Now that she was the head woman in charge, Noelle had swiftly moved to adjust the quality of life for all the girls at the tavern. They still wore maid outfits to keep up with the theme, as it still helped keep the customers pouring in, but the girls were now free to customize or adjust their outfits to their liking. Some still kept the risqué look, as Noelle was also allowing the girls to keep their tips instead of Roscoe’s dirty practice of confiscating them. But most took to a slightly more modest adjustment of skirt length and so forth. They also started customizing colors and other frills to further allow them a way to enjoy their jobs.

I had always secretly wanted to don a maid outfit and see what working in a maid cafe would have been like, and so I joined the roster of maidens as well. Catherine helped sew me up an outfit that fit and I decided to further go all in and make it cute and appealing.

I showed some cleavage and wore garters that disappeared under the skirt at just the right time. I combined those with some sheer black leggings and cute shoes, that I never would have had the courage to wear in my old life, to complete the look.

I wasn’t serving tea and cookies, but I felt I was at least getting the outfit right. Plus, even drunk, all the villagers in town now knew better than to try something funny with the Amazon. Most all that behavior had stopped within the first couple of days when Noelle had promptly, and aggressively, thrown some of the more handsy patrons out on their asses.

With the Wish now having a safer reputation for women, more girls started working there. This allowed the existing small staff to not be worked to the bone around the clock and start working in more reasonable shifts. Ash continued his work as well, still also dressed in his maid attire, but was also joined by all his older sisters. Catherine staunchly declared the others too young, much to Anya’s displeasure. She had taken a huge liking to me after the tournament and was finding any excuse to tag along anywhere I went. She hadn’t been banned from the tavern completely so instead became Noelle’s personal gopher when she needed things run across town. All of these changes brought a huge lift in morale to all those working at Wish, which increased the quality of service and happiness of the patrons. Life was swiftly getting better.

On one such afternoon at work, Anya personally handed me the notice: my outfit was finally ready! Not only that, but my special order had also been completed and delivered to the house! Anya looked as excited as I was, a sparkle in her eyes. After the tournament, she had also started helping Catherine and me with the finishing touches on the clothes that we had been working on since my training had begun. Getting all the material shipped in had taken awhile but it was finally ready!

I let Noelle know I was headed home for the day, and Anya and I trotted off excitedly!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I stepped out of the house to let Dorian, Chad and Ash take in my new look. The boys had all been banned from the house while Catherine and the younger sisters helped me dress. They had known that I had been conspiring to make myself a new, hardier outfit, but they didn’t know the particulars and I had wanted to surprise them.

Based on the looks on their faces as they took me in, dare I say, mission accomplished? They were all speechless.

I was finally decked out from head to toe in something that was tailor made and fit like a glove. I felt complete for the first time since my arrival. Gone was the thick braid I had sported like the rest of the sisters. My hair was now brushed out and flowed behind me, with three smaller warrior-like braids sweeping down each side of my head.

I still wore a white sleeveless top, but of a much more comfortable and durable fabric than the makeshift one that had been hastily created for me. The straps reached up and joined as one at the back of my neck. I kept my choker with the onyx fastened in its center that had been bestowed to me as my first gift from the family, which was worn on top of the straps.

Catherine had dyed and sewn me a dark royal purple leather corset that wrapped around my torso and breasts and clasped with buckles in the front. I wore simple dark brown leather wrist gauntlets on each arm to give me some additional protection.

I sported a thick buckled belt that rested on my hips and a nice but functional pleated white skirt of the same durable fabric my top had been crafted from, with more royal purple trim at the edges. It came down to my lower thighs and swayed with the breeze.

To finish the look, I adopted the knee-high leather boots Noelle favored for leg protection. However, I was not going to have the patience for constantly lacing them, so these merely slipped on with a snug fit. I also had black garters snaking down my thighs from under the skirt to clasp on the sides of the boots to make sure they stayed put.

My Amazon look was completed!

Dorian recovered first and gave a hearty wolf whistle.

“She can spank me anytime…” I heard him mutter.

That shook Chad back to reality, as he had also been speechless.

“I’m sorry, what was that again Dorian? I must have had something in my ears!”

Dorian started to stutter, realizing he had made his comment out loud, “What? Someone say someth—? I heard—! Did you have a comment Ash?”

