Hestia led us to some little cafe not far off from where we ran into her. Some small talk between her and Syr informed us that she had been in the area to buy some new clothes for Bell since he increased in rank and would be getting new armor. But after getting here and looking around, they decided to just window shop since realizing it would be easier to find clothes suited to his armor rather than armor that went with his clothes.

The girl was energetic, friendly and running high on excitement as she talked about 'her' Bell. In short, very different than anything I expected when it came to one of the elder gods from the Greek histories of mythological beings. When it came to the old Greek myths, I knew absolutely nothing about her other than she was one of the originals that came from Cronos and had something to do with fire. Hell, even in the new age stuff, there wasn't much about her. About all that I could recall was how she got a fancy title bestowed on her by a kid too young to drink in a story written by a history teacher.

So, all I could surmise was that she was even more behaved than Hades. Which did put me at ease just a bit. But not enough for me to forget about the human lie detector thing.

When we got to our table, the smaller goddess that had some serious possessiveness issues going on had us sit with me across from her, Bell to her left, and Syr to her right. She kept the other girl away from her man, and put me right in her sights. After we got the menus from a waitress, she blanched and looked up to us with a nervous laugh. "So, I know I said let's all eat together, and the person that does that usually pays for everything, but we may need to have separate checks."

"That's fine, Goddess Hestia," Syr told her with a smile. "You didn't plan to run into us after all."

To a normal person, that might have been considered a normal exchange. But I had been around angry women enough to translate the hidden goddesses words: So, you're a penny pincher.

Hestia gave the girl a warm smile. Warm, like the fires of Hell. "Thank you for understanding. Keeping a family armed and armored so that the city is safe is pretty expensive, but I'm sure you'll agree it's worth it."

Translation: If it wasn't for people like me, your sorry ass would be dead.

Before the two nuclear bombs at the table could get into a slap fight, I cleared my throat. On the way over to the cafe, I had run through various scenarios to try and come up with a plan for dealing with a goddess that could detect lies while barely knowing the difference between up and down on Earth 2: Mythology Boogaloo.

Dealing with creatures that had to keep their promises, not to mention the fact that the majority of the supernatural world I had been involved with for the past few years were physically incapable of lying, had given me plenty of experience with verbal gymnastics. I knew all the tricks; from confusing double negatives, to vague wording that meant nothing under close examination.

All I needed to do was take the reins in the conversation and not lose control.

"So, Dresden, what level are you?" Hestia asked as we waited for one of the staff to come back with our drinks, shattering my plans with her preemptive salvo of words.

Before I could tell her that I was level six, since that was what my character sheet in DnD said, Syr spoke up. "Harry is a level three, before he had to leave the familia, I mean."

The waiter showed up again to deliver our water, but he was waved away after asking for our orders since Hestia hadn't even looked at her menu yet. The pigtailed goddess gave me one of those special looks females were just born knowing. It was the one where the head is halfway turned away and tilted up, like she was looking at spoiled food. "That's pretty high for someone outside of Orario," the little goddess said cautiously before leaning over the table to frown at me. "You weren't a member of a familia to a mercenary god, were you?"

I found myself starting to sweat, because I had no idea what the hell a 'mercenary god' was. Which made me worry that even a no would ding the shrimp's magical polygraph. As would a yes. Answering the question with a question might keep Hestia's spider sense from going off, but I was also sure that something like that would raise all kinds of red flags. So, all I could do was try not to look nervous and wait for Syr to do something that pulled me out of the hot seat.

But then, a dashing hero put his menu down to look over at Hestia. I could almost see the question marks dancing above Bell's head as he spoke. "What's a mercenary god?"

Hestia blinked and looked over to her follower, the light hostility giving way to her own confusion. "You don't know?" she asked before looking up at the sky for a moment and tapping her chin. "Then again, you did come to Orario without any familia experience so…"

She sighed and looked back to the boy, her discomfort returning. "The gods operating outside of Orario usually fall into four different categories. Five if you count gods like Takemikazuchi before he moved to the city. Just like here, there's the gods that set themselves up at the head of a business, like Hephaestus," Hestia started explaining. The pronunciation of the name was a little off from what I was familiar with, which threw me off a little. "They focus on crafting things, or providing something like medical services. There's also gods like Ares, who go to a city and become a patron deity to just hand out their blessing left and right in return for an easy lifestyle or an excuse to indulge in their hobbies. Next are the gods that just want to be left alone and do their own thing like Miach is since the trouble with his familia, basically living like a mortal. All of those gods barely have anyone above level two because they just don't get enough experience.

Hestia's demeanor changed a little, becoming heavier. "There's also the gods that lead hunting familia. Orario may have the dungeon, but there's dozens of little enclaves all over the world that are leftovers from when before the gods came down to the mortal realm and helped contain the threat. They still breed, migrate, and need to be dealt with, if not at least contained," she went on. "A lot of gods like that are just in Orario for a few months out of the year in winter to recruit adventures or level up their familia in the dungeon.

