“Hey, Mom, yeah, Dad’s here… Yeah, we can do a speaker call one second,” Alex said. If the cell networks were back up that likely ant so things were starting to get straightened out again. Was that just in the imdiate of the United States, or did it spread worldwide? And just how much had I managed to piss off the acting president? Maybe I’d get lucky, and they found soone still alive ahead of him.
“Dave, can you hear us?” Laura’s voice asked from the cell phone.
“I can. I’m a little surprised you want to talk to , though,” I said entirely truthfully, especially considering how we had just parted. I hadn’t made her new boss exactly happy with .
“Yes, well, the president and I feel you two got off on the wrong footing, and he sends his apologies. He would actually like to schedule a real sit-down eting with you the mont you finish up with securing the planet’s safety. Is that sothing you’d be okay doing?” she asked. She was using her gentle tone. The one she used when she tried to lead to sothing that she thought was incredibly important and didn’t want to say it. Not that she had ever really been wrong, more that I wished I had seen it and hadn’t put so much of the effort on her in the past. It was a bit of shaful nostalgia rolling over .
“I believe I can arrange that, but why the change of heart?” I asked, I intended to go to the eting no matter the reason. I didn’t like that I had been such an ass at the first eting even if in my opinion, he had been too. I was willing to entirely chalk it up to the stress of still thinking the world was ending though.
“Honestly? Because of what your group has proven themselves capable of. The world just went from fighting a war it was going to lose to now being able to start rebuilding. There’s a giant uphill battle from here to try to get people fed, not to ntion warm, before the weather really starts working against us, and that’s just here in the US. We’ve only slightly established any communication worldwide. The president also assus that we’ve just entered a much bigger universe, and these alien issues aren’t just going to go away,” Laura replied. Good, the man was smart enough to realize that. I could work with that.
“Multiversal, but yes, he’s right. Our reality is changing forever. I will do whatever I can do to help keep us safe, so yes, I’m willing to have a eting. When, where, oh and how much of the communications infrastructure is working?” I asked. Hopefully, by then, I’d have better news on Cecile’s titable for magical food. The sooner we had an active farm up and running, the sooner we could start supplying beyond just us. Which ant we could start figuring out how to build our own forces on Earth.
“We have so of the cell networks up, but access is being limited to avoid crashing anything at the mont. As for when and where, we can figure that out in our next call. And please don’t take this the wrong way. I’m saying this because I know you, not to be hurtful. Do you have anyone you could bring to this eting who might be better at answering questions than you are?” she asked. I didn’t take it the wrong way. I understood what she ant, and I had already been intending to bring Pryte, possibly Elody, as well. What about Timon? He was a resource I hadn’t fully considered. I needed to have a conversation with him and find out exactly how his information gathering tended to work, or at least Pryte did, assuming he hadn’t. I was wasting my spy. At least, I thought I was, which ant I needed to find out sothing.
“Yes, I’ll bring two of my squad along. Just be warned. Neither of them are human, though they aren’t the most clearly nonhuman as long as Elody hides her extra eyes, at least,” I said. Pryte, for his part, could easily pass as any other little person.
“That’s fine. The president would actually like to et so of the more friendly aliens,” Laura replied.
“I’m not sure I’d use the word aliens. It has an otherworld but sa universe context you don’t normally hear for species from other universes, though I guess I don’t know the correct terminology there either,” I said, catching myself before I went too far on my random musing.
“Dave, this last question isn’t from the president; this is from . How much danger are we in, really?” she asked. I knew her well enough to hear the question behind the question. Would her kids be okay?
Stolen from , this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“The honest answer there is I don’t know. There are a ton of moving parts in all of this, and it’s a giant ss we should never have gotten stuck in, it’s well beyond our ability to control, but I’ve got so help from people I trust, and I will do what I can to keep everyone safe,” I answered, hoping she understood that I ant our family most of all.
