Horan helped Omet up and looked up the small hiking trail at his father’s house. “Well… This is gonna suck.”

Omet bent over and breathed heavily. “What, do you wanna sneak in and see if you can operate the dimensional portal manually? Do you think that’s less hassle than just saying hi?”

Horan groaned. “Alright, fine. But keep in mind that I’m not happy about it.”

“Yeah, that’s why we’re still out here. You can calm yourself down on the way up, just tell me if you need a little more time to psych yourself up. I wouldn’t worry, I’ve met your dad twice, but he doesn’t seem the type to hold a grudge against family.”

Horan simply grumbled the whole way up the mountain.

At the door, Horan gave the knocker a single thump against the wood, waited two seconds, and turned around. “Nope, I’m not doing it. You start for me.”

Omet blocked him off. “Don’t make me be that kind of friend.”

Horan tried to move to the side. Omet moved to keep blocking him. He decided to just fly over. He made it as far as lifting a foot off the ground before Omet spoke up. “I know that you know that the longer you put this off, the worse it’s gonna get..”

Horan groaned and drifted back down. “I hate you.”

“Say whatever you want.” Omet spun Horan around to face the door in question. “As long as you face your fear. Head on. The last thing the metaphorical shadow monsters expect is for you to stand up straight and call them a bunch of wusses.”

“What?”

“I’m trying my best.” Omet patted Horan on the shoulder. “I’m right next to you, you got this.”

The door was slowly pulled open, revealing Lamius’ slightly haggard face. He froze partway through opening the door, just wide enough for someone to pass through.

Horan cringed, Omet’s hands on his shoulders. “...Hi, Dad…”

Lamius remained in place. “Fun fact, did you know that the time between your last visit and now is almost the exact same length the time between that visit and the one during that business with Thel?”

Horan put his hands behind his back and nodded sheepishly, his face still contorting into a wrinkled mask of shame.

“Then you must be just as excited to be here!” Lamius came in for a hug.

While the father and son embraced, Omet stepped around and looked at Horan as they walked backwards into the house. “Told you. Most people don’t absolutely suck.”

Lamius finally let go. Horan was secretly relieved that he didn’t need to keep touching his impressively cold wooden hand. Lamius shuffled back inside. “Come, come. So, did you manage to move in with the Aztecs properly?”

“Yeah, actually.” Horan walked alongside his father, but maintained a slight distance. “That’s been pretty nice, at least compared to how things were going before. Omet’s in charge now.”

Omet waved from down the hall. “Hi.”

“Right, yes, I remember you from last time. Must have misremembered your eyes.” Lamius approached Omet and shook their hand. “Is everything alright on your end?”

“Well, it used to be, until very recently.”

“Is that so?” Lamius gestured towards the garden. “Well, why don’t we sit down and discuss it?”

Omet lit up. “Sure, we can spare thirty minutes or so! It shouldn’t be too much of a hassle to take a quick pit stop, you can play catch-up with each other, and I can–”

“Actually, we probably can’t.” Horan stood by Omet’s side. “See, uh, well, long story short, there’s this apocalypse cult going around, threatening us. We don’t even know how little time we have. The humans are getting testy, you know how it is.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“I really don’t,” said Lamius, “but that sounds awful.”

“Well, we’re just trying to nip the issue in the bud before we all die.” Horan continued down the hall, towards where he knew the portal room was, before stopping and turning back to Lamius. “Omet and I are heading over to India to go ask them for help with the cult stuff, so I’m super super sorry, but we really can’t stay. I mean, we got the magic portal stuff working now, so, uh, we– I, I can visit more often, but right now, we–”

Omet looked between Horan and Lamius. “Well, things are kind of stressful for us right now, like Horan said, and I’m probably just saying this for the sake of stalling, but… Is it worrying to say that we shouldn’t be banking on being able to visit you later? I– I don’t want to be a pessimist, but while we’re already here…”

Lamius followed the two of them after a short delay. “This seems like a lot for you both. Are you just getting the Indians for this? Or do you have other people working on more Domains.”

