As Ryan awoke, he sensed the warmth of Kyra sleeping beside him, pressed against him from in front. While he didn't remember beginning to spoon her, he did remember how many rounds they went for. He finished off at six orgasms, while she had eight.

The young god noticed after taking in Kyra's form that there was a young man around their age in the house, preparing a meal in the kitchen. Ryan extracted himself from Kyra and stretched, then made his way downstairs.

"You slept pretty late, Kyra," the other teen said as he poured himself a glass of milk, then began to turn to face Ryan. "It's not like you to do-who the hell are you?"

"My name is Ryan," Ryan introduced himself. "She might be asleep for awhile still. And maybe a bit sore after waking up."

Ryan himself suffered no ill effects from having climaxed six times during the night, even if he knew it was normal for a guy to. Bethany had mentioned it to him after their first long night, and he had since determined that being a god came with a few perks.

He watched as Nick assessed him, taking in his naked form and what was no doubt recognized as dried fluids from Ryan's encounter with Kyra during the night on the young god's erection. Nick quickly moved his gaze up to Ryan's.

"Not what you think," Nick said in response to Ryan's smirk. "So you're her rebound, then? I wasn't expecting her to go all the way."

"More like two folks just enjoying the pleasure of each other's bodies," Ryan said, and Nick frowned. "What?"

"I've heard a fair few accents," Nick told him. "And I've never heard one like yours before."

"Oh, that?" Ryan grinned. "That's because I'm neither human nor from here."

"And she found a delusional guy," Nick muttered. "Well, better than her last boyfriend."

"Delusional?" Ryan laughed. "Nah, not delusional."

With a thought, he generated water to clean himself of the fluids from sex with Kyra, then sent it to the sink, before transmuting the air into a set of clothes, making sure they were pure-white rather than the gray he had unintentionally turned his clothes to the previous night. To ensure the pants fit him properly, he used water magic to move the blood out of his erection, allowing his pants to form properly without additional magic on them.

"Not even close," he smiled at Nick. "I ended up here by accident and won't be able to return home until I've done something, but it's going to be awhile. Your sister has kindly offered to help me understand and adjust to your society until then, as I don't know how long it will take."

He knew that he could have kept it a secret from Nick, but felt that with the man being around a lot, it would probably be best if Nick knew as well. On his way down the stairs, he had already checked Nick's mind and knew he could be trusted as much as Kyra.

"Congratulations, by the way," Ryan said. "On getting to be a father. Kyra mentioned you're having twins, so congratulations!"

Confusion was prominent in the human's mind, which only amused the young god further.

"Oh," he said. "But don't go spreading around I'm a god, okay? People might give you funny looks."

He chuckled at Nick's mix of emotions and the bewildered expression on the other man's face. Not for the first time, Ryan was glad he fine-tuned his senses of water and air enough during his time in Volnal to make out expressions.

"By the way," he said. "Did you happen to move the giant ruby that was sitting on the coffee table? It's on the kitchen counter, now. That was my down payment to your sister for her assistance."

Nick blinked several times as he attempted to process what Ryan said, causing the god to laugh again.

"Oh, your expression," Ryan smiled as he walked over to the ruby, plucking it off the counter and tossing it up and down several times. "Isn't it amusing, Kyra?"

"What are you doing to my brother?" She asked from the entrance to the kitchen, startling her brother.

"Befuddling him," Ryan grinned, then tossed her the ruby, watching as she fumbled before managing to catch it. "Would you mind taking me out? I wish to explore your society."

His stomach rumbled a little, and Ryan snorted.

"Though I suppose food is in order, first?"

"I can take you to a restaurant," she told him, then looked at her brother. "Nick, he's probably your shoe size, can you grab a pair of your shoes?"

"I'm still trying to figure out what's going on."

"I already told you what's going on," Ryan told him. "I'm a god who ended up here by accident, and won't be able to leave until I've done a certain thing, though I don't know how long it will be. I only even know your language because I pulled the knowledge from your sister's mind. She's agreed to help me learn about your society and stay here until I need to go."

"I'm going to go… think about things," Nick told them, then left, and Ryan shrugged, then looked at Kyra.

"So a restaurant?"

"You'll need shoes first," she told him. "I'll be right back."

Kyra went upstairs, and Ryan watched as she returned to her room and set the ruby on her desk before she changed into new clothes, before grabbing a few things to put in her pockets. Then, she went to her brother's room and grabbed a pair of socks from his dresser before grabbing a pair of shoes and returning downstairs. Ryan pulled them on, then frowned.

"I don't know how to tie shoes."

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Ryan's shoes never used ties if he were putting them on, only straps, because they were more difficult for him to mess up. As a result, he never learned how to tie shoes.

"Okay," Kyra held back a laugh as she knelt in front of Ryan. "This is how you do it."

She tied the shoes, showing Ryan how to do it with both shoes, then stood and nodded.

"Let's go."

She left, and he followed her into her car. As she drove, he frowned, thinking over the car's functions. It was noisier than any car he had ever heard, and it smelled foul to him.

As Kyra drove, Ryan thought about time travel. He knew the spell to return to his own time by instinct. All he had to do was thinking about trying to cast the spell, and the knowledge would come forth. Despite that, he did not try it.

If everything said about time travel was real, and he was the first of the Gray Mages, as he expected, then there was stuff for him to do there. Because of that, something would prevent him from returning to his own time.

Because the spell was purely mental in its casting, that meant the 'something' would no doubt be an extreme measure on the universe's part to keep time consistent. If he wasn't meant to be there, he'd have not shown up – or been launched back to his own time.

