I stopped at the gate and waited as the melodic chime played. It was comforting, and the door opened with Walter bowing at the threshold.

"Welcome back sir, the others are waiting for you inside the dining room," Walter greeted.

"Thank you, Walter. What are we having tonight?"

He exited his bow and his eyes glowed brilliant gold. "Pasta."

That wasn't ominous at all...

Walter shut the door and led the way. True to his word, everyone was seated around the table, including Sereza. She stood up as I entered and frowned.

"You shouldn't have done that," she said.

I shrugged. "At least we know he's alive."

She scowled and leaned closer. "Are you okay?"

"Thank you! Maybe he'll listen to you!" Isaac shouted.

I danced around the felkin and took my seat. Today's plates were shaped like fish. Because why not.

"Any plans on staging a rescue mission?"

"Not yet," Isaac growled. "The gang has gone into hiding, as well as a few others and nobody has information."

Anastasia leaned forward, her mana raging from behind her as her hair became a lighthouse of gold. "What's going on?"

Isaac froze, as did the others.

"Mother. One of Sereza's friends, their son, got kidnapped." Teddy explained.

"And the rats are hiding in their holes?"

"Yes," Teddy sighed. "They are. Our best bet is to go into the Underground and bust a few heads, but that's not a good look."

Nathan gripped his wife's shoulder and frowned. "You know we're banned, dear. We made a promise."

Her hair stopped glowing and she turned her head. "We could break it."

"Not this time."

I shrugged. "Are you banned from the trading district?"

Anastasia whipped around. "No. Why?"

"Then you can probably beat the shit out of the guy whose memory I stole. Forgemaster Revin, the bastard acted like some mafia boss."

To my surprise, the others winced while Anastasia grinned like the devil.

"Mother, please don't. We can handle this," Teddy begged.

I pointed a fork as I reached for the silver platter in the center of the table. "Why? Wouldn't it be better if your parents roughed the dude up and had him arrested?"

"Cyrus," Isaac winced. "It's never good to involve tier three's with other tiers. Not for disputes like this."

"Sounds like bullshit."

"It's the way of things. We maintain civility by not enforcing such tier disparity. It wouldn't be good if a noble family is seen bullying another that's lower tier."

I removed the platter and stared at the literal minibucket of bright orange pasta. The sauce was cobalt blue but I recognized the vegetable, so it wasn't that jarring. However, the meatballs were the size of eggs.

The others continued to frown while I picked up the trowel and shoveled food onto my plate.

Instead of answering Celenae, I turned to Teddy's parents. "Sounds like dragonshit. I say have fun. Didn't think the pair that was willing to crash a ship into a party would care about something like that."

Anastasia licked her lips. "While normally true, we are under the crown's eye. And we promised to behave for a while."

The others collectively sighed and I bit down into a meatball. It was really good, as was the sauce.

Mana crashed in waves and the nearby decorations on the wall moved on an unseen wind. The others stiffened, especially Sereza.

"But," Anastasia declared. "You have three days. After that, we'll have a nice talk with this Revin and settle the matter."

The pasta is cooked perfectly. Walter's a five-star chef.

Isaac glared from across the table. I waved my fork and bit into another meatball.

'Look at what you did!' he mouthed.

With Anastasia calmed down, the others finally dug into their meal and began discussing how our days went. I tuned most of them out, I didn't want to be rude but the memories from the day played through my mind.

So many broken people with debilitating trauma, and I experienced them all. The worst was a woman named Allison. Just the brief glimpse at the bedroom and chains inside her memory stirred the gremlin inside its cage.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

A bony tail gently tapped my sides and I brushed it away.

"Cyrus? You sure you're okay?" Sereza asked.

"Mmm," I replied through another mouthful of pasta. "Maybe."

"How was your day? Everyone's shared but you."

To my right, Teddy's parents frowned and they silently picked at their food.

I was planning on introducing Galarion officially, might as well.

With a tap, and much to some awkward stares, Galarion woke from his post-food slumber and sprang to life. Literally.

He bounced and squeezed out my forehead until he plopped onto the table with a splat. The others stared, while Celenae had her journal out.

"Everybody, meet Galarion. If Isaac hasn't explained it, this is how I got the information. Yes he's an astral familiar. Yes he can devour memories as well as other things which include reading your mind. Well somewhat on that last part. And yes, I've explained thoroughly, certain rules he has to follow."

Galarion stretched and was wearing a tentacle tophat of all things. It was adorable, but the others continued to stare with a little horror in their eyes as he floated into the air and twirled.

"Hello! Master says I can't devour your memories. But please feed me!"

I snatched the glutton out of the air and glared. "We'll work on this later."

Sereza pointed an accusing finger. "You gained another slot? How? Why? Is this from your god?!"

Huh?

Eodyne leaned closer and mana activated, the wind carrying her voice so only I could hear it. "You haven't told her your tier yet."

Oh.

In truth, there wasn't really a reason to keep the information from her. I trusted Sereza, she fought to keep me alive on numerous occasions.

But... I thought it'd be funny to show up with a tail one day.

"Listen, by now you should understand that crazy shit happens around me," I teased.

Sereza groaned and collapsed into her pasta as she ate with gusto.

