A/N: Here we go! Sorry it's a bit short and so close to the wire. The last couple weeks have been exhausting so I'm glad I was able to write at all. Anyway, just wanted to let you know that all is good but that this chapter is on the short side. Onwards!

As always, I really appreciate all your comments and reviews and I really hope you'll keep them coming. They help motivate me and I read them all.

Hearthfire

Chapter 39

Torrhen

"On your left!"

"Welf, behind you!"

"Hey, watch the fireballs!"

"Sorry! Aah!"

Torrhen laughed lightly, watching as Haruhime used Firebolt again. An Almiraj had surprised her. Leaping up, it intended to slash her with its axe and was rewarded with a fireball to the face at point blank range.

The Hestia Familia expedition had made very good time and recently reached the 14th floor. Quite the milestone since this was the floor where the pass parade occurred. Out of all their members only Daphne, Cassandra, and Aisa had set foot on 15 and 16. Nobody was worried, but their pace was guaranteed to slow down thanks to the veritable hordes of monsters on the Middle Floors.

The Upper Floors housed only very small packs. No more than five monsters at a time and if a monster was particularly strong for that area, then it would usually be alone. On the Middle Floors, the strength of the monsters went up as did the size of the packs. Where once there were only perhaps five or six enemies in a pack, there were now fifteen to twenty. This, of course, made for slow going when most of your party was only Level 2 and relatively inexperienced.

Still, with the sheer size of their party, their coordinated teamwork, and the rather exceptional gear they possessed, the Familia was able to handle every encounter so far with extreme ease. Since he and Aisha were just the backup, the two of them stood a fair distance away from the main group as they battled a pack of Almiraj.

The Dragonborn watched with a critical eye as Bell, Daphne, and Mikoto weaved in and out of the battle, slashing and hacking at the rabbit monsters with their blades. Towards the back of the formation, Cassandra was casting a series of Restoration and Alteration spells along with the occasional Destruction spell. Haruhime, on the other hand, was simply throwing fireballs and lightning bolts left and right.

Lili and her Familiar were maneuvering around the field. The spectral wolf would latch onto an enemy, giving Lili the chance to take them out with a well-placed crossbow bolt. Welf and Ouka were serving their roles as tanks well, while Chigusa provided excellent ranged support.

All in all, he was quite proud of the Familia. The sheer level of teamwork his students had shown since they began was heartwarming to see, as was their obvious increase in skill. No longer was Bell the wide-eyed novice who didn't even know how to hold a blade properly. He was nowhere near what Torrhen would call strong, but he was certainly competent. The boy soaked up everything the old warrior had to teach him and kept coming back for more.

As for the others, they too had improved vastly. Lili was no longer a simple supporter. The Pallum girl was shaping up to be an exceptional ranger and a brilliant tactician. Looking to Welf, the young man's skill as an enchanter was progressing far faster than Torrhen had anticipated. His shop hadn't been open for long, but the whole city was raving about the quality of the enchantments.

"They're not doing too bad." Aisa commented from Torrhen's left, pulling him from his thoughts. He looked over at her. The amazon woman was leaning up against the wall of the Dungeon, watching the battle with a critical eye.

"No, they aren't." Torrhen agreed. "They're doing quite well, all things considered."

She hummed before speaking again. "I honestly never thought I'd see the day where Hime was able to fight like that. I figured she would abandon adventuring all together once I got her away from Ishtar." Torrhen followed her line of sight to the young Renard woman, who was casting a Choking Grasp spell on one of the last monsters in the pack. There was a proud smile on the face of the dark-skinned amazon.

"She has a truly impressive aptitude for magic." Torrhen admitted. "Natural talent like hers is exceedingly rare, even among elves. I could only name around half a dozen students I've had with more or equal talent than her, and I was the head of a magical college for twenty years. If she stays dedicated to improving her skills, then that girl will go far."

"They'll all go far if they keep this up." She said with a smirk, watching as one of Chigusa's arrows felled the last of the pack. "I'm excited for them to catch up to me. It'll be fun."

