Eli and Alora were on the roof of his home which was also a fairytale castle floating in the sky, they were sitting facing each other and about to start the first real discussion about their master and apprentice relationship. Both of them were apprehensive about this talk making everything more official, but it needed to happen to define how they are going to act with each other for the next fifty years or so. Alora was worried that their relationship would devolve over time, he would need her help less and less as everything with the system settled into place. However, Eli was worried that if he went too hard on her she would baulk and resent him which would make it difficult to not sever their bond and replace her with someone more willing to take orders.

  “I’ll speak first,” Alora said, “We need some ground rules so we both don’t get confused on how this relationship needs to work so that we can be productive.”

  “I think we should decide everything now, together, because after this conversation you no longer get a say. You can speak with me afterwards, but I’m going to need you to follow instructions without hesitation or we could both end up dead.” Eli explained, he was trying to be understanding with her but they needed to get this dynamic right. He did feel bad that he didn’t have decades of material to instruct her on but he was sure that the system would provide enough learning experiences. His only saving grace was that he seemed to be able to learn quickly enough that he had survived and thrived so far, so maybe their training should revolve more on learning a frame of mind than just learning skills.

  “Is that rule 1?”

  “Yes, follow my instructions, but I do expect some critical thinking and judgement. I’m not going to spell out what I need, I’ll just say something like, ‘go to that town and see what's up.’ How you do that will be up to you.”

  “I think that works, but there has to be a limit.” Alora said but before she could finish he cut her off.

  “No exceptions! I need your trust here, after this conference, if it goes as planned there's going to be some strong people trying to kill me. I may need you to do something unexpected so they don’t see my attack coming. Afterwards, if you have a problem we can talk about it in private.”

  “I’ll do my best, but if it's weird, I might hesitate just from the weirdness.”

  “Ok, second rule, you call me master in public.”

  “Easy, next.”

  “No killing unless it is to save yourself or one of my people. If you think someone needs killing, and I haven’t told you to kill them, bring them to me.”

  “Another easy one.”

  “I thought I would have more but I think that does it,” said Eli, tapping his chin in thought.

  “So, do we start now or…?” Alora asked.

  “I’ll give you two minutes to say or do anything you want to do that you won’t be able to do after we start.”

  They both stood up, Eli was expecting a kick in the balls or a kiss or something, but instead she became shy and was looking at the ground. “Well, I just want to say that,” She took a breath and steadied herself, “that I intend to surpass you and make you mine. Alistasia is convinced that you are her soul mate and I intend on giving you to her.”

  “First, I understand and if you surpass me I’ll submit to your judgement. Secondly, that was for Alistasia, what about you?” Eli said a bit more cocky than he meant but decided it wasn’t worth addressing.

  Alora thought for a moment, “I feel like I’m drawn to you, but I don’t trust it. I never fall for guys quickly so these feelings don’t feel like me. It could just be Alistasia’s influence, but it could also be the system, or something to do with your transcendent nature, or maybe you are just my type. I don’t know, it's all a bit confusing.”

  “Well, kiss me or kick me, you have thirty seconds until the time is up,” he said with a wink.

  Alora flung herself into a hug with Eli, she kissed his chest since he was almost seven feet tall now, then she took a half step back and kneed him in the crotch. Eli was sufficiently faster than her that he could have dodged or stopped her, but with a grimace, he let it happen. It didn’t hurt nearly as much as he thought it would but he played it up for her benefit, falling to his knees and grabbing his crotch. This moment was about her having some control over her situation, if she could do this without consequence she would be more likely to speak up if things got uncomfortable for her.

  “I wasn’t expecting that,” Eli said in a fake strained voice. Then he stood with an awkward posture so that she would think it still hurt. “First lesson, I want you to take two types of magic and mix them successfully to make a new type. First mission, go into the safe zone and see what you can learn about the people in charge, you have full permission to hurt whoever you need to. I want to know if we can leave this place without it falling to shit.”

  Alora bowed at the waist, not something they discussed, just something she felt worked, “Yes. my master.” She then brought out her staff and used it to glide to the ground from the rooftop.

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

  Bethany finally woke up, she was still a bit weakened from using her will skill to an absurd degree to beat that boss. She could hear Eli and Tara in the bathing pool at the other end of the room discussing the conference, as sore as she was, the warm water would help so she slowly walked her way over and got in with them. It took the edge off the soreness, but she still didn’t feel like she had recovered to full strength.

  “How long was I asleep?” Bethany asked.

  “Two days, the conference is tomorrow. Another system window was sent to everyone with some more details. There will be 10 rules to vote on, 2 a day with a seven hour discussion period for each. We were just talking about if it will send us home each day or keep us there.” Tara explained.

