Myriad and Helori were the only ones in the realm when he arrived, the goddess with her usual seat perched atop his god, being rotated as the cube turned to face him.

    “Well Ben, anything happen today?”

    “Thera adopted a child and I had another one sprung on me, screw you for that by the way, so it’s been pretty busy as a whole.”

    “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

    “Don’t try to deny it, Sachel already said you decided to not give me any heads up about Delair coming to train under me.”

    “Oh, that.”

    “Yeah, that. Why didn’t you tell me? What if said no?”

    “That’s simple, you were never going to say no. No matter how much of a pain you may be Ben, I’ve known you for years now. No matter what other ways you might surprise me, I was never going to be wrong about this.”

    “And that made it okay to not give me any warning?”

    “Consider this my revenge for everything else you’ve ever put me through.”

    “Hold on, but is that actually a good idea?” Helori cut in. “No matter what some of the dumber gods might think, you’re a genuinely important figure in the war, Ben, for more than a few reasons. Do you really have time to try and train an apprentice who, to be blunt, might not even live to see whatever waits beyond the third wave when you have so much else to be doing, even just among your own goals?”

    It was a fair question but what it got her was a shrug. “Probably not if I want to be nothing but purely efficient in the months we’ve got left but that prospect went out the window the second the other gods of this world decided to get in my way. And none of that even matters because in the end, I still need to live in the time I’ve got left. Training up an apprentice might not be the best way to spend my time when I’m keeping the planet as my focus but I’m looking at myself and the people I care about right now instead.”

    She looked at him for a moment in silence before shaking her head. “Well, it’s your life so do whatever you need to enjoy it I suppose. Now, what’s this about your lover adopting a child? Did she stumble upon a war orphan?”

    “God, I wonder if that would have been less complicated. No, it’s family. The great life and death spirits have succeeded in having a child together.”

    It was an answer that got the goddess to move. In a flash she’d left her place atop Myriad, practically flying right at him in her excitement.

    And that was just one mixed affinity, there were certainly more in the world with each having the potential to show overwhelming power if mixed great spirits could be mass-produced and when he really thought about it, there was no reason to be sure that pure affinities couldn’t have more great spirits as well. It seemed like replicating a womb was fairly important to making it work but that was something any great spirit could potentially pull off, leaving the attempt from there being doing the deed with a regular spirit to see if that would result in a new great spirit being born instead of a normal one or some unexpected middle ground of the two.

    Helori’s thought had left a flood of ideas running through his head that he did his best to shake away in the end. It was curious, yes, but not a path he’d ever want to explore, nor an idea he’d want to put in Vividus’s head. He wasn’t going to treat Mora like an experiment and he didn’t want to risk the great life spirit making the boy any siblings when she hadn’t been prepared to look after her first child. If there was no eventual merging process then that would mean potentially dozens of childlike great spirits running around the world with whatever disasters that would cause being the problems of whatever mortals ran into them.

    “Yeah, we’re all going to keep this line of thought to ourselves, away from Vividus and any gods who might be dumb enough to want to test it out.”

    “I suppose a safe choice in the end. Still, if nothing else, this does work out for you.”

    “Huh? What do you mean?”

    “You’re going to be living with a great spirit that rules over souls. Once whatever issues he has with using his magic are sorted out, you can get him to lower your own awakening thresholds. That sort of thing could drastically help you achieve your goals in the time you have left.”

    Ben looked at her in silence for only a few seconds before sighing and shaking his head. “Helori, you’re really showing you’ve never been a mother before here”

    “Of course not. Only mild offense to Nare intended but breeding with one''s mortals is perverse.”

    “Okay, so I’m not asking this kid to do anything like that for me. If Thera’s taking on a parental role then so am I and I’m not making a child that’s already been abandoned once feel like I’m only going to be there for him if he does what I want. If he brings it up then I’d accept it but I’m going to do my best to try and never get anything out of him. It’s a kid’s job to be loved, no more than that. And speaking of, seeing as how this particular kid doesn’t actually need sleep, I’m going to have to wake up soon so just one more point. Can you guys help me get in touch with Jake, Amy, and Vasta?”

    “Still hellbent on taking in the non-affinity tower even with two children in your charge?” Myriad sighed.

    “I am and I don’t want to delay too much more than I have to. I’ll need at least a week before running off since I need to give Delair a few lessons before I run headfirst into danger and I need to get Mora used to me but I want to talk to them and put a team together as soon as possible.”

    “Alright, I’ll see what I can do at least.”

    “You’re the best.”

    With that sorted he spoke to them both for only a bit longer before waking up even earlier than usual, off to see what the newest resident of their home was up to.