“So, you’re telling me that this…” Linea mentioned towards Sarah, “human is part of my soul?”

Linea was still failing to understand, how a human could be a part of her. And how they would have gotten separated in the first place.

“That’s what I said,” Tavarial sighed exasperated. “Just go over to her and shake each other’s hand or something.”

The angel had tried to explain Linea’s situation to her for several minutes, but she couldn’t believe it. The human woman was prudent enough to not interfere as she realized the abrasiveness of the Elven girl.

“Why would I shake hands with a human? And what would that accomplish?” Linea asked and crossed her arms.

Tavariel groaned.

“By the name of all the gods, for once just do what a superior tells you! Or else I’m gonna shoot you right down to where you came from. No talking to any goddess!”

Linea blenched, and her eyes grew wider.

“But I need to talk to her!”

Tavariel just pointed at Sarah and nodded towards her as an order to talk to her.

“Urgh, fine! But if I get any diseases from her, I will hold you responsible!” Linea stated and walked over. Sarah stood up from her bench and awaited Linea without coming towards her. Linea stopped before Sarah and they had a moment to examine each other closely.

“Hi, I’m Sarah. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” Sarah started and offered a handshake.

Linea just looked at the hand and found it rude to just offer your hand to someone royal. But Tavariel’s threat still lingered in her mind, so she sighed and shook the offered hand.

The moment their hands touched, a moment of clarity washed over her, and a feeling of familiarity set in. It was like nothing Linea had ever experienced. She knew nothing about the woman, but at this moment Linea knew she was more important to her than even her family. It was the most disconcerting feeling she ever had.

She recoiled from the handshake and took a step back, but the feeling remained.

“Well, that’s certainly interesting,” Sarah said and looked at her hand.

“What was that?” Linea asked in confusion and looked at her hand as well.

“That is the proof that you both are part of the same soul. Can you please just accept that for now?” Tavarial answered while pressing her nose bridge. “We’ve more important things to talk about.”

With a wave of her hand she created another bench where Linea took a seat. Without thinking Sarah sat down beside her. Linea frowned and wanted to object, but the sudden thought of the woman going away was even more intolerable.

Tavariel sat down on the other bench in front of them.

“I’ll start with the most important thing,” she said and looked troubled. “Linea, you need to know that Sarah has just died in the world, where she came from.”

Linea’s eyes grew wider, and she looked at the women at her side.

“Is that true?” she asked.

“It is,” Sarah nodded. “I was executed for treason after leading a revolution.”

After a short questioning look to Tavariel, who just nodded, Sarah told Linea her story. She took a while even with leaving out a big part of Earth’s history. She still had to explain quite a few things that Linea couldn’t understand due to her origins in a world without the advanced technology of Earth.

“I’m so sorry,” Linea said when Sarah had ended, and even took her hand.

“It’s good now. I’m just happy that it is over.”

Tavariel coughed slightly.

“Well. ‘Over’ is a word that seems not appropriate, I fear.”

“Why?” Linea and Sarah asked.

“Because we can’t just put you to back together to make you whole again,” she explained and stop their immediate questions with a hand sign. “The reason for that is, that we don’t know, why or how you were separated in the first place. We must learn more about it before we try something like that. Furthermore, there is at least one more part you have to find first.”

“Another part? How many are there of us?” Sarah asked with a clenched fist.

“We aren’t sure,” Tavariel admitted. “We know of three, but there could be five pieces.”

“Five? That sounds rather specific.” Linea noticed.

“I’ll have to explain something first. A soul that is created by the Supreme One can have multiple Soul-Aspects. Souls don’t always need one, in fact most souls don’t have one, but it happens often. Those Soul-Aspects give certain boosts to the trait they are tied to and there are five of them.”

“Let me guess, we were split by Soul-Aspects?” Sarah interjected.

“That is correct.”

“And what stand those Soul-Aspects for?” Linea asked laying her hand above Sarah’s.

“The most common one is the Soul-Aspect of Strength. The elves in your world often have this one,” Tavariel explained.

“I guess, I’m not that part?” Linea asked thinking about her failed examination.

“Neither of you are,” Tavariel confirmed with a sad smile. “It is the third part of you that has this Soul-Aspect. It enhances the strength of one’s body.”

“And what Soul-Aspects do we have?” Sarah asked.

Tavariel pointed at Sarah.

“You are the Soul-Aspect of Mind,” she said and then moved on to Linea. “And you are the Soul-Aspect of Magic.”

