Luka sipped a mug of lukewarm jrum, wrinkling his nose at the dirty taste. He took a deep breath, then another. When that didn’t help, he kept going until he was just… breathing deeply. His anxiety didn’t budge, stubborn as always.

Fine, he thought, shifting his thoughts from his work to Annie and the malevolence that had inhabited her skin. The creature god thing was long gone, Tippy and Neb confirming as much, but that didn’t change the fact Annie was here. Reincarnated. In this world. With him.

His fingers curled harshly into his mug. He’d abandoned Annie once already. There wasn’t a chance in hell he’d do it again. He’d rather die again then do something so… so… not him.

The two words echoed in his mind. Not him. Not him. Luka wasn’t the same man as on Earth. He wasn’t the same man as the day he arrived in this world. He wasn’t the King of Bullets or a weapons creator, he wasn’t a warmonger, nor was he a heartless, ignorant fool.

His friends forgave him for his past, and now… now all he had to do was the same.

Just like I told Not-Annie, he ironically thought. He then said aloud to himself, “I… forgive you.”

“Er, okay?” a voice said behind him. Luka turned, finding Mayor Tram strolling up the path. “Don’t know what I did to warrant that, but, uh, thanks?”

Luka looked away, hiding the gesture with a faux sip of jrum. The drink was gross at this point, just like room-temperature coffee. “I wasn’t talking to you. How is she?”

“Talking to the gods, then, eh?” she asked with a chuckle, plopping down beside him. They sat together on a stack of metal slats far from the park and out in the emberwood trees. “Knew we’d make a pious one out of you.”

He didn’t look at her, instead gazing at his newest work. Metal spiked the dirt floor of the forest, trailing in a single file—but looping—maze. Foundational work for Neb’s rollercoaster was slow going, but Luka blamed himself for that mostly. His mind just wasn’t in it.

Tram waited a moment longer before saying, “Annie is fine. Our village shaman, Sol, and a few healers who just so happened to be in the park all looked at her. She’s fine.”

Luka shook away the most negative thoughts and, harsher than he intended, said, “Then why isn’t she awake?”

Tram was old. She’d seen countless kids grow up; she’d seen countless adults die. She had married, she had loved, she had lost. She knew every emotion, and she’d worked through the worst ones all by herself. A dead daughter getting reincarnated by a vengeful god was a new one for her, but the human details weren’t.

She raised her crooked, tattooed fingers and patted Luka on the back, rubbing her fingertips into him for good measure. “She’s fine. She’ll wake up when she’s ready.”

A shuddering quiver ripped through Luka’s body. He held in tears—he’d cried enough already—but bristled against her hand. “Thank you,” he muttered, absorbing Tram’s warmth like a sponge. “Thank you…”

It was dark, well past midnight. He was tired, Tram was tired, the park employees, Eve, Franky, everyone was tired. And yet, here he was, working. And here was the oldest person in the village staying up with him.

“I don’t know if I can do this,” he quietly said, the words searing hot.

“You can, you will.”

“I abandoned her once already. I was content with letting her stay dead.”

“You’re not a god, Luka. You can’t resurrect the dead.”

He hesitated at the statement. Tram noticed. “You can’t resurrect the dead, Luka,” she said again, this time firmer.

Luka forced himself to nod, though his heart wasn’t in it. Tram’s massage stopped; her eyes darted to his ring. Slowly, she opened her mouth, but then closed it right away.

“You know what,” she eventually said, “I don’t care about that right now. You’re her father, she’s going to need you when she wakes up.”

He nodded.

“She’s going to be confused, just like you were.”

Again, he nodded.

“She’ll need a place to stay, somewhere that isn’t in a barn or a rented room in Todd’s.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Luka’s nodding slowed. “I can make her a house.”

Tram’s hand returned gentle rubs. “You can make a house for yourself and her.”

“She won’t want to live with me.”

“You don’t know that.”

Luka turned, locking eyes with the old woman. “I abandoned her on Earth. She hated me.”

“That was before you died. She had an entire lifetime without you to finalize her thoughts about you.” Tram almost laughed. “I’ll bet whatever she thought of you will be thrown out the window once she’s awake and sees you. Sees this world, sees what you’ve created here.”

Luka didn’t respond to that.

“Come on,” Tram said, getting to her feet. “You’ve got to go to bed. The park opens in a few hours.”

