I move myself from the unconscious and into the dream world. I should probably make an ego that listens in the unconscious whenever she's asleep so I don't miss anything important. I'll ask her later. Right now I need to make sure she's all right.

The surroundings didn't change much. She dreamed back up my wonderland. I sat in the same recliner I did earlier. The fire was still roaring with its ever-burning flame. The room looked just as I left it aside from Celestine missing, the blanket I manifested on top of her sitting alone on the couch. Well, she's here somewhere. I might as well work on improving the cabin a little.

First thing I did was create a chain coming from the ceiling over top the dining table. The chain looked like the chain that the acolytes were holding earlier to hold their mini giant black crystals. Well, regular sized black crystals? I liked the design, so I enlarged the chains, gave them a black color like wrought iron to match well with the color of the wood, then created four floating light crystals. I connected four branching chains off the main chain and connected the light crystals to it. The crystals bobbed up and down like they did in that chamber. I created four more, positioned them under the first four and offset them so when looking at the chains from the bottom, they would appear like an eight-pointed star with the chains. From the side, they looked like a decent chandelier. If I didn't know about these light crystals, I probably would have used candles, but this looked much better. I wonder if there's a magic alternative for a fireplace in this world? Wasn't really much of a need for heating in the climate Celestine lives.

Satisfied with my work, I move to the hallway. There is some room for improving here, too. The two desks were fine, though they could use some lighting too. There were no windows against the wall there, so there could be something behind them since the outside wall stretched a little further back. I decided to make a secret library room accessible from the bookshelf. Pull a book out, the bookshelf between the desks swings open to reveal a room with several more books. No idea what to put in the books, though. Maybe I should make this an art gallery for Celestine instead. I'll give her a tour of the renovations later.

Closing the bookshelf secret door, I turned to the stairs to the right of the front door and walked up them. I hadn't done anything to the top floor, so imagine my surprise when I saw it fully furnished. The walls were slanted up at a 45 degree angle in accordance with the roof above, though the wall/ceiling facing the rear of the cabin, to my right, had two huge panes of glass windows, facing up to the starry night sky. Under the closest pane of glass was a mess of art supplies like easels, sketchbooks, some empty portfolios, brushes, a coat rack with some aprons on it, and a white tarp on the floor. This girl had put a lot of thought into this career choice she was demanding we go down. The painting area she created was separated by the movable walls like those that were in the medical ward earlier. This whole upstairs was completely open floor. No bedrooms, no hallways. The stairs just opened up into a blank space. So the walls were put there probably because she wasn't sure how to dream up proper walls. I'll leave it like this for now. It fits well. On the other side of the space, under the second pane of glass, were two full-sized beds with the heads against the wall, with room for one more bed toward the far wall. Laying on the bed with peach-colored covers and white blankets stained blue by the light leaking in from the sky above, was a little girl with black hair in a purple nightgown looking about five years old. In her arms, she gripped the teddy bear I had given her tight enough that if it was alive, she'd have strangled it.

I walked over, walked between the beds, and sat down on the other bed. I just looked down at her tear-stained eyes. She was probably crying while I was screwing with that chandelier and making that secret room. I manifested a white handkerchief, leaned over, and gently cleaned her face.

After that was done, I sat back on the bed and just waited. I looked up at the stars again. They weren't moving. So she didn't manage to recreate this cabin perfectly when she started to dream. It wasn't a big deal. I hoped we wouldn't be here for too much longer.

Just to break the silence, I said simply, "" I put the translation square into her field of vision. She still didn't know English, after all. Might take a year or two for her to fully grasp it even with her memory.

"I hate you." were the only words out of her mouth. Needles in my heart. Ouch. If I had eyes, I'd cry.

"" I said, trying to cast blame, but in the end I only put it back onto myself. If I hadn't claimed I was a god to them, they wouldn't have done that ceremony. Whether it hurt like hell because she was underage or because I was here, I don't think anyone can quite say. Probably the later, though. I had no idea what that ritual thing did to her. ""

"It's not that." She said plainly.

Was there something else I did? ""

"No. It's that... When I went to sleep... you weren't here. I came up here to lay on a bed, but it was all empty. So I tried to make things like you did. And even after making all of this, you weren't here. I thought... The ceremony maybe..." She was starting to cry again, speaking a few words between gasps. I cleaned the handkerchief with a flick and handed it to her. "It hurt so much... I thought... you disappeared... when you weren't here. After... what you showed... me..."

"" I said with a chuckle. "" I shrugged, still looking down at her.

She didn't respond, just laid there wiping her face with the white cloth I gave her. I looked around the room to get a better picture of everything. She really just piled a bunch of stuff into the corner right by the stairs. Everything else up here is rather empty. Not as fully furnished as I first though. I looked up at the ceiling. The angle was perpendicular to the other half of the cabin. That's going to look weird from above. How do I merge those roofs so they don't look awkward when they connect to each other? I looked over at the far wall. Actually, there really didn't need to be a wall there. A balcony above the doorway below would look nice overlooking the living area. And I could lower the ceiling above the kitchen and turn that into a storage area on this floor.

I stood up to go over there to get a good look while I changed things when something gripped me before I could take two steps. I look down at my waist and I see Celestine, arms wrapped around my waist, her body both half on and off the bed.

"" was all I could say. I was never good with talking to others, why do you think I made split personalities in my head to talk to?! What do I say now? "" I pat her head to try to get her to let me go. No use. I sigh, then turned and sat on her bed so at least she wouldn't fall over onto the floor. ""

"I unno." She said, half muffled against my stomach.

""

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"Okay... How do I wake up?"

