I walked out of the school with Aoi.

“Alright, you two head back, I’m gonna go and check out this tree.”

“Alright, be safe.”

“I will.”

I walked towards the forest and saw Aoi and Taury look at me with minor concern.

I sighed and passed out of earshot before speaking to myself.

“Stupid. I’m so stupid. How could I mess up like that? I’ve kept it up for twelve years… why… why do I mess up now?”

I shook my head and continued walking.

I walked over to the forest and began to look for the tree I was supposed to find.

I walked far and eventually came to the lake.

“Hello human.”

“Hello, Simial.”

“That power of yours.”

Of course, he would talk about that.

“You want it secret, correct?”

“Yes.”

He stood and pinned me against a tree.

“Then give me an offer.”

“What?”

“To keep your secret, I’m going to need something in return. I care for the lady greatly, so, if you want to keep the secret of you ruling her, then I need payment.”

“Alright, Control.”

His eyes went white as he stumbled back and began swaying.

“You will not remember anything about the control power, you will remember it as I tricked the demon into saying the word to cancel a word command allowing the lady to kill him and his comrade. You will also forget her name, do you understand?”

“Yes, Master…”

“Good. Release.”

“As I said, human, tell me how you managed to trick the demon, I can’t figure it out.”

“It was very simple, I told him to release me and he merely mimicked it, it’s a simple trick that it seems that even demons will fall for.”

“That can’t be it… fine, I’ll leave you to whatever you’re doing here.”

“Thank you.”

I walked past and walked far further and I saw it finally, at the midpoint between the lake and Morgan’s palace, was a tree with a knob shaped like a starry eye.

I walked up to it and knocked twice.

“Only scum see wit.”

Then I heard a cackle and looked up to find a female demon.

“You? You are the one? I know who gave you that password, that means he wants it back.”

“What?”

“Oh please, don’t play coy, you know that man, he’s the only one who’d know the password, but you are the one the Hunter is after. Does he even know who he’s going after? Or could that be why? Either way, take it.”

She tossed a package and sneered.

“I’m telling the Hunter I am not going to deal with that man again, I’m leaving. He can die on his own.”

Then the demon jumped from tree to tree. Leaving me confused.

I picked up the package.

“Why would a demon be that scared of Gramps? And why would he use a demon to hold onto something that important?”

I clearly didn’t know a lot about this. Was the Hunter actually after Gramps? Why would he be? That would explain him not weaponizing the pixies and keeping me alive.

“I’ll think about it another day.”

I sighed and walked past the lake and saw Simial once again sitting at the edge. This time he didn’t notice me. I noticed him cry.

“My dear lady… why didn’t you choose me? Why a human? I waited and waited, and you came with a… blasted human… why?”

Suddenly, understanding dawned my eyes. Why he hated me despite what I’d done.

He loved Taury. Not like a knight and liege, but as a lover.

I snuck past quickly and walked back to the city.

“Now that was odd. A demon with a package. I’ll check it out in my apartment.”

I opened the door and saw everyone.

Stolen story; please report.

“Okay, so we can close down the dead theory.”

“Pay up, Grace.”

Grace muttered and handed Amy a $10 bill.

“Did you guys seriously bet on whether I’d die or not?”

“Among a few other things. What happened?”

“Well first, I ran into Simial who had some words for me.”

Aoi handed Taury a 5.

“Then I found the tree in between the lake and Morgan’s palace.”

“Alright, and what happened when you did the thingy?”

They were eager. That appeared to be the main money source.

“A demon appeared and gave me a package.”

They blinked.

Aoi looked confused.

“Now who do we give money to?”

Grace, luckily, had her priorities straight.

“Forget the money, a demon?!”

“Yep, weird as heck. It didn’t even threaten. It was just like, ‘Hey, I know who gave you that password. I’m retiring.’ Before throwing this thing at me and running off.”

Taury looked at it confused.

“That would be weird.”

“It definitely was.”

“So, what’s in it?”

“I was gonna check here.”

I layed it down on the table and unwrapped the package. A box was there with a lock.

“Great, how do we open it now?”

Grace smiled.

“It’s a good thing I came.”

She placed her finger in the lock and molded it to fit, then the lock fell off.

“There we go.”

I opened it, and there was a satchel. With a note.

