---

Elinor drew inside herself, closing her eyes to her internal world as Heather occupied Nungal.  Her father spoke with Lilya about her opinion on the current situation.  He’d let her know when they reached their destination.

Sitting on her comfortable throne, facing the blue-flamed hearth of her mansion, she let her troubled emotions simmer in her private world.  Her typical music hummed in the background, improving her mood.

However, it wasn’t so private anymore since not a few minutes into her reverie, the smiling, violet-haired goddess spontaneously appeared beside her, situated on her own extravagant chair.

“Soul for your thoughts?”  she brightly asked, looking toward the window as the pattering rain increased with the dull rumble of thunder.  “I love the aesthetic you’re going for.  It’s so… you.”

She didn’t immediately respond, emerald eyes drifting to her sister’s darkened side of the room; her connection to Butter felt so distant.  There were a lot of things on her mind that she’d come to learn inside this Legend Quest, and Nungal had all the answers.  Hidden behind the goddess’ cosmic irises and playful mannerisms was a pit viper, and she could feel it like a snake’s kiss on the nape of her neck, waiting to bite.

Fingers folding over her crossed legs, Elinor’s cautious gaze fell on the mysterious woman infiltrating her soul, despite everything Tiffany had done to stop Shade from doing the same thing.  Nungal was on a whole different level than anything she’d met until now, and the most troublesome part was that this wasn’t their first meeting.

“…You didn’t come here only for a shopping trip.  Butter and I knew you in our previous life.  I don’t suppose you will tell me whose side were you on?”

The young woman’s cheerful face became secretive as ages of wisdom and knowledge creased her dazzling eyes.  “Would you believe me if I told you neither?  If we invite your father and Tiffany to join us, then I don’t mind giving you a little teaser into your previous life.  It would be good to understand the conflation that is happening within your soul that has caused such a dramatic divergence from the child they knew.”

Elinor’s fingers tightened against each other, her heart picking up its pace as Nungal studied her in ways she couldn’t comprehend.  “And you’ll tell me all of this for free?  I don’t buy it.”

“Did I say it was free?”  Nungal slyly challenged, lifting her slim fingers to snap them and direct her attention to two more chairs that materialized beside the fireplace.  “I stated stipulations, did I not?”

Not looking away, she tried to relax, but it wasn’t easy to deal with someone who could see the future and knew more about her than she knew herself.  “I have no reason to believe you are lying to me, nor do I believe it would do me any good to discount anything you say thus far.  I will accept whatever it is you wish to enlighten me on.  Although, I would appreciate the answer as to why you chose me and this time to intervene in this manner.”

“Wonderful…  Tiffany, Edmon, you are welcomed to join, and I will inform Your Empress when we have arrived.  You needn’t worry about Heather; I am entertaining her, hehe, or she is entertaining me with her cute and awkward responses.  She has no idea how to act around people she believes she doesn’t outrank.”

“A product of her environment, no doubt,” Tiffany sighed, materializing in her orange-themed throne as Edmon took the blue chair beside her.  “Empress, I must express that Nungal has been an absolute treat!”

Her father’s gruff voice broke into the bright atmosphere.  “Can we skip the pleasantries?  Why are we here, Nungal?  It feels like you’re abusing your power as a goddess to play with mortal lives.  Grace’s people worshiped you, yet they are all but extinct now.  That is not a comforting track record for the only people who worship you on this planet to be genocided.”

“Such harsh words,” Nungal pouted, leaning her cheek against her fist and tilting her head to study her tall, Venezuelan father.  “It may be useful information to learn that most of the Quiltra were slaughtered by the Jesena Kingdom, but there are scattered pockets that survived—admittedly, mostly female—and many of which are enslaved.”

Her galaxy-like eyes shifted to the fireplace.  “If Grace were to go on the path of vengeance, then he certainly would have caused quite some damage with my support, but it would have been fruitless in the end…  No, I told him to wait and look at who raised precisely the woman who could do what he could not with his swords.”

Elinor’s arms prickled.  “Lilya…  You want Lilya to find and purchase the rest of the Quiltra survivors from across the various kingdoms that have them as slaves?  I thought they were a willful race that refused slavery.”

“Most of them, yes,” Nungal confirmed, “but the younger generation, such as Grace, were more adaptable than their parents.  I have told them in their dreams that there would be a time when freedom would come at the hands of a Trade Queen from the east, who would free them to join their new chief.”

