The season of springtime was over halfway over at this point, the sun growing in intensity with each passing day. Whenever the rains came they rolled across the sky and refreshed the lands below. At the moment I was sitting outside the mountain temple where the book to my goddess domain was stored. I was at my normal goddess size to be more comfortable, the human size too cramped to stay in all the time. My legs were stretched out into the forest between the pine trees and I was leaning back using my arms for support.

My high priest was sitting with me, as close as he felt safe doing anyway. Timothy was still human after all and being even this close to someone of my size was going to be unnerving no matter how much he trusted me. That was ok with me as I his safety was important to me. He was talking to me about the powers he had received and asking about the nature of my own powers.

"If you granted me these powers goddess" Timothy asked. "Does that mean you could just give anyone any power you wanted? Could you give me the ability to use magic?"

His eyes seemed to be full of excitement at the idea. Honesty I didn't know the actual limits of my power granting powers. Gods and goddesses from myth and fantasy usually had limits placed on their powers based on the setting itself or culture associated with them. In this world so far it seemed my mana was the limiting factor, as in how many worshipers I had.

His question about granting him the ability to use magic: yes I remembered gods being able to grant such a thing. If I remembered one common trope of deities its that they could have champions such as paladins or clerics. People that were gifted a fraction of the god's divine power in order to perform miracles or magic spells. I suppose technically I've already created two of those in Miya and Timothy, not to mention the occasional times I grant temporary powers to people like that kid.

I break my silence finally, having been lost in thought a few moments.

"Well goddesses can grant their worshipers powers both permanent and temporary. Obviously you've experienced this yourself. If my hypothesis is correct I could give you any power I wanted as long as it doesn't overreach my own."

I let Timothy take that in before I continued.

"Granting you the ability to use magic? Yeah I think in a limited sense I could. You would get essentially an allotment of 'spell casts' that you would need to have refilled from me directly."

Timothy gasped in excitement and jumped to his feet. He ran around my body from where he was near my right side and in front of me next to my leg. His face was one of desperate longing and made him look even more like a cute tiny animal.

"Please Goddess Jenna!" he begged. "Please let me use a spell! I beg you even once!"

With a deep sigh I rolled my eyes. His little puppy dog begging was hard to ignore.

"Fine... I'll try it out. Wait there."

Closing my eyes I dropped down into the goddess zone and appeared next to the table. Miya was sitting on the couch nearby and had been watching us interacting. Usually we had internal conversations even while I was doing things but sometimes she respectfully kept quiet so I could focus on the person at hand.

"Hello Jenna!" she said smiling.

I waved to her. "Hey Miya. I'm gunna try something crazy here so wish me luck."

Miya giggled. "Good luck Jenna! Not that you'll really need it."

I turned back around to the map laid out before me and sighed at the large amount of prayers stacked up in the notifications. Quickly I took care of them, sorting out the ones that were most important and leaving some less pressing ones for later. This all took almost ten minutes in internal time, which would only be like one for Timothy.

After that was done I brought up Timothy on the nearby screen. He was labeled as a worshiper and my high priest with all his vitals clearly laid out. It was pretty cool actually. He seemed to be developing a cold but I wouldn't intervene and heal that until he asked for it, which he eventually would.

I put my left hand to my chin. "Hmm..."

With motions from my hands I brought the screen down in front of me and I thought a new tab of sorts into existence on his readout. It read "spell slots" and appeared underneath his status of "high priest." Thankfully that actually worked and I laughed out loud with a HA.

Miya stood up and walked over to look over my head.

"What is it Jenna? Did it work?"

I briefly tilted my head up and back to look at her over me before looking back at the screen in front of me.

"It seems step one went off without a hitch. Now what kind of spell should I grant? Usually gods give you spells based on their own domain or along a theme. A goddess of fire would only give out fire based spells for example."

"I'm still not sure what a spell is exactly" Miya said rubbing her own chin.

"Its just-" I started saying but cut myself off.

What exactly is a spell specifically? I guess in its most simple form a spell is just a particular magical effect that's been labeled and specified so it can be reproduced easily. Like a mass produced magic tool one can pass on to others. Yeah that's a good way to put it!

