Myria says “Honestly, the only thing that I am jealous of is the ability you and Lin have to gate around. It is just so convenient!”

  Mercy says “Actually, now that I think about it, I agree. After the honeymoon I will need to return to my capital. I want to make the transition of power as smooth as possible. But that means that I won’t be able to see any of you for a while. Being able to gate back would make things much easier!”

  Lin says “Unfortunately, you need a lot of magical power to be able to cast the gate spell. None of you have that much magic.”

  “While that is true, there might be another option.”

  Lin says “What do you mean?”

  “It might be possible to make an item that would allow them to gate. It wouldn’t have the range of our spell and it wouldn’t be able to be used as often, but it might be possible.”

  Lin says “You’ve aroused my curiosity. What have you got in mind?”

  “Well, I was thinking of the platform network and how it helps us increase the range of our gates. It is fairly simple right now, but I should be able to improve it.”

  Lin says “True, you did come up with the platform a long time ago and your skills have improved a lot since then.”

  “Right. So, I was thinking that if I improved the design and added more platforms to the network, that it could provide all the power for a gate. As I said, the gate would have a shorter range, but it would be usable by anyone.”

  Lin says “The idea is feasible, but it would be rather limited.”

  “On its own maybe, but not if I add some extras to boost the amount of mana the network can hold.”

  Lin says “What could make that much difference?”

  “The crystals! If I add some of them to the gate network, it would be able to hold a massive amount of mana.”

  Lin says “Only until the crystals run out of mana.”

  “Not if the network is set to recharge the crystals.”

  Lin says “That will only work if we aren’t using more energy than the network can gather. You can’t have the platforms gather mana too quickly and still remain undetected.”

  “Yes, that is an issue, but if I add enough platforms and we don’t use it constantly, it should work. I don’t mean for this to be something that is used everyday.”

  Lin says “In that case, it could work. There would need to be a device to cast the spell for them and probably an indicator to tell them if there is enough energy. I am guessing that this is going to be just for them, not for everyone.”

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “Yes, just for my wives.”

  Sero says “Does that include us?”

  “Of course! Like I said, except for the official announcement, you are my wives!”

  Kreno smiles and says “I love the sound of that!”

  Sero says “As do I. Does that mean that in private it is okay to call you our husband?”

  “Of course!”

  Sero smiles, jumps into my lap, and gives me a long deep kiss and as soon as she moves, Kreno takes her place. Not to be left out, each of the others takes a turn after them, until everyone has had a turn. They settle back down after that, and then Lin and I start redesigning the gate platforms.

  Lin says “Wow, these enchantments are really basic!”

  “Hey! At the time it was the best I could do. I only had a very basic understanding of how gates even worked. Frankly, it is a miracle that it even worked how I wanted it to.”

  Lin says “I won’t argue that! So, are we trying to fix this? Or are we going to start over from scratch?”

  “I can tell from your tone that you would rather start over.”

  Lin says “Yes, I would. No matter how well we fix it, the foundation would still be flawed. I would much rather start over and do our best to make it perfect.”

  “That’s fine. It was my intention from the start because I came up with an experiment that I want to try.”

  Myria says “Uh, oh! What happened to not blowing us up on our honeymoon?”

  Lin says “Just ignore her. What was the experiment and how did you come up with it?”

  Myria says “That figures. Magical knowledge is more important than our safety!”

  Lin says “It is not! Stop teasing me! And when has Ash ever hurt any of us? He has only ever hurt himself with his experiments!”

  Myria says “Why are you suddenly taking this so seriously? I was only teasing him, we do it all the time!”

  Lin says “We do it a little too much. Especially when it comes to his experiments. He has come up with a lot of impressive things and many of them have been useful to us. Right now he is working to make it so you can all gate around, is it really the time to be teasing him about it?”

  Myria says “You may be right, I do enjoy teasing him and I might have gotten carried away with it. Still, don’t you think that was a little harsh?”

  Lin says “Maybe a little, but I don’t want our teasing to make Ash hesitate when he comes up with an idea. We need to tease him about other things.”

  “Aw, does this mean you aren’t going to fight?”

  Myria says “No. We are just having a small argument, why would we fight?”

  Lin says “Because Ash wants to watch. Not a real fight though, he just wants to watch us wrestle around.”

  Myria says “Why would he? Oh, oh! In that case, sure! We can fight!”

  Lin says “Not right now. Maybe later. For now, Ash, go back to what you were going to say.”

  “Oh, right. Well, while I was working on the hot spring I tried to change the rock between the lava and the water. I wanted to make it so that it would allow the heat to pass through easier and keep the lava from melting it at the same time.”

  Lin says “Did it work? What does this have to do with the gates?”

  “It did work, but not in the way I expected. For lack of a better term, the stone attuned to the fire element. It did what I wanted and then some. That is what gave me the idea I want to try. I want to see if I can attune stone to something similar to the gates. Maybe a space element or something similar.”

  Lin says “I see! I know that certain crystals can enhance certain elements, but I never knew it could go beyond that. Do you think the stone down there was special? Or can all stone be attuned?”

  “I’m not sure yet. That will be part of the experiment.”

  Lin says “You realize that if this works you will have to go around and replace all of the existing platforms, right?”

  “I was going to have to go around and re-enchant them anyway. This will actually make it easier. I can make the platforms, enchant them, and then just gate around replacing them. I am also going to have to add a lot more while I am at it.”