The two shared a look and Tess rubbed a thumb on her cheek like a mother trying to clean her daughter’s cheek before proclaiming as she turned to Alora, “Who is this mountain of a cinnamon roll oh my god!”
Alora blinked and looked shocked.
Tess moved forward and opened her arms, “I will take it as an insult if you do not hug me!”
Alora giggled and returned the woman’s hug and got a joking, “Don’t be afraid to hug a little tighter, oh my god you could break me in half,” as she returned the hug.
Maria just realized that she was crying. She rubbed her tears away and nodded to Alora, “Alora, this is Tess. She’s my best friend in the world. She’s an amazing artist, and she owns this place.”
Alora stuttered and looked around, “This place is just amazing. It’s so nice to meet you.”
Tess waved her toward the back and lead the way proclaiming to all of her friends, “Everyone, this is Alora. She is Mare’s new girlfriend. I will take it as a personal affront if anyone flirts with her besides me.”
Maria watched them go and started to follow but felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She looked toward the door and there was a slender figure standing there. The woman was nearly as tall as Alora and dressed in casual business attire. She had long thick blonde hair that was bound into a complicated braid hanging over her right shoulder and sharp thin features. She recognized her of course. She winced away from the sight of her sister standing there in the light filtering through the doors staring at her with a flat expression.
She tried to turn away but only glanced back at Alora who was being mobbed by her circle of friends and raised a finger to her. The goddess gave her a concerned look. She walked back to the doorway and looked up at her sister with a sigh.
She nodded and bit her lip, “I know you are just my mind projecting my sister here but I miss you.”
Layla snorted and her lips cracked into a smile, “You can be so stupid sometimes.”
Maria sighed and moved in to hug her much taller sister muttering, “I’m sorry I took Mom’s side so often.”
Her sister hugged her tight and offered her own sigh, “I’m not going to tell you that I understood what you were doing. We both know that you are smart enough to know you would just be reassuring yourself.”
Maria chuckled and leaned away, “This is so fucking weird.” She looked back to the corner where Tess seemed to be giving Alora clothing suggestions and she said, “You want to meet my friends?”
Layla draped an arm around her shoulders and the two of them walked to the back corner to join the festivities.
Maria strode out onto the pristinely manicured green of Chase Stadium. She casually spun a pair of swords and whistled some tune she did not remember the words to. The sun beat down on her but she had long since discovered how to alter simple things like temperature in this mindscape.
The electronic billboards around her flashed with advertisements for items that only interested her.
An ad for an ancient video game she had played with Layla when they were kids.
An image of a pastoral green field in the middle of nowhere filled with lilting insects and an image of herself hiking with an expensive pack on her back.
The only person in the stands was Alora. The usually quiet goddess cupped her hands around her mouth and let out a yell, “You got this!”
Maria flashed her a smile. They had been living this strange life in the Bough for a month now. The raw attraction that they had felt for each other had long since overflowed into intimacy. Her mind had created a life for them that at least seemed normal. It was the sedentary life she had never known she wanted.
Alora was overjoyed to finally be spending time with someone who was not just concocted in her own mind and her propensity to be mystified with Earth technology and concepts was adorable.
Figures emerged from the dugouts, climbing onto the field and advancing toward her. Another appeared leaning against the railing over the home team dugout. Each of them was unique, but the same.
They were all her.
The first was a hulking woman, easily a foot taller than her and wearing heavy dull gray armor. The woman was an Ohzj with broad features and massive muscles. She carried a hulking axe that she needed both hands to carry. She was wearing a heavy helmet and looking out through the visor with a cold and empty expression.
The second was her grath form when she had been summoned as an Angelus. Less than three feet tall and in her heavy vogel fur cloak. If the heat bothered her she had never shown it. In one hand she carried a simple bow. She, at least, looked alert and had a measure of cunning behind her eyes.
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The figure in the stands was the lithe D’Vyre version of herself in a long black robe that was cut provocatively around the thigh and swung low around the neck-line. She had long sharp ears and wide pupiless golden eyes. She was wearing intricate gilded gloves around her slender hands and her fingernails were intricately marked with runes.
They were the versions of herself from the tutorial come to life.
She looked up at the pale D’Vyre version of herself and grumbled, “I would never fucking wear something like that.”
The robed woman pursed her lustrous black lips and smiled as she ran her hands down her sides, “We both know you would.”
The grath version of herself rasped, “Are we not here to train?”
The Ohzj tightened her grip on her axe and the wood creaked under the force.
Maria looked at the grath and asked, “You got somewhere to be?”
The D’Vyre woman called out, “None of us like to waste our time. Let’s do this.”
