Chapter 52

After leaving our room I paused to shut the door. There wasn't any particular reason I did it, just habit. When I turned back to follow my girls Caly was staring at me intently while Karen had stopped just beyond her with a puzzled look.

"What's up?" I asked Caly while meeting her gaze.

Caly frowned for a moment as she regarded me. "I…" she said then hesitated a moment.

Karen seemed to guess what was going on and chuckled before wrapping her arms around Caly and hugging her from behind. "It's fine Caly. While it might seem like we forced him into marrying us, we didn't. Once you get to know him better, you will realize that he can be incredibly stubborn when he wants to be. If he had no interest in marrying you he would have put his foot down and nothing we said would have changed his mind."

I frowned at Karen, "Stubborn? Really?" I asked.

"Yes stubborn, and it can be cute... sometimes." Karen replied.

I just shook my head.

Caly nodded slowly as she considered what Karen said. "Okay." she said. At that moment she looked incredibly vulnerable. Not a surprising thing. She was in a different world than the one she had been born in, surrounded by complete strangers. She was beautiful, intelligent, and I was sure she knew how to take care of herself, but there was a limit to what one person could do alone. Even now the only thing she really had to rely on was the bond formed between us. Even then there wasn't anything in the bond that prevented us from harming each other. It was an odd thing to be absent from that kind of bond, yet no matter how I looked when I formed it, there was nothing stopping us from harming each other.

I moved closer to Caly then wrapped both girls in arms so that Karen and I sandwiched Caly. "I can't say I love you." I told her.

"I wouldn't believe you if you said you did." Caly replied.

"But you are very attractive, and intelligent. I am pretty sure I will need you to get through all of this crap. Outside of that I have a good feeling that I can trust you." I told her. "And by the time all of this crazy shit starts to calm down, maybe then I will love you." I told her.

Caly gave me a smile. "I can work with that." Caly said then relaxed in our arms, her head resting on my shoulder. After a few moments she pulled herself together and kissed my cheek. "Thanks." she whispered.

"It's fine." I said, giving her a smile.

"Okay, that is enough for now." Karen said. "You can break down and complain about everything later after we celebrate our marriage." she told her.

Caly scowled, "I wasn't going to complain!" she growled irritably.

"Why not?" Karen asked her seriously. "Is there any reason to hold it all in?"

Caly paused as she thought about that for a few moments.

"Just think about it, for now let's go get some food in us, besides that I am sure there are a lot of things we need to talk about before we awaken everyone else and head to bed.�� Karen reminded.

Caly nodded then the three of us disentangled ourselves, but not without me taking advantage and caressing both women along the way.

Once we reached the first floor we found everyone gathered in the dining room. Megan and Grace were sitting by each other, Courtney was sitting on Grace's other side. Courtney was speaking to Grace quietly with an earnest expression. A look I was very familiar with. Courtney was trying to draw Grace into Micheal's bed. While I knew Grace wasn't mine, I wasn't thrilled with the idea of Courtney dragging her off to Micheal's bed.

I shot a look over at Micheal who was watching me closely. While I can't say I glared at him, I was sure my displeasure was obvious, but he just shrugged like he had no control over it.

For someone who didn't know them as well as I did, that might actually seem the case. Courtney was a determined woman who would go after whatever she wanted without regard for anyone's opinion. The exception was the girls that she brought to his bed. While she liked to surprise him, she never attempted to bring in a girl he told her to stay away from.

Unfortunately there isn't anything I can say, I had no claim on Grace. Plus we were about to reveal my new status as a 'married' man.

'Seems like Courtney is after Grace.' I told Karen and Caly with the telepathy we had gained with our marriage bonds.

Both girls shifted their gazes from Megan who was playing with Sil and Enya to the pretty blonde beside her.

Looking around the rest of the room I didn't see Heather, Samantha, or Bryan. Bill was sitting near Tracy as she paced around in a circle agitatedly while glancing at her phone occasionally.

Seeing Tracy like that reminded me of something. "Did you hear back from your parents?" I asked Karen as Caly took the lead and led us towards the kitchen where a couple of plates loaded with food on them, some baked chicken, rice, and broccoli, were waiting for us.

"Yes!" Karen replied happily. "Your mother was right, my father awakened during that last gate opening. Scared my mother to death. He only awakened as a yellow, so I probably got my core from my mother's side." she told me as we walked back to the dining table and sat down together, one woman on each side of me.

"You awakened?" Megan asked, drawing everyone's attention to us.

"I thought we were waiting?" Micheal asked.

