In the mortal realm, Ben watched from the side as the four gods possessed some of their believers to talk to the two, allowing only enough of their divinity out to let them know who they were and got to see as they did their best to comfort a mortal as she cried, having lost her love, her world, and all she’d known all at once before she managed to compose herself enough to continue on with the conversation, Telenen staying down within his apostle while his priestess Woszan kept by his and the Mirrian’s side, the three and Kalley eventually coming over to join him.

“For now, we’ll be taking them back to our church to figure out housing and how to make them a home within our current society,” the god told him, coming across properly comforting. “It will be an adjustment, I’m sure, but we’ll see it done. We’re in your debt once more, Ben. We won’t forget this.”

“Thank you,” Mirrian said, trying the worldspeak now bound to her yet sounding close to crying once more. “I can’t thank you enough.”

“You don’t owe me any thanks,” Ben told her. “I’m just glad this worked out, but before you go, there’s one more thing I should do.”

Crouching down, he smiled at Kalley, watching the girl continue to view him with uncertainty and a lack of understanding given the situation she was in before he materialized a new band on her arm, trying to make it as pretty as he could to suit the child’s tastes before focusing on the adults with her.

“A new product,” he explained. “One that’s going to make a pretty big splash when word gets out about it, but for now the part that matters is that it should give her a significantly easier time with increasing her charm. The sooner she does, the sooner she should get control of it and, well, if she isn’t able to at the expected level then I have a bit of experience with that too so reach out to me again and we’ll figure something out.”

Thera hadn’t gained control of her charm at the expected level, and considering that the two’s situations were similar, they had to be prepared for that possibility as well, but if that came to pass then he and the gods could work to solve it. He’d already seen that one option was to awaken it into a dark magic, there was no reason they couldn’t work to do that again, and who was to say other paths wouldn’t present themselves either? Perhaps even just awakening the charm by itself would be enough, but all of those worries were still a while to come. Even under the effects of his authorities, it would still take time for that magic to grow. They could observe and plan as they went to determine the best path.

If we all live to see it, the pessimism whispered in Ben’s ear, an inescapable truth picking at his thoughts. He had freed them, sure, but he’d also left them in a significantly worse place, out of the prison that they might have been safe in for tens of thousands of more years based on how different the flow of time within had seemed and into a world all but destined to end in a span of months.

But it’s not like I could have just left them or put them back either. Myriad’s right. If I didn't get them out then maybe nobody ever would have. This is for the best. At least, it’s as for the best as it gets.

“You okay?” Thera asked, taking his hand and seeing right through him.

“Yeah, just a little bit sick of this world's discoveries and mysteries. Also doing my best not to think too hard about the other unknown floating mythic sphere in the world that I definitely can’t currently figure out a way to get into. If I ever manage that and I find another child locked away, I’m going to have to go have a loud, violent talk with the gods.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I mean, I’m sure it can’t be anything like that a second time.”

“Eh, sometimes it feels like anything can happen here, I’m never going to try and guess what I could run into next. Still, that’s done, and since we didn’t just release some sort of terrifying horror from beyond the stars, I guess that means we can go home-”

The sound of something snapping shut was enough to instantly pull their attention, the sight of Yuzu’s worry, Amy immeasurable disappointment, Jake’s absence, and the puzzle closed once more enough to paint a picture of exactly what had transpired while their backs were turned, leaving Ben to give a tired sigh.

“... Just as soon as Uliel is sent our way so we can get him out of there and after we figure out how to safely close it so nothing else can accidentally get trapped inside.”

Using Thera and Uliel once she’d been freed up enough to arrive, Jake’s freedom was immediately rewarded with a long lecture from his teacher as Ben figured out how to safely close Eletar’s puzzle once more, finding it to be as simple as throwing a rock into it once it blossomed and allowed it to be safely transported back to the siren’s homelands, now a far more shameful artifact of the past than any of them could have been prepared for before that day had begun and allowed Ben and Thera to both head home, making their way back to Stonewall.

“You’re sure you’re doing okay?” Thera asked him, looking worried, even as he did his best to wave her off.

“I’m fine. I’m sure there’s going to be a good, long talk with Myriad tonight about everything that happened and, ah, I guess I’ll make a small pitstop when we get back to the shop, but this is just another day on the planet, right? It’s always something.”

We can start the talk now if you’d like.

No, thanks, but after that, I need a minute to decompress. I’m not not fine, but this entire thing kind of bummed me out.

Still, he knew that it had turned out about as best as it could and he didn’t want to dwell on it, instead focusing on a different task as the two of them stepped through one of his gates back to the shop before immediately taking another, ending back in his factory and seeing the ones running it at work.

“So, this is where you mass produce your madness,” Thera mused.

“Okay, well, first of all, rude. Second though, yeah. I have to make my newest factory and create some souls while we’re here too. It will only be a minute.”

He’d been coming regularly enough to add the finishing touches to his works that none their moved to bother him, all of them knowing that he’d come to them if he needed to and it allowed him to walk over to the crates of items waiting to be shipped out to empower them with his materialized souls while at the same time he used both the spare materials in the space waiting for him to take advantage of along with others stored within his rings to quickly assemble the newest factory of the bunch and a materializer to go with it, creating one that would allow others across the world to constantly benefit from his authorities.

“And done,” he nodded, satisfied with how it had all turned out. “Ready to start producing immediately, which means I just need to figure out the sell price tonight with Myriad or else I’ll have to come back here to destroy it.”

“Seems a little wasteful.”

“Only if the gods intentionally try to ignore what this is worth. Don’t worry though, me and them always bend a little in the end. It would make for some fun negotiating if so many of them weren’t colossal assholes. Anyway, shall we?”

He offered his arm, which she took and led her back through to the shop, opening the door to go home, only to find two unexpected guests waiting outside of it, both jumping when they heard it open.

“Legs,” Greed greeted him. “Now how the hell did you get back there?”