I dropped the mallet joke, as neither of them looked amused, and went back to the small talk. As awkward as it was, it was necessary. It had been a while since we’d all seen each other in person, and things had changed for all of us. Even if my changes happened to be the most drastic, it didn’t make theirs any less important to . Sohow even when the bus took to the sky, we just kept talking about so of the changes in their lives.
John had t Maud two years ago at the restaurant he was working at, and they hit it off. They had just moved in together last month and had only gotten the cats three days ago. Alex was still in school and doing well, but I could tell there was sothing she didn’t want to tell , so I didn’t push it. Considering how alike we were, I had the feeling it was a bad breakup. Before I could learn anything else, the bus landed, apparently, Timon hadn’t been lying when he said the return trip would be much faster.
“Man, I need to see your world. It sounds great,” Maud said loudly from behind , likely trying to talk over the noise of the landing. She was taking this much better than I had, or that it looked like my kids were, for that matter.
“Well, it’s probably better to tell the story here than inside. It’s going to be cold in there until we get the wall covered. So everyone who wants to hear the story of what I’ve been doing since this invasion started, please join at the larger area in the back of the bus,” I said as I pulled out Corey while we walked to the roomier part of the bus. The dungeon core was part of the story, and they needed to et it anyway.
“Since we already know everything, I think we’re going to go and see if the orc bodies have anything useful and dispose of the rest if we can,” Cecile said, Elicec nodding along. While I wished they hadn’t ntioned the bodies yet, I was glad they were going to go deal with them.
“Sanquar said he froze ti and sent you off to so other world; seems insane to , but then, you know, there’s all of this, making it seem a bit more real,” Maud said, pointing to the people in the bus. That was as good an opening as any. So I explained everything to them, from when I started eating breakfast that morning to the mont I saw them on the sidewalk. They were completely silent the entire ti. Sanquar, too, his silence surprised a little. I would have expected him to have more questions.
“That really all happened?” Alex asked first, apparently, their lack of questions was only during the telling of the story.
“Yep, straight down to us killing the leader of the invasion,” I said.
“I confess, my mory isn’t the best, but it seems things have stagnated sowhat in the Spiral. They were not great before, but this seems worse than anything I can recall,” Sanquar said.
“I don’t know, I an it sounded real dangerous, but kind of aweso,” Maud said cheerfully. John said nothing, but he did put his arm around her.
“So what happens now, then? Is Earth safe?” Alex asked.
“I don’t fully know, but I very much doubt it. From what little I saw, it looks like the orcs did a lot of serious damage to the places I passed, so I assu that’s worldwide. We also have to assu the death totals will be astronomical, so I have no idea how the planet rebuilds from this, but if it’s safe from future invasion, it should,” I said, not sure how to break the news that I very much doubted it was safe.
“We aren’t. Considering the orcs, I’m sure things haven’t changed that much. Earth will be incorporated into the Spiral, whether we like it or not,” Sanquar said with a strong, matter-of-fact sentint. I knew he was right, but it didn’t an he really had any idea what that ant.
“Bird’s right. There’s no real way they are ignoring this universe after charting chaotic space to get it. Now, there is that whole giant fucking complication of Sanquar sitting there, not to ntion the invasion faction is essentially dead, thanks to Dave here. That’s gonna have so repercussions sowhere. Whatever it is l has up his sleeve, well, would have up his sleeve if he wore shirts, had better be damn good. He’s gotten us in worse shit before, but not by much,” Timon added from the front of the bus. How good was his hearing anyway?
“This l guy, when is he coming back?” Alex asked. That was the million-dollar question. When would l be here? We needed him, and I hoped he would keep his promise.
“That’s another thing I don’t know, and I really wish I did. I’ve told you everything I really know, so I guess it’s decision ti. If you want to leave, I’ll have Timon take you back. While I really want you both to stay with , I won’t make you,” I said, worried about what they might choose.
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“Not sure we have much of a choice there. If, and it’s still a pretty big if, despite the fact that the mallet can talk, but if your story is true, the only real safe place is here with you, so I’m staying. Are your tools still in your garage?” Alex asked after a loud sigh. That was one heartbreak avoided. Was another possible?
