The group of adventurers stared at me with various emotions. The group that we had just met were probably just interested in how this all fit into the game. My friends though, the ones that knew this wasn’t just a game, they stared at me with worried expressions. They knew something bigger had happened.

“Sooo how did you do that?” Liam asked for all of them.

“Um, which thing?” I asked back.

“How’d you make the statue for starters,” he said, nodding to the giant glowing shrine to Feslia.

“Uh, I guess it’s cos I’m her priestess and I could channel her power and my own to make it? I honestly don’t know…” I said. It wasn’t the whole truth, but I wasn’t ready to talk about that yet in front of the newcomers.

Dana raised a single eyebrow at me, but otherwise nodded. Guess she approved of keeping the whole ‘game is real’ thing a secret for now. Amra bit her lip, looked between Dana and I, then followed her lead.

Liam took a little while longer, if only because he was the one who was asking the questions, “You don’t know. Right… Ah. Well whatever, we have a shrine now I guess. What will it be useful for?”

“Not much right now I’m afraid. She’s not the most powerful goddess, but she’s really cool. You should all totally give her a prayer or two. Maybe you’ll get a buff?” I said hopefully.

“Aren’t you supposed to know that kind of thing as her priestess?” asked one of the new group, the human duelist named Melli.

I shook my head, feeling shy when directly addressed by one of that group, “Uh no I don’t know s-sorry.”

“Ah leave her be! The game is still new, people don’t know all the ins and outs yet,” Xero said, clamping a big hand down on top of Melli’s head.

“Only one way to find out!” Alexia said cheerfully, waltzing up to the statue, “So like, what do I say in the prayer?”

“Uhhh, Just say she’s cool or something and that you’d like her favour,” I said. Gosh, really helpful Syl. That’s sure to be a great prayer.

Alexia nodded thoughtfully, then knelt in front of the statue, “Feslia you’re one fine babe. How about you give me some of that favour of yours eh?”

I snorted at her choice of prayer, but didn’t say anything about it. Who was this woman. Wow!

Alexia blinked, seeming to read something in her hud, then laughed, “I got a buff alright! I get a percentage experience buff, but listen to this! The description on the buff says, Sure, here’s some favour, but you’re not my type!”

I couldn’t help a little chuckle now. Feslia had character I guess.

“Ohhh an experience gain buff? I’m in!” Xero exclaimed, then wandered forward and knelt, saying her own prayer under her breath.

Everyone followed, crowding around the statue. Some people decided to come up with joke prayers, if only to get a witty response, while others like Liam kept it fairly neutral. Karen said hers under her breath, and I was kinda curious to know what she’d said. Izzy sat in front of the temple the longest, and seemed to almost be having a conversation with Feslia. I hoped it went well.

“You’re starting a little cult huh?” Karen joked in my ear from my side.

I smiled up at her, “I guess. It’s only a cult if you’re small right? So I gotta get more people to follow it and then bam! I’m a real religion!”

She snorted and laughed, “Yeah something like that.”

Everyone milled around for a bit after they were done getting their buffs, but then Liam walked over and stood in front of the statue.

“Hey everyone,” he called.

People quieted down and stopped their talking to look at him.

“Okay so we need to get another cabin built for the new group here, so I think we’ll need to work together on that. Syl can you block out a plan for them?” he said.

“Yup!” I replied.

“Alright, everyone else, we’ll need to split into teams and get working on all the resource collection. That good with you guys Alexia?” he asked, looking at the newcomers.

Alexia shrugged and nodded, “Yeah sure. Let us know what we need to do.”

Liam pondered for a moment then said, “We should probably discuss everyone’s builds so we can figure out who’s best doing what, then we can go from there. Oh and Izzy… uh keep working on that garden of yours okay?”

Izzy started for a second, then smiled at him and nodded, “Yup! Okay Liam!”

“Alright time to get to work I guess. We’re going to have a small town going by the time we’re done here I swear,” Liam grinned.

The others all gathered up, but Karen stayed by my side. She seemed to be thinking about something. I liked her thinking face, it was cute. Well actually her face was cute no matter what expression. Her horns were cute too.

“I’ll stay and help you,” she told me, placing a hand on my shoulder, “In case Col tries anything.”

“Oh right… shit I forgot about him after everything that’s happened,” I sighed.

“Can you tell me at least a little bit about that?” she asked, looking a little sad.

