Linea didn’t get any more chances to talk to Sarah, as suddenly a white light in the middle of the temple blinded her. When the light subsided, a female Moon Elf stood before them. She was slightly taller than Linea, but roughly the same height as Sarah. She had the same elongated ears, but her skin was remarkably paler. It still had a hint of violet, but it would be fair to describe her skin as white. Her body was rather athletic with an above average bust-size for moon elves. Her face radiated warmth, but at the same time strength and assertiveness. Her most prominent features were her golden irises and her clothing, which was a weird mix of a dress and armor. While her shoulders and lower legs were protected by a thin, white glowing plate armor with chased engravings symbolizing the moon.
After staring a little bit too long at the beautiful woman in front of her, Linea slowly realized who this woman had to be.
Cursing herself, she got onto her knees, pressed her forehead against the marble tiles of the temple and stretched out her hands with her palms pointing upwards. If her goddess appeared in person before her, Linea would naturally show her the respect the goddess deserved.
“Get down on your knees, imbecile!” She snarled at Sarah, when she noticed that Sarah hadn’t even made a move to honor the goddess.
“Hm?” Sarah replied still gaping at the goddess. The question however, pulled her out of her stupor, and she at least got down on one knee and bowed.
The goddess didn’t say anything at first and simply inspected the young women before her.
“Both of you rise!” She ordered and sighed. She walked over and offered each of them a hand. “Hold my hand. I will take you somewhere else.”
Sarah did as ordered, but Linea hesitated. It just didn’t sit right with her to touch her goddess, but on the other hand, the goddess had asked her to do it.
“Linea?” Sarah asked in a whisper.
Linea resolved her dilemma by simply taking the offered hand. The next moment they disappeared from the temple and suddenly stood inside a garden. It was a round patch of grass framed by an arcade, which also carried a transparent dome on top of it. All around them were flowerbeds with various kinds of night-blooming plants. At the edges, Linea noticed guards wearing the traditional Royal Guard armor and the Fulchar – the standard one-handed saber of the Moon Elves. The Fulchar had a curved blade, which was supposed to symbolize a crescent moon. All in all, the guards looked very much like the Royal Guard of Luna’sindra.
The sky above was a beautiful look at the stars. Linea had always liked to stare at the night sky, even though teachers often scolded her, when she zoned out in the middle of a lesson.
“It looks so different…” Sarah said with a notable sadness in her voice. Linea saw that Sarah’s gaze had also wandered to the sky above.
“If it is any consolation for you, we’re still in the same galaxy,” the goddess said with a sad smile.
“I will get over it someday, don’t worry,” Sarah replied and closed her eyes for a moment. “But we’re not here to talk about what I have lost, are we?”
“No, you are not. Come with me, my children,” the goddess said and turned around. Linea and Sarah followed her and realized that all the time there had been a palace behind them. Or had it? Linea decided, logic was not reliable here.
The palace reminded her of her family’s palace in Luna’sindra. The fact amused her as she thought about the implications.
As if the goddess read her mind, she explained.
“The first queen of the Moon Elves was my daughter. After my ascension, I transformed my people into Moon Elves. I wanted something that reminded me of my time with the mortals. So, I rebuild my palace here.”
“So, it’s true?” Linea gasped. “We descend from humans?”
“Of course,” the goddess said with a raised brow. “The humans are the first born. The Supreme One created them to be versatile and adaptive. They are usable on so many worlds. However, make no mistake, this doesn’t make them better.”
The goddess led them inside the palace towards a room full of paintings. The most prominent depicted the goddess herself floating above a group of praying Moon Elves. Linea studied the painting extensively. The goddess followed her gaze and smiled.
“The day of my ascension. Of course, we were humans back then, but if you have a painting made, artistic freedom gives you a lot of leeway,” she explained with a giggle. “I was never fond of most humans. They’re fickle and unreliable. I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them.”
“Well, as a goddess you could probably throw them pretty far, couldn’t you?” Sarah asked with a smirk, which resulted in Linea ramming her elbow into Sarah’s ribs.
While Sarah was still rubbing her side, the goddess laughed merrily. To Linea it sounded like a choir of angels singing her favorite piece of music.