"" Huh? I looked down and she was was gone. Scary child. Though, I don't think I did much mental reprogramming my own head until I was 20, so perhaps she being young, this stuff just kinda comes naturally. Yeah, let's go with that.

I bring myself out of the dream world and back into her short term memory to process what is happening.

Aaaand Celestine is in a very tight hug with Sylvianna now.

"Momma, I'm fiiine. Unh, I can't breathe..." Celestine's voice trailed into a whisper before Sylvianna released her. Then we got a good look around while Sylvianna was voicing her worries. Won't go into that in too much detail. Though I think the ceremony traumatized Sylvianna more than it did Celestine...

The surroundings were exactly like the medical ward. Celestine laid on the same table with the same thin padding as before. She had been changed back into her regular clothes. The robe that I assume she wore earlier was hung up by a hook on a movable wall right next to the black one Sylvianna had worn. The robe was... What the hell, I should have expected this. The robe's base color was black now, but where there should be a galaxy of a certain color, there was a great big X. Not a solid X, though. It was shaped like two galaxies were overlapping each other across the chest. And the color? Static. And the static was actually moving. Like the robe was a television with an X shaped screen and there was just multicolored static.

"Huh." Celestine's voice said plainly, looking at the robe. "I don't have to wear that thing, do I?"

Sylvianna took the time to wipe her eyes and looked at the robe too. "Nnno, well, during certain times of the year maybe. But otherwise it will just hang in the closet next to mine."

"I don't wanna wear it! It looks stupid! And that buzzing colors gives me a headache!" HEY! That was a stab at me wasn't it? She knows I'm listening in. The static looks just like my skin. You were hugging me and crying not five minutes ago!

"Sounds like someone is awake." The man in the black and white robes walked in. This was the first time seeing him this close up. Usually he's seen loitering during church services near the altar while the acolytes spoke passages from some book. He was your typical old man wizard looking guy. Face all wrinkles. Long white beard that ended at his robe collar, straggly white hair on his head making it look like he hadn't combed in years. A permanent case of bed head. Sky blue eyes behind half-crescent glasses. The old woman in black and yellow, who didn't look so old compared to the old man, came in behind him with a book in her arms against her chest. The old man spoke again, "You sound healthy. I just wanted to speak with you and your mother for a moment."

"Sh-Sure." Celestine was suddenly shy. Actually, now that I think of it, this girl is rarely around men. Raised to the age of five with no father figure in her life. She gets shy whenever there are men around. She will hug her mother's shadow like her life depended on it in public. She was even very skittish when charcoal-eyed man was speaking to her earlier when she was first brought in. Does she have androphobia?

Sylvianna moved from the chair she had been sitting in beside the table for the old man to sit. "Well, first of all, I want to apologize profusely for any pain the ceremony might have caused. We've never performed it on someone so young, let alone someone with the blessing of a god. We should have made better precautions."

"I-it's okay. Novos was comforting me in my dream..." She said, turning quiet and looking down. Wait, that was comforting? I barely said anything and told her to wake up shortly after.

The old man coughed at hearing the new information about the capabilities of this new 'god' and continued, a smile on his face after he processed the information, "Well, he must have taken a liking to you to produce results like these." He said, motioning to the woman. She pulled out a sheet of parchment from the book she was holding.

"He?" Celestine asked.

"Lord Novos is male, correct?" The man asked.

"I-I don't know. I don't think he-they know either. It's strange. Whenever they speak in my dream, their voice is like two people speaking at once. One man, one woman."

"So Novos is neither male or female. Or perhaps both?" Can we stop talking about me now? Please? I'm self-conscious enough about my lack of genitalia as it is... "Anyway, from what Jorald said when he examined you after the ceremony, we can only come to one conclusion. The gods have blessed you with three >#&%#%!$<"

"What's a >#&%#%!$

"A >#&%#%!$< is a direct line to the gods. It allows you to borrow their power to perform feats of magic. You'll get a more detailed explanation when you're in school, but I will explain it as best as I can now. The ceremony calls to the gods to build a line between them and you. Once it is complete, the ceremony ends and you can use their power." Ooo-kay, that still doesn't explain what the word means very well. Is it mana or mana regen? Or magic power in general?

"I-I'm confused."

"Think of it this way. There is a pipe from the gods to you. They are constantly sending water to you, enough to fill the pipe. And at the end, there is a faucet. The amount of water you can get depends on how wide the pipe is and how much you've turned the faucet. You can bring the faucet to full to draw as much water as you want, but you are limited by how wide the pipe is. That is how magic works. The wider the pipe, the more powerful spells you can perform. It all depends on how much magic power the gods have allowed you to take."

Sooo, it's a conduit. A magic conduit. This is quite a bit different than traditional magic systems in Earth fiction and games where you have a pool of mana to draw on for spells then you have to wait for it to refill or drink a mana pot... The magic is always flowing into the body, it's always there and you can use it freely. You're only limited by how much magic the gods have given you.

"So, back to your results. Jorald was getting mixed results when trying to look at the size of your magic conduit, so we have determined that you have three separate conduits." The old man said, bringing the topic back to where we were.

"Is that normal?" Celestine asked. I get the feeling it is anything but.

"NnnNooo, no no." He said with a chuckle. "Everyone only has one. But you have three. That could explain the pain that the ceremony caused and the strange robe."

So she's OP right out the gate, then? Sounds like they're going to force her into a magic school of some sort, which might be against her wishes. This got complicated fast.

But why three? I would be fine if he said she had two. There's her soul and mine after all. But why three? Where does the need for a third conduit come from?

OF. FUCKING. COURSE. YOU! YOOOOOOOU! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!

Why am I yelling at a servitor I created? I give up.