't have to answer right now, but keep it in mind. What do you want to do? Do you want to be an assassin and train in mostly combat? Do you want to build things? Do you want a manager role with training in people and organizational skills? Do you want to teach? Be a doctor? What do you see yourself doing?”

”I don’t know. I’ve only ever taken care of the kids and been the muscle for the pack. I don’t know if I’m good for anything else.”

”Well, do you want to find out if you are?”

"That's what I was going to ask you for. I don't know what I want yet. Maybe management? That's like pack-leading, right? I don't know. Me and the kids weren’t ever really allowed to want things to get better for ourselves."

"Then we agree on a tentative goal. And the honesty? I'm afraid I'd also have to ask for secrecy with that, too. Honesty and secrecy are the cost. There are some things you’ll learn you can’t tell the other kids about. Not yet, anyway. Maybe never."

"So, you want to be able to tell me the truth and you want me to stay silent about it.” He nodded. “Okay. I can keep your secrets and I guess trust you with mine, too. That's what I would expect from a good pack, anyways."

Max nodded and waited on Puppy to back out. He didn't. "The [Bargain] is struck." Verbal, or family [Bargain]s were less strict, but had a tougher penalty. Dumb Puppy should really ask more questions, but he'd learn that in time.

"Good. That's good." Max let go of a relieved sigh. Her shoulders relaxed.

“Miles, if you would, please. I'm going to give the kid the rank we made for him last night, too. Induct him to the list. Yes, that list. He should end up as a demi. Pup, let me know if you see any words, and if you do, don't let any of the labels go to your head. It isn't what you think."

"What does that mean?" Puppy looked around and seemed a little scared. Miles started waving his legs to pacify the Pup. Dang, Miles was so pretty. He blessed the kid but did his little 'don't be scared' dance.

She went back through most of her settings. Maybe they'd have to do it the hard way, without system influence for him? That made sense, as the actual system of the world was very, clearly, utterly dead.

"Nothing. Don't pay me any mind, Pup. Just give me a second." Max fiddled with the admin settings. She tried to do a hard induction to the system she was relayed into for only the Pup. It wasn't working. "Okay, Miles, what am I doing wrong? It's not working."

"Maybe it won't. That system hack we did for you was several worlds ago. Might be a dead circuit now." He talked while he danced to the rhythm of his words.

"Why can I hear the scary-as-shit spider now? Ummm... Hi, Miles?" Puppy looked sick and terrified for some reason. Was it the magic? She needed to get him a personal nullifying ward.

"Hi, kid. Do you really think I'm scary? Max and Emma say I'm pretty. I still can’t talk to the boy, yet, but I think today is the day to collect the whole set.” Miles did more dancing.

Max was still working her way through the code. "It went fine on my system logs. He reads as a demi. I set his anchor point next to ours. Huh. Hard way it is, then." She put a little thought into it. "On one hand, I was hoping the cheats would carry us to an easy mode. But on the other, this means I can also tag the kids as demi without them knowing and that's one less worry. Death wouldn't matter after that if they respawn. And I always thought system magic feels cheaper than the stuff you learn the hard way."

"You can't just easy-mode everything. You'd get bored and suicidal again. It might just be that it's not working for him because he's considered terrestrial."

"Makes sense. That's fine." Max exited out of the admin settings and gave up on the idea of a system induction for Puppy. It was probably for the best. Most first-time system users went full murder hobo when they learned that spent blood made for easy experience points. In hindsight, a void wolf experience farming was probably a really shit idea.

She started making a mental list of everything they needed to do, while also continuing with the plan she had in place. "Okay, Puppy, we need to make you a list of stuff you want and need to learn. Smaller learning of combat, magic, medicine, rune carving, maybe engineering? We are about to base build like maniacs and I'm going to try to delegate as much as possible to you, and what I don't delegate, I want you to watch and learn. After that, we can get more into the details of your role, and watching may give you a taste of something you want to deep-dive into." She side-eyed him. “I’m gonna home-school the kids so they can learn the same stuff, but at a slower pace.”

"What does any of that mean? Are we learning more magic? Mages are regulated, you know? When I asked, you said you weren't a magic user in hiding." He looked like he was baffled.

