"You have everything you need?" I asked, fussing over Gilles and Keilan, bouncing back and forth between the two. Keilan rolled his eyes as I smoothed out his robes, gently pushing me away. I allowed myself to be pushed back, nervously shifting from foot to foot and wringing my hands. This would be the first time any of my children had been away for so long – the first time any of them had ever left the Four Realms on their own.

Even during the meeting I was still technically with them when they were visiting other universes, and when I'd left the Realms for said meeting, they were safe within the Four Realms proper. It wasn't like this, where they'd be beyond my sight…relatively speaking.

"Mother, stop worrying. I'm a big kid now, I'll be fine," Keilan laughed at me, though I could see in his soul that he was putting on a brave front more for my sake, even if he was confident that it would all be ok. That just made me worry more, however, and I bit my lip to stop myself from saying anything else.

"Right, right, I know." I said weakly. I did know that, I just…ugh. Children leaving home was hard. Reika stepped up beside me to link her arm in mine, offering just a bit of comfort. I patted her hand, as while I did appreciate the gesture, it did little to assuage my nerves.

"Besides you'll have plenty to worry about here." Keilan added. At this it was my turn to roll my eyes. Right. Plenty to worry about – I could already see exactly how everything was going to unfold in the Physical Realm at this point, and the construction of the defenses had really progressed into a phase where building the nodes and tweaking the formations was the last bit to handle. Mortals were predictable, Immortals less so, but I still had a pretty good grasp on them.

The Karmic Realm would function perfectly fine under me. The only thing that would distract me much was Alala…which, now that I really thought about it, was probably what Keilan was referring to in the first place.

"Yes, Matriarch. Do not worry about us," Gilles said, while Elvira fussed over him in her own way, wings pulled tight to her side and tails thrashing as she looked him over. "We are plenty capable of handling ourselves."

"That's not what I'm worried about." I said, moving over to pat him on the shoulder. "I'm just…worried, is all, as parents do." The shadowy deity nodded, Elvira pushing a little trinket into his hands that he promptly stowed in the sleeves of his robes. Gilles smiled knowingly, and stepped away to say his final goodbye to Elvira. Keilan moved over to me, wrapping me in a quick hug, then stepping away as well.

Reika whispered a few things to him. Alexander, silent up to this point, had his own little conversation with him - which just reminded me that he would be taking a similar journey to the Primeval Dragon's universe once Keilan got back. I don't think I could stop him, after I brought it up. And then the time had come, a portal opening between the Four Realms and the One World.

It was likely a gift from Mr. Boxes that I could see beyond the portal into the universe beyond, however briefly. Yueya, Alala, and Curie all stood just beyond the portal. Mountains stretched as far as the eye could see, Astraea, the goddess of stars that had accompanied Yueya to the meeting, adding to their number. Alala waved. Yueya smiled. I waved back, and Keilan and Gilles stepped through. Alala gave Keilan a slap on the back, sending my son stumbling as she passed him by, practically skipping through the portal. And, just like that, it snapped shut, leaving Alala in my Realms, and my children in the One World.

I worried my bottom lip for a moment, staring blankly at where the portal had been, then turned to Alala. The tanned woman was grinning widely, head swiveling back and forth as she beheld the Four Realms. We currently stood just inside the shell of Primordial Chaos, on a little patch of land I had made for this, the Lunar Star slowly rotating by as it circled the Four Realms proper.

"Welcome to the Four Realms, Alala. Does this count as your first time here?" I asked. Admittedly, I didn't fully understand how their three-bodies worked. Did they consider something one of them did something they all did? I had to imagine it wasn't like my incarnations, which were essentially hive-mind clones, or else it wouldn't be as big of a deal.

"Seeing it through Yueya's eyes just doesn't do it justice. It's really not fair that she's the only one who got to get out and go play, but Curie wouldn't listen to me about that." Alala said, sucking in a deep breath, then turning her attention to my other kids. Like a whirlwind she moved over to them, inspecting them one by one. "You must be Elvira! The strong one. Shake my hand!" Alala didn't take no for an answer, hand snapping out to grip Elvira's. My daughter fluttered her wings awkwardly, eyes shooting to me in surprise as Alala rapidly shook her arm up and down, muscles bulging as she crushed Elvira's hand.

Not to be outdone and sensing a challenge, Elvira returned with her full might, the very space between them warping from the sheer physical might being exerted.

"Ooo, strong handshake you got there. Excellent!" Alala laughed as she moved over to Alexander, who tilted his head at her and smiled toothily. "You're Alexander, no mistaking it. Nice to meetcha!" she patted Alexander on the side, while he dipped his head in greeting.

"It is my pleasure, Lady Alala," he said firmly. She laughed at him, and turned her attention, finally, to Reika.

"Reika! The punny one, if I remember right! It is nice to meet you too!" She clasped Reika's hand gently, my green-haired daughter's eyes sparking with a bit of mischief as she returned the gesture with a touch more force than necessary. Alala just laughed, a deep rumbling thing that echoed from her gut. "Another strong handshake! You've got some good kids, Statera!"

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"That I do." I agreed as she moved over to me, wrapping me in a bone-breaking hug. My breath left my lungs as she lifted me off the ground, squeezing tightly and grinning all the while. I laughed, letting my legs dangle until she set me back down, laying her hands on my shoulders and just…grinning.

Damn. What a happy woman she was. It was infectious, honestly, and I couldn't help but grin right alongside her.

"Now, what should we do first?" She asked, cracking her knuckles, excitement bleeding from her in waves. She was treating this much more like a vacation than training, wasn't she?

…maybe that was the right mindset.