“I like you. It’s hard for people to be so open around me. Most are more like our princess here,” the goddess explained and nodded towards Linea. “But enough of that, let’s make ourselves comfortable.”
A big couch with a lot of fluffy-looking pillows suddenly appeared in the middle of the room.
“Finally, some time to relax!” the goddess exclaimed and with a snap of her fingers her clothing changed into simple black shorts and a grey top. It looked rather cozy and form fitting. Moreover, it seemed extremely indecent for a goddess as it didn’t leave much for the imagination.
“You have no idea how exhausting divine politics can be. I just had to deal with the other local deities. Kava was mourning about some dwarfs torturing her again and asked Kush to make them stop,” the goddess groaned and then created a bell out of nothing, just to ring it and then let it disappear again.
“Who are Kush and Kava?” Sarah asked in a low voice to Linea.
“Kava is the goddess of our world, hence the name Kavaris. She is well liked by all races, though I don’t know what ‘torturing her’ means,” Linea answered.
“And Kush is the protector god of the dwarfs. He created them like I created the Moon Elves,” the goddess continued the explanation. “And for that torturing part. The dwarfs are mining too deep again. While Kush doesn’t mind the dwarfs mining in his Domain, Kava does sometimes.”
“Kush is also the god of the Kush Mountains, where the dwarfs mostly live,” Linea added to clear Sarah’s apparent confusion.
“Correct, but enough of this. Come here and sit down. Make yourselves comfortable,” the goddess said and ushered them towards the couch. She let herself fall into the pillows and released a moan of comfort.
Sarah took the first step again and sat down on the couch, mimicking the goddess and let herself be burrowed in fluffy pillows. Linea on the other hand only managed to stand beside Sarah, while her eyes darted between Sarah and the goddess.
“It- It is an honor to meet you, Your Divine Grace!” Linea finally managed to address her goddess properly. She was overwhelmed by this whole situation and she just couldn’t process everything so fast.
“No need to be so formal,” the goddess stated. “I get that you are nervous and in awe, but we have important things to discuss and I have things to do. So, just keep this simple and informal. You can call me Luna.”
“What do you want to talk about?” Sarah asked while Linea was still coping with the fact that her goddess had allowed her to address her so casually.
“Multiple things. I’ll just talk with you now, if you don’t mind. Our little princess seems to be broken for now.”
“The angel also called her princess. I wondered if it was just a cute nickname, but I get the feeling there is more behind it,” Sarah stated and rubbed Linea’s hand to calm her down.
Luna had a small smirk on her face.
“She is an actual princess. She is a direct descendent of mine, in the main bloodline even. A fact that most of my children have forgotten.”
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“How so?” Sarah asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Mainly because most of the records got lost in the Great Cataclysm six hundred years ago. This piece of information apparently wasn’t important enough to be saved.”
“I should probably ask about this Great Cataclysm, but we don’t want to impose on your time longer than necessary,” Sarah said diplomatically.
“Right, right,” Luna agreed. “I wished we would have more time, but alas.”
As she said that, a servant entered the room carrying a tray with crystal goblets. They were filled with a silvery liquid. The servant placed the cups on a table, which appeared just as he wanted to place them.
“Thank you, Turnandir.”
The man just bowed and left.
“Let’s come to the topic at hand. Your soul was split after I requested you to be send to our world. Therefore, I feel obligated to help you regain what you’ve lost,” the goddess explained.
“I heard that before. Why did you call us anyway?” Sarah asked.
“Because I need your help. The God of Fate warned me personally that the elven race on our world faces the danger of extinction. He didn’t specify how or when, but if the God of Fate warns you about something, you try to do something about it.”
“That sounds a lot like one of those prophecies of Greek mythology,” Sarah countered with a smirk. “Self-fulling and all. Probably we would be the reason or something.”
“Diana, the goddess of the moon on Earth, told me about you. A bit too clever for her own good sometimes.”
“So, I’m right?”
“Perhaps, but keep in mind that I was just warned about the danger of extinction. Not extinction directly. Therefore, something can be done. There is a possibility that you or one of your other parts will be the cause, but I find that unlikely, as Linea is a princess of my children. Let’s say it’s a risk I am willing to take.”