“Jacob, if you are reading this, you are in danger. Do not return to the mountains. Do not go to the forest, and for goodness sake, hide your son. Inside this satchel is a way to truly hide William. If you have need of it, then you are truly in danger. I hope you weren’t too caught off guard by the messenger. She may be a demon, but she knows not to mess with me. Then again, if you need this, that means that other demons aren’t as smart. You will know what to do when you see what’s inside.”

“Wow, so it was supposed to be picked up way before.”

“Yeah.”

I opened the bag and instantly dropped it.

“William? What is it?”

“Gramps. How the heck did you come across something like this.”

I took it out and Taury gasped.

Brent winced.

“What is it? It hurts my head, looking at it.”

“It’s a tesseract, on a chain?”

“A necklace with access to the nexus.”

“What does this mean?”

I sighed.

“It meant that my father was supposed to hide me in the nexus instead of bringing me to gramps, but, being my father, messed that up.”

“But why hide just you?”

That was a good question, Aoi.

“You’re right. That doesn’t make sense.”

Grace sighed.

“Who can you hide from in the nexus?”

Then Taury looked at the amulet.

“Many… hundreds, no millions of realms are connected by it, a child at the age of 10 could easily be anywhere in it.”

“It seems kind of dangerous, there must be more.”

I checked on the back and found a password.

“A cart fit…”

“What?”

“That’s what’s written on the back… think it could be a realm password?”

Taury sighed.

“Only one way to find out.”

I nodded.

“All right, everyone who wants to come, grab on.”

Everyone grabbed my hands.

I focused and willed myself into the nexus.

“That was dizzying.”

Everyone was kind of shaky except me and Taury.

“Woah, she’s big?!”

Aoi was looking at Taury, who was in her large form.

“Yes I’m big, now, William, do the password.”

“Wait, why is his hair reddish?”

I sighed.

“We don’t know, actually. Anyways.”

“Um… A cart fit.”

Nothing happened. At least… we weren’t moved.

“Um… this is awkward. Hello, child of Amelia.”

The Artifact was laying on me as she fell on top of me.

“Hello, Arty.”

She got up and smiled at the ensemble.

“Ah, Grace, Child of Nena, Brent, and Grandchild of Caleb.”

The group blinked. She just named their relatives, and Brent.

“Why did you name Brent directly?”

She sighed at Grace’s question.

“Because he’s the most historically important in his family. Not like that’s a high bar to pass.”

Brent sighed.

“Yeah, my family sucks.”

Aoi looked confused.

“Okay, which one was my parent?”

“Nena, she’s responsible for the fall of the Shinobi clans, so pretty important.”

“Oh…”

Aoi, being a shinobi herself, didn’t look to happy that her mother was behind her clan’s downfall.

Amy nodded.

“I understand Grandpa Caleb. He built our whole enterprise.”

Grace sighed.

“And since Atronachs don’t have biological families, I’m just Grace.”

“Yes.”

“What even are you?”

“I am the Artifact, but you can call me Arty.”

Brent seemed thoughtful.

“Artifact… a cart… OH! I understand now.”

“What?”

We looked at him and he smiled.

“A cart fit is an anagrAAAA”

The anagram lady was, once again summoned, and she hovered above Brent for a second before crashing down on top of him.

“So, Gramps works in anagrams?”

Arty sighed.

“Yes, he does.”

Taury walked over.

“You okay… both of you?”

Arty smiled.

“Of course, Taurael.”

Everyone but Aoi, me, and Taury froze.

“Woah, she passed her dad?”

“Yes, by saving the entire pixie population from being enslaved by demons, she edged out her father barely.”

“Nice… I get no credit points?”

“You do, but both your mother and father are still far more historically important than you.”

“You two aren’t going to just care that she just stated Wings’s name?”

I sighed.

“We already knew she knew.”

“Yeah, but we didn’t.”

Aoi looked around.

“Is it bad if we know her name?”

Brent sighed.

“Well, it means that if any higher fey found out we knew we’d be butchered.”

I sighed.

“It doesn’t really matter.”

Grace looked at me in shock.

“I think it does matter.”

Then Taury.

“No, not really, not anymore.”

“Not anymore?”

Brent was confused by her wording, of course, Arty was quick to answer that question…

“William used his magic to remove the power of using her name to control her. To follow the natural laws, he instead put himself as her master, making her only able to be commanded by him.”

