After giving my thanks for the millionth time for being congratulated on Aviana’s birth, we were finally able to leave. That’s when it hit me. I wasn’t feeling my connection with Donna!

It felt like Gabrielle – or Valerie, rather – read my thoughts at that exact moment. She pulled me aside before I left and asked me what happened to Donna. “Did you, did you die?”

I froze at the question, “Y-yeah. Um, let’s keep that a secret, okay? Where is her body?”

I had to leave everyone’s company for a while. Gabrielle couldn’t come with me. A father leaving his new-born kid and his wife to go somewhere in secret with another woman just wouldn’t look right. Finally, I found Donna at the hospital’s morgue, encased in Crystalline Slumber. Well, she’s sure gonna have some questions for me.

Light Resurrection brought her back.

“Who knew I’d die twice?” she joked groggily. “I, have so many questions,” she held her head in thought, “but, I just spoke to Dawn and she said there’s something she has to tell you. So, go defile her grave like a good boy.”

I took a step back mentally and was amazed at how ridiculous the past twelve hours were. Donna slipped into my mind and rested there and I returned to Gabrielle to let her know everything was okay.

Anjali was back inside the maternity section with Aviana. “You, really did die…” she held her head. “I thought that was the case when Donna died but I didn’t want to believe it. I want to scold you, but I really can’t this time,” she smiled at our daughter.

~

They kept my wife and daughter in the hospital, and I eventually teleported the people of my household home, then went to Dawn’s grave in the guise of the night’s darkness. She wasn’t buried in a fancy sarcophagus like Donna, but her family was indeed rich. Her tombstone was huge. I slipped into Voidwalk and sank beneath the earth until I found her coffin. I returned to the corporeal plane and manipulated the hardened dirt away, exposing the white-turned-cream coffin. The latches were raised up and I raised the cover up with void magic; mastering void gave me something akin to telekinesis.

Her body was decomposed as expected, but I weathered through the stench. I cast Levitate and Invisibility, going into a meditative position like Hethekk. There, I began the Light Resurrection spell. Darkness enshrouded my mind, and the soft light that was Dawn appeared in front of me.

“Donna told you, I see,” she said.

I nodded, then wondered if she was able to see me nodding. “Yeah,” I answered. “she did.”

“Is the baby okay now?”

“Yeah,” I said, a bit more chipper, “her name’s Aviana.”

“Aviana, huh?” I could almost feel a gentle smile from her. “Eric, I’d really like to meet Aviana.”

I almost lost my concentration and broke the spell, but I pulled my shit together quickly. “Are you saying…”

“Yes. I’m ready to come back, if you’re okay with that.”

My heart dipped and I looked on at the light. “Hydra’s ass, Dawn! You made me wait so damn long!” I breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Well, seeing that your body has to be recreated through light magic, is there modifications you want to make? I could make you look like Hydra.”

She guffawed, then slowed her laughing, “Wait, you’re serious?” Before even waiting for me to answer, she got excited, “I want naturally blue hair. Do a fade thingy. Make it dark blue like the night sky at the roots and light blue like the sky in the day. I want blue eyes too! Oh, and a curvier body! But not too obvious. And bigger boobs! But not too big. And an insatiable sex drive because I plan to–”

“I was gonna put in extra sex drive anyway,” I admitted. “What else do you want?” I felt like I needed to start taking notes.

“Eh,” I felt like she shrugged, “as long as I get my hair colour, you can do what you want with my body.”

“Don’t blame me for making you look like a leviathan, then,” I grinned.

“Huh?! Hey! Don’t you dare ma–”

I shut her up by finishing the Light Resurrection. As per the spell’s rule, I had to take a part of her and settled for some locks of hair in places she didn’t need. No, it’s not what you’re thinking. I meant extra hair follicles that weren’t visible, like between her eyebrows and on her chin.

Once I implanted those parts into me, the light connection with her was established and she materialised. She embraced me once again, after three years. I wrapped a blanket around her and teleported to us to my study.

She looked around in amazement. “You seem a bit different,” she commented, whilst I transmuted a mass of conjured water into clothes for her.

“Well, I’m nineteen now,” I chuckled.

As if she was some seer specialised in dealing with Eric, she sat me down and inquired about the Ulanos soldiers. After all, they were responsible for her death. It’s only natural she’d be curious about them. She grunted, “It’s fine if you don’t want to tell me.” It clearly wasn’t.

I threw an arm around her and cuddled with my long-lost love, “It’s not that I don’t want to tell you. I admit I’m ashamed to tell you, but the reason I hesitate is because it’s a really long story. So, I’ll just shorten it.” I cleared my throat. “August and I went to Ulanos with Bianca, a girl from said country. Our goal was to cripple their military, so we began to massacre soldiers. But there was a better way. Once we found that way, we were able to seize control of the country.”

She didn’t reply, or react for that matter. I wonder if she even listened to me. “I, missed you, Eric.”

