The next day made me feel really, really happy that we got ourselves an administrator. Poor guy was getting so many calls that he had to bring in his wife, Jessa, to help field them. And, the couriers hadn't even delivered all of the phones yet, meaning that it's just going to get worse.

The worst part was that everyone wanted to meet up for lunch or dinner. He'd gotten so many requests yesterday while we were out, and even this morning before he arrived. That I just had him to tell them all that we'd be throwing a party next week. I can handle catering and entertainment personally, but we still need to rent some servants for the night, if only to keep up appearances.

I was just getting started back on the Warlords game when Marcus called me directly. "I'm never going to get this game done if you guys keep distracting me." I answer to his great confusion.

"Uh, Sorrel?"

"Yeah, it's me. Sorry, I was just working on a tricky part of a new Rune game when your dad called last night, and had just started again a few minutes ago." I explain.

"No, I'm sorry." He actually sounds truly contrite. "You did so much for me, I was hoping to repay that, at least a little, by taking you to lunch."

"Oh, I was kinda hoping to work on my enchanting and expand the game room today." I say, honestly not wanting to leave the house again for a while. "Why don't you just come over and keep me company. We can watch Apricot try to break my pinball machine." I laugh as she smacks the side after losing another ball.

"Shut it you." She grumbles and pulls back the plunger for another go.

"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to impose." He says it politely, but I can tell he's grateful for the invite.

"What imposition?" I wave it off before remembering that he can't see me. 'Really gotta add video calls soon.' "Amelia's working on her spellcraft, and like I said, Apricot's caught up in her latest addiction."

"Didn't I tell you to shut it?" She grumbles, and I look up to see her trying and failing to use her immaterial wings to move the ball around.

"See, I need somebody to talk to that isn't going to grouch at me because she can't keep a little ball out of a hole." I say, humor filling my voice.

"I'll head right over then." It sounds like he's trying to hold back a laugh as well. "At least, I won't need directions. If there's any place in the city that's easy to find, it's your garden." He does laugh at this.

"Alright, I see you when you get here." I then disconnect the call and get back to making the R.I. (Runic Intelligence) follow the ball well enough to provide a challenge without hitting it every time.

I thought I could just copy what I used for Pong, but as soon as a second ball showed up it made them lock up. That, and Pong doesn't have the hold mechanic like this game does. So, I had to add that in, and of course I screwed it up too.

The Rune controlled shields would just hold onto the ball until their walls faded away. I gave up -really quickly- on them being intelligent about releasing it, and just had them pick a random direction and travel a random distance before letting go. Maybe, if I had played more than a single game of the original, I could have done better. But, I doubt their solution was any better.

I had just gotten the locking up issue sorted, just had to make them pick the ball that would hit first and follow it, when Marcus showed up with an attendant. So, I headed out front to greet him.

"Sorrel!" He shouts in excitement. "I thought this place was amazing from afar, but this..." He sweeps his arm around to encompass the entire yard. "This is beyond words."

"Just wait until giant insect golems are up and running-" I start to say.

"No Spiders!" A faint shout comes from inside the house.

"Hah." I laugh. "I don't know if she's been putting points into perception, or if it's just a wife thing, but she is eerily good at that."

"Must be a wife thing, my mom was the same way with dad before she passed." A dark look flashes across his eyes for a split second when he mentions her.

"My condolences." I had wondered why she wasn't at the manor last night, but didn't want to bring it up.

"Thank you. It was a few years ago, but it still hurts." He sighs before changing the topic. "So, you said you've been working on some games? I don't know what pinball is, but anything has to be better than another game of shove board."

"Oh, boy. Have you got a pleasant surprise in store for you." I almost want to fill the room with illusory shuffle boards just to mess with him, but the sounds of Apricot playing can already be heard as we walk down the hall. That is until another buzz indicating a tilt goes off. "Haha. Apricot, it's called a tilt for a reason." I walk in to see her trying to lift up the end of the machine.

"I swear you made this thing impossible to beat." She whines, clearly distraught before letting the machine drop. "I haven't even been able to get the gate down once."

"Hmm, let me try something." I change the light and sound enchantments on the machine to be less intense. "Okay, try it again, let's see if this helped."