“Okay. I’ll tell you about it while we’re marking out the new cabin,” I said, giving in. I couldn’t hold this from her, lying to my girlfriend wasn’t cool. Nia should be trying to find her anyway!

“Hmmm alright. Let’s go then,” she said.

We walked over to the area we thought might be good for their cabin, and looked over it. The space was fifty or so meters away and down the hill slightly. As I started thinking about where to put what room where, I noticed Alexia going to round up those who hadn’t been at the shrine. I sighed with relief when I saw Col go with them. One less problem to worry about.

In the meantime I had an idea. Alexia wanted to bring more of her guildies along, so maybe it was a good idea to put a barracks into their building. Or maybe nearby was a better idea. I got up from my space where Karen was watching me and began to have a look at the area surrounding us.

“I’m thinking that since Alexia and her clan want to bring more people here, it might be an idea to plan out a barracks for them too,” I explained.

“Ohh that’s a good idea. Although from my vantage point almost two feet higher than you I can’t see anywhere you could put it,” she said grinning mischievously down at me.

“Harr de harr. You’re right. Blah! Where could we put it then? Find another spot?” I mused out loud.

“Nah, see how that part there is almost flat?” she asked, pointing out a space right next to us, “You just have to dig away the hill a little. We’ll probably end up doing that more if we put in more buildings so we may as well get some practice now.”

“Good idea! Yay! I knew there was a reason I was dating you,” I said happily, going to find some twigs to mark the stuff out.

“I thought it was because you were falling for me?” Karen asked as she started to help me.

“Yeah that too,” I giggled, poking my tongue out.

We spent the next few minutes getting the sticks ready, then clearing out the space we were to build the two buildings on by cutting the grass down. My little blades weren’t very good for the task, but it was all I had so it would have to do. Karen on the other hand had great fun swinging her giant sword around, hacking apart the foliage like she had the more violent foliage a few days earlier.

It was a nice day to be doing bent-back work like this, not too hot that you started to bake under the weight of the sun, but not too cold that it was unpleasant either. I wondered idly if that was Feslia’s doing. It would be nice to have a patron deity who could help deal with the weather.

It wasn’t long before Karen broached the topic of my disappearance for a day. I’d had enough time to think on an approach now, and so I went with it. I explained what had happened after Feslia pulled me out of my bed. I explained how the air above me had shattered open and I had been pulled through. I began to explain the battle, when I was interrupted.

“Wait, you got pulled through a portal in the air? It looked like the air broke? How?” she asked, her eyes wide and I could see her mind working behind those lenses.

“Uh, like glass yeah. It just shattered and twirled,” I said.

“That’s how… that’s how they said Nia got taken from Vic Uni! At least that’s how the witnesses said it happened before everyone laughed at them! Do you think Feslia knows anything about her? Can we go and ask?” she exclaimed, starting to put her sword away.

“Hey wait, let me finish okay? There’s more,” I placated her. Damn she was going to run off in search of Nia already.

“Oh. Okay…” she mumbled, looking a little crestfallen.

I continued my explanation, telling of how I met a woman who was also a dragon, and how she and her comrades fought the enemy. I explained how she looked, with her sparkling hair that was all the colours of space, and her eyes that seemed to be built out of the void between the stars. I told her how we fought the giant creature and killed it, but were pulled into the space between realities.

I also told her about the waves I had seen in that space, and the shards of glass that represented other realities. I told her how we fell into Nightbinder and Vulptrix’s reality, how we met them, how I gained the ability to become invisible and how we became shards of something we knew nothing about. I told her about how we got back to our reality and how the dragon flew off. I probably missed a lot of stuff out, but yeah.

“That’s crazy… that’s so crazy. How are you even alive?” she said in awe, then dropped her sword and picked me up by the waist, hugging me to her, “I’m really fucking glad you lived through that.”

I made a sort of long squeaking noise as she pushed the air from my lungs, and I had to wriggle so I could breath.

“You’re too strong! Also watch out for my blades next time!” I protested.

She just laughed at my complaints, “Oh shush you. You’re small enough to be a plushie.”

“I am not!” I said, “The plushies are big enough to be a person thank you very much!”

“Same thing,” she said flippantly.

“Put me down or I won’t tell you the most important part,” I grumbled, wriggling to try and break free.

