Theo saw his mom and dad, his brothers Daniel and Alexander, and Alexander’s family. His wife, Taylor, and his daughter, Emma, were out of the portals, and all of his immediate family was there except for one; Grace was missing. Taylor, Theo's sister-in-law, immediately exclaimed,

  “Where’s Grace?” she said in a frantic tone.

  “Hey, Gehenna, is there any way that you could contact the system to see if Grace did not accept the invitation or—” Theo trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence.

  “Give me a moment,” Gehenna replied.

  While Theo was mentally talking to Gehenna, the rest of Theo’s family was trying to console Taylor. Daniel looked to Theo and said, “You brought us here; that’s what the message said. Is there any way that you can see what happened to Grace?”

  “Already on it. I asked Gehenna to see if it could find out,” Theo replied.

  Theodore’s dad, Jake Thompson, said, “Who?”

  “My apologies,” Theo said. “Gehenna, can you introduce yourself to my family?”

  A presence Theo knew well, one that passively permeated this realm, made itself known to Theo and his family. For Theo, it felt comforting and like home, but he learned from his first experience and the looks on his family’s faces that they felt a sense of foreboding, of chains around their arms and legs, and claustrophobia being in a small cell. Then Gehenna spoke in an inhuman-sounding voice, like an avalanche falling down a mountain.

  “I greet the warden's family, and I welcome you to my domain.”

  With that announcement, they all gained a minor bond that allowed them to return to Gehenna’s realm when they died. Theo saw his family relax, the tension melting from their bodies.

  Theo and Gehenna spent the next few hours telling their story to Theo’s family and why they were brought there, and at the end, Gehenna had news about Grace.

  “I can’t give an exact location of where she is, but what I’ve been told is that she declined the offer to come to this plane and went somewhere on Earth.”

  So I guess we agree that we're going to earth to find grace,” Emma said

  everyone nodded

  “Yes, I’ll help as well, but there are a few things I need to take care of before I can get to Earth,” Theo said

  “Out of curiosity, on what might that be?” Daniel asked

  “I just hired a new spectral staff through the system shop. I need to talk to them about their duties and moving forward, and also, I would like to go to the armory and see if I can find a better armor set than I currently have, and if you guys want to do the same, be my guest,” Theo said.

  “And what is a spectral staff?” Daniel asked.

  Theo spent a little time explaining what they are and the contract he signed.

  “I do have an unrelated question,” Mom asked.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Theo suggested that she go on.

  "You brought us for safety and pseudo-immortality. Could I get a few of my friends to come here as well?” Mom asked

  “Gehenna, that’s a you question, not a me question,” Theo asked.

  “No,” Gehenna replied simply.

  “Why not?” Mom asked

  “I am a place of woe in torment for those I deemed guilty and deserve to be punished. The Warden is there to help me because I cannot act outside of my domain. Theodore has helped me immensely already, so I allow his immediate family and the people he trusts to live freely in my domain, but that courtesy stops there,” Gehenna said

  Theo’s mom’s jaw was on the floor, then her mouth started doing an up-and-down motion, trying to say something, but nothing would come out. Finally, she said

  “That’s not fair.”

  “Life is not fair, you should be happy and grateful that your son has a powerful ally who can keep you safe,” Gehenna said with some annoyance.

  “Mom, I’m sorry, but Gehenna has spoken; it is its domain, and that is that, sorry,” Theo said

  changing the subject, but I had a thought when we do go to earth, how will we be able to send Grace to this place to make her pseudo-immortal,” Alexander said

  “That is easy,” Theo said

  As the four chains appeared on his body, he gave a mental command, and they unwrapped from his limbs and landed on the floor. He then had them move a couple of feet in front of him and connect, forming a ritual circle around each chain link; the red-hot runes began to appear. Little waves of Gehenna’s flames. Started to coalesce around the ritual circle

  “As you can see, these chains can create a portal to this plane,” Theo said

  With a mental command, Theo had the ritual circle stop. With that, the flames died down in the runes, faded, and they were disconnected and went back to Theo’s arms and legs, then disappeared from there.