"Then there's the…mercenary familia," she grumbled unpleasantly. "Those gods go around, hiring out their children to attack other nations in return for money and favors. War allows them to level up without much risk, even if the highest they can hope to get to is level three. Maybe level four if one god ends up fighting another in a protracted war."

Silence covered the table for a moment, before Syr spoke up. "Is something wrong, Lady Hestia?"

The other goddess sighed and slumped over onto the table. "I know, I shouldn't be making moral judgments like that. Each and every one of our children is special and should be allowed to follow their own path freely, with the gods serving as examples of how to live life. But it just rubs me the wrong way that instead of protecting their mortals, they're running around and causing trouble for everybody else."

Syr let out a little groan and looked away to mumble something I could just barely hear. "Well, what do you expect gods of strife and discord to do?"

With nobody else picking up on Syr's words, and Hestia's complaint putting a damper on the mood, Bell looked over to me. "So, uh, what kind of adventures have you had, Mr Dresden?" he asked with a smile that looked a little forced. Which I didn't blame him for, considering the atmosphere.

"Well," I began before leaning back in my chair to consider the question carefully. "I'm not going to lie and say I've got a squeaky clean past. I haven't worked for a god that went around killing people with an army of empowered soldiers, but there've been plenty of people that I've had to…deal with over the years. I mostly kill inhuman monsters that do their best to eat people. But more than once, I've had to get rid of an evil magic user who thought he could use his power to coerce helpless men and women with force, or worse." After that downer of an explanation, I tried to put a more positive spin on myself. The last thing I needed was a deity deciding she needed to get rid of me for the good of the world. "But, stuff like that is pretty far inbetween. Most of what I do is solving problems normal people can't handle. I can use magic to track down missing objects, pets, or even people. Of course, if the missing person is a couple's newborn son that's been snatched up by some local monster, I'll do everything I can to get the boy back and kill the thing. But most of the time, the kid is just naturally lost or has straight up run away from the farm."

For some reason, Bell got really excited at that. "So, you're a hero!" he said before the reason for his enthusiasm clicked in my head. Bell was like one of those kids that grew up reading comics in the 80s, then found someone to give him real super powers. He was still young and inexperienced enough to think you could swing around the neighborhood and stop crime without running into anything traumatizing.

I winced at the title. "No kid," I told him. The look Bell gave me was like a puppy who could see the foot I was about to kick him with coming, but couldn't understand what was going on. "A hero is a powerless man who runs into a burning building to save a baby before the flames can get to it. I'm just a guy who's equipped to deal with problems most people aren't."

My mood was infectious, powerful enough to fell both enthusiastic child and hungry goddess. While Bell got an uncomfortable look on his face and looked around nervously, Hestia grabbed the list of food and started looking through it rather than try to continue the conversation.

As for Syr, it looked like someone had touched on a nerve earlier. She was nursing a thundercloud on her face. Although, why her glare was directed at me made me wonder what I had done in the last ten seconds to deserve it.

There was a good two minutes of silence that let me simmer in my less than stellar past. Two minutes that I had to just look at a boy I'm sure wasn't done with puberty yet, but went down into a death trap every day because a divine being wasn't stopping him. "Hestia, what are you doing?" I asked her in a slightly stern voice.

The goddess looked up from her menu in confusion. "Um, I'm thinking of ordering a salad," she said.

I sighed and hung my head before looking over to the child with the white hair. "Bell, how old are you?"

"Fourteen," he told me as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Me, on the other hand, had to fight to keep from falling out of my chair. An F sound escaped my mouth before I clamped down on the curse. Although the memories weren't my most pleasant, I remembered what it was like to be his age. Sort of, my magic had come a year and a half later, but I had still been just as young and stupid. Hell, I had probably been worse. But if I had been throwing fireballs at monsters at that age with a pretty girl cheering me on, I would have told anyone saying it was a bad idea to sit and spin.

He wasn't Molly either. At least, Molly when she started to realize that forcing her will on her friends with magic was a bad idea. He was like the Molly that used the jedi mind trick on her friends to stop them using drugs and was riding the high of doing a good deed. If I had told her how stupid she was being at that point instead of after her friends nearly got killed by evil fairies that fed on fear, I don't think things would have gone the same.

If I was going to get him to at least reconsider his path in life, I needed to be subtle and logical about it.

I went with the family guilt angle. "So, what do your parents think about the whole dungeon diver thing you're doing?" Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Syr look up from her menu and give me a glare, but since I was out of range of her wrath, I was able to avoid cowering in fear.

Although, I did manage to connect the dots as to what made her angry before. It looked like the hidden goddess didn't want the kid to stop risking his life in a giant underground death trap. With the little interaction I had with her, I couldn't really judge where Syr sat on the Good VS Evil scale, but her taking issue with me keeping a child away from danger was definitely a tick in the bad column.

