The woman on the other side of the door smiled at Cyrus as Lyda turned her attention to her. With long, brown hair, dark green eyes, and fair, flawless skin, she was a beautiful woman. Something that confused Lyda but didn't phase Cyrus was the fact that the god wore a pair of jeans, sneakers, and a hoodie, her hair tied into a braid that hung over her right shoulder.

"Hello, Cyrus," his mother said. "Would allow me to enter?"

"Um, oh, right," Cyrus stepped to the side. "What are you- why did you-you don't normally-"

"Visit, I know," she smiled at he closed the door. "But it's been longer than normal between my visits to you, Cyrus, and I wanted to meet the woman you had fallen in love with. Hello, Lyda."

"Hello," Lyda said. "Lady… um-"

"You may call me Sarah," the god told her. "It is my mortal name, the name I use among you mortals. And you may relax, I'm not as some of the tales say gods are. I lack the intense temper of some of them, such as Rynovar."

"Mother is quite calm," Cyrus told Lyda. "Unless you wound or wrong one of her children. Mother, last night, the triplets-"

"I know!" His mother laughed. "It took them long enough to start causing problems like that. I paid them a visit already. They're currently dealing with my punishment."

"Good," Cyrus nodded. "Thank you. I was going to use a pathway after Lyda went to bed, but if you took care of it, then it's fine."

"What did they do?" Lyda asked.

"Destroyed a Dungeon," Cyrus and Sarah answered in unison, resulting in Lyda staring at them in shock.

"That's possible?" She asked.

"Apparently," Sarah answered. "Rynovar asked me to talk with them about doing that. As I was in the area, I decided to pay my favorite son a visit."

Lyda finished mixing the lemonade, then poured two glasses and offered Sarah some.

"Thank you," Sarah nodded, accepting a glass from Lyda after the woman poured a third. "How does it feel, knowing you will get your wish?"

"I'm still trying to process it, to be honest," Lyda answered as Cyrus sat down and began using his tablet once more. "To think I've already obtained two of the tokens – two believed to be impossible – and have the Dungeon Token, while soon receiving the Blessed Token… it's a lot to take in, and a month just hasn't cut it."

"Sometimes, a series of extraordinary events can cause extraordinary things," Sarah told her. "And sometimes, it takes a mother's meddling."

Cyrus gave his mother a confused look.

"Your Aunt Lena didn't tell you that, did she?" Sarah smirked at her son.

"You put Lyda in my path?" Cyrus asked.

"I put you in each other's path," his mother corrected. "I was the one who nudged your contact into arranging the meet up at Madam Mara's Crimson Restaurant. I was the one who nudged Lyda's mind to decide to approach him – don't worry, all I did was whisper a suggestion to you, Lyda, no mind manipulation at all – and I was the one who asked Lena to suggest accompanying her to you."

Cyrus frowned as he tried to figure out why his mother would do that. In the meantime, Lyda sat beside him on the couch, and his mother sat on an armchair, sipping the lemonade as she waited for her son to respond.

"Why would you do that?" Cyrus asked. "It's not like you to care about whether or not the mortals succeed in their goals, and you ensured that she would succeed."

"Actually," Sarah said. "Lyda just happened to be the best choice. I did many careful calculations on which mortals might help you change from the man you were into the man you should be. Who might help you change from constantly worrying about and dealing with the triplets to someone who doesn't care what his brothers think and do and will pursue his own feelings and goals. His bigger ones."

"Lyda is collateral damage?" Cyrus asked in confusion. "You did this because you wanted me to get laid?"

"I did this," his mother said. "Because I care about you, and it hurt me seeing you close yourself off because of the triplets. That's why I activated your time prison to trap those three after what they did. It might have been a minor Dungeon, but they need to know not to cause problems for you, as you are the one who deals with the aftermath. When looking into how to help you, I chose the option that would benefit a mortal as well, rather than the paths which would use them, but damage them or their lives. With this path, Lyda has already been freed from the blacklisting, and yet that is not even the best benefit she will reap. A reward from me, for interfering in her life."

Cyrus sighed, then shook his head and turned his attention back to his tablet as he processed his mother's words. Lyda was being used as a tool to help him escape the cycle his brothers placed him into, but at the same time, his mother ensured she would benefit from it as well. It was just like his mother to do something like that.