Tiffany giggled.  “Grace!  The chief you’ve been raising up for this very purpose.  What is your expertise on… crossbreeding?”  she carefully said, rubbing her chin.  “Is it possible for humans and Quiltra to intermingle?  How much of their unique physical traits would carry over?”

The goddess’ lips curled.  “Quiltra spirits and blood are stronger than human; either sex would produce near-perfect offspring with… minor physical changes, be that eye color or size.  They are by no means monogamous.  However, there are certain customs revolving around allowing a new woman into the family that the current wives must accept.  That is all that needs to be said about that subject.  I’ll let you instruct Lilya on that quest, Edmon.”

Her focus moved back to Elinor, and she lifted her free hand to create an image of what she must have looked like in her previous life.  Elinor sat straighter as she studied the white-haired, elf-like woman who materialized.  Gold-eyed and with midnight blue skin, Elinor had one name that came to her mind from a game some of her friends played.

“I… was a dark elf?”

“Night elf,” Nungal corrected, rising to her feet to circle the image as she absently waved her hand to move their chairs back a little.  “But close enough.  Allow me to introduce Irkalla—my touch, of course, after our first interaction.  After all, it was you who always sought me out,” she whispered, hands held behind her back as she stopped in front of the woman to stare into her dangerous, gleaming eyes.

“You’re so pretty!”  Tiffany chimed, jumping up to take a closer look at the tight cloth and leather outfit she wore.  “I see you favored the spear in this life, as well, since you tend to like pole-based weapons from what I’ve seen so far.  This hair is ridiculously thick, as well!  I can see why you’d always wear it in braids.”

“Our first meeting in this particular life was not when you were so noble looking as this picture of power and dominance you see here…  A conqueror of billions with hundreds of millions dead at your feet, including your own sister, which is… quite the tale.  You were not a world destroyer when I first met Irkalla and gave her that name.

“No, you were but a ragged, malnourished child of five, who had killed her ‘perceived’ mother in her attempts to pawn her off to the sex trade while her royal twin sister lived in luxury, high above in the Forbidden City, only accessible to the nobility.”

Nungal spun the scene to contrast Butter and her upbringing, from their birth to their fifth birthday in their previous world.  Their mother was an alluring night elf captive from the devastated underworld kingdom, and their father, the emperor of the powerful dawn elf empire that had crushed them.  Her sister was born golden-haired and bronze-skinned, and she, the ugly bluish tone of her mother’s heritage.

“So glorious was your dear little sister that she was put in line with the legitimate children, and she killed every one of her older siblings to obtain the throne.  Meanwhile, you were smuggled out by a disgraced lady to the empress, attempting to use you as insurance and the scandal that it could bring… which didn’t last long due to her reputation.”

She swept the tale away, moving upward to her fifth birthday, where her foster mother abused and used her to steal and collect clients for her room since she’d sold her body in the Moonlit District, where the night elves were shunned.

Nungal chuckled, focus shifting to her father as he looked at the scene with disgust.   “Naturally, being a dawn elf in a predominantly night elf industry was humiliating for your mother, and she took every opportunity to take it out on you.  It is here that you learned the brutality of the world—it is where you learned about me, the goddess worshiped by both night and dawn elves alike…  And you hated me.” 

Snapping her fingers, the environment turned to smoke, replaced by her cold face, which looked strange on a child.  She sat next to the lady who had raised her, a bloody spoon in her jugular, filed down to a knife with three other men in the room.

“Oh, my!”  Tiffany whispered, stepping back to examine her handiwork.  “A tad crude on some of the vital points… but for a five-year-old to kill three grown men and a woman?  How?”

Her father refused to rise, tight-lipped and goosebumps running down his arms as he tried to cope with learning about her previous life.  This was an entirely new version of her, and without a doubt, when this Greater Seed entered her body, she’d awakened pieces of it within her soul.  Elinor could feel it in her chest; this was no false recount.  In fact, it was painfully accurate.

Nungal’s smile grew as she knelt down beside Elinor’s 5-year-old previous life, finger pulling back her messy white locks to show her red nose and teary eyes, not yet the golden hue she’d seen in her future self.

“Irkalla didn’t have a name at this point.  Typically, night elves obtain their name as a part of a sacred right after they gain maturity… and their changed eye color tells a lot about their genes once they mature.  She didn’t trust her mother at this point, and had heard the talk about her being a liar regarding her origins…

“Irkalla wasn’t crying due to murdering four adults…  No, she’d watched the adults around her very closely.  She’d witnessed murders as a way to obtain what you wanted since she could see and think.  No, she was methodical… cold, not numb.