While he knew some would say that no one could be entirely sure of the rules of time travel, Ryan himself was sure of it. Some instinct in him told him the rules were true. Everything he did then, he had done in his past already. He was not doing something new, but rather, he was playing out the past.

Which once more brought up the question of how the paradox of his existence began. None of his godly knowledge could tell him that, and the Blessed Ones had told him that even they did not know how a paradox could begin, only that it was possible for them to exist.

A question to ask the pair of gods who would show up after the Great Collapse began. Ryan knew it might take a long time, as he could already feel the magic beginning to fill the air. It was faint, but if he focused enough, he could sense it leaking in from somewhere nearby.

At a guess, the location where he appeared with his time travel spell. That made the most logical sense to the young god, as it was where he had appeared, which meant it was the most likely candidate for the damage to the seal to begin.

He wasn't too sure how the seal worked, but guessed that even with magic present, it would take a bit for the seal to break. The elementals and Blessed Ones did tell him that the paradox seal didn't shatter immediately.

The most likely answer to that was the seal itself not being a single contingency, that the paradox required was only part of it, even if the only known part. The seal likely required a certain amount of magic to be present on Earth to fully break, even if it could be worn-down and start letting magic leak in.

A rule likely set to avoid the Great Collapse from occurring. Whoever created the seal likely knew it would break and did not want magic to simply flood into the world, destroying it and causing chaos everywhere, instead allowing magic to leak in and influence things over time rather than all at once.

As Ryan was the only magician there, he knew that unless he did something extreme, he would not be the full reason it broke. Instead, the most likely answer was that his presence there and the magic he used would cause it to weaken enough that forces outside of Earth would shatter it, causing the Great Collapse.

From what he knew of the history lessons he had received, those born before the Great Collapse could not use magic – only those conceived after it began. His own children would probably possess magic as well, regardless of when they were born, as their father would be a magician.

Because of that, Ryan decided his theory was the most likely result. Without other magicians around, it would be impossible for the seal to break with how much magic he would use unless he spent a long time there. Most of the spells he would use would not be high-scale, and even if there were high-scale spells being used, he doubted something as powerful as a paradox seal would break from them, only weaken.

His time travel had only barely weakened it in a single spot, after all, and that was a spell which drained more than a tenth of his mana – the most powerful and costly spell he had cast so far.

"Ryan," Kyra pulled Ryan out of his thoughts. "What is it like, where you're from?"

"Where I'm from?" He mused over what to say. "Where I'm from, there are three major factions, each split up into varying parts. Most of those parts want to see me without power, but they'll never achieve that. As the godking of this world, I am immortal."

That did bring up a question in his mind, though. What would happen if he was killed in the past? When would he reset to? He was a god, so he would reset, but if he reset, then he would move forward in time, to return to his previous reset point?

There was likely some contingency to prevent that, such as returning to when he arrived, but he decided he did not want to find out.

"What were you trying to do, when you ended up here?" She asked.

"Just a traveling spell," he grinned. "It went wrong because I started thinking about the wrong thing and then cast the wrong spell by accident."

"Based on everything we know," she said. "There's no magic here. I'm sure if there is, the government is hiding it, but-"

"But you're wondering if it's true or not," he said, and she nodded as he noticed her cheeks flushing and mind filling with slight embarrassment. "A natural curiosity, and I'm glad you've found your voice, even if the nerves are still there. A night of sex works wonders, it seems."

He chuckled at her increased embarrassment.

"No," he told her. "There's no magic here. Technically, I shouldn't have been able to make the trip to Earth. There's actually a powerful seal protecting the world from magic coming to it, and there was no magic here until I arrived."

Ryan scratched the back of his head as he thought over what to say.

"Actually," he said. "My arrival here has caused damage to the seal. It's going to result in the seal breaking. That's why I'm not returning to where I'm from. I want to be here when it breaks, so I can at least do some damage control before the other gods who will take care of things arrive."

He felt her confusion rise as she forced her attention to remain on the road rather than turn to him.

"You're wondering how I know other gods will arrive," he said. "And why they will. As far as my awareness goes, there will be a pair of gods who arrive, and they'll clean up the mess of the seal breaking. No, humans will not suddenly acquire magic, only those conceived in a world of magic or born to magic can wield it. Based on what I know, the seal breaking fully will also be something everyone is aware of, that it will be obvious to all."

"So you showing up is going to cause a lot of problems?" She asked.

"Indeed," he answered. "And my arrival was purely accidental. I was not trying to end up here. That's what happens when my mind wanders even a tiny bit when trying to perform a spell to travel like that."

Ryan realized then what he had told her about why he was staying. To him, that was an actual reason to stay beyond worrying about the potential block that would occur when he tried. Even if he couldn't fix everything, he could at least do some work to help with things. The weakest spot in the seal would be wherever he did the most magic, and since he would be casting magic nearly all the time to maintain his vision, that would be the town he was in.

He didn't need to stay for that, but he did feel somewhat responsible, as he was the paradox which broke the seal.

"Anyway," he said. "It means I'll be here until they arrive, then I'll head off to do what I was trying to do when I ended up here."

"Okay," she said, and Ryan noticed her pulling into a parking lot. "We're here, by the way. Aaaand crap."

"What?"

"I just noticed the car of his 'rebound'," she told him. "Which means he's probably here, too."

"The guy you dumped?" He asked with a grin.

"Yeah," she said. "Let's-"

"Go inside," he cut her off before she could suggest leaving. "Why avoid this place just because he's there with his rebound? You'll be there with a god who screwed you for almost seven hours straight, teaching him what breakfast at a restaurant is like here. Who has the better deal?"

"You have a point," she sighed, then parked. "Alright, let's go in."