“Mhm….Billy?” said Edna, waking up from a short nap.

She looked to her side and found the space next to her empty.

Somehow in between that and getting up to use the restroom she ended up looking for her bedmate, wandering over to Billy’s lab.

She found him bent over his work table and not wanting to disturb him from whatever it was that seemed to be taking so much of his attention, she simply stood back and watched.

Though on paper his work was fascinating, and there were no doubt a fair number of experts who’d have killed to be in the room with them, Edna wasn’t one of them and to a non-expert the craftsmanship could often be dull. Lots of sparks and lots of hammering and lots tweaking and pinching with tweezers.  A building pulse of aetheric pressure

In Billy’s case, a fair amount of ‘that’ was replaced with a whole lot of hard staring. With the aetheric pressure building more rapidly, climbing steeply till one started to feel like one was being refined and retuned as well. With one’s body and soul having been unknowingly drawn into a forge of aether and the raw power of the cosmos.

The young eccentric forgoing the use of actual tools and using the power of his aether to refine, fine tune and mold his creations.

Eventually he straightened up and loosed a long sigh, wiping his brow with bit a of cloth scrap that just happened to be nearby.  

“So...what were you making this time?” asked Edna. As far she knew the company didn’t have any big or notable orders coming up, and even if they did, they had others who could deal with such things. People and machines that could mass produce high quality magical goods.

Billy turned around and then he took Edna’s hand, he pulled her close, gave her a kiss and put something in her hands. She opened her fingers and looked at the thing that lay in her palm.

“A ring?” said Edna.

The ring was small, a delicate looking thing of yellow green, with a cut and polished shard from from a god-monster’s core set in its center. As if someone had wrapped a piece of fairy grass around a jewel.

“Nh. I’m making rings today...that one’s yours.”said Billy.

She stared at the ring, and perhaps because she’d stared for just a tad too long an impatient Billy plucked it from her palm and slipped it onto her finger.  Dropping to one knee as he did so,  

She’d never able to know exactly how long she spent dazed, feeling fire gather in her cheeks. Which was fine, she didn’t and wouldn’t realize that that was had happened till after someone came and broke her out of the stupor.

It was a knock at the lab door that did it, popping the vague pink colored fugue that was taking up space in her head. She blinked sleepily as she returned to herself and saw Angelo walk in.

Billy headed over to his benched and picked up a small ribbon wrapped parcel. Angelo took the parcel, the hinges on the little box creaking as the angel peered inside it. His expression growing complicated.

“And you’re sure? You said it’ll be soon, right?” said Angelo.

Billy nodded.

“Nh...Yeah. Soon. Super soon. Once we get up there it should be just enough to complete the shift.”

The angel eyed the man shaped entity in front of him,  feeling like his back was against a wall. It made him feel uncomfortable how troublingly acquiescent the creature tended to be. In Angelo’s opinion monsters should act like monsters, nice monsters were usually whole leagues more confusing and dangerous.

And everything that Billy did for him, every favor and request, was a reminder of how much more Angelo would have been willing to give up to gain what had been promised.

How low he’d have been willing to sink. Having Billy do more, felt it was an additional debt, another thing added to ledger. His anxiety over their arrangement having risen with each step that brought him closer to his goal.

Angelo pocketed the package and then nodded.

“Thanks…..”

Billy watched him go, his response slow because ‘he’ had other things going on in ‘his’ head as well.

“Er...sure.”

Edna watched the strange, awkward little interaction, keeping silent till Angelo left. Then after giving the closed door a final glance she turned to Billy.

“What the hell was all that about?”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Billy scratched the back of his head while he returned to his desk to look for something.

“Nh...Angelo commissioned something for his wife, it’s why I started making rings.”

“Rings? There are others?” said Edna.

“Well yeah, I made one for you and Ell and Tam, and everyone else who might want to come with me. It’s more than rings though, I’ve got bracelets and banglets and necklaces, and even couple of hair pins.

Actually,I think I might have gotten a bit carried away. But if you don’t like the one I gave you there’s a lot of others, that are just as good that you could-”

“No, this is fine” said Edna. Smiling as she gazed at the little yellow green ring.

She nodded as she recalled the plan Billy laid out for her, shortly after the establishment of the republic.

Then she froze as the other half of Billy’s words finally reached her.

“Wait, that guy’s married?!”

“Uh huh...I think you I told you already, didn’t I? Anyway, You still want to come right? I mean, it’s fine if you don’t want to, and the rings are still plenty useful for people on this plane too, it might be smart to give them a little tweaking though just to-...”

“No, no. I’m coming.” said Edna. Chuckling as she watched Billy grow flustered and somewhat distracted.

The boy was too flat, flat enough that most people wouldn’t be able to notice his little nuances. Which was part of his charm for Edna, for whatever reason she liked knowing that she was better at reading his moods than anyone else. It was a bit like having a secret Billy all to herself.

“Oh.....Great.” said Billy.  His words filled with a sort of deadpan earnestness.

He smiled, a subtle curve flowing into his lips, she smiled back. Then she frowned groaning,

“What’s wrong?” said Billy.

“Nothing, it’s just work.” said Edna, cancelling the recording that had been playing on the phone construct in her head.

