“So, you are going to join me soon then, right? There is a time difference, I may be a whole season cycle older by the time you get there?” Arson smiled at Troy and nodded. Watching the young woman pack clothes to leave, he thought about the last time she’d entered Adroit Academy’s dungeon, it was with practically no credits, and the shirt on her back.

“Yes, I plan on handling some things on this end, but I will do my best to complete the climbing challenge in the next fortnight. Just need to see if Reaper is right about this whole teleportation core, and finish what I started in the climbing challenge portion of the school,” responded Arson. Troy smiled at him, and he noticed that her heterochromatic eyes now carried stars of their own. He almost brought it up, but a knock came at his door.

“You two clothed?”

The young couple both stifled the urge to roll their eyes and a conjured hard light hand appeared across the room from them, opening the door with a slight touch on the wall panel next to Arson’s room door before it disappeared.

“Wow, you are both wearing clothes. I’d thought at least one of you would be half naked,” Jasmine said as she entered.

“I don’t like that your comments insinuate that either of us is fast,” Troy said.

“Let me stop you right there, girlie. You two’s whole insta head over heels thing was insane to fathom at first… but I have to admit that as gag worthy as you two are sometimes, you’ve have honestly inspired me to find love, so calm down. We have all accepted you two, and maybe you should as well,” Jasmine said staring Troy down. Troy blushed as Arson looked over at Troy, everyone in the room now staring at her.

“And on that note, I have a tram to catch.” Troy said, waving her hand over all her bags, each item disappearing in a blink with a flash of light. Which made Arson wonder what type of spacial inventory she had, as he couldn’t see her wearing a thing, but before he could ask, she pecked him on the cheek and rushed out the room.

Jasmine cleared her throat, and Arson looked away from the retreating form of his best friend. With a smile and a forced refocusing of his mind, he gave Jasmine his customary nod and the young woman began to speak.

“I want to become a cultivator, and so does Lane. We have the grand opening of the spa in a few days, and the opening of the superstore has been pushed back enough, so I set a date. We also have two offers for the rental of the flying coliseum, and a handful of groups that would like to train in the dump. I think you should consider it as one of them is your friend, Chozen, and the other is the richest person any of us have ever met Caspian Coin and his partner, the guy with the hot "kiss you before he stabs you" eyes Bernard. Also the twins want to talk to you, and—“

“Woah woah woah, could we maybe handle this list one step at a time,” cut in Arson, not wanting to lose track of details as he built a to do list in his Overlay. Jasmine nodded, but Arson had to cut her off again, as she’d skipped the first thing on the list she’d stated originally.

“Jasmine, stop, go back, what about you and Lane training to become Cultivators, as that would help our team the most. Let’s start there.” Jasmine nodded, and began again, smiling at Arson’s words.

“Lane!” His Broadcaster poked her head around the corner of the hallway that led to Arson’s room within the villa, the pair looking at her before she yanked her head back.

“Umm yeah,” she yelled in question back.

“Get over here and stop acting weird. I told you he would want to help!”

“Okay… here I come!” Arson laughed as he saw her fixing her outfit and take a few deep breaths before she walked around the corner toward them both. A confidence that Arson knew she worked on daily presented in that moment, made him recognize that he needed to be as understanding and patient as possible with her.

“So ladies, did you have a plan or was this as far as you two have gotten?” The looked shared by the two business women Arson respected was enough to tell him that they indeed had no plan, and wanted to talk to him for this exact reason. He raised a hand, stopping both of them from talking at the same time. He looked out the window for a brief moment, and then back at his friends.

“I need both of you to go and have Xani do a full body scan on both of you to see if you have any natural affinities. I’m going to talk to my mom to see if I can use her library. She’s never said yes in the past because of how dangerous some of the things inside are to know, let alone use, but for something like this I bet she will make an exception and maybe even just give me a few things directly. After your scans, finding a way to help shouldn’t be an impossibility, but no promises.” The two young women squealed with excitement and Arson couldn’t help but smile. The two would be far more dependable as cultivators, and he wondered how much of this he was doing for them and not himself.

No problem with helping your friends to help yourself, right?