There was such a weight off my shoulders now, but laughably, such guilt. August’s father and Dawn were killed in the same Ulanos invasion, and here I was chatting with Dawn. It turned out that Dawn only stayed dead in order to understand things from her uncle’s perspective.

But, is she crazy? What if I never tried Light Resurrection on her again? How would I know she wanted to come back? These events were lined in such a weird way. Guess that’s fate. Speaking of fate… I pondered on why I was sent back as well. The gods were supposed to exchange my life for Aviana’s, yet they sent me back.

I didn’t know which deity I should thank.

“So, what do you want to do?” I questioned and she shot me a weird look. “With, life and everything. I often travel to other worlds, and currently have an obligation to a certain one. You can either stay in this world, or–”

“Okay there, buddy,” she put a finger to my lips, “before you get all complicated on me, I just want to meet with May and my parents first. Then I’ll meet with your family. I miss your mom. Then I’ll see what Vince and Peter are up to. I have some catching up to do…”

I sniggered a bit, removed her hand and kissed her, “Welcome back.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

~

Once the hospital released my family, we were finally able to go home. Instead of coming with me to the last visit, the Archibald and King households all congregated in my living room to welcome Anjali back home. I made sure Pyro and Volt came along, and they brought their plus one and plus two respectively. Also, the Garrans were back in Aquan for a while, so I had a clone pick them up. Mom and the servants all concentrated on cooking up a storm so they finished lunch a bit early and simply waited with everyone in the foyer.

Donna, even though she knew I was on my way, didn’t notify anyone, so we caught them off guard. Some couldn’t clap because they had drinks in their hands, but a hearty round of applause resounded anyway.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so nervous!” Dawn told me in my mind. “Hydra’s ass, Eric! You’re so nasty!”

It’s been like that the moment she could read my thoughts as Donna did. “It’s okay, honey. Breathe.” Donna advised. “It’s only going to get worse. I mean, even I want your body.”

“But,” Dawn complained, “can I un-see it? Is there some way t–”

“Nope,” Donna laughed devilishly, “just embrace it.”

“No wonder you guys were always so close. I’m suddenly not jealous anymore…” Dawn admitted.

Everyone had flocked around Aviana, not at all noticing Dawn standing a bit behind me.

Someone suddenly skated out from the crowd and flames erupted. Pyro was beelining straight to Dawn. He flew into her, tackling her so hard they rolled outside, going down the few stairs and rolling onto the cobblestone path. I couldn’t help but laugh at those ridiculous antics.

Pyro broke into tears, hugging the daylights of out Dawn. Gabrielle – I mean Valerie – watched Pyro roll about on the ground with another woman. Probably not the best first impression said woman could make. Everyone came outside to see the spectacle, but they hadn’t recognised Dawn; blue hair and voluptuousness made her look different, but how could they not make out the face? Ah, because Pyro’s shoulder was blocking them.

“Bro, the hell are you doing?” Volt questioned, walking closer. “Who are you tackling?” he asked as they stood up.

Pyro swerved behind her and pulled her cheeks in every which way, “Dude, don’t you recognise her?! It’s Dawn!”

I couldn’t tell Volt’s reaction as his back was turned to the rest of us, but Volt, as mature and responsible as he was, did the same thing. The three friends rolled about on the ground, with Dawn between them.

Steyza, our resident wine-addict, questioned me about Dawn. “Is she, the one Donna mentioned?”

I nodded, “Yeah.”

“That means you have four women now,” Donna commented. “Men like you disgust me!”

“But you love me, right?”

“I only love you for your mind!” she folded her arms.

“T-that’s what I meant…”

We had a great welcome back party. Pyro got so drunk that he was having a full-on conversation with Aviana.

Dawn and Steyza apparently had a lot in common despite being the youngest and oldest.

After a month or so of pampering the four of them and chilling with August, my clone in Yunaris asked that August come back.

I wondered what it was about, but remained calm.

“Hmm, we were supposed to come back after two weeks or something,” August kicked back on the bench on my porch. “We ended up staying for over four months.” Tara was asleep in my arms and Aviana kept trying to touch his chin. We exchanged babies, and Tacari didn’t like the attention the two youngsters were getting. He stormed inside angrily.

“If it was serious, he’d have pushed his memories to me, and not just send a message,” I concluded.

“I bet it’s about the Glacierhearts,” he surmised. When I shot him a baffled look, he reminded me that they were the family Freya belonged to.

Tacari was lured back outside by Dawn’s little magic trick. He went from rageful to cheerful. “Babe,” I called her, “would you like to come with us to Yunaris?”

“Oh, it’s that place in your mind,” she remembered from seeing my thoughts. “Sure, but I’m having a word with this Scadia girl when I get there!”

“Y-yes, ma’am!”

In the afternoon, we decided to go back to Yunaris.

Riftshear was set to place us in the middle of First Flight’s building. When I teleported, I made a habit of setting it up so we won’t get our feet stuck on the ground, so we’d always be an inch or two above ground. Because of this, August landed on a bloody hand. Around the entire guild building were dead people.

