“So, where is dinner tonight?” I ask Yhannason after putting on a sundress and flat shoes.

“We’re going to a restaurant in the Upper Fields on the Goddess of the Isles’ bill. I guess your heroic actions didn’t go unnoticed.” Really, Goddess Jynne is going to pay for my dinner? Amazing! We finish getting ready, then walk through her door to magically step out of a boutique in the Ascentian streets.

“We’re early,” she says, looking around. “I thought we could sit and talk for a bit, woman to woman.” That’s odd since we talk woman to woman all the time, so I’m not sure what she means. We go to a bench and sit down, then she presses a few buttons on her Lightbeam that turns it off, which is also odd since she almost always has someone trying to get a hold of her. To appease her, I follow suit and shut mine off as well.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” I ask.

“I want to talk about your past, Emily.” She’s never asked for this kind of thing before. “I know who you were when you became the slayer in your mother’s army and I know who you were when you first defeated Morak Serihn, but that’s it. I feel like I talk to a stranger sometimes, is all. I feel as if talking will help explain your behavior at night or your random mood swings.” Mood swings? Come to think of it...

“Uhm,” I begin. Good start, Emily. “I was born as a Void creature. I remember my mother told me how her stomach had to be cut open to get me out. I lived a, uh, normal childhood for the most part.”

“Did you have many friends?”

I shake my head. “Only a few demon girls would be nice to me. There was Pell, but she isn’t around anymore.” Damnit, what if Pell...? “She doesn’t really matter, just Lucelle and her sister, Ulla.”

“Ulla is the one I made a body for,” she adds.

“Yes, the one who went into a coma when she was... Oh, I forget, maybe ten years old? Then, Lucelle and I went our different ways because Mother wanted me to focus on my magic.”

“She was strict?”

I nod. “Very strict. If I wasn’t practicing magic, I would be drinking or eating something that would give my energy back.”

“Is that why you don’t like to read books or watch shows?”

I shrug, “I guess so, maybe? Well, when she felt like I was good enough, which was after I passed her crucible, she let me join her army to begin teaching others.”

“What ‘crucible’?”

“Uhh... Oh, she sent me to different parts of the world and I had to survive with nothing except my magic. It wasn’t too hard, but it gave me a lot of time to think about my teachings.” I pause for a moment, then continue, “After I joined her army, I became a teacher for her student mages. I was pulled from it quickly, though, because I got frustrated easily.”

She nods. “So that’s why you never teach anyone else or like to talk about your magic.”

“Mhm, Mother always said it just came naturally to me and others wouldn’t understand it the same way I do. After being a teacher, I became the commander of my own little force. Nothing very interesting happened up until Archimede, though.”

“What do you mean, ‘nothing very interesting happened’? I heard all about how death counts rose to the tens of thousands when your Lance Core was established.”

“Uhm, well, I kind of just did what I did and didn’t think much about what was going on back then. I just... did. When the Battle of Archimede came along, I died for the first time.”

“Wait, what happened there?”

“Uhh... Oh yeah, I was leading a force up a cliffside to flank Akan’s troops in Archimede, a small town under us. Well, turns out they knew we were coming and sent boulders down the cliff to trip us up.”

“Oh no, and that’s how you...?”

“No, that was the first part. I destroyed and redirected the boulders as much as I could, but even when they stopped dropping, forces flew down the cliff from both sides, taking us by swarm. I watched my allies drop one by one, but gods, I don’t remember a single one of their faces or names. When they finally got to me in the middle, I wasn’t able to take all of them on, so I just erupted the platform.”

“The stories say you were thrown off, though.”

“That’s what everyone believes, but it’s not exactly what happened. I sent them all down with me and we dropped for... Oh, too long until we reached the bottom. Do you know why they call it the Battle of Archimede, and not something like the Battle of the Cliffs?” She shakes her head, then I continue. “If you try to find the land where Archimede was, you will find nothing. I destroyed it all and went on a rampage until they struck me down with a hail of ballista shots. Funny thing, I thought it was the gods finally smiting me for everything I did. I still think about it everyday, ever since Lucelle gave my memories back to me.”

Yhannason stays quiet for a few moments. “I’m sorry,” she finally says.

“Don’t be,” I say to her. “It’s not like you had anything to do with it.” No, she didn’t. She would have known what happened if she did. “Well, after that, my mother picked up my pieces and returned my consciousness in a new body: Ulla’s. Of course, with Lucelle’s consent.”

“That’s when you disappeared and we all thought you were dead.”

