Robin froze upon hearing Luminara's words.
"Huh? What do you mean, 'How many times?'. I've never met you before so how could I have done this already?"
Luminara could only shake her tiny head side to side and sigh in exasperation.
"Leo hasn't explained to you what's going on, has he?"
Robin was even more perplexed now.
"How do you know who Leo is?" came a voice from the side.
Since Robin had made such a scene with the initial summoning and her subsequent screaming, Amber had been drawn over to where the master and summon duo were standing/floating.
The fact that the summon had spoken Leo's name despite just being summoned startled and even scared her a bit.
Clearly there was something going on that her and her sister were not aware of, and she was determined to get to the bottom of it.
Luminara turned to face the approaching Amber and nodded her head in greeting, "It's good to see you again Amber. I am very happy to see that you and your sister and still together in this iteration."
Amber pulled her head back, scrunched her eyes, and shook her head side to side in confusion and fear.
"What do you mean by that? This iteration? I would never leave my sister after everything that has happened!!"
Luminara suddenly looked downcast, as if she was recalling an unhappy memory as she responded, "It wasn't always your choice, Amber. In your new world, things are constantly changing and evolving.
Sometimes you have to make choices that you thought you would never make in a million lifetimes."
"You're not making any sense! Explain more clearly!"
Luminara held up her tiny hands in surrender and calmy responded, "I apologize for any distress I have caused.
I thought Leo would have explained everything by now but clearly that is not the case.
It's possible that you summoned me sooner than normal so he hasn't decided if he should tell you the truth yet or not.
But since I am master's summon and not Leo's, I am not loyal to him or his thought process so please take a seat and I will explain what I know."
Robin and Amber exchanged glances before they joined hands and found a comfortable place to sit together.
Once the two of them were situated, Luminara began her narration.
"Since it appears as if master just obtained her class, can I assume you, Amber, are not aware of what master's class is or how it works?"
Amber nodded her head up and down, acknowledging the fairies assertion.
"Very well, allow me to explain briefly about her class and where I come from.
Master possesses the Fae Charmcaster Mythic Class. It allows her to summon Fairy Creatures from a mystical realm called The Etherial Glade.
The Etherial Glade is a realm outside of the one in which the Earth is currently contained.
Since our realm exists outside of the one in which the Earth is contained, we are not subject to the same cycle of destruction and reset that you and your fellow humans are currently experiencing.
Which means, that each time the Earth is reset and master regains the Fae Charmcaster class, I am resummoned from my home realm and appear here on Earth."
"Hold on.. Lumi, what do you mean reset? As in we all die and are forced to start over? None of this makes sense... can you explain more clearly please?"
Hearing her master call her by her nickname so soon after summoning her, Luminara nearly burst into tears on the spot.
The emotions of having seen her master die hundreds of thousands of times still weighed heavily on her mind.
No matter how many times she experienced it, the emotions of watching such a loving and gentle person suffer such horrendous torture for the god's pleasure was too much for her to bear.
She would put on a brave face for her master each time she was resummoned, but sometimes her master's suffering was too much for her to stamp down.
As Luminara battled with her thoughts, Robin saw that the little fairy was losing her composure, so she stood up and carefully embraced the floating fairy, making sure not to hurt her in the process.
Luminara couldn't hold her tears any longer when she felt the warm embrace of her master, so she stretched her little arms around the side of Robin's neck and allowed the emotions to bubble over and burst forth.
Streams of tears flowed down her tiny little face as she gripped her master as tightly as she could.
It took quite a while before Luminara finally regained her composure but neither Robin nor Amber had the heart to chastise her since it was quite obvious that the little fairy had suffered through much hardship.
After wiping the lingering tears from her eyes, their was a dense silence that permeated the area.
"I apologize for losing my composure, master." Luminara said, "hearing you call me Lumi just brought back memories that weren't exactly pleasant."
"I'm sorry. Should I not call you that then?"
Luminara waved her hands back and forth rapidly, "No! I love it when you call me Lumi. It makes me feel closer to master."
Robin smiled sweetly at the little fairies' actions, "Very well, I will call continue to call you Lumi then."
Luminara fidgeted back and forth shyly while looking at her master's smile.
Amber, who was seemingly left out of their little exchange, could swear that the little fairy was in love with her sister, but now wasn't the time to question their little relationship.
She had more pressing questions that she wanted answered.
"Can you please continue explaining what it is you were saying earlier? What is this about iterations, realms, and cycles of destruction and reset?" she asked.
Luminara prepared to answer Amber's questions, but suddenly paused, before she looked in the direction of the make-shift camps entrance.
Walking through the entrance at a leisure pace, was Leo.
When the sisters saw the direction that Luminara was looking, they too focused their attention that way.
Seeing Leo, they were both excited and angry.
If the words of the Luminara were to be believed, Leo knew something about their current situation and wasn't telling them.
Leo, to his credit, noticed that something was wrong by the looks on the girls faces.
So, when he was close enough to speak to them without shouting, he asked, "What's wrong with you two? Why do you look like you want to punch me?
And who is this floating child? Is she related to one of your classes?"
Before the sisters could answer though, Luminara floated towards Leo at a rapid pace.
Not knowing what to expect from the little creature, Leo prepared to fight if necessary.
Luminara didn't seem to mind though and stopped a few feet in front of Leo before bowing at a 90-degree angle.
"It is good to see you again, Leo.
I am glad to see master's husband is well in this timeline."
A shriek, an audible 'HUH?!', and a look of both surprise and incredulity were the responses to those shocking words: well shocking to the girls, Leo had already assumed that in some timeline he had married at least one of the sisters.
"Who are you?" Leo asked defensively.
"My name is Luminara and I am master Robin's summon. I come from a realm outside of Earth's current prison, so I am not subject to the god's woeful torture of the human race."
Leo's mind rapidly fired before connecting the dots.
As he looked back and forth between Luminara and the sisters, he seemed to realize something, "You told them something, didn't you?"
Luminara once again bowed at a 90-degree angle, "I did. I apologize if it was out of place but you have always divulged the information to them at some point so I thought that it wouldn't be an issue if I were to tell them."
"How many time have you served Robin then?"
"This will be my 931,875th time."
Leo could only shake his head back and forth.
Clearly the little creature in front of him knew just as much if not more than he did about the current apocalyptic landscape so it would do him a disservice if he tried to silence her.
"How much have you told them?"
"Not much, honestly, I was just about to tell them the details. Would you like me to keep it to myself?"
Leo paused for a minute to decide if it would be worth telling the girls now or later, but he wasn't given much of a choice when Amber approached and got in his face, "What the hell is going on Leo!? She said you know something about this whole apocalypse bullshit! Is that true?!"
Leo could only sigh and relent, "It is. Take a seat and I'll tell you everything I know."
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Forgot to mention in the last chapter, release times will be a bit later in the day now since I don't have to wake up so early for work anymore!