“By the gods…”

Rosalyn really couldn’t say anything else with what she saw. It was just beyond belief. While the large town in the center of the soul realm wasn’t that big, the size of everything together was almost as large as her city. And that didn’t include the vast empty space of air surrounding the large island, or the other little islands making their way to the central one.

She absorbed all this as she gently descended towards the castle that seemed to be the center of the island. Van not far from her, holding her hand and guiding them towards a balcony of sorts that had a nice view of the entire place.

“This! Is your soul realm!?”

Van nervously nodded. “Yes… I wasn’t sure how to break this to you, but since you and I are going to get married… I figured you should know what you're getting into…”

She turned to him. “Does that mean you're going to soul bond me as well!?”

“What!? No!” He exclaimed, looking towards her, then hesitated. “Unless… you want me to…” He looked back down. “I’ve never forced someone to soul bond me, I give you my word it’s true.”

They then gently landed on the terrace, where two large doors opened up to lead them into the throne room.

“Please, have a look around, ask me any questions, just… familiarize yourself… take all the time you need.” Van said, then let go of her hand.

Only for Rosalyn to take it back. “Oh no you don’t, I’m not letting you go until I get a few questions. Starting with… how!?”

Van sighed, not at the question, but about how long this would take to explain everything… “It’s a long story…”

Her hand gripped his tighter. “Tell me.” She asked, looking up at him with a tempered gaze of her bright crimson eyes.

“...let's find somewhere to sit…” He then escorted her down the hallway into the tea room. He didn’t even remember having one, just one of the maids helped them escort them to it. He also didn’t even remember having maids in his castle. Probably something Ren or Kassandra did…

Which he was thankful for since it gave a lovely backdrop to the story he was about to tell. The tea and cookies didn’t hurt ethier…

Once the two sat down, he cleared his throat and began to explain his story. Doing his best to give the abridged version, which still took about two hours long and had a lot of. “And this happened.” which probably didn’t help his storytelling at all.

Finally he got to the part where he finally arrived at Bright city, meeting her and the engagement and everything else as well.

This, of course, was followed by another two hours of inquisitive questioning from Rosalyn. Questions about his soul realm, about his soul bonding, about the Ren character, about his wives, about his godlinghood, about well… just about everything. Not all of which he could actually answer.

Finally, Rosalyn seemed done on asking questions, right now just trying not to overload with all the information she just received. Rubbing her temples in a vain attempt of staving off a headache.

Van let the silence continue, just glad he had a moment's respite for his weary voice, his throat aching from talking so long. No other had asked questions such as she, nor so thoroughly. He felt his own headache coming, though it might have been a good sign so sorts… after all, it just went to show how fiercely intelligent Rosalyn was…

“Alright!” Rosalyn said, suddenly getting up and making Van sit straight. “I’ve made up my mind! I’ll take you up on your offer and explore this place a bit. See for my own eyes what this place is all about!” Sounding like she finally came to terms with a few things that were bothering her.

Van was more than happy to oblige, unfortunately it had been almost four hours, and he was pretty sure that Duvessa was probably not going to take too kindly to having her mistress all of a sudden disappear on her, and he told her as much.

“Do not worry, I told Duvessa not to disturb me until noon unless it was an emergency. Since I was hoping for something… well… not this kind of exciting let’s say…” She shook her head. “But that doesn’t matter right now. If she does show up, just tell her what you told me. I trust her with my life… So I swear… that if she betrays that trust in this instance, I’ll take full responsibility for it. And if she questions… just tell her… ‘off with your head’. Understand?”

He nodded, though he was wondering what in the world the phrase meant or in what context.

“Good!”

She got up off the couch and walked over to Van, stretching out her hand.

Van looked at it confused, figuring he was going to have to wait out in the real world for Duvessa to finally show up.

“Well? I haven’t got all day!”