"Well its like a mass produced magical effect, like a book I guess. You write down words in a book so others can learn about it and anyone can reproduce it easily. Magic spells are the same thing, just for magic. If I learned how to make a fireball consistently I could teach others the way I did it and then they could too."

Miya's eyes lit up with excitement. "That's so amazing!" Her excitement dropped again. "But most people can't do magic at all."

I nodded. "Mhm. What I'm going to be doing here is granting some of my magical power directly to Timothy. He'll be able to cast the spell only as many times as I give him the power for. Lets say I'll give him one fireball. It's a bit... Overkill. But why the heck not?"

With another few thoughts and hand gestures I added the term fireball under Timothy's spells with a number indication of one x. It seemed to appear without issue and wondered how he would actually cast it. Maybe just a verbal and mental component. His readout also showed his body containing some magical power.

I turned around and nodded up at Miya.

"Alright I'm heading out again. Lets see if this works!"

After leaving the goddess zone I opened my eyes and was once again in the clearing with Timothy standing down by my leg like a little bug. His new mana allotment was clearly visible inside him when I used goddess vision.

Timothy was feeling himself over and looked very confused.

"Hey goddess. I feel weird. Its like there's this warm feeling inside me that I've never felt before."

With a warm smiled I nodded and reached down. I carefully gave him a pat on the head with my huge fingertip which he blushed in embarrassment from.

"That's right!" I exclaimed. "You now have some of my own mana inside you! I granted you one use of the spell 'fireball' which you'll have to try using."

Timothy looked up in confusion and embarrassment.

"Y-Your mana is inside me? W-What kind of spell is fireball?"

I shook my head and grinned.

"Silly humie. Having my mana in you isn't anything to be embarrassed about! I mean I guess it is sort of personal but its not anything more than a gift got it?"

He nodded and gulped, his shame lessening greatly.

"Anyway..." I continued. "Fireball is a large explosion of fire that bursts out from a single point. It's pretty freakin destructive so you better be careful with it."

Timothy's face went pale and he staggered backwards in shock.

"W-Why did you give me such a d-dangerous spell goddess?"

I just shrugged and gave him an innocent look.

"I dunno! Why not? Its not like you're gunna hurt someone with me right here right? Just think about a burst of flame and point somewhere nearby. Then say 'fireball!'"

He nodded and gulped again, turning away from me and looking around. After a few moments he stopped a large rock pile and turned to face it.

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"I g-guess I'll try it on those rocks..."

"Go ahead!" I said in encouragement.

Timothy took a deep breath and closed his eyes, likely concentrating on what he was about to and gathering courage. After a few moments he pointed at the rocks and opened his eyes.

"Fireball!"

The effect was immediate. All in the span of fractions of a second a streak of glowing heat shot out from his fingertip and hit the pile of rocks. Instantly after making contact a large explosion of fire burst forth on the pile of rocks like a pack of TNT going off. Shards of rock flew in all directions like shrapnel as the smoke billowed into the sky.

Timothy shrieked and covered his face with his arms as the chucks of rock flew through the air. I wasn't going to let him get hurt of course and I put my hand down between him and the explosion. All of the rock bits bounced harmlessly off the back of my hand and fell to the ground, some of them still smoking. Once the rubble had finished falling back to earth I removed my hand.

Both of us looked to where the pile of rocks had been. Of course most of them were still there however the damage was extensive. Even I was impressed! Timothy of course was standing slack jaw in shock at the scene. Large chucks of the pile were now gone with fractured debris all over the place. Some of the tiny shards of stone flying as far away as a hundred feet.

Timothy finally collected himself enough to speak.

"G-Goddess... What h-have I done?"

I just shrugged.

"You blew up some rocks. Now you know why fireball is so dangerous."

He just shuddered and patted himself over still checking himself for damage.

"I wont give you anymore fireballs ok?" I continued. "For now how about some more on brand spells. I was thinking stuff like speak with animals, identify, shield, and stun creature."

Timothy looked up at me and gulped.

"What kind of spells are those goddess?"

I let out a huff and tapped my fingers on the ground, the thumping felt but not intense like my footsteps.

"Speak with animals should be self explanatory. You can talk to animals. Identify lets you get information on anything or anyone you're touching. Shield will give you a shell of magic that will protect you from most anything. Then last stun creature will prevent a creature you target from moving unless they resist it. I'll give you enough mana for like six spell castings. You can use any of them any number of times until you reach six casts. Sound good?"

