Giovashi planned to turn us into monsters, and had full control over our parents thanks to their unshakable faith. Thus, we had but one option to work with - to undermine the power of the Archpriestess with our own, far more elaborate lies.

As things stood, I was a soul from a completely different world — one of nuclear power, mass production, machine labor and computers. A world where I bred death itself and had no family to speak of.

I knew that I couldn't change Cassandra’s faith completely — after all in the perception of the locals… Delta and I really were Astral Phantoms, ghosts that refused to die, necromancers who split our souls to control a variety of creatures and insects. We knew far more than we should, were mythical monstrosities from the depths of the Astral Ocean, were terrible abominations that devoured the souls of newborn children according to everyone in Skyisle.

I sat on my bed with Delta, upstairs in my bedroom. At the same time, I stared at my mother’s worried face through an Infoscope that hovered in the living room next to the Great-Aunt Delta.

“Professor?” Mom asked, her hands trembling ever so slightly. “Please… elaborate on your interest in my son.”

“Well…” My words were received by a crystal Delta was holding, who in turn automatically projected the information to the Queen Bee who sent it across the bee colony reinforced with the control core we found on the Basq skyship.

After a month of tweaking, we managed to adjust the core into what I labelled the [Vox Colony] tool, aka, “the speaker made of bees” skill.

Because of all of the steps involved, there was a bit of a delay in me speaking the words upstairs and my words emerging from the bees that were sitting inside the large coat atop of the ant mech down in the living room.

“I wish to become your son’s patron, Cassandra,” I resumed. “Just as Archmage Delta wishes to become Destiny’s patron.”

“A patron? What does this entail exactly?” Mom asked.

“In Oz we have arcane rules of wizard apprenticeship. Any Archmage like myself can choose an apprentice to sponsor with my knowledge or finances by signing up at the Palace of Education and Uplift. As a highly respectable Academic of Oz and Delta’s friend I have chosen to sponsor your son's future. In exchange for this, I wish the honor of speaking on your family's behalf at the council of Skyisle Elders.”

“I don’t understand.” Mom blinked. Her eyes suddenly sparked with inner fire. “Speaking on our behalf?! About what? To what end?”

“Skyisle is doomed,” I explained to her. “People’s levels are capped and so are their skills. With every year, the problem gets worse. I need the full cooperation of the Elders of Skyisle to change the situation.”

“I understand that you Wizards have quirky… traditions,” mom noted. “But… still. I’d like more explanation, please.”

“Using my great arcane powers, I have prognosticated many possibilities of the future for your family,” I said. “Your children's future, nay… their very lives depend on OUR aid and collaboration. You must understand that your son and daughter are… shall we say… very different.”

"I do," Cassandra nodded. "They've always been bright."

“Dante is level seventeen now,” I hammered in my point. “Destiny is level sixteen. If both of them keep going they will reach the level cap soon... reach it and bypass it."

“Level seventeen?! Sixteen?! Ave Ishira!” Mom gasped.

"Bypass the cap? How?!" Georgi asked.

"With tools and magic that I will teach them," I explained.

"You can do that?" Cassandra asked, her eyes wide.

“Yes,” I said. “Dante and Destiny have both progressed a lot faster compared to other children of Skyisle. They are very, very special children and their unique powers and skills must be nurtured. They cannot become heroes unless they face the future head on.”

"You're right,” Cassandra sighed. "I worry for their future..."

“I am helping your Many-times-great-Aunt redesign your house wards,” I said. “But that’s just the beginning. Archmage Delta Alana and I wish to have full control of all of the Wards beneath all of Skyisle. I want full cooperation from everyone in the Village, starting with yours. In fact, I need your help."

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“W-what? Why?” Mom sputtered.

“Giovashi Incandactia Skyisle isn’t who she appears to be,” I revealed. “She is an ancient renegade, a criminal who escaped from prison centuries ago. She doesn’t even believe in Ishira. She is someone who is masquerading as an Ishira Priestess in Skyisle, when in reality she is nothing of the sort."

“What… but she…” Mom muttered.

“That can’t be true!” Dad said. “Giovashi defended us when Aradria attacked Skyisle!”

“Alas, it was a lie,” I said. “Giovashi brought Aradria to Skyisle on purpose. To gain power through false Vows, to bind everyone in the village to herself through clever deception.”

“Are you… certain?” Mom’s eyes ignited from within.

