Next, it was time to meet the parents, so to speak. Beth was in the lead this time, and took them down the central street to the community center, which had been rebuilt since she was last there into a somewhat larger, three-story construction. There was one of Zack's people guarding the front door, looking rather bored, until they walked up. Then they jumped up and came halfway to attention before thinking better of it and questioning the group.

  "Sorry, but not just anyone can go inside at any time," she said.

  "Yeah, well, my parents are in there, so we need in," Beth said, sighing in frustration.

  "Well, I'll have to check," the woman said.

  "Hold one," Beth commanded, holding a finger up to her ear, the symbol for being in a call, which got a strange look from the woman. Beth just rolled her eyes, dialing her father.

  "Sweetie! What can I do for you?" Thomas answered almost instantly.

  "You can come downstairs before I put one of Zack's cronies through the front door of your building. Literally," Beth said, chuckling a bit over the line.

  "Oh, what? Are you here?" Thomas asked, Beth unable to hear the sounds around him through the communicator, but just able to imagine him scrambling to shuffling his papers together and stand up.

  "Yes, Dad, we're downstairs and being told that, what was it? 'Not just anyone can go in?'" she said.

  "I'll be there in just a moment," he said, him clearing his throat carrying over the line even though it was just a vocal tic that he didn't need to pass through.

  He was true to his word as, after just a few seconds, she could see him through the large window in the front doors, hurrying forward from the back of the building. The guard was now nervously glancing between them, Beth guessing the woman had finally used Identify on them and figured out she was out of her league. If only she really knew.

  "Welcome, uh, girls," Thomas said on opening the door. He gave the guardswoman a quick wave, signaling everything was alright, before leading them into the building. They followed him down the central hallway and to a set of stairs that led up to the third floor, a large part of which was taken up by a large office where it was clear a group of people worked. That office was backed by a conference room, which took up most of the of the rest of the floor.

  "Look who's here," Thomas declared as he entered in front of them, gesturing behind himself happily.

  "Who-ah, Beth!" her mother exclaimed, walking over and pulling her into a hug that she returned with a small sigh. "God, you're strong."

  "Sorry, I tried to hold back," Beth said with a grin as they separated.

  "And how's my fourth daughter?" Rachel asked, hugging Blood firmly, the wolf surprisingly returning the hug enthusiastically.

  "Fine, mom," Blood growled.

  "Oh, it's nice to hear you call me that," Rachel said, pulling back with a small laugh and a smile.

  "And who is this?" she asked.

  "Yes. I'm quite curious of that as well," Thomas added.

  "This is Neph, Blood's bonded companion," Beth introduced.

  "Aren't you Blood's companion?" Rachel asked, glancing between them.

  "A person can have up to four bonds at once, apparently, so Blood has a second bond now," Beth answered.

  "I see," Rachel nodded while Thomas made a note. "And, who is this?"

  "This is my wife, Sera," Beth said, laughing uproariously at her parents' shocked expressions.

  "I'm her girlfriend," Sera answered with a sigh and shake of her head at Beth's antics.

  "Fiancée," Beth fired back, repeating their routine from earlier.

  "Fine. But like I said, I still don't have a ring," Sera shot back, holding up her bare left hand and wiggling her fingers, her long claws shimmering in the light.

  "I'll get you one, don't worry," Beth said, grasping Sera's hand in both of her and pulling it to her lips to kiss.

  "Focus," Blood growled, flicking the side of Beth's head with the sound of a rifle firing. Somebody else, like the guards that had been annoying them, would have had their head blown off, but Beth's head didn't even sway.

  "You're just jealous your tall, pale, sexy lover-girl isn't here," Beth replied, turning and admonishing Blood while at the same time interlocking the fingers of her right hand with Sera's left.

  "That doesn't have anything to do with it," Blood replied with a frown, crossing her arms over her chest and glancing to the side.

  "Aw, shy," Beth said in a teasing tone, blocking another flick with a movement so fast her parents couldn't even follow it.

  "What's all this about?" Rachel asked, looking between them.

  "Blood's got herself a little lover-girl, well, scratch that, a rather tall and beautiful lover," Beth started explaining before Blood cut her off.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  "That's not important. Why don't you tell your parents who your girlfriend is?" the wolf shot back.

  "Look, that's not important, either," Beth demurred.