"Nicely done!" Bell shouted. "Let's pick up the stones and keep moving!"

Soon enough, the group moved down the corridor and towards the stairs. Floor 15 was very similar to 14. Cave walls stretching out to make a series of labyrinthine passageways filled with dangerous monsters. Honestly, if it weren't for the lack of creepy bug architecture, it would remind Torrhen of Falmer tunnels.

It wasn't long after they'd descended to 15 that a cracking noise filled the air. Emerging from the walls around them were Minotaurs. Freshly spawned. Torrhen looked behind himself. They were surrounded by seventeen of the monsters. Now, some would expect Bell to panic. Afterall, he'd nearly been killed by Minotaurs twice. He didn't panic though. No, he grinned. An almost feral smile split the young man's face as he drew his knives.

"Wipe them out!" He shouted, blitzing forward. Before the monster could react, he'd buried the Hestia knife in its skull. The creature groaned and burst into dust.

"Huah!" Welf roared, his claymore cleaving the head from a Minotaur. Beside him, Ouka blocked a strike with the flat of his axe, causing the large man to skid back a foot or two.

Mikoto's blade flashed, sparks of electricity dancing along the blade as it sliced the arm off of a Minotaur. With a backwards thrust, the young woman pierced the chest of the monster, causing it to explode into dust.

Bolts from Lili's crossbow and arrows from Chigusa's bow found their marks in the eyes of the creatures, while blasts of ice and fire were thrown from their mages. Daphne was quick to join Bell and Mikoto in skewering Minotaurs with her rapier. Despite the relative strength of the Minotaurs, the Hestia Familia was stronger.

It wasn't exactly an easy fight though. Lili was momentarily seized by one Minotaur which held her by the throat. It didn't have her long though, because Welf removed the arm it was using to hold her.

Being only Level 1, Haruhime's spells were less effective against the monsters than they might have been if she were Level 2. This hampered her ability to fight, but the young Renard held her own. Mikoto misjudged a step and went sprawling. She might have been badly injured if Ouka hadn't tanked a blow meant for her downed form.

All in all, though? The kids acquitted themselves well and were able to defeat the pack of Minotaurs without asking Torrhen or Aisha for help. He felt quite proud of how well they were doing. Torrhen threw a smile at Bell's back while the boy led the party further into the labyrinth. Yes. His grin widened. Torrhen was very proud indeed.

Ais

"Right, girls! Everyone ready?" Loki asked, excitedly from the front of the group. "We've got a lovely beach trip planned. Everyone got their nice, skimpy bikinis?" The redheaded, perverted goddess squealed in pain as Riveria's staff came crashing down on her head.

"Nobody will be wearing anything of the sort if you're going to behave like this." The elf growled. Ais smiled at their interaction.

Life for the blonde girl had taken a strange turn in recent months, but it was a good one. She smiled more often for one and life seemed a little less one dimensional. Getting stronger was not the only thing that mattered anymore. Ais found herself willingly taking time away from her training to relax with the twins or go shopping with Lefiya.

Just the other day she spent nearly an hour reading in the library with Riveria and she wasn't even reading a book that had anything to do with adventuring! It was a romance novel recommended by Lefiya. Of course, it wasn't just the members of her own Familia she was spending time with.

She was till training with Torrhen every day she could, and her progress was good, but she also found herself hanging around Hearthfire Hall afterwards to just spend time with the members of the Hestia Familia. A few days ago, she'd wasted an entire afternoon lounging in Bell's office talking to him while he did paperwork. That evening, she'd joined the female members of the Hestia Familia in their hot spring and had an admittedly wonderful time.

Ais supposed she had Torrhen to thank for the change in attitude. He'd shown her that she was pushing people away. Pushing what was essentially her family away and she was so much happier for having stopped. Spending time with them was just as much fun as Dungeon diving and, Loki's antics aside, she was looking forward to going on a bit of a vacation with the girls.

Although they were all aware of the true reason why their group was headed to Melen, Loki insisted that they treat it as a pseudo vacation. They were going to have a lovely, relaxing time at the beach and maybe investigate some monster sightings while they were at it. Relaxation with a bit of danger, just how Ais liked it.

