I watch as Trigger looks sideways, then rolls his eyes and refocuses. I glance over at Twila, who sat down next to me at some point and is now rubbing my shoulder. I raise my eyebrow at her, and she taps the side of her head and mouths “Alastor.” Oh, right. He can talk to Alastor like I can talk to Twila in my head. I turn back to Trigger and intentionally open my mind a bit. ‘Alastor?’ I think in his direction. Trigger raises an eyebrow.

‘Yes?’ I hear into my mind.

‘Who are you? Where did you come from? How did you meet Trigger?’ I query.

Trigger smiles. ‘I am an eldritch parasite forged by the titans on the outer rim of the multiverse, we met eons ago, he was just starting out, and I was offered to boost his powers.’

“Hopefully that answers that.” Trigger smirks at me. I blush.

“Sorry, I wasn’t trying to avoid you, I just thought it would be more polite this way,” I say sheepishly.

Trigger nods, “If you like, I can forge telepathic links between you two and myself, they will let us communicate over any distance.” I hesitate.

“Umm, is it permanent? And can I sleep on it first? Twila may do whatever she likes, but I just met you a few hours ago. I’m not opposed, just, I’d like to know you better before allowing you into my mind like that.”

“Fair enough, the bond is relatively permanent, I can break it if I like, but you can’t. I also cannot control you in this method, and your blessing prevents my other methods from working on you.”

“Other methods…? You can control people?”

“Psychic powers do come with that as a possibility, I am able to affect people’s emotions and senses to guide them, or, more horrifically, lock them in a full sensory hallucination. You are safe from such manipulation, however.”

I stare at him for a moment. I don’t know what surprises me more, that he has such powers, or that he freely admits to them. My rice has gone cold on my lap, I realize.

“Umm… I’m glad?” I say after an awkward silence.

Trigger smiles, he does that often, I notice. He must have been accustomed to it before he got fangs. Now, it’s more unsettling than he seems to realize.

“So.. what are you able to do?” asks Trigger.

“I can… heal people, mostly,” I say haltingly. I look at Twila and mouth “help!” She smirks at me and takes over.

“Lillith just got back to Earth and didn’t have a lot of time to experiment with her powers before that. She’s asked me to help her remember how to use them, but we haven’t gotten a chance yet.” Twila says to Trigger. “I suppose you’ll see all of them in a while, but most of her abilities were designed to heal and protect and go unnoticed. Also, she’s an angel.” Twila finishes. Trigger nods.

“I noticed you morphing from angel form, which is why I… watched you.” He says. I nod.

“Sorry I don’t know more, but that’s why I want to figure out how to do… whatever it is I can do,” I say. I feel like he deserves an explanation for some reason. “Until I know myself, I don’t feel like I’ll be much use to anyone.”

“That sounds like a good reason to figure out your powers,” He agrees, “I can help you with training, my body is fairly well built.” I find something else to look at a few seconds too late, having already flushed bright red.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

‘Very funny, maybe try something a little less subtle next time.’ Alastor laughs into all of our minds. Trigger glances away for a few seconds and fights back a smile.

TRIGGER

‘Good grief Alastor, funny yes, but really?’ I think to him, ‘I don’t need to scare that girl any more than I already do!’ I look away for a moment then look back at the girls. Lillith is still red, but seems to be fighting a smile, and Twila is giggling.

“Well built indeed,” Twila comments, nudging Lillith playfully. Lilith groans and puts a cream cheese wonton to Twila’s mouth.

“Here, eat this and stop talking.” She jokes.

I snort, and say, “So, Earth is probably not a great place to be, so what say we jump somewhere else?”

Twila munches on the cream cheese treat, turning to Lillith for her response. Lilith shrugs.

“I don’t really have anything holding me here, I guess. I, my family thinks I’m dead, and I’m not sure that telling them I’m not, but that I’m immortal and it’s not safe for me on Earth and I’m leaving with a vampire I just met who has a parasite in his brain and my friend from a past life who is actually an ancient book… I’m not sure it would be any more comforting for them. I don’t think they’d take it well. And I don’t think they would be safe after that if they believed me anyway.” She says this with a half-smile, but her eyes look sad. I nod,

“I’m in a similar boat. Sadly, probably the best course of action is to just leave, we are hunted here, we can’t go home, and have no other real ties to this planet. I forgot to ask, how good are your jumping skills?”

“Well, the creature that looked into my brain before I returned to Earth said that I could jump once a week if I chose. I’ve never done it, except accidentally when I thought I was going to die.”

“Good to know, I should be able to jump once per week, and I am fully charged, so if we want to go now, we can.”

Lillith nods slowly. “Alright then.” She says. “Umm… I guess I should put my house away?” She stands and looks around. “Or can we jump from inside here?”

“I have no idea, Alastor?” ‘Jumps can be made from inside the pocket plane to a random or preset world, the only place you cannot jump to is the world you are already connected to from the portal.’ “That answers that, I still haven’t made a telepathic link with you all yet, but we can survive a few days without it.”

Lillith nods. “Thank you. I’m just still getting used to all this and I don’t think I want anything else in my head yet. So… should we jump then? Or do we need any supplies from Earth first?”

“I found that hacking into the Internet and storing tons of data was useful, it's a fast process if you have a brain chip, otherwise, we can make do, I think. Not much can kill me, and I can protect you, besides, with the house as a safe zone, and my blessing of creation, I can render what we need.”

“I have one,” Lillith says, blinking a bit. “A brain chip, I mean. How fast is it?”

“Ten minutes, give or take”

“Alright, so, I just need to focus?”

“Basically, you give the AI guidelines on what you want, and it’ll find everything that fits those descriptions and download them.”

Lillith nods. “That makes sense.” She blinks rapidly a few times and then smiles.

“You may need a connection to the network, I just assumed I did, and ran from there.”

Lillith shrugs. “I still have my cell phone in my pocket, I told it to use that. It seems to be working, although I don’t really know how this house operates. If it’s on Earth I mean, or if we’ve completely left the planet while we’re in here?”

“I would assume that since we cannot jump back to the planet that we portaled to here on, we are still technically here, and if you have connections made outside, the house seems to support cellular tech in some fashion.”

Lillith smiles. “Seems like it.” She agrees. She drifts off into her head again, blinking a few times. “It’s a lot to take in.”

“It is.”

“I think my AI is done now.” Lillith states after a few minutes.

“Very well, ready to jump?” I ask.

Twila bounces excitedly on the couch. “Yes, please.” She says. Lillith nods.

“Alrighty then, let's go. Within two meters please.” I focus on powering my jump as the girls scoot closer to where I’m sitting. In a blink, we appear on a new world.