Ghost and the Writer

Moonlight ambrosia

"No panic, the fog is still there, August is just masking it," Albus called out. The time travelers had mostly stabilized, and it probably wouldn't even harm them all that much if it had disappeared, but that was not a joking matter.

None of them had started to panic and most only made an 'okay' nod, resuming their activities. There was an unmistakable air of joy as everyone was preparing for the event.

Dwarves had brought over freshly baked pastries, Elves had brought over various game animals, and everyone had split into two groups - food group and set-up group. The three humans now also happily prepared with cat ears on their heads - an artifact set Marcus had borrowed from Purple to ensure two things - so that strong presences would not knock them out and so that they would appear to be totem contractors just like cumimi kids looked like to everyone around.

Albus, too, had been unaware of something like that, elves had been the ones who dropped the 'idea,' and Albus soon learned why - there were around ten people among the elves who came who also had animal traits rather than elven ears.

For the past days, Albus had stayed at this house for two reasons -

Firstly, to check over the time-travelers and learn more about them. The kid named Jan had been extra helpful in describing the aether structure and the way they used aether. Albus could only shake her head at the horrid way it was done and didn't need Jan to mention that the build-up would both limit the spells the kids could learn (which explained why they had only four types of hyper-specialized ability users) and cause serious side-effects. Some kids ended up being unable to grow, some lost their ability to sleep, and some had bodies who damaged themselves or their surroundings.

Secondly, to avoid Mandy. Mandy had always had a frightening presence, that was not new; what was new was that thanks to Leum's silence and Veri's carelessness, Mandy had ascended to become a Grim Reaper class diety of a Titan rank. Albus didn't think she had ever been so pissed at someone as she was at Leum that evening when it came out.

It wasn't that Albus feelings towards Mandy had changed - Mandy was still the same, just that Albus couldn't stay calm and wouldn't be able to sleep around her - that presence would affect her and Albus knew that it would be impossible for Mandy to have her hands on August 24/7 so he could conceal her presence.

And it turned out that it had been useful to stay - more people kept coming by, the house had gotten an extra wing, and a basement and Albus had taken on the role of August's representative.

Lily kept bringing messages on various things, and Albus acted under her best judgment to get things done. If someone got hurt, she healed them; if something slowed down, she moved people over. Since Leum and Veri were in Tiamat's nest crafting the artifact for cleaning up their mess, It also fell under Albus's role to deal with Ian's transformation.

Lily brought him over, and Albus dumped him in the lake where he could rampage and shot him a few times when he came to the shore. As a part-untral, he healed fast, so that wasn't a problem, and he also had no memory of the event after.

Actually, things had gone exceptionally well. Albus could pat herself on the back. When August and Mandy returned, Albus was also happy to learn that Mandy's presence had returned to being only deeply disturbing and not soul damaging.

The ambrosia August had made was unrivaled, too - Albus could tell by the scent alone. August had already sent orders to double the planned amount (assuming Leum and Veri would take half), so that detail too rolled over without an issue. Leum and Veri only took a quarter - a positive surprise for everyone.

Due to August's request for increasing booze by that much, this was to be the first year in history where Dwarves would join in too. Needless to say, according to elves, who went to call them over, they agreed the moment they told their booze would be used to make ambrosia for everyone to drink. (Dwarves sure hated dragons and most mythical beasts with a passion, but their love for alcohol transcended that.)