Upon finding himself in a much smaller form, Ryan stumbled slightly due to the difference in movement ability, then began promptly applying healing magic to himself to lighten the pain from his physical adjustment of magical ability.

"Is everything okay, Ry?" A voice asked, and Ryan froze for a moment, having momentarily forgotten when he had reset to and what he was doing.

Against his will, tears began to well in his eyes as he registered his mother's gentle voice and the soft, concerned touch on his arm as she helped him steady himself.

"Y-yeah," Ryan responded, amused by his younger, softer voice than the one he was used to. "I'm fine, Mom."

"That's good," she wrapped him up in a hug, squeezing him tight.

"Moooom!" He complained, as he knew he would have as a kid, though he still would have as an adult. "Lemme go!"

"Okay!" She released him, and he fell onto the ground. "I let you go!"

"Mooom!" He complained again, and the two of them began laughing.

"Wipe those tears away," she said, and he felt her pushing something soft against his eyes to dry his tears. "Did you hurt yourself? I know you like to hide it when you bump into something."

"No, Mom," he told her. "I'm fine. Just really happy."

"That's good," she told him. "Your father won't be back until late. Why don't we get you in the shower now, then I'll read you however many stories you want me to read you?"

"Yes, please!" Ryan eagerly responded.

He didn't need to be a child in his mind to leap at that opportunity. There was nothing he wanted more than to hear his mother tell him a story again, for her to make it through the night.

"Okay," she placed a hand on his head and ruffled his hair. "Let's go to the bathroom."

Ryan allowed his mother to pick him up and carry him to the bathroom, a common occurrence when he was younger and they were traveling. It was easier early in the trips than simply guiding him, as Ryan would inevitably walk into something on his own anyway.

She set him on the toilet, then left to fetch clothes, and Ryan extended out his senses, witnessing his mother's form for the first time. Based on what he knew, she would be considered extremely pretty, and he could see why his father had fallen for her when he looked at her objectively. He watched as she picked out his pajamas, then returned to the bathroom.

"I'm going to change into pajamas while you're taking your time," she ruffled his hair after setting his pajamas on the edge of the sink, grabbing his hand to put it on the clothes so that he would know they were there. "Holler if you finish and I haven't come back in, okay sweetie?"

"Okay!" Ryan told her. "Mom, I was hoping you could get me a snack."

"A snack?" She asked, and he grinned.

"Father's not going to be back until way late," he told her, doing his best to speak how he would have as a kid, based on what he remembered. "And you know you wanna get me a pizza from that place down the road."

He put a finger to his lips, which were turned upward in a sly grin.

"And I won't tell Father if you do."

"Alright," she ruffled his hair again. "Let's get you undressed, then. I'll call in an order. They don't deliver this late at night, but I can drive down and pick it up. Shouldn't take me more than fifteen or twenty minutes, okay, sweetie?"

"Okay!" He said. "No fruit on my pizza! I'm not you!"

"I won't!" She laughed. "I'll get my own pizza for that."

That meant she would be out of the hotel room and the hotel when the assassin came. If she didn't return, Ryan would reset to right before he asked and adjust his plans, taking as many times as necessary in order to save her.

"Yes!" He exclaimed.

Ryan let his mother help him undress, as he would have as a child. Once he was undressed, she grabbed him under the armpits and lifted him up, moved him into the bath, then turned on the water. Then, his mother moved his hands so he could feel the knobs and adjust the temperature until he was comfortable.

"I'll be back soon," she kissed him on the forehead while Ryan waited for the water to heat up. "Do you remember where the button is?"

Ryan moved his hand to the wall of the shower, then slid it slightly until he felt a button.

"This one, right?" He asked.

"Yes," she answered. "If you fall and get hurt, press that button, and a guard will come and help you, okay?"

"Okay!" He told her. "Now hurry, Mom! I'm huuuungry!"

"I will, I will!" She laughed. "Even if I know you'll still be in the shower twenty minutes after I return!"

He grinned, and she left after checking to make sure he was okay one last time. Once she was gone, Ryan stopped his bigger smile, though a lighter one was still upon his face. He was genuinely happy, as his spell had succeeded that time. He could save his mother without further delay.

If he failed this attempt and the assassin caught her leaving and killed her away, he'd simply reset. He would reset as many times as necessary until he saved her for good.

Ryan wasted no time with his shower once his mother left. With his senses expanded out to their maximum, he kept an eye on everything going on in the hotel. Only his sense of light was off, allowing him a decent range.

As he finished his short shower, Ryan noticed a shift in the electricity running through the hotel's security system, which alerted him to the presence of the assassin. They didn't know about the change and likely expected it to be the normal routine. It was known to some that Ryan stayed up later and took his showers later when his father wasn't around to put him to bed early.

Because of that, Ryan narrowed the assassin down to someone within his Family, and he wanted to find out who they were. Their network wasn't good enough to know his mother had left, so they weren't higher in the Family. A servant, possibly.