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what she wanted. Though it still surprised him a little. Either way, he took her small hand into his own and started giving her the grand tour. Starting with the throne room and those who worked in it.

“This is Ren, he’s sort of a past life of mine who helps run my soul realm when I can’t.” Van said, introducing Rosalyn to Ren.

Rosalyn’s eyes widened. “Are you the one that helped my father?”

“No.”

“Then… who are you?” She asked.

“Classified.”

Rosalyn frowned. “What is it like to be a past life?”

“Classified.”

“...Are you going to tell me anything?”

Ren crossed his arms with a sigh. “No.”

“Ren?” Van asked, looking at him weirdly.

“Sorry, but I'm not going to speak about stuff like that to a stranger.” Ren said.

“Doesn’t mean you can be rude.” Van thought towards him.

Ren sighed. “Just stressed… and I'm not particularly happy that you keep bringing strangers in… though bringing those refugees was an exception…” He thought back.

“Technically, all the soldiers I have to store inside me are also an exception… right?” Van rebutted.

Ren grunted. “Point… I suppose…” He turned his attention back to Rosalyn. “Sorry little missy, but I have a feeling that a lot of the questions you want to ask are things I’m not going to talk about. If you really must know, the person you really want to talk with about who saved your father is someone else, and he’s already asleep now. I’m also not going to talk about how all the past lives stuff works… We don’t need a soul seer getting their hands on this kind of information, or it leaking that Van has such a… unique soul realm with… a special connection to memories beyond this world…”

“Though there might be some exceptions if you properly marry Van like the others…” He added.

“You mean like how all of Van’s other wives are soul bonded with him… correct?” Rosalyn asked.

Ren nodded.

“Hmm…” She gave it some thought.

“It’s a big decision, you don’t have to do it unless you want to.” Van said, seeing her think so deeply about it.

She continued to think about it some more, but then decided she needed to walk to help her air out her mind to truly understand the jumbled mess that was all her thoughts running around her brain. “...Let’s get out of here… I want to see what else you have to show me.” looking up at him and grabbing his hand.

Van guided her around the place, flying her through the sky’s and showing her everything down below. He stopped by the training yard first, where he introduced her to some of the guards that survived the bandit ambush.

Rosalyn bowed to them, apologizing for not being able to make the forest safe enough for travel and putting Van in danger by extension. Kella and Isa were understanding, and did not blame her for what happened. No apologies were necessary as far as they were concerned, they only wished they had better training equipment and martial books to study, as well as better arms and armor. To which Rosalyn promised that she would do what she can to help.

After that, Van introduced her to Venus and some of the mandrakes in the green houses. Showing off to her how they were able to maintain a sort of self sustainability, heaping praises on Venus and her friends for their help. To which Venus normally green cheeks turned an odd red in a mix of embarrassment and joy.

Once that was over, Van introduced her to Lyn, Amie and Xenith, who all had some free time, and were greatly interested in seeing Rosalyn.

Rosalyn wasted no time in endearing herself to the three young rulers. Showing exceptional grace and wordcraft. They spent the next hour having tea and cookies, simply enjoying the time they had together. The three fairies seemed to be goofing off as they enjoyed Rosalyn’s company. Though Van couldn’t help how underneath all that, there was a sort of testing of the new girl going on. Sometimes asking her pointed questions about Rosalyn’s rulership, how she would act in certain situations, and how she would respond should Van be in danger in certain scenarios.

To which Rosalyn answered with ease and regale baring, not batting an eye to some of the even most oddest of questions. Even going so far as to make trade agreements for the future with the three fairy rulers

After what felt like forever. Rosalyn was finally let go, the girls waving goodbye happily to each other as they parted.

“Bye Rosalyn! Thanks for dropping by!” Lyn said.

“Indeed. It was an interesting conversation we had. I would love to have another one sometime in the future.” Amie added.

“And Van! Don’t be a stranger! It's been a while! You should come by more often when you don’t have work and have some fun with us!” Xenith finished for them.

