His mother was tall—tall enough that they stood eye-to-eye. Yet in her arms, he felt himself melting, returning to a time when he felt small, when he needed to be held and consoled.

  Something about the way she quietly shushed him and stroked his hair only made the tears come harder. The weeks of fighting and surviving in the Underworld, the months and years without her as he struggled first against the Emperor, then the Council, Dancer, Qui Shen…all of them.

  He hadn’t realized before how much weight he had been carrying, how little he had addressed the trauma of losing her and dealing with the aftermath without her; Awakening without her; going rogue against the Emperor without her; trying to find his way in this twisted world…without her.

  His aura senses pinged—had been pinging, he realized—but he ignored it. Even if his mother was using her Hypnotist powers to draw the raw emotion from him, what did he care? It was real enough and she was finally here—at least for now.

  When both their tears were spent, she held him at arm’s length, her face streaked with dirt and moisture, yet still the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

  “God, you’ve grown up. I only got to see you for a short while…before you absconded with the Singularity.” She said the words lightly, not a hint of accusation in her tone. All the same, he felt the guilt weighing down on him.

  “There was a good reason for that…” He trailed off, knowing a System warning would stream in if he said more.

  She nodded, a sad smile on her face.

  “I know, Terry….I know.”

  He felt a hopeful rush in his chest. “You do?” Maybe she had discovered the corruption in the Spectral Singularity and finally excised it? Then he realized it didn’t really matter—the Metaphysical Singularity was out of reach, and he didn’t think he’d encourage her to retrieve it in any case. To do so would simply restart the cycle of stagnation leading to extinction back in the Underworld.

  “Of course, Terry,” she chided. “I know your character, even if I was gone for a time. You would never do something like that if you didn’t have a good reason.” She studied him, her senses lightly brushing his aura—not in an intrusive way, but the way a mother would check a child’s body for injury. “You’ve grown strong. I’ve never seen an aura like yours on a C-ranker. And it’s elusive, too,” she added with a frown. “On first glance, it feels a step down, actually. But when I look closer, it actually feels more like a step-up.”

  He nodded, a proud smile slipping on his lips that he couldn’t resist. “Thanks, Mom. I—” He cut off, realizing how exposed they were outside her tent. “Is the danger past? Can we find somewhere private to talk?”

  Her good cheer drained away at his first question and he almost regretted ruining their reunion. But her smile was quick to return and she nodded.

  “We closed every rift and I personally scanned the surrounding cities. We’re safe.” Her nose furrowed, a slight cringe creasing her eyes. “I have so many questions—and I’m sure you do, too. But first—” She gripped his arms in a way that could have been interpreted as someone giving bad news…or as someone keeping the person at arm’s distance. “—you need a shower, son.”

  He frowned at that, raising his arm to sniff his armpit. Tania audibly groaned, taking a step away, while his mother politely—but sternly—pushed his arm down.

  With a chagrined smile, he shrugged. “What? They didn’t have showers in the Underworld…”

  It took a surprisingly long time to clean the muck, grime, and dried blood from his skin and hair; the moment he thought he was done, he would discover another layer clinging beneath the surface.

  But when he was as clean as he could make himself—the dirt under his nails proving particularly resistant—he returned to his mother’s command tent where he found her and Tania chatting quietly. The three ghouls lingered at the edge of the tent, their auras pulsing subtly, indicating they were in their own conversation.

  As he entered, the ladies went silent, the kind of quiet that only comes from being caught discussing the person now standing before them. But he wasn’t so insecure as to think they were gossiping about him; he figured the two of them had never truly gotten to know each other and since he was the link in their relationship, it was natural for him to be a topic of conversation.

  All the same, he couldn’t help but tease them a bit.

  “Talking about me, were we?” He raised a single brow. “My mother and my best friend—the two people I thought I could trust the most!” He put a hand to his chest dramatically, turning toward Crunch, Burg, and Blood. “What sort of slander have they been slinging?”

  Crunch’s teeth clicked, his aura shaping outward to form a subtle emotion. As it reached Terry, he laughed; the emotion he felt was embarrassment toward a brash spawnling.

  “How to stop prince from hurting self,” Crunch said, his aura shifting unnecessarily to indicate it was a humorous response. “Prince is stubborn in this way.”

  Terry turned a hurt look toward the ghoul. “Et tu, Crunch?”

  Tania laughed. “The term you’re looking for, Crunch, is bull-headed.”

  His mother smiled at that, her eyes lighting up as they found him.

  “I was simply getting acquainted with your friend—” A mischievous look crossed her face. “—and sharing a few of my own…stories…about your childhood.”

  The mirth drained from his body, his eyes tracking between the two women. “Mom! What stories?” Tania looked away, her face pinched tight as if struggling to contain a laugh. His eyes bugged out, all hope of his dignity remaining intact slipping away. “Mom…?”

  Penelope shrugged, the innocent expression on her face contrasting sharply with the snigger escaping Tania.