“So, what are we expected to do?” Linea suddenly joined in. A direct mission from her goddess would definitely restore her reputation.
“Nothing in particular. I just want you to protect the Moon Elves as much as you can. I understand that finding your other soul parts takes priority, but when your people need you, please aid them.”
“Of course, my goddess!” Linea said with a hand on heart.
“Calm down! I’m happy about your passion, but I want you to help them, because you want to, not because I ordered you,” Luna explained. “If you accept this mission, I will bestow the Blessing of Luna upon you. If both of you agree.”
“We will gladly accept your mission!” Linea answered and grinned at Sarah. “Right?”
“I guess. I don’t mind helping people,” Sarah said while tugging at her ear. “What does a blessing do though?”
“It will allow you to talk to me, if you pray to me at a temple. The whole process of someone drinking lunar essence and then partaking in a ritual is rather cumbersome.”
“True, true,” Linea confirmed with a sigh. Luna chuckled lightly.
“Good. For the blessing both of you just have to drink this lunar essence,” Luna explained to them and motioned to the cups that stood on the table.
“That’s it? I expected a bit more pomp…” Sarah pouted.
“Well, I can get a choir to sing for you, if you want that?” Luna suggested with a grin, but Linea was fast at shooting down any additional travails for her goddess.
“That will be unnecessary,” she said and threw a dark glance at Sarah. “We are honored by your gift.”
She then took the cup and downed the liquid. Sarah just shrugged and followed suit.
“Be aware that the blessing will be visible as a symbol on your forehead as a crescent moon. At least for the first few days. You will learn how to conceal it after some time. Show it to those that serve me, and they should assist you as best as they can.”
“So, we can’t keep it a secret for now?” Sarah asked with a frown.
“Not likely, no.”
“But why should we? It’s such an honor!” Linea interjected and crossed her arms.
“Because it gives you more wiggle room. It’s sometimes better to let people assume something than to outright confirm or deny it,” Luna explained to her. “But it’s needless to think about it, as your body is in the middle of a temple. Surrounded by your guard, your sister and a priestess of the goddess that just blessed you. I don’t think you can talk our way out of this blessing.”
“If we ask for it, they probably stay silent about it,” Linea remarked.
“Well, it’s not that easy. You have been here for some time and your mother was already informed about your little escape,” Luna said and shrugged at Linea blenching face. “Word has already spread around in the city. I would expect a lot of important people to show up.”
“Well, nothing we can do about it,” Sarah said matter-of-factly.
“No, but my blessing is a named one. I call it ‘Guardian of Luna’sindra’. The priestesses will able to guess from it that you are on a mission. That in return should give you enough authority to deny some of their questions,” Luna explained and then looked at Linea with a stern look. “Try to listen to your soul sister from time to time. I know that you can be stubborn at times, but what lies before you requires your full cooperation.”
Linea gulped, but nodded.
“Soul sister?” Sarah asked and tilted her head.
“Well, your condition is not that usual. I just thought it to be a good description,” Luna argued and smiled. “In the end, you may be of one soul, but right now you’re still two separate personalities.”
Linea looked at Sarah.
“Soul sister… I think I like that,” she said and smiled at Sarah.
“Me too. I always wanted a sister!”
“That’s not always fun, believe me,” Linea countered with a dry laugh.
“Good. Now that we have established that, I have a few things to tell you, which you will find useful to know,” Luna returned to the topic. “What I can feel from you both is a curse. I was unsure on how you got split, but after seeing you before me, I’m able to confirm it.”
“A curse?” Linea asked with furrowed brows. “I didn’t know you could split a soul with a curse.”
“You can’t,” Luna agreed and sighed. “And that’s the problem. Souls are protected by multiple deities, most prominently Death. Either one of those gods had a hand in this or the deity responsible for this mess is even stronger. And there are only a handful of them.”
“Are you telling us, that a god split us apart?” Sarah asked. She was sitting cross-legged on the couch and folded her arms before her chest.
“Either that or a powerful immortal that traded in a favor from a deity. In any case, someone really wanted to keep you from gaining power.”
“But why?” Linea asked narrow-eyed.
