It was later. Matt sat on a rock in the middle of the ruined village and watched as his family came to grips with their newfound abilities and powers, and wondered if he'd made the right choice.

Once Olivia had calmed down and stopped trying to bite rocks in half, she'd been able to fill them all in on what had happened to her. And as she had done so, Matt had felt some of the horrible pressure on his heart ease off. She was okay. She wasn't hurt. When she'd gone over backwards like that, he'd feared the worst. But it turned out it was just information overload in the very literal sense of the term.

She'd talked them through connecting to the system. And they were each coming away with a different 'consul' title. Which was weird, because Consul was an old-earth term. No one else had twigged to it yet, probably because they were too busy ooh-ing and ahh-ing over their new shinies. But Matt had decided to stand watch over everything, and check out his stuff later. So he had time to wonder, what was an ancient Roman word doing in the middle of this weird world?

Probably he'd never get an answer, so he put it out of his mind for now, instead keeping his head on a swivel, watching the foliage surrounding the ruined village. One of them had to be on watch at all times, he and Allie had decided. Because now they knew there were other people on this island, and while they weren't guaranteed to be hostile, their actions had not proven then friendly either.

He had been the first one Olivia had coached through connecting to the system. Allie had been the second. And now Dinah was getting talked through it, while Lucas and Bel waited impatiently in line. Matt wasn't 100% certain that Liv needed to talk everyone through it, but he was willing to let her take the lead. Especially if it meant none of his other children wound up passing out from information overload. Allie didn't need any more shocks to her system while she was still recovering.

It had been… Weird.

When Olivia had talked him through envisioning the doors, he'd been able to do it with relative ease. Almost like whatever system thing was out there was actively reaching out for him, trying to find a way to connect. But the doors had been… Off.

The frames had been improperly aligned, so the doors hung off-kilter and ajar in them. Some of them looked to be made of unfinished wood, others had no door at all, just a plank of hewn timber with no visible mechanism for opening it.

Some, however, had been pristine. Red lacquer over some sort of solid-core hardwood, with beautiful brass fittings and hanging perfectly in the frame. He'd felt drawn to those, much more so than any of the other 'wrong' doors. It had been instinctual. And as he had approached those doors, he'd gotten a sense of what lay behind them.

Creation. Order. Every aspect of whatever lay behind those doors felt like something he already knew well. And the one that had felt the best to him was the one he had opened. And now he had… Power. Somehow. But he wasn't sure what kind, save that it had to do with building things. Sort of. It swirled at the back of his mind, hazy and indistinct.

And the more he thought on it, the more he wondered if he even could have chosen other doors. They had felt wrong in the moment, like they were rejecting him the closer he got. He'd mentioned it to Olivia, and she'd just shrugged.

"Maybe there's some kind of attunement process or something. I don't know, and I don't have any coins to open up this stupid encyclopedia in my head yet either. We're gonna have to kill something soon so I can start using this stuff for real."

And that was that.

So many questions, so few answers. It reminded him of a joke Allie had once made about Military Intelligence.

And speak of the devil, Allie made her way over at that moment and plopped down beside him on the rock. She sat close enough to invite conversation, but not so close that they were touching.

"So?" he asked after a moment. "What's it like?"

"Strange," she said, glancing down and flexing her fingers like she wasn't sure what to do with them. "Olivia was right, we're all locked into one power set, or whatever they're called. They're all some weird Latin phrase or another."

"I noticed." Matt glanced down and opened the scroll that appeared in his hand, looking at the new heading.

Consul Matthew Albright: Aedilis

He had some idea what a Consul was. An old Roman position, something like a close advisor to the Emperor. Probably where the words Consult and Consulate came from. He had no earthly idea what an Aedilis was.

"You know," she said thoughtfully, looking at her own scroll she'd plucked from nowhere, "I used to read some of the books the officers suggested, about warfare and tactics and things. And there were always mentions of old Roman legions going missing in places. They'd say it was probably enemy action, taking advantage of terrain and guerilla tactics to overcome a more prepared and trained enemy. But when Olivia realized the whole 'latin' thing about these titles, she started jabbering about how those legions could have been Portaled or Isekai'd, and maybe some of them wound up here."

Matt glanced around at the village, the heaps of stone and rotted-away wood that had once been buildings of some sort. "Could be, I guess. If it was, it was a long time ago, and it clearly didn't work out well for them."