And with that, they were off. Maria had sparred like this once a week since she arrived in the Bough. The original strangeness of facing alternate versions of herself had worn off with surprising quickness.
The first battles were just against the grath. The battles started as simple exchanges and forms and advanced to full combats. Each had become more difficult than the first. The rules were always the same, when first blood was drawn that combatant was out of the challenge.
Something seemed different today. Each of her attackers seemed enraged, throwing every ounce of themselves into the fight.
The giant Ohzj had just stumbled past her with a roar and she used her right blade to make a small cut on her side. The hulking warrior dropped to her knees and started to collapse into dust bowing her head in defeat. The grath howled and let an arrow fly forcing Maria to roll aside.
She came up springing to her feet to asked, “What the hell has gotten into you bitches?”
A blade of earth, white hot and hissing shot up from the ground beneath her and sliced into her leg. She held up one of her swords and called out, “I’m hit, I’m out!”
The grath charged her instead, leading with her two swords. She hissed angrily, “How could you forget!?”
The D’Vyre waved a hand and small chips of metal broke free from the rails around her and heated as they lanced across the space like bullets, throwing up chunks of astroturf with each strike. Maria took one to the shoulder and rolled with the hit coming up within striking range of the grath. The small ape-like warrior dropped her bow and drew a pair of blades to face her.
Behind vines burst from the stands and wrapped around the D’Vyre caster, tightening around the slender woman and lifting her from the ground.
She heard Alora cry out, “Are you ok?”
She huffed in pain and responded, “I’m good,” as she weaved her blades in quick succession. Each deflection rang out as she tried to best the little grath warrior. Her acrobatics skills were on par with her real avatar on Eilyth and it made her almost impossible to hit.
The grath hissed through gritted teeth, “You aren’t even looking for her!”
Maria deflected one of the little creature’s blades aside and locked the guard of her second blade with her opponent. She spun the blade, disarmed her foe and then drove her other sword through the chest of the grath. The little warrior stumbled to her knees and looked up with a lost and hollow expression as she said, “We could have saved…,” before she faded into dust.
Maria slumped to her knees. Alora vaulted over the railing and down to the field to rush to her side. She reached out and put a gentle hand on her wound and sent a burst of golden healing into it. The rapidly healing flesh pushed the small chunk of metal free. The goddess slid her hand to her cheek and asked, “Are you ok?”
Maria tried to catch her breath and asked, “What the hell was that?”
Alora brow furrowed and she frowned, “I think there is something you have forgotten, or been forced to forget that your subconscious wants you to remember.”
Maria gave her a worried look and slid her arms around the woman embracing her as thoughts of the strange encounter whirled through her head.
–
Maria checked her phone in the passenger seat and tossed it aside with a wince. She wheeled into an open spot in the parking garage. How lucky was she that it was the closest to the elevator? She climbed out of her jeep and grabbed some bags from the back and hurried to the doors.
The elderly Latina in the elevator held it for her and she gave her a smile and a nod. She vaguely recognized her as Mrs. Ramirez who taught her in the tenth grade. Just another shade pulled from her memory.
The two of them rode up toward her floor. Maria focused forward and lost in thought until Mrs. Ramirez asked, “Oh Maria, how is your mother doing?”
She gave a quick glance over her shoulder with a strained smile and replied, “She’s fine.”
The elderly woman chuckled darkly and said, “We both know you haven’t seen her.”
Maria blinked and took a sharp breath as she turned back to the doors as a ding echoed over her head. She walked out and to a door down the hall. She could already hear the dull murmur of people from beyond the door. She got to the door and knocked only to have it opened immediately by a wild eyed Alora uttering an exasperated, “Where have you been?,” before ushering her into the kitchen of the apartment and directing her to set down the bags.
Alora was, once again, wearing an apron and while she had dressed nicely she was disheveled and looked harried. Maria leaned into her side and kissed her on the cheek. Some of the goddess’ tension deflated as she gave her a side eye and a half smile, “I could almost forgive you for being late.”
Maria grinned at her and leaned against the counter, “Me? Late for our six month celebration? I would never.”
Alora gave her a wry look and started gathering things from the bags. She nodded to the larger apartment, “Your sister wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Hmm,” she turned toward the crowded apartment to find Layla. Alora grabbed her shoulder and asked in a whisper, “Are you ok?”
Maria gave her a quick sidelong look and whispered, “I have been having more weird encounters. After that fight at the stadium, where my shades kept saying strange things, everything was fine for a while. But over the last few days I have kept running into people from my past. People who either knew my mother or knew me when I was with Christie. They keep asking me if I have seen them or talked to them.”
