"What about Mari?" Lily asked. "It's very close to Mara."

My demonic twin thought for a few moments, but her expression settled into a frown.

She shook her head, "I don't like how that sounds."

Our mater pointed out, "You said you preferred short names. And Mari is four of the first five letters of your true name. It's only one letter away from what you're used to, so it's not that great a change."

"I don't like it," she stated a little more firmly.

It was evening, and everyone was sitting around the fire pit again. Earlier in the afternoon Lily spoke with my girlfriends, she gave them a sort of briefing but there wasn't much for her to say that I hadn't already told them.

Like she confirmed I was still in there with her, and as best she could tell I was alive and stuff. And her daughter was in our head too, which was just as inexplicable.

One thing I learned was pacts between demons were different than pacts between a demon and a human. And the pact I had with Lily basically ended when I died. Or if I didn't die, then it ended when our body and I both became fully demonic. Either way, our pact ended and the tattoo vanished, so I should have been dead except somehow I wasn't.

The other surprising thing was when Lily went out into the body to talk to everyone, it shifted back to her form like before. And when she was done and I went back out, our body turned back into me again.

It was yet another thing nobody had an explanation for, at least until Amber spoke up and basically solved it for us. She suggested it was a subconscious thing, like how she got shorter back in April. Lily could naturally shape-shift, succubi inherited that ability from her. So when our mater was in the body she automatically shifted to what she was comfortable with. Then when I took over, I naturally shifted it to what I was used to.

That was exciting since it meant I ought to be able to grow wings at some point, I just had to learn how to do it.

After all that was sorted out I made dinner for Sue and Melissa, but neither me or Amber were interested in eating. And finally we all went out to the fire pit to relax. Until I came back inside to meet with my demon mom and demon twin.

And my twin's grumpy voice brought my mind back to the present as she complained, "Honestly, I'm none too happy that I'm the one who has to pick a new common name."

I grimaced, "Sorry. I don't actually mind both of us being called Mara?"

"You can't both be called Mara," Lily stated for the twentieth time. "You two might know which one you're talking about, but the rest of us don't."

She looked at me and added, "And please stay out of this Mara. It's something my daughter needs to decide on her own."

"Ok Lily," I agreed. Then I immediately ignored her as I looked at my twin and suggested, "How about Mira? It's kind of the same but swap the vowels around?"

Our demon mom rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation while my demon twin looked thoughtful again.

"Mira..." she said to herself. "Yes, actually I do like the sound of that. I think that will work for me."

"Really?" Lily asked her. "You like that?"

Mira nodded, "Yes mater. I shall take that as my common name. Thank you Mara for suggesting it."

I grinned, "You're welcome Mira!"

All three of us had a bit of a group hug, before our demon mom moved on to the next thing.

"As I said before, I have enough excess power right now to create another separate body..." After a brief hesitation she added, "I don't have enough power to make it fully demonic like the one we're all sharing now. Not yet anyways. In time I could pull enough energy out of either Armaros or Verothilas or both, to make it fully demonic, if that was desired."

This time when she paused it was for dramatic effect, as she looked back and forth between me and Mira.

"The question remains," Lily finally said, "Which of you it would be for."

I didn't hesitate or wait for anyone else to speak up. "Let Mira have it, so she can be alive again."

When our mater started to protest I interrupted, "I don't want us to be separated Lily. I want to stay connected to you. I don't mind sharing our body, I'm used to it after all this time? And I'd be really lonely on my own."

"Surely we don't have to make this decision right now?" Mira asked. "Why can't the three of us remain together like this for the time being? Unless you find it too crowded mater, with both myself and Mara in here with you?"

Lily smiled and pulled both me and Mira into a tight hug.

"I'm happy to have you both here with me," she replied. "But I can't imagine how we'll manage with the three of us sharing one body indefinitely. I don't mind spending my days in here watching The Mara Show outside, but you might not enjoy being cooped up in here like that Mira."

I added, "Especially after being stuck for four months in your villa, right?"

Our mater continued, "Mara also has a number of obligations which require her to make use of the body. She has her schooling, her girlfriends, social engagements..."

Mira shrugged, "I understand there are limitations, but I'm not ready to part with either of you just yet. Especially if I can't drop in on you whenever I like, as I suspect would be the case if Mara were in class or out with her friends."

That made me giggle, "I think folks might freak out just a tiny bit if a demon girl showed up in class to visit our demon mom."

Our mater shook her head, "No Mira, that would not go over well. Particularly if I had to emerge to speak with you. At the very least Mara would likely receive a reprimand for public nudity when she turned into an eight and a half foot tall naked blue demon."

"There is also the matter of where I would live," Mira added. "And what I would do with myself? I know my home on Thera is no more, and I also know that this world is now a very different place than what I was used to."

I suggested, "We have a guest room at home, I'm sure my girlfriends wouldn't mind if you stayed with us."

Lily added, "We also have all Verothilas' properties in the UK. And at the next new moon I shall interrogate Armaros, then we will add his wealth and holdings to our collection as well. We know at the very least he had property in the UK, Morocco, and the USA."

Mira sighed, "I'm not sure I wish to live in any of those places. They're too far away from you both, I wouldn't be able to fly over and visit. At any rate, I already said I'm comfortable remaining here for the time being. There's no need for you to create another corporeal shell and push one of us out, mater."

I nodded in agreement. It seemed like Mira and me both felt the same way about that, like neither of us wanted to be out on our own. Not yet anyways.

On the other hand I understood what Lily said, like it was one thing for two of us to share one body but with three of us it might get too busy. Thinking about that, I suddenly got a wild idea. I had no idea if it was possible but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask.

