After Elder Isis—former elder Isis—dropped that bomb, there was only an hour before the Entreat resumed. I didn't have time to think about my new status at all, let alone give Hestia and Alyssa a heads up.

Elders from other races would drop by and hand off census data. We had to check and assemble reports from the search parties and rescue teams. Luckily, everyone on the abduction list was successfully and safely retrieved. Unluckily, the census data shows we may be missing more people than we think.

Hestia kept working on the government data. There is a lot more than we thought there would be. Everything from genetic data from the regular human population all the way down to tentative profiles on each species. Hestia is in the process of developing a virus that will infect every computer in the world to scrub concrete information on us from every computer or server. The hard part is leaving behind all the lore and legends humans widely regard as literary works and other fandom type speculation.

It may take her another few days before the virus is ready for deployment. We really need it faster than that, but I don't want to over-tax her because of the baby. if she weren't pregnant, I would be pushing her much harder, but vampire pregnancies are delicate and there is enough stress without making her work faster. And we can't afford any mistakes that might come because she worked too fast or missed a detail.

If information in places like the supernatural subreddit thread started mysteriously disappearing, then people would take that as confirmation that they were on the right path. No, we need to be careful more than we need to be fast.

Hestia, Remus, and I are the last to return to the conference room. The meeting comes to order almost the moment we step foot inside.

"We contacted all twelve of the packs during our break. Six packs have already combined and four of those are compromised. We only have two 'safe' locations, and we don't expect those to remain safe much longer as the larger forests shrink. We need to come up with a total evacuation plan, soon," Zeev, of the werewolf delegation, begins. Many of the other elders nod along, as their bolt holds are either unsafe or inadequate.

"Elder Isis and I had thought of a potential idea in that regard," Oberon replies.

"Yes, and it is a good idea, but I am no longer an elder of the vampires, Elder Oberon. Please call me Isis." Her declaration is met with stunned silence, "I have chosen to make Elder Loki my replacement as he has the skills to guide us though this turbulent time," she gestures to me as she says this. Many of the other elders give me a once over, before zeroing in on my new elder signet ring. Some smile, others scoul.

"I wish you had waited and discussed such a change with us before rushing into it," Lugh of the elves scoules. He never liked me much.

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"It is up to each race to determine who is an elder and who represents them. I do not need permission to resign and nominate someone else." Isis glares at Lugh, almost daring him to challenge her rights.

He backs down, "apologies, I merely meant that the timing could be better."

"He is the correct person to lead us when we are going through such an upheaval. The timing could never be better," Isis asserts.

"As interesting as all of this is, I would love to hear their idea. Many races have very high risks of human exposure. If we don't fix it sooner rather than later, then all of our manipulations will the signal will be worthless." I refocus the table before an argument can break out.

"Yes, of course," Isis nods to Oberon, directing everyone's attention to him.

"When we were searching for Elder Remus and now Elder Loki, I asked Isis to explain the actual workings of the ley lines to me. I thought they went from life holding planet to life holding planet."

"Do they not?" Frigg of the dwarves asks.

"No, they go through the stars. From life supporting system to life supporting system," Isis says. Many around the table look surprised at this development. Even older, truly immortal races like the elves and phoenix seem to not have known that information. I certainly didn't. If we just have to support life in the system, that opens up worlds of possibilities.

"Right," Oberon nods, "which means we don't need to stay on this particular planet to do this job. We can terraform another planet and live quite comfortably there."

the room is silent as people process this new information.

"Are we sure about this? Where is you data from?" Inari of the elves asks Isis.

"My father studied the data and determined this was true himself. His original lab books have disintegrated to dust, but I still remember every page. It is true, we could leave the planet and remain in the solar system."

"There is no other planet or moon in the solar system that could actually support life for those of us who need an earth-like atmosphere," Balin of the wix points out.

"We could terraform one," Oberon responds. "Our forefathers created life on earth. They terraformed the planet eons ago. We can do the same."

"No one remembers how to do that. The knowledge is lost," Amphitrite of the sirens points out.

"No, but it can be remade. We each have particular magics and traits." I start sifting through the census papers. "Do we have lists of everyone's particular gifts?"

"That data isn't difficult to assemble. I believe most of us could provide you with that information after the next break," Thor of the dwarves points out.

"This is all well and good," Surya of the phoenixes says, "but how exactly are we going to get to mars?"

That quietens the excited chatter around the table as people all think about the largest obstacle of the plan.

"What exactly happens when the humans contact our extraterrestrial counterparts?" Alyssa asked, and this time people looked more intrigued than scornful.

"One of their elders will come and contact the elders here," Isis answered.

"How will they contact us exactly?" I ask, seeing where Alyssa is going with this.

"The elder's signet rings are communication devices to the ships. They are relatively short range. The ship would have to be in our solar system for them to work," Inari of the elves answers.

"Could we convince them to take us to mars before they initiate first contact?" Alyssa proposes.

"I suppose that depends on who they send," Isis answers. "It would certainly solve a lot of problems."