There were only six of them going on this trip. Loki, Ais, Riveria, Lefiya, Tione, and Tiona were the ones going. Everyone else was staying home. They couldn't really afford to have a huge number of people out of the city at the moment, so they'd settled for sending a few properly strong members. It was Loki's insistence that they all be girls. Ais was certain the perverted goddess would try and cop a feel or see something she shouldn't, but they were all more than able to deal with her if necessary.

"You all be careful." Finn said from the doorway to the mansion. They were standing just outside the doors where the carriage was parked. "We don't know what's going on in Melen, so you need to exercise caution."

"Stop being such a worry-wart captain!" Tiona replied, excitedly. She winced when her twin smacked the back of her head.

"We'll be as careful as possible, captain." Tione said, bowing to the captain.

"Everyone into the carriage." Riveria called from the front, where she was climbing into the driver's seat.

"Wooo! Let's go!" Loki shouted and hopped up next to Riveria. The others all clambered into the back, placing their packs on the floor. After a moment, the carriage began to trundle away, out the gate and onto the streets of Orario.

"Man, I can't wait till we get there." Tiona groaned, stretching. "I can't remember the last time I was at a beach."

"I'm a little nervous about running around in a swimsuit though." Lefiya muttered. Ais shared the younger girl's nerves though for a different reason. She was fairly confident in her own body and since they were only going to be around each other, Loki's antics were the only thing Ais had to worry about when it came to clothing. No, it was the swimming itself that scared her.

Riveria had once tried to 'teach' her how to swim as a child. Though, Ais maintains that it was punishment for calling the elf woman old. The green haired elf had tied her to an adamantite block and thrown her in the water. Ais nearly drowned! She would have if Riveria hadn't pulled her back out again! Regardless, she'd never even attempted to swim since that day. Swimming scared her.

"What's wrong, Ais?" Tione asked, looking at her with concern. Until recently, the blonde would probably have brushed her off. Now though? She trusted them enough to answer truthfully.

"I'm… terrified of the water." She admitted.

"Wait, really?" Tiona asked, surprised. "I knew you didn't like swimming but you're really that scared?"

"Ah… I believe that is my fault." Riveria said, sheepishly from the front of the carriage. "I'm sorry about that, Ais." She nodded in acknowledgement, but it didn't exactly help.

"I can fix it." Loki grinned.

"I'm not letting you do anything perverted to me." Ais deadpanned; her face blank while she glared at the goddess.

"Not like that, Aisypoo." Loki huffed. "I meant with this." She pulled a ring out of her pocket.

"A ring?" Tiona sounded as confused as Ais felt.
"Are you proposing?!" Lefiya gasped in shock.

"What? No! It's enchanted." Loki sputtered in surprise. "I know I'm a bit lecherous but where did you get that idea?"

"I… um…"

"Lefiya…" Riveria's stern voice called out. "Have you been reading romance novels before bed again?"

Lefiya's ears drooped and her head lowered, the elf girl let out a quiet "yes."

"What did I tell you about doing that?" Riveria asked.

"Not to." Lefiya admitted. Tiona was grinning from ear to ear.

"Any why shouldn't you?"

She let out an exasperated sigh. "Because it makes me have weird dreams and my brain starts seeing romance everywhere."

"Exactly. Are you going to do it again?"

"…no." She squeaked. Ais wasn't sure if she was lying or not.

"Heh." Loki chuckled. "Mama Riveria strikes again. Ita!" Riveria bashed the goddess over the head with her staff again.

"I told you not to call me that!" She shouted, grumpily.

"Soo…. You said the ring is enchanted?" Tiona asked, trying to break the awkward silence that'd formed.

"Oh, right." Loki pulled the ring back out. "I commissioned these from Torrhen about a week ago. They're Waterbreathing rings."

"Waterbreathing?" Tione asked.

"Yup! As long as you have the ring on, you can breathe under water! Isn't it neat?" Ais' eyes were sparkling. With that ring, she might just be able to swim! She'd need to learn how, of course, but she wouldn't have to fear drowning!