Bell became a little downcast at the question. "Oh, they're…dead. My father was killed by a monster, and my mom got sick and died not long after I was born."

An imaginary fist punched me in the gut. I was an orphan myself, so I knew how hard it was. Well, how hard it was for me, I didn't even know what kind of support system this world had for kids that were left behind. "You've got my sympathies. I lost my own mother to a bunch of monsters too," I told him truthfully. Which they were. The White Court were a bunch of emotional vampires that fed on the minds of people instead of normal food. "So, who raised you?"

"My grandpa," Bell said without any of the usual 'woe is me' aura that I was putting out after the orphan card got played. "But, after he passed away. I didn't have a way to make money and came to Orario to become an adventurer."

So he literally had nowhere else to go and his job prospects were zero. So, I couldn't exactly call out his motivations. It wasn't like the guy was trying to look cool in front of a girl, or anything too selfish beyond the need for food. He was doing it because he didn't have any other prospects. The fact that he was good at it just meant that other prospects weren't going to look as appealing.

Thankfully, Hestia chose that moment to open her big mouth. "And you're good at it too."

With the goddess verbalizing my own thoughts in a positive manner, I decided to change my strategy. "Right. Level two in such a short amount of time is a real accomplishment," I agreed to hopefully get inside his verbal guard by buttering him up a little. "But, I don't think you should get too big a head. I can't count how many people I've seen get overconfident or have some new magic blow up in their faces because they decided to rush into danger without taking proper precautions."

The boy's smile became a little nervous before he let out a tiny laugh and scratched the back of his head. "Ehehe, yeah. I think you're a little late with that warning," he said nervously.

I frowned at the reply. "What does that mean?"

As the girls looked away from their menus, giving the child their full attention, Bell gulped and started to look more and more guilty. "So…uh…"

Hestia's eyes narrowed. "Bell, what're you talking about?"

"Well, um…remember when you found me asleep over that grimoire and it turned out I learned a spell from it?" Bell asked nervously. On the other side of the table, Syr leaned in closer and tensed up a little. "I uh…might have gone into the dungeon while you were asleep and cast the spell until I passed out."

Hestia's left eye twitched. "What?"

Meanwhile, Syr let out a tiny groan and slunk in her seat a tiny bit. Nervous guilt was written all over her face.

Despite the difference in characters, I felt I was being treated to a replay of my old friends at the Carpenter household. "T-That was weeks ago! You can't be too angry about that, right? Nothing bad happened."

"Except that you passed out in a place where you could have gotten eaten!" Hestia yelled at him. "Wait, how are you even alive right now? There's no way the dungeon wouldn't have just spawned a monster right on top of you after you fell unconscious!"

Bell became even more nervous and pulled in on himself. "Um, I'm not sure. I just know when I woke up, Ms Aiz was there and I was," he said before pausing and turning red. "I was in her lap."

The chair she was sitting in fell over as Hestia practically leapt to her feet. "YOU WERE WHAT?"

"I-It was just my head in her lap-"

"THAT'S EVEN WORSE!" Hestia yelled at him even louder before the chronically short girl took the opportunity of the situation to loom over the sitting boy.

With the way this conversation was going, I could see any attempt to get the boy to stop putting his life in danger was probably a waste of time at the moment. Plus, I didn't want to do near a jealous Greek deity in a jealous rage. People got turned into cows when stuff like that happened. So, I cleared my throat and started to stand up. "Um, maybe it's best if we give you two some privacy."

For her part, Syr was giving the boy a hard look of her own. "Yeah," she mumbled with a barely hidden frown. "Privacy."

But, I had to at least try and plant a seed to try and make things a little safer for the boy. "Listen, kid. I get that you're feeling on top of the world right now, but don't get cocky. If you want some advice from a guy who's been doing this kind of stuff for awhile, find two or three other guys to pal around with down there," I said. "It'll keep you from making stupid mistakes like this and getting into trouble with your goddess."

I managed to beat a hasty retreat from the dining area before the goddess could start asking me more questions I didn't want to answer, or Syr could try and get me to stick around. I wasn't one hundred percent sure she was going to follow after me, but a few moments after I turned a corner to avoid Hestia's sight, she came around carrying the bags of clothes I had neglected to take with me. "Here," she said with a tiny frown on her face.

"Listen to the man, Bell! Guys! Guys, do you hear me?" Hestia's voice carried from back at the cafe.

"Don't tell me you're miffed at me getting out of there," I said as I took the items from her. "Thanks for telling me about how everyone like you is a living polygraph by the way. I'm sure you didn't have any ulterior motives for not beginning that up in the many conversations we've had."

Syr raised an eyebrow. "A wizard calling out someone for not being upfront is the height of hypocrisy, Mr Dresden," she said before her mouth cocked upward in a smirk.