The rest of the planning for the next few days went well, once Jasmine had returned from her scans with Xani. Arson struggled to balance Jasmine’s excitable attitude, and Xani’s ranting through messages through his Overlay.

Maybe I should move up my departure to Adroit Academy’s Dungeon campus, this place never calms down…

“Hey, boss, you got a moment?”” Khalif stood in the doorway, and Arson didn’t stop his squats with the large red mana stone on his shoulders as he waved him inside the room.

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing really, I just came to ask you something, if that’s okay?”

“Of course, man. Don’t be silly, you know you will always have my ear. Is this about the raid the other day, or something else?” Arson had honestly been worried about his close friend since he came to grab him from Alister Industries, remembering the face he wore that day. Khalif had been obviously more than a little distressed that day, so Arson had expected this conversation to come since that day, yet Khalif surprised him the very next moment.

“I don’t think that Micro will ever truly get over you, but I won’t know unless I try, so I just wanted to let you know, I’m going to ask her to be my best friend. Oh and I don’t want to raid anymore, just be a bodyguard. I think I’ve found my calling and I think I need to give that my all… that is it, and I hope that’s okay…?” Arson’s eyes went wide, but he quickly smiled.

“Thank the maiden! I was going to actually talk to you about the raiding thing. Your trainees have been worried about you since the day you got back from Alister Industries, and I have to say so have I, if I’m being honest. I don’t think you are suited for the work anymore, maybe if you were still the gang leader running the streets with your friends in the orphanage, but I saw the footage of your raid, and though impressive you're now built to protect Khalif, and there is nothing wrong with that. Also, Micro literally just left here so trust me when I say this, she’s over me…” Khalif nodded at his words, his face reddening at Arson’s conclusion. Khalif couldn’t help but smile, and Arson returned the smile, never stopping his workout for a single moment of their conversation.

Arson’s day continued like this. With every activity in his room that was accomplished, so was a friend or family member attended to.

“So you see the issue?” asked Auto. Arson practiced his martial forms with his eyes closed, using his closed eye dominion to see the internals of the mech suit Auto worked on.

“Yeah, have you talked to Xani about adding a new power source?” Auto looked between the suit and Arson while he practiced Wing Chun, momentarily confused by his younger brother’s proposal.

“I don’t see how that will help, there isn’t anything smaller than we already—“

“Xani is working on learning how to create spacial pockets. If you can, for instance, fit the perpetual storm system we developed during the building of the BHC coliseum into a marble or golf ball sized space, it will most likely increase the amount of space available for all the other systems and equipment you both want to add.” Auto looked between Arson and the suit, and groaned in annoyance.

“I see why Xani hates you as much as she loves you,” Auto said, climbing back into the suit he’d created with Xani for the Tournament of Scions. Xani messaged Arson before Auto had even left, causing Arson to chuckle before Auto could say his goodbyes and collect himself to leave.

Xani: I hope you break both your legs…

Arson: I hope your sweet tooth causes your teeth to rot until you get gangrene.

Xani: drown in a small puddle….

Arson: Love you too. Let me know if you two need any more help on the design.

Xani: Love you too, little brother.

“I’m out of here bro, Xani is fired up now. Gonna go help her work on this.”

“Noted, don’t forget that you two need sleep.” Auto nodded at Arson’s words and headed toward his open window and jumped.

“What do you think?”

“I think it's gorgeous, but how rare is rare,” Arson asked Autumn. His older sister and he looked at the final piece needed to finish the spa, and Autumn laughed.

“Chump change for you, rich boy!” Arson looked away from the hologram and toward his eldest sister and scoffed.

“Says the princess, future realm owner, with the rarest abilities in our entire family beside Alexander of course…”

“Oh wow, don’t act like dad doesn’t want you to take anything he leaves behind to run, if he manages to ascend to godhood,” Autumn said with a chuckle. Yet Arson knew something he’d said had caused his eldest sister to deflect any potential responsibilities back into his direction.