  "Who is she?" Rachel asked, though she looked at Sera as she did so and raised her eyebrows.

  "She a princ-" was all Blood got out before Beth managed to grab her mouth.

  "Don’t start," she growled before Blood grabbed her back and wrestled her to the ground. Beth was a lot stronger, but Blood was super-fast and somehow more slippery than a greased eel. The two rolled on the floor as Neph watched and Sera stepped over them, draping her arms about Beth's parents and steering them away.

  "Why don't we sit down and chat while they figure out who's stupider?" she asked.

  "I think that'd be lovely," said Rachel, glancing back at the two before continuing on.

  "Are you sure they're alright?" Thomas asked as Sera guided them to several chairs in the corner by a small table.

  "Don't worry, they're not being serious. If they were, this whole building probably wouldn't survive," she said.

  "Really? But we've reinforced it with enchantments," Thomas replied with some surprise.

  "Yeah, well, I hate to break it to you, but the very basic enchantments and low level of materials isn't enough to stop…that," Sera said, gesturing helplessly at the writhing ball of armored limbs on the floor.

  "You girls are really that strong?" Thomas asked as they sat.

  "Well, Neph is still somewhat far behind us, but the other three of us, sure," Sera said, sitting across from Beth's parents.

  "Do you mind me asking just what your numbers are at? Just what your stats and levels are currently?" Thomas asked.

  "I don't mind that much, but I'll just say generally," Sera answered. "We've done our fourth rebirth, though we didn't have to get through it so fast, and we're approaching our fifth. We all have over a thousand in the three physical stats and multiple hundreds in the mental stats. We also have quite a few of our skills in Gold. This is minus Neph, of course."

  "Incredible," Thomas said as he jotted a few quick notes. "And you've done this in only a few years?"

  "Well, we're all older than we look," Beth was the one to answer, having disentangled herself from Blood. She walked over and saw Sera had already removed her armor, removing her own so she was just in CRA clothes before sitting in Sera's lap. Sera didn't even blink at this, wrapping her arms around Beth in what was already a subconscious gesture.

  "What do you mean by that? Elizabeth Anne Bell, I gave birth to you! I certainly know just how old you are," Rachel said with some slight exasperation.

  "Time compression," Beth answered. Seeing her mother's mostly blank, slightly frowning look, she elaborated, "I've spent time in places, dungeons and the like, where time passes faster inside. I've been in a dungeon for a year and only a month passed outside. You think I'm twenty, but I'm really like, uh, thirty-six or something."

  "I haven't spent quite so much time doing the same, but I'm also just objectively older; I was born before Beth. I'm in my forties right now, almost fifty," Sera added.

  "Then, you're almost our age now? And your, uh, girlfriend is even older than us?" Rachel asked, having a bit of trouble processing what was just dropped on her.

  "Something like that," Beth said with a shrug, leaning back against Sera.

  "And don't worry so much about age," Sera added again. "Walking this Path give you decades, centuries, even millennia more lifespan."

  "It's not giving us as much as you though, is it? We're already old and not advancing very fast," Rachel said with a slightly piercing look in her eyes.

  "You're still thinking too limited," said Sera, absentmindedly reaching over and scratching Blood right next to them, who had Neph in her lap. "The Limitless Path has infinite possibilities. Within that, living long, or even never aging, is not only possible, it's not even particularly difficult."

  "You're talking about the Fountain of Youth? Immortality?" Rachel asked in shock.

  "Sure, if that's what you want to call it," Sera said.

  "You know Tazeen?" Beth interjected into the conversation.

  "Yes, we've spoken with him extensively," Thomas replied.

  "Jaq told us earlier he's immortal and probably the oldest of the ones at 'our' CRA Hall right now," Beth said.

  "Really?" asked Rachel a bit dubiously, glancing at Thomas before looking back at the girls.

  "Really. The guy I've been doing jobs for is immortal," Beth said with a nod.

  "I'm what, now?" Mortaine asked.

  Beth lashed out lightning quick, slashing her blade at Mortaine, which had appeared from her necklace in an instant. He deftly and quite easily caught it in the crook of the highest knuckle on his right index finger, trapping her blade with no effort.

  "You detected me as soon as I appeared," he said a bit crossly.

