Eventually, Ezme calmed down and they both continued on their way. Amara didn’t know for how long they had walked, but as she recalled the length of their conversation and with the numerable turns and corridors passed, it must have been well over an hour.

 

“Here we are!” Ezme chirped as they arrived at a bronze coloured double door, at least three times Amara’s height. As Ezme stopped and didn’t make any move to enter, Amara went ahead to push open the door, but as it didn’t budge she realized it probably had to be pulled open. Problem was, there were no handles on the door.

 

She turned to look at Ezme. “How do we open it?”

 

Ezme smiled annoyingly at Amara. “With your magic of course. Consider this lesson number one.”

 

“But I don’t know how to use it though? Or am I supposed to use this Realm Gate, whatever it is, for this?”(Amara)

 

“Nope, this is an exercise in working with your magic.” Ezme crossed her arms and tilted her head as she continued. “Had you been from a world with mana, I’d tell you it works in the same way, but you’re not so you’re just going to have to learn fast.”

 

Ezme closed her eyes for a moment, contemplating before she nodded and opened them again. “I said before that magic with divine power, is essentially small-scale miracles. The basics are quite user friendly. Pretty unpractical though, but it’ll work in this case. All you need to do is tap into your divine power, and wish for the doors to be opened.”

 

“And how do I tap into my divine power?”(Amara)

 

“For us angels, it’s pretty easy, kind of like breathing is to mortals I suppose. Do you feel your divine power in you in any way?”(Ezme)

 

“Not exactly. I just feel stronger and lighter than I was.”(Amara)

 

“Hmm. How troublesome. However, it certainly is in you. Let’s see…try using your creation skill, so you can get to know the feeling of activating your divine power. Think of something as simple as possible, like a ball of water. The better you understand the thing you want to create, the better the results. Just think 'Creation', followed by what you want to create.“(Ezme)

 

Amara raised her hand and imagined a fist sized ball of water floating above it, the water molecules. Creation: Water Ball!

 

A burst of heat flared through her body as the divine power rushed through her to fulfill her command. The air above her hand rushed softly against her skin as the sudden appearance of a ball of water displaced the air. Before Amara had even registered her success – the water ball fell and splashed against her palm.

 

Guess I should’ve expected that.

 

“Very good. Now, did you feel it?”(Ezme)

 

“I felt a burst of heat.”(Amara)

 

“Alright, burst of heat is good. Now, try to make that burst of heat appear again, then wish for the doors to be opened.”(Ezme)

 

Amara closed her eyes and tried to recall the feeling. The burst had been everywhere at once in her body, only gaining intensity before ebbing out. After several failures she felt the heat rising in her body, to the point she felt the same level of heat as when she had created the water ball. She opened her eyes and looked at the doors. Open Sesame!

 

The heat rushed out of her body, but the doors appeared unmoved. The sudden sound of clapping hands made her turn her gaze to Ezme. “Well done!”

 

“But it didn’t work?”(Amara)

 

“Oh, it worked. You just need to use more divine power.” Ezme said with a grin. “Try again, this time don’t hold back though.”

 

Once again Amara attempted to bring her powers to life. It only took a dozen seconds or so this time. As she collected more of her divine power, the heat in her body kept rising. Before long the heat was unbearable. She was about to call for the doors to open again when Ezme called out to her.

 

“Don’t stop! Use more divine power!”(Ezme)

 

“It’s too hot, it’s already getting painful.” Amara snapped between her grit teeth.

 

“Don’t be a baby, it won’t hurt you. Keep using more!” Ezme said while laughing.

 

Damn sadist. – Was Amara’s only thought before she turned her eyes to the doors and collected more divine power. All she wanted to do was scream in agony as she felt like her body was melting from the inside out.

 

Amara started losing focus from the pain and started having auditory hallucinations of bells ringing as she decided this had to be enough. She screamed in her mind;

OPEN SESAME!!  

 

As if someone had nudged the doors from the inside, the doors swung open quickly at first, only to start slow down as they were half opened until the doors were completely open.

 

In the aftermath Amara fell on her knees and gasped for breath as she felt sore in her entire body, as if she had had an intense, daylong workout the day before.

 

“Good work!” Ezme’s cheerful voice came from her side along with another series of hand clapping.

 

As Amara opened her eyes again she saw a screen in front of her.

 

Your willpower has increased by 1.

Your willpower has increased by 1.

Your willpower has increased by 1.

Your willpower has increased by 1.

You have successfully used a previously unused skill! Add skill to directory?

Y / N

 

Soon she realized that the auditory hallucinations she heard probably were related to these announcements. Yes.

 

Skill Open Sesame has been added to register!

 

I suppose I check how much divine power I used. Status.

 

 

Holy shit, four-fifths just to open a door?!

 

“Hey Ezme, I just used most of my divine power just to open that door. Isn’t this a bit too inefficient?”(Amara)

 

“Not at all for a first timer. Did you use a mental image for how to open the door?”(Ezme)

 

“Not really. I think that I just imagined them opening?”(Amara)

 

“Then that is why. Although divine power grants you the power to create miracles, if you don’t tell it how to do it, then the miracles will be costly. Like moving a boulder – you can push it, drag it, or you can roll it. Unless you specify from beginning to end, your divine power will take the simplest answer – even if it isn’t the most effective way.”(Ezme)

 

Amara sighed and stood up on her aching legs. “What about when I used appraisal? I didn’t feel like I used any divine power then, and I didn’t use any mental image there either.”

 

“That’s because your basic divine skills you had were all built in. They are all designed from the get-go to operate in the most efficient way possible.”(Ezme)

 

“What about creation?”(Amara)

 

“It’s a sort of an in-between skill. Or a two-in-one package. First part being the process to bring something into existence – the how – which has been optimized to work efficiently. The second part being the thing you want to create – the what – which depends on your mental image.”(Ezme)

 

“So you’re saying most of my divine power went to the second part?”(Amara)

 

“I can’t say for certain, only Father really knows. And he’s a bit iffy about answering questions about such things.”(Ezme)

 

Amara thought for a moment before she let a grin spread on her face. “I suppose to find out how much divine power it uses, I’d simply have to use creation to create nothing?”

 

“Think yourself clever do you?” Ezme snorted. “You’re not the first to think that. And the only one who could even succeed in such as task would be Father, if it’s even possible at all. Trying to imagine ‘nothing’ is a lot harder than it sounds.”

 

“Fine. Speaking of creation I think I used thousands of my divine power for the water ball.”(Amara)

 

“That too is caused by a lacking mental image. After all, mortals have a lacking understanding of everything.”(Ezme)

 

“I thought our world had come pretty far in terms of knowledge, but I suppose that depends on what you compare it with.”(Amara)

 

“And that’s your human hubris talking, it has nothing to do with comparisons. Only a handful of your scientists got the right mindset about it – for every question answered, several new ones appear. Only the truly arrogant are content with their current level of knowledge.”(Ezme)

 

“What about you then? Do you know everything there is to know?”(Amara)

 

“Nobody does.” Ezme seemed to think that Amara had rested enough, as she put her hand on Amara's back and ushered her past the doors and into the chamber within. “Not even Father.”