We decided to relax a little more before going through with our test. My favourite berry blend was tasty, after all. The girls also had lunch and then we tried our original training for another hour or so. To no discernible effect, sadly.

Eventually, Alex was fed up.

“Okay, let’s do this”, she said, “Circe, hold down the fort.”

“I don’t know how long we’ll be gone but it’s going to be on the shorter end.”

“Okay. Have fun…”

Circe pouted a little and leaned back on the couch with her tea.

“You ready, Alex?”

“Anytime.”

I nodded and pushed out my shadows. It took only a moment to completely engulf Alex. This time, rather than trying to get past an obstacle, we only wanted to stay on the other side for as long as possible. That meant I could ignore shifting towards a specific spot. We would simply leave reality for a bit.

“You ready, Catori?”, I asked into my mind.

“Aye, Captain!”, she laughed, “Ready for boarding. Bring ‘em up!”

I smirked and activated our Skill. With a blink, we left reality. The vast Empty surrounded us. I looked for the nest that marked my soul and spotted it off in the distance. Exactly opposite from it was what looked like a typical American suburb house. Only that it was mostly purple and black with twisted trees and a few glowing orbs all around it.

Alex hovered next to me, her legs slightly pulled up. She looked like a normal human, here, though her eyes were still golden. We looked at each other as a whirling sound of clinking chains rushed towards us. Just in time because my Skill was already pulling us back. An anchor smashed right between our selves and then spun 90 degrees before pulling back in. Alex screamed and I hooted in excitement. My Skill lost purchase and suddenly we were fully on the other side. Well, almost. I could see a small whirlpool of alienis constantly hovering underneath me. It was the portal to return. And it was already starting to shrink. We definitely had a few minutes though, maybe even half an hour.

“What the fuuuuck!”, Alex shouted at me.

“No worries, this is all planned”, I answered.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

We were already slowing down and only a dozen metres or so from my nest. My soul. I flexed my will to grow a large branch underneath it, extending all the way to our position. At the same time, the anchor dissipated, the chain clinking to the ground and sinking into it.

“Well, I didn’t know how exactly she would do it.”

“Who?”

“Me!”, I said in synch with Catori.

Alex blinked, then looked up. My human self and my other part was walking up to us. She had a huge grin on her face and was waving with one hand.

“Ahoi, landlubber! You’ve made it onto the S.S. Catori. We hope you’ll enjoy your stay!”

“Now you’re mixing themes”, I rolled my eyes. That was possible in here, even though I was an owl.

Alex dropped onto her behind.

“What is going on? You know someone that lives… here?”

“Sort of?”, I said, “You know her too. Or me.”

“Huh?”

“Yes. I’m Fio and Fio is Catori. We’re the same but separate. I’m more Catori so that’s what you can call me. Nice to meet you! Although we already know each other…”

“I… What? You’re…”

Alex was completely stupefied.

“Hey, deep breaths, Alex”, I said, “It’s not that complicated. Okay?”

She kept her eyes on me as she slowly calmed down. It took nearly five minutes before she could think again.

“So… you’re two people of the same… kind?”

“The same person. Sort of.”

“Did that happen because of your new Skill?”

“No”, I said, “The Skill only allowed me to figure out how to talk to her.”

“Then… when?”

“You remember when we dug up that node below Gobburgh?”

She nodded.

“Well, that was when I first fully accepted that I was human. And since then, my human part sort of separated from my owl part. Now we’re two different people sharing the same soul.”

“That’s insane.”

“You’re a living fortress.”

“Right.”

“Uhm, can I hug you?”, Catori asked.

Alex blinked.

“Sure.”

They awkwardly shuffled towards each other with Alex still sitting. Eventually, Catori decided to sit down in our friend’s lap. Alex was almost a full head taller after all. For a while, they simply sat there.

“So, this is what you looked like before?”, Alex asked eventually.

“Yes”, Catori said, “It was difficult to remember.”

“Well, you’re cute.”

Catori smiled.

I cleared my throat.

“So, what about that training?”

“Mmmm!”, Catori complained.

“We can just sit here and see what I can do.”

My other self nodded.

“Okay. Then try to get a good feel for the vis all around us.”

She closed her eyes and did as I asked. I observed the two cuddling while Alex tried her best to focus. Her face turned more and more into a frown. This time, she apparently had a very different problem.

“I can’t feel anything at all. It’s as if my [Essence Sense] is gone.”

“Well, you see yourself as mostly human”, I said, “So I’m not surprised.”

She opened her eyes and stared at me. Then she held up her hand in front of her eyes.