"It wasn't intentional." I replied then dug into my food.

"How could it be unintentional?" Bill asked curiously while Micheal seemed a little irritated.

Thankfully Caly decided to answer for me. "Awakening happens when energy is poured into an unawakened thereby stimulating their mana core. Gate openings, staying in areas with high mana density, and different types of interaction with those already awakened can lead to such awakenings."

It didn't take long for Bill to catch on. "I see." he said then gave me a long look.

"Oh, Caly didn't you say you had an idea why Marilynn left uncle Bill?" Megan asked.

I looked to Megan trying to gauge if she was just curious or trying to cause trouble. She was staring at Caly with such an earnest face that I honestly couldn't tell.

"What?" Bill asked, shifting his gaze to Caly.

"I can't say I know for sure, but I have a theory, we can discuss it more after we talk about the cores." Caly replied.

"What about them?" Micheal asked. "Don't they just give us cool abilities so we can face those monsters?"

"Of course, but don't you want to know their limitations?" Caly asked in return.

Micheal looked a bit sheepish as he scratched the back of his head. "Uh, yeah that might be a good idea." he conceded.

Caly nodded then continued. "As you all should know by now the cores have different colors, and they can change colors." she said then looked pointedly at Micheal and Grace. "It wouldn't surprise me if both of your core's color have advanced after that last gate opening."

Grace and Micheal both closed their eyes only for them to shoot back open a moment later a look of surprise on both of their faces.

"I have no idea how that happened. I only know because I also advanced." Caly said before they could ask any questions. "Speaking with Delilah we can assume it is because of the new type of mana spirit that came through during the last gate opening, but that really is just a guess."

"If it is true though we should get two more boosts just like that before the week is over. Which is why everyone should awaken tonight, that way they don't miss out later." I added.

Everyone else nodded to that.

"But what are the differences between colors?" Grace asked.

"That was what I was getting too." Caly replied. "The color of the core determines the number of abilities a person can awaken." she told us then let that sink in for a few moments.

"How so?" I asked after swallowing my latest bite of dinner. Whoever had cooked hadn't used enough seasonings on the chicken. It was edible, but bland.

"Someone with a red core would only be able to awaken five abilities. With each advancement from red to purple you gain three abilities. Which means a purple core can have up to twenty different abilities. While that does sound like a lot, there are many abilities that build off of each other." she said then looked over at me, "Like how your regeneration is an offshoot of your physical ability."

I nodded, I hadn't realized there was a limit to the number of abilities I could gain.

"Outside of that, there is a limit to the number of wisps you can put into any one ability. Which is ten if you are curious." Caly added.

"What about the colors beyond purple?" Grace asked.

Caly was silent for a moment, "oh right, you should be a purple now." Caly said, giving Grace a smile.

Grace nodded.

"The transition from purple to copper is a big step. Not even half of the people in my family are able to accomplish it. For those who do, they go through a large transformation both magically and physically. The abilities also get complicated. Those who transition into metal cores can combine the ten wisps in their ability to form a spark causing the ability to advance to a new level." Caly finished.

"Spark? I thought it looked more like a ember." I commented quietly to myself.

Grace and Megan both focused on me after hearing Caly's words. Grace even seemed to scoot away from Courtney while she stared at me.

"So each ability has a second stage?" Micheal asked.

Caly nodded. "Yes. Though there is also a limit to the number of advanced abilities each core color can support. A copper can only have five advanced abilities, a silver gains three more than that, I would bet that you can guess the rest of the pattern." she told us.

That meant I could have eleven advanced abilities as a gold core.

"And how do we advance our cores?" Micheal asked, "Normally, I mean."

"Killing twisted, mutated beasts, mutant plants, other awakened, other awakened races, that kind of thing." Caly replied.

"What?" Bill asked in surprise.

Caly shrugged. "There are other ways, like absorbing the energy from special plants, minerals, and crystals, but your world doesn't have enough mana to form any of those yet. Honestly I wouldn't even talk about how to advance a core if it weren't for the weird way I advanced earlier." she told them. "None of the mutant beasts or twisted should have enough energy in them yet to help you in advancing your cores. Not yet at least." she told us.

"But you can advance them from killing others?" I asked.

Caly nodded.

I looked around the table worriedly, I saw the same look reflected in others.

"Shit, once people figure that out, it's going to get bad." Bill commented.

I nodded.

"Well, any other bombs you want to drop on us?" Bill asked.

"Caly, Daryl, and I all got married!" Karen said with a wicked grin on her face.