"Oh, that is so much better." She coos. "The ball isn't getting away from me anymore. Oh, Sorrel, thank you." She stops playing to glom onto me.

"It was my fault in the first place." I rub the small of her back. "I knew pixies had stronger senses, I just didn't think it would be that distracting for you." I'd spent countless hours playing in my last life, so the lights and racket was more soothing to me than anything else. 'Maybe Amelia will even want to be in the same room with us again.'  I think with a wry smile.

"You're still the best." She kisses me one last time before going back to the game.

Meanwhile, Marcus is standing in the doorway with his mouth open, staring at the lights from Midieval Madness and the two arcade games.

"So, better than shove board?" I cock an eyebrow at his stunned expression. "Got one of those too, and another that's a little similar but much more fun." I tele-kinetically switch the game table to air-hockey mode.

"..." He closes his mouth and wipes the stupid look off of his face. "Nice room." He finally says. "I suppose that after seeing the outside I shouldn't be surprised that you've filled the interior with wonders as well."

"Eh, I had to host an impromptu party for the Mages Guild the other day. Needed something to keep that lot occupied." I shrug. "Speaking of, we'll be hosting one next week. I'm sure Kyle's already got you guys on the list. He's just working out the final details right now, here's hoping he doesn't decide to quit and go back into retirement."

"Don't even joke!" Amelia says as she enters the room. "Thank you for lowering that racket too. And, hello again Marcus." She points toward the pinball game with her chin.

"Why didn't you say anything. Yeah, I should have realized that you not being around was you saying something." I quickly add at the look on her face. "But, babe. I'm stupid. Gods, it took me this long just to realize why Apricot was so bad at it."

"Told you your game was broken." Our pixie mutters at me without looking up from the game.

""Sorry, Sweetie."" We say at the same time. "Wait why are you apologizing?" I ask Amelia.

"Because you're right. Not that you're stupid." She smiles at my fake hurt look. "I should have said something, at the very least it might have helped you figure out why Apricot was having trouble."

"Well, never mind all that." I wave it away. "Now that you're here, can you help me pry her away from that for a minute so we can all test my new game?"

"It's done?" Apricot practically flies over to the Warlords game, she didn't even need to shrink down to her normal size. "Well, what are you waiting for?"

"Sorry about all that Marc. Come on, grab a seat." I gesture to the table top arcade. "This is a mix of Pong and Breakout." I explain to the girls. "Was going to make it before Blockout, but you said you were getting bored of those two. Don't worry, I'll give you a copy of those game, so you'll know what I'm talking about." I add after seeing Marcus' confused look.

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"Hey, how come his shield is so much bigger?" Apricot complains after I change some settings and start the game.

"Same reason mine is so much smaller, you're still going to beat him, and still going to beat you, but this makes it a bit more fair." I grab the fire ball and shoot it at her tower before she can react.

"Quit cheating." She huffs, causing us to laugh. "Hah, I've got the ball. Now what are you going to do? Ack, why's my wall falling apart?"

"Gee, I wonder if your two questions might be related. Hahaha. The longer you hold on the more damage you take. Ooh, here comes the second ball." I chortle as it hits her unprotected flank as she tries to defend from my assault.

"Amelia, help!" She whines.

"Oh, this is amazing!" Marcus shouts after he blocks two shots in a row. "How are you able to block everything with that tiny shield? You haven't even lost a single brick."

"Mhm, looks like I need more of a disadvantage." I retrieve some crafting supplies and start duplicating the Midieval Madness pinball machine.

"Well, now you're just showing off." He scoffs

"No, him showing off would be letting you know that he's been building a basement, or something under the room the whole time we've been playing." Apricot says, having clearly seen the threads of magic I was sending out. "This is him being subtle."

"Sorry." Amelia apologizes to the astonished look on his face. "We normally don't even bother gaming with him anymore. Hey, babe. Mind showing him the speed we would normally play at?"

"No problem." I crank it up to five times normal, and even though we try to keep the shots away from his tower. Marcus still falls in seconds. Meanwhile the pinball game and bowling alley are still taking shape.

"See, now we can at least get some hits on him if we work together." Amelia crows, so I just crank the speed up some more. "No!  Too fast, turn it down. Hahaha, dang it." She laughs as her tower explodes.

"Okay, now you really are cheating." Apricot huffs as she dies a second later.

