Saturday night brought it all out in the late summer of Toronto. Adventurers several drinks too many deep swaggered around waving their enchanted weapons and rare Familiars, groups of partiers bounced off to some all-night rave, families got their steps in with floating baby carriages, and teens smoked in parks next to the old heads playing games of skill and Skills. Hawkers, buskers, unionizers, preachers, worshippers, bullshitters, Curse Givers, Curse Takers, Warders, and shrunken head sellers hooted deals of the days and never before seen enchantments. Pay up, get your mind blown! Just remember, absolutely no refunds, and yes, we're pretty sure this stick of meat is in fact meat.

Alex's car no longer thunked to life thanks to Mary's fixes. He peeled out of his parking spot, rolled down his now-working window, blasted some Aerosmith directly into his speakers from his [Audio Player – Level 2], which was a very useful upgrade, and drove home through the chaos.

His mind was fully occupied with Nino and Nina as he swerved and fought his way through the traffic. Strobe lighted motorcycles roared above and through the tight passages between cars, and Alex didn't pass a thought for those deliverers from the Courier Guild that tore through on their scooters, floating feet, or even in one case, an enchanted rake. The Lich he worked for was planning on expanding their Domain. Which meant they were going to become more powerful, and he in turn would grow alongside them in Credits and Skills.

Self preservation be damned, the thought of skipping out on them didn't even cross his mind once. Nina and Nino, who gave given him a chance to make a better life for himself, and started up the journey of a lifetime, were going to get his help. And Alex had come a long way from the boy with Skills others didn't appreciate. If they wanted to grow, he would help, and now that he was on his own path he enjoyed, he would grow too.

But first, relaxation and food.

He parked his car in the driveway, smiled up at the light from Mary's third floor room, grabbed Nina's takeaway bag she packed for them, and practically sprinted through the door. Harold the bookshelf didn't grumble as he passed. That ghost had been awful quiet as of late.

He barged into Mary's room without knocking. Before he could give rattle off a hello, a dense body of fur hit him on the chest and sent him right to the ground.

"Ugh, Emilio," Alex groaned, but pet the cat standing and purring on his chest. "You're home tonight. Don't worry, I think Nina packed you something too."

Emilio, his thirty-pound gray cat, rumbled a deep purr and rubbed his face all over Alex's.

"You mean to say enough for everyone, yes Alex?" Petal Gravewhistle said from the windowsill. Looking up between his cat kneading his chest, he spotted the Garden Gnome, and self appointed body guard of Emilio, looking over his shoulder from his position. Presumably scanning for enemies and interlopers. "A great Steward must be kept well fed. Yes, I have grown quite fond of carb loading. Does wonders for my physique. To awake in the morning with muscles filled with gumption and vitality. A necessary toil then, to gorge."

"Shhh," Mary shushed sharply. She was at her cluttered desk, hunched over her new creation. "Alllllllmost done." Alex couldn't see Beepy or Zippy anywhere.

He didn't comment anything back. There was no talking to her when she was in the zone, tightening screws, sorting wires, sauntering metal, and bringing it all together with her own Skills to make it something truly special. So he cleared her cluttered coffee table instead, pulling out the containers from Nina and gave Emilio some serious scritches just where he liked it. Gravewhistle leapt off the window and came over to stare longingly at what Nina had packed.

One of the containers was some fresh baked buns, of course. No good meal is complete without fresh, crackly bread and the accompanying smaller container of cold pressed olive oil. Another was a salad of tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and little balls of soft white cheese Alex had learned were called bocconcini. But the main fare was the three packs of pasta.

Nina had packed them a feast of cannelloni. Not cannoli, the crumbly pastry stuffed with sweetened ricotta and mascarpone.

Cannelloni were long, thick tubes of pasta stuffed by hand with meat, sauce, cheese, and more cheese, which were baked in the oven and topped with sauce and even more cheese taken to a perfect leopard-spotted golden brown. Like Italian sausage rolls, if the sausage rolls were pasta, and the innards were the worlds best meat and sauce combination. They'd cut apart easily, maintained their structure, and delivered a punch of food religion straight to your belly.