It took almost a minute for Timothy to fully process all the information I had given him. During this time a bunch more prayers came in which made me sigh in annoyance. I had to wait for Timothy right now and once he had finally understood it he looked up at me and then bowed deeply.

"Thank you great goddess Jenna! Thank you for allowing me this amazing gift! I can't even believe it still..."

I waved my hand dismissively.

"Yes yes you're welcome. You're now officially a cleric of Jenna so you better not abuse this power. Now I'll have to dismiss you for now ok? Go have fun little guy."

He understood I was now too busy to spend more time with him and only asked me to send him back to Norlov which I did. It was as easy as opening a portal to one of my worshipers there and dropping him through with my hand. My gigantic hand just showing up somewhere always caught people by surprise but to me it was just too convenient.

Once he was gone I closed my eyes and went back into the goddess zone. Miya was still there of course as was the readout for Timothy.

"It seems it went well then goddess?" Miya asked.

I nodded and let out a small sigh. Then I added all the spells I had mentioned to Timothy.

"Yeah it went fine. Of course he'll have to put in a great deal of effort to get used to this magic casting system. What's bothering me right now is the constant prayers."

After dismissing the screen I turned around to look at the map. All of my worshipers were listed on a nearby screen should I want them and at will I could zoom to any of them on the map. There were just so many of them now and their prayers were increasing in number with each passing day. It was starting to get overwhelming.

"There's just so many worshipers now!" I lamented. "They just keep praying and praying, the number of things they want getting more complicated and just sorting through them is getting to be too much."

Miya smiled gently and walked over to give me a pat on the shoulders.

"I'm sure you can handle it Jenna. I believe in you!"

With a deep sigh I turned and walked across to the other end of the map table. Then I began pacing back to where Miya was.

"That's just the problem: I can't handle it! If only there was some way to automatically sort and answer prayers. I can get them all listed in one place of course but that doesn't help them get answered."

As I paced back and forth I put my hands behind my back and really racked my brain for solutions. From my previous life I remembered things called computers: pieces of technology that could sort and perform tasks automatically after being setup. The human brain and in extension the mind worked in the manner, which of course meant my goddess versions did too. The subconscious was the underlying automatic process of the brain and as far as I could tell I had one too. Being a goddess could I interact with it? Direct it?

I stopped pacing and turned to Miya.

"I'm about to do something totally crazy. I'm going to try and summon my subconscious. Can you go sit down for me?"

Miya looked confused but followed my directions. She went over to the couch and sat down without a fuss.

With her out of the way I took a deep breath. This could go really well or really badly. Of course my subconscious was part of me so its not like it would be hostile or anything, but this was like one of those unprecedented things. Who knows what could happen or what the long term effects would be? I'm sure whatever happened I'd be able to handle them though. Lets try this out then!

As I closed my eyes I thought deeply about the inner workings of my own mind. About what my subconscious would look like, where it would appear, and how it would communicate. Using all my willpower I tried to bring it up and out in front of me. There was great strain in my head and even some pain, like trying to pull a fallen try from a lake with your bare hands or lift a huge rock from deep in the water.

I pulled and pulled mentally, groaning and straining through the pain. Eventually however and suddenly the pain stopped. It was like the weight I had been struggling against suddenly let go. I was sent stumbling backwards as I heard Miya gasping.

Immediately I opened my eyes. "What?"

What I saw shocked even me.

Standing in front of me was, well myself. It was a perfect copy of me down to the strands of hair on my head and stitches in my clothing. She was just standing there motionless and staring straight ahead at me. There was something profoundly off about this copycat however and it took a moment for me to notice. It was her eyes: her eyes were blank in a thousand mile stare. There was no light in them. Her skin as well was just slightly off color like a pale reflection of me.

All in all it was like those classic movies and video games where your doppelganger shows up and fights you. Of course in this case it wasn't openly hostile and hadn't moved at all. That changed in a disturbing way however when I started moving, its gaze following after me.

"H-Hello?" I stammered nervously.

Miya had stood up and was clutching her chest in fear.

"Jenna! I-Is that really you?"

