How do we move forward?

[Author's Note: It is my mother's birthday and I did not have much time to go over this chapter. I plan on making some small changes but I will not alter my storyboard structure. Just a heads up, thanks!]

Amir looked around and noticed a black void and said, "I could swear I was in a chair a moment ago, where the heck am I?"

With a pop, Ilse and Arthur appeared, followed by the Uncle.

Then the Void appeared to seal itself with a blood red flame.

The older man clapped his hands and a table appeared out of thin air, Amir couldn't help but ask, "Storage ring, like a real storage ring, no tricks, just spatial manipulation or something like that?"

He nodded and gestured to take a seat that had just appeared, "This is my favorite table, made from the bone ash of a Great Dragon." He smiled as he seemed to be reminiscing over the past.

Amir could see the charred bone ash under the Plasti Dip like clear surface, it was beautiful if not plain for someone able to rip reality apart.

Ilse took her seat and had a foul look on her face, meanwhile, Arthur was taking in the energy appearing in the table, the red flame flowing just underneath the surface as he poked and prodded.

After a few moments he spoke, "Uncle, this is amazing! I am working up a sweat doing this, look!" He wiped his hand and showed it to Ilse who did not seem to care in the slightest.

He shrugged, "Sorry, Uncle, please."

The man shrugged, "It is to be expected. No mother would be happy to find herself with a child already raised..." He trailed off, "That is why I am here to assist you all."

He clasped his hands together and weaved a world of runes, "This is my limit. I am going to leave you be as you tell your tale, Amir. Though, I have one ask for my assistance. Amir could feel his demeanor change like his mother did, "I wish to take your child, Amir Haddad, to be my successor. Gotta' run now, don't take too long, the Universe is resisting this!!!!"

Ilse was about to complain as the man vanished.

Arthur could only laugh and say, "He always did have a thing for timing, did I ever tell you about my 15th birthday, the one where he brought a Kraken from the sea and shoved a huge ship right up its b-"

Ilse stopped him with a scream, "NOT NOW, ARTHURRR!!!!"

The world froze for a moment before the air seemed to shrugged it off.

The golden runes containing them were flashing and shifting colors.

Arthur nodded, "Right, right," he shrugged, "What is there to talk about?"

He pulled a glass of something molten out and downed it, "I mean, this boy might as well be our child right?" He laughed, "Hell, there is no guarantee that any child we would actually have could survive through half of what he has." He swirled a new glass, "No. The world has assigned our lot. Fate will not take kind to those that tempt it..." he muttered with a look of mourning on his face.

Ilse was about to rip her hair out, "Why did you even bring it up, then? If you didn't care, why did you go on and on about how impossibly perfect he was." She wanted to smash her head through the table.

Amir just watched, he had no right to interrupt- "You. Amir? What do you think?"

He shrugged and softly spoke, "I don't know much about the contemplation of life. But I know I would be upset if it were my child born as another. That is completely and totally fair. I know I have taken someone from you intrinsically, just by existing. And I apologize for that, for what it is worth." He could feel the fury of the blizzard build.

He coughed, "But I think this did happen for a reason, it is rarely random in stories, and given the sheer similarity between our worlds, it tells me that something is happening here. Maybe an evil psychopath is going to be born, maybe the end is neigh, maybe this world's God just wanted Fast Food restaurants, I don't know why. But I know that I am real, and I know that I love you both." She grimaced, "I feel it in my bones. I am in the right place. Here. With my family."

A whisper was heard in Ilse's ear, "He speaks his truth." as it faded into the void.

Amir kept going, "I know that family isn't something you can ever choose. I didn't choose mine in my previous life, but I loved my mother and father all the same." He leaned forward, "I can guess that the anger you have is probably stemming from the fact you do and don't see me as your child, but I want to ask, how do you feel?"

He was hanging by a thread.

She cried for a moment and said, "I hate you for taking my son."

He hung his head and felt it sting in his heart.

Arthur was silent, he already knew his son was gone. The years of contemplation and unending worry saw to that.

Amir spoke, "Do you have fantasy stories here? Where a great hero is born to fulfill a purpose?" She nodded, "And how do those mother's feel when it is a reincarnation?"

She sobbed, "They usually try to kill them."

Amir's face went blank, "Oh..."

Ilse laughed at his expression with puffy red eyes, "How different was your world?" She felt like asking how any mother would be okay with this.

He shrugged, "Entirely so. A world without Qi or any of this. No dragons. But the people were the same. Old men in power. Check. Corrupt nobles that would kill a race of people for power? Check! It wasn't a bad place. It was quite good actually. Good people usually won over the bad guys....usually." He shrugged, "There is no true good or bad, but who is in charge. Do you trust a bad man to not do those bad things? We didn't, it is why we cut our nobles' heads off. Except for the Queen, she is okay." He looked into the distance, the void was beautiful.

"I honestly didn't expect you to figure it out in a few days, but I planned on telling you anyway. Most parents just assume they gave births to geniuses because they are so great themselves...." He really wanted a glass of wine as Ilse and Arthur shared a confused look about something.

Then she asked, "How is your family from where you come from?" Ilse was trying.

"Mom died. The years of overworking finally caught up with her. Dad died when I was a teen, no other family that I consider family was left," he choked up at the end, "Just a few friends that might be sad that I am gone."

"I was alone where I was, working 6 days a week as a nurse is...problematic, to say the least." He laughed, "This is considered a blessing, something that happens in your wildest dreams. Like waking up and finding out you are the highest cultivation or the Emperor of Cheese, or whatever you wished for."

Arthur smiled and took out a plate of cheese, he offered it to Ilse but received a wild glare.

'Read the room, please...' Amir was praying.

Arthur sat up and finally asked, "How are we proceeding?"

"I-I don't know...." she just muttered and slumped back into the chair.

"Oh. That isn't the Queen of Giants I know." He smiled, "Where is the rage?" Flames licked his whole body as his cheese melted it into a puddle.

He grabbed her hand, "My love. We have been cursed for too long. The heavens give and they may take. He is barely...uh, how old are you?"

Amir leaned forward, "I was 25 in my world. Uh, there are 365 days in a year, 24 hours in a day, a rotation of the planet around the sun was about a year. So, 25 sun cycles." He quickly leaned back as a smile broke out.

Arthur laughed, "See? He has been on this world for longer, why can't we accept him, he will be great! Look how smart he is!"

Amir nearly fell, "What."

Ilse nodded, "I carried him for so long, it is hard to accept. But maybe." She glared softly at him.

Amir was about to interrupt when he was stopped, "Did you say-", "Hush child. They are trying to let you live. I will help you understand, in due time."

He felt the overwhelming power wash over him.

Ilse was speaking to Arthur behind a wall of ice, he was frowning, "I know. I know how hard it was for you."

Arthur glanced over an noticed that they had come to a decision.

Arthur and Ilse smiled at Amir.