I looked down at the girl, and had to remind myself that it only looked like a girl. It was really something as old as Mab, if not older, created when a mass of magical energy got jumbled up with a bunch of human beliefs and willpower. At least, that's what I thought gods really were. It was how things worked when it came to magic where everything else was concerned. The vast majority of the human race might not have had more than a drop of magical power, but when millions of them got together to believe in Santa, a seven foot giant who stepped into the role came out one night a year to give everyone who really believed in him presents.

"You know what? Forget that," I said before I tried to clear my mind. Now that I was with Syr again, I had a much more important thing to be angry at her about. "You're trying to hook up with a fourteen year old boy."

Syr frowned back at me. "It's not hookup, it's date. There's a difference. and are you going to give me some lecture about the age difference now? Alright, please point out someone older than the universe to me and I'll try pursuing him for a bit."

I had to take in a little breath after meeting her gaze. Age difference was a bit of a hypocritical thing for me to point out too, as I had once been with a wizard that had been around when the west was wild. She got a fresh body before it happened, so it wasn't as if I had been sleeping with an old woman. Just an old woman who got body swapped with a young woman…who might have been mind controlled into sleeping with me by a dark wizard. For that reason, she broke it off.

But, this wasn't about an age difference. "It's not about your age, it's about his experience and maturity. He's a child! God, we just listened to how he ran around like an idiot and nearly got himself killed not ten seconds ago."

Syr broke the staring contest before tue turned back to the street and leaned up against the building we were standing next to. She looked up into the sky and let out a heavy sigh as her face became wistful. "I'm well aware of the morality involving my actions, Mr Dresden," she told me before her eyes got a far off look in them. "Do you know the story of the frog and the scorpion?"

"Yes, I grew up in the American school system and read books," I told her evenly.

A tiny, mirthless laugh escaped Syr's lips. "Once upon a time, there was a scorpion. She needed to get to the other side of the river, but couldn't swim. The poor scorpion was trapped, unable to fulfill her inborn desire. Then, one day, a frog came along. He was perfect! He swam and was big enough to carry her. The scorpion asked the frog to take her across the river,and the frog said 'no, you'll sting me'. And the funny thing is, the scorpion knew he was right. She knew that he couldn't fulfill her desire by using him in such a way. Deep down, she understood that her goal was in fact, hopeless. Yet, she gave him honeyed words and logical assurances and eventually, as she was crossing the river, she destroyed the very thing she hoped to be her salvation."

"I'm not as lucky as you, Mr Dresden. I am what I am," she said before letting out another sigh. "No matter how much I hate it."

That, I couldn't formulate a response to, and my moral high horse stopped being tall enough to ride. After just standing around in an awkward silence for a good two minutes, Syr picked herself off the wall and we were walking down the street again. Although my body followed along, my mind was lost in thought.

As wrong as it was, I had to agree with her. Human beings might have been weak, but we were the ultimate expression of free will. It went as far back as the creation story. When God said not to do something, it was the first thing on our list.

Supernatural things were different. Dragons would always hoard gold, fairies would never tell a lie, Santa would always have to deliver presents to good girls and boys, and Syr would be trapped, doing what little barmaid goddesses did. I might as well ask a cat to become vegan.

I know I was trying to fool myself, but I took comfort in the fact that her boy chasing was pretty pathetic when it came to effort. If I had met a girl like her at Bell's age and she had bothered turning on any kind of charm, I would have been putty in her hands. So, she probably wasn't doing anything too bad.

Right?

An hour later, we had finished looking at a total of three apartments for rent with little progress in finding me a place outside of Mia's attic. While we did find plenty of open realestate, Orario revolved around the dungeon. Which meant that while there were plenty of rooms for rent, they were all very cramped and meant to be used short term by the transient population. If someone was going to stay in the city long-term, then they would hook up with a familia and basically stay at the group's fraternity/sorority.

In fact, it looked like the housing situation was designed to make sure atheist humans would have a hard time in the city. Which, considering that this place had the highest deity population in the world, was a pretty safe bet.

"So, any ideas?" I asked as we checked off the latest rat's nest that was on the same level as every other hole in the wall around.

Syr looked into the purse that had started off much fatter at the start of the day. "Well, there are hotels. They're much better off than those hole in the wall apartments. But I'm told they charge a lot more too," she said before looking up at me. "By the way, just how are you planning to earn money?"

"I'm a wizard," I told her simply.

To which she simply crossed her arms and looked up at me with a frown. "Oh! You're planning on making money by being annoyingly vague?"

I actually snorted out a tiny laugh at that. "No, I'll offer the same services I did back home. The ones I told your boyfriend about. "

"You do realize that the number of providers for magical services has increased significantly since you were last on Earth?" she asked.

"And according to you, most of them are geared towards throwing fireballs and lightning bolts," I replied. "I can track down lost objects, pets, and missing children. If I can find a place big enough to set up a lab, then I can brew some basic potions and sell them on the cheap. Basic enchantments for items would probably get me a steady income as well."

