Lord Walter cleared his throat as he tensed up.

"If you are about to tell us that you adopted Drew's appearance and had sex with my bride I will end you where you stand." Lord Walter told him.

Simon grimaced and shook his head.

"No my Lord, my people mate for life. I would be as capable of doing that as you would be able to go out tomorrow, if your bride died today, and pick another to marry." Simon told him.

Lord Walter nodded as he began to relax.

"Drew wanted to kill you when we arrived in San Francisco and find another to see my plan succeed. I was able to persuade Drew to give me time, let me perform some divinations and I might be able to determine what was wrong. His lust for you granted me the time to try and save your life." Simon began pacing.

"I knew my spell had made it impossible for Drew to produce children, I had figured he'd consult a Witch or maybe a Shaman and learn he was barren. I never thought he would want to kill you my Lady and try with someone else. Leave it to that disgusting lot to want to kill the person they were with rather than just run out and pick another." Simon shook his head.

"But there was something different about you when we got to San Francisco. I didn't notice it at first. It was then I discovered that you were no longer part of Dionysus's children. That convinced me I could continue my plan without fear of interference. I concocted a potion that Drew was to mix into a drink for both of you. It had several effects. After drinking it you both would fall into a deep sleep."

"And you both would have a rather passionate dream so when you woke up you would believe you had actually made love and fallen asleep. The final thing it would do would cause your body to bear the egg of life out of your normal season." Simon told them while blushing and he cleared his throat.

"Do you need something to drink Simon? You have been speaking for quite some time." Lord Walter asked.

Simon smiled.

"That would be appreciated my Lord." Simon told him.

Ralph flew out of the Keep and ran out the portcullis on his way to find Patty to give her the flower.

Selase looked towards the window as she heard Ralph's heart and feet as he ran. She was tempted to go after him but neither Lord Walter nor Lady Paige was present and she wouldn't leave the twins unguarded. At the thought of the twins Selase stood and shook before she moved to the door that opened into the nursery. She pushed her head inside and looked at them both lying there sleeping in their crib.

Ralph smiled seeing Patty not even half way down the hill and so he yelled for her.

Patty turned and smiled at Ralph as he ran towards her.

"What's up Ralph?" She asked and then her eyes got a little bigger seeing the flower.

"I have a little present for you." Ralph said as he came to a stop and held the flower out to her.

Patty smiled as she reached out and took it. She closed her eyes as she smelled the flower deeply.

Ralph turned and looked towards the north and frowned.

"What is that smell?" Ralph complained.

Patty looked up from the flower and frowned and then nodded.

"Oh that is where they reclaim the waste water. It happens sometimes when the wind is right in the valley. I'm surprised you haven't smelled it before." Patty told him before she stepped closer and kissed his cheek.

"Thank you, purple is my favorite color and tulips are my favorite flower." Patty told him.

Ralph smiled at her and nodded but then looked back off to the north.

"What do you mean they reclaim it?" Ralph asked curiosity building.

"We can walk back there and I can show you if you want. We can't get too close. There are prohibitions in place once you go so far. But we can get close enough to see them working." Patty told him as she took his hand and Ralph nodded. They walked back up the hill a ways before taking a path that moved around the Keep's west wall.

As they came around the north end of the west wall the path began going down hill and Ralph could see a number of buildings a good ways down the hill. Ralph noted they were even below the level of Lake Athena.

"Whenever you use water it flows through the ductwork under ground and flows down and back here. The workers will allow one pit at a time to fill. Once it reaches a certain point they switch the flow to a different pit. And then magic is used to super heat the water. The water will turn to steam and goes back up into the clouds to return as rain somewhere else. Just like our teacher has taught us. Once the water has been removed the sludge that is left over has also been heated to such a temperature that any hazardous material has been destroyed."

"They check the sludge and if it didn't settle evenly then they will smooth it out into an even layer. Then more magic is used and it transforms the sludge into stone. Then the stone is extracted and used to fashion cobblestone tiles or even bricks for houses." Patty told him as they drew closer.

"See all the bricks and stone over there?" She gestured at the different areas and explained what they are used for.

Ralph slowly nodded.

