Sora

We appeared in a room made of white marble bricks with pillars inter-spaced throughout. Small clumps of people were grouped together, enjoying each other’s company, and I completely tuned them out as I scanned the room. “I don’t see Thea. Where is she?”

“I gave her a room to herself. It’s right this way,” Chorus explained as he led me out of the room.

“Did you tell Esme what happened?” I asked as I followed him down a dimly lit hallway. “She was the one who helped Thea after her father died, and I guarantee she’ll want to be there for her now.”

“Yeah, he was the first one I called, and the only one to get Thea to leave her room. Even then, all she did was congratulate him with a hug, tell him I told you so, then close the door in his face.”

“Him?” It took me an embarrassingly long time to process what Chorus had said, but I smiled once it registered. “Oh, did he change his name or is he still going by Esme?”

“He’s planning on waiting until Thea can help him choose a new one, but he’s going by Es until then.”

“Oh, that’s a fun idea. Is he hot?” Chorus stopped in his tracks and turned to look at me.

“He’s my son. Of course he’s hot.”

“Sorry, stupid question.”

“Come on, they’re just down this way.” We took a right at the end of the hall to see a man reading from a data-pad while leaning against a door a few meters away. He was tall and toned, with pale skin and dark hair, wearing a tight black silk shirt that exposed surprisingly little of his chest. The only signs of his demonic heritage were elongated yellow pupils and a pair of short horns protruding from just below his hairline. Chorus was right. His son was hot.

“Es, any changes?”

“Nothing yet. She’s still attacking anyone who tries to go inside,” Es said without looking up from his data-pad, but then let out a sigh as he set it aside. “Thankfully, without Bryce’s mana, she’s not actually much of a threat.” He blinked as he finally noticed me. “Hey, oracle blood, right? I remember you.”

“That’s great. Vaguely predicting my own kidnapping is exactly the reputation I was going for.”

“Was it really that bad?” Es cringed.

“It definitely wasn’t good, but could’ve been so much worse. The part that really sucks is that since the whole thing ended up being my own damn fault, I’ve been banned from complaining about it.”

“Well, I was planning on waiting another half-hour before trying to talk to Thea again. I could use the distraction if you want a bitching session.”

“Maybe later? I’d like to at least try talking to Thea first.”

Es hesitated for a moment, but then nodded. “Alright, but please be careful. She doesn’t have Bryce’s mana anymore, but she’s still dangerous and extremely volatile. If she lets you talk to her, then you need to watch what you say. The wrong thing could get you killed here.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

He nodded again before stepping across the hall and lightly knocking on the door. “Thea, your kitsune friend is coming in to talk, is that alright?” There was no response, so he cracked the door open, and then gestured me inside. I slid in and was met with darkness.

“Hey, Sora,” Thea greeted me in a small voice. The poor girl sounded absolutely miserable.

“Hey, sweetie. Is there a light in here somewhere?”

“There was, but it broke,” her voice hitched and there was a bright flash of flame as she punched the ground. “The same way everything breaks.”

I started carefully walking over to where I saw the flames, but stopped after a few steps when I accidentally kicked something. “Thea, I don’t want to step on you. Can you show me where you are?”

She conjured a small candle-like flame, and I carefully navigated around the charred remains of furniture to sit down beside her against the wall. She extinguished the flame, and I didn’t say anything. Instead, I just leaned over until our shoulders touched and we sat in silence.

Eventually, Thea rested her head on me, and I put my arm around her. When the crying started, I wrapped my other arm around her in order to pull her closer. We stayed like that for well over an hour until Thea wiped my eyes with her sleeve before wiping her own.

“Did you see Esme outside?” she asked with a sniffle. “He’s hot, right?”

I let out a pained laugh as I finished wiping my eyes. “Yeah, he’s hot. Although, I think he’s wanting to go by Es now.”

“No, Sora! We can’t let him do that.” She buried her face in my shoulder before adding in a muffled voice. “That’s so boring.”

“If you want to change his mind, then you’ll have to go out and talk to him.”

She all but stopped breathing at my suggestion, and I just waited her out. “I don’t know if I can do it.”

“Es trusts you. I don’t think it’ll be that hard to convince him.”