I nod. “My memories were fabricated by my mother, so I was convinced I was born in a brothel, a sex house. What actually happened was that my mother left me to learn how to be a woman there... I think, my memories are fuzzy. I thought she was there for so long, then in my mind, she died and disappeared, but all along, it was just me, a child-like mind in a woman’s body stranded in that place.”

“Gods... I promise you I would have done something if we knew...”

“It wasn’t your place to intervene, Yhannason. After all, I believed I knew what I was doing when I jumped from that railing.”

She gasps, then whispers, “You tried... to kill yourself?”

“I tried, but I was saved and transported back home, to Ridgewood.”

“The place where you grew up as a Void child.”

“Mhm. I didn’t know what was going on, though. I don’t remember who saved me or why they did, but I suspect my father had something to do with it.”

“Your father? When did you meet him?”

“Uh, I think I saw him plenty in my dreams, but I didn’t know who the Voidwalker really was until my memories were given back.”

“When was that?”

“Hm... It was when Lucelle and I were captured and I was going to be sacrificed to Nir’Antak by my old childhood negative influence, Pell.”

“Who was Pell?”

“She was someone I knew when I was a Void child. She found me and had me come do very bad things with my magic because we thought it was ‘cool’ and ‘fun.’ I don’t like to think about it, but Mother stopped me from going outside after an incident Pell caused.”

“What happened?”

“I... Uh, I...” I look up, seeing someone familiar. “Oh, they’re here.” I change the subject and stand up. “Rix!” I call out to him.

He sees me and walks over with Goddess Jynne. “Fancy seeing you two here. Holding up well, Miss Emily?” I nod and he says, “Good, just what we hoped.”

“It’s nice to see you both again,” Goddess Jynne smiles. “Emily, you saved many lives by standing up for us. From my understanding, you were the only one she could have hurt with that weapon. Also, to think the worlds still allow anyone at all to have a firearm!”

I laugh, “Oh, I don’t think that woman abides by the law anymore, Goddess.”

“Please, ‘Jynne’ is fine. Come, you and your babysitter are dining with us tonight.” She winks at Yhanna, who smiles warmly back at her. She and Rix lead us a little ways down the street and we turn a corner to see a line of people outside of a building called ‘Checker.’ She takes us to the very front and hands a small slip of paper to the man with a Lightwave by the door. He looks at it, at her, then nods and beckons us inside.

“Wow, Jynne, you’re popular,” Yhanna jokes.

“They’re aware of our guests tonight, is all, dear Yhannason.” She smiles at a waitress with a few menus and they walk us near the back where there is dim lighting and plenty of empty seats. We are sat down in a curved booth and the waitress asks for drink orders.

“J’ntau, ku Tere,” Jynne fluently says in a completely foreign tongue. Rix doesn’t even peek at the menu and orders a “Brique a Sah’o,” or something along those lines, then Yhannason asks for “Sangria, red.” I’m left with no clue what to order, so I just ask for more time.

“Miss Emily, how informale,” Rix says to me, exaggerating the end of the word with an accent for some reason. “You can order anything that comes to mind here, you know. Imagine what you would like, then just say what comes to you.”

“That’s why I said what I did,” Yhanna titters.

“That’s all I have to do? Alright, I’ll try,” I say, already beginning to memorize what I’m ‘feeling.’

“So, Yhannason, tell me about this capital city.”

“Well, Jynne, I think of it like home, if you must know,” she replies, showing off a playful tone. I guess those two already know each other? “Speaking of home, Emily just today rented out an apartment right across from mine.”

“My, really? Emily, do tell.”

“Me? Oh, of course. Well, it is really empty right now, but I am going to have it furnished within a week, maybe a few days.”

“Mm-what’ll it be for? Just to live? Considering godship?”

“Oh, er... Maybe? I’m going to live there for now, but may use it for extra stuff. I don’t know about godship. I won’t be able to participate in the gladiator matches then.”

“Gladiator?” Rix scoffs. “We are more than that, you and I. Much more than just gladiators.”

Yhanna speaks up, helping save me from my poor social skills right now. “I think she just uses it as a general term. You know, like calling currency ‘coins.’” Thank you, Yhanna! At least someone else understands me.

“I suppose. Ah, Emily,” Rix presses the skin on his wrist and a projection appears in his palm. “I never got your information at the gathering.”

“Right,” I remember. “Let me just figure out what my information is again...” I keep neglecting to fully understand how my Lightbeam works.

