It was back to some more grinding for a couple days objective time after that, though they were focusing on helping Neph out more than anything. It was still a bit slow going for the bee through the one hundreds, and the others didn't really need levels right now for anything, so they spent some time with her. At first it was basically chaperoning, but then Neph caught up again after a few subjective weeks and could fight alongside one of the others. It was a bit boring for whoever was helping, as they were sticking to only about twenty levels above where Neph was at. It gave her a reasonable challenge without being too much; any more on the level gap and it would just be the helper killing everything, which would mean that helper getting basically all the experience.

It had been about a week of work, objective time, that is, when there was a knocking on their door, with Beth being the only one in the suite at the time. She frowned and looked at the feed that all rooms had of the hallway outside; she assumed there had been some…incidents in the CRA's past that they gave every suite that feature. When she saw what, or rather who, was outside the door, she leapt up and hurried over, throwing the door open only to be tackled. Well, it wasn't really a full tackle, as Beth didn't even budge an inch, but the other party did slam into her.

"Beth! You're back!" Kim exclaimed, hugging her tightly before breaking off and looking her over. It had been over a year of objective time, a little closer to two, now that Beth thought about it, since she had seen her sisters. She noted that it was just the two of them, no Sabs anywhere, in the hallway.

"Kim. Soph," Beth said, moving at a blinding speed to grab the hesitating Soph and pick her up in a crushing hug. The youngest of the sisters was still much shorter than the other two and struggled in Beth's grip, muttering curses as she tried to break off the hug.

"Still as prickly as ever," Beth said, setting Soph down, who then lunged back, out of the range of any more hugs.

"It's been a while," Kim said, taking back over. Beth looked the two of them over, seeing that Kim appeared to be in her early twenties though her objective age should be about twenty, meaning she likely had spent some time in an accelerated place like Beth's gate. With Soph it was even starker; despite her remaining short and slightly on the petite side, there was a maturity visible in her face that would have Beth estimating her at twenty-five or so, even though Soph should be about seventeen in objective time.

"The two of you are looking good," Beth said with a smile. "But come on in; let's not stand in the hallway."

The other two entered, Beth closing the door behind them, watching as they looked around the suite. The two's gazes were immediately arrested by the massive portal in the middle of the suite, clearly shocked by what they were seeing. Soph was immediately on it, examining it closely, looking at the frame, the heart of the portal itself, and scanning around it.

"I don't remember portals being a feature listed in the fifty silver suites," Kim commented with a slight sarcastic twinge to her voice.

"Yeah, they're not," Beth replied with a small chuckle. "That's one of my powers. I can open a gate to an area, like a dungeon, or somewhere like a house. It's pretty convenient, especially because it's got time dilation."

"What?! That's crazy! Only really, really powerful people have access to skills or powers like that!" Soph huffed, whirling on Beth after her explanation.

"Hey, do crazy stuff, get crazy rewards," Beth shrugged it off, walking over and flopping on the massive couch. "So, anyway, how have the two of you been? Where have you been, even?"

"Before that, where's, uh, Blood at?" Soph asked, glancing around the room. In response, Beth just pointed into the gate.

"Surprising to see her training and you not," Kim said.

"Yeah, well, we have some new additions to the team, and one of them is pretty far behind us," Beth replied with a shrug. "So, we've been sorta taking turns to help them level. It only takes one person, and even then, we're still leeching a lot of EXP."

"Yeah, I know how that works," Kim replied, nodding.

"But, anyway, give me the deets," Beth demanded.

"Right, so, a while after you and Blood left to explore the universe, we decided to do the same," Kim explained, settling on the couch across from Beth. Soph flopped down on the middle part of the U-shaped furniture as Kim continued, "Soph, Sabs, and I went through a bunch of tough training and got our first rebirths done. We leveled a bit after that and then we teleported out to do some more training and work that the CRA people found for us. I'm sure it's not as amazing as you had, but we went to three different worlds and did a bunch of odd jobs, Silver-rank CRA missions, and other shit, while also training like hell."

"Sounds pretty standard," Beth added, nodding along.

"Right. We just did our second rebirths a little bit ago, we're still pretty low in terms of level," Kim said. "We decided to stop back home since…well, it's been a while. And there's good leveling here. So, we're back."

"Well, two of you are back," Beth said, looking between her sisters.