"So what makes it smell so bad? The magic they use?" Ralph was puzzled.

Patty laughed and shook her head.

"That's just the smell of the waste. Like your farts." Patty told him with a grin.

Ralph frowned.

"You mean our poop goes down here?" Ralph asked shocked.

Patty grinned and nodded.

"It is better than the outhouses that a lot of places use." Patty laughed.

"I didn't think about those, you are right except for when the wind brings the smell around." Ralph nodded.

"I thank you young lady." Simon told Linda as she gave him a glass of apple juice. He took a long drink.

"I was surprised it was taking Drew so long to actually use the potion. I figured he'd use it that very night. But it took nearly three years before he did." Simon continued.

"In that first week I felt a power about you. It swarmed your very cells as it probed and assessed you and your potential. At first I was perplexed. For one I was concerned for your safety but two I also worried about some power interfering with my plans. That power came to me shortly after she had assessed you. She made me aware that she had stopped him from using the potion. She told me she knew what I had planned and if her plan was to fail, she granted me permission to see it through. She told me you were vital to her plans and she warned me sternly that you were her child now and to ensure that you were not hurt. And that she saw to it that Drew would not use the potion for three years. That if things interrupted her plan she wanted to ensure that child to be conceived at the right time. I swore to protect you as long as I lived, as long as I was in your presence." Simon told them.

"I'd actually hoped she might have broken the chain about my neck but she just departed after getting my word. Before she left she gave me a reason to give Drew as to why you hadn't gotten pregnant as yet. I noticed the magical component in it right off and it worked. He accepted it and he waited. Playing his role of a caring partner as closely as possible. She didn't want a complication of you being actually married to Drew and so the magic had a secondary effect. It influenced you not to ask about getting married to him. And of course Drew wouldn't have asked you anyway but it could have tipped his hand to try and kill you anyway." Simon continued.

" About a week before that three years was up Drew told me he was going to use the potion finally. I had monitored Drew's administering of the potion to ensure he didn't give you more than I told him and that he took the same dosage as well. The potion would keep you both asleep for three days unless I woke you sooner. I needed time to ensure I did this correctly. And it had to happen within those three days for you to conceive. The last thing I wanted was for you to be injured in any fashion. And not just because of the power that warned me." Simon smiled.

"It is here I may need to speak a bit frank my Lord. I know with the nature of the Wise Lady's tenants upon you, such things might be a bit embarrassing for you. I do promise to stay as broad as I can while telling you this, but if I must say something that might offend your ears, please understand it isn't intended as such." Simon told Lord Walter.

"Go on Simon." Lord Walter nodded.

"My people have used magic for many things my Lord, even for enhancing pleasure among a couple. It is in part because of how long we live that such magic was researched. As I said we bond for life and it helps when dealing with untold eons of being together. One of the things that can happen to people who live so long also happens among shorter lived beings. And that is difficulty in conception. Our researchers have even devised magic for that. In extreme cases, I am sure your healer Allie can attest too, sometimes that difficulty results as an incompatibility of the couple on a cellular level." Simon told them as he looked at Allie who had entered sometime during the telling after hearing some of the servants talking about Simon.

Lord Walter and Lady Paige both looked over and saw Allie nod.

"In cases like these depending on which partner has the difficulty, we'll just say it is the husband's to simplify matters." Simon gestured to himself.

"Then I could choose someone, such as a brother or other male member of my family, or even a friend, who is willing. Magic would be used at the right time to extract some of his essence. Or if time was sensitive, use another spell to call forth that delicate egg of life from my wife so that the essence could meet with it. Whether naturally occurring or induced by spell or potion, that essence would be placed within my wife so that fertilization of her egg within her would happen and a child would form." Simon continued.

Paige frowned.

"Are you saying you placed the essence of some unknown man within me to conceive a child to save the bastard Drew and help gain your freedom?" Paige demanded as she jumped up off of the high seat.

Simon shook his head even as Paige moved to strike him.

The temple Mistress suddenly spoke in a voice of choral proportions.

"Curb you ire my daughter, I implore you. I know you are offended and while I don't blame you, there is more going on here than you realize, and I need you to know the truth of that which I allowed to come to pass." Athena said to them.