Omet pursed their lips. “Yeah, about that… As it turns out, our place, the Indians, and you are apparently the only real holdout of immortal Primoi left around. Between humanity slowly getting finished off and Primoi doing an impressively good job of wiping each other out this last year or so, we really don’t have many options.”

Horan nodded nervously. “We checked. We’ve all been dropping like flies up there, and the humans decided that now would be a good time to finish the job.”

“Our current plan gives us around nine and a half hours to get the Indians on side and come home,” agreed Omet. “All in all, not a fun time for any of us.”

Lamius said nothing for a moment. “...So, in the last nine or so months, you’ve had to deal with your uncle trying to conquer the planet, a mute lunatic trying to kill everyone on the planet, and the inhabitants of said planet trying to kill you back?”

“Yeah,” said Horan, “those are the highlights so far.”

“...Why couldn’t things be this interesting when I was up there?”

Omet shrugged. “In my own experience, I’m starting to see why it used to be an insult to tell someone you hope they live through interesting times. It’s been a long three years. Hence why I say we take twenty while we can.”

Horan nodded. “It’s just one of those decades. I hoped we’d all left them back in the last century.”

“Well, I…” Lamius raised his arms slightly and let them fall back to his side. “I wish I could help more. It’s times like this where I wish more than ever that I could come up there and help with all this. Every time I think I’ve completely made peace with living here, something comes along to prove me wrong. So… I’m sorry taking you to India is the best I can do.”

“Hey, uh…” Horan had no idea what to do with his hands. “We’ve… probably got this. What can a few humans do against four Domains, am I right?” He nudged Omet.

“Y-yeah.” Omet nodded. “I… don’t… think we’re going to spend a long time worrying about all this. The Indians are probably gonna be a one-time thing, anyway. Hey, can we go to the portal room now?”

“Oh, right, yes.” Lamius continued walking. “Sorry about taking up all that time, I know that one old man isn’t worth risking all this, I can wait for Horan to come back once he has the time. I’m just worried a little. Seems I spend a lot of time worrying about what’s going on around me lately…” He perked up. “Oh, wait! I’ve got something! Don’t go anywhere!” He shuffled his way around a corner and out of sight.

Once they figured he was out of earshot, Omet nudged Horan back. “So, is the leaving-out of the fact that the cult is big enough to probably be responsible for most of these deaths supposed to be on purpose?”

“Well, you’re not exactly making that little omission easy,” replied Horan. “Great on-the-spot work there, dude.”

“Hey, white lies are hard when you can’t say a single false word! It’s not like I’ve got five millennia of experience with any of this!”

“Then you’d better catch up quick. That’s step one of the Breezy Slide.”

Omet groaned softly. “This can’t possibly be this complicated.”

“No, it really is.”

Lamius returned a few moments later with a pair of stones in one hand. “I bought these a few months ago from some traders, since I figured something like this would happen.” He handed one to Horan. “They told me that if both of them are activated at the same time, we can talk to each other through them! They’re like those human ‘telegraph’ things I’ve heard about!”

Horan turned the pea-sized orb in his fingers, examining the tiny carvings along its surface. “...Well, it’s definitely simpler than me heading down here every time we want to chat.”

“Right, I thought the same thing.” Lamius held up his own stone, identical to Horan’s. “How about we call each other at two in the afternoon every day, on the dot?”

“Two in the afternoon, which timezone?”

“Uh… Your time? What time is it in Mexico right now?”

Horan glanced back at Omet, who checked their watch. “...6:54 AM.”

Lamius nodded in response to the answer. “Okay, so… Seven hours from now. That’s fine, it’s right before I usually go to bed.”

“Alright, that’s great. I’ll keep it in mind.” Horan put the stone in his back pocket. “But we really should go to India now.”

“Right, of course.” Lamius jerked back into motion. “That’s everything taken care of, you two can go now.”