As the black flames died down, the sisters and Laz opened their eyes. The sun was still rising in the sky and not much time had passed. Still for them, it was like years had passed by as memories of what had happened played out over and over again in their minds. While they should have been sad at the loss of such a life, what they found was that there was no sadness, no want nor longing for what they had just experienced. Instead, there was a strong desire in their hearts for the future, for what could be. Where there was only darkness before, there was now a burning desire to make their dream a reality.

And with that realization came the thought that such a thing had never occurred to them before. They had lived their lives on the battlefield and had thought of those who wished to do nothing but pop out babies and settle down with a lover to be weak and foolish. Never had they dreamed that they themselves would one day feel the same.

It was a weird feeling, like wearing comfortable new clothes that your not used to, but can’t get enough of once you tried them on for the first time.

Looking up at Laz, their eyes held something far different than despair and regret.

"You never did build me that out door hot bath that I wanted," Erato said to Laz as they all burst into laughter. While the memories were more of a sweet dream fading, they were still all connected within them and felt the same things during them, living the same experiences.

As for the others watching on, all the had seen was a flash of black flames and then everyone standing in a weird circle and chatting and laughing as though the crying session hadn’t just happened.

"What was that?" Athena finally asked.

"I’m not sure. But something told me it would help so I figured ’why the hell not?"

"Right. Next time you want to experiment on us... feel free," Clio said with a laugh as they all joined in before walking over to the gathering.

"What...?"

"Uh...?"

"You’re all... ok?" Hera finally asked after the failings of words from Pooja and Persephone. They had known about their situation, but no matter what was done, nothing worked.

"We’re not ok... but... that’s ok," Athena said as she lead her sisters over to get some food.

Hera and Pooja walked over to Laz while Persephone walked over to join Athena, Clio and Erato.

"What happened?" Pooja said as Hera could only stand in shocked silence.

"My ability with runes grows as my strength grows and the black flames are a really interesting medium. Anyway, I gave them a taste of a life they could never and would never lead if they gave up now. It’s not one any of them had ever thought about or even wanted, but it seems like it was exactly what they needed," Laz said, looking over at their now smiling faces as they recounted memories that never happened.

"What kind of life would make them this happy? Was it an illusion or something?" Pooja questioned.

"Something like that, yeah. But also not. And the life that they got to experience? One of being a sister wife and a mother. For you, here, barely a few seconds passed, maybe even less than that?" Laz questioned as even his readings on time passing were a bit unstable after being in that dream world.

"Barely a second. It was like a flash of flame hit you and then it was gone and you were all there, smiling. It was kind of creepy."

"Well, for us, something like thirty years passed within a dream. A whole other life lived. For them, it was just a brief stint since they are all several hundreds of years old, if not over a thousand I’m guessing," Laz revealed.

"Thirty years... wait... but... aren’t you only twenty something? So doesn’t that mean...?" Hera said, waking up and understanding the problem everyone else had missed.

"Yes... It’s a lot harder for me to shrug off the experience. But luckily something in my blood is easing the time lapse. The more I breath and settle my mind, the easier it passes," Laz admitted as Hera came over quickly and made him sit down before starting to rub his forehead and massage his temples. Laz wanted to fight her at first, but ended up giving in and letting it happen, the feelings of her fingers along with the bits of soothing energy she was injecting helped with the strain. He fell asleep quickly with her guidance and support.

Pooja looked on worried as well. Right now, their lives and the survival of the land depended on this one young man being able to fight the shadow dragon when the time came. While she and Hera were both level nine god realms and looking into what comes after, the Ancestorial God Realm, they knew that the shadow dragon, if not having already made that step, was at least at the peak and far stronger than them. While realms didn’t indicate fighting strength per say as someone like Aphrodite, even if she reached the upper levels of the god realm, would probably never be stronger than a fighting based god at the lower levels, both Pooja and Hera were actually war based gods. And having fought a weaker version of the shadow dragon and survived, Hera knew neither she nor Pooja would be successful.

Laz, on the other hand, was only a mid tier god, barely at the fifth level and yet he had the best chance of anyone. It was all about the quality of their blood. While both Pooja and Hera were ’old’ gods with original bloodlines from when gods ruled the stars, their blood couldn’t compare to the diluted Asura blood within Laz himself.

What this all meant was that the mental state of Laz was super important. And for a young man barely in his twenties to experience an entire life in a dream, that could have far reaching and lasting consequences that needed to be addressed before they became a problem.

"What’s wrong?" Persephone asked, seeing Laz being handled by Hera and Pooja as though he were fragile.

While the question came quickly, the reactions were faster as Athena, Clio and Erato rushed over, acting as though they were going to shove their mother out of the way to get to Laz.

With a show of power though, Hera got them to back off although the concern written on their faces didn’t ease.

"What is happening to our husband?" Athena demanded, much to the surprise of everyone gathered.

Hera could only sigh as she continued to work on easing Laz’s mind, leaving the explanation up to Pooja.

"Sigh. Ok.... Your ’husband’ is only around twenty something years old as it seems even he’s forgotten his own birthday for some reason. The problem is with the dreamscape you all just came out of. For you three, being almost a thousand years old, thirty years is like a drop in the pond of time you’ve lived. But for him, he’s just come back from a dream that lasted far longer than his own life has been. What do you think would happen to someone mentally who experienced that?" Pooja asked them as they stood there glaring.

"Wait... he’s only twenty something? Isn’t he basically a child?" Erato asked, getting some angry murmurs from the troops who were still sitting around eating as many of them were in there twenties.

"Stop talking," Athena said, calming and also ordering her sister at the same time. She then turned back to Pooja.

"Is he going to be ok?" While Athena was a warrior, she was also an accomplished scholar. She could understand, quite clearly, what the implication Pooja made was.

"His mind is over working itself, trying to correlate the time he spent outside with the time he spent inside. While his bloodline is helping him along with your mother, it’s still taking it’s toll. From what your mother has told me, the way humans live on the other side of the gate is quite different than any of you were raised. He’s been considered an adult for several years now and has experienced many things none of you could even dream about. That made his mind both harder and sharper.

"So he’s going to be ok?" Clio asked, wanting her to be less long winded.

"He should be, but he might also be a bit different when he finally is up and around."

"Different how?" Persephone asked.

"Different in the same way an adult is no longer the same as a teenager. Or a teen is no longer a toddler. I can’t say for sure, but he’s basically going to wake up twice as old as before. What that means... we can only wait and see. That’s the price he is going to pay for rescuing you three from yourselves. So you’d better treasure what he did and don’t let him down. I know it’s hard... but you must at least do it for him and for the price he paid," Pooja said, directing her words at the three women who could only nod in acceptance.