"Oh, my great Sun," Gravewhistle whined. "Cannelloni. Mighty shade and root! Yes! With backageeeni! Oh, Marzipan and Petunia are going to be exceeeeeedingly jealous." He laughed evilly to himself at mention of withholding the goods from his two wives.

The Gnome fist pumped and leapt over to grab some paper plates and plastic forks for them from the corner, essentially phasing between the two spaces. Emilio purred and waited to be served. Alex wasn't sure if pasta was good for his cat, but Emilio was a big boy. He could handle it.

"And done!" Mary finally exclaimed from her desk, pushing off and huffing out a big breath. She looked over at where Alex, Emilio, and Gravewhistle waited to dig in. "Dang. Looks delicious. I'm hungry as hell, you know how I get into the zone—"

"And forget to eat for a whole day, yes," Alex interrupted, trying to look at her desk. "Is she…Ok now?"

Mary beamed and looked back at her desk. Alex was still getting used to her new augmentation. It suited her fine enough, it was just strange having to look at your previously completely blind that wasn't technically blind any longer. In the past couple of weeks, Beepy and Zippy had grown more independent, leaving Mary without a constantly hovering drone to act as her eyes. She had been hard at work.

The result of that work was her left eye. She had rummaged through a retro electronics store with Alex's help and settled on an old HD webcam. After whittling it down and tossing all the nonessential parts, she had secured the lens over her own glassy eyeball through some sort of Skill he didn't understand and linked it with her brain. Voila, Mary was now a certified cyborg. It even ran off her own Essence stores. She was still on the hunt for camera number two, though.

"You can come out now," Mary said, speaking as sweet as possible. "Don't worry, they're gentlemen."

From deeper on Mary's desk walked the newest drone that she had brought to life.

"Boys, say hello to Aria."

Aria was a plastic doll brought to life. She had the proportions of a young woman, realistically curved, and wore a little knitted doll sweater with a little pair of slacks and white sneakers. She had brunette hair stuck in a permanent relaxed style, as her outer layer was just tough plastic. Her face looked mostly human. Thankfully it was not a caricature of a woman's form made to sell to impressionable brains. She was also only ten inches tall.

Mary had picked up her shell at an estate sale of an old crone who loved doll houses and dioramas. Apparently, before the System came, people would make miniature versions of practically anything. They'd create landscapes, or open-faced houses styled with miniature books, with perfectly placed cutlery set in the imperfect way people do. Some of those people would buy expensive models of people to place in those little worlds. According to the slimy auctioneer, Aria's shell was rare. Mary had paid up big time and then laboured for weeks over the inner workings of Aria's being.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Hello, my dear!" Gravewhistle bellowed too loudly, which startled Aria, who leaned in behind Mary. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance! I am Petal Gravewhistle, Steward of Sun and Shade, Arbiter of Girth, Bringer of Root, Silencer of Shroom, and please, there is no need to treat one with my long list of honorifics any differently." To his credit, Gravewhistle did bow deeply to Aria.

"Hey, Aria, don't be afraid," Alex said nicely. "I know it can be scary, but we don't bite, and I just know your brothers Beepy and Zippy are going to love meeting you. Plus, Mary isn't so bad."

Aria looked at Mary, shuffling in her sweater, then back at Alex to give him a teeny tiny little smile.

"Meow." Emilio greeted Aria too, which made her go wide-eyed.

"Yeah, cat's pretty damn smart," Mary sniffed while grabbing a plate and shovelling a mountain of cannelloni onto it. "You get used to it though."

"Um," Aria said in the world's smallest voice. "Hello…umm…it's nice to meet you all."