"How?" That's all Marcus can seem to say.

"Haven't hung around a lot of awakened, have you?" I say with a twinkle in my eye as I reset the game to normal. "Stats make all the difference. Here, why don't you two play against the Rune." I set a game for the girls and drag Marc over to a dart board.

"Now, this room is really too small to demonstrate properly, but." I pick up a dart and turn around. Pointing to a pixie sized dart board that I just made on the other side of the room, I continue. "This should give you a good idea."

"I could barely even see that from here, and you didn't even aim, you were looking at me when you threw." He walks over and plucks the projectile from dead-center on the target.

"Perception and Dexterity." I say simply. "I actually should to add some runes or something to all these skill games to keep people with higher stats from taking advantage of those without. But, that's why I also added stuff like pinball and some board games that rely on chance or wit."

"Even if it is just stats, it's still amazing." He gushes.

"Yeah, but I still get more out of making these and watching the girls play, than playing myself." I smile at my brides.

"So, why don't you get started on the next one?" Apricot says as they finish their game.

"You have even more planned?" Marcus looks around at everything in the room.

"Sure, that's what I made the new basement for. Needed some room for some bigger stuff." I magic away a corner of the floor, and levitate a glass platform over the hole. "Hop on, I'll show you what I made while we were playing. I would show you some Rune games I have in mind, but a certain pixie would then drive me crazy until I made them all."

"Just one, please?" Apricot begs as we ride the lift down.

"Oh, fine." I conjure an image of Lunar Lander and smirk at Amelia. "I call this one Moon Lander."

"Nope." Amelia makes an X shape by crossing forearms. "I invoke the special wife powers that I just made up to veto that game, forever."

"Okay, how about this one?" I put up Asteroids. "Here, you're in a space-" I don't even get to finish my sentence.

"Bzzt, try again."

"Hahaha. Fine, you pick." I give up and display four games Frogger, Q*bert, Pac-Man, and Joust. The three of them each point to a different game, Apricot chose Pac-Man, Amelia Frogger, and Marcus likes Joust. "What, no love for Q*bert?"

"It's weird looking, and its name even sounds weird, no thanks." Is all Apricot says.

"Well, since you won the match against Amelia earlier, I'll make Pac-Man first, then Frogger, then Joust. Sorry, man."

"I completely understand." He smiles and then looks out over the room he was too distracted to see before.

There's a two lane bowling alley in the middle, with skee-ball and a hoops game off to each side, I even added a claw machine just for kicks. And, I kinda want to enchant a low gravity bounce room, but that would just be for me and the girls.

"So, what do you think? I still need to add some enchantments to bring them to life." I project a bunch of holographic apricots playing fully functional versions so they can get an idea of what everything does. "I'll move these upstairs for the party, but they can live down here when not in use. Along with the spare pinball machine and the extra rune games." I explain.

"I also plan keep the machine in the game room as an all-in-one, but also make separate ones for any festivities." I expand the projection to include a wall of generic arcade cabinets.

*Ding**Ding**Ding* Amelia's phone goes off.

"Hello Abby, what's up?" She answers.

"Hi Amelia." Abigail's bubbly voice sings out from the communication device. "Aunt Marta gave me the day off, and I was kinda hoping..." She trails off, unsure and I hear a couple girls whispering in the background.

"You want to come over and see the new place?" Amelia finishes for the girl, glancing from Marcus to me with an inquisitive look in her eye. When I shrug and give her a minute bob of the head in a 'why not?' kinda look, she continues. "We'd love to have you over, I'm sure you can find the place."

"You can invite your giggling friends too." I add with a laugh of my own. "The more the merrier; it'll give me a chance to test out some of my new games, see how people like them." I almost said regular people. I guess I am a little upset that I've got all these games, but can't really play them with anyone.

"We'll be right over, thank you." She disconnects.

"Hope you don't mind." I direct to Marcus. "We met her back when we were guarding the dungeon."

"Not at all." An unconscious smile tugs up the corners of his mouth before he continues. "She sounded kinda interesting."

"Hah." Apricot cracks up laughing. "That little kitten is interested, is more like it."

"She may have a bit of a crush on Sorrel here." Amelia clarifies. "She had just escaped from an arranged marriage to a baron when she ran into him and well, he made an impression."

