Jake was once again working on his runes when he realized he could really use a break. He was still waiting on Mysticus and Zorina to get back to him, but he had plenty of other meta-magic to unlock aside from their one pattern. He was playing with numerous Nordic faith symbols and symbolism in attempts to master new spells.

  In doing so, he did discover some more powerful debuffs for Blood to use–Nordic Curses. While playing with Odin’s symbols, he found that his inverted Y–the hanging from the Yggdrasil symbol, when coupled with a rule of three, produced interesting outcomes. It involved an offer or sacrifice, an inscription or marking of the target, and finally, an enforcement or effect.

  It was like creating a covenant for a curse or debuff, and had nearly limitless potential effects. He was sure that he could also apply this to Celtic Runes, and fired off the information to Amara.

  Teleporting to the Sanctuary, Jake arrived at Ophelia’s smithy. While she made many items at the hearthtree forge of Brigid’s, her mass production required a more involved environment where she could focus.

  Ophelia’s workshop now resembled much of Fhesiah’s setup, only with molten metals poured into casings, a foundry instead of pill furnaces and cauldrons. There were forges and anvils as well, but he was noticing the foundry aspect looked a lot different than he expected.

  Several of them were operating at once, molten metal being poured through a series of stone rings to arrive at molds on the bottom.

  Jake walked in and found that Ophelia was looking at the numerous rings, monitoring and tuning them while referencing her book. “How’s it going, Lia? You’ve made some big changes here.”

  Ophelia smiled at him. “Hey! It’s going well, but this Runic Crucible skill is difficult to master. The new book Hestia gave me helps me utilize it a lot better, but it’s become even more complicated.”

  Jake came closer and narrowed his eyes at the runic rings, looking over the enchantments with his Umbral Gaze. “I see the apparatus is a bit more complex now.”

  Ophelia let out a breath. “You said it. Let me show you.” She closed her book and brought a chunk of ore over into the large apparatus. In all, it was shaped like a funnel with no true housing. It had three rings going downward, each one smaller than the one before it. They were covered in runes and floated, and she tuned the mechanism by causing several runes to light up on each ring.

  Jake inspected the ore. “Is that auril ore?”

  She nodded as she placed the ore at the top, and it floated there as runes lit up even brighter on the rings. It began to heat up and melt. “It is. After these years, auril ore is starting to be truly abundant once again on Highlands. It seems Ava had prepared a few caverns for rapid renewal of the resource once the curse had lifted.”

  After the ore melted at the top, it began to stream downward through the apparatus as molten metal. He could see several minerals or elements being removed, a detritus in the process filtered from the original as it was burned away with heat and magic. The impurities either converted into smoke and dust or floated away into a shoot above.

  As it reached the next ring, it was infused with her stored hearth mana mixed with auril. The molten metal began to congeal into an orb at the second ring. The energies infused into it were intense, and he could see that there was some kind of transformation process from the runewords imposing high-powered magic into it. What came out of the bottom of the orb was a brighter material stream, heading toward the third ring.

  Ophelia motioned to the rings. “Before, I could really only understand and use one ring at a time. Filtering, and then later, mana removal and cooling. I could filter the materials and infuse my mana into them to refine them before hammering them into shape. What I infused would become something I could latch onto, allowing me to manipulate it no matter the energy within it or my skill with it. It was enough to work with Qi and Source-energy-infused items to an extent. I haven’t found much else worth attempting aside from that.”

  “I remember. And then you removed the mana at the end before the item had fully cooled, returning the item to its original purity. So now there are two more stages. In this second stage, it appears that the ring is somehow refining and upgrading the material, investing your mana and other energies from the formations.”

  “Yes. By putting the material under intense pressure and infusing it with energy or mixing other ingredients, I can refine it into something greater. This is a simpler material to work with thanks to having access to plenty of auril from the Hearth of the Refuge and because I’m not planning to combine it with anything right now. Otherwise, I’d need these.”

  She triggered the control apparatus, and several more rings flew over from the storage area of the workshop and hovered into place from the other funnels. It was like numerous funnels led to the central ring at different angles, he guessed to pool and combine the resources.

