The aircraft cut low over the city, and Logan watched the streets blur past beneath him, Alice’s arm still looped through his like she had no intention of letting go anytime soon.
His parents sat pressed close together across from him, Vina wedged between them, all three of them looking at him like they were still checking he was actually real.
"You’re really here." Helen’s voice cracked on the last word.
"I’m really here." Logan reached across and took her hand. "I told you I’d come back."
He couldn’t keep the grin off his face, not even trying to anymore. "Everything’s about to be so much better. I promise you that. No more night shifts, no more counting what’s left at the end of the week. None of it. Not anymore."
The trio looked at Alice, whose melodious chuckle filled the room. "I told you."
"You did."
"Yey! Brother won his first match! You brought back summons, right?!" Vina was excited.
"Yep. I’ll summon them once we get down. They are awesome."
The aircraft settled down in front of the villa a few minutes later, and Logan stepped out onto grass that smelled like it had been cut that same morning, the garden’s canopy throwing long cool shadows across the whole front lawn.
’Billy. Solveig. Martha. Synthia.’
Light gathered in four separate points across the lawn, and his summons stepped out of it one after another. Billy’s void-black wheel-legs caught the sunlight wrong, bending it around the rim the same way they always had.
Solveig unfolded wings of solid light and the majestic armor, making Vina gasp out loud at the brightness.
Martha arrived already smelling faintly of spice, apron somehow already tied despite there being no kitchen anywhere nearby yet.
Synthia came last and quiet, her whole body etched with faint glowing runes that shifted slowly across her skin like something always being rewritten.
Alice let out a low whistle, eyebrows climbing.
"I knew they weren’t temporary." She grinned, glancing sideways at him. "Don’t worry, it’s a secret. You’re lucky we both met, you know?"
"I guess so." Something warm crossed his face, quieter than his earlier excitement. "Thanks. For everything."
Vina was already tugging at Solveig’s arm before anyone could stop her, asking if his wings actually worked or just looked pretty.
Daniel stood there taking in all four of them with the same slightly stunned expression he’d worn since the aircraft first touched down. Helen just watched Logan, quiet, like she was still trying to fit the last few days into something that made sense.
Andrivida appeared a moment later, a woven basket ingredients easily in both arms, and set it down in front of Martha without a word.
Martha peered inside, and whatever she saw there made her whole face light up.
"Oh, now THIS is something to work with." She was already rolling up her sleeves. "Give me twenty minutes."
"Cook something good. I want my parents to get better after eating it." Logan grinned.
"Leave it to me, boss."
"Thanks."
Whatever Andrivida had gathered wasn’t anything Logan recognized. Fruit that glowed faintly from the inside. Roots that smelled like something between cinnamon and lightning. A cut of meat marbled with veins of gold that pulsed slow and steady, like a heartbeat that hadn’t quite stopped.
All of them were either legendary or mythic.
Martha worked fast, hands moving in a blur that didn’t match the careful precision of everything she actually produced, and the smell that filled the garden inside those twenty minutes was enough to pull Vina away from Solveig’s wings entirely.
The dishes came out steaming, plates arranged around a table Ultium had apparently built sometime in the last twenty minutes. Logan had his gears since he brought them out, including his storage ring, so he had stored some stuff like the table.
Logan’s family, Alice, Andrivida, and the four other Mythics sat down together and ate.
Helen made it through half her plate before her eyes started drifting shut between bites. Daniel lasted a little longer, fighting it visibly, before his own head finally tipped forward too.
Neither of them fell asleep so much as sank into it, whatever was in the food working through years of exhaustion their bodies had never actually gotten the chance to fully recover from. C
olor came back into both their faces even as they slept, small aches Logan hadn’t even known to look for smoothing out one at a time.
Logan sat there and watched it happen, feeling warm and steady behind his ribs. They were going to wake up feeling better than they had in decades.
Vina lasted longer than either of her parents, chasing Billy’s detached blades around the garden until her legs finally gave out somewhere under the biggest of the canopy trees. She curled up right there in the grass, out cold within a minute.
Billy and Solveig didn’t move from where they’d ended up standing near her, not quite hovering, not quite relaxed either, just present. Two Mythic-rank guardians standing watch over an eleven-year-old’s nap like it was the most natural assignment either of them had ever been given.
Logan found Alice sitting on the porch steps, watching all of it with a look on her face he couldn’t quite place.
"What do I owe you? For the ingredients and this house, and everything else you did for the past two days." He sat down beside her.
"Don’t worry about that." She waved a hand. "But you can pay me for the house, since I’m sure you’d rather own it outright with your own money." Her smile turned a little sly. "I bought it two days ago to move your family in. Cost a hundred eighty-four Tier Points."
Logan did the math without much trouble. "A hundred eighty-four? That’s steep, but for a location like this, I get it."
Alice grinned and elbowed him. "Come on, tell me. How much did you actually earn?" She was already pulling something up on her own screen before he could answer. "I checked the news already. Changes to a floor leaderboard don’t happen often. Player L is sitting at the very top of Floor One’s leaderboard now. From Earth, no less." Her grin widened. "People are headhunting for you."
Logan looked out at the garden, at Vina asleep under the trees with two Mythic-rank guardians standing watch, at his parents finally resting easy for what might have been the first time in years.
"I don’t want to let anyone find me, especially with my family. I want them safe, sound, and happy."
"Then I got an idea for that." Alice grinned. "A perfect idea."
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