“Oh pooh!” said Edna, startled as she returned her attention to the outside world. Closing the wall of text messages that had been plastered against her inner-eye.

“I’ve got to go.” said Edna.

“....I could handle it.” said Billy.

Edna grimaced and then she smiled again, patting Billy on the shoulder.

“No offense, hon, but I’m trying to make friends with this particular set of people.”

“Nh?...So? I’m plenty friendly.” said Billy.  Hands on his hips.

Edna’s brow rose and gathered, forming a little golden arch, and then she shook her head.

For most of the world the boy in front of her was either a cold fish or an inscrutable monster, friendly wasn’t one of his modes.

Or at the very least it wasn’t something he did naturally, or with any real skill. The boy might have been a genius in other things, and he was definitely one of the greatest sorcerers and practitioners the continent had ever seen, but interpersonal interactions simply wasn’t one of his strengths. Still she softened the blow and let him down easy.

“Maybe next time?”

Billy eventually nodded and Edna got up on tiptoe to kiss him good-bye before she slid through an N-door to travel to her office where a nice cup of coffee and some business appropriate attire would be waiting for her.

*****

Once Edna was gone Billy returned to his work, after making the enchanted jewelry he set to making other things. Things for daily life, products that Elena, Jermaine, Edna and the company’s marketing team, had earmarked as good ideas. He’d end throwing out most of more troublesome things.

The accidental doomsday devices and death plagues that sometimes just popped up when he got to work. Some of those he’d keep, the more controllable less sentient ones were safe enough to just lock up. Storing them within a certain secret space in his world of gray, adding them to his rainy day arsenal.

He’d been doing that more often lately. Soon he wouldn’t have to worry about the scope of his activities, soon he’d be fighting on stage that was much bigger than this little planet.

Billy worked as he worked, he eventually realized he wasn’t alone, he didn’t pay the newcomers much attention.

Focusing on the device that lay on the table in front of him, his eyes narrowing as he finessed a particular fiddly bit of aether circuitry into place. He didn’t pay  attention to the newcomers when he was done with ‘that’ either. Immediately moving on to yet another project.

The only sign that he acknowledged their presence was the tray of iced drinks that magically appeared at their side.

Tamra took fruit juice and her little shadow took one as well.

“.....What’s he making?” said Isodel.

Tamra simply shrugged.

“Dunno...does it matter?”

The girl shrugged as well, her action as perfect mimic of the older girl’s.

“Not really, no.”

The little girl turned her attention to the tome she had in her lap, reading through a history of strange worlds with a look of innocent wonder.

Tamra’s eyes stayed on the boy at the bench. Multiple Billy’s meant that she generally had a lot of choice when it came to who she was watching for the day.

Usually she’d watch whichever Billy was going to be dealing with people, trailing him to keep any troublesome additions from latching on.

A self-appointed role that even she had felt was a bit obsessive, or at least she would have felt it so, if Edna and Elena hadn’t not-so-quietly given her the go ahead to continue running interference.

Acting as gatekeeper between Billy and army of heiress, princesses, and young scions that seemed always appear wherever the young man was.

Naturally Billy was unaware of most of this, which made it worse, for various reasons and sometimes made Tam’s life much more difficult, but it was what it was. It helped that most attempts to befriend, seduce, or otherwise connect with the boy, were like water down a duck’s back.

However having said that, she was distinctly aware that she was currently in a six possibly seven way relationship, despite all her hard work.

They could probably put an end to the expansion of their little family by just talking to Billy since he didn’t seem to specially care about or for anyone that wasn’t already in their little group.

However Ed and Ell seemed content to leave things as they were so long as everyone got the attention they needed and the number didn’t climb beyond twelve.

Personally Tam thought they were taking it too easy, but then again, she’d always known that she was a little more jealous than the rest and in her home town having more than two romantic partners was fairly scandalous.

“Hey...um, Mister...Are you done yet, Mister?” said a small voice, breaking through Tamra’s reveries.

She looked up and saw that the little queen had either finished or grown bored of her book. She now stood at Billy’s side, lightly  tugging on his sleeve to get his attention, but careful to avoid actually disturbing him.

Tamra frowned, but said nothing, workbench-Billy was one of her favorites, but even she was getting a little tired of just watching him tinker.

“Nh? Well...not really but I can always wrap everything up later.” said Billy. Already creating an alternate him to continue with his work after he’d gone.

The girl nodded and then she smiled, her smile a dazzling little thing that could maybe one day give Edna’s a run for its money.

“Oh, great….um in that case, will you please teach me spatial magic like you promised?” said Isodel.

Tamra blinked wondering when this happened, she could have sworn that the little girl was never out of her sight. Absentmindedly musing over whether, she, Tamra wasn’t a bit too much of a bad influence if her young ward was already sneaky enough to be able to get away without her noticing.

Not to mention her already roping Billy into things.

It was clear that regardless of whether she joined them as an adopted daughter or a future spouse, she’d be someone that the rest of the household would be remiss to underestimate.

Billy simply nodded.

“Sure.”

Not to be left out, Tamra joined with a,  

“And maybe we can grab some food while we’re at it?”

Again Billy just nodded.

“Sure.”