"Hey, Mom, yeah, Dad's here… Yeah, we can do a speaker call one second," Alex said. If the cell networks were back up that likely meant some things were starting to get straightened out again. Was that just in the immediate of the United States, or did it spread worldwide? And just how much had I managed to piss off the acting president? Maybe I'd get lucky, and they found someone still alive ahead of him.

"Dave, can you hear us?" Laura's voice asked from the cell phone.

"I can. I'm a little surprised you want to talk to me, though," I said entirely truthfully, especially considering how we had just parted. I hadn't made her new boss exactly happy with me.

"Yes, well, the president and I feel you two got off on the wrong footing, and he sends his apologies. He would actually like to schedule a real sit-down meeting with you the moment you finish up with securing the planet's safety. Is that something you'd be okay doing?" she asked. She was using her gentle tone. The one she used when she tried to lead me to something that she thought was incredibly important and didn't want to say it. Not that she had ever really been wrong, more that I wished I had seen it and hadn't put so much of the effort on her in the past. It was a bit of shameful nostalgia rolling over me.

"I believe I can arrange that, but why the change of heart?" I asked, I intended to go to the meeting no matter the reason. I didn't like that I had been such an ass at the first meeting even if in my opinion, he had been too. I was willing to entirely chalk it up to the stress of still thinking the world was ending though.

"Honestly? Because of what your group has proven themselves capable of. The world just went from fighting a war it was going to lose to now being able to start rebuilding. There's a giant uphill battle from here to try to get people fed, not to mention warm, before the weather really starts working against us, and that's just here in the US. We've only slightly established any communication worldwide. The president also assumes that we've just entered a much bigger universe, and these alien issues aren't just going to go away," Laura replied. Good, the man was smart enough to realize that. I could work with that.

"Multiversal, but yes, he's right. Our reality is changing forever. I will do whatever I can do to help keep us safe, so yes, I'm willing to have a meeting. When, where, oh and how much of the communications infrastructure is working?" I asked. Hopefully, by then, I'd have better news on Cecile's timetable for magical food. The sooner we had an active farm up and running, the sooner we could start supplying beyond just us. Which meant we could start figuring out how to build our own forces on Earth.

"We have some of the cell networks up, but access is being limited to avoid crashing anything at the moment. As for when and where, we can figure that out in our next call. And please don't take this the wrong way. I'm saying this because I know you, not to be hurtful. Do you have anyone you could bring to this meeting who might be better at answering questions than you are?" she asked. I didn't take it the wrong way. I understood what she meant, and I had already been intending to bring Pryte, possibly Elody, as well. What about Timon? He was a resource I hadn't fully considered. I needed to have a conversation with him and find out exactly how his information gathering tended to work, or at least Pryte did, assuming he hadn't. I was wasting my spy. At least, I thought I was, which meant I needed to find out something.

"Yes, I'll bring two of my squad along. Just be warned. Neither of them are human, though they aren't the most clearly nonhuman as long as Elody hides her extra eyes, at least," I said. Pryte, for his part, could easily pass as any other little person.

"That's fine. The president would actually like to meet some of the more friendly aliens," Laura replied.

"I'm not sure I'd use the word aliens. It has an otherworld but same universe context you don't normally hear for species from other universes, though I guess I don't know the correct terminology there either," I said, catching myself before I went too far on my random musing.

"Dave, this last question isn't from the president; this is from me. How much danger are we in, really?" she asked. I knew her well enough to hear the question behind the question. Would her kids be okay?

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"The honest answer there is I don't know. There are a ton of moving parts in all of this, and it's a giant mess we should never have gotten stuck in, it's well beyond our ability to control, but I've got some help from people I trust, and I will do what I can to keep everyone safe," I answered, hoping she understood that I meant our family most of all.

"Dave, do you understand how rough things are about to get? I know you weren't ever big on hearing me talk political nuance, but we just had a worldwide calamity and the survivors are going to be desperate. This is still going to get worse for the world before it gets better. You said you are now some emperor of Earth, right? Is that really something you are prepared to handle?" she asked. While it came out accusatory, I didn't think she actually meant it that way. Laura had never considered me lesser for my dislike of the unspoken social rules. This was likely her way of asking if I could handle this all without crawling back into a hole, which, while I'd love to have said I was ready, I could do it. I didn't remotely know that to be true, but just like when I accepted this all in the first place, the idea of grandkids I'd need to protect flashed back into my mind. What choice did I really have?

"I'm not at all prepared, but I'm going to do it anyway. I know a lot has been said between us that can never be unsaid, but trust me when I say I'm sorry about how much I withdrew from all your lives, and while I don't know if I can ever make that up, I'm going to try. I love our kids, and despite both of us, I think they've turned out great. They are my biggest motivation in all of this," I said, sounding more melodramatic than I intended, but telling your family you love them in the face of potential Earth-shattering death probably always does.

"It's a better answer than I expected. Alright, that was all I had for you, Dave. Alex, can you pass me to John for a bit," Laura said before Alex turned off the speaker and handed the phone to her brother. Well at least that had gone better than our last meeting.

"So, what can I expect at high level diplomacy meetings for this world?" Pryte asked the moment John started chatting away with his mom, walking into the other room as he talked.

"That's a good question. I just married a woman who ended up a diplomat, it was never really my thing. I guess it's important to know that the man acting as president is only acting at the moment, at least as far as I know. If there is anyone else in line before him still alive they will take it back, but as Laura didn't say anything about that, I'm guessing they didn't find anyone. Oh, it's also important to note we have countries, no unified world leader, unless you count me, but the United States president will probably act like he's the leader of the world. I don't know if that's worth fighting about, hell it might even be true depending on who recovers the fastest from this," I said, doing a terrible job at answering Pryte's question.

"How honest do you think I should be about you and the Empire of Dave? Is he going to be angry to learn his power won't be that big of a deal in their post-integration landscape?" Pryte asked.

"Not sure. Didn't follow politics enough to really know the man's ambitions, but we tend to suffer mostly from politicians who get into the game for power and not to help people, so I'd expect he won't be happy," I said. I wasn't sure I was being entirely fair to the man, but I also knew how much I disliked politicians as a whole. The few times Laura had managed to drag me to any of her social events hadn't exactly gone well. Call one man a blithering moron, and suddenly you're the bad guy.

"I'm not entirely surprised. You weren't exactly a social butterfly when we first met, excusing the deep trauma of your near-death experience. I still wouldn't have ever pegged you for someone able to play the politics game, but that's why you have me," Pryte said, smiling smugly.

"Yeah, for a change of topic, any chance you've seen Elody around. I want to talk to both of you about my plans with Corey. I've done the needed leveling. Oh and I also want to talk to you privately later as well. I had, well, let's just say, a weird experience." I said. I knew Corey still needed some rest time, but I figured I might as well get as much of the initial conversation out of the way before we bothered him. Plus, I still wanted something else to eat.

"Yeah, she's in the backyard, meditating in front of the cloudwood tree with Mel. Apparently, there is something to be gained from communing with it and she very much wants to understand just what that is," Pryte answered.

Cloudwood has a unique property when reduced to a charcoal form if you use a plasma mana orb as the mana source when creating it. The resulting material somehow absorbs no light. This means any mana orb relying on light as part of its function for a spell will be totally unable to target someone wearing armor made of the substance. With the destruction of all known forests, the remaining supply has shot up in value. The material is now basically priceless. I don't believe a single faction has a full suit of the armor remaining to them.

Material Science, Rare Spiral Minerals by Ignium Volcinitus

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