"Yeah, I noticed that too."

A quiet extended between them for a long moment as they both looked over the ruins.

"Think whatever broke them is still out there?" he asked finally.

"Yo no sé. These things are ancient, and we haven't seen any signs of people… Except for that dead gator-cat, anyway. If there was civilization here, we'd have seen some kind of evidence of that, wouldn't we?"

"It could be a big island," he said, looking up to the surrounding foliage. "What if we landed in some sort of nature preserve or something? There could be whole cities waiting on the other side of that jungle."

She nodded thoughtfully, then they both looked up when Dinah gave a happy shout and leaped up, dancing around enthusiastically.

"Looks like Liv's three-and-oh now," Matt said with a smirk. "Our kids are magicians now. Wonder what John and Barbara would say about that." The reference was to a couple of deacons at their old church, who had views on anything that glorified magic. They'd protested the Harry Potter movies when they'd come out.

"They'd probably start up the witch hunts again," she growled. "Stupid bigoted bible-thumpers. You know I actually caught her trying to take one of Liv's books from her one time? Said that 'heretical nonsense had no business on holy grounds.' It was Tolkien."

"There are," Matt said with a smirk, "aspects of home that I am not going to miss."

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"Not home anymore, mi corazon," Allie said, glancing at him. "Here is home now."

"A man can have two homes, even if he can't reach one anymore."

"True."

Silence again, followed by a deep breath they both drew simultaneously.

"So, you think we're stuck here then?" she asked him quietly, so the kids wouldn't overhear.

"I have no idea," he said, equally quietly. "But I'm operating on the assumption that we are. That way if we do find a way back, great, we've exceeded my expectations. And if not… Well, I've already made peace with it."

She looked at him, then, and her eyes narrowed just a scooch. He blinked and returned the look with one of his own, eyebrows raising.

"Something I said?"

"You sound like some of the soldiers I knew. 'I just assume I'm dead, that way if I get back home it's a nice surprise.' You're not–"

"No, I'm not giving up," he said, cutting her off gently. "Just being practical. If I'm focusing my energies on turning this into home and not on trying to find a way back, we'll be set up better when we discover for a fact one way or the other."

"Practical Albright," she said, and her smile turned teasing. "You always have a plan."

"Can't build a tower without first considering the cost," he replied, a smile of his own forming.

"So what did you get?" she asked.

He blinked at the sudden change of subject, and it took his mind a second to catch up. "Oh, the Consul thing?"

"No, mi corazone, the raffle for the county fair. I won two pigs and a spa day at Chez Weird. Of course the Consul thing."

He chuckled and pulled his scroll again and unrolled it for her, turning it so she could see. The words would be similar to her own, he knew, with a few exceptions.

His read:

The Record of Consul Matthew Albright: Aedilis

Thou hast Unlocked Thy Calling. Thou art a Knight of the Hearth of the first rank

Thou hast not chosen thy class. Thou must [Flagellate] thy menu to select thy class.

Thou hast not chosen a profession. Thou must [Flagellate] thy menu to select a profession.

Thy Condition is: Perfectly Healthy

Thy [Couth] is: UNREACHABLE

Thy [Artillery] is: UNREACHABLE

Thy overall rank is: Unknown Knave

"What the heck is an Aedilis?" Allie asked, raising one slim eyebrow.

"Some ancient Roman bigshot, I guess," Matt said with a shrug. "I never took Latin in school. How about you?"

She handed him her scroll, and he unrolled it. Everything was similar except for three lines:

The Record of Consul Alejandra Albright: Imperator

Thou has not unlocked thy calling.

Thy Condition is: Lightly Wounded

"Imperator… I've heard that before somewhere, haven't I?" Matt asked, handing the scroll back.

"Si, it was a military rank, sort of like Supreme Commander."

Matt blinked at that, a light going off at the back of his head.

"So," he said slowly, feeling his brow furrow as he chased down the idea. "Olivia gets connected to something having to do with knowledge and understanding. You get connected to something having to do with war and violence… Hey Dinah, could you come here for a moment?" he raised his voice for the last sentence.

"Sure mr. Albright," Dinah said, practically skipping over to them. "What's up?"

"We were just wondering what Consul title you received," Matt said. "Testing a theory."

