“Wait a second.” I said. “How can I be here and back at the restaurant?”

“The simple answer is astral projection.” The man in the blue suit said. “It's one of your class skills.”

“Wh-what?” I looked at him with wide eyes. “How can I use a skill that I don't know how to use?”

“I helped, of course.” The man said. “I gave you a little nudge in the brain and here you are.”

“What did you use? A skewer?” I asked and rubbed my forehead where I had felt the sharp pain.

The man chuckled. “Doing something new is almost always painful.”

I shook my head for a second. “Before this meeting goes on a completely different track, I have a few questions.”

“Go ahead.”

“What the hell is going on?” I asked.

The man laughed. “The short story is you were chosen by...”

“Don't say her name.” I interrupted, and the man laughed again.

“She selected you for a very important mission.” The man said. “Something very odd has been going on with that planet and we need to get to the bottom of it.”

“Why me?” I asked.

“You were the most suited for the task.” The man said. “Uniquely qualified, I believe she said.”

“I'm not even her follower.” I said, slightly confused.

“She convinced me to let her borrow you.” The man said. “Your experiences in both lives has given you a perspective that should serve you well.”

I thought about that for a few moments. “You mean my distrust of authority.”

The man nodded. “It's come in handy for you a few times already.”

“Handy? I almost died a couple of times.”

The man smiled. “I meant that the people that seem to be in charge are more concerned with their own power and using it, than they are concerned over the people they are supposed to be protecting with that power.”

I sighed. “It's not species limited, either.”

“Not at all.” The man said. “Even Queen Celestina is guilty of it to some extent.”

“Well, she does rule a kingdom.” I said. “She's honest, though. I had to cut her some slack after she healed me and I found out a few things.”

The man smiled. “Now you are her personal vassal.”

“Yeah, and it overrides people seeing me as a chosen of what's her name.”

The man chuckled. “You don't have to try so hard to distance yourself from the others.”

I huffed. “The others? You mean Kara.”

“How do you feel about her after you rammed your Light sword through her heart?” The man asked.

I tried not to sigh. “I forgave her for killing me before I realized that she wasn't dying.”

“That doesn't answer my question.”

I sighed this time. “She still held me prisoner for years and she sympathized with The Order, even knowing everything they did to me and my parents.” I said and my anger didn't try to surge forward.

“You're maturing about that and you're coming to terms with it.” The man said. “It still bothers you; but, not to the point that you'll lash out at anyone that mentions it, including yourself.”

I didn't say anything in response, because it was true.

“Eventually, you'll accept it as a part of what makes you, you.”

“You do realize that my life would have been so much different if The Order hadn't killed my parents.”

“We both know how different it would be. You lived the life for four years as a young child and then for a year after you escaped The Order's home planet.” The man said. “Now imagine living that life for all sixteen years.”

“That's all just conjecture.” I said. “It happened and here I am.”

“Yes, here you are, standing before me and wondering what happened to you.”

“Can you explain it?” I asked.

“Your body needed to be adapted to survive on the planet and to use mana.” The man said. “You were mortally wounded and it took a while, even for me, to heal you and convert you.”

“Convert... wait, is that why I feel like there's two people inside of me?”

The man nodded. “I worked quickly to finish so you could be sent off with the others.”

“Is that another reason why my body seems so weak?” I asked.

“Put it this way. When you were born, both times, your body was new and weak and needed time to adapt to its new environment.” The man said. “After changing your body enough to give you the ability to use mana...”

“Son of a bitch.” I cursed and tried not to keep going, just in case he took it personally. “Why aren't the others like this?”

“They were.” The man said. “The three Earthlings had no previous energy manipulation abilities and were very easily converted for mana use.”

“What about Kara?” I asked.

“The first thing she did was meditate and explored how the energy had changed her.” The man said. “Of course, they all had quite some time to wait while you were being healed.”

Which means they all adapted long before being sent to that planet, unlike me. I thought. “Having all of this explained before being sent off would have been nice.” I said and tried not to get angry. “Or being asked, for that matter.”

The man smiled. “You would have refused her if she had given you a choice.”

I thought about denying that, then figured lying to god would be a bad thing to do.

“She had expended a lot of energy to bring you here, too. Giving you a chance to say no wasn't going to happen.”

“So, how long am I stuck there for?” I asked.

“Until she discovers what's been going on and you help to put a stop to it.”

“Me?” I asked, surprised.

“She chose you to fight it and the others are there to support you.”

“I don't think so.” I said. “I've met them already and they didn't feel like support at all.”

“Whose fault was that?” The man asked with a smile.

“Kara's... and mine.” I said and sighed. “She knew I would attack her and came after me anyway. She also brought five other people with her. They charged with horses at full speed and I reacted.”

“What are you going to do about them now?” The man asked. “You've had your revenge on Kara.”

“I don't want anything to do with them if I have a choice.” I said. “Are you going to force me to...”

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The man chuckled. “You know I won't make you do anything you don't want to do.”

I nodded and was quiet for a minute, then I asked the question that brought me here. “I'd like to know what your blessing does for me.”

The man waved at the room. “This is one thing it can do.”