"How much was it?" Ais asked, fully intending to commission one for herself regardless of price.

"Calm down, Ais." Loki said, waving her hands. "I got one for everybody and they're yours to keep. You'll need them if you're going to check on the Leviathan seal. That's a pretty deep dive so the rings will help." She handed the first ring to Ais and proceeded to pull four more out and hand them to the other girls.

Ais quickly slipped the ring onto her left middle finger. She didn't feel any different, but that was likely because she wasn't in water yet. They'd need to test it out in a safe place before she tried swimming with it on.

"These are really pretty." Lefiya said, admiring the silver band on her own finger. "Were they expensive, though?"
"Meh." Loki shrugged. "Not really. Not compared to anything like Riveria's gear." She turned to the elf. "You got seriously lucky that he made that for free, you know. It would have bankrupted you otherwise."
"Oh, believe me I'm aware." Riveria said, smugly. Ais and the other girls glared at her. They'd had to pay full price for their enchanted equipment! Ais was still trying to earn enough money to pay for her sword enchantments! Though, Lefiya had dodged that particular arrow. Not being Level 6, she couldn't buy anything from Torrhen, so she'd gone to his apprentice, Welf, for her gear. It was still expensive, and it took her a while to earn the money, but it didn't break the bank.

Ais sat back and grumbled at how unfair it was that high level gear was so damn expensive and silently cursing Tsubaki for telling Torrhen to charge so much.

Naaza

Naaza sighed, easing herself into a chair at the head of the conference table. The Miach Familia's 'meeting room' was located in the office area on the third floor of the Blue Hospital, their new home. The work was nearly complete, and it would only be a few days before it opened to the public. Because of this, and the recent incident with Airmid, Nazza had chosen to call a full Familia meeting so that she could get everyone up to speed.

"Are you alright, Captain?" Wendy, the young cat-person asked.

Naaza just smiled at her and nodded. "I'm a little tired, Wendy, but I have a feeling we could all use some sleep."

"Very true." Shizune sighed. She was Naaza's Vice-Captain and was sitting to her left. "All the preparations have been exhausting. It's hard to believe we're almost done."

"It will be well worth the exhausting once we begin treating patients." Angela commented from beside Shizune. She was a beautiful elf and Wendy's mentor.

"Agreed." Nicholas nodded from his seat on Naaza's right. "I've observed a great deal of excitement among our clientele. Browsers in the potion shop are asking me daily about when the hospital will open."

"You mean they're asking ME daily, gramps." The cat-person, Maomao, grumbled from beside Nicholas. "You've hardly left the lab since I joined so I keep getting stuck answering all the dumb questions."

"That should all die down soon enough." Kanae commented. She was a half-elf and another of their senior alchemists. Her two sisters, Kanao and Shinobu were sitting next to her.

They all looked up as the door opened. "Forgive me." Lord Miach said, entering the room with Hanatarou following along behind him. "We were making sure the shop was locked up and everything was tallied correctly."

Closing the door, Lord Miach took a seat at the opposite end of the table from Naaza. Hanatarou half-jogged down the table, sliding into a seat next to Wendy who gave him a bright smile. Naaza looked around the table, taking in the sight of her Familia.

Sitting on the left side of the table was the hospital crew. Shizune, the Vice-Captain was the official head doctor of the hospital. Following along down the left side were Angela, Elise, Chopper, Hanatarou, and Wendy. They were the ones who would be in the hospital every day. The ones in charge of dealing with patients and all things medical. Though, all of them were learning to produce potions so that they could help out in the alchemy lab if required.

To the right of the table was the alchemy and research group. Nicholas, as the head of research and development, sat directly to Naaza's right. Following along the table beside him were Maomao, Pietro, Kanae, Kanao, Shinobu, and Sei. Opposite to the hospital crew, the members of the alchemy group were learning healing magic in their spare time so that they could help out in the hospital whenever needed. Taking a deep breath, Naaza addressed the group.

"Starting with the alchemy shop, how are things looking?" She asked.

