Sol O’her had just finished another hunting trip. He was quite pleased both with his hunt and leveled up. He had almost forgotten the feeling of it, getting closer to achieving level 600.

  He sold off most of the materials from his kills but kept a few that he thought Pops and his niece would like, though something irked him.

  He could remember her face, voice, and personality. He could even remember the promise he made to let her reforge his twin katanas when she achieved the title of Grandmaster Blacksmith.

  He looked at his nameless blades and wondered why he couldn’t recall her name. When he was hunting, he was too preoccupied to notice, but now he knew something was wrong. The first chance he got he wanted to send a message to them to find out if something was wrong.

  That was when he saw the email from Pops.

  The email explained what happened to @#%$.

  “Why can’t I even acknowledge that she has a name?!”

  His fury only motivated him to find out what was going on as he read the rest of the email as it also explained that Pops was leaving her with GAT, after reading that he immediately contacted GAT to get him in touch with his niece. While he waited for them to verify it was him he was setting his ship's destination for the world they lived on.

  He didn’t like having to go through so many portals so quickly as it wrenched his gut but if it meant arriving that’s all that mattered.

  “Mr. O’her, we have verified that it is you on the guardian list. However, we must update you on recent events.”

  “Please start with why her name seems to be glitched out of reality.” Outwardly he was calm even if his glare could kill. Inwardly he was panicking non-stop. He was wondering why they hadn’t messaged him sooner. He would have gladly abandoned his hunt to be there for her.

  “We are not aware of that ourselves, but there are other council representatives here saying that she joined each of their factions. She is also no longer human.” The GAT employee hated that he was the one who had to tell Sol this. They naturally recognized Sol O’her, the Rot Bane. The man that is expected to reach level 600 in the next decade or two. The higher factions were going nuts trying to recruit him.

  “What do you mean no longer human?” His worry was finally getting the better of him as his wrath made him lose control of his strength. This caused him to break the arms of his chair, making the GAT employee squeak out of fear, despite not even being in the same sector.

  “We don’t know what she is. She appears to be a kitsune, but they are calling her a hybrid. We offered to have someone represent her in these talks, but she has denied it. She claims that if she can’t represent herself then only those on her Guardian list can.”

  ‘Stubborn as always.’ He thought to himself before thinking about what to do.

  “Put me into that meeting. And I request access to GAT portals to get there sooner”

  “We can grant you access but all portals within fifteen sectors are non-responsive.”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Sol took deep breaths. He knew yelling at him would solve nothing. They were at least going to give him some access which should speed up the time greatly. Though even if that gets him to the closest portal it will still take a month or two for him to arrive.

  “Okay, Mr. O’her we are putting you into the meeting now.” As soon as he was done talking the screen changed as he was now looking at the most chaotic meeting, he had ever witnessed in his 2000+ years of living.

  A grey-skinned black-haired fairy queen was yelling slurs in a fairy tongue at his niece who looked drastically different.

  A high-ranked demon in a yellow suit was gasping for air from laughing too hard.

  Finally, there was the leader of Spiritus holding his niece in her embrace like an angry momma bear yelling back at the fairy queen. He only recognized her because she was the only nine-tailed kitsune alive and every tail was wrapped around his niece like she was afraid that his niece would disappear.

  “Hi, Sol!” Lila waved at her adoptive uncle.

  “Hey, kiddo. If the representatives be kind enough to give me a moment with my niece, it would be appreciated.” It took all of his restraint not to yell at them to get lost, but they obliged him for now, even if it was only because GAT’s sanctuary rules gave him the authority to override Lila’s decision on guests.

  “Okay kiddo, explain what happened since Pops emailed me.”

  After hearing this request, he watched Lila’s ears and tail droop and saw that her yellow eyes shifted to blue.

  “Pops got arrested. I panicked and summoned both Kon and that Unseelie fae. From there I turned into a kitsune-fae hybrid. Though that fairy took my name.” She explained as if she was trying to remember something relevant to what she just said.

  “She took your name?!”

  “I did offer it. Oh, that’s it she didn’t take my entire name so I’m Lila now.”

  Sol did not know whether to laugh or cry at this. Giving your name to a fae is the equivalent of being a slave that can’t even hide from them until you can either get it back or change it. There has never been a known case where the fae didn’t take someone’s entire name.

  Sol at least understood why it was hell for him to recall her name. It was torn apart.

  “Okay, Lila, which faction did you promise to join?”

  As her smile grew her eyes were dominated by a vibrant purple.

  “None of them.”

  “What do you mean none of them?”

  Lila was doing her best not to laugh at this.

  “I mean I convinced the leader of Spiritus to turn me without saying I wanted to join and tricked Tuatha to turn me thinking that a window to recruit me was closing. I overheard you complain to Pops once about the fae collecting names so I gambled on giving most of it. I also killed someone where I took a pill that made me a cambion to survive the fight. Or at least to take him down with me.”

  Sol went from relieved to furious in the course of this conversation as he began to reprimand Lila for her recklessness.

  *

  Outside of the meeting room, Mab was pacing back and forth. She had gotten conned so if she didn’t find some way to get Lila her reputation would sink and for the fae reputation meant a lot. This was before taking her wounded pride into account.

  Asmodeus waited patiently. He has been alive long enough to know the value of waiting. Besides, if Lila wants to refine her demonic abilities, she will need to come to him to increase her rank. He won’t let her go to the other demon leaders for this.

  While both were having their thoughts while secretly praising Lila for managing to deceive so many powerful people and get into a position where they weren’t willing to harm her truly impressed them.

  The odd one out here was Kon. The reason was that when Sol asked everyone to leave, she realized that Lila wasn’t fighting to be released or hyperventilating in her grasp. Thinking back on it, it felt like Lila snuggled deeper into her hold. This brought a smile to her face and warmth to her heart.

  Each sat in their own world thinking about how to end this meeting to their advantage when Lila came out. Her teal eyes only enhanced the saddened look on her face.

  “You guys can come back now. My uncle has a proposition for you.”

  Once back inside Sol explained his solution. He was going to make a roaming faction to take care of Lila, but she would spend one month in each representative's care. Afterward, she is free to join any of them but until she makes a decision, she will be part of Sol’s faction.

  All three agreed, though Mab only did so reluctantly. Though now was the argument of who would Lila stay with first.