That didn't mean he wouldn't still have to deal with the cleanup of the mess with the Dungeon being destroyed. It really was a minor one, and he desperately wanted to know why his brothers thought destroying it was a good idea.

"What's a time prison?" Lyda asked. "This is the second time I've heard it mentioned."

"It is," Sarah said. "Perhaps the only way to truly trap a god. Every god has the ability to reset to a previous point in time. It erases everything which happened after it, but nothing which happened before. We can trigger it consciously, and if we are incapacitated in any way or killed, it triggers automatically.

"Resetting time," she continued. "Allows us to train ourselves to become more powerful. Learn how certain actions change events. Manipulate events. I used a similar power to determine the best path to take to open Cyrus up and break him from the cycle his brothers put him it. That was four hundred years from now, and I reset back to now in order to ensure it happened, as this was the best time to do it."

Cyrus sighed as he heard how long his mother waited to manipulate his fate to break him from his brothers' cycle. Four hundred years. Four centuries of containing the triplets and preventing them from causing major problems.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

It was no wonder she felt it best to set things in motion when he was nineteen.

"And yet a month in," Cyrus said. "They destroy a Dungeon."

"I knew they would cause problems," Sarah stated. "I received permission from Rynovar to allow them to shake up the world a little. No one expected them to destroy a Dungeon."

"I'm still confused about a time prison," Lyda said. "They're what, trapped in time?"

"Yes and no," Cyrus answered. "The time prison is a sort of reality marble perfectly overlapping a specific space of the real world. It's designed specifically to prevent escape from inside of it through time magic by creating a time loop. Even if they try to reset, they'll find themselves in just another part of the loop. Traveling through time doesn't work in it. They can't slip out of time, either. It can only be exited through an outside force. Specifically, an amulet I have."

He gave his mother a look.

"Though I suppose you have it, since it's needed to activate the time prison."

"I do," she touched her chest, indicating that the amulet was hidden beneath her hoodie. "Once I feel they have learned their lesson, I will release them from it. In the meantime, Rynovar has asked me to handle the situation with the Dungeon, so don't worry about that, either, Cyrus."

"Okay," Cyrus breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm not sure where I'd begin to deal with that."

"It will take some time," Sarah admitted. "In all my years, I've never heard of someone destroying a Dungeon. I suppose if any god did it, it would be those three."

Sarah finished her lemonade, then set the glass on the coffee table and stood, looking at Lyda.

"One reason I wanted to meet you," she said. "Was because Cyrus won't mention it himself, but he turns twenty tomorrow."

"Mother!"

"Speaking of your birthday," she held up a hand, and several wrapped presents appeared on the coffee table, wrapped in metallic wrapping paper. "Gifts from the other gods here, including your brothers. I made sure they were serious gifts, not their pranks. Your father's is the one in the blue wrapping."

The stated gift, which was separate from the others, immediately caught fire, turning to ash in seconds, not giving Lyda any time to see what it was.

"Wha-"

"Oh, look," Cyrus muttered. "Father's gift randomly caught fire on its own. How horrible. Please inform him I'm not going to just punch him in the face. After I do that, I'm going to beat the daylights out of him!"

His tone rose as he spoke the last sentence, Cyrus subconsciously clenching his fist as a look of pure rage filled his face.

"Cyrus," his mother said. "Your father means well."

"Those were sex toys!" Cyrus pointed at the ashes. "Father never takes anything seriously! Especially when it comes to me! And you know I hate my birthday, Mother! Why would you give me gifts? And make the triplets give me some? And tell Lyda? I don't celebrate it! I never have!"

"Just accept them," his mother said, and Cyrus sighed, leaning back on the couch. "And your brothers' gifts was partly as an apology for the hassles they've put you through. Also, Ty sent something as well."

"Ty did?" Cyrus instantly turned calm as he began looking at the gifts with his senses, attempting to figure out which item within was from Ty. "Which one is his?"

"The one shaped like a cylinder."

"Who's Ty?" Lyda asked.

"An old friend," Cyrus answered. "I haven't talked to him since I was little, though. He helped me out a bit when I first ran away from that orphanage my father dumped me at. He's perhaps one of four people in all the world I view with great respect."

"I should get going," Sarah told them. "My spell containing the effects of the destruction won't last too much longer, so I need to refresh it, then begin working on fixing the issues caused."