"Business is booming." Nicholas replied with a smile. Since he was head of the alchemy department, he was nominally in charge of the shop. "Our profits have settled into an average range, though I'm expecting another sizeable jump once the hospital opens for business."

"What about our finances?"

"Stabilizing." Kanae spoke up.

She'd been nominated to serve as their treasurer by a group vote. Shizune and Naaza were far too busy to do it and Nicholas couldn't be bothered, so they decided to put it to a vote and the half-elven woman was picked.

"The cost of renovation burned through nearly everything earned by the Loki and Freya contracts," Kanae continued, "but the sheer scale of business done by the pharmacy has recouped that and a little more. With our expenses having settled to a manageable level, we're sitting comfortably at 117 million Valis currently in our treasury. Unfortunately, I expect that will change once we add in the expenses from the hospital. It will be quite some time before I can give you any accurate information on our profit margins."

"We seem to be doing quite well, even with the unknown expenses coming from the hospital." Lord Miach said from the other end of the table. "Perhaps we can finally look to providing discounts to our more downtrodden clientele?"

Lord Miach was perhaps the most generous person Naaza knew and she loved that about him. Unfortunately, his charitable nature had been a constant thorn in her side back when the Familia was barely scraping by. Now though? Now they could afford to be generous.

"Why don't you start drawing up some plans, Lord Miach?" Naaza asked. "We can certainly afford to be more charitable now, but we should have some kind of organization in place to make sure we don't become overly charitable."

"Agreed." Chopper, the Pallum doctor nodded. "I'm all for helping everyone we can, but if we give away everything, we won't be able to stay open and then we won't be able to help anybody."

"We should start by introducing a more generous income-based payment plans inside the hospital." Elise added.

"We could do the same for bulk orders at the pharmacy." Shinobu said, agreeing with Elise.

Naaza raised a hand, stopping all further input. "Anyone with a suggestion should bring it to Lord Miach after the meeting. Once plans have been drawn up, we can vote and decide on which ones to implement first. For now, I want to hear about how the hospital is coming."

"Nearly complete." Shizune reported. "All that's left is installation of a few pieces of equipment on the first floor and a general cleaning of the entire building. It wouldn't do to open up the hospital if there's construction dust everywhere."

"Yeah, it's kinda gross where they're still working. All dusty and everything." Sei added. She was leaning on her hand at the end of the table, looking a little bored.

"What about you, Pietro?" Naaza asked. "How is your lab shaping up?"

"Why, it has gone splendidly!" The older Half-Dwarf said with a smile. "Thanks to Penny's help and a few ideas from Nicky, everything is up and running. In fact, I believe I'll be able to start on that new arm for you as early as tomorrow." Naaza offered him a bright smile.

"Thank you, Pietro. Does anyone have anything they want to report or bring up?" She asked. Looking around, she saw everyone shaking their heads in the negative. Holding in a sigh, the cienthrope steeled herself. "In that case, I'm afraid I have something to tell you all. Earlier today, I caught Airmid Teasanare spying on us."

Everyone stiffened in their seats. "The captain of the Dian Cecht Familia?" Hanatarou whispered. Naaza nodded.

"Is Dian Cehct so desperate that he'd actually sending his captain to act as a spy?" Maomao asked, incredulously.

"If Teasanare is to be believed… no." Naaza admitted.

"No?" Pietro asked, confused. The others were all sporting equally befuddled expressions.

"When I confronted her, she claimed to only be here out of intellectual curiosity. Nothing more." Naaza reported.

"I suppose that is possible…" Lord Miach muttered. "She always was a very studious person. Dedicated to the art of healing more than anything else."

"There's more." Naaza added, cutting off any attempts at adding to the conversation. "I got the impression that she is considering leaving Dian Cecht in order to beg us for a spot in this Familia."

"What?!" Came the group exclamation.

"That… that…" Hanatarou stammered.

"That would be huge!" Maomao shouted while Nicholas cackled beside her. Pietro was also laughing loudly from down at his end of the table.

"But can we trust it?" Shizune asked, seriously.