"Anyway," I chuckled. "This is Galarion, cute little dude. The astral plane was, well, hard to describe. I vaguely remember my brain melting, the world collapsing several times and then a spaghetti god took me to a private diner and we ate food together. He communicated in slurps and blurbles of his sauce bubbling."

Celenae was furiously writing in her journal to the point one of the pens snapped and she summoned another. I enjoyed the small chaos while I downed the rest of my drink which tasted like pineapples for some reason.

"Cyrus? How was your time with the healers guild?" Nathan asked between gulps.

My smile dropped. "Honestly? Not bad, but I severely underestimated things."

"You're working at the healers guild? I can see Áine being a hit," Teddy said.

"Mmm. I mentioned Áine and I might participate during charity day, but no. It was for Galarion."

Igas choked on a meatball and thumped his chest till it went down. "You're using Galarion to heal people?!"

"Yep," I said. "Apparently he's uniquely capable of deleting memories without leaving behind trauma or fracturing people's brains."

"Oh, that's fiiine."

Of course Teddy had to see through my front. He stared directly into my eyes and activated his aura. His skill washed over me and some mental fatigue disappeared.

His shoulders tensed and he gripped the table. "You used a lot of mana. Cyrus you-"

I held up a hand. "I know. Galarion has been taking away the headaches, and yes I know it's messing with me. I'm just a little damaged right now."

A giant version of Anastasia's head appeared above the table and glared down. I blinked at the golden-lightshow and turned to the tier three.

"Galarion can copy memories. Have you been keeping them?" she growled.

I tried to smile, but it fell through.

"I wanted to know what I was treating, why the people would give up their memories like you did."

"Did you look at our memories?"

"No, yours was devoured."

The head popped and she closed her eyes. "How many patients?"

I took another sip just to stall and take in the room's reactions. Teddy and Celenae were frowning, while Eodyne stared with stormy eyes. Igas I couldn't parse, and Isaac was looking away but I saw the drop of blood leak down the corner of his mouth.

He's not wearing the amulet.

"Five," I answered. "Syrreisha wanted to start with a smaller group. The first two were relatively easy, even got a back-breaking hug from one dude. But the third and fourth patient took a lot of coaxing and a few breaks before the memory was extracted. The fifth was the hardest and had the worst trauma."

"Are you okay?" Teddy asked.

I shrugged. "I'm fine. Just a little rough. It's nice to put things into perspective how crazy this life can be."

"Cyrus..."

I sighed. Bringing down the mood was never my intention, but they asked the questions.

At least they were doing it because they cared. And being an asshole about it would be wrong.

"I'll tell you when I need to talk, okay? I'm good. And enjoying a meal with you all is helping. Can we stick to that? Please?"

Surprisingly it was Igas who broke the awkward tension and summoned a giant ice-cube above my drink. It splashed onto my clothes and my jaw dropped.

He crossed his arms and grinned. "I'll drop it if you agree to come to the orphanage at some point. They'd love to meet some of your familiars."

I laughed and pulled the icecube out and crunched down. "Deal."

Nathan clapped his hands. When everyone was looking his way he grinned and a wave of water rose up from behind him, carrying ten different pies.

"Eat up!" he declared as the first of the pies were launched.

Purple swirly jam splattered the walls as Isaac took the bakery bullet.

I swore I could hear Walter groan from the kitchen even through the silence enchantments.

--------------

I wiped off my side of the table and tossed the rags into the floating ball of water nearby.

"All done," I declared.

I was one of the last people left in the dining room, the others having already cleaned their spots and left. To be fair, they cheated with their skills, while I stuck to hand-wiping everything down.

Cleaning wasn't cathartic but it gave me time to enjoy myself and the memory we just made. Thankfully my clothes went into overtime repelling all the food bits and leaving no stains.

Sereza tossed her own rag into the bubble and shook her head. "I don't think I've ever had a dinner this chaotic. This beats the time everyone placed down bets on who could fit in Arturous' mouth. Which is insane."

I grinned. "Learning to have a relaxing day is good for you."

"I'm not sure this is considered relaxing, but I agree."

I shrugged. Some people found getting their shit pummeled into them relaxing, but I wasn't going to judge.

"Cyrus," she said.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for helping with Lezka. I'm just happy the idiot’s alive."

"Of course."

She shook her head. "No. You didn't have to do what you did. Nor did you have to care. Thank you."

I kept silent but nodded anyway.

It was a perspective that sat funny in my mind. So I pushed it deeper and left it for later.

Sereza bowed to Teddy's parents who were bonking each other with the pie tins.

"Thank you for having me over. It was nice."

The duo stopped mid slap and turned as one. "Come back anytime!"

Sereza chuckled and patted me on the shoulder before waving goodbye. Walter appeared like a ghost and led her out of the manor, leaving me alone with the crazy duo.

They set the tins down and crossed their arms.

"She's a good girl," Anastasia started.

"Indeed, she hides the stress well. Noble trained," Nathan responded.

I quirked an eyebrow. "You two okay?"

They floated forward, one one a wave of water, the other on a cloud of golden light.

"Get some sleep tonight, Cyrus," Nathan ordered.

"Why?"

Anastasia leaned forward. Her hair floated upwards and glowed with golden light.

"Tomorrow, you meet the king!"