Matthias watched with a warmth in his soul as Mable fluttered around his core room. She looked and sounded so genuinely happy that it made him happy enough to bury his concern about Rey's ability to travel via rays of light.

  "It is so big!" she cried out in joy.

  The Arachne baby cooed as it clutched its plushie while watching Mable flutter about.

  Matthias decided to make some fluorescent roses. Mable giggled and zipped over to them. When she touched them, her eyes widened as her rose took on the fluorescent properties of the plant. She giggled and fluttered back to the baby to show it off.

  "I guess I should start making housing," Matthias admitted. "I have a feeling that this is just the beginning. It will be interesting to see how the world reacts to what happened with Mable."

  "Mixed," Lucy and Chloe agreed.

  "Some will like it, some will fear it. Technically, as a source of a new kind of fairy, you might count as a faction leader," Chloe mused.

  Lucy grimaced. "And with a dungeon dead, it is only a matter of time until a new core is formed."

  "Well, that is going to be a hassle," Matthias sighed.

  "I know," Lucy moaned.

  "That means for every new core I need to make four fairies," Matthias pointed out.

  "What?" all three fairies asked.

  "Mable, you just got free. I will not force you to bond to a new core," Matthias explained. "But fey work on a four-court system. Technically five, but we will come back to that later. The four courts need to be equal. It is meant to mirror the stability between the seasons—or perhaps to explain that the seasons mirror the courts."

  "That is a bit confusing," Mable admitted.

  "Think of it this way: Winter and Summer are always at war," Matthias offered. "Their power waxes and wanes. So when Summer gets reinforcements, it is Spring pushing Winter back until Summer takes over the court. Then the Fall troops show up to bolster Winter and push the Summer troops back until Winter takes over once more. Ebb and flow."

  "That does not explain why you need four fairies for every core," Lucy nagged.

  "One for each court," Matthias reminded her. "Gaining a dungeon is technically a boon for a court. But is it a bigger boon than the other three courts having a free agent that can go out, make deals, or form alliances? Who knows. If one side brings in a dungeon, the others can reciprocate. It is all a massive political balancing act."

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  "That sounds way too complex," Mable pointed out.

  "And yet that is the life you signed up for as a fey," Rey pointed out to Mable. "In a fey court, respect is paid to all forms of power. It is the duty of a fey to gather as much power as they can, either for themselves or for their liege."

  "You expect me to gather power for you?" Mable asked.

  "No," Rey admitted. "Fey are also fickle things. The most important thing you can do is be true to who you are."

  "Yay!" Mable cheered as she rushed off.

  While they had been talking, Matthias had been augmenting the dome roof of the Forbidden Garden. He added rings first—little walkways for the fairies to stand on. He made sure the walkways were spaced twice the height of the fairies so there was plenty of room inside the rooms. As for the rooms themselves, he made each one contain a greeting room, sitting room, bathroom (just in case, with a functional shower and bath), kitchen, bedroom, guest bedroom, and a study/lounge. He furnished each room to a basic level before adding a door for privacy. He figured that if they wanted different furniture, they would let him know. He then placed a lantern hanging off the walkways in front of each door to provide light. They illuminated the space just a little better, as the lanterns were tiny and ran on ambient mana.

  "Oh, what is all that?" Mable asked.

  "Rooms," Matthias admitted.

  "As the head of the F.I.R.S., I feel a need to ask how much all of that cost," Chloe stated with narrowed eyes as she looked down at him.

  "Two turtles," Matthias admitted. "For all of them. They are only basically furnished—nothing truly fancy."

  "I would call anything fancy," Mable noted. "Urgnox never gave me a room. I just had a shelf to sit on."

  "Oh, rooms are up for grabs?" Rey asked. With a pop, she was suddenly the size of a fairy and fluttered up to one of the rooms on the higher floors.

  The other fairies were only stunned for a few seconds before they all chased after her.

  Sylt, on the other hand, looked down at the kitsune plushie in his hands. He wore a complicated expression.

  "Wanna talk about it?" Matthias asked.

  Sylt sighed. "I am conflicted, yes," he admitted. "I mean, I was literally created not that long ago. But I will be immortal, if all goes as we think it will." He gave the plushie another long look.

  "You know kitsune are immortal too," Matthias informed him.

  Sylt blinked rapidly for a second before seeming to reboot. "Truly?"

  "Unless I have been lied to," Matthias confessed. "I heard she might be older than the current empire—older than most powers currently in the world. So I think you have time to feel things out. Neither of you are going anywhere."

  That seemed to ease Sylt's worries. "Just knowing that I do not need to rush makes me feel much better. Now I do not have to deal with my heart being torn between what I want and my duty. I can let the two align."

  "That is a very fey answer," Matthias pointed out.

  "As it should be," Sylt replied with a smirk before he too popped and shrank to the size of a fairy. With a step, he was suddenly at one of the doors. He looked content with a room on the bottom floor.

  Matthias sighed and went back to considering how he was going to use all the mana he had just gotten from defeating Urgnox. He still had three days until the slimes got home, and there were issues to handle there too if the system messages were to be believed.