“Goodbye your majesties, yes, let’s continue our conversation another time!” Rosalyn said, waving her hand.

Van then took her to meet Agnès, and then Ines, as well as Bell.

She asked some questions when they dropped by the brothel.

And when she met his double… well… her expression was quite hilarious…

After that though, she wouldn’t stop asking him questions for the next half hour.

He showed her the forest, the city, the wide open plains, beautiful scenes and landscapes. At least any he could find…

After a while they decided to take a break.

“Van… this place is amazing! It’s filled with all sorts of people! It’s so… mystical…” Rosalyn said, gazing down over a large flower field on top of a hill.

“Thanks…” Van said, trying not to blush. “There is still one last place though I suppose you have to see before our tour is over though…”

The two then went to his temple, where the Anna’s were. Rosalyn’s eyes almost popped out of her skull when she saw so many people looking and acting completely the same. There were over twenty of them after all, and apparently they all could see, hear and think collectively!? That was a frightening thing to think about.

“Oh? Who’s this Van? Another wife?” Anna asked. Completely unfazed by the fact that Van was bringing another woman here. Or the fact that it might really be another wife of Van’s.

Van cleared his throat. “Yes, this is Duchess Rosalyn. She’s my fiance, we are to get married soon.”

Anna simply gave an elegant curtsy, as if this was completely normal. “Nice to meet you Duchess Rosalyn. Or…” she gave a tilt of her head. “Should I call you sister?”

Rosalyn gave a smile. “You can call me sister if you want. Lets all of us get along.”

Anna returned the smile. “Of course!” Then clapped her hand together. “Would you like a tour of my temple?”

Rosalyn looked around at the massive and beautiful architecture. “Yes… I would very much like one… I hope you don't mind me asking a few questions as well.”

Anna shook her head. “Not at all.” giving Rosalyn a genuine smile. “I would be more than happy to tell you anything you want to know. So long as I know it.”

She then began her tour of the temple. Introducing her to the classes of the neophytes. Telling the history of the place and how it first began. As well as how they grew and expanded and what tenets they follow.

“So far we only follow the tenets of nondiscrimination… but hopefully one day it will expand further than that. We also provide faith by prayer or buildings, such obelisks and the like. Our spells are a bit limited, it is true, but we are a growing cult! And I believe one day we will be at least in the top ten! If not five! In the world!” Anna said proudly.

“Ambitious… I like it!” Rosalyn said. Surprised by how much she was enjoying the secret inner working of a nascent religion and how it grew.

The two then hit it off, talking about the future and the plans for Van’s cult and where it might lead. After what must have felt like forever the two finally ended their conversation and Rosalyn returned to Van.

“Well… that was fun… is there anything else you're going to show me?” looking up at him excitedly.

Van shook his head, surprised by how well she took the whole thing. “Sorry, this was the last stop… but I’m glad you enjoyed it at least.”

Rosalyn nodded. “Indeed… even I’m surprised…” she said thoughtfully.

She then went back into deep thinking, closing her eyes for a bit and truly giving it her all before opening her eyes.

“Alright… I think it’s decided…” she said finally, looking up at Van with fire in her eyes. “Van… I'm not sure I want to be soul bonded with you… so please… give me until our marriage ceremony to decide. I also want to promise you that I won’t speak a word of this to anyone, not so long as I live… but I do hope that if I do soul bond with you… you’ll also show Duvessa and Kat this… wonderful place… I know for a fact they will keep your secret, I promise you. And they will help you greatly in growing this place as well.”

“Other than that…” She offered a hand. “Let’s work together from now on. I believe the two of us together will really make some big changes!”

Van paused for a second before taking her hand. “Sure… Glad to be working with you.” not entirely sure as to what brought this sudden conversation about. But glad that she seemed to be on his side all the same.

Once they shook hands, Rosalyn said she was ready to go, and they popped right back out into reality.