Eli was sitting in a middle seat of his stone meeting table near the fireplace, he had put some wood in it and was poking at it with a fire poker while pondering the phrase, ‘destructive home security' when the first person walked in to speak with him. Not surprising him in the least it was Stevens, which Eli was almost completely sure was going to leave, probably taking Cody with him and maybe Beau as well. All of them wanted adventure and a girlfriend. While he would be embroiled in plenty of adventure and adventuring was dangerous, his kind of adventure was more dangerous than most and he wouldn’t hold it against them for leaving. However, Stevens didn’t look like he wanted to leave, he looked a bit manic and was twitching a bit.

  “What's on your mind?” Eli asked.

  “Well,” Stevens said, and then paused. Eli stayed quiet giving him the space needed to collect his thoughts. “This has all gotten out of hand.” He sighed and seemed to loosen up as he kept talking. “Are we friends?”

  Eli was surprised at the question but answered without hesitation, “I think of you as a friend, a close friend in fact.”

  “Could we just stay friends then? I want to travel on my own or with Cody or someone, but I also want to be a part of what you are doing here. Everything changed so quickly and you seemed to have a handle on it, so I just kind of tagged along so I could get my feet under me, so to speak. But now I think I have a handle on things and I want to see the world and conquer things on my own. It's kind of hard to say I did something when a man-shaped physical manifestation of power is standing next to me.”

  He seemed to be waiting for a reply so Eli spoke up, “Of course, no hard feelings, you go show the world your power and prowess. Maybe pick up a girl or three, you are welcome here any time and I will always be available to you for help should you ever need it.”

  “Ok, that sounds good, it sounds like what I am looking for. Now there's just one more thing.”

  “Oh?” Eli said with a cocked eyebrow.

  “Can you make me a servant? I'm only attached to Tara right now and I don’t think that is what I need. It’s not just to get more strength from you,” he quickly added. “I just think that…”

  “You think that it will be easier to pick up girls being a servant to someone like me than a follower of Tara.” he said with a smirk. Stevens put a finger on his nose as a gesture that he was right on the money with his guess.

  Eli chuckled, “not a problem at all.”

  The next person to visit was actually two people, Cody and Beau, and they both just wanted to be here, live here, go on adventures with the people here. But they did not want to join anything or be beholden to him. Eli told them it was fine, but it would mean he would have less to do with them personally, which they also agreed was fine. After they left, he sat and played with the fire some more, this time he was wondering how many people he should have. Maybe just fill the town and have half attached to him and half just be freelancers like Cody and Beau were. This topic seemed like something Bethany would be able to help with, he wanted the town to feel full and lively, but he didn’t want every person there to be like a worshipper or something. She could figure it out and send Lucy and Audrey out recruiting.

  It was almost an hour later before Tara and Bethany joined him, both in loose comfortable clothes fresh from the bathing area. Having forgotten all about the baby making comments from earlier, Eli pitched them his idea for the town. He was making things up as he was explaining it to them, but everything he said felt right to him. Half the town just be friends or crafters or whatever, and the other half be people connected to him. He also explained that he wanted a crest, something that would announce to everyone that the person wearing the crest was one of his people. This would help with recruiting and such as well as letting the people know about him.

  Next to come in was Arinya, which surprised all three of them since Lucy and Audrey were taking the longest. She sat down across from them directly in front of Eli and just stared at him, looking deep into his eyes, not in a romantic way, but in an investigative way. She did this for a full minute before speaking.

  “How do I know you are really what you claim?”

  “We are not here to prove anything to anyone, ask your questions and tell us what you want,” Bethany said. She was quick to cut off Eli from doing something crazy to flex since he seemed to have a bad habit of trying to show off.

  “Ok, so what do I get out of it?” Arinya asked

  “Pardon?” Tara asked, doing her best to hide her anger, but a little purple spark of lighting arced on the scar on her arm.

  “Well,” Arinya gulped, “What are the benefits of fully joining? I’m not going to half ass this, I’m either all the way, or I’ll pack up my family and leave. So I want to know what I get, and what my family gets, if I join.”

  “I’m not sure we want someone with that kind of an attitude to be in our close circle. Following Eli isn’t a job that you get paid for, it’s more serious than that.” Bethany said.

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  “So I have to do what he says, and what you say, but I don't get anything in return? It doesn't sound like a good deal, and would I have to do anything he said without question?”

  Both Tara and Bethany nodded, Eli remained stoic because he was pretty sure where this was going and they were going to fall for Arinya’s trap.

  “So if he told me to join him in bed?” Another set of nods. “What if he told you to kill me?”