The clone was still just watching wherever I was moving and didn't say anything or move. It was just closely observing and didn't betray any emotions at all. This was actually pretty freaky.

Taking a chance I walked up to her and waved my hand in front of her face.

"H-Hey there! Can you hear me? Can you talk?"

She suddenly opened her mouth and spoke which was both a great relief and worry to me. Her voice was monotone and almost as devoid of emotion like her eyes were. However when she spoke it was slowly and almost poignantly.

"This is a bad idea."

She was just saying what I was already thinking. However its not like this kind of thing always ended in disaster and there was always a way to undo it. I decided to put my hands on my hips and respond confidently.

"It's fine! I trust myself."

She looked me up and down.

"That's true."

At this point Miya had gathered enough courage to take a few steps closer to the two of us. Then with a wave from me to invite her over she walked to where we both were standing.

"T-This really is you Jenna?" she asked in awe. "What is she? A copy?"

I shook my head and looked up at Miya, my double doing the same thing.

"No this is my subconscious. Its the part of me that lurks below the surface of thoughts, always there and running your dreams and thoughts when you don't realize it. You have one too."

The clone looked up at Miya's face and spoke again.

"It's annoying having you in here. My privacy is ruined. It's my fault you're here so helping you is the least I can do."

Miya crossed her arms over her chest and huffed in indignation.

"Hey! Your subconscious is mean Jenna!"

This made me let out a nervous chuckle. This really was my subconscious after all. That was how I truly felt about this situation after all. I didn't want Miya to know that though as it would hurt her feelings. It's probably best I don't go into more detail about the subconscious.

"Y-Yeah sorry about that" I replied while rubbing the back of my head. I then turned to my subconscious. "Anyway just calling you subconscious is gunna get old soon. What kind of nickname could I give you?"

All three of us stood in silence for a few moments while I thought. Eventually I got an idea and snapped my fingers.

"Aha! I got it! Since you're my subconscious why not something like 'Sub-chan?' That sounds cute!"

The newly named Sub-chan made no comments and her eyes remained emotionless. Miya clapped her hands and seemed to like it. Having a name was already taking away much of her fear of the unknown.

"So Sub-chan" I continued. "Do you want to help me out with something?"

Sub-chan looked me square in the eye before responding.

"We're aware why we called to us."

With her continued lack of rebuttal I laughed nervously and walked over to the side of the map where all the big screens were. I then willed a big curved desk into existence, like the ones inside hotel lobbies. After that was done I turned back to Sub-chan.

"So well here's where I was thinking you could hang out and help with the prayers. I guess you were already sort of doing that anyway right? I mean it would really help if you could be more active in the process. Would you please help me out with this?"

Without saying another word Sub-chan walked over to the desk and went around the back. She took up position there like a receptionist and sat down on the little fabric chair I had summoned.

I walked in front of the desk and put my hands down on it. There was still a hint of nervousness in my voice.

"You can arrange the workspace however you want! Really whatever makes you comfortable and stuff ok? I'll still be helping out too of course!"

After looking at the desk for a few moments she looked back up to me.

"We accept our proposal. Our processing power has vastly increased since our last life. We will notify ourselves if any issues occur."

This seemed to be as much of a conformation as I'd be getting from my subconscious. She was already arranging the various screens detailing prayers and creating new things as well. There was even a phone on the desk now that she would probably be using for direct contact to someone praying to us. It was a cute way to use our telepathy and something I would have done myself. Of course being me she was doing what I would do.

Seeing that behavior gave me great relief. If she wasn't going to do anything I wouldn't normally do then my fears of her going on a rampage were unfounded. Well at least as far as situations I wouldn't rampage myself. Its not like Sub-chan was in control of my body at all anyway. Her lack of emotion and general focus on logic might cause slight issues but it was clear she would share my moral compass.

"Thank you so much Sub-chan!" I said happily. "This is amazing!"

She didn't answer me beyond a quick glance before going back to the work she was doing. Miya and I just stood to the side in front of the desk and watched what she was doing with great wonder and curiosity respectfully.

To satisfy my curiosity I watched her answer a few prayers and she didn't do anything I wouldn't have myself. It seems this experiment was a success! This was a huge burden off my shoulders and I'd still need to be aware of incoming prayers enough to help Sub-chan out. I couldn't leave everything to my subconscious after all!