  “Complicated. So what’s the final stage?” Jake looked to the bottom of the funnel, where an anvil sat. The final ring hovered just above the surface of the anvil, just a tiny bit larger than the anvil itself.

  “It’s an infusion of energy like your manaweave reinforcement, with some runic empowerment. Like the needle tool or what you were able to do. This will infuse every molecule with energy as I hammer it into shape or merely place a mold at the bottom here, whether for an ingot for reuse later or for an item to ease the forging process. The runes help direct the foreign energies inside.”

  Ophelia had numerous anvils and molds, and she had several of these runic crucibles going even as they spoke. It seemed when she wasn’t using them, the process was a bit slow.

  Jake said, “So now you won’t need my help during the process. You can make a pretty great outcome that I can just enchant after the fact. It’ll help for mass production.” When Jake originally helped her craft Retribution, it was a joint effort that had him using his Manaweave Reinforcement as she hammered it into shape. They could still do that, but now she could craft an item of similar quality all on her own.

  Ophelia smiled, her wings fluttering. “That’s right! Well, I think normally you wouldn’t even be able to enchant on top of what was created, but that’s your special flames and technique at work. You said the Eternum were impressed you could enchant their arcane-infused armor altogether, right?”

  Jake nodded. “Perhaps it was the void infused into my flames that always allowed me to achieve something greater. Either way, it’s good that I can push things just a little further. So if we’re working together, you can just turn off the third ring?”

  “We may be able to use it together. Or I can just heat up the outcome and refilter some of what I added in the third stage. What I’ll likely do is, if I know I’ll be working on a project with you, I’ll form a bunch of ingots with only the first two stages completed. We’ll have limited time fused together as Jakelia, after all.”

  Jake nodded. “Makes sense. Did you want to work on something right now? As Jakelia?”

  Ophelia shook her head. “Faye had given over some miscellaneous items from the monk’s sack, but honestly, I’m not sure I’m ready to work on them yet. We need to reach the peak of the Tier first in skills to make attempts with those. Once we’ve done that, I want to work on upgrading all our armor to meet or exceed the Divine-granted Mythic Grade equipment, and while I’m sure that metal will be good enough, it’ll be just one component of many. And then, I want to somehow upgrade some of our Divine-granted equipment too.”

  “Upgrade it? That’s got to be about ten times harder than just making something new.”

  “You’d think so, but reforging is not that tough–there is even some Framework tools that help in this–it’s to assist with how we don’t get loot drops from bosses unless there’s a chest, making the item more malleable than it should otherwise be. Upgrading the materials to have a higher spirituality and component strength is something I can do–I just need some practice and the right materials.”

  “Now this I’d like to see. Fancy trying to upgrade something? We have some mass-produced armor we made for the guild before we farmed in the dungeon. Let’s infuse it with a superior energy and material?” Jake took out his proposed item, a breastplate that went over their body suits. It had a bit of monstrous essence infused and was decent for what it was but was barely pushing Epic in quality.

  Ophelia grinned, her owl tail swaying as her wings fluttered, and she took it into her hands. “Sounds like good practice. I have just the right materials for this.”

  She arranged the rings, activating and deactivating runeword sections on them.

  The two worked on upgrading the armor, and Jake got to see a little bit more about how the rings worked. There were places for her to inject materials for the infusions, but largely, they were powered by the numerous formations connected to their Hearth of the Refuge.

  When she was dealing with aspected Qi and other special energies not contained within, that was where she would either need to infuse expensive materials or rely on Fhesiah to make an entirely new transformative formation.

  The rings prepared, Ophelia used a Framework item that made the breastplate nearly become molten all on its own. However, rather than becoming a stream, it floated downward, the first ring just filtered something out of it as it continued floating down the filter.

  Previously, she had lined up a second filter to prepare a material that was like a molten onyx. It arrived to meet up with the breastplate, where it mixed and became one material–as Ophelia guided it with her will to speed up the process.

  She brought out her smith’s hammer, something that the two of them had worked hard on. It was already a true artifact of its own, with Nordic and Demonic Runes on it. The Demonic Runes included her desire to protect–her guardian dao. With her will, it would often manifest as a shield, but while forging, she could manifest her will in a way that would improve the item's defensive properties to better protect the recipient.