"She's right. What if it's a trick to get us to let our guard down?" Elise added.

"That is a concern." Naaza agreed.

"Did she explicitly say she wanted to leave?" Kanao spoke up.

Naaza shook her head. "She did admit to thinking about it. Also, she said was that she was sick of his greedy nature getting in the way of her doing her job."

"This could strike a huge blow against Dian Cecht." Pietro said, seriously.

There were nods of agreement all around. "We must be careful though." Lord Miach said. "Dian Cecht is formidable and unpredictable. Even without the Airmid situation, it is only a matter of time before he makes a move against us.

A/N: There we go! All done! What did you think? We got to see a bit more of the expedition, some of the Loki stuff, and an update on the Miach Familia. Nothing too major, but I wanted to focus a little more on the characters interacting than anything else.

Oh, for those curious about Ryuu, I will be touching base with her soon.

If you have any thoughts or speculations about what is to come, please let me know! I'm always eager to see if you guess my plans ahead of time.

Oh, just so you know I have decided on who will be joining the Hestia Familia for now. Thank you all so much for your ideas and suggestions. I will be using a few of them, though not all because there are a huge number! Some of them I don't even recognize.

However, I do have a question. Do you want me to tell you the franchises they are coming from so you can guess who they are, or would you like to keep it a surprise? Your choice! I'll go with a majority rule here.

Answers to Questions

On FFN

Antonioabellon4: I think it will be a bit of a mix. I gave Torrhen the ability to regulate the power of his shouts for that reason. A full power Dragonrend COULD force a god to experience mortality, but it cannot make them truly mortal. They'd just be incapacitated for a few minutes while they experience an existential crisis.

Kumaevans: I'm glad you liked it! I hope you like this chapter as well. As for the stuff from Apocalypse and maybe Summermist, I will be slowly incorporating those if the situation calls for it.

LootJesus: I agree that she's too smart to outwardly oppose them. For now, I think I'll be going with a forced neutrality kind of thing while she figures out her next moves.

Guest: You're kind of right, but the Dungeon hates gods and he's half god so I think it falls more on the hate side than anything else.

Dragon Orimura: If you've caught up to here by the time this is posted, I hope you liked the story so far!

Posierdon93: Glad you liked it! I hope you enjoyed this chapter too.

Maxperseus130: I'm glad you reinstalled the game! I've actually done a full Torrhen playthrough. That's where I got the idea for the character from.

BiazarKaiser: I have a plan for Dian Cecht. I hope you like it.

Sirleirgbag: Thank you for the suggestions!

Christalm: I know I'm not paid, but I do like to keep my promises if I can. I'm glad you liked what I did with Maomao. She turns into a catgirl during the show so… it fit! As for the plot lines… spoilers? Not the Xenos though. I'm not ready for them yet.

VirusZyX: Thank you!

LionLordEscanor: Thank you!

Galo4: You're welcome!

Haziq Saffari: I hope you like what's coming!

Nephilim015: I do indeed follow the latest anime!

Cloudmint: Glad you like it!

Frostwolf3227: I won't be incorporating magic from any other worlds, unless it's as a skill, but I do like the ideas. Thank you!

Agusfedredhuhnter: You shall see! I am quite fond of the Percy Jackson series though.

NinjaFang1331: Glad you liked it!

Monkey D. Conan: We're getting close to the bigger arcs so I hope you like what's coming!

Walkmanapprenticewordsmith: I hope you see this! I didn't realize I'd missed half the reviews till I posted the chapter. As for your question, I do believe I will be going with Torrhen x Riveria. I like them together, so I'll be slowly incorporating that into the story.

On Ao3

MagnustheRed: I was actually considering Airmid x Naaza but I'm not totally sold. There is a lot of baggage there.

GenericMarySue: Thank you! I think I have a good plan in mind for Miach vs Dian Cecht so I hope you like it.

Conduit: Thank you! I'm glad you like it. I enjoyed writing the lute scene with Riveria and Torrhen.

Godoffire: Y'know, I haven't considered that. I'll give it some thought, but I don't see why he wouldn't have them.