Ryan used his fire magics to dry himself, then stepped out of the tub, ensuring his feet were dry before touching the ground. He still had some mobility issues, as he had just returned to his child's form and need to adjust it, so stepping out of the tub was chancy for him. His first step wasn't an issue, but his second step resulted in his foot slamming into the tub, and he cried out in pain for a moment.

Gritting his teeth, the young god applied healing magic to his foot, then shook his head and picked up his clothes, dressing. When he finished, he groaned. He had buttoned his pajama shirt one-off, so he unbuttoned it, then buttoned it again, making sure to go from the top to the bottom, to ensure it was even when he finished.

"This is what happens when you spend eighteen years of others buttoning your shirts," he muttered to himself as he watched someone enter the hotel and start making their way to an elevator. "You don't have the skill to button it on your own. Stupid Ryan. You know Tyler always buttoned from the top down."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

After he finished buttoning his shirt and berating himself, Ryan made his way to the living room of the hotel suite and plopped himself onto the center of the couch facing the door to the hotel hall. He kicked his feet up onto the coffee table and crossed his ankles, then folded his hands on his lap and waited.

It took only a couple of minutes for the assassin to reach his room, and he noticed them using lightning magic to override the hotel's lock on the door before they entered. That they were able to make it past the guards at each entrance to the floor meant he had a higher standing in the Family, but still not enough influence to know when plan changes occurred. That narrowed it down to even fewer suspects.

When the man entered, Ryan delighted in the startled expression on his face and in his mind. The boy wasn't using his telepathy, but he did have his empathy active.

Having used it nearly constantly for months, Ryan felt naked without his empathy active, as with at least two elemental senses.

"Ryan," the man said, and Ryan tried to place the man's voice. It was familiar to him, but he couldn't remember from where. It wasn't someone on his list, but he knew he might have overlooked someone. "I was hoping to speak with your mother, do you know where she is?"

"Hm," Ryan said. "Who are you?"

"Your Uncle Steven," the man answered. "We just saw each other a few days ago."

"Oh, right!" Ryan formed his right hand into a fist and dropped it into his left palm. "The traitor!"

He felt the confusion and panic rise in his uncle's mind, and the young god grinned.

"I know you're here to kill Mom," Ryan told him. "That's why I sent her out."

"Kill your mom?" His uncle asked. "I don't know where you're getting that from, but-"

"So who in Raxvar asked you to?" Ryan asked. "Since I know you're planning on slipping away from Volnal Valley after being exiled there, only to start working for Raxvar. It's clear you've sold yourself out to them."

Another thought came to Ryan.

"You're a Jewel, aren't you?" He asked. "One who can use spatial magics, if I remember correctly. You know, they never did know who the person who made those was. I suppose you being exiled to Volnal was part of the plan. After being exiled there, you set down the foundation for the theft. Then, you join Raxvar, only to put things into motion later. Oh, don't give me that surprised look, Uncle Steven, your mind tells me everything I need to know. To be honest, I don't really care."

He gave his uncle the most malicious smile he could, knowing that it would no doubt be even more disturbing coming from a child.

"Because you're going to die," Ryan initiated a heart attack in his uncle. "And that's going to erase several issues that would come to pass otherwise."

After his uncle died, the forced heart attack severe enough to kill him quickly, Ryan waited for his mother to return by laying on the couch and pretending to nap. When she arrived, he pretended to wake up, rubbing his eyes as if to rub the sleep out. Even if he were blind, he did do that at times.

"Smells good," he told his mom.

"Yes, it does," she told him, a smile in her voice, and he saw it on her face, even if he detected the confusion and annoyance in her mind after seeing her brother-in-law. "Tell you what, Ryan, let's do something even more secret from your father? Let's eat the pizza in your room!"

"Okay!" He grinned at her. "Father will be sooo mad if he finds out!"

"Yes, he will," she said as she approached him. "Come on, I'll help you in there, then I'll get us some drinks and napkins."

"Okay!"

Ryan let his mother guide him to the room, and she put the pizzas on the bed before lifting him up onto it.

"I'll go get those and a book," she told him. "Give me just a minute."

"Alright!" Ryan told her, then watched as she left.

His mother, instead of fetching the drinks and napkins, went outside into the hall, down to the elevator, and spoke with the guards stationed outside of it. Guards were stationed at every entrance to the floor, rather than at the suite Ryan and his parents were staying in, as they had the entire floor to themselves.

Wanting to hear the discussion, Ryan shut off his other elemental senses and used his sense of air to listen in to them, able to detect their words by paying attention to the vibrations in the air.

"I know you said Steven came in," she said. "But he doesn't have a keycard in his hands that I noticed, and it seems he died after entering the room. I've moved Ryan to his room, please remove Steven's body. It's doubtful he's still alive, but if he is, get an ambulance out here."

