The shock of seeing his family suddenly appear in front of him stopped all of his thought processes for a few moments before they started up again, but they were a lot more sluggish than normal. What? How? Where did they come from?

  Larek wasn’t the na?ve and ignorant young man who’d been forced to leave his family behind in Rushwood anymore, so he immediately suspected that what he was seeing was an illusion, or else some sort of horrid trick. As his vision continued to clear from the blinding light, the more real his family appeared. Larek attempted to pierce through what he was sure was an illusion with his Magical Detection Skill, intending to see that each of their forms was simply a mass of Mana to deceive him, but that wasn’t what was revealed. Instead, they were flesh and blood, as physically there as they could possibly be.

  His brother and sister, Marco and Kendee, appeared older than he remembered, but that was understandable considering he hadn’t seen them in years; what was unexpected was that they didn’t appear as old as he expected them to be, considering that it had been nearly 7 years since he’d seen them, even if his own experiences only accounted for half of that time. He thought that something was wrong with their ages, but he couldn’t tell if it was his imagination or—wait. Chinli said something about them being in stasis, didn’t she? I wonder if that’s what happened to them.

  Next were his parents, or at least his biological mother; Janek wasn’t technically his biological parent, but he still thought of the older man as his father. He appeared worn down and was slumped over in what appeared to be pain, even as he tilted slightly off-center to keep his weight distributed to his good leg. Apparently, even with access to healing spells, none of the Gergasi had deigned to help fix his old injury – another reason to hate what the Gergasi have done.

  His mother, Keandra, appeared even more run-down than before, only keeping herself upright by holding on to Janek’s arm. The vitality that she still maintained despite her weak body seemed to have been drained almost completely by whatever captivity the Gergasi had put her through, and she was just barely able to lift her head when he locked eyes with her.

  All of them were wearing slightly different versions of the plain clothes that he remembered they typically wore to go Logging, but those clothes were also a bit rumpled and frayed around the edges. They were clean, at least, so he supposed that his family hadn’t been kept in a dirty cell for years on end. Other than that, there was no sign of them having been abused or overly mistreated, though he supposed simply being held in captivity was a mistreatment all by itself.

  “Mom? Dad? What are you doing here? How did you get away?” he asked, unsure how to even respond to their sudden appearance. As much as he wanted to be excited by their presence, he was still wary that this was a trick.

  “My boy? Is that you?” his mother whispered, her voice sounding exactly as he remembered, if weaker.

  “Larek? How are you here? In fact, where are we?” Marco asked, looking around in confusion. When he seemed to realize that he was hundreds of feet up in the air, he wobbled in a bout of vertigo, but thankfully his sister came to his rescue by grabbing his arm and steadying him. Then she turned accusatory eyes on Larek.

  “I don’t know who you are, but you can’t be my other brother. We were told he was killed by a Scission’s monsters at some fancy academy. I don’t know what kind of trick you’re trying to play, but it won’t work!” she practically screamed, on the verge of tears.

  What is happening right now? Are they really… here? The more they spoke and acted, the more they sounded exactly like they would if he was back home. A bit more mature, perhaps, but that could easily be explained by the gap in time since when he’d seen them last.

  Just to confirm that his eyes and senses weren’t messing with him, he tested each of them again, trying to sense any sign that they were an illusion or if they were any type of artificial construct; he even tried to determine if something was remotely messing with his mind, making him hallucinate, but he couldn’t feel or sense a thing like that happening. For all intents and purposes, these people were really there in front of him – as improbable as that might be.

  “It’s me, Keandra. Who told you I was killed?”

  At his words, his mother stumbled forward, her eyes locked on to him, as if ensuring he wasn’t going to disappear. Janek helped her forward, the dutiful husband, though he could also see a hint of something else in his demeanor; now knowing that his mother was a Noble, he could see the mannerisms of a servant in his father, though that role had obviously been discarded long ago. Was he simply fulfilling his duty as a servant to a Noble lady? Or did he actually love her? Looking at the two of them now, he could see the love they shared in the way they moved with each other; whether or not it had been love at first, he could see that it had grown into the current state of their emotions over time.