Syr's back straightened a little and for a second, it was like a different person was looking at me. There was a strange hunger in her eyes that made me pull back and wonder if it would have been better to just keep my mouth shut. "So you're a craftsman as well. That changes things," she said after coming out of her greed daze. "We can buy you a workshop and turn the extra space into a living area."

I raised an eyebrow. "You mean, rent an office space?"

"Oh no!" Syr said as she swatted away the question by waving her hand in front of her face several times as if she was trying to shoo away a fly. "Any sort of rental contract has to be held by a familia taking up residence in the city. But, out of town merchants are allowed to buy property if everything is paid upfront."

I rubbed my chin in thought as I digested that information. In a world without electronics, I guess it would be a little too easy to skip out on a bill. But, that train of thought got derailed when I realized what she had just said. "Wait! What do you mean buy a building?" I demanded. "You're cute, but there's no way your tips are that good!"

After I got done speaking, my mind managed to come up with a less than plausible explanation. It could have been that the housing market in the city was that bad, or maybe there was some kind of deal that merchants could work out. Either that, or Syr had a massive stockpile of wealth because she was really nothing like what she seemed and was just pretending to be a sweet and innocent deity with a cute face.

"I'm sure I have enough money laying around," the goddess assured me before she looked at her belt pouch. It had gone through a significant diet since this morning. "Although, I will need to procure more funds."

Just then, I realized where this conversation was going, and held up my hands. "Hold on, a few clothes is one thing. What you're proposing would put me in a massive debt to you. And I don't mean in the monetary sense. Keep the house, I'll…figure something out."

How I was going to do that, I had no idea. But I had a bad feeling about where this conversation was going. When you deal with supernatural heavy hitters that live longer than human countries, they eventually try to put you under their boot.

Syr gave me a bored sigh. "Let me save us both some time, Mr Dresden," she said in an annoyed tone. "I'm guessing by your withdrawal from lunch, you have no intention of joining any of the familia and becoming a servant to a god or goddess. This is something I find very agreeable, it is much better that you remain a free agent. So much so that I will help you with that. I could get some documentation that says you are a servant of a god outside of Orario. I just told Hestia you had to leave your familia, not that you didn't have a falna, after all. There's more than one person in this city that has been excommunicated by her goddess. As long as there aren't any legal entanglements, your 'fake ID' won't be questioned. We don't have the internet anymore, so background checks are very troublesome. You won't find a better deal anywhere else in this city, I assure you."

I frowned at her and the offer. "And I suppose you want me to swear on my power to keep my mouth shut about you and stay out of the way of any plans you have?" I asked in a gruff voice. It wasn't the first time I had been offered a big wad of cash to just sit at home and do nothing. I turned down a mob boss when I was sitting in his car after I had learned just what a monster he was. If I could do that, I could turn down a cute girl in a dress.

Syr looked surprised at the rejection for a moment. "Swear…oh, right! I forgot that was a thing with the original human magic users," she said with a sour expression. The goddess paused for a moment and shivered before letting out a sound of disgust. Then, her expression became reserved. "No. I won't ask you to shackle yourself in such a way. The only thing I want is for you to stay within the confines of the city. Which, providing you a place to work and live will do."

It was times like this that I wished I had taken more camping trips, or come kind of do it yourself survival classes. In this world, I had no money, no connections, not even a basic idea of the topography. On top of which, I was a city boy. My ability to survive in the wild on my own was basically nonexistent. So I couldn't just leave town.

What really got me was that I could easily make the offer of hers meaningless by going up for a random god on the street and seeing if I could join their little group. But that would put me in the position I wanted to avoid. That girl Hestia had seemed friendly enough, but I didn't trust anything with her level of power.

Power that Syr also possessed. If a lick of what she was telling me was true. She could lie in front of a deity, who was to say she wasn't lying to me right now?

"I'll even sweeten the deal," Syr went on with a little smile before she took a step forward and put her hands behind her back. "You are completely at liberty to thwart whatever evil scheme I may have in the works. In fact, how about we make that the condition of my offer? If I should ever cross some kind of moral line, or become a monster that people need saving from, you will strike me down without hesitation. Is that something you can agree to?"

I took a step back from the sly goddess as she smiled up at me like some kind of small predator looking at some much larger prey that didn't know it was about to get swallowed whole.

I don't want to say I didn't have much choice in the matter, because I did. It was just that my other choices were worse than getting permission to beat someone up. I knew she was playing me, somehow. Things like her always had an angle to everything they did, even if it didn't make sense to humans.

So, I slowly reached out my hand. "Alright. I guess, I'll take that offer."

Syr took my hand, sealing the deal.

"Great," she said as we broke the clasping of hands and she looked back and forth down the street. "Do you think you can make it back to the Hostess on your own? I need to talk to one of my invisible minions and scheme with him about what to do with you."

