We each slide the rings on each others fingers after which we get into bed. Sam seems pretty hyper however. 

“How the heck am I supposed to fall asleep now?” She says, holding her hand up to admire her ring even more. “The symbolism with the chains is so cool.” 

“Yeah, when Roderick told me about it, it made me really happy I had picked him to make the rings for us.” 

“It’s impressive that a blacksmith can do this.” 

“He is very talented, that’s for sure.” 

“You should show me his shop later so I can go and thank him too.” 

“I’m sure he’ll be glad to see your reaction.” I reach over and give my girlfriend a kiss on her cheek. “But for now, let’s try to sleep, otherwise the console will just kick us out by itself.” 

“Fair point.” Sam smiles and returns my kiss with glee. “I get a ring in our own world as well so I might as well admire it there.” 

“Exactly.” I kiss her again and then lay down on my pillow. “Night night, Sam.” 

“See you on the other side, beautiful.” She takes hold of my hand underneath the blanket and gives me a soft squeeze. It doesn’t take long before I fall asleep with her hand still in mine. 

Back on the other side, in our own world, Sam and I awaken at pretty much the same moment. As I feel her starting to move beside me the moment I gain consciousness myself. I take off the console and put it beside me on the bedside table after which I help Sam do the same with hers, surprising her with the selfsame ring I had just given to her in Haurchefaud as it appears in between my fingers. 

“Hah.” She chuckles. “You’d make a pretty good magician if the mangaka stuff doesn’t work out.” 

“That would feel a bit like cheating, wouldn’t it?” 

“Cheating while you are using actual magic… That sounds quite ironic but it’s probably true considering it’s normally a feat of sleight of hand. But can you imagine all those videos about your acts about people trying to debunk your magic?” 

I start chuckling too as I slide the ring over Sam’s finger. “Yeah, that would be rather funny. But still, I wouldn’t like people calling me a fraud.” 

“Fair enough.” She smiles. “I don’t know why so many people get that upset about magicians though. Bringing joy by making people think ‘how did they do that?’. Making people wonder. But somehow that’s a bad thing.” 

I shrug. “People don’t like to get fooled I guess.” 

We then proceed to get dressed after I help my girlfriend with her leg. 

“Is it okay if you go ahead to prepare some breakfast? I promised I’d do something for Hilda.” I ask my girlfriend. 

“Sure thing.” She smiles.

“I think there should be some eggs in the fridge.” 

“I’ll see what’s around and about.” She gives me a wink and a quick kiss on the cheek afterwards. 

 

While I head to my sister’s bedroom, Nikki walks out of the door. She doesn’t look very happy and I think I already know why. 

“Hey Ami.” 

“Sam’s making breakfast for us. Is my sister awake already?” 

“Oh… good. Yeah she is.” She put her hand on top of my head and gave it a quick rub. “I’ll go and get myself showered. Why don’t you go and say good morning to her?” 

“That was the plan.” I smile. 

She smiles back at me as she walks off towards the bathroom. Leaving me free to enter their bedroom. When I enter I see that Nikki has already opened the curtains, letting some natural light in. My sister is laying on her side, looking towards the window. 

“Are you back already, Nikki?” 

“No, she went to shower.” I reply. 

My sister turns around to face me, slightly surprised. “Oh, hey sis.” 

“Aren’t you going to get out of bed yet?” I walk over to the foot of the bed.  

“No… Not yet at least.” 

I crawl on top of the bed leading to some funny looks on my sister’s face. “Do you want to get into bed with me?” 

“No, I made a promise to a certain someone that I want to keep. But I honestly would have on my own accord to be honest?” 

“Hmm?” 

Before my sister could think about what was gonna happen next, I grabbed hold of her and hugged her tight against me. 

“Ami?” 

“I’ve leaned on you quite a lot recently. So please don’t be afraid to lean on me too.”

I can feel Élise hesitate a bit but in the end she does wrap her arms around me too. It does not take long before her breath starts to shake and she starts softly crying.   