  Ophelia infused the hammer with her vajrafire, and began hammering the breastplate, trapping the third ring’s energies into the material. It transformed and shaped the material all at the same time, while she held onto her will and desire to protect. Jake could feel the spirituality as she did so, the item becoming more with every swing.

  Of course, her mere will wasn’t enough to transform an item significantly in a permanent fashion for nothing. The influence of her dao infusion was a marginal effect. In order to get more than a few percentage point bonus in the item's efficacy, she’d need to infuse her will over a dozen sessions. It also helped if the item’s materials were highly compatible with spiritual essence to actually latch onto or be bathed in it–a sort of spiritual conductivity and storage. Qi-based items were far superior in this and able to get much more out of this effect, but they could also see it in the more expensive materials they purchased.

  As Ophelia continued to work, Jake saw something interesting happening in the Sanctuary in his Umbral Gaze. Not far from the workshop, many of his eldest daughters had gathered. They were launching spells at training dummies, with Berri of all people directing them.

  A makeshift spell range was set up, with lanes having targets and training dummies at different ranges, as well as tables at the edges with spellbooks.

  His daughters practicing and learning magic, walking the path he had walked not many years ago, filled him with a bit of excitement and wonder. Of course, he had spent plenty of time showing all of his kids the basics of Mana Manipulation. Later, he had even helped them practice with their magic circuits as they waited for their cores to ignite, as well as simple spellforms and some early rune work.

  He wanted to see their progress and help them out, as a few looked a little frustrated.

  Ophelia’s wings fluttered, and she smiled at him. “I can continue on my own here if you want to go see them–this will be a while.”

  “You don’t mind? This was my idea.”

  Ophelia chuckled. “This was good practice. And I see Clara and Nora are there. I’m sure they can use your help too.”

  Jake kissed his Athenian Valkyrie wife, thanking her. He was about to teleport when Berri’s voice reached his mind.

  [Don’t come yet! The girls will get all stiff if you show up. Just watch for a bit? Then you can come in and be the… hero professor.]

  Jake frowned. He definitely wanted to watch but felt a little off watching his kids without them knowing.

  Berri replied to his thoughts, [It’s fine. These kids grew up with mentally linked parents their whole lives and are used to the idea that you may see or hear anything they say or do if one of us is near. Unless they ask for privacy, they assume they’re not. And don’t worry. I’ll line you up for the grand slam when you show up at bat.]

  Jake chuckled at that. He was also a bit interested to see how Berri was helping them and figured it wouldn’t hurt to wait a little bit before joining. He went back to helping Ophelia but watched what his daughters and Berri were doing.

  It seemed that Blood was currently rather busy, working furiously in her Menu. She was managing auctions for materials, their finances across multiple currencies and worlds, and dealing with contacting several representatives across their overall kingdom–the numerous worlds that weren’t at war at the moment. This left Berri as the sole driver of their body at the moment.

  Berri was working with many of their daughters who had awakened their hearths and now had access to their flavored hearth mana. All of their special hearths they were born with had fully ignited, granting each of them their unique mana to work with. This signaled them fully in the First Tier, and the Framework showed them all at level 10 to match.

  All of his oldest daughters were present, including a few of the next generation that were just now fully starting to ignite. As each hearth ignited, that mana became aspected. The echidnas all had unique mana types, making each hearth a distinct blend of elemental mana and monstrous essence. This meant that the mana would no longer be neutral, making it shift the dynamic in casting spells, for some girls more than others.

  Jake and Ophelia never truly had issues with this, for two reasons. Hestia’s aspecting combined with the mana siphons in the bonds meant that they both had plenty of non-aspected mana to work with at all times. Second, Jake and Ophelia’s mana affinity was each top-notch, even if a bit different–Jake had prodigious mana affinity and average elemental affinities, while she had exceptional mana affinity and strong or above average with nearly every elemental affinity. That meant converting both to and from neutral mana was as efficient as it could be, depending on their affinity with the other element.

