Nushi and I headed from her old room out onto the balcony. The same one I remembered first walking up toe visit Nushi.


    It wrapped around the inside of the Keep, but it had lost its luster. The ce didn''t look the same as the first time I hade in.


    The floor was now just wood; the grass that had been there before was now nothing more than memory. The rest of the Keep also looked in, wood and stone.


    As the two of us ran down the stairs, I turned my head to Nushi and asked, "Does this mean Noel was responsible for the way the keep looked before?"


    Seeing this now made me wonder how Mex and her had been fooled by Nixi for so long.


    "No, my father can also use Spatial Magic, and he was responsible for the entire interior of the Keep. Now the only thing he keeps up is the bathing room since Noel is more capable at this type of Magic than dad," Nushi exined as we opened and then ran out the front door.


    The answer that Nushi gave me was a surprise, but it made sense. I had seen him use it to retrieve hisrge ck sword.


    At the time, I had just assumed that it was some type of ability that higher-level demons had ess to. So many of my views had changed since then, not including how much everything had changed since my arrival.


    "That makes sense. Let''s just hope that most of the girls…." I started to say but was cut off at the sound of something breaking.


    We both ran around the corner in sight of the east side of the apartment, and the sounds ofmotion and girls yelling started to get louder. That made both of us run faster to the south entrance, and I reached for the door.


    I opened it up to half the house in the living room, and the ce looked like a warzone.


    I walked in with Nushi as Howl came zipping by me with Mary close behind. Howl blinked out of existence the moment he could see up the stairs with a steak in his mouth, reappearing at the top.


    "Get that Mut! He stole… oh, hello Zack! I was making your food, but this small animal stole it!" Lidy growled, but she looked happy to see me.


    I had no time for a greeting because Mary was slithering fast across the floor and going for the stairs.


    "The Meatsss has ssstolen your Meatsss! I will getsss it back!" Mary hissed, but I scooped her writhing body up into my arms.


    "No, it''s fine! This little rascal is Howl, and he is not on the menu! He is a friend of mine; we are both just famished," I exined to everyone.


    Mary stopped fighting me and then turned her body in my arms, giving me a quizzical look. I smiled at her and then kissed her forehead, making her snakes rustle and hiss slightly.


    "Are you sssure that it''s not meatsss? It looks like meatsss!" Mary asked me, and I rolled my eyes.


    Howl suddenly appeared in the air in front of Nushi, giving her just enough time to catch him. The steak was almost gone at this point, but Howl''s paws were stained purple.


    "You forgot to tell me that the house was filled with monsters and Demons!" Howlined, but I was ring at the stains on Nushi''s pink top.


    "Get down; you are making a mess of her shirt! No one will eat you, I am pretty sure," I growled at Howl, and the small blue wolf winked out of existence, reappearing on the floor in front of me.


    <o>,m "You girls are forever making work for me!" Noelined from where she and the other Grandmothers were standing.</o>


    Suddenly, like I had witnessed back in Crater City, the room started to pull itself back together. As the Broken furniture and ornament started to reform, Mary wrapped her long body around mine.


    "Can we go get some meatsss?" Mary asked after she had settled herself behind me.


    I could feel some of her spit leak down onto my shoulder, and I smiled. Not everything has changed since I arrived in this world.


    There were some things about each of the girls that I hoped never changed, but that also reminded me.


    Tomorrow was ourst day on the ind, and I still had to visit some other ces. After that, we would no longer be inside this ind''s safe bubble.


    We were going to be thrown out into the world that would be filled with countless deadly creatures and Demons. There might be some along the way that proves to be too powerful, but I could afford to lose.


    I looked around the room; this was only a small portion of the people under my watch to take care of. I was going to have to work harder.


    [Just remember that you are not alone, and part of your job is to protect your people, but not the only thing. You will have to teach them to be able to defend themselves. You will leave this world at some point, and not everyone will being with you.]


    I put a hand on Mary''s, resting on my shoulder, and headed for the kitchen. Before I left the living room, I stopped at the doorway, turning to the other women in the room.


    Clesh, Noel, Perita, Kimera, Fairilese, and Frieda were now moving back to take ces on the reformed furniture. In the future, I hoped to be closer with each woman.


    This wasn''t only because they each were beautiful and had their charm. I was sure that there was something special about them.


    There was something I had begun to notice with most of the people that I had met. More importantly, the one''s made connections with after time gave me a slight feeling of remembrance.


    Now I could feel something like strings that indescribably connected us all together in a grand web. All I really knew for sure was that I didn''t want to lose any of my girls.