Everyone blinked.

“””“WHAT?!””””

Grace was rubbing her head.

“D-did I hear that right…? You took away the name power.”

“Yep.”

“What?”

Brent was shaking.

“What the heck… what the heck… how would you even do that?”

Amy looked at me with a shocked expression.

“I don’t know that much, but I’m pretty sure that could get you killed by a lot of different fey.”

Aoi looked somewhat betrayed for some reason.

“You’re doing master x maid stuff?! I thought you said you hadn’t even kissed yet.”

Taury flushed, everyone snapped to look at her with a confused face and I facepalmed, deeply blushing.

“Aoi… I think you misunderstood just the slightest bit.”

Arty had fallen over and started pounding the floor, then she belted out laughter.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Oh, that’s amazing, even I would have never guessed someone would say that… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”

Aoi had a look of confusion, once again, it was like you could see the question mark form over her head.

I explained what it actually meant and she seemed to figure it out.

Grace was still trying to wrap her head around it.

“Wait, you… you would have to use control, but control shouldn’t make you able to do that.”

Brent looked at her confused.

“Control?”

“His main magic. It’s a very powerful magic that allows him to force people to do anything by as much as I know.”

“I can’t force unless I use a lot of power, the most I can do with most people is simply chisel them to what I’m trying for.”

Grace looked back at me.

“Hm… that’s cool. Which did you use to do that?”

“I used the bigger one, it was the only way to completely override the demon’s name command.”

…

“THAT’S WHAT YOU WIPED FROM MY MEMORY!!!”

Grace clapped her hands like she’d been considering it for a while.

“That’s what I wiped from everyone’s memory.”

“What?”

“The whole class was there.”

They blinked.

“You wiped that much?”

“Yeah, why do you think I fell asleep right after my frustration with no one hearing my ‘story.’”

“Woah.”

“The hardest part was wiping it from Mordred’s memory.”

Amy looked at me in shock.

“You did that?”

“Yeah, he works for the Hunter, I’m not gonna just let him have that knowledge.”

I looked at Aoi, who once again had a question mark over her head.

“How much of this do you understand?”

“You can be a puppetmaster.”

“Yeah… I could be, luckily, I’m nice.”

“Nice.”

“Well, Arty, do you know what would happen after I say that?”

“Well, if your father ever actually made it to that tree, you would have been in my realm until about this time. I would have trained you in magic and what not.”

“Huh…”

“Yeah.”

“Who is my Gramps? He seems to be quite powerful and important, but you don’t name him?”

“As I told you before, I cannot name my equals.”

I blinked.

“He’s that strong?”

“Yes, anyways, I’m heading back to my realm, with that amulet, you can get to the nexus whenever you want.”

“Nice…”

“Bye.”

Then she disappeared.

“Well… that was interesting.”

Amy looked at me.

“So, you have mind powers?”

“Yeah.”

Brent sighed.

“I’m still concerned about the name thing, even if we can use her name, it’s probably not the best idea to do so. Morgan alone would be a massive threat, and with that, we could anger the whole council. Not to mention what they’d do to you after learning exactly what you did.”

I sighed.

“Morgan would kill me, the Pixie would glare intently, Roman would blink then threaten me, Maven, if her being there when it happened was any indication, would be cool with it, and I’ve never spoken to Astella.”

Grace blinked.

“You… know the entire council.”

“Were you listening? I just said I never spoke to Astella.”

“Not the point, people in this realm barely know Morgan, and you know the names of all four named ones?!”

Taury smirked.

“Well, he used projection to accidentally view the meeting, that’s why Maven called him Mr. Mist.”

“Oh… so, that’s where he learned your name… he knows the Pixie’s name too, doesn’t he.”

I smiled.

“Yep.”

“Jeez, well at least none of the council know you have that kind of power.”

I smiled.

“The Pixie knows.”

“How does he?!”

Grace looked concerned.

“Because I stopped him before he could make a major mistake using it. I also used it to convince him that she was innocent as she told it to me while under suggest.”

“Wow… that… is incredible.”

“Yep.”

Brent nodded.

“So, you used your power to verify her innocence.”

“Yep.”

“Wow… and this pixie guy would just glare?”

“Pretty much. He’s actually very level-headed, he’s just not as friendly as Maven.”

“I see, well, we should get back.”

I nodded.

“Let’s go.”