I frowned at the obvious joke that was nothing more than a very bad attempt to get under my skin. "I think I can manage," I told her evenly before not moving a single step. Unfortunately, I couldn't think of a witty quip to leave her on, and turned to head back to the inn. Hopefully, I could get back there before her with enough time to ask some questions without Syr around.

-Syr-

As soon as the man was halfway down the street, I made my way into the nearest alleyway and took a turn to make sure I was out of view of the street before I signaled for one of my guards to come to me by brushing my hair away from my ear.

There was the sound of someone landing in front of me before a tall elf with blonde hair sticking out of his hood revealed himself by canceling out the magical effect of his cloak. After pulling back his hood, Hedin reached up to push his glasses up further on his face in a way he thought made him look cooler. "How may I be of assistance, Lady Syr?"

I resisted the urge to sigh. The boy had heard my conversation with the wizard. He knew what I wanted. He was just playing for a few more seconds with me, or wanting to hear my voice, or one of the millions of other silly little things my familia did to try and buy some time with me. "I want you to procure the property I discussed with the boy. Something with a suitable second floor to turn into a living space that…" I stopped as my thoughts trailed off because my mind was switching tracks mid-sentence.

If I didn't give my men specific instructions, they would either attempt to make the wizard's living situation unbearable out of the jealousy because of the attention I was giving him, or go overboard with opulence to ensure my comfort for the time I would be spending with him at his office.

Yes, I am going to need to check in on him, aren't I? I told myself. In fact, I would need to practically hold his hand for the next few months until I made sure he wasn't going to get himself into trouble.

And I didn't want some opulent space my familia would turn any building I would be spending the shortest amount of time into. It just didn't fit Dresden. He might have been a wizard, but he felt more like one of those characters from an old cliche detective novels with that enchanted trenchcoat he had on. He even had the snarky quips. The only thing he's missing is a fem fatale and plucky young…assistant.

My eyes widened at the thought. I had played a barmaid for so long, and while being surrounded with children I truly loved and loved me for my personality, it was growing a little stale. I needed something to spice up my life. Some mysteries to solve, a heist or two, maybe even a tiny adventure where I helped rescue a damsel in distress from an evil monster.

"Now there's an idea that might be fun," I mumbled to myself.

I looked back at Hedin with my excitement starting to show. "I want an office building with two stories and a moderately-sized basement. Something good for brooding," I told him before giving an acceptable range of measurements. It needed to be able to produce the right atmosphere after all. "Funnel the purchase through that merchant we met in the Kaios Desert a few months ago, I don't want there to be a money trail leading back to the familia."

There was the tiniest hint of a questioning look that made its way to Hedin's face before I realized what I said. Nobody tracked financials in this day and age. Spending time with that wizard really put me in a nostalgic mood.

I didn't countermand the order. It was fun to confuse my familia from time to time. Hedin always tripped over himself trying to predict my desires before I could make them, so seeing him dig deeper into what was a slip of the tongue might be something amusing to watch. It would be a fitting revenge for him knowing me so well that he turned many of my partner hunting expeditions into predictable slogs that were an absolute bore.

Not that removing his preparations would have made those experiences any better. That was what really bothered me about the whole thing. Even if I had been on my own, I wouldn't have gotten what I truly wanted. The wizard would be a nice distraction to that fact of life.

Hedin nodded at my commands. "If I may be so bold my lady," he began before getting my visual permission to continue his question. "Have you lost interest in the Cranel boy?"

Curiosity bloomed in my mind and I gave the elf a confused look. "No. What makes you say that?"

"You rarely show interest in something else while you are searching for a…companion," Hedin said as his whole body tensed at the thought of me being with another man. "I had thought you…found something more interesting."

My child's words broke through my air of nonchalance, and I gave him a little frown. "Don't tell me you thought this was some kind of date?" After seeing Hedin realize his error, I couldn't help but laugh. Jealousy truly did cloud the minds of my children. "HAHAHAHAHA! You…you're actually threatened by Dresden?"

Dresden was rather disagreeable and abrasive. Not as much as some of the adventurers I had served food to before, but still very rough and unlikable. It didn't help that the situation we were in was an inversion of classical relationship between a man and a woman. There was nothing more dull than a man who needed money from a woman.

I waved away my child's fears. "I can assure you, the wizard is…" I paused for a moment, trying to find the right words. At the moment, the boy was so new into my world, I didn't really have anything particular in mind. Killing him, the last original human, the final piece of the old world, it put a bad taste in my mouth. "An anomaly I'm interested in. And that is all I will say on the subject."

Telling him the full situation wasn't an option. When things were put back together, it was unanimously agreed never to mention what came before to our children. The reasons varied from shame to security, but it was one of our greatest taboos.

But since we never made Dresden, he was immune to the communication embargo.

Hedin started to bow, but I held up a finger to stop him before he got it into his head to leave. "One more thing when it comes to that boy," I told him before delivering orders that needed to be spread to the rest of the familia.

