September 22, 2312. 5:35 p.m.

Alice and Alicia 

The door of Alice's room opened, Brian had been discharged from the hospital a few hours ago and had returned with their uncle in the afternoon. Alice, who was asleep at the time, had not heard them coming. The contract she made with Alicia had emptied all her energy and she needed to replenish herself before the confrontation. 

After a few seconds passed and the the door closed, Alicia heard the sounds of steps moving away.

An hour later Alice woke up, her face and arms covered in small sleeping marks denouncing her exhaustion. she had slept all day trying to delay as long as possible her confrontation with Brian and Jack, she had spent hours and hours trying to find the best way to announce the news to them without passing for a crazy person, but to no avail. 'Who would believe what she had to say ? Will she even be able to say it ?' All were things she wondered.

"Aren't you supposed to be happy or something like that, you and your brother finally became evolved ?" Said Alicia. 

"I know, but it's just that....., I don't like the change...., and how are Brian and Jack going to take the situation when i will tell them about you"

"They will certainly be very excited" said Alicia in a sarcastic way.

     Interiorly, she thought that Alice's reaction was hilarious. She new that this contractor of her was a shy introvert girl and she also had a glimpse of the things she went through during their years in the orphanage and knew how bad it had been for her. But the fact that such a frail creature was compatible to a mermaid like herself was still amazing. Spirit of water like her were famous for their vicious behavior 'will Alice be able to use her powers ?' She wondered.

"Trust me, you just have to give them a debrief and I'll take care of the rest, okay ?"

"Ok" said Alice, even though Alicia's words didn't really help to reassure her, they actually had the opposite effect. How will she be able to explain to them that overnight she had gained powers, that Brian too and they now had to find the other three contractors to finalize the contract they made. She tried to approach the situation from different angles but it still sounded stupid or more like a crazy woman rambling, even to her.

Alice came out of her room and headed to the dining room. It was almost 8:00 p.m. jack should be home from work by now. After leaving their hometown with their uncle, they moved to a private suburb near downtown Sindara. Jack had obtained a job as an instructor and consultant for the army, he was responsible for the training of new healers before deployment. 

     After a few weeks of awkwardness and small incidents or rather strange coincidence, all three finally adapted to the change and were slowly getting use to the routine that was now theirs. Jack leaves home at 7.30am after preparing their breakfast and returns every night at 6pm just before dinner from Monday to Friday. Saturdays were activity days , often an outing to go see a sports match or a movie, Jack was always trying to prepare an activity for Saturday, the ones Brian preferred were escape games but Alice had a preference for movies, she loved watching horror and mystery movies in Virtual reality, but they would often compromise and watch an action movie because those were more to Jack and Brian taste. 

Sundays were usually free but for some time now it had become Brian and Jack's fishing day. The beginnings had not been easy between the two of them, but their relationship seemed to have improved over time and Alice often had the impression that they looked more and more like a real family.

Alicia’s inspiration came from the African myths Mami wata (you can google it if you are curious). I have decided to make her a goddess in the novel because she is still venerated like so in some parts of Africa .You will have a glimpse of her ability in the next chapters.