"Hey mater?" I asked her in an excited tone. "Could you create that second body but like, make it so we were all still connected no matter which body we were in? So like instead of two of us sharing one body and the third being all alone in a second body, it'd actually be like all three of us shared both bodies? And like, whether it was me and Mira in one and you in the other, or you and me in one and Mira in the other, or you and Mira in one and me in the other, we'd all still be connected? And like we'd all still be able to come back in here and see each other whenever we wanted?"

Lily and Mira both stared at me in surprise, and they kept staring till I finally cringed slightly.

"Sorry if that was a stupid idea," I mumbled. "I was just thinking, it'd solve all the problems at once? Like having a second body that one of us could use whenever, but still all being connected so nobody was lonely..."

After another few seconds Lily finally responded, "Mara?"

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Please don't call me 'mater'. It's confusing enough talking to the two of you at once. If you both start using the same words and phrases I'll never know which is which."

"Aww," I pouted. "Ok Lily."

I figured she was talking about that since my idea was probably too silly to mention, but apparently she was just getting the important stuff out of the way first.

"As for your idea, I honestly don't know if that's possible? But if you're both interested, I'll try and figure it out."

"Sweet!" I grinned. "Oh! When you're doing that, can you make sure that the other body can grow wings? So we can fly!"

Mira nodded enthusiastically, "Yes! Wings are a must! If not naturally, then we will require an ample reserve of power so we may shape-shift on demand. And I'm sure Mara would want the body to manifest her horns and tail while she occupied it."

"I'm not so particular," she added. "I must have wings, but I can make do without the horns and tail."

I pouted again, "Aww, I was just thinking how much fun we could have pretending to be twins!"

Mira laughed, "We'll still look identical Mara, especially when your horns and tail are hidden. So we can certainly pretend to be twins. In fact I rather think we'd have trouble convincing people we aren't twins, should they see the two of us together."

That put a smile back on my face, and I cheered "Yay! This is gonna be awesome! Right Lily?"

Me and Mira both looked to our demon mom, but she just sighed and facepalmed. The two of us grinned and giggled at once, and I couldn't help feel excited. I might have died again, but this time I gained a twin and I could already tell we were going to be great friends.

Lily finally sighed, "Very well. I'll try and figure out if it's possible. For now Mara, why don't you return to your girlfriends? You've been away from them long enough I think. And I would like to spend more time catching up with Mira."

"Ok mom," I grinned. "See you two later!"

Mira smiled back at me as I got up off the sofa and stepped out into the body. I stirred slightly then smiled at Melissa, Susan, and Amber.

"Hey," I said. "I'm back, sorry about that. We got a bunch more stuff figured out. Best of all, I get to keep being Mara!"

Melissa was sitting next to me on one of the big logs, she gave me a hug and replied "That's good news at least. It'd be rough explaining to your mom why you had to change your name again so soon."

"Yeah," I grimaced. "That's why Lily decided I'd be the one to keep it? Because lots of people already know me as Mara. Since Mira's been gone for a couple thousand years nobody else really knows her yet."

Susan asked, "Mira? I take it that's demon-Mara's new name?"

I nodded, "Right! It's still pretty close to Mara, and she liked the sound of it so that's what she picked. So I'm Mara, she's Mira."

"When will we get to meet her?" Amber asked.

"Not sure," I replied with a shrug. "She and Lily are still talking about a bunch of stuff, and getting caught up and everything? Lily's working on a way to come up with a second body that we can all share? It might be complicated or whatever, so I don't know yet when it'll happen. When it does, I kind of said it was ok for Mira to stay in our guest room for a while. I hope that's all right?"

"I'm sure it'll be fine Mara," Sue smiled.

Melissa still had an arm around me, she gave me a squeeze and asked, "How are you holding up Mara? I know the last twenty-four hours have been a lot, between maybe dying and becoming fully demonic and Lily's daughter returning..."

I was about to make a joke or whatever about all that stuff being no big deal, when my demonic intuition thing told me what she was really saying. She was worried that I was ok, because she wasn't. She was really worried about me being a demon, and about me being maybe dead. Like if I was maybe dead and we didn't know how I was still here, then maybe I could stop being here without any warning.

Once all that kind of hit me I leaned closer against her and wrapped my arms around her.

"It's ok Melissa," I told her as we hugged. "I'm sorry I scared all of you, and I'm sorry I haven't been taking this stuff too seriously? You're right, it's been a crazy day. Don't worry though, ok? Lily and Mira are working on things. I know Lily's trying to figure stuff out, and I'm sure she'll do it. I'm not going anywhere."

"Thanks Mara," my best friend replied as she held me a little tighter. "I'm glad you're ok, and I'm glad you're not worried."

Sue and Amber moved closer and joined in the hug, then after a half minute the curvaceous redhead suggested, "Maybe the four of us should call it a night? I hate to bring the mood down, but we do have to pack up and leave tomorrow..."

There were some quiet sighs and grumbles, and not all of them came from me.

"What do we do about the fire?" Amber asked. "We shouldn't just go to bed while it's still burning, right?"

"Leave it to me!" I said with a grin.

One thing Lily hadn't said but I already figured out for myself, was we had loads of excess power now and I'd picked up a lot of demonic magic and spells and stuff through my dreams of being Mira.

I took my left hand off my girlfriends and gestured at the bonfire as I said a couple demonic words, and it went out like I'd flipped a switch or something. One moment hot roaring bonfire, the next moment cold blackened wood and ash.

Amber smirked, "Show-off!"

"You're totally going to get into trouble with that aren't you?" Melissa asked. "Not now, not here, but sooner or later you're going to show off magic someplace you shouldn't."

I giggled, "Yeah probably! But c'mon, for now let's just go to bed?"

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