“Dave, do you understand how rough things are about to get? I know you weren’t ever big on hearing talk political nuance, but we just had a worldwide calamity and the survivors are going to be desperate. This is still going to get worse for the world before it gets better. You said you are now so emperor of Earth, right? Is that really sothing you are prepared to handle?” she asked. While it ca out accusatory, I didn’t think she actually ant it that way. Laura had never considered lesser for my dislike of the unspoken social rules. This was likely her way of asking if I could handle this all without crawling back into a hole, which, while I’d love to have said I was ready, I could do it. I didn’t remotely know that to be true, but just like when I accepted this all in the first place, the idea of grandkids I’d need to protect flashed back into my mind. What choice did I really have?
“I’m not at all prepared, but I’m going to do it anyway. I know a lot has been said between us that can never be unsaid, but trust when I say I’m sorry about how much I withdrew from all your lives, and while I don’t know if I can ever make that up, I’m going to try. I love our kids, and despite both of us, I think they’ve turned out great. They are my biggest motivation in all of this,” I said, sounding more lodramatic than I intended, but telling your family you love them in the face of potential Earth-shattering death probably always does.
“It’s a better answer than I expected. Alright, that was all I had for you, Dave. Alex, can you pass to John for a bit,” Laura said before Alex turned off the speaker and handed the phone to her brother. Well at least that had gone better than our last eting.
“So, what can I expect at high level diplomacy etings for this world?” Pryte asked the mont John started chatting away with his mom, walking into the other room as he talked.
“That’s a good question. I just married a woman who ended up a diplomat, it was never really my thing. I guess it’s important to know that the man acting as president is only acting at the mont, at least as far as I know. If there is anyone else in line before him still alive they will take it back, but as Laura didn’t say anything about that, I’m guessing they didn’t find anyone. Oh, it’s also important to note we have countries, no unified world leader, unless you count , but the United States president will probably act like he’s the leader of the world. I don’t know if that’s worth fighting about, hell it might even be true depending on who recovers the fastest from this,” I said, doing a terrible job at answering Pryte’s question.
“How honest do you think I should be about you and the Empire of Dave? Is he going to be angry to learn his power won’t be that big of a deal in their post-integration landscape?” Pryte asked.
“Not sure. Didn’t follow politics enough to really know the man’s ambitions, but we tend to suffer mostly from politicians who get into the ga for power and not to help people, so I’d expect he won’t be happy,” I said. I wasn’t sure I was being entirely fair to the man, but I also knew how much I disliked politicians as a whole. The few tis Laura had managed to drag to any of her social events hadn’t exactly gone well. Call one man a blithering moron, and suddenly you’re the bad guy.
“I’m not entirely surprised. You weren’t exactly a social butterfly when we first t, excusing the deep trauma of your near-death experience. I still wouldn’t have ever pegged you for soone able to play the politics ga, but that’s why you have ,” Pryte said, smiling smugly.
“Yeah, for a change of topic, any chance you’ve seen Elody around. I want to talk to both of you about my plans with Corey. I’ve done the needed leveling. Oh and I also want to talk to you privately later as well. I had, well, let’s just say, a weird experience.” I said. I knew Corey still needed so rest ti, but I figured I might as well get as much of the initial conversation out of the way before we bothered him. Plus, I still wanted sothing else to eat.
“Yeah, she’s in the backyard, ditating in front of the cloudwood tree with l. Apparently, there is sothing to be gained from communing with it and she very much wants to understand just what that is,” Pryte answered.
Cloudwood has a unique property when reduced to a charcoal form if you use a plasma mana orb as the mana source when creating it. The resulting material sohow absorbs no light. This ans any mana orb relying on light as part of its function for a spell will be totally unable to target soone wearing armor made of the substance. With the destruction of all known forests, the remaining supply has shot up in value. The material is now basically priceless. I don’t believe a single faction has a full suit of the armor remaining to them.
Material Science, Rare Spiral Minerals by Ignium Volcinitus
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