Five years later…

Roumazi

“You need to stop selling this drivel,” a man spat, holding one of Sarah’s books as if it reeked.

“We can sell what we want,” Roumazi replied.

Why are there always idiots?

“That’s a terrible way of doing business,” he retorted, slamming the book down on the counter.

“That’ll be 16 faohrs for your purchase.”

“What, you expect me to buy it?” he demanded incredulously.

“Since you went so far as to damage it, then yes. You just bought it.”

“Hah! No way I would buy this garbage! I’m never coming here again, either!”

Roumazi held him in place with her water. “That’ll be 16 faohrs for your purchase,” she repeated.

“You can’t keep me here!”

“I am perfectly within my rights to do so. And I will do so. Pay what you owe and get out. Or I can call the guards. Your choice.”

There were a couple other customers in the store, but they mostly just ignored the belligerent man. Seeing that he wasn’t getting any help from anyone, he slammed the money on the counter and stormed away, leaving the book behind.

“Keep to your promise of never coming back!” she called after him, getting a rude gesture in response.

Roumazi went back to her project of laying out mana-conductive patterns to be applied to products later.

“Travelers, eh?” the next customer called.

“Travelers,” she agreed. The man was clearly someone who had come to Efrinteu to see the tournament last month, and still hadn’t left.

In the seven years that they had been in business now, Sarah’s books had started to get some attention. Most of it was negative, however. After having entered two tournaments, Sarah’s books had now been purchased several times, though not in significant quantities.

Reviews complained about how boring and pointless they were, and that nobody wanted to read something so mundane. But complaining about her books was actually working against them, because now people would sometimes buy a copy just to see what was so bad about it. Not every review was bad, though, and some people had even come back for another story.

Still, it’s progress. And Sarah was prepared to deal with backlash anyway.

But the biggest problem was the people who would come in just to harass them. They were easily dealt with, however. Nearly everyone who bothered to cause trouble wasn’t even from the city, anyway. The people who actually lived here didn’t want to be known as someone who harassed small stores.

The books weren’t the only things gaining some attention, as other people wanted to stand out more with their equipment as well. Sales of their more artful items were still much lower in comparison to the rest, but they were gradually picking up.

While she worked on her enchanting project, Roumazi’s other body was convening with the other gods. The seven of them had been dealing with unusual mana fluctuations for nearly a decade now, and they were finally able to confirm that powerful monsters were disappearing as well.

They had determined the cause to be the aftermath of the incident that had brought Roumazi’s family to this world in the first place. As she discussed with her siblings, they came to the conclusion of how to stop it and came up with a few methods, but one particular method would be the fastest by far. They offered the job to Roumazi.

She sighed, thinking of her family. This is going to be a difficult conversation.

When they closed the store for the day, the goddess sat at the dining table with everyone. Steeling herself, she spoke, “Everyone… A way to Earth has opened up.”

“What? You mean… You’re saying we can go back?” Sarah asked.

She nodded. “The aftermath of the Empire’s experiment has been causing problems since the day it happened. They opened a rift between the two worlds, but we completely sealed it off nine years ago.

“However, it was only sealed off on this side. It essentially created a mana vacuum on Earth, where mana from this world is being pulled into that one. Places with high concentrations of ambient mana in this world are getting hit the hardest, and the monsters that live in those locations end up being pulled through.

“We didn’t fully realize what was going on until recently. I promise I wasn’t hiding this from you or anything.”

“So what’s going to be done about it?” Michelle asked.

“One of us gods has to go to Earth and seal it off from that side as well, then return to this world, closing the barrier entirely on our way back. That will solve the problem for good.

“My siblings offered the task to me because of my connection with all of you.”

“Oh…” she sighed and shook her head. “We all have lives here now… I don’t want to go back anymore. Would our bodies stay the same as they are now if we went with you?”

That’s a relief. I don’t know what I would do if they wanted to live there again.

She nodded. “They would stay the same. None of you would revert to your original appearances.”

“Even less of a reason for us to go back then,” Amber said. “There’s not even one human among us.”

“How are they dealing with the monsters?” Sarah asked.

“I would imagine it’s quite difficult for them,” Roumazi replied. “Attacks imbued with mana would be needed, and if no one there has any mana…”

“So we need to go help them, then?”

She shook her head. “We don’t have to do anything. One of my siblings can go instead of me.”

“How long will it take for you to finish the barrier?”

“Only a day or two I think.”

“Then… Should we go?” Michelle asked everyone, her eyes lingering on Luna.

“I want to go. I want to see where you came from,” Diamond said.

She smiled. “I don’t know how much we’d be able to do there in a single day, but that’s a good reason.”

I can’t deny that I’m curious about it myself.

“I need to go, too,” Sarah said. “I’ve always hoped that my cousin was doing okay without me, and now I can finally see her again.”