“Makes sense,” Linea said after the revelation and explained after Sarah’s questioning look. “I was told that I’m gifted with magic.”

“That’s probably the understatement of the century,” Tavariel chuckled. “Your soul was called to the world known as Kavaris by your goddess for a specific purpose. To fulfill that purpose, she called for one of the strongest souls and either the Supreme One created you for this task or the God of Death had you in reserve. However, your Soul-Aspects are expected to be extraordinarily strong.”

“I guess, the Soul-Aspect of Mind causes my abilities?” Sarah asked.

“Not quite. You need to understand that Magic and Psionics, as your skills are more commonly called, are different things even though they can sometimes look very much alike,” Tavariel explained. “Linea, you should listen carefully now, because you will learn now the truth about magic. The truth no one on your world knows anymore.”

Linea had already forgotten all her apprehension for the situation she had found herself in. This had evolved into the most interesting lesson, she had ever attended.

“Magic is based on Ley-Energy, which is one of the four fundamental energies that exist. Ley is the power of creation. It’s the same that the Supreme One used to create everything in the universe. You can take Ley and form it into anything you want as long as you are strong enough. Even though most mortals don’t even surpass the threshold from incantation magic to free magic. But I digress. The second power is Void-Energy. It is the by-product of magic. Whenever a mage creates something, it releases Void-Energy.”

Linea gasped, while Sarah just raised an eyebrow.

“You mean, the more we use magic the more we strengthen the Void?” Linea asked.

“That’s right. More usage of Ley-Energy means more Void-Energy,” Tavariel confirmed.

“Okay, can someone explain to me what this Void-Energy is and why it is so bad? I mean, I get from the name it is something not good, but…” Sarah interjected and leaned forward.

“I was about to explain it, when our little princess here got all excited,” Tavariel said and smiled at the girl who let her head hang in shame. “Don’t fret about it. You’re curious and that’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Sarah gave Linea an absent-minded shoulder rub.

“But to come back to the topic at hand. Before the Supreme One created the universe in the Big Bang, as your scientists dubbed it,“ Tavariel explained and pointed at Sarah, “there was nothing but the Great Chaos. Everything was in constant construction and deconstruction. Everything was destroyed directly after it was created. In all this chaos the Primal One came into existence. Don’t ask me how. The only one who can know that, is the Primal One himself. But I digress again. So, the Primal One had the ability to create and destroy, but since in the Great Chaos his ability of creation and destruction were inextricably linked, everything he created was destroyed immediately. Bored with this existence, he split himself into two beings. The one with the ability to destroy is still called the Primal One. But his other part with the ability to create became the Supreme One. The god of the gods.”

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Tavarial made a pause and took a breath.

“And the Supreme One then created the universe, I assume?” Sarah stated. “But if so, what happened to the Primal One?”

“Very astute of you. Good question!” Tavariel said with a smile. “When the Supreme One created the universe, he lived there. The Primal One on the other hand was trapped in what was left after the Big Bang. It is a place we call the Void. Nothing can exist there, except the Primal One. But he is the personification of the Void, so he doesn’t count.”

“Okay, so we have a plane where everything exists, and a plane where nothing exists,” Sarah summarized. “And where do these energies come in?”

“The Supreme One created the Ley-Energy to make it easier for sentient beings to wield the power of creation. He is and always has been the epitome of curiosity. He just wanted to see what we could come up with,” Tavariel said with a smile on her face. “But what he did not foresee was that with bringing Ley-Energy into existence, he created the Void-Energy as well. No one knows why it happened or if it was even planned. But it is how it is. Whenever someone casts magic, the Ley-Energy used is transformed into Void-Energy, which then condenses and can be extremely destructive. When the Void-Energy destroys something, it creates Ley-Energie.”

“So, it’s a cycle then?” Linea asked. “Or more like a balance. If you use magic, you need to sacrifice something else to the Void to maintain the balance.”

“That’s how some do it, yes,” Tavariel confirmed. “But in your world magic is just used despite the consequences.”

“What happens, if the balance is not maintained?” Sarah asked while looking back and forth between Linea and Tavariel.

“The Void corrupts living beings,” Linea stated tight lipped.

“That’s true. Void-Energy condenses and if no one maintains the balance, the Void-Energy latches to living beings and makes them aggressive. Their only target is to use the Void-Energy for destruction. If enough Void-Energy converges, it can even corrupt magical beings, who have an intrinsic protection against it. Those beings remain capable of logical thinking and avoid the use of Void-Magic to destroy something. No, they can create chaos even without it.”