  "I have no idea what you mean," Beth said, trying, and failing, to pull her sword back. With a swift movement, she twisted the hilt so the blade slightly bounced and vibrated for a second, just long enough to break contact with Mortaine's finger, allowing her to make the greatsword disappear into her necklace.

  "Beth," said her mother, drawing out the word slowly. Beth also noticed the blade that had appeared, somewhat late, in her hand, though her father remained calm and empty-handed. "Who is this?"

  "The guy I just mentioned," Beth said. "You know, I think he stalks me. This isn't the first time I mentioned him and he just, very conveniently, suddenly shows up."

  "That's quite rude," Mortaine said without a trace of anger in his voice and a slight smile on his lips.

  "You've got more work?" Beth asked, leaning back against Sera, feeling an extremely pleasant squishing sensation against her back.

  "Well, in a bit," Mortaine said with an idle wave. "But please, this is a lovely world and you were just having such an interesting conversation."

  Beth's eyes narrowed and she just stared at him for a moment. Finally, she turned back to her parents and said, "Anyway, Tazeen is immortal and has likely lived since the ancient Egyptians were first figuring out how that whole pyramid thing worked. So, you don't really need to worry about age."

  "But it still requires us to keep fighting and getting stronger," Rachel said, casting nervous glancing at Mortaine.

  "Nonsense, my dear," he butted in. "Why, if you have enough money, you can make a whole planet immortal. Though, I wouldn't recommend just giving that away all at once. Can lead to some, hmm, unfortunate consequences."

  As he scratched his chin and got lost in thought, Beth continued, "You don't even have to get strong to live forever, is the point. There're dozens of ways to do it. Just, listen, don't worry about age or any of that. It's not an issue."

  "Now that we've got that sorted," Thomas interjected before they could keep spinning their wheels, "why don't you introduce us?"

  "Oh, yeah. Hey, this is Mortaine. Mortaine, these are my parents," Beth said, getting a poke from Sera and flat looks from everyone but Mortaine, who remained entirely calm even in the face of her insouciance.

  "Apologies for her, but I'm sure you can relate," Mortaine said to Beth's parents before standing and giving them a small bow. "I'm Reginald Mortaine Adelaine Maelodon, but my friends all call me Mortaine, which I ask you do. Your daughter and her companions have been incredibly valuable in some of my work and I thought I'd drop by and see how they were doing before another little vacation."

  "Well, if you've got work, we can just-" Beth started before being interrupted by a very hard poke from Sera that made her grunt.

  "Our daughters," Rachel said, glaring at Beth before gesturing to the rest of them, "will enjoy some time off at home with their family. I have to thank you for looking after them. Really, it means a lot."

  "Oh no, no trouble at all. They're all remarkable individuals," Mortaine said, including even Sera and Neph, who he had yet to meet, in his praise.

  "Well, we certainly think so," Thomas said with a big smile. "Can we, uh, get you anything or arrange somewhere for you to stay…?"

  "Oh no, it won't be necessary," Mortaine said with a wave of his hand. "I just wanted to pop in for a moment and say hello." Turning to Beth, he said, "I've sent you a data packet for the next thing you can do for me, but it's not urgent, and it will take you quite some time regardless. Look it over when you have a chance."

  With that, before anyone could say anything else, he disappeared with a noise like a soda can being opened and bright pink bubbles filling the room. Beth just frowned at the empty chair where he used to be, annoyed at the Exalted's capricious nature and aggravating teleports.

  "That was certainly…interesting," said Thomas.

  "He does it on purpose," Beth grumpily replied.

  "Does what on purpose?" Both her parents, and Neph and Sera, looked perplexed.

  "Every time he's appeared or disappeared, he makes a different sound and a different visual effect," Beth snarled, waving at the just now disappearing bubbles in frustration.

  "He often appears silently," Blood corrected a bit pedantically.

  "Whatever," Beth grunted, leaning back into her girlfriend firmly yet again. "Anyway, let's change topic. If I think about that old coot any more, I'll go just as mad."

  "Well, alright, it'll be nice to catch up anyway," said Thomas, looking at the four of them.

  "So, anyway, where are my sisters? And Sabs? Are they around?" Beth asked.

  "Ah, yes. Your sisters," Thomas replied with a bit of hesitation.

  Beth cocked her head to the side a bit, giving her parents a look. "Why I am sensing this might be going somewhere I don't like."

  "Well, not that you won't like it, just that it's a bit much," Thomas said.