Audrey and Eli were walking through the forest looking for Bethany and using this time alone to finally talk.
"Let me have it, I know I screwed up," Eli said.
"First, we need to talk about what just happened, as the last of your seal was breaking and dissolving I could feel her magic. Your mother was powerful, unbelievably so."
"What do you mean, how could she be powerful when I was twelve, the system wouldn't arrive for over a decade. Were there people with magic before all this?" Eli asked.
"I have a few guesses about a few things that I have pieced together. But I don't think your mother is from our world," Audrey said, while looking at Eli with a sad expression.
"So I'm an alien?" Eli asked with a far off look in his eyes.
"I don't know, I don't think that is the right word. Our planet is three times the size as it was before, why would the system do that?"
"I have never really thought about it." Eli said, scratching his chin.
"It's not important, what is important is that I don't think you are as human as you think you are. Not to say that's a bad thing, but I think your system of magic is different than ours. Not very different, but enough that it gives you power unlike anything we can do. Even your most fervent followers will stop trying to catch your level of power if it can't be taught or duplicated."
"So I'm alone, and an alien," Eli said in a sad voice, "Thanks for the pep talk."
"You are unique, and I learn more in a day just being around you than I could in a year without you. You protect me and train me and give me any opportunity you can find to help me grow."
"So you stick around for the benefits? Sorry but you're not getting a 401k." Eli said sarcastically.
"Let me finish," Audrey said, with an exasperated tone. "You are unique, and you have already given me all these things without asking anything of me. You haven't asked for money or demanded obedience, and from what I can tell, you have no interest in my body." Audrey said, holding up a finger to stop him from interrupting again. "You are not alone because I believe in you, you are a good person and I want to be associated with you."
"Yeah but you said I'm not human."
"I said probably not, and you are still a person. Even if everyone else left, I'm not going anywhere. Who knows, maybe when I'm old enough for you, we could be more than what we are now." She said with a few bats of her eyelashes and a joking smile.
"I could really use a friend, if you think you are up for that role. A real friend too, someone to stand by me, and slap me upside the head when I'm being stupid."
"I can do that."
They smiled at each other and kept walking in silence for a few minutes.
"Bethany, you can come out, I know you heard everything and have been following us," Eli said.
"That's right, I know everything now, which makes me a danger to you. Beg me for forgiveness and I'll keep my mouth shut," she said, with some bitterness in her voice.
"I'm not going to beg, and you don't even want that."
"So I cracked the seal on your emotions and now you're an expert!" She yelled, "Fine, then tell me what I want."
"You want what I want, to not be alone. I'm scared that when the others find out I'm probably not human, they will want to leave and I'll be alone. I'm sure you are scared that if you aren't useful enough that we won't want you around, but I can promise you it isn't true."
"Words are easy big guy, what guarantee do I have that you won't ditch me as soon as I'm not useful, or not pretty enough, or young enough," saying the last part while pointing to Audrey.
"Why do you think I want you around?" Eli asked with a smile.
"I don't know, maybe as a back-up if Tara dies before Audrey is old enough. Or maybe you just like the attention I give you, powerful men like to have their ego stroked."
"Audrey, why don't you tell her, I bet you have it figured out." Eli said while patting Audrey on the shoulder.
"Well," Audrey started tapping her cheek, "Bethany pays attention to you, she listens attentively and does her best to excel. She looks out for others in the group and until this recent event, she was always very patient with all of us, despite our crazy antics. She is a good friend, and you quite like her by-the-way. You may not love her yet, but I see the look in your eyes when you two are flirting. Also, Bethany, you know that you yelling at him had him feeling so much guilt and anger towards himself that those emotions broke the rest of his seal. If he wasn't going to keep you around forever, you wouldn't be able to affect him so much"
Bethany kept a blank face throughout her explanation, she just looked coldly at Audrey, then when she stopped speaking, she turned to Eli. "Is any of that true?" She asked.
"Every word."
"So why do you shoot me down when I throw myself at you? Why don't you ask more from me since I'm the oldest?" She asked him with eyes that were pleading for answers.
"I'm a mess right now, I know I love Tara, because those feelings have been buried in me for years. I owe it to you to know what my feelings are before I let things get too far. You are too valuable to me to not take this seriously."