"Yeah, Sabs, uh, went home right away," Soph said, scratching her cheek. "I think she's maybe a little embarrassed to see you again. I don't think she's quite gotten over how she ended the relationship."

"Well, it was the right thing to do," Beth replied firmly.

"Oh, I'm not saying it wasn't," Soph said with a tinkling laugh, Beth giving her a slight frown. "And she knows that. But, ya know, I think she might be a little avoidant for a while, if you see what I mean."

"Eh, I kinda get it," Beth said, tapping her chin. "At the same time, I would like to see her again. No bad blood. Oh, also, would be interesting to introduce her to my new girlfriend."

"You have a new one?!" Soph squeaked while Kim demanded, "Why wasn't I told about this?"

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Eh, it just kinda, I don't know, happened? Oh, but, uh, I think she's, like, my soulmate. Probably?" Beth said, smiling at the shocked, open-mouthed expressions on her sisters.

"Please tell me you're joking," Kim demanded.

"Oh, no, not at all," Beth said, laughing openly. "But wait till you meet her. I think you're in for a surprise."

"Where is she? In that gate thing?" Soph asked.

"Nah, she's also a smith, so she's down in the forge. We've both kinda been neglecting our professions more than a bit, so we've been trying to snag a bunch of time in the forge," Beth explained.

"Okay, so if the girlfriend is in the forge, then who the hell is in the gate?" Soph asked, not seeing Blood and Neph choose that exact moment to walk out behind her.

"Well, you can meet her right now. Neph, come here!" Beth called over. Soph whirled on the couch while Kim looked over, standing up in surprise at the two women now in the common room.

"Hi, hi," Neph said brightly, bouncing over to the couch and trying to go over the back of it. Beth caught her in midair, holding her above the couch before flicking her back a few feet to land in the middle of the room.

"Not with blood and guts, you're not getting on my clean couch," Beth said, doing a near perfect impression of their father's tone from years ago.

"Right, sorry," the bee said, down for literally a tenth of a second before perking up again. "Hi, I'm Neph. Who are you?"

"I'm Kim, Beth's middle sister," Kim introduced herself. She looked over at Soph, who was staring at Blood with a complicated expression before tapping her, hard, on the back of the head.

"Ow! What?! Oh, right, sorry, I'm Soph, Beth's youngest sister," Soph belatedly introduced herself.

"The two of you should go clean up first," Beth said, waving them towards the bathroom.

"Right, of course," Neph said, still super chipper as the two headed into the bathroom.

"Stop gawping, Soph," Beth said, chuckling a little as she sat back down.

"Blood looks even cooler now," Soph said with a sigh, sitting down.

"Hate to break it to ya, but she's got her own girlfriend now," Beth said with a little smirk.

"What?!" Soph exclaimed, rising before thumping back on the couch. "Damn, I really thought she had a thing for me. I was kinda thinking about at least asking her about that."

"Well, maybe she did, maybe she still does," Beth said with a shrug. "You'll just have to ask her about it."

"God, that would be mortifying," Soph said, shivering at the thought.

"Anyway, back to what we were saying," Beth said. "You were just doing scut work for the last, what, two years? And that's it?"

"Something like that," Kim answered. "We were running around putting out fires, the figurative kind, and getting some CRA training in at the same time. We're not like we were back then…when we just unlocked our Presences."

"I imagine not. At least, I would hope not," Beth said, quirking one eyebrow slightly.

"Well, we might not quite be a match for you, but I think we could put up a good fight," Kim said with a small smirk.

"You know I'm always up for a fight, Kim," Beth said with a wicked grin. "But, you might just be biting off more than you can chew."

"I'd still like to try," Kim said, looking much more eager than Soph was.

"I can't see rebirths," Soph cut in calmly. "Which one are you on?"

"Blood, Sera, and I just did our fifth," Beth said, seeing a little bit of the wind go out of Kim's sails.

"Shit, that means your stats are probably fucking crazy," Kim said a little morosely.

"Well, yeah, they're pretty crazy," Beth replied with a shrug. "And I have a few…other advantages, as well."

"More stuff like that crazy gate?" Soph asked with a frown.

"Well, uh, not exactly like that, but still kinda crazy."

"And this, uh, Sera? That's the missing girlfriend?" Kim asked, trying to distract from a topic that was really turning against her.