  “I think it will keep us there, maybe something like a hotel so people can rest and discuss things with others before the next day. Tara thinks we will get sent home.” Eli said. He then looked at Bethany expectantly as if she was the tie breaker.

  “Don’t bring me into this, I just woke up.” They both just stared at Bethany waiting for a response. “Fine, I would say that either one won’t be what we think it is. If it sends us home, there will be things at home to deal with. If it keeps us there, I doubt it will leave everyone alone to rest.”

  “You think we would have to fight something if it keeps us there?” Eli asked.

  “Probably each other, my guess would be rooms upstairs and sparring rooms downstairs. You know a bunch of people who are used to getting their way are going to end up challenging each other over something stupid.” Bethany said, then she took in a deep breath and twisted her torso to stretch her back and arms letting her breath out slowly. “People will want to challenge you off hand, you are going to be center stage for this thing.”

  “Don’t remind me, I’m trying to figure out how to play it. I could just sit all menacing and stoic, letting you and Alora do all the talking, or I could come out swinging with a big flex and work to put people in their place. I haven’t decided yet.”

  “Well,” Tara said tapping her chin, Eli was noticing that almost everyone around him was doing that now. “I think you should just act like the system puts you in charge and you don’t know why. Just act all confused.”

  “Wouldn’t that basically be inviting everyone to challenge me? I don’t know if games are the way to go here, but I don’t have any other ideas.” Eli said.

  “Enough about that, we can figure that out as we go, what are we going to do while we are away?” Bethany asked.

  “I can handle the town while you all are gone so no worries there,” said Tara in her best reassuring voice doing her best to cover up the twinge of loneliness that she felt.

  “No, I meant during the down time.” Bethany said letting some frustration leak into her voice. “Put yourself in the shoes of the other people. Some random person is in charge that you know nothing about, you don’t know why or how strong they are. They are all going to want to test you, kill you, or kiss your ass.”

  “Maybe we could arrange some kind of meeting time with me one at a time? Or maybe something daily with just those from our continent?” Eli Suggested.

  “Both of those ideas are terrible,” Bethany said.

  “I didn’t think they were bad,” Tara interjected.

  “Of course you didn’t, you’re so excited about being a mother that you aren’t thinking.” Bethany said angrily. “This needs to be handled with finesse or not at all. If you show favoritism to our continent then the others will be working on invasion plans before the first vote. Also, seeing people individually would take forever and you wouldn’t have enough time for them to feel heard. The best option is to have each continent choose a representative, then you just have to deal with three people and it sets you apart from your own continent.”

  “That is a much better idea Eli,” Tara said. “You never were good at strategy.”

  “I’m more of an ‘in-the-moment’ tactics planner, I'll leave strategy to Bethany here.” Eli said with a smile. “It works out better that way.”

  “You mean it's less work for you.” Tara said.

  “It can be two things,” Eli said in mock defensiveness. He knew they were teasing him.

  “Now can we just enjoy the bath while we wait for Alora to return?” Tara asked.

  The three of them leaned back and relaxed, chatting about Stevens’ relationship and how they thought Beau and Arinya would play out. Tara would explain to them that while the conference was going on they were on vacation, she would give them 100m system credits each to stay near the town for protection while Eli was gone. It would be a nice change of pace for them to just have some time to do as they please without the resident Demi-God in town that could have a life-changing adventure come up at any moment. Eli was aware of how his shenanigans disrupted the lives of those he cares about and surrounds himself with.

  Alora arrived with five hours to go until the conference and she looked down, like she was dealing with something rough, a tough decision or a rough truth. The three others, despite being naked and in the large hot bathing pond, managed to show concern for her. She noticed this and relaxed, joining them in the water. It took her a while to gather herself and then she told the story of what had been happening in the safe zone. It turns out that after kicking Ghost out, four of his commanders took charge as a council and they took control, labeled anyone that was loyal to Ghost as a traitor and kicked them out or would kill them when they would go hunting.

  “None of this explains your look when you walked in,” Eli interrupted.

  “Let her finish,” Tara said and slapped him on the arm.

  “Long story short they have killed or sent away about half of the strong people in the zone. They only survived the last monster horde because of us, but they will keep getting rid of anyone who is strong enough to threaten their power in the city as long as we are here to cover for that lack of power. We need to leave as soon as possible, lots of people will die but I know we aren’t going to be here forever and the sooner we leave the higher chance there is that they let strong people back in to cover our absence.” Alora explained.

  “Well, let's take a vote. I say we move after the conference, the middle of the continent will most likely be opening if the vote goes the way I think it will. We can move the whole place there.” Eli said with all three women nodding agreement. “I’m glad we all agree but Alora, you don’t get a vote as my apprentice, just so we are on the same page for the future.”