Lyda stared as Cyrus began attacking who she thought was Rynovar, only to realize that the man greatly resembled Cyrus in addition to the images of Cyrus's father she had seen in the Forest Ruins.

"Ah, yes," a voice said from beside her. "A son's love for his father never fails."

Lyda turned and found Cyrus's mother standing there, along with another man she assumed was a god, the latter of whom was the one who had spoken.

"Mother!" The triplets appeared beside them, hugging their mother, then looking at Cyrus. "Wow, he really did go all-out."

"Yes, he did," their mother chuckled. "Your father knew he was going to, too, and decided to let it happen."

"He has plenty of venting needing to happen," the other god shrugged, looking at the duo at the throne. "So his father's letting it happen. He'll heal up immediately."

"Did Cyrus put Lord Rynovar's crown on his head?" Lyda realized.

"No!" The triplets laughed. "Father put it on him!"

"How would Lord Rynovar feel about that?"

"Lyda, dear," Cyrus's mother said. "Ty wouldn't have sent you here if Rynovar hadn't told him he was ready for you."

Lyda looked at the man on the throne, then at the brothers' mother, then at Cyrus, then back to his father, repeating this several times before looking at the brothers' mother in shock.

"Cyrus's father is Lord Rynovar?" She asked. "But he talked so differently about them! He was always angry about his father and calm about Rynovar!"

"It was how," Owen told her.

"Cyrus managed," Max told her.

"To keep civil about the godking," Luke told her.

"By acting as if Father and Rynovar were two separate people," the triplets said in unison.

"So, then," Lyda looked at their mother. "That makes you-"

"Allow me to properly introduce myself," the brother's mother smiled. "I am Selar, wife of Rynovar and the queen god of Earth. This is Kylnar."

"Hello, Lyda," Kylnar smiled at her. "It seems we kept missing each other when I visited Cyrus, though that wasn't intentional on my part."

"It looks like they're done," Owen said, and everyone looked at Cyrus and Rynovar.

"They must have slipped out of time," Max said as Cyrus yanked the crown off his head and slammed it onto his father's.

"Because that was definitely much too short," Luke said as Rynovar adjusted the crown.

"They even healed and cleaned up!" The triplets said in unison.

"Hello, Lyda," Rynovar smiled at the human woman. "There's no need to be shy here, come, come!"

Lyda approached, beginning to shake nervously as she did, kneeling at the steps to the godking's throne. Cyrus stood to his father's left as his mother stood to the godking's right, Kylnar beside the younger god. The triplets took up positions behind Lyda, and for the first time, she felt insignificant, the presence of seven full gods around her making her aware just how small her life was.

Even without having the ability to sense magic itself, Lyda could feel the pure power in the air, with seven gods that close to her, could feel how much of it was radiating out of the god on the throne. For the first time, she was truly aware just how powerful the triplets and Cyrus were, able to feel the forces of magic that they were.

"No need to kneel, Lyda," Rynovar said with a smile. "Rise, and look me in the eyes."

Lyda rose, meeting the godking's eyes.

"Good, good," Rynovar's smile widened. "Just so you're aware, I never did fix my blindness."

"Father…" Cyrus began.

"Alright, alright," Rynovar chuckled. "So, Lyda, you may ask me one question or make of me a single request. Do you know which you would like to do? If so, you may do so."

"Yes, Lord Rynovar," Lyda said. "I would like to ask for greater magical affinity and an affinity for other elements, my lord."

"A simple matter," Rynovar told her. "Remove your shirt and your bra, then approach."

Lyda gave Cyrus a startled look.

"He has to touch your chest," Cyrus touched his own to demonstrate. "Right between your boobs. It's not something he can control, that's the best place to touch when messing with mana veins. Your shirt and bra would be in the way."

"O-oh," Lyda said, then removed her shirt and bra, then walked up the steps to Rynovar.

The godking touched between her boobs and focused, and Lyda felt something within her begin to change. Several minutes passed before Rynovar pulled his hand back and nodded.

"It is done," he told her. "I have increased your mana veins to place you at Tier Five, and I have given you mana veins for the other four elements as well."