  Terry looked up to tent ceiling, his entire body vibrating. “Not the milk story…Tell me it wasn’t the milk story?” But as he looked back down, Tania covered her entire face in the crook of her elbow, her eyes pinched tight.

  He stared at the girl, his eyes narrowed as if daring her to let out the guffaw working its way up her chest. Slowly, she glanced up from the confines of her elbow, saw his heated expression, then quickly covered her face again.

  Shaking his head, he redirected those daggers toward his mother. “How could you?”

  “What, dear? I think the story is charming.” She shrugged innocently. “Besides, what’s done is done…no use crying over spillt—”

  “I will literally teleport you into the ocean if you finish that sentence!”

  Tania’s entire body convulsed, knocking her to the tent floor as wracking laughs took her. His mother—betrayer that she was—bent over, covering her mouth delicately with her hand, clearly containing her own laughter.

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

  The damage had been done; dignity could never be reclaimed.

  Bloodstain clacked his teeth audibly.

  “This Blessed believes the story is admirable.” Terry glanced toward the ghoul, stunned silent. “Truly, prince is good person for attempting to return milk into cow udder. Most would not think of this thing.”

  Tania’s laughing turned breathless, her voice thin and strained as she cried out.

  “Blood…stop…love of…God…can’t breathe…”

  Terry flipped his gaze onto the ghoul, feeling the way his aura shifted humorously. When he was younger, he might have assumed the ghoul was simply confused; now that he understood the nuances of aura, he knew the ghoul was teasing him.

  He crossed his arms defiantly. “Surrounded on all sides by traitors,” he complained. “No respect.”

  The laughter peaked, finally tapering off as Tania caught her breath and his mother regained her composure. He pursed his lips patiently, waiting for their fit to end.

  When Tania had climbed back into her chair, wiping away the tears, and his mother cast him an almost-remorseful look, he finally deigned to join them at the table sitting in the middle of the large tent.

  As much as the embarrassment had gripped him, it was nice to see Tania and his mother getting along. A secret part of him had feared that the girl’s fiery temperament and his mother’s cool demeanor wouldn’t mesh well.

  But if their giggle fit was any indication, they’d bonded quite quickly, it seemed.

  “So, honey, I’ve heard you have…quite the unusual powerset,” his mother started once he’d settled in. “Your father’s told me some of it, but I didn’t want to pry without your permission.” An uncomfortable seriousness crossed her features, causing him to tilt his head. “If you’re willing…that is?”

  That statement puzzled him and he couldn’t quite track where it stemmed from.

  “Why wouldn’t I be willing to tell you? Tania knows pretty much everything—except my new C-rank Skills—” Tania’s eyes went wide with curiosity. “—and both Dad and Silver at least are in on it.” He shrugged. “Even the Emperor probably figured out most of it, just from what he’s seen me do…”

  She nodded slowly, an obvious hesitation in her eyes. “I appreciate your trust after…everything. But I didn’t want to take it for granted.”

  He put his hand over hers, gripping it tight. “Mom, please. If the Emperor knows, why on Earth wouldn’t I tell you?”

  Her eyes twinkled with forming moisture and he felt his throat tighten sympathetically.

  “Terry, I’ve—” She looked away, biting the side of her lip anxiously. “You’ve seen the contents of my Rose, so you already know.” She glanced back, gauging his reaction. “I lied to you, I tricked you, I…manipulated your mind…for so many years…”

  Her reticence suddenly made sense and he leaned forward, gripping her hand even tighter. “I did consume those memories, yes,” he said with a nod. “Yours and my own.” She tried to look away, but he pulled on her hand, drawing her eyes back. “So believe me when I say, I know the depths of hell your System put you through. Mom…I felt it, almost as powerfully as you did.” A tear slipped free from her eye, but she held his gaze tightly. “I don’t blame you for trying to give me a normal life.” He snorted at that, shaking his head. “Well…not normal—a childhood, let’s say. You made the decision any mother would have made, to shield their child from terrible truths until they were old enough to understand them.”

  He sighed, looking away as his mind cast back to those memories, to the years he’d lived unaware that she was a reanimated corpse, a revenant to his father. “I don’t regret what you did, Mom.” He looked back, meeting her eyes. “I only regret what you had to go through, the pain, the lies you had to tell, the double life you had to live.”

  Her tears were flowing freely now, cutting divots down her cheeks. He was surprised to find his own eyes dry—the trauma and emotions felt distant now. “But all that’s in the past, okay?” He squeezed her hand and she nodded once, the tears falling free from the movement. “We’re together now; whole again.”

  Her voice was a whisper. “Your father…he’s having a tough time.” She smiled sadly. “He doesn’t want to forget—not anymore. But he also wishes he could. Wishes we could go back to the three of us in those Wichitan fields, right before our world turned upside down.”

  Terry shook his head forcefully. “That version of us was a lie. Painted over rot held together by pure magic. This—” He indicated the two of them with a gesture. “—is what’s real. And it’s all the more special for it. He’ll understand that…in time.”