She laughed, but did as she was told, placing me carefully back on the ground. I pretended to dust myself off like I’d just been thrown in our pile of grass cuttings, then pouted up at her.

“You’re so cute,” she smiled, her eyes full of care.

“Yeah well… hmph. Anyway,” I said, very disgruntled, before I turned to a move grave tone and reached out to take her hand, “The most important part… that dragon woman’s name was… Nia.”

Karen stood smiling for a moment more, then her expression morphed into a frown as she thought through what I’d said, letting it sink in. Next her expression wavered, crumbling as she realised there was a small hope it might be her sister.

“It’s not…” she started, then choked on her emotions.

I pushed myself back into her arms and nodded, “It was your sister karen. I know they all said in the media that the portal people were crazy, but it was really her. She talked about you too. Said she missed you. Said she was happy you didn’t listen to your parent’s crap bigotry.”

She started crying right then and there, and I squeezed her as tight as my little arms could. This girl was everything to me right now. She nestled her face in my hair and started hiccuping through her tears, trying to sob but not quite able to do so.

“Where is she now? Why isn’t she coming to find me?” Karen cried.

“I think she wants to be ready… but I don’t know. She’s pretty… intense. I don’t know how she was before, but it’s obvious she’s been through some shit Karen… I think she might be a bit overwhelmed by being back on Earth you know?” I said, trying to think of reasons Nia might be holding off on their reunion. Really I just wanted her to feel better and I didn’t really care how I did that.

“I hope so… what if I did something wrong? Do you think she hates me for still living with mum and dad?” she sniffled.

“No! We’re both still teenagers! It’s not like we can just leave home! Don’t be silly!” I said firmly, “You’re doing what you can and you can move out soon!”

“But it might be my fault-” she started, but I interrupted her with a little kiss.

“Nope. I said don’t be silly. Obey your girlfriend!” I said stubbornly.

She smiled through her tears and nodded, “Okay fine… but I want to see her…”

“She’ll find you, I know she will. Just gotta be patient yeah?” I smiled.

“I guess. I’ll try,” she sighed.

“I’ll help distract you don’t worry.”

“You are very distracting,” she said matter of factly.

**Nia**

Nia sat in a tree and watched her old family. The one she had been born with, rather than the one she’d fought and bled for. She resettled her wings again. It was always hard to get them comfortable after flying, there was always a feather out of place or something. Having her soul torn from her body and placed in this shape shifting fox-dragon body had been a real shock at first, but it felt as natural as her human form now. She still remembered those first days in the Builder hospital trying to learn how to fly. Simple times.

Despite having fought in a number of wars and other conflicts, despite having travelled through countless worlds and having fought untold horrors, Nia felt fear when she looked at her parents. They sat in the living room of the same house she had grown up in and watched TV like they were normal people. They weren’t normal. They were awful. The things they had put Nia through before she escaped that house had been terrible on a psychological level that had left scars still present to this day.

She thought about how her sister was behind the dark window on the second floor, probably playing that so called game with Sylanna right now. She hoped the little fae girl was topping Karen up on love and happiness before she got up and had it all sucked out by their parents.

Nia needed to think. She wanted to see her sister, sure… but how? How to get her out from under their parent’s clutches long enough to have a real reunion. How to get her out from under her parent’s clutches for good? Karen was 17 now, she could technically leave home by New Zealand law, provided she had made good enough plans for her living conditions.

If only Nia wasn’t dead. Well, dead according to the system anyway. If she wasn’t she’d have been able to get a job and-

What the fuck are you thinking you dumbass, you’re a fucking space dragon with magic and the power to bend this whole planet to your will if you chose to do so. Who would be able to stop you if you actually put your mind to it? Nia chastised herself.

She’d checked what the magical situation was on this world as soon as she arrived, and it was an odd one. It seemed that something or someone had broken the Earth’s magical ley lines at some point. They still trickled energy, enough for Nia to refill her core if she was careful, but otherwise they were functionally inert. This meant that the likelihood of someone being born with natural magical potential was extremely low, because there wasn’t enough magic in the air to trigger a mutation.

So Nia was almost certainly the most powerful magic wielder on the planet, and this meant she could do almost anything she wanted, provided she kept enough power to keep herself safe. So why work within the mundane rules? Why bother trying to reverse her death on paper from ten years ago through the legal method…

Nia grinned. This would almost certainly be fun. She’d have a place for karen to crash in no time.