“Knowing what her mother was encouraging to be done to her, she played along, hiding in the room with her hidden weapon.  Only by surprise would she win this conflict, and she planned it well, having studied the craft of murder from the adults who abused her.

“How to fashion makeshift weapons, poisons, and all manner of murder by this tender age; death was all she knew, drawing her closer and closer to me.  It was practically in tandem with the lessons of walking or talking to you, Elinor.  You would not cry over murder.  You’ve felt that same pulse in your chest when you first took those lives in that abandoned jungle home.”

Elinor leaned against her fist, diverting her gaze from her father, as she watched herself hiccup and shake amidst the carnage.  At this point, she hadn’t eaten in over two weeks.

“No,” Nungal continued, “Irkalla was crying because she knew that after this, she wouldn’t have a roof over her head, no one to talk to, and she would only be hunted like a dog for its meat.  A child with her skillset was valuable to some and a threat to most.  This would be the last time she cried… until her final moments on this planet.”

Vanishing to appear in her chair again, Nungal gave her a teasing smirk.  “And that is when she called upon my name to tell me that she would not ask for one thing from me.  No, she would become the steel that shattered all that came for her, and she would do it by her own power.  Now… that is someone worth keeping an eye on, no?”

Her dad’s voice was low as he looked between the blood-soaked child and her.  “So… that Greater Seed you told me about is causing your previous lives to bleed into each other?  There were more besides this one?”

Nungal’s frame shook as the tension grew, her intense lilac eyes burning into Elinor’s with her flashing, perfect teeth.  “Oh, many, many more… locked in conflict with your golden little sister through time.  This is the first time that you have ever joined forces, which is very, very interesting, considering how capable you both are…  This is the first time you’ve had a good childhood, Elinor.  That, Edmon, is something to be proud of.”

The pressure broke as her bright expression returned, and the scene vanished with the rattling of chains in the background as if pulling them away.  “How was that for a teaser?  By the way, in this material plane, Irkalla was by far the most powerful you’ve been… killing gods and goddesses alike in your previous world.  Well,” she tilted her head as if almost an afterthought, “your sister did rise to the level of a goddess, so that goes without saying.”

Tiffany clapped, the Witch Queen bouncing with joy.  “I knew The Empress was something special!  We are so blessed.  Edmon, you must be honored to have such a legend as a daughter!”

Her father worked around his jaw, not looking so awed at the revelation.  “I don’t care about who my daughter was in the past.  I only care about protecting who she is in the present and maintaining our family.  I am worried about how you will see this, though, Elinor.”

Elinor tapped her foot to the background strum of the orchestra, her mind on one particular detail that had been left out of this tale.  Her sharp, jade-green eyes fixated on the cheery, lilac-haired woman, and her stomach twisted in a knot as the answer became all too clear.

“Has my sister ever killed me?”

A wicked smile split the pretty girl’s face as she slowly shook her head.  “Not once.”

Tiffany and her father quickly understood her question, their eyes widening as they looked at the mysterious and intimidating goddess of chains.  Elinor spoke her conclusion before they could voice it.

“You kill me in the end…  In every life, my end is by your hand.”

Fingers folding in her lap, Nungal’s cosmic eyes twinkled.  “I will say, just because you can kill a god does not mean you are invincible, sweetie.  We are so very much alike that it might scare you if you knew the truth… but there are levels so far above gods and deities that you cannot possibly fathom the top of that pyramid…  At least, not as you are now,” she teased, laughling playfully.  The sound blending maliciousness and mirth.

Elinor’s throat went dry under the devious goddess’ infinite-like stare, her eyes a gaping abyss that could suck in universes without end.  And in the dense atmosphere that followed, Nungal unfolded her legs and smoothly got to her feet.

“Well, I think that is enough for now.”  Lifting her fingers, lips twisting, the sharp snap of her fingers jolted Elinor out of her own inner world.  “We’ve arrived.”

She gave a start as knocking came from beside her head, and she blinked rapidly to adjust to the bright inner cabin, Nungal showing a devious smile from beside Heather, who looked far more comfortable now with the goddess.

Lieutenant Cole cleared his throat.  “Empress, we’ve arrived at our destination.  It is nearing the time when the Magic Knights will be taking over the guard detail.  I have sent word to them informing the platoon lieutenant of your location.”

