I stopped by Firefoxx's restaurant in the morning. Although it was run by only one person, I found it much nicer than the Dine at Night place back in the Realm of Mianite. This felt, somehow, more professional.

"Did you like it?" she asked when I had finished my meal.

I smiled at her. "It was wonderful, thank you!" I let out a small sigh. "Alyssa would've loved you."

Her proud grin faded slightly. "I'm sorry . Well, perhaps we'll see her again. I'd love to meet her as well."

"Hey, Sonja!" someone called. The door flew open, and Jericho burst in. He was wearing his full set of scale armor, and was holding a scary-looking red sword.

"Are we leaving now?" Firefoxx asked in surprise as she cleaned off the table.

"Yeah," he replied. Looking at me, he added, "We're conducting a ritual now, sorry."

"Oh, it's fine." I stood up to leave. "I finished my meal anyway."

Jericho moved to the side to let me through the door. "Well, come back soon!" Firefoxx called after me.

"Hey, Mot," Sparklez greeted me as I was walking back to the priest's house. "Where are you off to?"

"Just going back home to rest," I told him, not sure whether or not calling the priest's house 'home' was correct or not.

"Oh, alright. I was just heading to the daycare center." His wings spread out, as if he was about to take off.

"Daycare center?" I asked, suddenly intrigued. "We have little kids here?"

Sparklez looked uncomfortable. "Kind of. They're actually... well, I'll just show you." His wings folded back, and he walked me over to a small cottage.

"Daycare center," I said, reading the signs on the wall. "Specifically for Ianitas?"

Sparklez pushed open the daycare door. "These are the Ianitas. I have the first, original one in my fortress, but suddenly more and more of them appeared. They're technically just little fragments of Ianite's soul."

"Sperioles!" a bunch of them cried. It would have been terrifying, a swarm of screaming children, if they hadn't all been so cute. A couple of them ran up and hugged Sparklez, to his shock.

"They've... er... always recognized me as their father. I guess it's because I'm Ianite's champion or something." He caught the look on my face and glared at me. "No, it's not my baby, I promise. I never did anything like that with... look, Ianite and I weren't...." He stopped talking, clearly distressed.

Shocked, I quickly shook my head. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you!"

He couldn't meet my eyes anymore. "It's... it's fine. I don't know what Ianite and I were, but it doesn't matter anymore. All that matters is getting her body back. The Ianitas will help with that."

"Okay," I said quietly. Figuring I had done enough damage, I left for the priest's house again. He wasn't home, so I sat down at the table and thought of things I could do with my time.

"Hey, boyo," Dianite greeted me as he entered the room. "You look upset."

I shrugged. "No, I'm not. I just think I upset Sparklez." I leaned back in my chair and sighed. "We were around the Ianitas, and of course Ianite is a touchy subject for him."

"Ah, I see. The two of them were insanely close. I felt incredibly bad for him when she passed away. He refused to accept the fact that she, a goddess, could actually die. Poor thing," Dianite replied quietly.

I tapped my fingers on the table. "But we'll be able to revive her, right?" I asked. "Both of you?"

"Hopefully," Dianite answered, which wasn't entirely reassuring. "To revive me, all we need is to find my body. The heroes are working on that currently. Ianite's death came as more of a surprise, so we're not exactly prepared for her to revival. However, we're starting to get an understanding now. She died because her quintessence was drained from her. We have some of her items, and they have some of her quintessence. If we can gather enough of those items, we can revive her."

"Alright," I said. Not knowing what else to do, I stood up and started to leave. "There's no point in just sitting here. I guess I'll go for a walk, and do what I can do."

I felt him getting up too. "Then I'll join you."

A few days passed, and I was getting the idea that Ruxomar was definitely not safe for the other three. The longer I stayed here, the more happy I was with my decision to leave them behind. Left and right, things were going wrong. Attacks, deaths, disappearances. Explosions and toxic chemicals. The places we had all loved were burned and destroyed. Alyssa would have been devastated to see this.

As I was walking through the decaying land, exploring everything that had changed since I had left, I felt Dianite appear next to me. "Hey, Dianite," I said, turning around to face my invisible god.

"How did you know I was here?" He asked, shocked. He moved to the other side of me, and I followed him with my gaze. "Can you see me?"

"I can't see you, no. I can just kind of feel your presence," I tried to explain. "Back in the Realm of Mianite, we had to look out for when the evil Dianite was spying on us. We all developed a sense for when gods are nearby."

"Oh. That's... interesting, I suppose." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, I have a task for you. Someone converted all of the Ianitas to, well, little copies of me."

I laughed. "What do you want me to do about it?"

"Could you kill them for me? It's a strange request, but I need them gone." He was almost pleading, which I found amusing.

"Fine, fine." I took out my hammer and walked toward the daycare. "I'll kill your little selves."

It was almost funny to see all of the mini Dianites running around in the house. There were way, way too many of them. A few of them ran at me, so I swung my hammer and got rid of most of them easily. I moved toward the last one, who was sitting on a chair in the back of the room, when he got up and spoke to me.

"Daddy!" the little Dianite cried, his eyes lighting up. He jumped down from the chair and ran toward me, hugging me.

"I'm... not your dad," I tried to say, but the kid ignored me. He grabbed my hand and started to pull me toward the other side of the daycare.

"Daddy, come pway with me!" He begged. A huge smile appeared on his face when I started to follow him.

"Boyo, what are you doing?" Dianite asked, appearing next to me. "Kill him!"

"I can't!" I pleaded, kneeling down next to the little kid. "He called me Daddy!"

Dianite burst into laughter. "I suppose he recognizes you as my champion. Very well, you can keep the one."

The little Dianite waved at both of us. "Hi Daddy! Hi other Daddy!" He picked up a toy and began to play, his smile still as wide as before.

Suddenly, the door burst open, and Sparklez walked in. "What's going on?" he shouted. "Where are the Ianitas?"

"They should be in your fortress," Dianite told him. "Someone thought that making all of them baby Dianites was a clever prank."

"His name is Dianito," I told Sparklez. To my relief, I saw a small grin appear on his face. Sparklez sat down next to me, and the three of us watched the newly-named Dianito run around.

I've had a bunch of family over this weekend, and, being the oldest, I had to watch all the little kids :P figure I owe you guys a small chapter spam to make up for the lack of updates.