"It's very important! Our son was stuck in this time bubble for nine years with a girl during his most vulnerable years growing up! Who's to say what they did? I'm sure when word gets out what happened, everyone's going to automatically a.s.sume they did things, and demand a marriage. In fact, I think there should be one as soon as possible, to ensure that our honor isn't besmirched."

Joseph's and William's jaws were hanging open as she nodded to herself.

"Absolutely not!" cried Joseph, scooting back in his chair.

"What?" said his mom, looking at him with that crazy look in her eye, that he would dare to back talk her.

"Dear, if you demand a wedding so quickly, it will seem as if you are trying to hide indecent acts! No one would dare to say such a thing, and besides, even if such things happened, who's to say otherwise? It would be no different if they were off traveling, and merely returned after nine years! We should be grateful they merely returned after only two months!"

She looked at Joseph, and he could suddenly see the truth of what was wrong. She was trying to hide a pain by focusing on a wedding, something she would have complete control over.

"I'm still your son, even if I'm not so little anymore," he said softly, trying to calm things down a little. "Here, you guys were about to eat lunch, let me help with that!"

He stood up and suddenly a table was before him. Then, as they blinked in surprise, he spoke FOOD. The dragon speech startled them, but not as much as the food laden table.

"There are so many different things!" exclaimed his mom, standing up and coming over to investigate.

"There's dishes from a bunch of my other lives. Some of them I'd never actually eaten before, so I can only imagine what they're supposed to taste like."

"Is it all real?" she asked, picking up a small bowl of chocolate pudding and sniffing it.

Joseph laughed, "Oh yes! But you should probably be careful what you eat, some of them have a lot of calories! Only Stella can get away with eating them without getting fat!"

"Calories? Joseph, are those dangerous?" she asked, quickly putting the bowl back down.

"No! That's…how to explain? All food has calories, and they are what give you energy. So, the more calories, the more the energy. If you don't use all the energy, your body will store it as fat."

She sighed, "I don't understand."

"Eat, mom, I promise, it's all safe."

William stepped up and picked up a plate that had a steak on it. The color was unlike anything they had ever seen, and Joseph chuckled.

"That's a wyvern steak. I saw one in one of my lives, for sale at a butcher's shop, as a small child. I always wanted to try one, but never did. I imagined it would be delicious, so it is. You should really try it!"

"So, if I have actually eaten wyvern steak, its possible this would taste nothing like it?" asked his father, pulling his chair up and sitting down.

"Possibly," said Joseph with a shrug.

"Don't worry," chuckled William, "I've never had it, and this steak is the best thing I've ever eaten in my life! Wow!"

"Really?" asked his mom, hesitantly, taking a small bite when he offered her one. "Wow!"

She pulled her chair up and started tasting everything she could reach. Joseph couldn't help feeling extremely proud of himself. Stella poked her head in, and seeing the food, decided that whatever she was going to say, could wait. She stepped inside, shut the door firmly behind her, and pulled up a chair.

"So, Stella," said William, noting her red eyes, "You seem to have changed quite a bit from the little girl you were. And I don't just mean your age."

"Oh! Well, I gained all of the powers of my ancient fey line when Joseph helped me become full fey. It's kind of neat on some of it, because I didn't have some of them in my previous life as Sylva."

"What? You had a previous life, too?" asked his mom, almost dropping her fork.

"Yes?" she answered, glancing at Joseph, as if she had thought he might have already told her.

"How are you guys learning about these lives? Does everyone have a previous life? Why do I feel like I'm being left out of the loop?"

Stella focused on shoving food in her mouth so it was left up to Joseph to answer.

"I invented a new rune, that never existed before," he said, trying to change the subject. She glanced at him, letting him know that she was aware of what he was doing, but instead of demanding he answer her questions, she let it drop for now.

"What rune is that?"

"It makes life easier, and you don't need to be a mage to use it."

"Why would you do that? Make it so that non-mages could use it?"

"It occurred to me that I was thinking of mages and non-mages when I considered my kingdom in the future. If I am the mage king, shouldn't I make magic available to everyone? Why should less than ten percent of my people be able to use magic? Once I learn how to cure diseases in babies, I need to experiment with META. It may be possible to make sure that every human child will be born with at least magery 1, just like the elves. I can prevent discrimination between mages and non-mages by simply ensuring every child has magery. Just like I want to make sure that no child is born crippled or blind."

"But, once you do that, would they still be human?" asked his dad.

"Does that matter? Elf, dwarf, human, dragon, fey, I don't intend to treat them any different, except probably diet and bathroom facilities. I am already being called not human, even though I made certain I haven't taken that step. My best friend isn't human, anymore. My little brother and sister are some type of primal elf. Tekaun has friends among the spirits, and Selena is likely to leave humanity to become an elemental being. My attachment to my humanity isn't that strong. I am mostly staying human so that n.o.body questions that you and mom are really my parents, and because it would be weird for an obvious non-human to rule a human kingdom."

His mom put her fork down. "What little brother and sister are you talking about, Joseph?"

"Mom, in one of my lives I had a sibling. A little sister. She was murdered horrifically as a toddler, and I was too little, in that life, to do anything about it. When she cried out in this life, as she was being born as the royal elven princess, I actually had the ability to save her this time. I radically altered her so she isn't a normal forest elf anymore, along with her twin brother, to keep them safe as best I could. I claim them as little brother and sister, because dad told me he doesn't expect to be able to have more children."

The look of pride that had been growing on her face suddenly stopped and William almost choked as she swung around to look at him.

"What?"