"I'd like to see anyone try to enforce those laws on us now.” She chuckled at the imaginary imagery of some low-level mage trying to bust into what she was about to build her place into. “And I said I wasn't an Archmage. Archmages are frilly little bitches."

Max decided to throw the Pup a bone (not literally) and explain in simple terms. "As for the rest of it? Think of it like this: Miles and I have granted you the title 'Assistant Manager in Training.' When we actually do get you a name tag, I'll update it. Or, in pack terms, you are now, officially, third from Alpha and not just some random pack member. Remember, although you now have a seat at the table, the spider still outranks you. Congratulations on your promotion, and you didn't even have to work a day or win a fight to earn it."

She smacked her thighs with her hands twice and stood up and started moving from the workbench for blacksmithing to the corner that had the alchemy lab. "Also, we need to see if potions work on you, or if your [Devouring] ability is passive. Honestly, I'd like to fill you full of permanent wisdom and intellect potions before you interact with any of our kin other than Green. Maybe especially Green? Anyway, almost all of them will eat you alive and it will reflect poorly on our house. Miles, can you help me make a list?"

"Can do, boss-lady." Miles finally stopped dancing and started a list in GodChat.

Max backtracked back to the forge area where Puppy was still sitting on a stool and pointed at her discard pile. The ugly speaker was laying on top. “We should feed you small amounts of magic so you won't be starving anymore. The more exposure you get, the less effect it will have. I have a discard pile of wonky shit I crafted that can start you off. After that, I’ll make some capsules or something. Once you hit the minimums, you shouldn't be tempted by my wards. They'd be too small to interest you."

"Your wards are the most magic I've ever seen. I think you're vastly overestimating how much magic the average person sees in their lifetime."

She waved her hand in a dismissing gesture. "Do you have any other big questions for me right now?" She tried to smile to relax Puppy, but he just looked like a doggy who didn't understand a sleight-of-hand magic trick. His head was tilting to the side and his face was still without color.

"Yes? What just happened? What did you do? I feel a little different.”

Miles chuckled ominously. "You became a demigod and got fucked with title responsibilities without a pay increase. Classic corporate move."

"I became a what now?" Puppy choked on his own spit.

Puppy always asks the dumbest questions.

“For your training, we should probably start with the small stuff we have already taught the kids. Meditation and breathing exercises. Those will help build your mana pool. Your health pool can be pumped with basic physical work. I'll put a gym in the bunker. We should all probably make time to use it. I have a library I've been making in the basement that will eventually be full of magic lesson books you and the kids can start on soon, and I want you to start reading everything you can about history and world events on the internet. Miles and I will work on a training regime for you. As of right now, you and Miles should go to the shop and flip the sign to 'Open'. You two can go over meditation basics while you work the counter. Let's have a few hours of available sales and maybe we'll get a customer today. Okay? I have a few things to wrap up in here and then I'll come to help."

"Okay." Puppy stood up from the stool and started walking back through the greenhouse. Miles shimmied after him, doing his pretty little dance and chatting to the new ears that could hear him.

She was glad that was sorted. At least Beasty was the one who was right about Puppy. If it was Flower who was right, she wasn't sure she would have had the emotional capacity to let the kid go. They both probably would have made a mess of things.

Max moved back into the forge area and moved the metal molds into a stack and out of the way to harden. She stood up and glanced at her lingering shadow.

"What's the verdict? Are you guys in now that you know I'm offering sanctuary to the lost? Or are you still undecided on what kind of monster I am?"

The shadows whirled. They hesitated. They whispered at each other. They stilled. They had made their decision.

Her shoulders fell. "Okay. Well. I am about to ward this place up and it will be very uncomfortable and massively deadly to anyone who is inside without leave. Only the storefront will be safe, and only in front of the counters. So, you guys might think about moving on down the road. I don't want harm to come to you even if you aren't sure you're safe here."

Max would be sad, but they weren't family. She could let them go.

She turned to exit her forge area, and a body stepped out of one of the shadows. This one didn't explode into a puddle of gore, so that was a fun change.