“Good,” Elinor said, retaining her poise as she leveled a stare at the innocent-looking goddess; her father seemed somewhat shaken by the sudden shift, as well.  “Shall we?”

“Most definitely!”  Nungal chimed, bumping hips with Heather.  “We have gotten to know each other quite well, Elinor.  Did you know Heather can sing?”

“Didn’t… she hear?”  Heather asked, red eyebrows pulling together and cheeks coloring a bit.  “My mom doesn’t think I’m very good, but I try to practice with the Royal Choir when I can—I know I’m not that good.  Aura is way better than me, and everyone knows how lovely her voice is.”

The goddess snickered as the door opened and gave Elinor a wink while exiting with the redhead.  “Oh, you would be stunned to learn how absent-minded the Raven Empress can be when she gets inside her own head.  Also, I’m sure everyone heard how lovely Aura’s voice was in the competition when tied up, practically naked, to our good Lord Drake.”

Her comment got a few lifted-eyebrow looks and chuckles from the guards, no doubt recalling the very publicized and hologram-projected event.

Heather’s face turned scarlet, almost tripping to fall on her face had a guard not jumped forward to support her.  “G-Goddess, you can’t say something l-like that!”

“Oh?  I typically say whatever I want,” she chortled, covering her mouth as her chest shook with mirth.  “And I’m sure her lovely screams were quite enjoyed by the masses.  It isn’t every day you get to hear a future High Lady scream like that, no?”

“High Lady…  No, no, Goddess,” Heather hurriedly tried to explain.  “Aura isn’t the High Lady; her mother, High Lady Trisha, is the next in line for the title of Head of House.”

Nungal put a finger to her chin, giving Elinor a thoughtful stare as she exited with her father.  “Is that right?  I must be looking at the wrong year.  Has she butchered her hair yet?”

“N-No?”

“Huh.  Well, I suppose we still have some time then,” she giggled, purposefully confusing the redhead, no doubt for the fun of it.  “Shall we go inside this record store?  There is one crystal record I think will make your mind pop, Heather!  It has to do with what was going on in the background when recorded; they didn’t even check it before pawning it off,” she winked, making the princess gulp at the lewd implication her devious smile gave off.

“I… don’t know if I should listen to it.”

“Oh, don’t be a Priss,” she said with a sideways smirk at Elinor, Butter’s nickname for her making her chest tighten.  “You can’t let your new sister-in-law get ahead of you!”

“My what?!”

“Too soon!  Too soon!”  the goddess sang, ushering the bewildered teen into the establishment, laughter abounding.  “So much fun and drama in the future!  Betrayals, heartache, the cheating… the murders!  So much fun!”

Her father’s white knuckles were held at his back, slowly following beside her as they tailed the goddess.  “Is there anything that Greater Seed can do to give you an edge against this goddess?  Because I don’t see any way that I can protect you from her.  It sounds like she’s been pitting you against Butter for eternity, and when she’s had her fun, she kills you.”

Elinor shook her head, her mind a web of theory and drawn connections.  Not necessarily…  She is making it seem that way without explicitly telling me anything to allow us to draw our own conclusions.  At least I know now why I’ve changed so much since becoming a Lich Empress.  This conflict goes way before Mom and you, Dad… but that doesn’t change how I feel about our family.  I will get Mom back… for both of us.

She felt the shiver that passed through her dad’s frame as it traveled along the Nexus.  Nungal was having fun, and maybe she was more friendly than an enemy, or maybe she was just that, a viper coiling around her neck, waiting to taste fear.  She’d brought one of her most devout followers into her empire to keep close proximity, and that was by design.

Nungal had actually told her quite a lot about herself and something about their relationship.  It said quite a bit that she’d maneuvered an entire race, like the Quiltra, in order to bring them into her empire.  She was who Shade aspired to be, and that was terrifying.

Elinor slowed as Nungal paused at the open front doors, and it felt like chains locked around her heart as her cosmic eyes met her.  The purple-haired woman gave her a smiling wave before entering with Heather and shattering the sensation.

She’d be choking if she had to breathe, which, luckily, she did not in this artificial body, and the hair on the back of her neck stood up as the System Notification prodded her brain.