  She chuckled lightly, her eyes alight. Turning to Tania, she nodded toward him. “When did he become so wise? Has he always been like this and I just didn’t know it?”

  Tania—her own tears wiped away quickly—arched a brow. “He used to be a lot more sanctimonious, actually.” She smiled to soften the words, a sincere look in her eyes. “But no, really, he’s always been like this—long as I’ve known him, anyway. Bit of a dreamer, which is why we’re friends. Need someone to counterbalance my pragmatism.”

  Terry scoffed, casting her a dubious look. “Pragmatism? Is that what we’re calling it? I think of it more as vengeful resistance to the way the world works.”

  She slapped his arm playfully. “And what’s wrong with that!”

  His mother’s eye twinkled as she watched them interact, and he wasn’t blind to what she must have been thinking. The fear of her even attempting to skirt around the subject of their relationship made him shiver, so he hurried to bring them back to the topic at hand.

  “We were talking powers,” he said a bit too quickly. His mother raised her brow at his segue, but indicated she was listening with a nod. “I don’t know what Dad told you, but I basically have a copy—” He cut off, looking around at the thin walls of the tent. “Is it safe to talk here?”

  His mother nodded confidently. “I can sense the minds of everyone around us for…well, let’s just say, quite the distance. As for any scrying or listening powers, I’d sense the aura and be able to Disrupt it.”

  Tania’s eyebrows climbed higher and higher the more his mother talked, eventually turning toward Terry with a bit of shock.

  “Whoa, your Mom’s like, scary powerful.”

  Terry nodded, but couldn’t drag his thoughts away from the corrupted Singularity inside of her. His mother seemed to sense his mood, because she laughed lightly.

  “I have a feeling you’ll be scary powerful, too—if you’re not already.”

  He smiled at that, a sense of pride warming his chest at the recognition from someone he had idolized for so long.

  “My powers are…pretty amazing. But it’s not just that…” He trailed off, trying to plan out the track his thoughts wanted to take. “Where to start?” The man who had freed him from the confines of his rigid thinking popped into his mind. “You’ve met Marlon, right?”

  Tania scoffed quietly, while his mother smiled.

  “Oh, I’ve met him alright. Incredible talent…with a boorish demeanor. I had heard from my father that he had been instructing you on-and-off on Travel?”

  The mention of Silver pulled at his thoughts; not only had he not asked about his grandfather…he hadn’t thought to mention Ben to the two of them. He tabled that thought for the moment.

  “He was doing some insane experimentations when I first met him. He’d found a way to enchant pottery with portal magic that triggered when it fell.” He had a sudden realization that the work he’d done with Py and Chippy could very well have the key to Marlon’s problem. But there was a war on; idle experimentations on falling pottery would be a distraction to the man right now. He continued, his mother leaning in to his every word. “But the more interesting component of his work were with his cats.”

  His mother’s brow rose in surprise. “His cats?”

  Tania spoke up excitedly. “He was altering their auras! Implanting the teleportation ability in them!” She glanced quickly between Terry and Penelope. “When Tinker and the Council supers found us, we were working to replicate the experiment in me—”

  Terry groaned as his mother’s eyes went wide.

  “I’m sorry, what!” She flipped her gaze between the two of them. “You were altering her aura to give her a Skill!”

  Tania’s expression dropped as she realized she had thrown Terry into a bit of a pickle. “No—I mean, yes—but it was for a good reason—”

  His mother gave Tania a stern look. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?”

  Terry braced, knowing Tania wasn’t someone to take that type of tone—from anyone. To his surprise, she had the grace to look down, an abashed look on her face.

  “We knew it was dangerous, Penelope—” Terry frowned at that. Penelope? Just how close had they gotten in the last hour. “—but would you really argue that it was more dangerous than facing down Qui Shen in close quarters?”

  His mom frowned and Tania sensed the weakness.

  “What about challenging an S-ranked Traveler in a spatial duel? Getting in a fistfight with a draugr?” Tania crossed her arms, her eyes full of steel. “Putting a Singularity inside your chest as a D-ranker?”

  Terry cast her a desperate look that said, ‘what the hell are you doing?’ But Tania ignored him, holding his mother’s gaze.

  Unbelievably, against all odds, his mother appeared to concede the point. Then, a thought flashed behind her eyes, her eyebrow arching as she looked pointedly at Terry.

  “Fistfight with a draugr?”

  Terry closed his eyes, sighing before meeting her gaze.

  “It’s been a wild year and a half.”

  Her brow rose. “That sounds like a bit of an understatement.” She sat back in her chair, settling in with a sigh. A flash of aura went out, surprising him. “I ordered us some tea. Looks like you’ve got quite the story to tell. I hope we have enough time to dive into all of it before the next crisis, but just in case, you better start.”

  So he did. He told her everything, from the aftermath of her disappearance, to his powerset, to the war with Topeka, his visits to Terraform’s Market, and his Summons to the Underworld.

  By the time he was finished, their second round of tea was turning cold.

  Book 1 on Amazon!

  Patreon -- Read Eight Weeks Ahead!