“Are you sure? I can ask Hilda to get the day off, she’ll understand.” I was waiting outside of my sister’s room while Nikki was talking with her. After her shower she had come back and she was quite panicky once we told her what we had found. Understandable of course. 

“I’m 100% sure, Nikki. I have Ami here to look after me and Veanya is coming over as well.” 

“But still…” 

“Nikki… I will be fine and otherwise your project will be set back considerably and I know how much it means to you.” 

“Ugh.” 

“It’s going to be okay.” 

“If Ami calls me I’m going to rush back home, understand?” 

“Yeah. I know.”

“Love you.” 

“Love you too.” 

A couple of moments later Nikki walks out of the room and closes the door behind her. “Ami, please take good care of her, and do call me if you know something, okay?” 

“I will.” I nod. 

Sam, who was now standing next to me as she also wanted to know what the entire situation was about, nods as well. “I know the feeling of something being wrong with your partner and having to leave. It’s not fun.” 

“You can say that again.” Nikki rolls her eyes. “Are you heading to uni, Sam?” 

“Yeah, it’s not like I can do anything to help anyway.” Sam shrugs. “I have a preparatory physical test today that I can’t really miss and I trust Ami and Veanya to get things done.” 

“Fair enough.” She smiles. “Well, if you want to, I can drive you to your campus, I need to head in that direction anyway to go and get some components for my project.” 

“I am not going to say no to that.” Sam smiles back and then looks at me to give me a kiss. “But first, let’s go and eat some breakfast.” 

“Yeah, might not be a bad idea. I’m starting to get a little bit hungry.” 

 

My sister joins us as well for a filling breakfast, after which Nikki and Sam leave the apartment together. We then take a shower and await the arrival of Veanya in the living room. 

“She said she was going to be here in an hour, right?” My sister asks, looking at the digital clock on the wall. 

“Yeah. She should be here soon.” 

“Hmmm. I wonder why she doesn’t use her time spell she used on you back when you encountered dad.” 

“Huh…” I scratch my cheek. “I actually didn’t think about that. Maybe she is using it? Or maybe she can only use it intermittently or something like that?” 

Élise shrugs. “Who was she in a meeting with anyway.” 

I shake my head. “I don’t know, she didn’t tell. Maybe some other God. We can always ask her when she gets here.”

“Mhmm.” My sister mumbles while she occupies herself with her phone. 

 

The hour of waiting turns into two hours as I notice my sister getting increasingly impatient, tapping her foot on the floor while she’s sitting on the sofa. “She’s late.” 

“Yeah, I know…” 

“Could you call her again? Maybe she has forgotten.” 

“I don’t think she has, it’s probably best to just wait it out. If I call her we might just delay her even longer.” 

“Hmmm.” My sister groans discontentedly. I understand the sentiment as this is not something you want to have to wait on to get resolved. But sadly there is really nothing we can do but wait. 

After about two hours and a half, I finally sense a surge of aether spring up behind me as a portal of white light opens up with Veanya stepping through shortly after. 

“I’m so sorry.” She immediately starts apologizing once she makes eye contact with both my sister and I. “The meeting I talked about ran out quite a bit.”

“At least you are here now.” My sister sighs and gets up from her seat. “Could we quickly get started?” 

“Well…” 

My sister immediately sighs again but Veanya swiftly gesticulates for my sister to calm down again. 

“It’s not to delay this any further, but I did bring another set of eyes with me because it sounded rather serious.” 

I look behind Veanya, but the portal she opened has already closed up again and I don’t really feel an invisible presence behind her. “Uh?” 

“Ah, I let him wait outside the door as I remembered you aren’t very keen on uninvited visitors.”  

“Him? So it’s not Gamma?” 

“No, Gamma is otherwise occupied at the moment. It’s another one of our close circle who also is pretty aware of your newfound divinity.” 

“I see.” I nod and then look at my sister. “Is it okay if we invite him in?” 

She shrugs. “Sure, it’s not like I really am in a position to be picky about who looks at this. As long as we get to know something more.” 