 

[Level Up - Level 21]

[1 Stat Point Added; 1 Available]

 

[Level Up - Level 22]

[1 Stat Point Added; 2 Available]

[1 Feat Extension Added; 1 Available]

[1 Equipable Feat Choice Added; 1 Available]

 

Nungal’s words tickled her mind in the flash of a second, trapping the air in her lungs.  “Another free tip because I’m feeling generous: Over the course of the week, you will be spontaneously gaining levels rather than all at once, which can cause stress on the soul.  I’ve worked it out with the Arbiter of this Legend Quest.  No need to thank me; I am having plenty of fun as it is!  I might even offer another tip if you play your cards right with our dear High Lady Karia.  She’s spotted you!”

Elinor ingested all of that in the span of a blink, cursing at how disruptive Nungal was, and she was doing it on purpose.  Still, she was gaining precious information from her playful jabs.

She only just managed to regain her senses when the tall, motherly, redheaded matriarch of the Tarkov Family gracefully exited the shop with a smile.  The woman hardly used makeup, yet was a picture of beauty for being in her very early forties.

“Empress!  I was hoping to catch you around the Noble District today,” she honestly proclaimed, her voice buttery sweet and quite forward compared to the other nobility she’d interacted with.  “I understand you went to the House of Ravens this morning.  Can I get your opinion on a few things, if possible?  Is something the matter?”

“No, and I appreciate your candid inquiry.”  Elinor smiled and motioned for them to enter the shop together, the matriarch’s many attendants carrying bags and waiting for instruction.  “I just had a surprise visit from a very old and respected friend, Goddess Nungal.  She can keep me on my toes and can be quite… vexing at times, but other than that, I am doing wonderfully.  Princess Heather is distracting her.  You wanted to speak about your daughters?”

“I did!”  Karia chimed.  “Idalia may not look it, but she is the nervous type when given authority and can doubt herself.  Luckily, having Alix as a buffer gives her some fire in her belly to shove her prowess in his face!  They have a history,” she chuckled.  “Mmm.  I am concerned about Anala, though.  Her attitude last night was… uncharacteristic, we could say.”

Falling into lockstep with her as her father took up the rear, Elinor did a side-sweep of her appearance on their way inside.  The woman plucked at her rather modest blue dress for the typical skin-showing nobility of this kingdom.

“I’m sure she is a tad temperamental.  In fact, I heard your interest in seeing me and made an effort to come here personally.  I believe it might be best for you to go support Anala at this very moment.”

“Oh?”  The blue-eyed woman glanced down at her, nearly half a head taller.  “Anala is not one to feel uncomfortable in new places.  It would be quite embarrassing and an overstep in boundaries for me to enter a House to check on my daughter.  It would be seen as me not trusting you to handle their accommodations.”

Elinor’s mouth drew in as she pivoted toward the clerk, who appeared quite nervous about having such prominent figures inside his establishment, which was starting to draw a crowd of gossip from those outside and inside.

“Do you have a quill, ink, and paper that I can write with?”

“Uhh.  Yes, Empress, uh… right here!”

Karia gave her a questioning look as she accepted the items and promptly took them into the private back room, the owner not daring to stop them.

“Everyone else wait outside,” she instructed, her father standing in the way to provide them privacy as Nungal gave them a half-smile from her corner with Heather.  “I will be speaking privately with High Lady Karia.”

Entering the back, where a table and supplies for labeling were situated, she cleared off an area.  Karia’s cheer had fallen into a severe frown as she made an absent gesture that sent a gust of wind to sweep the blinds shut, and a snap of her finger instantly lit every candle in the room, showing how skilled and powerful a Tempest Duchess was.

She dipped the quill into the ink and began writing in the language that had been given to her the moment she stepped through Roman’s gateway: Anala needs you.  It is serious.

Elinor’s gut cramped as wisps of alabaster flames rolled down Karia’s thick locks, and the scent of burning fabric lifted up her nose; beside her was a colossal tigress who was easing out her claws.  One wrong move and her instincts told her she would be vaporized into atoms.

The heat skyrocketed in the room, and the candles rapidly melted into puddles of wax as she took the accepted quill.  Her flames quenched slightly as she wrote: I am not one to handle threats well, if that is what this is, Empress.  What plots do you have involving my children?

This was the kind of woman who would burn the world for her children, and that realization made Einor hesitate for a second.  Depending on how she viewed Drake, then this could actually start a war, and Nungal’s promise of a reward lodged her tongue in her throat.

Karia is the exact opposite of Alivau.  Her children are her life, and she would go to bat against her husband for them.