“You know that’s not what I meant.” She lightly punched my shoulder, and I pretended to flinch. I waited in the dark with her for a few more minutes until she continued. “Bryce asked me to protect you and Sami, but I don’t know if I can do it.” She explained before going into a long-winded rant. “Sora, I couldn’t even protect the woman I loved while I was powered up with a solar system's worth of mana. How could you possibly trust me to protect your sister when I have nothing? I was useless then, and I’m even more useless now. You two are better off on your own. You should just leave me here.” She didn’t let go of me, and I pulled her in tighter.

“I’m not leaving you. Even if it means I have to make a deal with Chorus to bring Sami here.”

She half-laughed at that idea. “Sami would hate that.”

“Yes, she would. So, unless you want to doom her to living here for the rest of her life, then I guess you’ll have to come with me.”

“It's not like I could leave even if I wanted to,” she didn’t explain, so I nudged her to get her to continue, which she did reluctantly. “Without a pact I’d be dead in a couple of months from mana decay. I’m worse than useless. If you wanted me there, then you’d have to make yourself even weaker, and that’s just not worth it.”

“Is that it?” I asked, and Thea pushed herself away from me. I was pretty sure she was glaring at me, but it was still too dark for me to see. “Ithnaa can handle the pact. Thea, I’m not leaving without you.” She was about to argue again, but I cut her off. “Do you remember what you told me the night we met?”

She scoffed. “I was so high that I barely even remember picking up the ship the next day.”

“You were sober when you said it. Come on, give it some thought.”

She settled back onto my shoulder with a sigh. “I said not to worry, because I always protect my people.”

“That’s right, and that night I told Sami that I would so much rather be one of ‘your people’ that I’d have gone with you, even if the world wasn’t about to end.”

“Yeah?” she asked, and I nodded.

“Yeah.”

We sat there for a few more minutes before Thea shifted. “Okay. I think I’m ready to go.”

“Are you sure?” I asked, and she nodded this time.

“I’d hate myself if Sami got hurt and I wasn’t there to protect her. Besides there’s no way I can let Es get away with such a boring name. Seriously, what was he thinking?”

“Probably, that he has a super reliable little sister who cares about him and would step in if he was making a dumb decision?”

“Yeah, he’s really lucky, isn’t he?”

“He really is,” I agreed, and Thea laughed as she pushed off of me to stand up, but then she suddenly went silent.

“Sora, I… I’m going to try, I promise, but without Bryce…”

“I understand.” I pushed myself off the ground. “Just be there. That’s all I ask.”

“I can do that.”

“Actually, there is one other thing. I still can’t see.”

“Oh shit! I’m so sorry!” She summoned a fist-sized ball of fire that illuminated the room. Well, what was left of it. The board I had nearly tripped on coming in was all that was left of the bed. The rest was just a charred husk. Any other furniture was completely unidentifiable beyond just being differently sized piles of ash.

“Wow, you made pretty quick work of this room, didn’t you?”

She shrugged. “I mean, the bed lasted almost a week, but I have kinda just been sleeping on the floor since then.”

“You were only gone for a few hours before I got here.” I gave her a concerned look.

She looked back at me like I had grown an extra head. “Sora, we’re in Elysia. Time doesn’t work the same here. I’ve been in this room for like two weeks.”

“Oh, that’s…”

“Super confusing and mind melty for no obvious reason? Yeah, it’s weird.”

“I was going to say gross, but weird and mind melty? Sure, we’ll go with that.”

Thea blinked back at me before lifting an arm into the air and smelling herself. “Yeah, okay, I could probably use a shower.”

“Come on, let’s go talk to Es and see if he can’t get his dad to take us back to the ship.”

We didn’t have to go far. Es was still standing outside the door by himself, but he looked nervous. “Thea, how are you feeling?”

“Still pretty shitty, but I think I’m going to be alright.”

Es stepped up to pull her into a hug. “Don’t feel like you need to push yourself, okay? If you need more time, then take it.”

“I will, I promise, but for now I just want to spend time around the people I care about.” Thea returned the hug before pushing Es away to glare at him. “Speaking of people I care about. Es? Seriously? That’s the best you could come up with?”