“I’m not taking your place even if dad begged me, woman. Get used to it, you're the next queen of the realm layer if I have anything to say about it,” Arson said with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

“Aww come on my guy, quit acting like you're not built for it. I just want to build gardens, that is not how a passionate ruler is made,” Autumn blurted in frustration. Arson looked at his sister’s designs once more and sighed.

She had a point. What he saw before him was an utter marvel.

The last thing she needed was called a geyser tree. Once planted, the tree drank small amounts of ambient mana, and created a waterfall that flowed out of the top of the tree without end. Where Autumn had placed the tree at the spa’s highest point, was perfect in that the water’s flow would create a latticework of water channels, forming dazzling patterns all through the spa.

From the angle being displayed in the hologram, every tree would be watered through natural canals formed from the canopy created by the trees all throughout the spa. The fruit trees watered by another type of tree that slowly swayed when water touched its roots and branches that Arson didn’t know the name of, which would also water the lush grass throughout the spa, and even fill overflowing fountains perfectly positioned to create water slides that would be used to travel from one area of the spa and resort to another.

“I think you are selling yourself short, sis. Many queens of the past have had the same passion for making the lands they reign over as beautiful as you now do, and you aren’t even queen yet, and you may dislike me for saying this, but I want power, which is why I pursue it. A true ruler should not have this trait, crown or not.” It was Autumn’s turn to scoff at Arson this time, gesturing out his window before she spoke up.

“Have you not seen the dump lately? Have you not seen the people that reside within what seems to be a self sufficient city within Maelstrom being grown all around us through your actions? Do you not see your own passion for the betterment of the lives you interact with daily?”

Arson looked out of his window, and couldn’t help but smile at what he saw. The lands around his mother’s warehouse turned superstore were drastically different. People farmed. Gardened. Recycled trash in every direction, while buildings were rebuilt from rubble and what was once glorious was being returned to its former glory and beyond.

“Yeah, that is what I thought, so let me repeat your words, my little brother, I think you are selling yourself short…”

“I’m sorry, sister. I’m not going to build anything half as rewarding as what you already have for us, but I will do my best to acknowledge your words even if I don’t feel them to be entirely true.”

“We shall see,” said Autumn placing a hand on Arson’s shoulder.

“So… about that tree,” Autumn said with a pointed finger toward the hologram once more. Arson sighed, forcing down a habitual eye roll.

“Go get Jasmine to order it before you can't get the tree installed in time…”

Arson was surprised by Rob’s visit, but needed to talk with the young man regardless. Graveyard had requested his presence to aid in the demon plague still wreaking havoc beneath Maelstrom, and Rob’s ability to reverse the demonic transition caused by corrupted cores was far more than rare, it was seen as near divine.

“So you want to go back to Adroit Academy with me?”

“Yes,” answered Rob.

“Hmm, I don’t see a problem, but it may have to be after you help Uncle Winter for a while, if that is okay. His department wants to buy your process you used to claim the Fox Owls as your own, and since it wasn’t mine to sell, I offered your services instead, if that's okay?”

“Oh yeah, no big deal at all, but I would like to be paid with a favor instead of credits?”

“What’s up?”

“Brianna, she wants to become a Cultivator now that I have gained a core, and I know she is going to hate me for asking you this on her behalf... at first, but if it works out, I know she will forgive me, so…”

“You want me to add her to the list I talked to Jade about,” Arson inquired with a raised brow. Rob nodded and Arson chuckled.

“That is not even a favor, Rob. For now, I will make sure that you are paid by Graveyard. And my mother isn’t the type to turn down any money even change, so if you feel required to pay anyone, pay her for her time, and we’ll keep the need for trading favors between strangers, and not each other, my brother.”

Arson had made an extra effort to show his close friends that he saw no difference between them and his blood born siblings, wanting and knowing that he needed all his closest relationships to be unbreakable, and by the smile on Rob’s face he felt he was on the right path.

The two finished their conversation, forced to pull their pets from one another. Ego though smaller than the large FoxOwl was easily dominating the bigger winged creature. Ego barking playfully as it pinned the FoxOwl on its back while Rob’s own pet snarled in desperation until Arson snapped his fingers to draw his puppy’s attention.

“Come on, Ego, we have a tram to catch!”