Buying time to calm her thumping undead heart by meeting the woman’s hot gaze, Elinor held out her hand for the quill and wrote:

If I wanted to threaten you, it would not be in this way.  Your youngest daughter likes Drake.  Anala feels like Drake spurned her when he chose the House of Tempest.  He didn’t.  He hates his oldest brother.  Anala leaves her ring at home.  To prove his own feelings, Drake kissed Anala—twice—and asked for her ring to take responsibility.  Your daughter

She didn’t get the rest of the message out as the woman spun on her heels, blasted open the window—sending glass everywhere—and became a superheated streak that left a sonic boom shaking the establishment.

Blinking, Elinor reformed her Artificial Body to fix the ringing in her ears and jitters running through her bones as she stared at the incinerated glass and blackened outline over the now totally open window that might as well be a hole in the wall.

“Elinor?!”

I’m fine, Dad.  She turned to see the letter they’d been writing on a pile of ashes that had been blown across the room.  Fully mature Tempest are… something else.  Castria will be a terror when she comes into her potential on her thirtieth—

Her Monarch of Storms practically screamed in fright through the Nexus moments later, cutting her thoughts off.  “Aaaah!  Empress, High Lady Karia j-just blew open our window?!  She’s practically naked—she’s covered in white flames—now she’s tackling Anala?!  What should I do?!”

Relax.  Just be supportive and give her whatever she needs.  She’ll get everything sorted out discreetly.  She’s on her daughter’s side.

“Okay…  I’m still freaking out here!  I’m not used to this kind of thing, Empress.  Karia is terrifying—I died fighting…  Yeah, I just don’t do well with surprises like this.  I almost had a panic attack!”

Lilya’s soothing, deep voice entered the conversation.  “I’ll be there shortly, Castria.  Just breathe with me.  I’ll handle things here, Empress.”

Elinor left the whirlwind to her Monarch of Alchemy; no doubt the Tempest on guard around the castle would be calling all sorts of alarms after such a shocking display of raw power.  Her thoughts were pulled back to Nungal as she giggled privately to her soul.

“I’d give that a B-, Elinor.  Still, a passing grade, so I suppose I should reward you with something.”

Like?  she asked, moving back toward the front, where people were still recovering from the sonic boom, wondering what had happened; her dad was calming things down.  Why not something dealing with the outside rather than inside this world?

“I can accommodate that,” she mused, stopping in front of her with a vicious grin; a raddled Heather was hiding behind her.  “Butter will be getting her body just before you leave this world.”

Elinor’s fingers tightened against each other at her back.  The Susime Clan took my corpse?!

Nungal’s devious cosmic eyes creased as she slowly shook her head.  “The Prume, and their warning to you was not what it seemed.  In fact, it had nothing to do with you, and everything to do with Butter.”

She blinked as the whole world turned black and white, the chatter and movement of the Tempest around them freezing; time had stopped, and Nungal made a gesture to the side as everything melted into a swirl of colors to be replaced by her Inner World.

“What… are you doing, Nungal?”

“What I promised,” she chuckled.  “All you said was that the topic couldn’t be this world.  Hmm.”  She did a slow circle as the music in the background she always had playing hit a crescendo.  “Do you realize that this ‘Inner World’ you so enjoy is actually called a Soul Expanse?”

“And… what good does knowing what it is do for me?”  Elinor challenged, turning to stare at the image of the hag the goddess created.  Maybe it was actually Autumn, frozen in time for all she knew.  “Why are you showing me this now?”

Nungal gave her an incredulous look, tilting her head to the side as if to say she should be quicker on the uptake than this.  “Because… it relates to you reaching Level 25 by the end of the week.  Or, more importantly, Butter will break you into that bracket after all the work you’ve put in here… and that Soul Expanse can be expanded.”

“Go on,” she whispered, but the goddess was already pointing her toward the hag.

“Why do you think our dangerous lady here can so easily break into your Nexus or grasp so many higher-dimensional phenomena?  It is because she understands the importance of Soul Expansion; the ability to take one’s Inner World—your inner soul—and project it into reality, significantly increasing your ability to utilize your unique gifts within your Soul Domain Expansion.”

Brushing her violet locks to the side, she giggled and swiped away the hag’s image, time gradually picking up its normal tempo.  “Level 25, darling, is when your Inner Soul has reached the point of ‘Soul Expansion.’   Try not to fall behind your sweet sister…  She can be quite the war terror when she gets conquest on her mind.  You might need to intervene.  Now, let’s go shopping!”

---