“No need,” He says. “May I take your hand?” I nod, then lift the hand with my Lightbeam on it to him and he clasps his hand over my wrist for a few moments, then I feel a slight vibration. “There, done,” he says as he withdraws his hand.

“That’s it? Wow, neat.”

Jynne smiles at us. “Amazing how quickly technology progresses, isn’t it? Yhanna, are you still living in the dystopian times?”

My goddess laughs. “Not quite. I still have the kota but that doesn’t mean anything, does it? It may be time for me to update my surroundings after all.”

I look over and quickly say, “Please don’t update me,” which gets plenty laughter. The waitress comes by again with drinks and puts water in front of me. “Oh, wow, that’s exactly what I wanted!”

She smiles at me and says, “We just read your mind, Miss, is all.”

I’m still a bit mind blown after she walks away and Yhanna leans over to me. “It’s customary for them to make sure everyone has something to drink at the table, sweetie.” Oh, I just got lucky.

Rix smiles in my direction. “Amazing, Miss Emily. So incredibly powerful, yet you care little for some of the basics of life.”

I shrug. “I imagine it will all come to me eventually.”

“You musn’t use formalities with her, Rixinteroix. ‘Emily’ is just fine.” I nod along with what Yhanna says.

“Ah, of course, Goddess. I apologize if I made you uncomfortable, Emily.”

“No worries,” I smile back. “I like the attention.” I say that, then I think I see a flicker in his eyes. Not like a light turning off or on or anything like a flame, but as if they lost focus for a moment.

He watches me for a second, then looks to the table. “I hear the lobster here is delicious, by the way.”

Once dinner is finished, We’re brought some dessert, which mostly contains various forms of chocolate. I’m given something called ‘Tiramisu’ and after one bite, I consider throwing my lady-like image out the window. Instead, I simply smile and continue periodically taking small bits at a time. I steal a bite of cake from Yhanna and repay her with some of my own plate. Eventually, all four of us are passing our food around to try different kinds. I would put my vote for the best on Jynne’s strawberry cheesecake, but everyone else seemed to enjoy my tiramisu the most.

“I am so glad we immortals can still enjoy the wonderful tastes of food,” Yhanna says while we rest in our seats.

“Say, Yhannason, would you like to step out with me for a moment?” Goddess Jynne asks. I guess they’re going to to talk about Goddess things, so now it’s just Rix and I at the table.

“She’s like a mother, isn’t she?” he asks me, probably talking about Yhanna.

“I think of her like a big sister, but she’s my goddess.”

“Do you know her story?”

I nod. “She ascended after losing one of her brothers to the war.”

“No, after that, when she was already a goddess.” I shake my head, then he continues. “She used to treat everyone the same way. Everyone was like her child, which is why you may hear the nickname ‘Mom’ given to her every now and then. She treated every Elf, every Demon, every immortal, and every mortal like she would give her life for them. Well, eventually, there came a time that she couldn’t be like that anymore.”

“What happened to her?”

He shifts in his seat. “She began to understand the horrors of the world. She learned that not everyone deserves the same respect as everyone else, which, to her, is her greatest flaw as a goddess. She once tried to revoke her status as a goddess because of the things that were happening to people that she couldn’t control.”

“What stopped her?”

He stops and seems to think for a bit about his next words. “An execution, of sorts. The justly killing of a monster too powerful to live.”

“No...”

“Yes. Although, that was over a century ago. She is much better off now, I feel. Well, you would know, correct? You spend all of your time with her.”

For some reason, I feel myself become flustered. “Not all of my time... I think.”

“No need to be embarrassed about it, Emily. It’s normal to become addicted to or infatuated with your chosen goddess.” He just said I’m addicted to Yhannason. I am not!

“Right...” I reply, short for words. Thankfully, the two others come back to rescue me from the odd situation.

“Ready to go?” Yhanna asks me.

I nod and slide out of the booth. “Thank you so much, Jynne. Dinner was lovely,” I say to the light blue-skinned goddess.

“Anytime,” she smiles back. I watch the two of them, Jynne and Rix, walk off near the back of the restaurant. Yhannason smiles at me, then starts walking towards the entrance, so I follow.

Outside, I get her attention, “Uh, Yhanna?”

She turns, then sees my expression. “Is something wrong, Emily?”

“No, nothing like that. I’m going to go for a quick stroll before coming home. Will you be fine heading back alone?”

She nods. “I’ll see you later, then.” She heads back towards the boutique we exited from. I begin walking down the street, watching the people pass by. So many people look so happy in Ascentia, though do I? Am I satisfied with what I’m doing? No, no... there are people I need to take care of.