"Goodbye," Cyrus stood, then approached his mother and hugged her. "Thank you for the gifts, Mother. And for the help, too."

"Anything for you," his mother hugged him back, then looked at Lyda. "Goodbye, Lyda. And good luck with your training."

The god left after that, leaving Cyrus and Lyda alone in the room. Cyrus gestured with his hands, and the presents, ash included. Only the cylinder remained behind, flying into his hand as the rest departed.

"You're not going to open them?" Lyda asked as Cyrus tore off the paper from the cylinder. "Also, is it okay if I ask why your mother let your father dump you at the-"

"It's complicated," Cyrus said. "But my father's, well, himself. He does stuff on his own, and no one stops him."

"Except Rynovar, I'm sure."

Cyrus simply scoffed as he opened up the tin, sniffing the contents.

"It's a tea," Cyrus observed. "Blueberry vanilla with a hint of something I can't identify. Probably something from Rynovar's island."

"Ty is a god?" She asked.

"No, he's human," Cyrus shook his head. "One of the few humans allowed to travel between the island and the surface."

"There are humans allowed to?" Lyda asked in shock.

"Hm?" Cyrus asked as he continued to inspect the tin. "Oh, yeah, there are. Not many. I think there are six or seven? I could be wrong and thinking of more than there are. I'm making tea."

Cyrus went to the kitchen and filled a glass with water, then heated it using his magic before preparing his tea. He returned to the couch and set the glass on the coffee table, letting the tea steep.

"Okay," Lyda said. "Now, this time prison. I can't imagine Lord Rynovar liking something like that, yet your mother seemed to talk about it casually."

"Only I know how to make it," Cyrus told her. "Only I can make it, actually. So he doesn't worry about others developing it and using it on him. It uses aether in its creation, on a level only I can use it."

"And he doesn't fear you using it on him?" She asked.

"No," Cyrus shrugged. "I mean, there's always the possibility I would, but it would require convincing him to enter the shop, and he won't enter it if he has the slightest suspicion I would. Plus, he can actually break out of it."

"Even though it's inescapable?" She asked.

"I'd have to trap him in one on another world for him to not be able to," Cyrus nodded. "The pathways don't travel through the time prison – it's a reality marble – but Rynovar doesn't need them to exit it. All gods on Earth have their powers suppressed to a tiny fraction of their true strength – only ten percent of it. Rynovar gleans that power while he's on Earth. It's part of why he's so powerful, and every additional god on Earth only makes him stronger.

"He has enough power at the moment," Cyrus continued. "To simply snap the boundaries of the reality marble. It would cause a temporary void to form, but otherwise, he'd be fine. So trapping him isn't feasible as long as he's here on Earth."

"What if all the other gods left?" She asked.

"The time prison," he said. "Actively drains the mana of the god who activated it. If they leave the planet, it loses that power. Only a god has enough mana and mana regeneration to actually activate and maintain it. In addition, Rynovar is among the most powerful gods in all the universe. By that, I mean that he is the most powerful god in the universe. And that's before the boost he gains from having some of the other most powerful gods here on Earth. At his base, without the boost, Rynovar is approximately eighty times as powerful as I am."

Lyda just stared into her lemonade as she thought over Cyrus's words. He knew it was a lot to take in. Cyrus knew that there were once gods even more powerful than Rynovar, but they had long-since died.

There was, of course, also the possibility that there would be future gods more powerful than Rynovar. By the forces outside, there were still beings more powerful than Rynovar. Phoenixes, as one example. Ancient beings that truly could not be permanently killed, they would live until the universe ended, no exceptions.

But as far as beings which could actually die went, Rynovar currently sat as the most powerful. That was part of why the godking feared little and felt confident in his ability to escape a time prison.

"Cyrus," Lyda said after several minutes of silence. "If you didn't feel obligated to perform damage control for your brothers, if you could do your own thing without worry, what would you do?"

Cyrus picked up his glass of tea, pulled out the steeping leaves, set the steeper on a small dish that he summoned from his warehouse. He inspected his tea for a moment, then took a drink.

"This is delicious," he muttered, then sighed and looked at Lyda. "I would leave Earth, find a world without gods, and claim it for my own, establishing myself as godking of my own world."