"Thank you," Lyda bowed, then stepped back down to where she had been before, pulling her bra and shirt back on.

"Well," Rynovar smiled. "How does it feel, knowing that you have completed the quest, Lyda?"

"It feels… strange," she answered. "To have completed it. I was going to work hard in the hope that I could, and then I met Cyrus and all of that change with his kindness."

"Yes, my son has a kind heart," Rynovar told her. "Kind, but serious. It's unlikely to ever change, unless he finds 'the one'. Now that your request has been filled, Lyda, where would you like me to send you?"

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Lyda looked at Cyrus, uncertain.

"I'll come visit you and take you on an adventure later," he told her. "If you're still willing. Father has some stuff he wants to discuss with me."

She nodded, then looked at Rynovar once more.

"Back to Madam Mara's Crimson Restaurant, milord," she told him.

"Hold your breath," Rynovar smiled, and Lyda did so, before vanishing from the god's temple. "So. The first human to make it up here, and she had the assistance of a god. Can you six tell me in seriousness: is my quest too damn difficult?"

"No," Cyrus immediately answered. "The clues for how to find the Silver Oracle are there, and people are just idiots when it comes to how to impress an elemental. I've looked into the future, and in the next century, a total of three more people make it here."

"I see," Rynovar nodded. "I take it Lyda has something to do with that?"

"Yes."

"I'll make sure she knows the rules," Rynovar nodded, then grinned. "How do you think she'll react to me appearing before her again?"

"She and her husband at the time will freak out," Cyrus told him, seeing the disappointed look on his father's face. "Yes, she gets with someone. Seriously gets with him, not just as her job as a prostitute. It's why she's going to refuse my offer to take her on a journey to show her a few more places. He's going to ask her out shortly, and she's going to accept."

"I see," Rynovar said. "How do you feel about that, Cyrus?"

"Our relationship was set to end as soon as you granted her wish," Cyrus stated. "While I will miss her, I would much rather see her happy with a human, with someone who will age with her. A permanent relationship between a human and a god just isn't feasible."

"Ty and I are still together after hundreds of years."

"You two rarely actually get together," Cyrus shook his head. "And Ty is an exception. You stopped his aging."

"You could do that, too, you know," Rynovar told him. "Stop Lyda's aging, if you wanted."

"That wouldn't make her happy," Cyrus shook his head. "She's human, and-"

"So is Ty."

"Ty," Cyrus said. "Is utterly devoted to you as a servant, Father. He will do anything you want him to. His entire world revolves around you."

"Technically, so does yours."

"Father!" Cyrus snapped.

"Cyrus, Rynovar," Selar interrupted. "Why don't you two talk about what you really want to discuss rather than have a back-and-forth you already know the play and end of."

Cyrus and his father stared at each other for several long moments.

"Why did you abandon us at the orphanage?" Cyrus finally asked. "Why didn't you raise us here, on the island? Like a proper dad would have?"

"I did," Rynovar told him.

"Bull-"

"Cyrus," Rynovar said. "Much like your mother, I've performed resets because of you. It took me eighty-four to realize that it was living here, on the island, that made you the way you were. You were even more of a recluse then. Six thousand years in the first several iterations of time, and you barely talked to anyone not one of us here now. We're now in the eighty-fifth iteration. My intent was to let things run until the fifth century of your life again, to see if things were better for you, though I'd already noticed changes. You had more personality to you, hobbies that weren't just 'what happens if I do this with this?' and other random experiments you performed with magic."

"You mean to tell me," Cyrus took a deep breath. "That you abandoned me just so that I'd turn out different?"

"Cyrus," his father said. "We barely saw you even for meals. You barely talked to anyone. It wasn't healthy. I sent you down there in the hopes you'd turn out different, being forced to interact with people."

"And the triplets?"

"To give you companions," his father said, then had to admit something. "I didn't expect them to get up to that much mischief, they were much better behaved when raised up here. I knew that even as an infant, you were intelligent. You're my son, after all, and a full god from birth. That, and I'd been through your infancy more than eighty times. Do you have any idea how frustrating it was to keep having you transmute my food as I was eating if you got upset with me? Yeah. More than eighty resets of that was enough. I couldn't even properly bind your powers because of your talent with aether!"