“Completely,” I said. “Giovashi needs to be stopped. This is why Archmage Delta came to Skyisle - she wanted to help her family! A snake has taken control of your village, and has been feeding on all of you to gain power. Giovashi bound the souls of many Skyisle-born to herself with dark magic. Thus, when you will die, you will not go to Arxtruria, the paradise of Ishira and will forevermore be bound to Giovashi's goals!"

Georgi gulped.

Cassandra opened and closed her mouth, an expression of pure shock and panic on her face.

“I promise you, our intentions are pure,” I insisted. “I only wish what’s best for your family and children. Archmage Delta has been with me for almost my entire life in… Oz. She saved my life more than once and I trust her wholeheartedly. She is akin to a… soul-sister to me. I care for her deeply and you are her only family. I would have called you sooner, but [Vox Colony] skill used to transfer my voice to you across such great distances from Oz to Skyisle didn't work until now.”

Yep. Great distances of… exactly 3 meters.

Mom nodded, buying my lies.

The ant mech under my control reached out into a pocket and gave a paper with the following words on it:

[It’s all true, my great-great-great-niece. Giovashi does not serve Ishira, nor Skyisle. She is a renegade, dark mage and it falls to our family to stop her.]

My parents' faces became even more pale when they read the words burned onto the page by the bees.

An awkward, deep silence fell between us. Mom fidgeted on her chair, not sure what else to say. She likely didn't enjoy the fact that she was talking to a speaker made of bees.

“Is there anything you’d like to know about me?” I asked, steering the conversation away from the clearly uncomfortable topic for a bit to give my parents time to think things over.

“Oh. Uhm.” Cassandra perked up. “What’s it like in Oz?”

“The country of Oz is quite different from Skyisle,” I spun my tale of lies based on ‘The Wizard of the Emerald City’ children’s book series by Alexander M. Volkov. “Its big, beautiful capital city is decorated with countless green emeralds. A yellow brick road leads to it across the lush countryside. Its name is… Emerald City.”

“W-will you take Dante or Destiny to Oz when they are older?” Dad asked.

“No,” I replied.

“What?! Why not?” Mom blinked.

“The road across Novazem to get there is rife with danger, unbelievable nightmarish horrors, giant sabre tooth tigers, fields that will put you to sleep with magic, cursed mountains that will attract and rip out your soul, talking creatures, raging rivers, men made of metal and straw, etc,” I added plentiful detail from Alexander Volkov’s imaginary universe. “Lady Alana’s trip to Skyisle was one way - via our most powerful teleporter pointed at the house she lived in once. She will never be able to return to Oz.”

“Oh,” mom mulled. “But then how will you be Dante’s patron?”

“For now, I will provide him with a fully remote education!” I declared. “By the time he finished his Wizard Apprenticeship with me, he will know as much as I do about the natural sciences!”

“Natural sciences?”

“I’m a Professor of Natural Sciences, Cassandra,” I replied. “Magic is great and all, but Skyisle has a very serious problem with Leveling up, yes?”

“Yes.” Cassandra nodded.

“Using the knowledge I shall pass down to him, Dante will become an expert at Natural Sciences such as logic, mathematics, biology and many, many other unique fields. It will help him… permanently break the level limits that the people of Skyisle are struggling with.”

“That... too good to be true,” my mother muttered. “Forty generations of Alans have failed to do anything about the magogenic fault. The Valley of Death has taken countless lives!”

“Dante won’t be alone in his quest,” I said. “His sister and Archmage Delta will assist him in this difficult endeavor and so will you and your husband. One way or another, I will help your people break the Level barrier, I promise,” I declared wholeheartedly.

[Quest: Help the people of Skyisle pass the level cap!] The System dinged. I ignored it with an eye-roll.

“It cannot be done.” Mom rubbed her hands together as if she was freezing. “Far too many have perished in the Valley of Death. My children must never be allowed to go there!"

“It can be done without going into this Valley of yours,” I said.

“How?” Mom asked.

“Dante can already cast level 21 spells,” I confessed.

“WHAT?!” Mom jumped up from her seat. “It can’t be true! It can’t!”

“It is true,” I said.

“How?!” mom muttered, pacing around Great-Aunt Delta. “How can this be? Nobody has skills higher than Level 20 in Skyisle… except for outsiders like the Imperial Overseer. Only aberrants... phantoms can cast spells above their level!"

Her silver-blue eyes struck me through the Infoscope as she had reached a dark conclusion.