[Spoilers for "An Alchemical View on the Presence of Deities in the Universe" and "A Witches Account of the Parallels Between Deities and Magic"]

“Welp, here we are! This is where I grew up at!” Auria exclaimed, “Ahhh, so many memories, all flooding back to me!”

Evelyn looked to the now destroyed and ruined building. There was nothing left, just cindered remains of furniture, broken down walls, and holes in the ground reaching down further than the light would allow her to see into.

Evelyn tapped Auria’s shoulder, Are you sure this is the right place?

Auria looked to Evelyn, she wore a rather serious face, much more serious than Evelyn had ever seen before, “Yeah… This is home… We burned it to the ground, just us kids, poured oil all around it and lit it up, now it’s like this,”

Evelyn was taken aback, she was in shock, why would Auria and the others burn down the orphanage, their home? It was their whole life, how could they?

Evelyn tapped on Auria’s shoulder again, she had turned her face away, Why did you do it? Why did you burn down your own home?

Auria by this point had tears in her eyes, to which she quickly wiped them away, as to not show weakness to Evelyn, “Ah, the reason? Well..."  Auria’s voice at this point began to crack, “It’s because… It was never an orphanage at all, it was… A research laboratory, they never wanted to keep any of the kids for too long… We were all used for their sick…” Auria’s voice became increasingly angrier, with each word, “Twisted. Evil. Sinister experiments…”

Auria took a moment to breathe and collect herself, “And all our friends that suddenly ‘transferred’ orphanages… Or were ‘adopted,’ it all made sense, neither of those were true, they died, they all died and nothing we could do could bring them back!” Auria screamed out, “And no gods came to help us!” She clenched her fists and transformed the ground in front of her to launch it into the ruins of the building.

Evelyn hopped back in shock, the damage was already done, Auria didn’t have to destroy the building even more!

Auria dusted herself off and turned to face Evelyn, “Sorry about that! Got a bit fired up there, but I’m better now, we should be off now,”