“Okay, so we’re definitely going, then.”

Everyone was in agreement.

Amber spoke softly, “Sarah…”

The tigerkin exhaled. “I don’t think I would stay on Earth, not unless Jess really needed me. Or… I don’t know. Fuck, this is hard to think about. Could she come back with us if she wanted to?”

Roumazi nodded. “That should be fine. And she would develop magic naturally from exposure to ambient mana as well, if she did come.”

Luna comforted, “Mom Sarah, we already know we’re going, so just figure it out when you get there?”

Sarah smiled. “You’re right, Luna.” Turning to her divine wife, she asked, ”So how do we get there, when do we leave, what do we need to do, and so on?”

The foxkin nodded. “Probably just some basic supplies for a couple days are all we would need, food-wise. We might have to fight some monsters, so our gear, as well.

“And it’s best if we take care of it as soon as possible. The problem will only become exponentially worse the longer we wait, so we won’t even have any time to notify any of the other Earthlings in this world. We haven’t been tracking their locations or anything like that, either, so we don’t know where pretty much any of them currently are.

“We’ll head to a specific place with high mana density and go through a rift in the barrier there, where it’s already been weakened and had a monster pulled through it at some point in the past. More monsters might go through the rifts the longer we wait.

“So, should we leave right now?” Michelle asked.

“How about we leave in the morning? You’ll all be fully rested and it gives us time to prepare everything.”

“Alright. I’ll put a sign on the door so people know we aren’t open for at least a couple days.”

“What about Nipha? What should I tell her?” Luna asked.

Luna and Nipha, now both 15 years old, were still as close as they had ever been. All seven parents involved were helpless as to how oblivious their two daughters were in regard to their own feelings for each other.

Diamond is a different story, though. She takes after Sarah more than anyone else. As long as she’s happy, it’s fine.

“You could just say it was a family emergency?” Sarah suggested.

“I should tell them the truth,” Roumazi said. “My true nature has been kept secret from them all this time, but it was also hardly ever relevant.

“Historically, revealing ourselves to rulers hasn’t gone well, as they suddenly start getting ideas that all their actions are sanctioned by us. I believe I can trust Rayna, however.”

“Okay!” Luna ran to her room to grab a message crystal. The crystal could send an image to another one, though the range wasn’t very far in comparison to a cellphone. At most, its reach went as far as the town nearest the city from here.

She ran back and scribbled a note. “Family emergency thing came up. Need to talk to you and your moms.” She used the crystal’s capture function and sent the image to Nipha’s crystal.

Nipha’s response was projected above the crystal, “On our way.”

Rayna at least was surely busy just now, but she dropped it for us without hesitation. That makes me feel better about telling her who I am.

When the royal family finally stepped through the door, they all sat down pretty quickly. Despite there being enough seats at the table for all of them, Nipha instead made a beeline straight for Luna’s lap. Everyone resisted the urge to facepalm at how they both really thought they were just friends.

“So what’s going on? What happened?” Rayna asked.

Using her divine aura around her family for the first time in years, Roumazi spoke, “First, I need to give a proper introduction. I am the Goddess of Water.”

“Wha…?”

“G-Goddess…?” Senava stuttered.

She retracted her aura and allowed the revelation to sink in.

Michelle supplied, “It’s true. She’s actually the Goddess of Water.”

“But… She’s Roumazi! Your wife!”

“I am also both of those things,” Roumazi smiled.

Rayna just barely managed to get herself together. “U-Um, so, there was something about an emergency?”

The goddess nodded, “The former Praexoent Empire’s experiment from nine years ago caused aftereffects that myself and my siblings have been dealing with all this time.

“The end result of that is that we need to briefly go to Earth for a day or two to completely sever the connection between the two worlds, after which we will return here.

“So it’s less of an emergency and more that we’re just going to be gone for a bit. But I felt that it was time to explain who I was.”

She looked seriously at Rayna. “I trust that you will not betray my decision to share this with you.”

She hastily nodded. “O-Of course!”

To no one in particular, Senava said, “No wonder you handled our real identities so easily. You had an even bigger surprise for us in store.”

“You’re going away?” Nipha asked Luna, looking sad and worried.

Luna returned the look. “Just for a few days.”

“Can I come with?”

“No!” Rayna stated. “This isn’t a camping exercise. You’ll just have to spend time with Luna when she gets back.”

“Aww… Fine.” Nipha kissed Luna’s forehead. “Come back to me soon, okay?”

“I will!” Luna kissed her on the cheek. The two idiots then just sat there smiling at each other.

Michelle facepalmed and Senava began coughing, having taken an unfortunately-timed sip of water. Everyone else had varying degrees of exhaustion on their faces.

We keep telling them to just talk to each other already, so why are they so oblivious!? Diamond’s the same age, but she looks just as tired as the rest of us!