  Each of the girls was practicing with their special hearth mana, except for Clara–until she took an oath to a goddess, her hearth mana was an odd sort. It was a neutral mana hearth, not all that dissimilar from the spiral mana core Jake and Ophelia had made all the way back in the Zeroth Tier.

  Blaze was, surprisingly, practicing Runic Magic. Despite her mana being fairly monstrous, her talent or affinity with mana was effective enough to transform it into neutral mana for runic spells. And her sister Sharona was almost draconic, so her capability was similar. Each was able to blast out deadly flames, but they still practiced some odds and ends spells, like barriers, control spells, buffs, and emergency healing.

  Nyxa and Rena were each practicing with their Nordic Runes too, creating spells and practicing their effects from their spellbooks. The twins had dark and light mana respectively, just like their birth mothers, Blood and Berri, so they had an extensive list to work with.

  Jake could hear his children’s voices through Berri’s ears. Rena flipped to the next page and smiled at her sister. “So many useful spells in here, Nyxa. Mommy Berri and Blood really have a lot that works with our special mana!”

  “Shush, Rena. Not all our sisters are so lucky.” Nyxa looked over to Moxy, their muckbill sister. It seemed she had heard this, because Moxy looked outright frustrated as she converted her hearth mana into a series of runewords, forming a rather slow and pathetic barrier.

  With bark-like scales on her elven upper body, Moxy was unique among many of Bloodberri’s daughters. She had some form of dryad or treant-like heritage from something they had eaten, and it had mixed with the muckbill, Jake guessed. This resulted in a rather complex hearth from Jake’s perspective.

  Sensing she may need some help, Berri came over to Moxy. “Would you like some help, my wonderful daughter? You have a unique challenge.”

  Moxy let out a breath. “What should I do, Mother? The others are learning Nordic Runes or Celtic Runes, but my mana does not work well with them. I am…struggling. Unless I convert it to plain mana first, and that just sucks. I’m…not good with plain mana like Blaze or Sharona is.”

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  Berri drew on several flames within her hearth and somehow converted them into a flame that… Jake had to admit they resembled their muckbill daughter’s flames quite well. In all, he was incredibly impressed at how well she had done that–she competed with Jake and Fhesiah’s capability.

  It was a skill that held little tactical value. She spent over twenty units of hearth mana just to get one unit of her daughter’s unique mana. It was an incredibly difficult task that went far beyond mere elemental transformation of mana, because this daughter’s hearth mana was complex. It was at least a step or two beyond making a compound element of mana like lava or metal, and Jake would already avoid using those in combat despite his affinities.

  Berri frowned at the flame at the tip of her finger. It had a solid light green portion of the flame, but a dark green part of the flame roiled violently as she shifted it into a few different shapes, trying to manipulate it. “This one… I see. It really does not like to be restrained, even more than mine or Blood’s. It has too much monstrous essence mixed with nature. What did Aunty Bree say? You asked already, didn’t you?”

  The girl in question blushed and looked away. “She said I should either become a Divine’s clergy or not fight it. That my… breath is strong, why worry about casting spells? But… I want to be a part of things like my sisters. They’re almost all learning the spells to be better teammates, and… casting spells looks fun. Even Blaze is learning spells for emergencies, and she has a powerful flame like me.”

  “You’re all different, special in your own ways. I’d say you shouldn’t compare yourself to them, but… I know it’s an easy thing to say but difficult to do sometimes. It’s the truth though, you know that, right? You’re awesome, Moxy.”

  “I… know that, Mom. Thanks. Still, is there nothing I can do?”

  Berri hummed. “In a way, Aunty Bree is right. If you must learn some form of casting, then I think you have two good choices. One is to become a Divine’s clergy, like she said–a druid or priestess.”

  Moxy sighed. “But, we haven’t taken our resonance tests yet. We were all going to get tested for all the Divine at once, and I’m not sure which one I even want to. I would like to… accomplish something on my own now. What is the second option?”

  “Then the second option is Demonic Runes. They are natural shapes that your flames won’t fight as much, so long as you are forming spells that fit that nature. They will be simple effects, but powerful. Mommy Faye-Faye can help you learn, but she has many books on it, and your dad wrote a paper on using them with mana. You can start there.”