“The fuck…”

Catori interlaced her fingers with Alex’s.

“You need to understand that the sense is yours, not your body’s.”

Our friend gulped and nodded. She went back to closing her eyes and scrunching up her face.

“How did you figure that out?”, I asked Catori. I made sure to send the question directly to her to avoid distracting Alex.

“I was able to use some of our Skills with the starling. Mostly just the magical part of [Owl Senses]. But, yeah. It seems to be more part of our soul that our body.”

“So we could use [Telepathy] and maybe other Skills as well?”

“I’m not sure. I tried identifying myself while being the starling but it showed our status. When I managed to get the starling, it only showed it as if it was someone else.”

“Because you don’t think of yourself as it?”

She shrugged.

“Probably?”

“Ah!”, Alex suddenly said, “I think I got it!”

Her eyes opened and she grinned at me. I could see the purple of thaumium slowly spread on her skin in fine patterns. It almost looked like circuitry tattooed onto her body.

Then, she winced.

“Ouch. Where is this headache coming from? We’re not even real here, right?”

The featureless void behind her opened up like an eyelid. A familiar pupil of stars and darkness looked at us.

“Am I too late?”, Truth asked.

Alex’s eyes fixated on him.

“No?”, I said, “At least I don’t think so. We’ve still got like 10 minutes.”

“Wonderful.”

His eye focused on Alex. A few scales and tentacles formed a conscious presence for us to refer to.

“I am pleased to finally meet in person, Alexandra”, he said, “You have been a great friend to Fio and a big help to this world.”

“I have?”

The eye bobbed.

“That’s Truth”, Catori grinned, “Where’d you run off to this time?”

“I had other matters draw the majority of my attention. I hoped to meet our friend so I may have rushed a little.”

“Ah. Well, nice to meet you properly, Truth.”

“Hum. You have been doing well for yourself, I see.”

“I can’t complain all that much”, she shrugged.

“That is good.”

“I… wanted to thank you. For helping Fio.”

Catori snuggled into her.

“And Catori”, she added.

“Of course.”

“And I had some questions.”

“It is good to ask but I am not a charity.”

Alex looked confused.

“He’ll answer cryptically at best”, Catori said, “He wants us to find out ourselves.”

“I… fair. Well, I wanted to ask if you could stop souls from being enslaved as golems.”

He stared at her for a moment.

“Your case is only marginally more common than Fio Catori’s. I can not help you with it.”

“So you’ll just let them be born as slaves?”

“Yes. That is better than falling for the temptations of power.”

Alex opened her mouth and raised a finger before lowering it again.

“Okay. I guess that kind of makes sense. Thanks, Truth.”

“I am glad you are understanding.”

“Can you help me with my vis sense?”

“You can do it”, he said.

She narrowed her eyes together with Catori.

“I mean, I’m not having much success, though.”

“You started less than a week ago. Even with your baseline as a magical construct, you are much faster than you should be. Show patience.”

She blinked. Then looked at me.

“Fuck.”

“Do not feel threatened. The Crimson Clerics are a caring people. You will not come to harm.”

Alex groaned.

“Wait, you were worried about that?”, I asked.

“It took less than a day after meeting humans in this world for the first time before I got attacked.”

“And yet it is less sinister than you wish to believe.”

Alex made a noise that was somewhere in between agreement and dissatisfaction.

“Three minutes, give or take”, I said with a glance below.

“You should make for reality. I enjoy your company but I believe you will want to spend time with your mortal friends.”

Catori turned around in Alex’s lap and gave her another hug.

“Come by some time again. When we find a body I like I’ll be more on the other side as well.”

Alex patted her back.

“Yeah. I will. Stay safe.”

Catori giggled.

“There’s nothing that can hurt me here besides boredom.”

Alex petted her head. Shortly after, they separated and our friend stood next to me.

“You too, Truth. We’ll meet again, right?”

“Most likely”, he answered, “Relish in your friends more and focus less on survival. You are very safe where you are.”

She took a moment before nodding.

Catori waved as I stepped the branch out from underneath our feet. We slowly glided into the now very small spiral of alienis. When we reached it, there was a soft pop and we found ourselves back in reality. Circe was sitting still with a scrunched face, still trying to sense vis most likely.

“You’re back!”, she shouted.

“That we are.”

“How did it go?”

“Not too well”, Alex said, “… I might have to just take my time.”

She scratched her ear.

“Ah, well. That’s just normal, isn’t it? When you want to Breakthrough, you gotta work for it.”

Alex nodded.

“Then let’s get right back to it!”, I smirked.

The two humans groaned.