"First, I need to show you around, let you meet some people. Get you accustomed to the Realms. Then we can start on whatever training we can," I told her. She nodded, turning to watch the Lunar Star as it slowly spun, cocking her head to the side as the soul within waved at her.

"Odd. But awesome! Let's go!" And with that, Alala led the way into the Four Realms, my children and I following behind with varying degrees of amusement.

***

Keilan wasn't immediately sure what to make of the One World. For one, it was absolutely massive, on a scale he hadn't been able to imagine before. Sure, Mother had told him it was and had shown charts and plenty of diagrams, but that was one thing. Seeing it for himself was entirely another.

Yueya smiled at him and Gilles the moment the portal snapped shut behind them, his divine senses unable to even cover the entirety of the One World, Curie already pulling out a little tablet to tap at.

"We'll show you around a bit. Since you're a god of connections, I'll be wanting to use you to help us revamp our reincarnation and afterlife a bit. I'm not expecting you to do much work, but another set of eyes would be helpful." Curie said bluntly. "We don't have a god of the afterlife yet, so I am expecting you to have a bit of insight in the subject." Keilan nodded to her, appreciating the fact she was all business. Gilles shifted beside him, looking about with eyes narrowed.

"We do have a bit of work to be doing. We are still short-staffed after all, so I apologize for the quick welcome." Yueya said softly, bowing her head. "Still, Curie is right. We do have time to show you around. Come! Follow me," she said happily, turning and leading the way through the sky. Keilan boldly stepped forward as well, Curie falling in beside him and Gilles trailing behind as they shot through the sky, soaking in as much information as possible.

Gilles had told him why he wanted to come here. Keilan figured he could help with that, put some puzzle pieces together, and thus was acting in a way separate from Gilles. The deity of shadows was better put to use doing things behind-the-scenes, while he took center-stage. It wasn't like they were trying to sabotage anything, nor were they trying to make enemies, but…

It felt kind of like being a spy, albeit with good intentions. He wasn't quite sure he liked that word, but it was one that he used all the same.

"Our sun, unlike yours, is drawn across the sky by a god." Yueya explained, gesturing skyward. Keilan focused his vision on the sun and the god pulling it, surprised to see a chariot actually pulling the massive ball of flame. And, if he stretched his senses a bit, he could see a similar chariot pulling the moon…and another one, pulling another sun. How many were there, just to cover the entirety of the land? Keilan shook his head.

What really caught a bit of his attention, however, was the goddess who had accompanied Curie and Yueya. While Curie started listing off statistics and such – the number of gods and powerful spiritual beings was actually slightly higher than the Four Realms in number, if a bit lesser in quality and not nearly enough to cover the entirety of the One World, according to her – and Yueya talked about the design of the world itself, the star goddess, Astraea was her name, approached Gilles.

Keilan stroked his chin and nodded, listening to it all. The connections were here…now he just had to follow them, wherever they led.

***

Showing Alala around was like showing a kid a candy shop. She seemed endlessly fascinated with almost everything we came across, but with all the energy of a toddler on a sugar high. As soon as she had inspected one thing, she immediately bounced to another, bouncing about like a ping-pong ball.

Reika was quickly becoming endeared to the energetic woman.

"What's this?" Alala asked, holding up a spirit stone. Specifically one Reika had condensed from her own divine power, making it a spirit stone of Change – she figured tossing those into the Physical Realm could cause some treasure hunters to appear, and act as another little distraction for the mortals from Mother's suppression of their cultivation. It was a surprisingly – or perhaps it shouldn't be so surprising – effective tactic.

Reika explained what it was to Alala, and the woman made the appropriate noise of interest before moving toward one of the Treants that stood guard within her palace-lodge. Standing still as it was, the tree-person was almost indistinguishable from a regular tree – Alala seemed to really like them. Far more than any other race she'd met in the Realms so far.

"And what's your name?" Alala asked the treant, who, predictably, did not respond. "Well, I'm going to call you Maple. What's the point of the Immortal Races, Reika? Everyone's given me a different answer so far." She asked. Reika pondered her question for a moment.

"Well, to put it simply, each of us main gods have come up with two different kinds of People. A mortal, and an Immortal, one to be more of an ideal or example, and to work as servants of ours, and the other to rise up and make the foundation of the Realms." Reika said, knowing full well the true reasoning had changed over the eons. But she hadn't made the Treants just to be protectors of the Physical Realm. They had more purpose than that.

"Really? What's Statera's immortal race?" Alala asked, confused. Reika stared at her blankly, surprised it wasn't obvious.

"The gods." She said, and Alala made a little noise of realization in the back of her throat, nodding.

"I see." She said, and immediately moved off to inspect a powerful land spirit that was one of Reika's closest advisors…one who wasn't an angel, anyways.

Speaking of, there was an angel of hers approaching now.

"Mistress Reika," the angel, a former river spirit, said as it approached from the side with head bowed. It shot a furtive glance at Alala, who was being entertained by the treant guard as it displayed a bit of cultivation magic for her, but quickly refocused on her. She folded her hands into the sleeves of her robes, and waited for a reply. "I was told to inform you by Lady Fu Hao that the Rival has made contact with the Mad Scientist."

Reika nodded her head, glancing at Alala, who now had her attention on them. Angels were another curiosity of hers…she just wondered what she would think of the Monkey Wrenches, or any of the other things. This was only one of her incarnations, so surely Mother was introducing her to many things. Reika drummed her fingers on her leg, peering down at the Rival and his current location.

Hmm.

She wondered…Alala didn't have Mother's sight, but…could she somehow tell what a Monkey Wrench was? Did she have a way to do that? She wanted to test it.

"Alala, there's something I want to show you." She said, smiling at the muscular woman. She perked up immediately, eyes shining. "Let's go to the Physical Realm."

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