Alexia

It doesn’t take but a moment after I finish explaining to them about the Quantum Judge’s appearance for the two of them to get rather angry. But I manage to calm them down just as quickly when I point out that getting mad won’t help anything.

“The only thing we can do for Mom right now is to get stronger,” I tell the two of them, and they both nod their heads in agreement.

Now then. Onto the elephant in the room.

I turn to the Hound, finding him finally focusing on me as well.

We never really worked out the whole ‘he’s my father’ thing.

“Lexi…” he mutters, only to rapidly backtrack as he asks, “Wait, can I call you that?”

I nod my head, feeling slightly amused now by his awkwardness. Especially compared to how I always saw him on TV. As a monstrous genocidal murderer.

Which he apparently is not, as recent events prove.

“I’m sorry for-” he begins, but I raise a hand to make him stop.

“Imma stop you there,” I state rather bluntly. “I don’t blame you for what happened. None of it was your fault.”

His eyes widen in surprise and he just kinda freezes in a stupor.

“Now, this doesn’t mean we’re just gonna be close all of a sudden or anything, but I don’t blame you at all,” I tell him with a shrug, feeling slightly awkward now that he’s just staring. I then point my thumb behind me at the sleeping Astrid and add, “And I doubt Astrid will either.”

To my surprise, tears begin to fall down his face.

Oh, uh, wasn’t expecting that.

I glance at Gramps, just to find him looking rather amused by this turn of events.

So I turn back to the Hound, err, guess maybe I should call him Lucas now instead of that title? Hmm. That might take some getting used to.

Not calling him dad though. At least not yet. Maybe in the future, but he’s still basically a stranger, biological ties or no biological ties.

He just keeps crying, so I glance at Gramps again to find him shrugging.

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Okay, what am I supposed to do?

I look between Gramps and Lucas a few times before eventually shrugging myself and walking up to Lucas, patting him once on the shoulder.

Which just seems to make things worse as he cries even harder.

Hmm. Right. So, I’m not good with emotions.

Uh, Architect, do you know what I should do?

He answers without opening his eyes, “My father is the Quantum Ruler.”

Oh. Right.

Yeah, sorry for asking.

I glance at Luna, finding her sleeping on my other shoulder in her smallest bat form.

Say, why isn’t Luna turning into her humanoid form?

This time the Architect opens his eyes as he answers, “Because I awakened the ability prematurely. She doesn’t have enough sapience yet to use the transformation.”

How long do you think it’ll take for her to develop enough sapience to use it?

“Likely sometime after you reach Tier 4,” he answers, making me frown.

That might be a while.

He shrugs, which I didn’t realize was possible for a bat. Then closes his eyes again, letting me know that the conversation is over.

So I focus on Lucas again to find him finally calming down again.

“You good?” I ask him, and he nods his head with a smile on his face. “Good. I will point out though that I don’t consider you my father still either. I only just met you after all.”

He nods his head with a sad look on his face as he says, “Don’t worry, I understand.”

“Alright,” I state with a nod of my own before glancing at Astrid and then looking back at him again, “I’ll be heading out to continue leveling. I need to reach Tier 4 as fast as possible.”

Lucas purses his lips for a second, only to glance at Gramps. Then the both of them nod and Lucas turns back to me, saying, “I’ll be doing the same.”

“I’ll stay until your sister wakes up,” Gramps says, making me give him a look of appreciation before I briefly glance at Lucas.

I purse my lips, hesitating for a moment, only to tell him, “While it didn’t start off on very good terms, it was nice to meet you, Lucas.”

And without giving him time to respond, I teleport away. But I don’t teleport off of the island. Instead I teleport to Dravik’s forge, startling him when I appear in the middle of the forge.

“Hells, lass! Are ya tryin’ ta give me a heart attack!?” the dwarf shouts the moment I appear.

“Sorry,” I tell him without a hint of regret in my voice. Because it’s fun to mess with the guy. “My armor done yet?”

He lets out a sigh and beckons me to follow him. So I do and soon find myself entering a room off to the side with a lot of steam.

“Tha scales were tough ta melt, an even tougher ta cool,” he explains, making me understand the steam. “They should be finishin soon.”

I continue following him until I find a strange rack with water occasionally being splashed at the armor on it, with more water running through the inside.

The armor itself is red and black in color, matching the Dragon of Cataclysm’s scales. Especially since the shoulder pads and upper arms even show the layered scales, with the rest being melted scales forged together into a smooth set of armor. It has very little skin showing, which I like, but also without too much bulk to it. Which I also like.

“Yer new armor, shiny and brand new,” he says with a hint of pride before glancing at the cloak I have. “I also made it ta work with yer cloak.”

Now that has me smiling.

“You did well, Dravik,” I tell him, holding myself back from grinning from ear to ear.

He scoffs and begins to walk out of the room, “Course’ I did. Ye can wait here till it cools and take it with ya.”

I wave back at him without turning around as he leaves the room.

It really is a beautiful piece of work.