  Moxy’s eyes widened for a moment, but then she hesitated. “But…my flame’s nature is poison. Doesn’t that put me in the same place I am now?”

  “Poison can be medicine–it all depends on how you use it. And your flames are not only poison. Look.” Berri held the flame out, and the dark-green roiling portion merged with the light-green part of it, making it a solid flame, though clearly a little bit smaller than what she began with. And then, the flame became a smaller ball of green light. That the flame had only reduced so little without her infusing more mana into it was proof that they were adjacent, as the cost to go further across the elemental wheel would increase.

  Berri brought it to a flower sitting on the ground and sent it into the plant. The light green energy then went inside and down into the roots, making the plant grow and become just a little thicker and more robust. “See? Much of your flame is Nature Energy, not just monstrous poison and acid. This proves that you can even accomplish some nature-based healing spells, even through Nordic Runes. Still, you’ll get a lot more speed and output from Demonic Runes.”

  “That… I understand. How did you do it?”

  “I coaxed the noxious flame into the flame of nature, then merely shifted it from a flame to nature mana–that part is usually not hard. You’ll have to practice, but I believe you can do it in time. Why don’t you try it?”

  Moxy held out her flame, and her face scrunched as she groaned. The flame only flickered a small amount, actually becoming more volatile instead.

  “Not like that, daughter. Come here.” Berri cradled her daughter in her much larger body, the snake girl’s coils sitting in her own, her back to Berri’s chest. She then placed her hand on Moxy’s and recreated and channeled the flame again. “You are trying to force it. You need to do it gently. Like how you might guide one of your brothers or sisters to take a nap instead of playing more. If you try to force them, they’ll fight back and stay awake for longer! Take a deep breath and be patient.”

  Moxy did as instructed, inhaling and exhaling slowly to calm herself. She had a small smile from being in her mother’s embrace, and she seemed to be thinking about something. Holding out her noxious flame, it fluctuated several times before the dark green volatile portion of the flame began to shift.

  She eventually managed to make a green orb of energy, and a wide smile bloomed.

  Moxy turned around to face Berri and hugged her tight. “Thank you so much for your help, Mom. I can’t believe you’ve gotten so good with all our flames! You must have practiced a lot.”

  “Anything for my beautiful babies–and you worked hard too! You’re wonderful. Now go practice the runic spells compatible with nature mana so that you can show off to your dad later, and I will get you those other books later. You have plenty in your book, right?”

  Moxy nodded, and her smile was wide as she went to the table nearby. She opened her spellbook with a new fervor, excited about the prospect of showing Jake her results. Berri continued helping her daughters, eventually finding her way to Nora and Clara.

  The two were doing something surprising to Jake–they weren’t looking at their spellbooks and instead were trying to make their own runic spells from scratch. They had several books open on a table in front of them about the topic as they tested several spells, each fizzling one after another.

  Clara groaned, tugging on her braided hair in irritation. “Ugh, it still doesn’t work. I thought I had it!”

  Nora sighed. “It’s tough balancing these more complicated spells. It’s frustrating not even being able to tell if we’re close.”

  Berri looked over their research and efforts with a wide smile. “Look at you two working hard–you’re doing great. You know, your dad would love to help you with this–this is totally his thing! And he does love learning together and teaching you. Why didn’t you go to him?”

  Clara hesitated. “I just… I don’t know. I think I’d rather show him once I’ve worked really hard and am proud of what I’ve done first.”

  Nora beamed at this. “Right! That, and he always told us the value of trying to figure things out on our own first. Asking questions is good, but finding answers for ourselves is a skill we all should master. That’s how we can learn something nobody else knows. Like making our own spells!”

  Berri smiled at the two winged girls. “Your father’s right, of course, and I love how you two are so self-sufficient or can count on each other this way. But there’s no shame in asking for help eventually. He’d rather you ask for help before you get frustrated or dislike what you’re learning. At least, he’d rather you don’t get to the point that you pull your own beautiful hair out. And… I’m sure he would be quite proud of your attempts so far. I can call him over if you want?”