  “It’s really you,” Keandra whispered again, as she got closer. He let her approach, still wary of the entire situation, but it was difficult to pull away when it was his parents that he was looking at. He could even see the tiny spark of potential in them that he thought he could help unlock at some point, and he wanted this to all be real more than anything.

  Larek leaned over as his mother’s hand reached up to cup his cheek, a tear falling down her own as she smiled, relief passing over her features as she confirmed that it was him. “My son. How are you here? The vile Lord Vilnesh told us that you were killed some time ago, but now you are here with us. Am I dreaming?”

  “No, mother. I’m really here. The reports of my demise were apparently greatly exaggerated,” he stated, feeling a tear starting to fall out of his own eye at the happiness he was feeling.

  A noise behind him caused the others to startle back in obvious fear. “Larek? What’s going on? Did the Fusion not—what? Who are these people, Larek?”

  Everyone else had stayed below while he’d come up to use the Mass Energy Absorption Fusion, and apparently it had been too long since he’d done so. Nedira had walked the steps to find a bunch of strange people around Larek, and she was rightfully suspicious.

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  “Oh, uh, these are my parents, Keandra and Janek,” he quickly responded, standing in front of them. Waving toward his brother and sister, who were cautiously approaching him as well, obviously not entirely convinced Larek was who he said he was, he said, “And these are Marco and Keandra, my siblings.”

  “That’s, uh, great, Larek,” she responded evenly, as she slowly walked up the last few steps to the top deck. The staff in her hand, which had been upright as she walked up the stairs, suddenly dropped horizontal, aiming toward the newcomers. “But this isn’t possible. They were held by the Gergasi, remember? They can’t possibly be here.”

  Scratching the back of his neck, Larek nodded. “I know that. But I can’t see anything within them that seems wrong,” he explained. Not liking talking about his family as if they weren’t real, he spoke to his mother, who was looking between him and Nedira with a knowing look on her face. “I thought at first that you were illusions or some sort of hallucination, but I can’t detect anything of the sort. And the fact that my betrothed can see you means that it’s not all in my head,” he said with an uncomfortable chuckle.

  “Your betrothed, huh? When did this happen?” his mother whispered, her voice a little stronger than before. It was as if seeing her son again had slightly revitalized her – and seeing that he was getting married helped even more.

  “Oh, uh, not that long ago. We’re going to wait until all of this mess with the Gergasi—”

  “You mean the Great Ones? They really don’t like it if you don’t attach their honorifics,” his father interrupted sternly but uncomfortably, as if embarrassed by Larek’s lack of knowledge.

  Shaking his head, the Divine Fusionist stood up straighter and looked Janek in his eyes. “They don’t deserve that honor. They took you from your home and kept you captive, all because you were connected to me. And after what they did to mother—”

  “What did they do to her?” Keandra angrily asked, getting up in Larek’s face as if it was all his fault. Well, not quite his face, as she was too short, but she stepped up to him as if she was preparing to start smacking him around if she didn’t like his answers. She’s become quite the young woman, hasn’t she? He kept the smile at that thought off of his face as he began to answer her, but he stopped when his mother put her hand up.

  “It’s not important right now; what is important is that we’re back together and we’ve escaped the clutches of Lord Vilnesh,” she whispered sternly enough to cause Keandra to back off.

  “That’s a good point. How did you escape from the… uh, them?” he asked, not wanting to get into another argument with his father by naming them Gergasi.

  Each member of his family appeared uncomfortable as they glanced at each other, as if they figured someone else had the answer. Finally, Marco spoke up. “I have no idea. The last thing I remember was being forced to talk to one of the Great Ones, Lord Vilnesh, I believe, where he told us you had died. He left us alone for a few hours, where we were trapped in an opulent room with no easy-to-access doors to escape, and then… nothing. Next thing I knew, I was standing across from you here, on this… flying wooden platform?”