  “That is fucking awesome,” Daniel said

  “Yes, it is,” Theo said smugly.

  “I thank you for the offer for better equipment and everything, but I think we should head to Earth and try to find our daughter as quickly as possible,” Alexander said, with his wife and other daughter nodding.

  “All right, until later,” Dad said.

  With that, a portal opened up in front of Alexander’s family, and they walked through.

  “When will you guys leave and help look for Grace?” “As soon as we get better equipment, we will take you up on your offer,” Dad said.

  “Gehenna, can you show them to the armory?” Theo said out loud.

  “Of course. Follow my presence; I will lead you there,” Gehenna said.

  With that, Theo’s parents walked out of his office. Theo sagged into the couch after dealing with that mess before he could get up and look at the armory himself.

  “The specter staff has arrived. Would you like me to send them to your office?” Gehenna said.

  With a sigh, Theo got up from the couch, mentally dismissed it from the room, and headed back to his chair behind the desk. He created multiple chairs in front of the desk to talk to his new staff.

  “Yes, send them in,” Theo said.

  As he sat down behind the desk a couple of minutes later, a large group of blue transparent men and women walked into his office. The men wore a butler’s outfit for the majority; a few were wearing aprons and chef hats. Three wore gray robes as well. Theo guessed that they were the librarians. The women wore something close to a traditional maid’s outfit, except for a few who also wore a chef's hat and an apron. And there were three wearing a gray robe. They all lined up behind the chairs and said in unison,

  “We greet our new master. How may we serve?”

  Theo was stunned for a second. Then he said,

  “Please, all of you, sit.”

  As if they had choreographed it, all of them stepped to a chair and sat in unison.

  “First off, this place is going to expand in the coming days, and where we are at right now will be no more. The place that will be built in its stead will be up to Gehenna, but since you have lived in mansions and castles, I am guessing I would like your help as well to design my new home,” Theo said.

  And again, all in unison, they all nodded. Theo turned to the butler, who had a more expensive-looking outfit, and asked,

  “Are you the seneschal?”

  “Indeed, sir. I am. My name is…”

  With Theo's Universal Translator skill, the unfamiliar word was translated to Reginald.

  “Nice to meet you, Reginald. As I said, get with Gehenna and create plans for my new home. In the meantime, I have to find my wayward niece, and Gehenna, can you lead these kind folks to where they’ll be staying for now?” Theo sighed,

  “Yes, I can, for you lot follow my presence, please, and I will guide you to your new quarters,” Gehenna said.

  All of them walked out of his office, Theo, with another sigh of relief. He pulled out the biology skills book and the other on healing magic theory, then used them. After he was done, he got a massive headache, took a breath, and leaned back in his chair. He tried Healing Touch to soothe his pounding headache. It did nothing because the pain wasn’t physical; it was soul-related. After a couple of minutes, his headache went away. Theo got up and headed to the armory. Weapons of every kind were on one side of this gigantic room, displayed according to what grade they were in, and on the other side were armors ranging from full plate to medium plate to leather, etc. Theo headed towards the area with leather armor meant for E grades, finding an uncommon, enchanted leather armor dyed black that looked as good as new. Theo used the skill Identify on the uncommon masterwork enchanted leather armor.

  A skilled journeyman armorer created this armor. The enchantments on it are self-repairing, durable, and weather-controlling. While in this armor, you will not feel hot or cold in any environment.

  “This will be useful,” Theo thought.

  Having an idea and acting upon it.

  “Hey, Gehenna, can you ask one of the staff to grab one of the better storage rings for an E grade and fill it with everything that I need for a trip for an unknown duration?” Theo asked aloud

  “Sure, no problem,” Gehenna replied

  “Thank you,” Theo said

  Theo remembered there were also more comfy clothes in his wardrobe in his room. Heading up there, he changed out of the Brown tunic and pants into something more modern and a lot more comfy, basically something equivalent to blue jeans and a gray T-shirt.

  “Well, as soon as the staff is done filling up the storage ring, I think I’m ready to go and help find Grace. Theo thought