  Eli saw both of them distort the space around them and appear next to Arinya in an instant. They had done it in different ways, Bethany using a siphoned off version of his blink skill without realizing it and appearing next to her with spear in hand and at her throat. Tara distorted time and just basically moved very fast with the spike on the back of her axe over Arinya’s heart.

  “Nicely done Arinya, you tricked them into demonstrating some of their power. Can we get to the real questions and the real reason you are here please? I assume you want to join, maybe not at a high rank yet, but you do want to get started. Also, that you want to move your family to the town if you join.” Eli asked very casually, as if he hadn’t just read her mind. He actually hadn't; he was just paying attention to her magic while she was talking.

  Arinya’s jaw dropped and Tara and Bethany looked at each other, shocked that they had been tricked into action. Eli was realizing that he was smarter than he used to be. Well, maybe not smarter, it was more like he could piece things together easier. However, this was not the time to think about that so he just pushed that aside for future Eli to deal with.

  “Yes, that's right,” Arinya admitted, “but how did you know?”

  “Never mind that, I need you to tell me what your real question is, or rather, your real concern that is making you hesitate?” Eli stated, he was staring into her eyes, the stare backed by just a bit of new universe approved transcendent ability.

  Arinya withered under his stare and was having trouble getting words out, Tara and Bethany both shivered when they looked at him. “I want a boyfriend… that isn’t you.” She was almost shaking by the time she got it out.

  Eli closed his eyes and took a breath, “What makes you think that would matter?”

  “Tara and Bethany are your closest and highest ranked people, and you sleep with them…”

  “You bet he does!” Bethany interrupted with an inappropriate amount of enthusiasm. Eli shot her an admonishing look, but winked at her with his head turned so Arinya couldn’t see it.

  “I want in, and don’t want to be some low rank coffee girl, but I don’t want that kind of thing.”

  Tara got a mischievous smile on her face and said, “Wow, so it is possible for women to turn you down. We need to find more like her to keep you from getting a big head.”

  “Don’t get me wrong, you are super hot, I'd rip these clothes off in an instant if you were single, but I don’t share. You seem like the kind of guy who is always going to have ten women lined up, so I would rather find something more my speed.” Arinya said.

  Tara put her face in her hands while Eli got the biggest ‘in-your-face’ grin she had ever seen. “I’m totally fine with you just being a servant for now, and WE promise that your role and rank in the group won’t be swayed by the amount of clothes you wear in this building.”

  Arinya seemed satisfied with that answer, and also with the fact that she was told that her mother and grandmother could move into town, but they would have to share a hut. Arinya would of course get her own and Eli made the connection for her to become a servant. She left right away to get things moved and arrange for her family to move in.

  Before the next person came in, the three of them just sat on the same side of the table, they chatted and just enjoyed being there with each other. Eli was surprised that both of them seemed settled that they were sharing him in a relationship like this. At first, he felt anxious about it, waiting for the moment they would start fighting, similar to how he felt when waiting for a foster parent to lose their temper and all hell would break loose. But the longer their calm lasted the more he realized that they both filled different roles in his life and they were happy to be what they were for him and with him. In a rare moment of peaceful positive emotion, for the first time since the world ended, Eli felt his body actually relax. The two must have felt it as well and they laid their heads on either of his shoulders, enjoying the feeling.

  It wasn’t long after that moment that Lucy walked in. She was staring at the ground and knelt on one knee just a few feet inside the door. No one said anything so Tara got up and went to her, picking her up and sitting her at the table across from Eli then returned to her previous seat next to him.

  There was silence for several minutes before Lucy spoke, “I need to apologize for my performance in the raid dungeon.” She had tears running down her face and her voice had an edge to it, which made it clear to the other three that she was upset with herself. “I hope that I can still be of use to you in the future.”

  Eli was about to be soft with her and talk her through her feelings but Bethany cut in first. “Cut the crap kid, I’ve seen you fight. You are decisive and ruthless, this damaged kid routine isn’t doing you any favors. Speak your questions and tell us what you want.”

  He almost missed it, but there was a change in Lucy’s eyes when she glanced at Bethany for a second, then looked back to Eli, “Is there any chance of you needing me to fight for you?”

  Eli, taking Bethany’s tone as a cue for him to be the same way, responding immediately and harshly. “No.”

  “Then I would like to stay a servant for now and try and figure out how I fit into all of this.” she responded somehow making the entire sentence sound like a sigh.

  The three of them just smiled at her and after a moment she got up and left. Now all that was left was to wait for Audrey so they began discussing her and Eli was surprised to hear that they also thought of her as a wild card. They didn’t even want to guess as to what she would ask or what she would choose. She was the youngest of them and was kind of all over the place with her actions towards Eli. The only thing they did agree on was that she wasn’t being totally honest about her past or what she wanted.