"Oh, sure." She pulled her scroll from nowhere and unrolled it. "Ummm… Custos Naturae, is what it says."

Matt frowned as he processed. "Okay, so 'custos' sounds like custom… Or maybe custodian? And Naturae… That's gotta be 'nature', right? So, custodian of nature?" He looked at Dinah and then Allie, raising his eyebrows in question.

Allie shrugged. "Sounds like it could be. What are you getting at?"

"So three out of four of us–and maybe four out of four depending on what the heck an Aedilis is, all come away connected to pieces of this system that already jives with our personality or skills? That's kind of a coincidence, don't you think?"

"Does that mean I'll be in charge of national parks or something?" Dinah asked, her dark eyes shining hopefully. "That would be so cool. I could set aside nature preserves, and designate hunting grounds… Ooh, I wonder if it can help me find good prey animals we can eat without harming the ecosystem too much."

"And ones that aren't acid-based," Allie added, and Matt shuddered as he remembered the forest-ray thing he had shot on the way back to the boat.

Yeah, no way in hell was he going to be taking a bite of that any time soon.

A delighted gasp came from over where Olivia was walking Lucas through connecting, and they turned to see the young teen staring at his hands in wonder, a big goofy grin plastered across his face.

"Holy cow that was cool," he said, laughing. "So do I know kung-fu now?"

"No, twerp," Olivia said, rolling her eyes. "But you probably know how to do other stuff. But we're gonna need to earn coins before we can access the powers. We're all out, right?"

Everyone pulled their scrolls out, and nods were forthcoming from everyone. Except for Bel, who reported she still had the requisite single coin needed to connect to the Consul portion of the system.

"Cool," said Olivia, beckoning her sister over. The older teen had been getting increasingly fidgety watching everyone else go ahead of her. "Alright, let's get it done. Last one!"

"I wonder if we even had a choice as to what powers we received," Matt said, turning back to Allie. "Hey Luc," he called. "What did you get?"

"Artifex!" Lucas called back, still grinning as he looked over his scroll. "I think it means I can invent things! That was the feeling I got from the door I saw. Hey, did you guys get a bunch of doors you couldn't open too? Because I was really thinking I'd try to get like a Super Saiyan door or something, but when I tried to open one that felt like it, it wouldn't let me. But this is cool too! Maybe I can use it to figure out how to fix Mom's gun!"

Matt glanced back at Allie. "Four out of five. That's a pattern."

"Or enemy action," Allie said with a smirk. "Maybe it is just guiding us into the jobs we're best suited for. I mean, I wouldn't want Luc as commander of our armies, would you?"

Matt took a second to envision that possibility, then shuddered.

"You have a point."

"Let's see what Bel gets, then we'll know for sure."

"Wait, we're getting armies?" Dinah asked, blinking owlishly.

"It was a figure of speech, dear," Allie said, smiling.

Or was it? Matt wondered without saying it aloud. Instead he turned back and looked over the ruins around them, this time really looking at them. The stones he could see had clear evidence of toolwork on them. These hadn't been some slapped-together huts, they had been proper buildings, and if they'd been roman buildings… Well, the coliseum still stood today back on Earth, and that was… What, two thousand years old?

Whatever had taken down these buildings, it hadn't just been time and weather. And now the System was giving them powers, at least one set of which sounded like it was geared specifically for warfare.

You're overthinking this, Matt thought, drawing in another breath. You're being paranoid because you don't have enough information. Maybe there's another explanation. Maybe there's no explanation, and this is just how the thing works.

He turned from looking at the ruins and back to Liv and Bel. The sisters were holding hands, both their eyes closed, as Olivia murmured something indistinct.

Yeah, I'm just being paranoid. Watch Bel get something like 'flower arranging' or something.

He felt Allie's hand slip into his, and he glanced over to see concern mirrored in her eyes.

Of course she's thinking the same thing. She probably got there even before I did. He offered her a quirked smile and squeezed her hand. She squeezed back.

Whatever might come, at least they would be facing it together. That was one thing he could call positive about this world without reservation.

They turned back to the girls, both of whom were frowning now. Matt blinked, and opened his mouth to say something, but he was cut off by Isabel.

The teen's eyes flew open and her face transformed into a moue of disbelief and offense.

"It won't let me connect to anything!" she said, her tone furious. "Why won't it let me connect?"

Matt blinked.

Well.

That was unexpected.

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