After my prayer and offering to Cybele I moved back a couple steps, then hesitated. I still felt sort of self-conscious about the whole prayer and sacrifice thing. I had no idea if I was doing it right or not, and I really didn't want to get any more gods angry with me.

I ended up standing there awkwardly for another minute or so, before I figured nothing awful was going to happen. Cybele didn't appear, nobody cursed me or yelled at me or anything else. So I finally turned to the right. I wanted to check out the other little altars, and the nearest one was just a couple meters away on the wall there.

There was no name or anything on the altar or around the alcove or the statue inside, but it wasn't hard to guess who this one was dedicated to. The statue depicted a guy leaning back on a comfy seat. He looked pretty chill, with a wide relaxed smile on his face. He wasn't all buff and athletic either, he actually had a bit of a belly on him. The biggest giveaway though was the cup in his hand, and all the grape bunches carved into the wall around him. There was even a bowl full of real grapes on the alter in front of the statue, and a clay cup full of wine.

And as much as Dionysus looked like a pretty chill dude, I didn't think he'd be able to help much with my current situation. Or Melite's. So I moved on to the other little altar further down the wall on that side of the temple.

The statue depicted a tall strong athletic individual dressed in a flowing tunic and sandals, with a crested helmet on their head. They were holding a spear in their right hand, and were carrying a large shield in their left. At first glance the military stance and weapons might have suggested Ares, but instead of a broad strong manly chest this statue definitely had boobs. Not to mention hips, and shapely legs.

The lack of an owl anywhere normally would have had me second-guessing myself, but I hadn't forgotten what Uncle Bruce said at the coin show. According to him there was one goddess who was always shown wearing a helmet. This altar had to be dedicated to Athena, which made sense to me. I figured I was in ancient Greece somewhere, and I knew their capital city was named after her. On the other hand I wasn't sure how she could help me or Melite, so I decided to move on for now.

There were two more little altars to go, both on the other side of the temple. So I headed across to check them out, and that's where things got a bit more confusing. According to what Melite told me yesterday one should be for Apollo and the other for Artemis, but at first glance I had no idea which was which.

The two altars were more or less identical at first glance, and so were their respective little alcoves. Even the two statues looked the same, depicting a strong athletic person with shoulder-length hair. Both had pretty faces, and neither had a beard. Both were wearing loose tunics that could have been short dresses.

To make it even harder, both of them were depicted as holding a bow and arrow. The only difference was the one closest to Cybele's altar was just sort of holding theirs, while the one nearer to the entrance had their bow drawn and aimed like they were about to shoot.

It was only after I started paying attention to the background details that I finally figured out which was which. The one who was just holding their bow was sort of leaning against a weird lumpy rock thing, and they had a lyre next to them. And the sun was shining up in the sky above them.

The one who was aiming their bow was standing in a woodland scene, with a crescent moon in the sky above the trees. There were a few animals hiding in the background too, including a deer, a boar, and I was positive I even spotted a little bunny peeking out from behind a tree.

Now that I knew which one was Apollo and which was Artemis, the next challenge was figuring what to say. Or what to ask for. I hadn't forgotten what Melite said about them being twins, and based on their statues they certainly looked it. And I didn't want to risk offending either of them.

It took me another minute or two to make up my mind, then I finally moved to kneel before Apollo's statue. I placed one of those lumpy oblong coins in the dish then bowed my head and whispered, "I'm sorry for any insult or offence Melite and I caused yesterday, with our careless words or actions."

I didn't try and beg forgiveness or ask him to reverse his curse or anything, I figured that'd probably be pushing my luck. I just hoped the apology would be enough.

After another little pause I got up again, then went and kneeled in front of Artemis' altar. I left my last lumpy silver archer coin for her, before praying once more. I felt even more self-conscious though, as I began with an embarrassing confession.

"I know you're a goddess of maidens, but I'm not sure I actually count. Melite should though, and I'm kind of temporarily sharing her body, so hopefully that helps? And maybe we count as a nymph right now too, because of the ears and tail? Also um, this might not make any sense to you, but you were my favourite out of all the gods and goddesses in that video game. I always tried to get the 'Disciple of Artemis' tag whenever I played it."