He actually managed to look bashful, which was absolutely adorable on him. “I was waiting until you were back so we could choose a real name together.”

“Aww, thanks!” Thea pulled him back into a hug, and I couldn’t help but smile at her. “Come on, let’s go get some drinks and do it now. I was thinking something that starts with like an ‘x’ or a ‘z’ and a bunch of apostrophes just thrown in at random.”

“That sounds great, Thea, but maybe we should get out of Elysia first. Kai is here, and it’s only a matter of time until dad runs out of ways to distract her. I’m really not ready to come out to her yet.”

“Sure, let’s go.” Thea grabbed his hand and started leading us down the hallway, but nearly ran headlong into a nine-tailed kitsune as she turned the corner.

Kai was absolutely stunning. She was wearing a red kimono with pink cherry blossoms falling over her left shoulder. Her black hair was tied back in a simple, yet elegant design, and her makeup was subtle in a way that only a master could achieve. She quickly scanned all three of us, but her gaze lingered on me, and before I knew it, she had teleported behind me to pull me into a bone-crushing, protective embrace.

“See? I knew you had one of my followers!” She shouted back down the hall as Chorus rounded the corner. “You know I don’t get very many of them, and this one is fun. They’re my favorite.”

That was really flattering, but probably not true, and I would’ve said as much if I were able to speak. Thankfully, Es came to my defense. “You’re killing them.”

“What? Esmer, why do you look so weird?”

“Because I prefer being a man. I’m going by Es now.”

“Oh, that’s neat. We should probably talk about that…” she trailed off, and Es let out a sigh as he held his head.

“We should, but first, you need to let go of Sora. You’re killing them.”

“Don't be silly, that’s not… Wait, you’re still alive?” She let go of me and spun me around to look me up and down. I was too busy trying to catch my breath to say anything. “What are you doing in Elysia? Was Chorus trying to recruit you? What's he offering you? Whatever it is, I’ll double it!”

“No, that’s not—”

“Dad offered to make them a paladin,” Es interrupted, and I was going to correct him, when Chorus just compounded the lie.

“It’s true. I didn’t know they were one of your followers, and I tried to convert them.”

Kai growled at Chorus before looking me dead in the eyes. “Fine. Double paladin. But you have to accept it right now.”

“I accept?” I said, thinking less about the offer and more about the annoyed goddess staring me in the face. “Wait, what does that even mean?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Kai asked, but frowned when I shook my head. “Damn. I was hoping you’d be able to tell me. I’ll figure it out and let you know, ‘kay?”

“Um, okay.”

“Sweet.” Kai finally took a step back from me and seemed to calm down. “Let’s get you out of this gross place. Where do you want to go? I can take you anywhere.”

“Can you take us back to my ship?” I asked, and she frowned.

“I don’t know where that is.”

“My soul is attached to it. If you can follow that, then you should be able to find it.”

“Oh, sure, I can do that.” She didn’t even move, and all four of us were just standing in the engineering corridors near the nav-core with Sami frozen into stunned silence not even two meters away. “Anything else I can do for you, my super awesome double paladin?”

I almost declined, but then a thought occurred to me. “Um, there is maybe one thing. If it’s not too much trouble.” The goddess tilted her head at me, and I swallowed before continuing. “Thea needs a source of mana to exist on the mortal plane.”

“Wait, no way. I’m not accepting mana from her after what she did to Es.” Thea stepped forward, and Kai turned towards her, which caused her to take a step back. “I mean, I wouldn’t want to bother you?”

“If all Thea needs is a source of mana, then I can provide it,” Chorus interjected, but Kai shook her head.

“No, I’ll do it, but I don’t like contracts. So, if we’re going to do this, then we’ll do it my way.”

“Seriously, I don’t—”

“Thea,” Es stopped her from refusing as he grabbed her hand. “Just do me a favor and listen to her offer. Please? For me?”

Thea nodded reluctantly and turned back towards Kai. “Okay, I’m not agreeing to anything, but I’ll at least hear you out. What’s your offer?”

“Like I said, I don’t like contracts—way too many rules—but there’s actually an even easier way to make sure you’re getting the mana you need. All you have to do is become one of my celestials.”