Chad had gone back to looking at me, but unlike the other two, he had a small frown creasing his otherwise flawless face. He also muttered his opinion, “She’s not dressed like a lady…”

Ash was holding in a nosebleed. He had started showing me signs of affection over the past months, but in a cute puppy dog kind of way, rather than in the loud and obnoxious flirtations I was used to with Dorian and Chad.

“…. You are very pretty… I mean, you’re always pretty! Just now you’re.. really really pretty? Aaaaack!!”

Dorian patted the distraught Ash on the top of his head. I just shook my head and smiled. He was just as bad as me at this. Too many of our interactions when he tried to be cute or flirt often ended with us both beet red, covering our faces and skittering away in opposite directions. It hadn’t helped that Catherine, Edward, and all his sisters had attempted to shove us together at any opportunity once his intentions became known.

I splayed out my hands and gave a twirl. The outfit felt amazing. “Well, if you thought this was something, wait until you see my next surprise!”

And with that, I unveiled Minerva.

I turned behind me and grabbed my “special arrival” from on the other side of the door of the house. I had requested Chad give me the funds for me to craft a weapon of my own and subtract it from my tournament winnings. When he pressed on what the weapon was going to be, I told him it would also be a surprise.

I whirled around and brandished a beautiful two-handed great axe in both hands. Her shaft was laced with a stainless-steel metal lattice sheath from above her handle at the bottom up to the head of the weapon. I purred a little to myself as I stroked the shaft in admiration of the craftsmanship.

What made her special however was the head itself. I had used my advanced knowledge of hinges and a bit of future engineering “know-how” to conspire to create a trick weapon with the blacksmith and he had done an amazing job. There was not one axe blade at the top, but two, installed side by side. But when I desired during combat, with special twist of the weapon, I could enable one of the blades to rotate to the other side of the hilt, turning the axe into a double headed monstrosity.

She was beautiful.

And that wasn’t all.

While the boys seemed to shrink back at the terrifying weapon I gleefully held in my hands, I twisted at Minerva’s handle and pulled back.

And unsheathed a Katana hidden inside the shaft as long as my arm.

At this, the boys lost their minds.

“What in the name of the Gods??”

“I’m not sure that was necessary…”

“Does she expect to use that in battle?”

They could barely form proper sentences as I inspected the work of the blade now in my left hand. It was a perfect weight and balance. The blacksmith had been aghast when I described my unique requests and the process of creating this type of weapon.

Katanas were not a blade design familiar to this world. Being a hopeless otaku and spending endless hours on somewhat frivolous hobbies and meaningless knowledge ended up benefiting me in the end, however. The blacksmith had been working on this for months and, through trial and error, had made my other weapon I desired: Hippolyta. It was by no means a masterpiece, but it should get the job done.

I spun her around in my hand a few times and then sheathed her back into Minerva with a satisfying click, as if she had never existed. I then swung the axe behind me, and her head looped into a makeshift harness in the back of my belt.

I clasped my hands together and could no longer contain my excitement.

I may have also excitedly jumped and clapped my hands like a schoolgirl.

“So? What do you think?!”

Dorian and Chad seemed lost for words.

“It sure is something? I’ve never seen anything like, well either of those before!” Dorian scratched at the top of his head.

Chad at least had the courage to walk up and started to circle me, looking the armor and weapon up and down. He put a finger in my belt and gave it a sharp tug, then grasped my wrist and looked over the craftsmanship of one of my gauntlets.

Sewing was Catherine’s specialty. If women could have owned a business, she easily would have given the leatherworkers and clothiers a run for their money. Combined with the quality of materials Chad’s pockets had helped acquire and I was more than satisfied with my new duds.

Chad nodded in approval, “This should all be adequate. The Lady Magos did some fine work.” He then waved off his initial approval by adding, “Better could be found amongst the master craftsmen in Monera, to be sure, but we don’t have that kind of time.”

I rolled my eyes and chose to ignore the backhanded compliment. “What do you think of Minerva!?” I insisted. He leaned back to observe it still strapped to my back, as if afraid it would come alive and bite him.

And honestly, if it was packing as much attitude as it looked, it just might.

“It looks menacing, to be sure. Are you sure an axe is to be your weapon of choice?” He looked over questioningly to Dorian. “We all remember how your last axe encounter went!”

I punched him in the shoulder playfully.

“I oversaw a lot of the work on this myself! Minerva is definitely more capable than a butter knife!”

It was the first time I had used her name out loud. Chad cocked an eyebrow at hearing it.