"So you are friend-zoning me? Pass…." Bethany said just as Eli used blink to appear in front of her and pick her up into a passionate kiss.
"When do I get one of those?" Audrey asked.
"Woah, not for several years." Eli and Bethany said at the same time.
"Sorry, it's the body upgrade, it comes with fully grown hormones and I'm not used to it yet." Audrey said with a pink face from embarrassment.
"Ok, let's go find the others and come up with a plan for the event, maybe something using that fancy new crater that someone just installed," Eli said.
It took them about 20 minutes to walk back to the others, Cory and Stevens were napping and Tara was meditating. She had told Eli that she wanted to try and harness his power to use during the horde. Tara had been a bit standoffish lately now with these magic scars he was beginning to worry, he knew she loved him, their connection meant that their emotions were on full display to each other. However, she was backing off her time with him as he began to cause a ruckus. He would ask her later, now it was time to plan.
They all stood around Audrey as she explained her new plan. Everyone had a puzzled look on their face, eli remained silent though since he wanted her to convince the others instead of him just telling them what to do. Her basic plan was rotation, at least for the first half, to keep from getting tired or overwhelmed, they would have one resting for two minutes during the fight. They would rotate in and out of this resting period to help them recover and last longer in the fight as a group. The part that everyone was having trouble with was that she didn't want Eli to fight at all until she asked for it, meaning they would be on their own.
Bethany seemed to pick-up what was going on and agreed with the plan with a look of pride, which made everyone suspicious. So with 4 people giving her flat looks, she decided to explain what she was thinking. Basically, she thought that if there were any agitators out there, they would show up while we were fighting. But if Eli isn't fighting then they have to wait, giving us more time to notice them and adjust. Also if we wait until we are facing more difficult monsters, we can use the monster to help us fend them off.
Everyone seemed far more amenable to the plan now, however, Audrey looked conflicted, Eli could tell that this wasn't the reasoning behind her plan, but she knew when to take the win. They spent the next few hours working on formation and switching out for the rotation. His little group was starting to work as a team, it may be time to see if they can recruit more members. With his power growing and him not being human, his mother and all that mess, he was going to need to spend more time without everyone. He might be able to take one with him at a time but he is going to need to get some things accomplished with his nodes, skills, and levels that will require him to go where they can't go for extended periods of time.
He would explain everything to them later, after the event. He was debating on letting them decide who he takes, or just grabbing someone and not letting them have a say. The obvious choice would be for him to take Tara, she already had a minion, the others need to recruit, but he really wanted her around to help defend everyone. Audrey wasn't ready to have a minion so maybe he should take her? They would have to figure it out, or he could just not take anyone. Whatever they decided would be fine, after finding out he probably isn't human, being the boss of humans just had no appeal.
Just before it was getting dark, five people were approaching their group, they had moved back to the crater and were just kind of having small discussions amongst themselves. These five looked like a family, father and mother, two girls and a boy. The parents looked young but that could just be body upgrades, the two girls were maybe 10 and 13 years old and the boy was 15 or 16. Bethany went to talk to them, but Eli stopped her and pointed for Audrey to come forward. Most of the day they had been discussing her use of their shared will skill and he wanted her to use it on them, not to hurt them but to make those watching understand that the kid gloves were off. That even their youngest member was an aberration of power.
The five stayed inside the barrier and waited as Audrey approached them. She had been working on her will skill and she was able to use hers a bit differently than Eli. He pushed out even down pressure across everywhere his skill reached, but Audrey was able to focus it so it only worked in specific spots within a certain range. At its max, it would kill anyone under level 50. But, level 50 was nothing these days, there was a rumor in towns that Lord Ghost was almost level 80.
Audrey stopped when they were just at the outer edge of her skill, focusing it on them it felt to them like 50% more gravity. Eli was watching the surroundings with his magic sense, pushing it as hard as he could to see who was watching, unsurprisingly, no one was outside the barrier. The big crater they were standing in was proof enough it was dangerous. To their credit they didn't complain, they answered her questions and the father even left the barrier so she could examine him magically. She told them to wait inside the barrier and she turned and walked toward the others, her skill pressing things into the ground.