“Your guess would be as good as mine. Even though you perceive me as a powerful goddess, I’m just a local goddess to one of many worlds. I don’t have any enemies that would make that much of an effort, just to get at me. It probably costed the responsible person more power to curse you than for me to call you here,” Luna explained and shrugged. “But from what I can gather from the curse, I don’t think the curser had the opportunity to track your soul parts. At least I can’t sense any magic attached to your soul beside the curse.”
“I guess that means we won’t be chased by some deity in the foreseeable future,” Sarah said.
“No, but you will have enough enemies to deal with in the mortal realms. As a piece of information, the human emperor is gearing up for war. I don’t have many followers within the human population, so I can’t give you more,” Luna revealed to them.
Linea nodded as she remembered about the latest reports from the empire. Her mother’s spies had found signs of war preparations, but having the goddess confirm it was even better.
“The last thing, I need to tell you is about your other soul sisters,” Luna said and frowned slightly. “I don’t know why Tavariel only told you about Shira, but I guess she has her reasons and I won’t interfere with that. But I want you to know that there is without question a fourth part. I promise you that she will contact you shortly after you found Shira.”
“The Soul-Aspect of Immortality,” Sarah said with wide-eyes. “Do you know who it is?”
“I do, but I can’t reveal anymore. Focus on that demon girl first. I would suggest, you try a summoning ritual. It’s easier than for you to wander into hell and go searching for her,” Luna suggested.
“A demon summoning?” Linea froze and starred wide-eyed at the goddess. “But that’s forbidden magic! We would be executed on spot, if we even talked about it.”
“Ah, yes. Those stupid rules your mages came up with,” Luna replied pinching her nose. “Well, if you get powerful enough you can probably pull it of without help, but you would have to learn to do it yourself. Or you find a different approach than a summoning. I will leave that to you.”
“Okay, let’s just keep the summoning in mind in case we don’t find an alternative,” Sarah said diplomatically as Linea was again blenching. “Summoning a demon definitely sounds like something you say before you are getting killed by a demon…”
Luna rolled her eyes but didn’t commented further.
“Our time seems to come to an end as it seems,” she suddenly said, and her gaze became distant. “The ritual is taking too long and the priestesses that took over from your sister’s friend are running out of power. The high priestess is the last one left and she is nearly spent as well.”
“I didn’t know that the ritual is so draining,” Linea said and let her shoulders slump.
“It usually isn’t, but I used their power to attach Sarah’s soul to your body. The curse fought against that, so it took more than I anticipated,” Luna explained. “Before you go, I will give you a few pieces of advice. Sarah is only a passenger in your body, Linea. You are in full control, while she will only be able to observe. But she can take over, if you let her or if you are incapacitated. I suggest, you get to know each other. The closer you grow, the more synergies you can achieve. Like Sarah using her psionics, while she isn’t in control of the body. Right now, you are still too far apart in mind for that.”
Luna stood up and walked over to Linea. She pulled the princess into a hug.
“I don’t know, what will happen, but try to be open to her. She will be a big help,” she said. “Also, tell those idiots from the Academy that you will be receiving magical training. Use your new authority to force them, if necessary.”
Linea just nodded, dumb-founded by the fact that her goddess had just hugged her.
The goddess hugged Sarah as well, who had also stood up from the couch.
“Don’t be too harsh with her. She didn’t have to go through the same as you. Teach her and guide her but let her learn for herself. Take your time to think about other usages of your psionics. You can do so much more with it.”
Sarah returned the hug with smile.
“I will protect her.”
Luna smiled as well and took one hand of each of the young women.
“Good luck on your journey. I’ll be watching over you. Remember to talk to me, if you need to. Just go to one of my temples and pray to me. You won’t be able to come here like this again as it was just an exception, but I it will let you talk to me. If I have the time that is. If you can’t contact me, just try again later.”
Before Linea could ask, if that was a joke, she felt the same tug she felt in the temple before. Suddenly, darkness shrouded her view. She felt that Sarah was pulled alongside her as she flew through the darkness.
When she opened her eyes again, she noticed that she was back at the temple in Luna’sindranar. But instead of Aruna, an older woman kneeled before her and chanted the same tune. Linea recognized he woman as High Priestess Nasinia. When the high priestess noticed her awakening, she stopped singing.
“Welcome back, Your Grace!”