“We’re naming things now?”

I looked him back square in the eyes, an eyebrow of my own raised.

“And none of your weapons are named?”

He flushed at that and let the subject be.

Dorian and Ash finally started walking up to me to take in the new look.

“Are you sure you can wield that thing in battle?” Dorian asked, as he reached up and tapped at the katana handle that doubled as a grip for Minerva’s shaft. “Glad to see you aren’t abandoning your sword play. It would be a shame to have seen that all go to waste.”

I agreed. “Not every situation will call for Minerva here.” I twisted myself in a way to call attention to Hippolyta’s beautifully wrapped handle, which was also done in a purple. Catherine and the sisters had all decided that was to be my color, as if there was any doubt. “That was why I made sure to include Hippolyta here!”

Chad threw up his hands in desperation, eyes turned skyward at any God that would hear his complaints.

“And she’s named the sword! Because of course she has!”

“Katana,” I corrected him.

“What in the Gods’ name is that?”

“It’s the style of the blade. It’s from my old world.”

Chad muttered “Whatever” under his breath and stalked off.

“Don’t worry, Amelia,” Ash had finally found his voice. “I like it! And Chad will come around!”

I smiled at him and tousled his hair, as I had grown fond of doing to him.

“Thanks Ash. Your mom and sisters did great work on this armor! I couldn’t have done it without them.”

Ash grinned sheepishly and Dorian clapped me on the shoulder.

“So, now that you appear to be all set, I guess that means it’s time?”

I reached up and clasped my hand on his and nodded.

“Yeah, it’s time.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Well Goddess, I guess this is it!” I paced back and forth in front of the altar and stained-glass window, as I had grown accustomed to doing when I was making my now futile attempts to talk to her.

“Not going to pop in to wish me good luck?”

It had been like this for months. Ever since my breakdown on that first day, the Goddess had not spoken to me again. I didn’t know if it was because of my self-doubt on that day. Or that I may have hinted that I wanted to go back home and forsake the task she had given me? Whatever her divine reason, I hadn’t heard her soothing voice in my head on any return visits to the temple, even after it was completely rebuilt in the recent weeks.

I puffed up my cheeks and exhaled exaggeratedly.

“Alright then,” I exclaimed loudly, to no one. “You know where to find me if you need me!” I had already informed her, assuming she listened to my now one-sided conversations each time I came up here, that we were going to Torzoa to talk with the King and determine our direction towards repelling the monster forces that seemed to be growing by the day.

I spun on my fancy new leather heels and marched off towards where Noelle and Ash were waiting by the entrance. They always accompanied me on my visits, which were made late at night when there was less foot traffic in the church and had always waited just outside to pray or meditate. They felt unworthy of accompanying me further into the Goddess’ holy place when she might also descend into it.

I explained to them numerous times that I was positive the Goddess would not take objection to their presence if they were to follow me inside. I even told them how cheeky and laid back the Goddess appeared to be when the mood struck her, how she had even giggled and laughed at me. They seemed completely aghast and almost accused me of blasphemy that a deity would act in such a manner!

With the Goddess continuing to ignore me and not answer my calls, they became further convinced that either I had offended her by insisting she was anything less than regal OR that their presence when they journeyed with me each visit was not a misperceived slight. Recently, they had even been attempting to not make the trips with me at all, so sure of their offense to the Goddess. It had been all I could do to convince them to continue to make the journeys with me anyway.

I exited the temple and they both rose to greet me.

“No luck?” Ash asked.

I shook my head and spun to look back inside with my hands on my hips, frustrated.

“I don’t understand it.” I said, exasperated. I knew I felt like I had let her down and had let self-doubt eat at me for quite a bit of time after the last time we had spoken.

But this didn’t feel right.

If she hadn’t been so insistent in her last parting words to me, that she had chosen me for specific reasons and saw a goodness in me that she didn’t see in others, I would have resolved myself to believe that she had given up on me.

“I felt certain that, on my last night here before our departure, she would finally answer my call. She’s got to know that I’m not going to be back here for a while.”

To be fair, my assumption that she and I wouldn’t be able to communicate while I was away from Bronzemead and her temple leaned heavily on my assumption that she also was only capable of talking to me when I was physically here. I had no evidence to support this save that the only times we had talked had been here.

The whole, whopping twice that had happened…

Noelle rubbed my back reassuringly.