  Clara looked at her hand still pulling on her braid in frustration, then looked a little sheepish as she blushed. “I guess… that’s fine, but isn’t he busy? Can you help? You’ve been working on your own spells too, right?”

  “I’m sure he’d love to help you even though he’s busy, but I think I can help.” Berri smiled as she took a look over her most recent formation the two made and nudged Jake. He was a little saddened by the fact that his girls felt reluctant to ask for his help, because he had always tried to foster a feeling of trust and enjoyment in helping them solve problems and conflicts.

  When possible, he’d drop what he was doing and help them first and foremost without criticism–unless they were asking with an agenda, as Blaze would often do. The girl was as subtle as a brick to the head with her manipulations, though he loved her all the same.

  However, it made plenty of sense that Jake would be treated a little bit differently from their mothers. There was only one of him, but ten of them. And over thirty children and ten mothers who may vie for his attention. He should be proud that they were so considerate, not just for him, but for their sisters and mothers as well.

  Berri cast each runeword on its own, forming two minor effects–a blast of wind and a cloud of noxious fumes. For the third, she had to combine it with something else to see the effect, but eventually she nodded to herself–it was a runeword that helped the solidity and duration of the effect.

  She then pointed to the formation shown in the book. “You have three main runewords here, and individually, they are balanced. But the order and what is adjacent matter to the total formation, too. If you move this stronger runeword to the center and make a slight change to the other two, it should work.”

  Nora frowned. “Stronger? But that one has the least amount of runes in it.”

  Berri shrugged. “Just how it is. Can’t you feel it? When you cast the three spells, that one has a greater…weight. It needs to prop up the other two, like it is the trunk and they are the branches. That’s how it works for me, anyway. I’m not good at all that math and logic stuff; you’d have to ask Dad or Mommy Blood if you want the technical reason.”

  Clara’s eyes widened as she began to redraw the formation. “I think I get it. The noxious cloud is certainly the core of what the spell needs to accomplish. It should be the anchor for the other two.”

  The two happily worked on it and eventually cast the spell. It was not immensely powerful, but Nora could cast it with her deathly mana that was coming out of her hearthvines and it quickly created a necrotic cloud that would do well against a swarm of smaller targets.

  Berri eventually called Jake in, and each of his daughters was happy to show off their hard work. He made sure to make each one of them feel like he was proud of their efforts. He handed out advice and nuggets of wisdom to those that wanted or needed it, helping them take things to the next level if that was what they wanted.

  To his chagrin, Blaze and Sharona both just showed off with their powerful, unique flames, blasting the target with all their might. It wasn’t what they worked on at all, but it was impressive nonetheless. He felt a little bad comparing them to the Sons of Rome he had met way back on Ariminum when they faced the orc commander and the early stages of the Fortress Assault, since he knew they had come so much further since then. But he’d have put both daughters on his team long before he’d have put any of them on it–they were just that strong, whether talking about their melee capabilities or their magic.

  Aiko showed off some illusions and deadly kitsune flames, and Jake was happy to reward his hard-working fox daughter with a hug and some ear scratches. Before long, it was like each daughter was expecting some kind of reward just like Aiko had received.

  While Jake was helping his daughters, Berri was still continuing to go to each of them, and he spotted her having another conversation with Nyxa and Rena.

  Nyxa laughed as she put away her spellbook and grinned at her mother. “Wow, Mommy Berri, you were actually making sense and were focused for a whole hour! If you keep this up, people might start confusing you with Mommy Blood.”

  “Yeah! You didn't even mention baseball or snacks once. Are you feeling okay, or did Mommy Faye give you some kind of special focusing pill so you could become Teacher Berri?”

  Berri’s eyes flashed with a momentary, sharp intelligence before she put on a dramatic pout. “Hmph! I was just being Teacher Berri for my babies, and now Mommy’s back. Now, I want… I want a giant gold trophy for being such a good teacher. And a mountain of muckbill sliders!”

  Nyxa and Rena laughed, and they both hugged their mother. Rena said, “I love you, Mom. You’re amazing. I don’t know about a trophy, but Nyxa and I can make you some muckbill sliders. No big deal, right, Sis?”

  Nyxa chuckled. “You’ve got it, Mom. That sounds yummy anyway. We’ll make some later when we’re all done here.”

