Hikaru after much thought finally spoke, “You’re not going to let me leave without telling you anything are you?”

Ruri snorted, “I’m sorry, but no. We can’t stay in town forever, and something needs to be done before we leave. Just stop acting like a little girl and tell me what’s wrong. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”

Reluctantly she said, “I guess you’re right, but I don’t think you can help.”

She hesitated, but thankfully Ruri didn’t speak. Giving her the time that she needed to say something. Glancing down at her feet, she began, “I’m not really sure where to begin, but I’ll try.”

Ruri smiled, “Don’t worry about if we have time, we can ease into it. Why don’t we start with how you met Amy?”

Hikaru scratched her cheek, and thought for a few moments, “Well I guess there are a few things I need to say first, so you will understand my motivations at the time. First off, I am a summon.”

Ruri giggled, “That is not too surprising, I saw that title the goddess gave you. I guess you did not do so well.”

Hikaru slumped, “Please don’t remind me, and well the goddess wasn’t the one who first called me that. That honor goes to a young mage from the Contrey clan. Her name is Arlie.”

Ruri gasped, “You met one of the Contrey witches!!!?”

Hikaru looked at her in surprise, “Two of them actually, but you know the name?”

Ruri sighed, “I guess being a summon you don’t know. The Contrey clan of witches or mages as they call themselves is the most famous clan from the kingdom to the north. Even the great Archmages of the Elves and many dragon priests fear them. They have quite the reputation although I am sure some of it is just hearsay. I very much doubt the stories that claim some of their number actually killed dragons. Still a few of them are quite powerful. Stories of them even reach little out of the way villages like mine. I have heard quite a few things about an Archmage Ria, while I have not heard of this Arlie for example.”

Hikaru shuddered, “Met her, she was with Arlie. I may not have made the best impression. Said some really stupid things.” She looked herself over and muttered, “Guess I understand a bit of that now.”

Hikaru failed to notice that Ruri overheard that nor did she see her expression. “Anyway that encounter happened not long after my ... failure. It did open my eyes a little, and I guess that might have been why I took that quest. I wanted to be stronger, wanted to correct my mistakes. That went off the rails quickly.”

She leaned back on her crate, her face quite expressive she began, “That quest was how I met Amy. We ended up in the same party together...

...After that little mishap, the water carried us to an underground island with no way off. We started to get to know each other there, and that was also where I met the goddess. During that encounter, she gave me my, ... my staff..” Hikaru stumbled a bit mentioning the staff, but she did not realize how transparent her emotions were to Ruri. She was giving away so much more than she intended and did not even know it

“Something special about your staff?” asked Ruri.

Hikaru hesitated and said, “Yes. My goddess blessed it, it’s a holy weapon.”

Her hesitation there was telling, but Ruri didn’t push and let her continue her story. “Anyway my staff did not come without strings. She asked me and Amy to take on a quest for her. A quest that brought us to meet you. Shortly after the goddess left was also when Amy started teaching me magic.” Then she muttered under her breath something that Ruri felt significant, “and started encouraging me to explore being a girl.”

After that nothing else stood out to Ruri until, she finally said something surprising, “After we got here is where our problem started. It began with me finding out that I am ...” then she stopped mid-sentence. Her body flushed red.

“Well found out what,” prompted Ruri. Only to get a bit of stuttering and Hikaru blushed deeper. Ruri was beginning to get a picture of what was happening, but she needed Hikaru to actually tell her to be sure. So she prompted her again, “Just take a deep breath, and calm down a bit. You can tell me, whatever it is I won’t laugh.”

After a few moments of silence, she admitted, “I found out that I am... I am... I am pregnant.”

At that moment Ruri connected a bunch of dots, and realized something, “Amy got you pregnant, didn’t she?”

An awkward nod was her only answer. Ruri observed her for a moment before asking, “You did not want to be, did you?”

“I didn’t even know it was possible! Maybe I should have asked more questions. No, I should have connected the dots when she said that magic makes the impossible possible,” exclaimed Hikaru her face shifting through several different expressions.

Ruri sighed heavily, “I see this was more serious than I thought. You were right, Amy does need to apologize to you. She never should have done that without your permission. As for you, you should not be beating yourself over for this. It was not your fault.”

“But, if I paid more attention to what Amy was doing or connected the dots sooner this would not have happened! I should have been more attentive, and asked more questions.”