"Well, I mean, she's downstairs right now, so not exactly missing, but yeah," Beth replied. "Her full name is Seraphinalla…uh, Seraphinalla something Andromeda Schwarzdracchen. I think that's it. And she has two damn middle names, which is definitely one too many. I forget her first one sometimes."

"You don't even know your own girlfriend's name?" Kim asked, giving Beth a mixture of a glare and a shocked expression.

"In my defense, her name is like ninety fucking syllables long and I only ever call her Sera. I remembered, like, eighty percent of it. That has to count for something. Right?" Beth shot back, frowning at Kim.

"It's good to see you haven't changed," Soph said calmly, sitting back and crossing her arms.

"Thanks! I think…" Beth replied, shifting her frown to Soph.

"Any time, Beth," Soph said airily, a little of the bratty personality still peeking through.

"Anyway, back to the point," Beth said. "Sera's downstairs right now and the new girl, or other new girl, or whatever, Neph, is Blood's bond. It's kinda a long story, but Blood was basically entrusted to watch over Neph before she was born by, uh, I guess her parents? It's kinda complicated, but Neph was born, bonded with Blood, and we've helped her level and train a bunch. She's on her first rebirth right now, heading towards her second. We're trying to get her through that one at least pretty quick so she's a little closer to us in terms of stats and such."

"Okay, that makes more sense, though I'd like to hear the whole story sometime. Sounds pretty interesting, if I'm being honest," Kim said with a nod.

"So, uh, tell me about this person Blood's seeing," Soph said, fidgeting a little on the couch.

"Well, don't spread this around, but she's dating Val," Beth said, sending the two of them info on Val.

"Wait! Wait, wait, wait, wait," Kim stuttered out, holding up both hands. "You're telling me that Blood is dating the leader of the Young Scions!"

"We're not dating," Blood growled from the bathroom door, brushing at her still slightly damp fur a bit as she walked into the common room.

"Sure looked like dating to me," Beth retorted, dropping a picture into the local net in the suite that everyone could see. Blood growled in frustration, throwing up her hands, finding it difficult to argue, considering Beth had somehow caught her and Val, snuggled up together on the couch, and it was very clear in the picture that they were making out rather heavily.

"That sure looks like a dating activity to me," Kim said, starting a bit as a mostly dry Neph bounced onto the couch, hugging her before also hugging Soph.

"She's very upbeat," Beth explained, shaking her head just slightly at Neph's antics.

"No problem," Kim said with a small smile, pulling the bee girl over next to her and wrapping an arm around the slightly shorter woman.

Blood settled in next to Soph on the couch, giving the short girl a quick hug before slouching back. Beth could see that Soph had a bit of a reaction, but it was more muted than she expected. She could guess that Soph's head was probably a jumble right now, as the girl didn't really know what she wanted or what she felt. Having Blood be both casual and very friendly was probably also sending a bit of a mixed signal to the girl's tumble-dry of a brain state. Beth was about to make a comment on it when the room door opened, which could only mean one person was entering.

Kim and Soph both turned to look, the other two not needing to in order to know who it was and Beth was able to watch their shock in real time as they processed the very tall, very beautiful, extremely curvy woman with horns, a tail, claws, and scales on many parts of her body walk across the room and lean over the couch to give Beth a kiss. She straightened up after a second, leaving a hand on Beth's shoulder while looking at the others on the couch.

"And who do we have here, my love?" Sera asked.

Beth watched as her sisters glanced at each other, Kim clearly mouthing 'my love' with a shocked expression before saying, "They're my sisters. I've told you about them before. That's Kim and that's Soph."

"Nice to meet you both, I'm Sera," Sera said.

"Beth, uh, mentioned you, though she couldn't remember your name," Kim said, still looking rather overwhelmed.

"What?" Sera asked, looking down at Beth. "You don't know my name."

"I was trying to tell them your full name and I can't ever remember both middle names. I got, like, at least three-quarters of it. Seraphinalla something Andromeda Schwarzdracchen. I got most of it." Beth explained, clasping Sera's hand and caressing the back of it.

"It's Narzareen, dear," Sera said with a throaty chuckle. "I know it's a lot."

"Are they flirting right now?" Kim whispered to Soph, but everyone could easily hear it, which they both knew.

"Looks like," Soph replied in a normal voice while rolling her eyes.

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