I spent the next few hours catching Nilss and Friss up on our adventures up to this point. I told them about the crappy trip to see Daava’s family, the cursed artifacts, the island with the workshop, our interactions with the orcs, getting stung by puffer dragons—all of it. Which eventually led to me telling of my adventures from before.

The first part of this happened as we walked around the castle. At some point, the pink pixie had flew off to Kavtagro-knew-where. But I decided to take this as par for the course, in dealing with its kind.

Eventially, we all got kind of tired of walking and moved over to the nagas’ room. It was … oddly sort of what I expected from a room for a half-reptilian being. There were great crystal plates in the ceiling that let the light in, and most of the furniture within was made of coarse gray stone.

I could have guessed why; but the enormous piece of shed skin, which they embarrassedly pushed into a closet, confirmed it. In fact, the only soft thing in the room was the bed, where we all sat to continue talking.

When I was finished, Friss said, “Our journey has not been nearly so eventful in recent times. But would you like to know how Friss and I came to be as we are?”

Though my curiosity had been burning, I hadn’t asked because I suspected it would have been very rude. Given the chance now, I nodded eagerly.

“Not all that much to tell,” Nilss said with a shy smile, doing her best to play it off. “It was originally ... just me. I was in a battle with a dark lord, she used a spell of severing. I don't think she meant it to come out as strong as it did, but it would have cut me in half. Had I now managed to get a protective spell up in time. But it still did its damage on the inside of me.”

Friss nodded stoically. “We were quiet in the old days. So we just kind of went on, each thinking we were alone. Then, one night, I heard Nilss lament that nobody would ever love her as we were.”

Nilss blushed and then added, “And then Friss told me that she thought I was pretty cute. And that's when we realized we were split. Whatever the spell had done, it had cut our mind into two separate pieces. And they now worked independantly.”

I listened with fascination … finding myself in awe at their story.

“It's why normal speech is still a little weird for us,” Nilss said, staring at the unmoving slime on my anklet. “Like, every time you speak of your partner. For a moment, I think you must mean the other pieces connected to you.”

Immediately, I looked down, instinctively pulling my arms around myself.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Nilss said, looking mortified. "I forgot that you don't like to talk about it."

Friss didn't seem to understand my response whatsoever, but they pursed their lips. "You are not obliged to share. But, when you are ready, you are among individuals uniquely suited to understand. We ... actually thought you might use the garden for that purpose. When you finished with the pixie."

I was very quiet for a moment, not knowing how to respond. Even if I knew I could here, it still didn't feel right. Eventually, I whispered, "I don't ... I don't know why I don't like talking about it."

The nagas nodded their joined head.

"Maybe because it's still a version of me," I said, remembering back to the day I had taken along my dark passenger from the Mist. "Like maybe it's unfair to draw attention to it?"

Nilss took one of my hands in hers. "Because you don't look like us? Like ... two different people?"

I nodded admittingly. "And because ... when it happens ... it still feels like me. Sure, everything is different. What I want, what I'd do. But we both have to deal with the same memories. The same humiliation of what the other has done and said."

"And the only thing you agree on-" Friss said, her tone level as ever. "... is that you have not earned the right to be seen."

I gave a grim sort of smile. "I also can't think of anything worse, you know? People checking in, trying to figure out who they are talking to, talking about us like we're ..." I stopped myself, tasting the plural terms from my own lips like something caustic.

"Do your partners know?" Nilss asked, leaning her head so that I would again look the two of them in the eye.

I shook me head. "I mean, to some extent. I told them what happened on the Wild Seas. But they think it's something dormant, like a feeling. I don't know how to tell them the truth. That it's already started to fill the empty spaces in my mind ... the ones I didn't even know were there."

For a moment, we all became very quiet.

But then Nilss spoke, a little more lightheartedly, "Well, don't worry! We'll help you keep the pressure off, while you're here. Until you're ready to talk about it with them."

I gave a more genuine smile at this.

Then Friss said, "Just know that ... it isn't a death-sentence, people knowing. We also kept it hidden for a long time. But, when you're ready to face it, know that you have people who will not require you to ... prove ... anything to us." Then, awkwardly, she took my other hand.

-O-

A while later, I stepped back out into the castle. For a moment, I stopped to watching the garden and hoped that Daava was doing well. Then, for a moment, something stirred in my chest. Then I saw what I thought was a shadow move toward the garden.

I swallowed heavily ... and then followed.

A few minutes later, I was stepping into the garden. Not enough to feel the magic of it strongly, but enough that it lingered on the outer recesses of my mind.

Friss had said that people knowing shouldn't feel like a sort of death sentence. While that might have been true, is said nothing of actually legitimizing the shadow I felt. The one trying to lure me deeper, for whatever hidden purpose it might have had.

No ... I couldn't face this, not yet.

I nearly turned away, when I saw a pink glimmer descend from the ceiling. It was the pixie, whose eyes were trained closely on mine. Her demeanor seemed entirely changed. Had she been here in the garden this whole time?

I felt a familiar hypnotic power overwhelm me. Pink colors warping my vision as the pixie landed on my face.

“Connected to you, a mortal, I feel ... whole. Able to speak, in this one way. Aware of my lineage. Of what I was always meant to be. And now that I feel it ... a mind ... I do not wish to go back.”

My thoughts became hazy and soft. All I could think of was the body between the wings, the divinity of the pixie before me.

I hadn’t really looked at her body before, not like this. It was naturally proportioned, with breathtaking curves in her hips … her breasts … her belly … her thighs. Her skin was of a lighter pink hue, almost like delicious bubblegum. And I felt a certain awe ... that demanded worship.

Where … where were these words coming from?

If anything, these perfect thoughts sounded just like my own. Except better, clearer, and always knowing what’s best for me.

I nodded in agreement with … with who?

The pixie seemed to float toward me … trailing one hand down her body and reaching the other to grasp part of my bottom lip. She was … a being beyond words and names … but would graciously allow her priestess to call her a name from her own mind.

“Pasithea.”

Your divine.

The name echoed in my thoughts until it was all that existed.

"All your speech all your meaning, they come from this world. So I will reply in kind."

When I opened my mouth to gasp, Pasithea placed a bare leg inside. With it, she reached in and knelt until her sex was touching the altar of her priestess’s tongue. She tasted like the smell of wildflowers. Immediately, I began to worship as was the role divinely given.

“But for me to remain like this, the mortal would have to gift a piece.”

I closed my eyes, not understanding.

“Freely given, knowing you would have to serve the World. As I serve the World.”

I ... I couldn't understand. Not my own thoughts. Not the thoughts of the divine. And not the thoughts of the shadow that had brought me here.

"It wishes to be made whole."

Whole ...

“But that is your choice, one you will remember when the time is right. To take my power, and I yours. To serve that which sees and knows all of you. Even the pieces that now sleep in the dark.”

It wanted ... something ... something I wasn't ready to give.

"I feel it now. The existence of a divine must mean the ownership of a soul."

Like ... it didn't want to die ... but wouldn't take ... not by force.

Instead, weakly, it whispered, "Please ... Lilly ... do not make me go back."

-O-

I was awake, again. With every memory of the garden feeling like it was being ripped gently out of my skull. Like the roots of a delicate flower from the soul. Like a dream ... I could ... barely remember.

Pasithea was gone again, and I was standing alone.