“That was so scary, Ami…. You can’t believe… When I woke up and I heard I had been gone for that long…” 

“Mhmm.” I nod and hug her even tighter which leads to my sister crying even harder. But I don’t break the hug and my sister only starts to hug me even tighter in return. I eventually start to rub her back too to comfort her even more. 

We stay like that for a couple of minutes until it feels like she’s pretty much cried out. 

“Want my handkerchief?” I ask. 

“Mhmm.” My sister breaks the hug and gives me a nod. After I hand over the handkerchief she snorts into it and then wipes her tears away with the sleeve of her shirt. “Thanks Sis, I really needed that.” She tries to offer back my handkerchief but I just sign to her that she might as well keep it. 

“No problem.” I get into a hug again. “But you really should lean on us more and let some of your emotions out from time to time.” 

“I know… Not as easily said as done however.” 

“That’s true.” I smile and rub my hand on her back, just behind her shoulder. That’s when I feel something strange. Not something visible, more like a strange feeling in my hand, radiating from my sister. 

 

“Ami, what’s wrong? I can tell by the look on your face you just sensed something you don’t like.” My sister asks, very quick to pick up on what I just felt. 

“Uh… Don’t panic but I just felt something wrong at your shoulder.” 

Lise looks down at her shoulder she got shot through in Haurchefaud. “Do you mean this one?” She then puts her hand on it. 

“Mhmm.” I nod. 

“I don’t feel anything strange myself. Are you sure?” 

“Unmistakably.” I nod once more. “Could you take off your shirt?” 

“Give me a sec.” 

I give my sister some room so that she can more easily take off the shirt she had been sleeping in. When she does I immediately see what gave me that ominous feeling. A purple scar at the selfsame spot where the bolt had gone through her body. 

“I think we should call Veanya right now.” 

When my sister looks down she turns pale real fast but she manages to keep her composure and gives me a nod. “Yeah… That’s not the worst idea…” She then places her hand on the scar again. “It’s weird, I don’t have a scar like this in Haurchefaud, do I?” 

“No, I healed it away.” I say as I get off her bed to go and grab my phone. “Just sit tight, I will be right back, okay?” 

“I’m not running off, Sis, don’t worry.” 

I jog out of the room and into my own, when I return back to the hallway to go to my sister once more, I almost run into Sam. 

“Is everything alright?” She asks. “I heard you running.” 

“Lise got a purple scar, presumably from the bolt she got hit by. I’m going to call Veanya right away.” 

“Alright, then I’ll hold off on the eggs for now. Otherwise they are going to be cold.” 

“Thanks.” I give my girlfriend a quick kiss on the cheek and then I continue towards my sister’s bedroom. When I enter, my sister is still prodding her purple scar. “Maybe you shouldn’t be doing that… Just to be sure.” 

“Right.” She forces her hand away and to her side while she waits for me to start my phone call. 

 

I quickly go into my contacts and dial Veanya’s number, it takes a couple of rings before I can hear someone on the other side pick up the phone. 

“Amicia? Are you calling for your friend’s ‘transformation’?” 

“Hey Veanya, no, sadly I’m calling for something else… It’s a bit of a situation.” 

“Oh…” I hear her back off from the phone and hear some muffled speaking in the background but I can’t really understand anything. “Uh. Is it very urgent?” 

“It’s bad but not super urgent I think. Is today not going to work?” When I say that I see my sister panic a little. 

“It is, but only in an hour or so. I’m currently in a meeting with someone.”

I direct myself towards my sister. “Do you think you can hold out for an hour?”  

“Yeah… That will do, it doesn’t hurt anyway.” She noticeably calms down now that she’s heard its not going to take days for Veanya to get here. 

“Okay. Then we will wait for you to show up.” 

“I’ll try to wrap this up as fast as possible.” Veanya shuts off the line herself. 

“Won’t you get into trouble with school, Sis? If you stay here?”

“No, just one theory lesson today.” I shake my head. “Besides, family is more important than a couple of lessons.”