-Dresden-

I met back up with Syr within a block of the tavern. Once we got back to the Hostess of Fertility, Mia had been in full swing to prepare for lunch. Without anywhere else to go, I ended up on one of the tables in the back corner with a menu in front of my face long enough to tell my waitress what I wanted to eat after translating the badly written english. This time, I was able to actually get food in front of me that was delivered by the tall blonde elf I had seen the night before. Her name was Ryu, if some of the conversations that I had caught bits and pieces of after coming back were heard correctly.

To be more accurate, she was more like a pseudo-elf that was more human than anything else. Before I was banished, elves were these incredibly short things that barely got above three feet and served the Summer Court. I had run from a few when the Summer Queen put out a hit on me. The 'elf' in front of me was the better part of five and a half feet tall and I had to actually avert my eyes when she came over with a collection of meat and vegetables on a hot skillet when I felt the beginning of a soul gaze.

When she didn't leave after dropping off the meal, I started to get a little nervous. I had been on the receiving end of the calculating look she was giving me. "Something wrong?" I asked.

"Syr tells me the two of you know each other from before she came to Orario," the new-elf said calmly.

I tried my best not to look too uncomfortable, but it was rather hard thanks to my lack of knowledge. Just what had that woman told her friends about me? If she was going to be making up background information behind my back, then she really needed to be here to run interference since I had no idea what lies she was peddling. "Oh, it's more I knew people who knew her. Friend of a friend kind of thing," I told her.

Ryu crossed her arms and gave me a measured look. She managed to look a little intimidating, despite being dressed in an outfit that belonged in a porn video for people of a particular fetish. "Well, just so you're aware, every woman working here is a level four."

The confusion written all over my face from her statement washed away a few seconds later when I realized what was going on. "Oh! You're doing the whole territorial momma bear thing."

Either that saying didn't exist on this planet, or nobody had called the elf out on her intimidation thing before. "I…the…what?"

"You know, something starts walking around your den, where your sweet and innocent little cub that doesn't know how dark and messed up the greater world is sleeping. So like a bear, you walk out of the cave and just give it a good glare to make sure it stays away. But you don't raise a big fuss, or the cub comes out to look at what's going on. Because you know how dark and evil the world really is, and you don't want her to be enticed by it. So, like a bear, you're here to growl at me and look menacing, because you don't want her to know you're being so protective."

Ryu stood there for a moment with a far off look in her eyes before she crossed her arms. "The fact you're so quick to pick up on the situation doesn't fill me with confidence."

I held up my hands in surrender. "Don't worry, I want as little to do with Syr as possible. I just ran into her by coincidence. As soon as some banking issues get cleared up, I can make my own lodging arrangements and not have to bother any of you ever again."

"Good. There's something about you that just reeks of trouble, and I don't want it near her," Ryu told me before turning to head to another table.

With my privacy renewed, I began to eat while mentally making a mental list of things I would be needing to settle down and set up shop in the city. Syr said she would provide my office and living arrangements fully furnished, but I would be needing more than that and food money until I could get some clients. With the magical nature of the world, I was probably better off selling potions and some quick enchantments than offering any detective services since people here actually knew magic was real.

"Would mew like some more to drink, sir?"

I nearly jumped out of my chair after hearing the voice coming from my blindspot before I turned my head to see the pub's second cat girl standing just beyond where I would have seen her out of the corner of my eye. This one had black hair with the same color fur on her ears and tail.

Her sudden appearance did nothing to ease my mind. Being naturally paranoid because something had always been out to get me since I turned sixteen, I had developed a nervous habit that bordered on a supernatural ability to check for things like people sneaking up to knife me in the back. The fact that I hadn't detected her approach at all meant that she purposely avoided being noticed.

I slid my mug out for her to pour the mixed juice concoction that Mia was serving with my meal. I knew she had ale, but I wasn't going to start complaining since I wasn't paying for the food. And, it was a little early to be drinking whatever thick, ye old types of beer Mia had in the half a dozen old kegs Mia had on display behind the counter.

The catgirl picked up the mug and tipped the pitcher she was holding ever so slightly so that the juice was flowing so slowly, it might as well have been a drip feed. "So, what exactly did you and Syr do this morning?"

After finishing the bit of food that was in my mouth. I looked up at unknown catgirl number 2. "Are you all going to be doing the territorial thing?"

Halfway across the room, the other catgirl, the one with the light brown hair, picked her head up to shout over the few customers that had come in as soon as the place opened for business. "No. I want to ask about your date!"

As if the sentence were actually words for a summoning, Syr came out of the back in her uniform so quickly I could have sworn there was a cloud of dust behind her. "I told you Anya! I was just helping Mr Dresden replace some things he lost on the way to Oriario. So, don't be spreading rumors!"

The only real human on the staff practically teleported over to the hidden goddess. "But you never talk about your pawst, and nyaow some guy just randomly shows up and we're supposed to ignore it?"

"You have to admit, you've been acting very odd since last night," Ryu added as she just walked past the girl on her way to another table.