"Honestly I really want to get the sequel," I added with a grimace. "Especially since you get to be a girl in that one? Plus I heard you play an even bigger part in it ma'am, which is really cool. Except money's an issue, and since the fire I don't even have a console anymore. So that'll all have to wait until... Um..."

My voice trailed off as my cheeks warmed up. "Sorry for babbling ma'am. Anyways I guess I'm just wondering if maybe you can help us out? I mean both me and Melite. I don't know why I'm here, or if I can ever get back home again. And I don't know what we can do to help Melite, but if she goes home she'll be forced to marry some man. Or executed for refusing to marry him. And if I'm stuck here with her and we head back to her home then I'll have to marry the guy in her place. And uh, neither of us want that. I'm pretty sure Melite's only into girls, and I'm definitely only attracted to girls. So um, I guess that's it? Thank you for listening."

When I was done I stayed put for another few seconds, before finally getting to my feet. I turned and headed out of the temple, but stopped just outside and blinked a few times while I waited for my eyes to adjust to the bright sunshine. I wasn't sure what to do next, so after a few seconds of indecision I decided to just wander around and sort of explore this part of the mountainside near the temple.

Ten or twelve minutes later I was checking out that farm a little ways downhill from the temple when my invisible friend finally broke her silence.

/I owe you an apology Chloe,/ Melite announced with a feeling of shame.

She continued, /I'm not sure what came over me, but I felt paralyzed by fear while Attis was with us./

That left me frowning as I came to a halt. My ears flicked as I asked, "You don't think he's dangerous, do you? Maybe it's not safe for us to stay here after all?"

I could almost imagine Melite shaking her head when she responded.

/It's not that, no. I'm quite sure Cybele wouldn't have him as her high priest if he were dangerous. It was my own failing, my own fear./

That sense of shame persisted as she continued, /I'm sure I'm being irrational, but I was scared that if anyone learned that you 'hear voices' or that you have another person speaking to you in your head, that terrible things would happen./

"Oh," I grimaced. "I mean, even where I'm from that sort of thing's kind of weird? I'm pretty sure my folks would put me straight into therapy if people caught me talking to a mysterious voice in my head. Like I'm doing right now."

At that point I glanced around to make sure there wasn't anyone nearby. Then I started walking again as I added, "Not that there's anything wrong with therapy. And I doubt anything terrible would happen. It'd just be awkward and inconvenient."

"So um, what do you figure would happen here?" I asked after another little pause.

Melite seemed equal parts anxious and embarrassed when she answered, /At best people would assume you were hearing voices of the gods. We'd be all but imprisoned someplace, and forced to deliver prophesies. From there our fate would likely depend on how accurate those prophesies were. Too many mistakes would almost certainly result in our death./

"Crap," I frowned. "And that's the best case scenario? I'm almost afraid to ask about the worst case."

/At worst they'd skip to the end and put us to death immediately./

I shuddered, "So no matter what happens we really don't want people to know you're in there."

"At least now I know you're not going to be here to talk to me whenever there's anyone else around," I added. Then I frowned, "Ok wait. That explains why I shouldn't talk to you unless we're alone, but why isn't it safe for you to talk to me? It's not like anyone else can hear you, right? Not while you're just a voice in my head."

Once again I felt some embarrassment from her at that point.

/As I said, it's irrational of me. You're correct that no-one else should be aware of me, so long as you don't risk speaking to me when we aren't alone. I was still scared that Attis might somehow realize I was here. So I will likely remain silent whenever you are with anyone else./

I nodded slowly, "Alright Melite. And please don't feel too bad about being scared of that stuff, ok? It's not your fault."

/Thank you Chloe,/ she responded.

We continued wandering around the farm area for another minute or two before I suddenly stopped as another thought occurred to me. "Uh-oh. I kind of mentioned you back in the temple, when I was praying to the gods. I think I did it to all three of them. Cybele and Apollo, and Artemis for sure. Or is it just other people we need to worry about?"