“Yes, my tools are still there. John, what about you?” I asked my son, looking over to him.
“Yeah, soone has to do the cooking here if Alex is staying. Plus, you do have all these new faces who probably need to eat, too. You don’t eat heads, do you, Timon?” John asked the mantis driver.
“How do you know my ex?!” he asked back incredulously. At so point, I was going to have to tell Timon about Earth mantises that, by so insane fluke, share a trait with only his ex-wife. That was much less important than the fact that John was also staying. I smiled, letting my own anxiety fade a bit for the ti being. There was work to do, after all.
“Yeah, I’ll stay too,” Maud said. Sohow, I had forgotten about her, but she was welco too.
“Glad to hear it. So I guess we need to start getting this place ready for all of us then. Alex, are you planning to work on patching the wall and kitchen damage?” I asked her.
“Soone has to. We can’t all freeze to death. Dad, I think I can safely speak for John here as well. We both love you and kind of believe you, but this will take so ti to get used to, and eventually, we’re going to need to find out if Mom is even alive,” Alex said. I completely understood. Honestly, the entire conversation was going so much better than I had ever expected or had any right for it to go.
“That’s all I can ask, and I promise to help find her when we can,” I said, aning it. Laura was once the love of my life, possibly still was, and even if she wasn’t, she was the mother of my children. They deserved a chance to see her again.
“Co on, John, let’s go see if we can set the cats up in a bedroom and find sothing to use for a litter box,” Maud said as she stood up. John followed after her.
“So what are you going to do then?” Alex asked.
“First, I’m going to go find the twinogs and see what they found on the orcs. I figured Corey could hang out with you and help with the repair work. It will be good for them to talk to other humans. After that, I need to take a deep dive into all my quests and figure out what I still need to do,” I answered.
“Okay, after that then I expect you in the kitchen for dinner. John will have made sothing by then, and you can’t disappoint him again. I know how much you were hurt, I get it, but John was fourteen; this is the only other chance you’re going to get to reconnect with him,” she said. I would make sure I was there for dinner.
“Got it, I’ll be there,” I said.
“Thank you,” Alex said, standing up and heading off the bus, followed by a floating mallet.
“I’m going to stay here and check that everything on the bus is still in good shape, but then again, no one asked,” Timon said, sounding upset. I was reasonably sure he was joking, though. I could not actually read him at all, which, considering how bad I was at reading, people normally didn’t say anything.
“I will accompany you, Dave, I want to try an experint if Cecile and Elicec have found what I suspect they have,” Sanquar said. That was interesting; what was he up to?
“Alright, well, follow ,” I said, heading off the bus myself and walking towards where our big fight had been.
“Dave, what do you want now that I have changed your life so radically?” Sanquar asked as he followed . What did I want? I thought I wanted a return to a peaceful life, but that likely ant letting the divide with my children settle back in. Plus, there was the fact my body didn’t ache every morning anymore. Hell, I hadn’t even noticed when I stopped wearing my glasses. So what did I want now? I think I wanted to push myself further. I hadn’t felt this kind of drive in a very long ti, a thrill for the new and my brain wanting to see just what is over the next change so badly. Yes, I had gotten tired of the dungeons, but there was so much else to explore, and I could even live with a few of those as long as I had ti to practice my own craft. Most of all, though, I wanted to build things again.
“So much that I don’t know how to easily explain it. When this started, I was running on pure anxiety, day after day, just trying to figure out what was happening and why, but now? I can feel the thrill of it all. There’s just so much potential to learn and so, so much to build. I want to say that it's been years since I had this many ideas in my head, but I don’t think I ever really have,” I answered. Sanquar nodded back, seemingly understanding the nonsense I had just spewed. I needed to pick the brain of the bird soon.
The high judges exist as a way for factions to bring matters to a resolution without a war. Instead they can plead their cases to a panel of judges and have a ruling. While legality can sotis sway just what the ruling is, what usually matters is the power of the petition relative to the power of the defense. In the Spiral, rarely do those with less power co out ahead.
Grom’s Musings
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