  Berri grinned. “Let’s make them together–and some of your dad’s favorite cookies. He’ll love that.”

  In all, Jake enjoyed teaching and praising all of his daughters for their hard work, but he realized that he really needed to come up with a way to ensure they could feel they could go to him. They deserved his time, and Jake wanted to give it to them–fighting a war or not.

  This problem was fortunately easy to resolve, and thanks to this, he became aware that some of their decisions had affected almost all of his children, a blind spot that had been created. They wanted the best for them and tried their best to foster a healthy environment for them to learn and succeed in whatever they chose, trying not to shove them in one direction in particular; allowing them to choose their own destiny.

  On some level, the family had supported the children when they took an interest in individual combat-related topics but had avoided doing these things as a family. Jake didn’t want it to feel like any of his children were pushed to fight in some war or dungeon–to encourage the idea that kids who trained for battle got more of his or his wives’ attention in any way, shape, or form. By rewarding a certain behavior from their perspective, a child would certainly seek more of it.

  But that was starting to work against them, as nearly every child of his had shown a desire to learn to fight with weapons or magic all on their own. Only the treant children were different at the moment, but he wagered within a few years their behavior would be like most natives on Highlands, thanks to listening to the song of the world.

  Perhaps his many children were inspired by their heroic mothers and father. Or was it the Highlands mindset? They worked with numerous peers, mentors, and teachers from there and could easily have been influenced by their community. It could also be a function of their mixed races that they had ended up interested in combat–it was certainly in an echidna’s, valkyrie's, beastkin’s, or kitsune’s blood to fight.

  Either way, each thing had only influenced them subtly, and Yona and the Eternum mentors had been a factor that offered a different viewpoint on the topic.

  So that meant to prepare his kids for this future, they should involve training to fight as a part of their activities, not just ad hoc as they had been. Even if just for self-defense, it would be valuable for all of them. The same would still be true if he had a more pacifistic child in the future. To continue with their decision would harm them more than help them, as the children had made their choice.

  Berri was excited, responding to Jake’s thoughts. [I like this idea! It’ll be a ton of fun. But can we add maybe a magic sports night every once in a while? That way, it’s not all about fighting, and it can be fun as they train. We can even have some that resemble battlegrounds, like the Champion’s Rift with the towers, monsters, and lanes!]

  It was an interesting idea, and thanks to how successful her sports program was, he immediately agreed. Valtor had informed Jake on how well those that got into the sports program across their worlds had even more success than a usual recruit, and cities where they had ignited the passion for sports had better recruitment levels on top of that.

  They had even tried this on worlds they did not own, and it was having success in various ways. The orphanages she and Blood established were slowly becoming escalators that recruited people into Hearthtribe’s numerous subguilds with various focuses. It was truly effective, and Jake wasn’t sure without Berri’s help or passion that he would have ever thought of it. He certainly didn’t have the time to make the effort himself for either project, but Berri worked tirelessly to get things set up.

  The girls and boys were excited as Jake shared the news, all looking forward to this magic sports night and preparing for it every week with their training. He and his wives were all excited too, not even worried about how much effort it would take. All of them were happy to have one more excuse to spend time with their five-year-old teenage warriors-to-be.

  The kids left to go on to their tasks, and Berri caught Jake alone before he could make it back to his workshop.

  “Jakey! Did you see? I’m the bestest teacher, right? I should probably get two trophies. Or maybe just a really long back and tail rub.”

  Jake smiled at her. “Of course, and I’d be glad to. I saw how great you were with all our daughters and how hard you worked mastering flames just so that you could help them. I had thought it was just to burn the things that needed burning. Like spiders…and worms.”

  Berri beamed. “That…was definitely a part of my motivations! But a small one. Our babies are worth all the hard work. All of it!”

  “Of course you’re right about that. And… you were right about me waiting. You’re a lot smarter and more tactful than you let on. Though the daughters noticed the mask slipping.”

  Berri’s smile faltered, and she hesitated. “I’m sorry. I know… I’m a lot sometimes. That I’m selfish, demanding, and only care about fun.” She chuckled wryly. “Blood even said I’m worse than Blaze sometimes. Like I’m…a child. You… don’t mind it, do you?”