"Wait, her name is Abby. Is she that Adeen girl that the Cendassans tried using as an excuse for their invasion?" He may have been bed bound, but he clearly kept up on current events.

"The one and same." I nod. "She's cute, but her personality is a bit immature for my tastes." I project an image of the fire mage and his eyes dilate almost instantly, causing the girls and I to smirk.

"She... seems nice." He tries, and fails to be subtle about his interest.

"Yeah, she's great." I agree. "A bit like a kid sister to me... well, she would be if it wasn't for that crush." I chuckle, thinking that whole sis-con bullshit was thought up by people who either didn't have real sisters, or were just deeply, deeply disturbed. And, that's coming from a guy who gave himself tentacles. "But, maybe you could do something about that?"  I prompt.

"You're welcome to try and get her attention" Amelia adds. "But, she might be a little wary still when it comes to the nobility. So, just don't get pushy if she's not interested." She warns. "For your own good as much as hers. She is a fire mage, after all."

"Am I really that obvious?" He hangs his head low.

"Marcus, you're practically drooling." I pat him on the shoulder and take us all back upstairs to wait.

It doesn't take them long to arrive, I had my senses stretched out to look for her, and spotted Abigail and two other girls her age in a rented carriage. Unfortunately, I also spot that she's got some watchers.

A well organized group too; there's six of them and they keep taking turns following her, so as not to make her suspicious. Once it's clear that she's headed here, they fall back and half of them take up observation posts down the street. While the other's seem to be circling wide around the Garden in case she heads out that way.

"They're almost here." I say. "Why don't you guys go ahead and greet them, I need to make a quick phone call." Marcus is oblivious, but Amelia and Apricot are instantly on guard. So, I use magic to whisper directly in their ears. "She's got some watchers, but they're staying away from here. Making me think that they don't have the best of intentions."

Amelia gives me a quick nod while guiding Marcus out front to meet Abigail. So, I call up her aunt just to double check.

"Hello Sorrel, is Abby already driving you crazy?" Marta's laughter rings out.

"She just arrived, actually." I pause before getting straight to business. "But, she's got some watchers, they're not from the guard, and I don't think you set them on her either."

"I didn't. Is she okay?" A hint of panic enters her voice.

"She's fine." I re-assure the worried woman. "Amelia's introducing her to Count Valli's son right now." I chuckle. "I'm more worried about you, are you at home right now? Do you have anyone around that you trust?"

"I'm at lunch with a friend right now, we're at the tea house near the Mage's Guild." She explains.

"Okay, I know the place." I say. "Just stay there for now, and I'll make some calls to get you an escort, just in case."

"I understand. Just please take care of Abby."

"I will, you stay safe. I'll call you back once I have things sorted on this end."

"Thank you." She says, and I hang up.

I call Stanwood first since Marta's only a block from the Guild. He agrees to send a few mages over as soon as I explain the situation. Even said he'd go himself, apparently she's done a portrait for him before.

I ring up Oliver next. "Hey, sorry to bother you, but we've got a situation with Abigail Adeen." I jump right into it, and quickly lay out what's going on.

"They're definitely not ours." He says after I fill him in. "We need to know if this is just Baron Lampe not knowing how to let things go, or if Cendassa is behind it."

"Or, as unlikely as it may be, if a third party is interested in her." I add. "She is an attractive young fire mage, after all." I don't believe this to be the case, but it doesn't pay to overlook possibilities. "I take it, that you wish me to capture them?" I ask already knowing the answer.

"Please. I'll have a patrol sent to your place to pick them up." He says before disconnecting.

"Hi Abby." I wave as she and her friends enter the game room. "I'm sorry to be a poor host, but Mage Long just asked me to take care of something real quick. I hope you can excuse me for a few minutes."

"Is everything okay?" She tears her eyes away from the room to question me.

"Should be." I smile at her. "He just needs me to get something for him, won't even take me ten minutes. You and your friends can try out the games until I get back, I'll even pay you all in chocolate for letting me know what you think about them."

"That's that stuff you're always going on about." One of her friends eyes light up at the prospect.

I walk over and give my wives each a kiss, earning some titters from her other friend. "I'll be right back, I love you."

"Love you too." - "Stay safe." They reply.

***