Syr slumped. "It hasn't even been twenty-four hours!" she whined before pointing over to me. "Can I not be allowed to be a little distressed after seeing someone I haven't seen since I was a little girl?"

The loud catgirl let out a gasp before I watched her make an impossible leap across half the room and land next to Syr. "So he's a childhood crush that's come back into your life now that mew are a woman!"

I watched as the expression on Syr's face fell into full depression. "There's no talking you out of this insanity, is there?"

"Hey you lazy girls!" the voice of the pub's own called out a second before she appeared from the kitchen door. "GET BACK TO WORK!"

The girls quickly scattered and I gave a silent thanks to whatever heavenly body was listening before returning to my mostly finished meal. I also slowed down a great deal in my eating, since I had no idea what I was going to do for the rest of the day. Helping out around the pub in an attempt to earn my keep so I didn't have to feel less like a man who was having everything paid for by a little girl wasn't an option. I could easily get cornered by one of the staff and would probably say something Syr didn't want heard. But going out into the city was equally dangerous without a lot more knowledge of the world.

Half an hour passed before I finished my meal and Ryu came over with a normal man and woman to sit them down at a table near mine before collecting my plate. I barely noticed the elf in lue of the couple. Both of them were out of sorts, and not the kind that just spoke of a bad day at work. These people looked like their lives had recently been ruined completely. The chubby woman with her hair done up in a bun had been crying profusely, and the man in the ratty vest had eyes that were sunken in a way that only a mountain of worry could cause. They both looked like they had either slept in their clothes, or pulled them from a pile of dirty laundry.

"Why are we eating out at a time like this?" the woman grumbled to the man as Ryu gave them their menus before moving a few steps away.

The man sighed and slumped in his seat. "We spent all night trying to speak to the Ganesha familia. So now, I'm hungry, and unless you can cook something without a stove, we're going to have to be eating in restaurants for a few days."

For her part, the woman glared at the man. "Don't don't you dare talk to me like that when you gambled away our house and daughter!"

My passing interest stopped dead and hung a U-turn at the last part of the conversation as the man slumped more and held his head in his hands. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the elf turn all the way around towards the couple, but I beat her to it before she could come along to ask them to keep it down or leave. I got up to sit down at the table with the couple of strangers and rested my elbows on the wood.

"Sir, ma'am," I said to them both as respectfully as I could with a nod to each of them. "I couldn't help but overhear you seem to be having some trouble. My name is Harry Dresden, I specialize in locating lost things, and reuniting families with missing children."

The man glared at me with an anger that had probably been welling up inside of him for several hours and allowed to run rampant with a lack of sleep that came from dealing with the Ganesha family for whatever reason. I could see he was about to do something stupid to vent that anger on the nearest available target. So when he reached for a glass of water, and let out a tiny grunt when he found it frozen to the table by a very thin layer of ice.

"Nyao sir," the stealth catgirl with the black hair said as she instantly came from behind him and placed her hands on his shoulders, pinning him to his seat. "Mew should calm down and paw-haps think about where you are before causing a scene."

After a few seconds of looking back behind him and being unable to move, the man let out a defeated sigh and lowered his head.

When he didn't say anything else, I cleared my throat and looked around. "Um, maybe this isn't the best place to discuss this kind of stuff."

Before I could make a poor suggestion, Syr was already at the table. "Chloe, can you show them to the break room? I'll clean up Mr Dresden's table and meet them there in about five minutes."

Once everyone else was out of earshot , I looked over to Syr. "Is this going to cause problems?"

Syr gave me a startled look before her features softened. "No. If anything, I'm glad that you're taking this kind of initiative, Mr Dresden. So many old fashioned councilmembers like you were usually involved in getting rid of threats instead of solving people's problems," she said before giving me a bright smile. "Your soul may be a little damaged, but I thought there was some kindness under that cold exterior."

I raised my brow at the comment, but waited for her to clean off the table I had been using before I followed her towards the back. Mia gave us a tiny frown, but Syr matched her stern expression. "You can't be sore about something like this."

"No," she grumbled before she sighed and looked away. "Just make sure you don't cause a big ruckus this time."

My nervousness grew by leaps and bounds when Syr gave the larger woman a tiny giggle and skipped along towards the back hallway. "No promises!"

When we got to the back room, I was surprised to see Ryu there. She was leaning against the only clean corner and her apron was gone.. Syr noticed, but didn't comment on her presence before she took a seat on the right side of the table. The parents of the missing girl were sitting across from me as I got in the chair, a cup of hot tea in front of each of them. "Alight, um…mister and missus…"

The man spoke. "My name is Heuy Klaus, and this is my wife, Karen."

I gave them a respectful nod. "Okay. I need you to retain calm and start from the beginning. Take a moment to breathe if you need it. Don't leave anything out. Even the smallest detail could help," I told them before I leaned back, prepared to take as many mental notes as I could while wishing I had brought a pen.