Ruri slapped her, and cried, “Beating yourself up over it will get you nowhere. If anything, you should be focusing on the future. I know you did not plan to be a mother just yet, but now you do need to plan for it. Even if you do end up deciding to give your child to the temple, you do need to consider its future.”

Hikaru slumped a bit, and replied, “I know, and I can’t help but think about that. I always wanted a child, but I just never wanted one this soon. I think I will take care of her myself. At least that’s what I’m hoping I can do. The whole divine quest might get in the way.”

Ruri chuckled, “Yeah, that’s life always throwing you curveballs. Praying to the gods sometimes helps. As they do tend to listen, and sometimes they might just help you out. Often in a subtle way. Though some are more... direct in their actions. I like that idea though. Your daughter certainly deserves to have her mother, and she doesn’t deserve to be punished because of the actions of someone else. I think I will help you with that. Although I will warn you that I know nothing about raising kids.”

Hikaru laughed, “Neither do I.” Then she muttered under her breath, “never even thought I would be a mother.”

Ruri heard that, and already had an idea about why she had not thought she would be a mother. However she did not know what to say. So instead she simply moved over and sat next to her waiting until she was ready to say more. Giving her a bit of a hug while she was at it. 

Hikaru leaned into her, and said, “Thank you. I think I needed to tell someone.”

Ruri smiled, and stroked her gently, “I guess now I’ll have to talk to Amy. Wish me luck.”

Hikaru nodded but remembering what Ruri had just said chose to pray for her success instead. It was not too much of a surprise to her, but it seemed like a good idea.

Her prayer did not go unnoticed and a certain goddess looked in on the scene, and smiled to herself. Glad to see that young Hikaru was bonding with her party member, becoming real friends and finally starting to open up. Then she glanced over to Amy who had been acting rather hard-headed lately.

She did agree that this needed to be fixed and considered what to do. The first thing to consider was how direct she needed to be. She was not averse to being very direct in her fixing of worlds. Many worlds had not initially enjoyed her methods for fixing a problem, but they worked, in fact, they worked quite well. At the moment though a direct solution did not seem to be needed. No something far more simple would work. They needed to understand the other’s position or neither would be able to make up. Much less work together. Ruri’s method would work with time, but given what was going on it would be too slow. She decided to help things along, and make the entire party bond stronger while she was at it. She pulled on her energy and locked onto all three of her targets as she began to weave them together in a magical bond. One that would let them better understand each other. It would quicken the development of their bonds. Possibly more, but that did not matter, at least not to her.

The magic weave was strong on formation, and the bonds formed without issue. The goddess smiled and returned her attention elsewhere.

Amy glanced absently at her bed, and sighed. She had gone wrong somewhere. Miscalculated with something. She dropped to the floor and laughed. Nothing was going the way she had planned. Hikaru would not even speak with her, now. She had gotten what she had wanted, but lost it as well. A part of her knew that she should apologize, but she just could not bring herself to do it. If only Hikaru had not found out so soon. She could have worked with her longer, and maybe she would not have reacted this way.

Before she could even consider this line of thought, she started feeling weird. It took her a few moments to realize the cause. She almost panicked when she saw it. Someone was working very strong magic on her, and she had never seen the like of it before. In reaction, she tried to fight it. She brought her magic to bear and tried to shatter the mystic weave forming around her. The weave easily weathered the assault, and oddly grew stronger and began forming more quickly.

She did not like that, and while she had no idea what the magic was meant to do she doubted that it was good. Few spells cast without the knowledge of the target were good. So if force wasn’t going to work she tried something else. She tried to unravel the weave. Only to struggle fruitlessly. The magic was far more complex than any spell she had ever seen, and she fruitlessly worked to unravel just one strand. Only to have it replaced before she got even halfway through.

Failing that, she tried just about everything she could think of to break the spell with little effect. In some cases her efforts even accelerated the process. It was deeply frustrating and before she knew it she had exhausted every course of action she could think of. Unable to think of another action, she watched helplessly as the weave finished, and took hold. As it did she watched the weave harden, she was worried so she panicked and tried to shatter it again. This time actually causing herself pain. It seemed the spell weave was going to stay, she just hoped it would not cause her problems later. The way lashing out at it had hurt her, told her that the spell was already fusing to her soul. She did not know enough about soul magic to break such a spell.