I nod. “Alright.” And then look back at Veanya. “Is he standing in front of the front door?” 

She nods back. “He is.” 

“Alright… Then I’ll let him in I suppose.” I walk over to the front door and open it. What I find surprises me to say the least. While I’m not the tallest person around, I was definitely not expecting to be staring directly at a set of very muscular abs. “Uhhh….” 

“Good morning.” A very low voice talks to me. “My name is Sidolphus, I am an associate of Veanya. The tall, dark-skinned man bows down considerably to give me a hand. 

“H-hello, I-I am Amicia.” I reach my hand out as well but his hand literally dwarfs mine. When he shakes my hand however, he does so with the softest touch I’ve ever encountered. He is clearly paying a lot of mind not to hurt me, just as if I’m a delicate flower. 

Now that I’m a little bit over the shock of seeing the enormous man in front of me, I notice the kind look he is giving me with his beautiful sky blue eyes. Together with the white-bearded smile he is giving me.    

 

“Holy!” My sister calls out once Sidolphus steps inside of the apartment, which suddenly looks a lot smaller than it is. “I hope nobody saw you standing outside.” 

“I made myself invisible to the other humans, you need not worry.” He smiles. “Nice to meet you as well.” 

“Uh, likewise.” My sister walks over to give the big man a hand. It’s rather funny that even she gets dwarfed by him. “My name is Élise.” 

“Sidolphus is known to his worshippers as a God of strength and good wellbeing.” Veanya introduces him. 

“I can see that.” My sister nods. “Are the people who worship you about the same size as us?” 

“They are a bit taller than the humans on Earth. But not by too much.” He explains. “It’s a world where manual labor is still very prevalent.” 

“It is rather lovely though. Incredibly clean cities.” Veanya comments. “It’s very similar to how Greek cities looked in your history.” 

“Oh.” My sister nods once more. “Sounds lovely.” 

Sidolphus just smiles in return. 

“So, what exactly was the issue you called me about? Is something leaking out of Haurchefaud again?” Veanya gets to the point. 

“It’s a bit of a situation…” I start, after which I explain what had transpired during our time on the other side of our FDVR goggles. During my explanation I also take out the bolt that had pierced my sister’s shoulder and my sister shows them the purple scar we discovered earlier. 

“Most intriguing.” Sidolphus comments, laying his chin in his hand while he stares at my sister’s torso. “Ah… Sorry if this makes you uncomfortable.” He quickly pulls back. 

“It’s fine, you show a doctor your wounds too after all.” My sister replies with a smile. “But do you have an idea how this could happen?” 

Sidolphus stands back and crosses his arms, thinking for a moment. In the meantime Veanya is standing on the other side of the table with the bolt hovering a couple of centimeters above her hands while she is examining it as well. “From what Veanya and Gamma told me, you too have been experiencing some alterations here on Earth since your visits in Haurchefaud?” 

“Yes, but not to the extent Amicia has of course. We have seen some… skills… develop that we didn’t use to have. Like wielding a sword for example, and Ami’s girlfriend can basically calculate trajectories really fast.”

Sid nods calmly and slowly at my sister’s explanation. “Okay, that’s good news. I would be more concerned if you also transferred more physical properties. It means your bodies aren’t really bound to the other world as much as Amicia is. Of course, take this with a grain of salt, I’m only theorizing. We haven’t figured it out completely yet.” 

“If it’s not physical, then why do I have the scar?” 

“I think that’s mostly superficial.” He walks up closer to my sister again and reaches out his hand before stopping. “Can I touch you?” 

“Go ahead.” My sister agrees with yet another nod. 

Sidolphus then just uses his large index finger to gently rub over my sister’s shoulder. “The scar is completely smooth. It’s not like it has texture or anything like that. Which makes me think that this is only a remnant of the magic that hit you that is, for the moment, bound to your soul.” 

“Ah….” My sister responds and then stays silent for a couple of seconds. “But that’s still pretty bad isn’t it… We are who we are because of our souls, no? Something affecting that doesn’t sound very good.” 

-That doesn’t sound great indeed….-