“It will be ok, Amelia. I will continue to make trips here in your stead and pray to the Goddess for your protection. I will even provide her updates on your whereabouts and well-being as well as progress on your feats!”

“Hopefully, as a deity, she has awareness enough to the goings on in her realm that updates shouldn’t be necessary, “I muttered.

Noelle smiled a small smile. “Nevertheless…” she drifted off, knowing I knew what she was going to reassure me of. She had told me of her intentions to continue visiting the temple not just for her own purposes, but for Ash’s and my own, weeks ago after she knew we were both leaving.

Catherine was beside herself at the thought of her only son leaving home, but Edward convinced her it was time. He also tossed in some extra reasoning to his stance by stating that it was the Goddess’ will that he assist me in my task. She wasn’t happy with the dirty tactic but also found herself unable to disagree with him.

Taking one last look at the Goddess in the window, I turned away and we walked back down the hill towards home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The rooster hadn’t even begun to crow the next morning as Dorian, Chad, Ash and I gathered in the street in front of the Magos house. Ash and I enjoyed long, tearful goodbyes from the family. Each of the sisters had attempted to convince Ash to wear his maid uniform for traveling as they thought he would look so adorable as the group mascot, but he insisted in something more practical.

Ash now donned some white robes with a hood that Catherine had helped him craft alongside making my outfit, with light blue trim and a cloth sash. The braids were now gone from his gorgeous blonde hair and it now draped about his face and shoulders in soft curtains. His hair was still long however and that, combined with his short stature and soft features, made it still easy to mistake him for a girl.

“Before you go, son,” said Catherine, “your father and I want you to have this.”

Catherine procured a long, slender object wrapped in old, musty brown paper and tied with thin rope. She handed it outstretched for him to take. He hesitantly reached out and grasped it, then moved to unwrap the gift.

The ancient paper practically disintegrated as it fell away and revealed an intricate staff, taller than myself. I couldn’t have begun to guess what it was crafted from. It looked like it was carved from a rare type of grayish blue marble, but at it’s cool touch, I could tell it was still some sort of metal. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before, even in one of my video games. The staff was sturdy and solid with no intricate pattern or casting to it, save the natural odd whirls and lines in the material itself. So odd and random were the patterns in it, the metal almost seemed to be alive.

At the top of the staff, embedded in the head as if it was part of the metal rod itself, was a carefully carved moonstone. It was carved almost in the shape of a swirling rough cone, with a wide base where it jutted out from the staff and then the stone slowly grew outward, tapering into a point at it’s end. The stone itself was a deep milky white and, upon taking a closer inspection, the inner most parts of the stone seemed to swirl around. Almost as if an energy was trapped inside. If my online gaming experience had taught me anything, this staff was top tier stuff! Everyone gathered around Ash and the staff, mesmerized by it’s beauty and raw, untapped power.

“This is a family heirloom that has been passed down through the ancestors of the Goddess since she birthed us onto this world,” Catherine explained. “The staff is made of a star that fell from the Heavens themselves, and the stone from one of our very moons. Ancestral legend holds that it was a gift given to the First of all her children, crafted by the Goddess herself. For no craftsmen of Man could have made something so beautiful.”

At this, Chad scoffed loudly. Catherine didn’t so much as flinch but gave him a sidelong with a look that made him attempt to crawl into his travel bag.

Catherine again addressed Ash and the rest of us, “As was I saying, the craftsmanship for this staff is unlike any other seen in all of Monera. I doubt Amelia, with all of her gifts, could put a scratch on it with her new blade!” She playfully winked at me, but I could sense the sincerity behind the statement. “You can use this staff to further harness and empower your already incredible gifts. I know the Goddess would want you to have this to assist Amelia towards her destiny.”

Ash immediately tried to concentrate, as if he was channeling his abilities into the staff to gauge it’s reaction. The stone at the top of the staff seemed to lightly shimmer for just a moment before winking out. Those few seconds of effort from Ash had already made him break out in a cold sweat.

“It may take some practice dear, but I know you can use this to great effect to assist your friends on your journey.” Catherine sniffled at this, brushed Ash’s hair away and kissed him lovingly on his forehead.

Edward clasped his son’s wrist in a strong handshake.

“Be safe son. And know that our love, and that of the Goddess, goes with you.”

He nodded at the rest of us, “That goes for all of you.”

We all nodded back, had one last hug from everyone in the family, and then made our way to the southernmost gate of Bronzemead.

It was time for our journey to begin.