“What the…” August stepped off, observing the surroundings. Scarlet was covered in blood as well, but unharmed by the looks of it. Her rapier was dripping with blood. I suppose the rapier was better suited to humans than her claymore.

As our eyes became used to the scene, we noticed that no one from our usual group was there except Scarlet. “August! Eric! And…” she paused.

“Oh, this is Dawn, my girlfriend.”

Scarlet nodded, and introduced herself, then immediately returned our attention to the situation at hand. “Guys, the Aubecs didn’t like what we did,” she limped a bit and I healed her immediately. “They sent a few guilds after us. I’m confident in First Flight’s members. We’re all A-class and above now,” she flashed a smile, “but, less than two hundred people versus two thousand is…”

Dawn made her take a seat and she took a few deep breaths. The dead bodies inside weren’t anyone from First Flight, thankfully. Scarlet, regaining her composure, began to explain. “The top ten guilds,” she started, “were hired.”

It turned out, after we disappointed Kurzen Aubec, he huddled with other rich and prominent families in the city. After a couple confrontations with First Flight and the Aubecs, and even with those other families, things got out of hand. The three families pooled their resources and hired the top guilds to take out everyone in First Flight.

Freya’s family, the Glacierhearts, was quite the influential family, but refused to take part in the madness. Shem made it clear that he would not fight First Flight and the higherups in North Sun didn’t like that. Despite him being an S-class warrior with strong backing from his family, the other dark families didn’t appreciate his neutrality in the situation.

“A lot of the Glacierhearts were murdered. If Shem didn’t suspect North Sun, his entire family would be dead. Other members of First Flight had their families attacked as well. It didn’t go as well for most of us as it did for the Glacierhearts,” Scarlet gripped her rapier in anger.

What a bad time I chose to bring Dawn along. I could feel her stature shrinking as my ire grew, but she decided to stand firm. She held my hand, “Do what you have to,” she said, quite contradictorily to what I imagined I would hear, “but don’t let them change you.”

I took a deep breath myself and tried to view this issue more objectively. August looked to be quite calm as well, despite being much closer to Freya than I was. “You should go speak with Bruno Ulyen about this. Don’t leave out anything. As it stands now, we have the power to decimate the ten guilds and the families who hired them. But, we’re outsiders, it’ll be problematic. However, if Ulyen gives permission to secure First Flight’s safety…”

“I see,” Scarlet nodded. “But, he won’t. He’s as straight-laced as they come. He’d never give the go to killing anything besides monsters.”

“I see,” August summoned his longsword to his hand. “Guild master Scarlet, I’m going to kill those who threaten or attack First Flight,” he announced firmly. “You should consider removing me from the guild’s roster if you don’t support this.” I could see the dangerous mixture of objectivity, composure, calculative thinking, and motive.

It became apparent to me then, the ways in which he changed after going to Ulanos. August did indeed see and recognise the value of life much more, but he was also a lot more open to ending lives if he found it necessary. His frame of mind now was leaps scarier than the choler that washed over him when we first came to Ulanos. Even Dawn admitted he was a vastly different person than the jokester blacksmith that she once knew.

Scarlet trembled a little at the man before her. I could guarantee that she never envisioned there would be a time where she would unleash a beast so indomitable upon other human beings when she first became the guild master. But things developed much too far for her to take a pretentious moral standpoint and exclaim that she didn’t support killing. It wasn’t something she was allowed to say to guild members who lost their loved ones. The best leaders must embrace evil and immorality from time to time, otherwise they would be incompetent and endanger the lives of their followers.

“Go to the Glacierhearts first and bring them all back here,” Scarlet instructed. “Once you come back, we’ll split up and help other guild members and bring them all back here for a headcount.”

Dawn was quiet in my mind. I wasn’t sure of the thoughts frequenting her mind, but I left her to ruminate on the matter and not try to colour her opinions of us, especially after what happened when she died.

The Glacierheart estate was in ruins, looked to be destroyed by disastrous spells of mages. Freya was sitting on the lawn, dirtied and bloodied. She looked totally out of it. Her sword was stuck into the ground next to her and her shield was leaned against her as she breathed slowly.

The minute August touched down, dense sand flew out from the ground and entrapped him. After a sigh, she stood up and grabbed her sword, finally opening her eyes. Upon noticing who it was, she froze, dropped her sword and shield, then meandered tiringly over to him. The spell faded and the sand fell to the ground. She snaked her arms around him.

He whispered something to her, but I was too far away to understand. I floated over to the mansion and activated Life Perception. There were five people inside still.

“Freya,” I called out, “who’s inside?”

“Two brothers and my mother. They’re protecting her,” she added.

Hmm, I see five. After casting Renew on her, I entered the void and flew inside the house. Creeping towards Shem and Freya’s other brother were an assassin type and a warrior type. The light-footed assassin entered the room.

“You always were soft, Shem. It’s a pity,” the warrior commented, not at all opposed to agitating his two enemies into brash action. Shem grabbed his spear and his brother picked up a large spiked mace.