/I believe it's best to be honest with the gods, especially while praying to them. So long as nobody else was there to hear you, it should be fine./

"That's good," I let out a quiet sigh of relief.

By that point we were near one of the large animal pens, and I ended up standing by the fence looking in at about two dozen sheep kept inside. They were all covered in fluffy white fleece, some were eating while others lay quietly soaking up some sunshine. Then Melite spoke up again.

/I actually have a question for you, if I may? Was there any particular reason why you selected those specific coins as sacrifice?/

I shrugged, "They seemed like the biggest coins we had, apart from the one with your face on it. And I don't want to risk giving that one away, since it was the one that brought me here. It might be my only way home."

"I hope you don't mind I gave them to the gods?" I added. "I didn't want to offend them by not offering enough, but I didn't want to give it all away since I doubt we'll be getting any more."

My invisible friend replied quickly, /Not at all. In truth I'm glad to be rid of them. They were sigloi, Achaemenid coins. And your reasoning was sound Chloe, I agree with your choices./

Knowing Melite approved of my decision gave me some nice feelings, as did her continuing to address me by that name. I did another happy little ear-flick then finally moved on away from the sheep pen. There was another pen not far away that held a half-dozen goats, and I went to look at them next.

That's when another thought struck me, and this time my gut lurched a little. My ears ended up drooping down to either side and my cheeks flushed slightly as I gulped, "So um, if you saw which coins I left for sacrifice, does that mean you also heard my prayers? You heard what I said to Artemis?"

/I did,/ she responded.

After a second or two she added, /I also heard what you said immediately after you woke this morning. I have some questions, but if you don't wish to discuss certain topics then I shall respect your privacy./

"Thanks," I mumbled. "I don't mean to keep secrets from you but I'm uh, I'm not ready to talk about that stuff yet. Sorry."

/I understand Chloe. For what it's worth, you need not fear any sort of judgement or condemnation from me. Although we've only known each other for a short time, I'm confident you're a decent and respectable young woman. Nothing you might say will change that./

That left me with a bunch of mixed feelings. Like on the one hand I was glad she wouldn't judge me or anything. Having her refer to me as a 'young woman' made me feel good and bad at the same time though. Like it felt nice for some reason, but at the same time it left me feeling like a fraud, or a liar. Like the longer I kept the truth from her, the worse it'd be when I finally came clean.

My ears remained down and my cheeks were still red as I mumbled another quiet thanks. Then I decided to try and change the subject, so hopefully we'd both forget about that unspoken topic.

"So um, what's our long term plan?" I asked as we continued watching a handful of goats munching on some grass. "Like, incase Attis asks again? Are we ever going to visit your home again? Or are we going to stay here? Or keep moving? Maybe try and get to that other temple you mentioned?"

Melite was silent for the next few seconds, and I figured she was probably thinking it over. Sure enough it was another a half minute or so before she finally responded.

/Perhaps we should speak with Attis again. To find out what sort of duties we'd be assigned, were we to make this our new home./

There was another feeling of embarrassment as she admitted, /I don't have much experience with manual labour. I know how to spin and weave, but I know almost nothing about farming or animal husbandry./

That made me grimace, "Yeah I doubt I have any skills at all that'd be useful around here. My one year of college comp-sci won't be much good for at least another two thousand years. I guess if they let us stay here they'll probably teach us how to do whatever jobs need doing."

After a brief pause my invisible friend responded, /Perhaps I should be asking the same questions of you? Do you still wish to return to your distant home? You told me yesterday that you missed your family and friends./

My long fuzzy ears continued to droop to either side of my face as I took a deep breath then let it out as a long sigh, "I don't know Melite. I -"

Just then I heard a stifled gasp behind us, and my ears stood straight up as I spun around in shock. I was just in time to see the back of a farmhand as he fled towards what I took to be a small storage building. I only saw enough to know he was young and slim and tall, with short dark wavy hair. He was barefoot, dressed only in a simple light-brown tunic.

"Oh shit," I gulped.

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