“But what’s the difference for them between destroying something with Void-Magic or without it?” Sarah asked confused.

“The difference is the source of energy. If a dark mage uses magic, he can create Void-Energy and corrupt even more beings. If he uses Void-Magic on the other hand, he creates Ley-Energy and brings back balance to the system.”

“And if a being of the Void runs out of Void-Energy it dies,” Linea added. “A sentient being corrupted by the Void will try to avoid that as it still has its sense of self-preservation.”

“I think I understand the concept, but why does Earth never has seen any mages or Void-Monsters.”

“Because no one in your old world can use magic. No magic means no imbalance…” Tavariel explained.

“Which means no Void-Energy. Understood. But why do we have no mages? Seems too much of a coincidence if you ask me.”

“That is because Earth has been a laboratory for the Supreme One ever since its creation. It was the world where he created the first humanoids.”

Sarah gaped at her.

“Are you trying to tell me, that those Creationists were actually right?”

Tavariel snorted and looked at Sarah with a compassionate smile.

“Shocking, right?” She said. “But to be fair, they were not completely right either. It’s more like theistic evolution. The Supreme One nudged the evolution of humans here and there to test things out. But in the end, the outcome satisfied him enough, and he took the same design and implemented it in many other worlds. Some gods used the archetype and modified it.”

“Are you trying to say, that we elves are nothing more than modified humans?” Linea asked wide-eyed.

“You could see it that way, but your goddess would argue that she simply made improvements to adapt you to her needs. I mean, as the goddess of the moon she had a good reason to make her chosen people nocturnal,” Tavariel tried to sooth Linea worries.

Sarah put an arm around Linea but kept talking to Tavariel.

“So, Earth was a laboratory. For what? Not just for making humans, right?”

“No. He searched for a way to fight these corrupted mages without the use of magic. It is always a disadvantage for a mage to fight the corruption with magic because he is just powering his enemy by creating Void-Energy,” Tavariel outlined the initial position. “And thus, he created Psi-Energy.”

“And that’s what powers my abilities?”

“Correct. In contrast to mages, psions don’t create things, they manipulate what already exists. For example, where a mage creates a fire, a psion can control it. It’s the perfect skill to counter magic,” Tavariel explained. “But on the flip-side, a psion is never as versatile as a mage. You for example only have two active skills at this moment. Since no two psions handle the same skill the same way, you need to learn everything on your own. No one can teach you psionics.”

“Wait, does that mean I could learn even more skills?”

“Sure. It may take you a while, but there are no limits to what a psion can do. In fact, the reason you already have two skills, is that you grew up witnessing your parents using them. Psions aren't born with a pre-defined set of abilities. You learn those skills by yourself. Your intelligence most likely helped in learning them so fast.”

“I only understood half of that,” Linea stated and tilted her head.

“That’s okay,” Tavariel said. “You can both learn about each other’s skills and abilities later. Our little lesson nears its end anyway. I had to explain this, so you are prepared for what you will face. But we started this lesson with something else. Your soul parts and their Soul-Aspects.”

Linea and Sarah just nodded.

“You are Mind and Magic, respectively. The part with the Soul-Aspect of Strength is a demoness called Shira. As an angel my access to hell is limited, so I can’t provide more information than that. How to find her is up to you.”

“A demon?” Linea asked and put her hand over her mouth in shock.

“Yes, but don’t assume demons are all bad. I even have some demon friends. We meet sometimes in the mortal realms.”

Sarah interjected the topic as she was more interested in something else.

“You mentioned earlier that there are five possible Soul-Aspects, but you didn’t know about these.”

“That’s right. A soul can have the Soul-Aspects of Immortality or Divinity as well. We simply don’t know if there are any of them somewhere.”

“How are we supposed to find them, if the only thing we know about them is that they perhaps exist?” Linea asked while tapping her feet.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t help you with them. I was instructed to set you on your path, but in the end, it is your path to follow,” Tavariel said and looked Linea in the eyes.

“Can you at least tell us, what those aspects symbolize? Immortality and Divinity are rather vague descriptions.” Sarah asked.

“That I can do,” Tavariel said with a smile. “Immortality gives you the ability to absorb Life Force to keep yourself from dying. How you get this Life Force differs from person to person, however. While demons kill enemies or suck the Life Force out of their prey, angels are provided Life Force by the gods they are serving. These two methods are the most common ones.”