Now that surprised Alex. Beepy had a voice, but had also upgraded to a miniature mech. Zippy still couldn't speak. The bot did have a knife that could cut through anything, though…so did you really need a voice when you could enact brutal judgement?

Alex, and somehow Gravewhistle and Emilio, knew not to make too big of a deal out of Aria. Mary had spoken with them the past night. Don't freak her out and panic that she's alive. Don't step on her. Don't you dare chase her, Emilio. Gravewhistle, chill out, you can be oddly intense.

This was the third sentient drone Mary had created, so Alex was used to it by now. Be normal. Aria would follow suit and not start floundering under the weight of existential dread.

And what was the most normal thing to do? Eat, of course..

Gravewhistle placed a couple cannelloni in front of Emilio, who started munching and mewing at the taste, then handed Alex a healthy plate stuffed with half a dozen cannelloni, a bun, and a good serving of tomato and bocconcini salad. Looking up, everyone was gorging themselves. Mary even handed Aria a tomato.

The young doll panicked for a moment when she noticed Alex watching her. He gave her a reassuring grin, which she tried awkwardly to match. Then Alex looked down at his plate to show her that it was OK to eat and took his first bit bite of still warm cannelloni.

When someone takes their first bite of cannelloni, they're often taken aback. First, golden cheese hits your taste buds, then comes the tart tang of sauce. Teeth move through perfectly firm cooked pasta and sauced meat is waiting at the center. Another layer of pasta awaits at the end of the bite, but this one is different than the first layer. The bottom is slightly crisp from the baking in sauce. Usually, when one chews, they moan and savour the perfect combination of pasta, meat, and cheese, and they feel something rush through them. What is rushing through them, perhaps?

Questions like: When can I have this again? Or, why have I never eaten this before? Maybe they ask, are you telling me these are pasta stuffed with meat and covered in cheese?

Then they go silent, save for their heavy breathing and eating, and devour the cannelloni until there is none left. That's the thing with cannelloni. You can always have another. And there is never any left.

Everyone ate. At some point, Mary even gave a little chunk to Aria to moan over as the spoiled rotten doll enjoyed Nina's cannelloni as her first meal. Gravewhistle ate twelve, along with three buns saturated in olive oil, and a cup of salad. Emilio mewed and flopped against Alex's leg after housing his plate.

"Boys are out, huh?" Alex asked as he rubbed his belly and pat Emilio after their meal.

"Yep," Mary said, not sounding upset. "Another one of their 'missions,'. You know, they still won't tell me a lick of what the hell they're doing. But they keep coming back, so I guess they're not doing anything too stupid?"

"Creations of War and Justice need not offer their explanations," Gravewhistle said from the windowsill as he brought out the coconut oil. He unscrewed the lid and began his application process, focussing far too much on his nipples. "But I understand your concern, Dame of Drones. I am sure they are watching each other's backs and enacting their will with care."

"I just get worried…that's all." Mary said sadly. Alex knew it must have been painful to watch your creations whom you relied on grow up and no longer rely on you.

"I'm just happy I'm here," Aria piped up from a shelf. She had climbed up there while exploring after her little meal. "I…umm…I wanted to say thank you, Mary. I can't promise I won't grow up, but, I didn't know what life was. And now you've showed me. I'm...excited to see what it's like."

"Yeah." Mary said without raising her head. She was fake sorting through Alex's loot to avoid everyone seeing her teary eyes. She was happy, of course she was happy about Aria, but it was still hard to become a bit of an empty nester.

So far, the loot tips had nothing good to use, but it was still all good to sell at Jemin's. Alex didn't mind. When something big landed in his lap, hopefully next week, he'd use that.

"And the Tax Guild? Still snooping?" Alex changed the subject.

Gravewhistle snorted. "They rustle the bushes and shake the Earth without care," the gnome answered as he scanned the street. "We see them. We follow them. We anticipate they have nothing on you. Madame Snu? Still they scout around her new acquisition. Nothing new to report, besides the fact that they have started tracking us as well."