  The other members of his family seemed to agree that this was what they remembered last, before suddenly appearing nearby.

  Needless to say, it made absolutely no sense.

  How did they even get here? Did someone on the inside help them escape?

  There were too many unanswered questions, but he pushed them aside as he felt the biggest smile on his face; before he knew it, he was gathering up each of his family members in a large group hug, tears streaming down his face as he experienced familial happiness for the first time in too long. One of his objectives had been accomplished already, through means that he didn’t understand, but he wasn’t one to dwell on it too long.

  His family was free – and now Larek needed to get them away from the Calamity and somewhere safe. He’d just gotten them back and wasn’t ready to lose them again anytime soon.

  *   *   *

  Nedira heard something drop to the deck above her shortly after Larek went up to throw his Fusion at the barrier preventing them from leaving the Calamity. She didn’t think much of it, even as she braced for the sudden acceleration that her betrothed told her to be ready for. Once his new and dangerous-sounding Fusion did its work, they wouldn’t have much time to break through the gap in the barrier before it was sealed over; as a result, he was going to punch them through as quickly as possible, perhaps even while the Fusion was still active. It wouldn’t intrinsically hurt them, but he warned that it might end up causing the Fusions inside The Hopper to malfunction for a short time, and that there was a small possibility that he’d lose control of the vessel and crash.

  Hopefully outside of the Calamity, rather than in it. Thankfully, everyone had the new protective Fusion on them that would keep them safe even in the event of a crash, so even if they did end up destroying The Hopper as a result, the people inside of it would be fine.

  Looking out of the side wall of the vessel, she kept expecting Larek to launch his Mass Energy Absorption Fusion at the largely invisible barrier preventing their escape. She could somewhat make it out with her Magical Detection and Primal Essence Mastery Skills, but she couldn’t see it anywhere as well as Larek apparently could. That was fine, though, because she had improved those few relevant Skills multiple times, even from the short time they were inside the Calamity.

  After about 30 seconds, nothing was happening, which Nedira thought was strange because she figured she would feel at least something of what the new Fusion was supposed to do. But she felt nothing. “Did you feel anything?” she asked Frynth, who was leaning against one of the internal vessel supports.

  After he shook his head, she moved from where she had been standing and said, “I’m going to go check on him and see what the hold-up is.”

  “I’ll come with you. Perhaps he figured out another way, or he got distracted thinking about Fusions,” he chuckled, obviously knowing that Larek frequently did that. She chuckled lightly along with him, but all humor abruptly died as her foot hit the first step of the staircase leading up to the top deck.

  Dread filled her as she immediately felt overwhelmed by a familiar sensation. Despite the danger that she knew awaited them above, she forced herself to sprint up the stairs.

  I should’ve stayed below.

  The first thing she saw was Larek, standing perfectly still in the center of the top deck of The Hopper, his hands down by his sides and the rock that held the new Fusion on it near his feet, where it had fallen out of his hand. She caught a glimpse of his face, and a chill fell over her as his expression was completely devoid of emotion, and his eyes were wide open.

  She wanted to go to him, but she felt her feet frozen in place as the other sensation she felt approaching prevented her from moving. It wasn’t that something was keeping her stuck in place; instead, she now knew what it felt like when a small animal was caught by the tracking gaze of a predator, and any movement might give them away.

  With only her eyes able to move, she observed and felt at least 8 distinct individuals flying their way with leisurely speed from outside of the Calamity – and they weren’t inside of a transport. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that these weren’t their people coming to check up on them; instead, it was the exact danger they had worried about when planning on coming to the Calamity.

  The Gergasi were coming, and they were coming in force.

  Worst of all, they had done something to Larek, and Nedira had no idea what to do.