  It seemed she was truly worried about this, so Jake floated over to her and stood on her tail as she presented it as a stair for him to stand on. He grabbed her hips and met her eyes with his own. “You don't have to apologize for being the light of the room, Berri. I’ve known for a long time that 'Silly Berri' is a shield you hold up for the rest of us… even if you do enjoy being spoiled just the same. You do it because you know we enjoy indulging you.”

  “Is it a bad shield? Even Blood is getting tired of me. I worry that if I keep playing the 'selfish snake-girl,' you’ll eventually get tired too. That you’ll look at me and just see a child who can’t grow up.”

  “You know that’s not true. Blood is just a bit burned out from being stuck with your mask for so long, and that your whines have to come from her very same lips. You know she loves you and wouldn’t trade you for anything, even if she would love just a little more…freedom. And as for me…”

  He kissed her lips and sent all of the feelings he had for her over their bond. Fondness and awe at how amazing she was and how he loved every aspect of who she was. Berri’s heart soared with joy, and she returned his kiss with fervor for a moment as they enjoyed their moment, and their hearths connected with the beam of flame traveling across their chests.

  Jake pulled back and said, “You know our connection is too deep to be frustrated with you now. I look at you and see the woman who would do anything for children, hers or not. I see the mother who just gave her daughter the confidence to cast her first true spell and all our daughters feeling safe and comfortable coming to you for help. I don't just feel your requests for snacks or attention; I feel the love that prompts them. You act selfish so we all have something to smile at, something grounded and pure. You act like you don't understand the math so we feel like the world isn't all just numbers and points.”

  Berri smiled a little wryly. “I made this mask to protect Blood and me–it was the only way that made both children and matriarchs smile and let their guard down alike. Even if I don’t truly need it anymore, I find that I still like it. I just want our home to be the place where no one has to be 'perfect,' and for our family to always smile. If I’m the most imperfect one, everyone else gets to breathe. I’ll be 'worse than Blaze' every single day if it means you and everyone else has a reason to chuckle when the war gets too loud and stressful.”

  He cradled her face with one hand, and she affectionately leaned into his hand and grabbed it in hers. “You’ve certainly achieved that. Our kids have no barriers with you. With or without Blood, you are always the mom our children need or the sister wife that is there to help. And you always bring a smile to my face and comfort me, being the lover I require. You are amazing at everything you put your mind to. You are truly radiant, and I love you.”

  “Thanks, Jake–and you know I love you too. I should know all this in my heart and hearth, but it still feels good for you to say it out loud. Still…even if the mask has truly become me, maybe I could spend less time hating on Bill and soccer ball-shaped magic. That is…perhaps a bit too silly and unreasonable.”

  Jake chuckled. “I didn’t mind it. It was harmless and endearing. Still, I’m a little surprised. You got that book from Echidna, and we were traveling for more than a week. You didn’t try once to coax me into a quick baby.”

  Berri’s eyes lit up. “You want to talk about that now? You brought it up, not me–remember that!” She grinned. “I have to prepare myself for it, and it doesn’t really make me give birth faster. Just more eggs at once. So when we find enough time, I’m going for the grand baby slam. Be ready!”

  Jake smiled fondly at that. “I will be. And I’m sure I’ll enjoy it every step of the way. I always do.” He grabbed her ‘juicy booty’ she had made for him, causing her to shiver and let out a breath.

  Berri looked at him hotly, her eyes flashing. “Oh yes. Both Blood and I will love taking care of our mate, our king. We both look forward to having more lovelies, but we also love trying to drive you wild as we do it. I can’t wait!”

  Jake was about to reply, but Ava’s voice rang through his mind. [Berri, Nyxa and Rena are looking for you.]

  He chuckled. “I’d like to continue, but it seems you have some muckbill sliders to make. And some cookies, if I recall.”

  Berri giggled. “Coming right up! And that’s okay–we’ll continue this later. That’s a promise.”

  The two teleported to join their kids in making snacks and dinner. As always, Jake enjoyed spending time with his wife and kids.