"Yes, ma'am," the guard told her. "He seemed quite healthy when he said he wanted to play with Ryan."

"Perhaps he sensed karma coming after him," his mother said. "I was investigating a connection between him and a certain part of Raxvar, and those who betray our family deserve fates worse than death. I'd say karma went nice on him."

Ryan frowned at that, then grinned. He knew why his mother was killed, then. It was the faction who wanted to prevent Ryan from taking over the world. They might not have been sure it was Ryan yet, but they found out his mother was looking into things. If she exposed them, it would have caused a war.

So they had Steven murder her. If he were a Jewel, it was possible Ryan's uncle had trained some form of mind magic in order to ensure the guards did not realize it was him. It wouldn't have been easy for the man to do that, but Ryan had since learned his Family was special when it came to magic.

"Ensure his body is gone in the next half-hour," Ryan's mother told the guards. "Ryan will need to pee around then, if his habits of drinking late at night are anything to go by."

Ryan frowned again, then chuckled as he remembered how much water he would drink as a kid if he got to stay up late. A tactic he used as an excuse to stay up even later – he'd need to pee soon after.

"Yes, ma'am," the guards responded.

Ryan turned his other senses on as his mother returned to the suite, then to the room, and she went to her room and quickly changed. Once dressed in her own pajamas, Ryan's mother exited her room and grabbed napkins and drinks, then a book, then walked to Ryan's room.

"I'm back," she told him as she climbed onto his bed, setting the tray with the pitcher of water on the nightstand, before pulling him against her in a hug. "Alright, munchkin. I've got a new book to read to you tonight."

"What took you so long?" Ryan asked, knowing that if he didn't ask, she'd be suspicious.

Kid-Ryan always asked why if she took more than a few minutes for something that should have taken only a few minutes.

"I was changing into my pajamas," she told him. "And had to go to the bathroom, too."

"Oh, okay!" Ryan said. "You got two pizza boxes, and I can smell that nasty fruit."

"You don't have to eat it," she ruffled his hair. "Come on, let's enjoy our evening."

"And not tell Father!" Ryan grinned, snuggling into his mother.

As they ate and she read to him, Ryan did his best not to cry again. His child's body and brain wanted to, even if his adult mind wanted to resist it and act more mature. His mother was alive, and he was snuggled up against her once more. Nothing else mattered to him anymore.

It was well-past midnight when his mother started to pull herself away from Ryan so that he could sleep, and he clung to her.

"Mom?" He asked softly. "Can you stay with me tonight?"

"Of course, honey," she ruffled his hair. "And I'm sure that when you wake, your father's going to be snuggled up with us, too."

"Alright," he chuckled. "Oh, I had a question."

"Another?" She asked. "This late?"

"Yeah," he covered his mouth as he yawned, then continued. "It's always me and you and father, and sometimes the servants. I want a friend."

"A friend?" She asked.

"Yeah," he told her. "I think I heard about another Novar my age? Um… Tyler Novaramisanima-uh… I probably got that wrong."

Even as an adult, Ryan always had an issue with the longer names in the branch families.

"Tyler Novaranamis?" She asked with a chuckle.

"Yeah, that!" He said, then pulled back in shock. "Wait, you know him?"

"I know his name," she told him. "How did you find out about him?"

"I heard Father doing a census a few months ago," Ryan answered. "You were in the bathroom. The guy he was talking with said Tyler was eight, too."

"Well," she ruffled his hair. "The Novaranamis are a servant branch, but I can see about arranging him to act as your own servant. He'll need some better training, though. He's only eight, after all. But we can introduce you two, it's not a bad idea to have you socialize with someone your age. Are you sure you don't want your cousin Jonathan-"

"Ew," Ryan made a face. "Not Jonathan. I'd rather be friends with a servant than a full member. Then, I can boss them around and they can't do anything about it!"

"Try not to boss him around too much," she chuckled, ruffling his hair again, and Ryan began to remember just how much his mother loved to do that. It had annoyed him when he was little, but he found that it no longer bothered him, even if he were older in his mind than in his body. "If you treat servants too harshly, it might cause resentment, which means they might look for a reason to hurt you."

"I won't," Ryan grinned. "But I'm sure it'll be fun!"

"It might be," she poked him in the side. "But it's time for you to go to bed. I'll talk with your father about the Novaranamis."

"Thanks!" He hugged her, then slipped under the blankets.

"I'm going to take care of the pizza," she kissed him on the forehead. "Then I'll be right back."

"Okay," he yawned again.

Ryan waited as his mother took care of the leftover pizza and their napkins, then she returned and climbed onto the bed and under the covers, snuggling him against her. He inhaled the tropical scent of the remnants of her perfume from earlier that day, and felt himself relax.

He had succeeded, and had done so on the first try. The young god was beyond excited for his mother's survival, and made her a silent promise to protect her from further attempts on her life. Then, he let himself drift to sleep to the sound of his mother's light humming.