“No, I’m going to finish this.” Tram looked at him, he still wasn’t looking back. Luka pulled a familiar envelope from his pocket. “What do we do about this and the man who delivered it?”

“Walk me through what happened again?”

“Mage Farr from the Guilds served me papers summoning me into court. The envelope was cursed, it stuck to my hand. I think Sol removed it later, I don’t really remember. Franky tried to intervene against Farr and was punched in the face. That was when Not-Annie appeared and… turned him into a bean.” Luka slowly blinked. “Is he alive?”

“Mage Farr?” Tram took a deep breath. “No, no, he’s not.”

“Oh.” Luka’s face twisted. “I don’t know how to feel about that.”

“I say good riddance.”

Luka faced her, his eyes puffy and red. “A man died, Tram.”

“One that punched one of my villagers for absolutely no reason.” She lifted her chin and looked down on him. “Play stupid games, reap stupid rewards. I can live with that.”

“I think Not-Annie killed him for me. Farr was harassing me and then… bean.”

“Well, it’s not every day a god-thing comes to our village and threatens existence itself.” Tram pursed her lips like she was thinking. “Now that I think about it, World Walkers do save the world every so often, though.”

“I didn’t save anything.”

Tram’s snort echoed through the trees. “Kid, whatever you prevented warranted all of the gods to show up in person and make sure the threat was gone. All. Of. Them. There’s like forty gods!”

“Guess we’re going to have some divine envoys visit the park soon.”

She smacked her lips. “Is that all you think is going to happen? Luka. Gods appearing in places happens; it’s rare, but it happens. Two gods appearing in the same place? That only happens on holy days in specific holy locations. Three appearing in the same place at the same time? That’s unheard-of outside world-ending events.” She paused and leaned closer. “What do you think people are going to do when they hear all forty appeared in a fledgling amusement park?”

Luka thought about it. “We’re going to need a hotel.”

“And more rides. And more vendors. And more workers to run operations. And more food to sell. And more of EVERYTHING!” Tram held her hand out. Luka took it, and the elder pulled him to his feet. “When Annie wakes up, figure things out with her as quickly as possible. The park’s going to need you at your fullest.”

“Yeah.”

“’Yeah?’ That’s it?” Tram thumped him on the back of the head.

Luka recoiled and gave her an affronted look. “What was that for!?” he snapped.

“Oh? What’s this? Some emotion other than self-pity? I never thought I’d see the day,” she mocked.

“Ha ha.”

Tram thumped him again.

“Stop it!”

“Stop what? I didn’t do anything.”

“You just hit me!”

“I did not! Must be Not-Annie coming to take revenge.”

Luka’s eyes hollowed. “What are you, Ren?”

Tram gasped. “Take that back right now. I am nothing like that brat.”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

She eyed the World Walker. “You know, I think Ren’s still awake. I can send him over if you’re going to be working all night. I’m sure you could use the company.”

Luka groaned. “Please don’t.”

Tram laughed. “Don’t reap what you can’t sow.” She turned and walked off toward the village. “Don’t stay up too late. You’ve got to open the park in the morning. It’s got to be a special opening on account of all of the gods visiting.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“I’m serious, Luka!” she called, passing a cluster of trees.

He didn’t respond and instead just waved. When Tram disappeared into the dark forest, he turned and set his eyes on the foundational track pieces.

“Okay, so, it’s going to helix around the bend and…” Luka squinted at his indiscernible notes. The ink had smeared, rendering most of the diagram unusable. “Hey Neb, you around to help?”

An old man stepped up beside him. “I was wondering when you’d ask for help.”

“Yeah, yeah. I can finish this myself if you’d rather. Not like I need help with the magic part.”

Neb rolled his eyes. “Remember, I can read your mind. I see what you are thinking of doing to this helix. It’s nothing like we planned.”

Luka sighed. “Show me, then.”

“Say, 'please.'”

The World Walker gave the god a withering glare.

“Fine, fine,” Neb said, waving his hand. An illusion of a curling rollercoaster track highlighted through the forest.

Metal floated over, setting itself deep into the dirt at the specified locations. Luka paused after the third one.

“Is she alright?”

The god laughed. “Three support pillars! I would have guessed you would’ve asked after the second!”

“I held my tongue for as long as I could.”

“I know. I read the anguish in your mind.” Neb patted him on the back like Tram did minutes earlier. “She’s fine. She’ll wake in the morning.”