Cyrus sensed his father just wanted to get away from the hassle of raising a god of aether and let out an aggravated groan.

"I'm glad things turned out differently," his father smiled at him. "You seem much happier, now than in any previous reset."

"You guys should let me live my life," Cyrus muttered.

"If we did that, you'd suffer from many types of problems," his mother placed a hand on his arm. "We do it because we care about you. That's why I let Rynovar send you and your brothers down there, with a few conditions."

"Conditions?" Cyrus asked. "You never mentioned-"

"Because I never felt it necessary," she told him. "Now, why don't we move on to something much more cheerful? Let's eat!"

Rynovar, Selar, and the triplets walked off, passing through a trail which formed for them, and Cyrus and Kylnar remained behind.

"He really did have you in mind," Kylnar told Cyrus. "Otherwise, I would have stopped it before it happened. He doesn't know it, but this is the eighty-sixth reset. The eighty-fifth, I attempted to change how things went with you while you were raised here and realized why Rynovar was concerned about you. Then I reset back to when we were arguing."

Cyrus sighed, then nodded and gave his friend a hug, startling the older god, who decided to return it.

"Thanks," Cyrus said, then pulled back. "You kept visiting because you were worried about me, weren't you?"

"Yes," Kylnar smiled. "After seeing how you were, being raised up here with our best intentions on not letting you turn into a recluse who didn't notice much of what went on around him, I was worried you might go that way again. But with watching the triplets and running the shop, you had something to occupy your time that didn't make you forget about everything."

"I'm going to need some time to process this," Cyrus told him.

"That's fine," Kylnar smiled. "The feast is mostly your father feeding the triplets, they intentionally didn't eat breakfast because they wanted to eat up here. He mentioned before you came that you'd probably not attend."

Cyrus nodded.

"I'll see you around, then," he said.

"See you," Kylnar said. "Now that you've been up here, make sure to visit more often, yeah?"

"Yeah," Cyrus nodded, then teleported himself down to the surface of the planet once more.

He appeared in front of Madam Mara's Crimson Restaurant, then stepped inside. Lyda was at the bar, speaking with the bartender she liked. The way they were talking and the light in their eyes told him that the bartender had already asked her if she would go out with him.

"Hello," Cyrus approached, sensing the worry in the minds of Lyda and her new boyfriend. "Congratulations, Lyda. I wish the two of you a long, happy relationship."

"Coming from you," Lyda smiled. "I'm sure you already know how it will play out."

"I do," Cyrus told her. "But I've played around with your future enough already. I wanted to ask you, do you wish to go on the journey I promised? To show you those beautiful places? We can take your new boyfriend with us, if you wanted."

"No," Lyda answered without thinking. "I mean, thank you for the offer, Cyrus, but no, thank you. After seeing you up there, beside your father, I realized a few things. It would be wrong of me to accept that offer, after everything you have already done for me. I'd like to try out my new relationship, too."

"Okay," Cyrus smiled. "You enjoy your life, then, Lyda."

"Thank you," she said. "You as well, Cyrus. Do you mind if I ask what you're planning on doing now? Since your brothers don't need as much watching?"

"They still need watching," he snorted. "As for what I'm going to do… I still have appointments to keep and a figurine to receive. I'll see you again… sometime."

Cyrus teleported himself home and took a shower. He entered his bedroom after finishing his shower and drying off, and found an item sitting on his bed. A golden figurine in a box with a clear plastic front.

"Huh," Cyrus said. "He actually did have one."

He picked up the golden Josh Manakao figurine, still in its original, unopened packaging, and set it on the shelf beside the others, before sitting on his bed, thinking about his adventure.

As his thoughts of the adventure drew to its conclusion, Cyrus realized that he couldn't return to the way he had been. After journeying with Lyda, he had changed, and simply living out the life he had before didn't feel right to him anymore.

"I can't just leave, though," Cyrus said to himself. "Someone still needs to keep the triplets in check. What should I do now?"