"What?" Alex asked. "You? And Emilio? What for?"

"Fear not, Alex," Gravewhistle said, giving himself a firm pinch and twist with both hands, which made Alex distinctly uncomfortable. "We are everywhere, and nowhere. Yes, they might have found we use that empty Dungeon for training, but the Gnomes are always two tunnels ahead," Gravewhistle beamed. "And Emilio will strike with his next move when none expect it."

"Meooooooooow." Emilio added, bumping Alex's leg with his head.

Alex looked down, somehow understanding that it wasn't a normal meow, and that Emilio wanted his attention.

Emilio was looking up at him with wide open green eyes. His cat, who had picked him when he was literally a street rat, stared into him with just a touch of mischievousness. Emilio stretched, unfurling his tucked paw, and Alex spotted what he was trying to show him.

In Emilio's claws was a Monster Core. A white marble stuffed with Essence. The cat stretched harder, cracking his oversized back, and his paw dropped the Core into Alex's lap.

"For me?" Alex asked.

"Too damn smart, what did I tell you, Aria?" Mary yawned as she plonked herself down onto her bean bag.

Emilio meowed again, with Alex's brain understanding that yes, the Monster Core was for him.

"From Don Badger's cache," Gravewhistle said proudly. "I am pleased to announce that the Gnomish Brigade of Allen Gardens, under his furdom and battle prowess, Emilio of the GnOpal, that we have acquired Don Badger's region, and the badger now acts under us."

"Woah," Alex said. "You really took over Don Badger's region and control that spot of the city now, big guy? And got this for me? You want me to use it, huh?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll watch over you," Mary yawned out again, stretching. "Aria, pick a comfy spot, tomorrow we force Alex to use his bloody upgrades."

"His what?" Aria asked. "Upgrades?"

Alex pat his cat, who purred deeply against him, already over the interaction, and [Investigated] the white Monster Core in his hand.

[Brilliant White Heron Core]

Mary was dozing off, and Aria was examining things, clearly too amped up to go to bed just yet. Alex got up, said good night to Aria and Mary, and headed back down to his room. Emilio and Gravewhistle followed.

The gnome forced him to brush his teeth, and then climbed atop the two cat condos that sagged in one corner of Alex's room. Emilio jumped onto the bed, taking up a whole side, and looked at Alex as if to say, "you coming to cuddle me, or what?"

Alex set the Core on his desk next to Terry the dragon-shaped bong and climbed in next to Emilio. The cat meowed and nuzzled back into him.

There was a lot to do tomorrow. Presumably Emilio would be upset if he didn't cultivate the Core, and Mary was likely going to force him to use his upgrades from Nino and Nina. He also wanted to go visit Snu at her new project. He had no idea what kind of Skill a Brilliant White Heron Core would grant, or what it would do.

But of course, he was excited to find out.

It was exactly two minutes until Alex passed out into the back of Emilio over the rumbles of Gravewhistle's deep snores.

And in the night, several blocks away, not too far from Nino's Pizzeria, two drone brothers snuck around, searching for their target. They were getting close now.

Beepy turned and looked at his brother. Through their new skill [Better Together], they communicated their brief plan and linked up. It let them fight together in perfect sync.

What's scarier than a miniature mech with nasty Skills coming to get you? Make that two mechs, synced up, one with a knife that could cut through anything. Oh wait, they also fight like whirlwinds with pinpoint strategy.

Zippy unfolded his [Ancient Paring Knife]. It was time to get 'em.

"ALWAYS ANOTHER BADDIE TO GET." Beepy announced loudly. Their target panicked and searched for the source of the electronic voice so many of his kind had come to fear.

Just a few more baddies, the System had said, and then they would get their new upgrade. The two brothers leaped and charged. Dramatic music blaring from Beepy's speaker wasn't necessary, but he had a certain flair to maintain.

Beepy and Zippy would take all the baddies down if need be. Together, of course.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.