Sarah just nodded to signal Tavariel to continue.

“Divinity is the last aspect. You can only have it if you have the other four. This distinguishes gods from angels, demons, other immortals and mortals. It binds you to a specific Domain to which people can pray. If you are a god and part of a Domain, you receive a portion of its power as Life Force, which in return is used to pay for the service of your minions.”

“So, it’s the ability to collect taxes?” Sarah asked with a laugh.

“You could say so,” Tavariel said and smiled in amusement.

“Another question,” Linea interrupted quite confused. “What is Life Force and what is a Domain?”

“Life Force is what keeps living beings alive. It’s hard to explain the concept, but in the end it’s like Ley-Energy is to a spell. It keeps you alive. What makes it so valuable is its origin. Only the mortal realms can produce it. Neither angels, demons or even gods can create it for themselves. It makes them dependent on the mortals. This way gods are interested in helping mortals.”

“A clever system,” Sarah stated. “What’s about the Supreme One?”

“The Supreme One is the only true immortal since he doesn’t need to collect life force. He creates his own and is therefore independent. He watches over all of us,” Tavariel explained with a dreamy voice. Her adoration for the Supreme One was obvious. “But back to Domains. They are concepts or things to which people can pray. For example, I serve the goddess of Mercy. To be correct, Mercy is not her name, but her Domain. Every time you pray for mercy, she receives a miniscule amount of your life force. If she helps you, will most likely pray to her again.”

Linea tried to broach the topic again, but Tavariel stopped her.

“I know, you have more questions, but our time is at an end,” she said and looked at her wrist, where she had some kind of watch. “You came here to talk to your goddess. I kept you long enough from that. She will explain a few more stuff about your situation.”

“What happens to me now?” Sarah asked fidgeting.

“What do you mean?” Tavariel asked. “You go with Linea of course. You are the same soul after all. Don’t worry. Goddess Luna will explain more of it when she arrives here. I will take my leave.”

“Thank you for everything!” Sarah yelled before Tavariel could disappear, but quickly blushed over her outburst.

“You’re welcome,” Tavariel said. “Take care you two and fare well.”

She waved a last goodbye and simply faded out of existence.

Silence set in between Linea and Sarah. Neither seem to know, what to say, so both kept silent. Linea tried to distract herself by looking around the temple. She realized that the hall with all the seats at the sides looked more like a gathering place than a temple.

As her head turned to Sarah, she flinched slightly as she had forgotten how close they were.

“So…” Linea started, suddenly aware of the closeness with Sarah. “Only humans on your world?”

“Yep. Around seven billion or so.”

“Billions?” Linea asked narrow-eyed. “How could you feed so many people?”

“Technology. We’re pretty good at maximizing food production. Or production in general. What about your world? Kavaris was it?”

“Well, I’m not sure about all the races, but we Moon Elves number around two or three million. Most of them live in Luna’sindra. That means ‘Home of Luna’s children’ in the old Elven tongue.”

“What other races are there?” Sarah asked almost giddy, which confused Linea.

“There are humans, obviously,” Linea started to list, but made her aversion about those quite clear. “But also, Sun Elves, Dwarfs and various kind of beastmen. Those subdivide themselves further into types, like cat-type, wolf-type and lizard-type. But never call a Lizardman a lizard-type beastmen. If you’re lucky, he’ll just kill you.”

“Alright, never call a Lizardman a beastman,” Sarah noted with a smile.

Linea didn’t react further to that. She simply stared in thought at nothing in particular.

“You know, we’ll probably have to share your body from now on,” Sarah said thinking about her situation.

“What do you mean?” Linea asked, looked at Sarah and furrowed her brows.

“Well, I can’t return to my world and I can’t go on to heaven or hell, because I’m not complete. Where else should I go? I hope, you won’t reject me.”

Sarah looked almost pleadingly at Linea.

“I- I don’t know. The whole situation terrifies me, to be frank. Too much information at once, you know?” Linea replied and let her shoulders drop.

“I know that feeling. But I think your goddess might help us get through this,” Sarah said and pulled Linea into a hug again.

“I hope so,” Linea said with a smile. “And you know what? For a human you seem pretty decent.”

“I would like to say the same about you and elves, but I have nothing to compare you to,” Sarah admitted.

Both giggled.

“I think, together we’ll get through somehow,” Linea said and let her head fall down on Sarah’s shoulder.

“Yeah, together.”