"What are you saying my Lady? You knew what Simon meant to do to me? That, that you allowed me to be defiled in such a way? I thought I was, I thought you said I was special. I was your choice for Walter. How could you allow this to come to pass?" Paige turned and took several steps closer to the temple Mistress even as tears welled up in her eyes.

The temple Mistress's head nodded.

"I'm saying I knew Simon's plan. I willingly allowed him to proceed with that plan. I allowed him to use you to accomplish his goal because it was aligned with my original plan, to make your son possible. My original plan was to see you and Lord Walter already married so that you'd conceive my beloved Ralph at that time." Athena told her as she reached out and her hand touched Paige's face.

"You are special my daughter, you are who I chose to be with Lord Walter. Because out of all of my followers, out of the hundreds of thousands of people who walk this Earth bowing to no power, that I examined, you alone would be the one that Lord Walter would love beyond measure. You were meant to be that which helped heal so much pain and suffering, some of which I caused. For I didn't find you that day Simon detected me."

"I found you as I searched from an eon in time before you were born. I searched through time, looking for the right person who would be in the world when my knight was finally ready. I made adjustments here and there throughout the time line. I used my devoted trying to be sure everything worked out. But something you have to understand, we powers have an agreement. Agreements that those of us whose word means something, can't break. And that is to not directly interfere in what happens. We must work through mortals, even those who appear to be immortal such as Simon."

"Mahn had to be stopped and I foresaw him defeating champion after champion. Lord Walter was to be my only shot at Mahn. He was my champion for that task." Athena looked over to Lord Walter as he stepped up to Lady Paige and she smiled.

"One that I am proud to say that despite all of the many attempts, by all of the other powers, was the one to succeed in ending that abomination of life. For Mahn bowed only to those powers of the infernal underworld." Athena said as she smiled in pride at the couple.

"Free will is still something that we have to honor. I kept my eye on you throughout time as it slowly passed, seeing how things played out with my manipulations and then making new ones when they failed. And despite all of my manipulations, every time, I saw you once again make a choice I hadn't wanted you to make. I tried to redirect Drew on a different route running from his Father to keep him from your home town of Hesperia."

"I tried to work within the confines of dealing with another's children to get your parents to move far from Hesperia many times. That is one of the many problems of trying to direct someone who reveres another power. I had tried many times to adjust things so that you either wouldn't have to make that choice, the first time, or not make that choice when the time came. My last hope had been that you would accept the opportunity I made for you to travel to Los Angeles to attend the university there."

"But because of Drew and his manipulations, you still made that choice. I had wanted for you to meet Lord Walter at the tournament in Los Angeles where he met Happy."

"The three of you would become great friends even as you and Lord Walter became husband and wife." She stretched out her hand towards Happy and Happy slowly stepped up and took her hand in hers.

Greetings! I hope this finds you all well! lol Yes, there was no way to really disguise where this story was ultimately heading but it did give me the chance to let Athena explain about all of her manipulations and plans. Though of course originally Ralph not being Drew's wasn't considered, but it also gave me a chance to bring Simon out of the shadows and explain his part in the story even before Ralph was considered.

Franxine - Thank you!

Railman - Indeed we are going deep into the fantasy realm!

Susan - I know, I know. But if I didn't break it off here and there you'd have to read through 6 chapters worth of words in one go! lol Though I think you might like that. hehe Did Paige really love Drew? Yes and no...She's a loving person so she loved him, but without his magic and manipulations she'd never have gone along with him. You're welcome, it is a joy to write.

Lucy - hehe Yep, you are definitely on the right track.

Heleen - Thank you! I'm honored that those of you who aren't fans of the fantasy genre have embraced my little tales of them as such! Yep, Caber is done, but that AU isn't over yet.

Margaret - And his tale only gets more involved as the wise Lady herself has entered the fray to tale her side of things. Enjoy your family time!

Marie Mac - I'm sorry to hear that. As well I know so many conditions exist that have conditions to improve within. My thoughts and prayers for you nonetheless!

To the Adventure! -Tim