I looked around the room for a moment, then I understood. “You mean talking to you directly and not just the astral projection.”

The man nodded. “You can ask me for help occasionally; but, I'm not a crutch. Don't ask me about trivial things that someone else could answer or that you can figure out for yourself.”

“Don't incur your wrath over stupid stuff. Got it.” I said, and he laughed.

“Once per day, you can invoke a physical bonus and give yourself an increase of all your abilities by fifty percent.” The man said. “It only lasts for an hour, so use that wisely.”

“Well, considering I don't really know what I can do, using it wisely is debatable.”

The man smiled. “You'll find that out when you meet the person the enchantress recommended.”

“She said they could help me with my class.”

The man nodded “My blessing also lets you be a conduit for me if it's necessary.”

“A conduit?” I asked. “Do you mean for your powers or for you, personally?”

“Depending on your need, one or the other, or both.”

I had to think about that for a minute. “If it's you personally, are you taking me over completely or is it more like sharing?”

The man smiled. “I can only take over and possess you completely if you are willing.”

“That's not going to happen.” I said, adamantly.

“Then the most that can happen is sharing. I can't do anything physically unless you let me. We'll both be completely aware of the other as well.”

“Do you mean we'll have extra-sensory perception?” I asked.

The man nodded. “You have some of that already with your Presence Sight and Presence Hearing. While we share, you will have the other three senses expanded, too.”

“I don't know if I'm comfortable with distance smelling, tasting, and touching.” I said.

“That's understandable.” The man chuckled. “It will be a little odd for me as well. I haven't given my blessing to anyone in a very long time and I haven't felt things through a mortal body since then.”

“Does the blessing do anything else?” I asked.

“Isn't that enough?” The man asked with a laugh.

“I've been feeling both Presence and mana when I pray at meals.” I said. “What does that mean?”

“It will let any meal taste great, regardless of what the food is. If you want it to, that is.” The man said. “If you intentionally add Presence and mana on your own, you can change the food into what you want to eat, as long as you're sharing it with others.” He said and then smiled. “If it's just you, you would be happy with basic rations, so I won't help you make better food for no reason.”

I barked a laugh. “Okay. No abusing you for personal gain. Got it.”

The man laughed. “I will help you when you actually need it. Other than that, you can pretty much do whatever you want.”

“No directives? No orders to go fight the evil that's taking over the world?”

The man shook his head. “It's been happening for decades now, so there's no real rush.”

“Then why did she recruit me now?” I asked.

“You actually were going to die and she grabbed you just before you did.”

“And you didn't?” I asked, and he chuckled.

“You were happy that you finally got your mother's locket back. I wasn't going to interfere with your life, or your death, since you were at peace with what you've done during your life.” The man smiled. “Both times.”

I stood there and looked at him as I thought about that. Should I ask if it was him that gave me another chance at life?

“Yes, it was me.” The man said and I raised my eyebrows at him. “It was because you protected those girls and for your noble sacrifice. When your mother prayed to me and asked for a noble son, you fit the bill. You faced death with the knowledge that your life saved the others and just as Jessica said, it's not a normal thing for someone to do.”

“Jessica? Who's that?” I asked.

“She is one of the girls you saved from a horrible fate in your first life.” The man said. “She is also one of the Emissaries of Light.”

I thought about the three robed women that I had seen in Kara's group. It had been over seventeen years since the last time I had seen the two girls that had been kidnapped in my previous life, or even thought about them, actually. When I tried to recall what they looked like, I discovered that their faces were no longer a part of my memory.

“I don't remember what they look like.” I admitted, sadly.

The man put a hand on my shoulder. “You left that life behind you a long time ago. There's no shame in not remembering some of the details.”

I sighed. “I suppose.”

“You can look on the bright side.” The man said and let my shoulder go. “The next time you meet them, you'll have something interesting to talk about.” He smiled. “I mean them being from Earth as well, not the kidnapping and your subsequent murder.”

I had to laugh at that. “That should be the first thing I say. Hey, you! Besides Kara, which one of you did I die for?”

The man laughed, too. “That's a great conversation starter if I ever heard one.”

That was pretty much the only things I needed to know right then, so I took a deep breath and let it out. “I know this is going to be a stupid question; but, how do I stop doing this astral projection thing?”

The man grinned. “All right, just this once I'll answer a stupid question. Just close your eyes and tell yourself to go back to your body.”

“That's it?” I asked, surprised. “Wow, that really was a stupid thing to ask.”

The man laughed and pat my back. “I know you can probably come up with other questions to ask me; but, we're both out of time.” He said and slapped my back hard.

“AHH!” I yelled as I shot across the room towards the wall. I quickly closed my eyes and told myself to get back into my body. In the next instant, I was back inside the restaurant and my whole body jerked. I let Maylia's and Afyne's hands go as my head lifted from the table a couple of inches and it dropped again as I reacted to the sudden change in my environment. I banged the side of my head and reeled backwards, my arms windmilled and my chair tipped backwards, then I fell to the floor and landed on my back.

“Goddammit!” I exclaimed and heard faint laughter. Just because he offered to answer my stupid question, doesn't mean that he wouldn't be annoyed with me over it. I rubbed the side of my head as the laughter faded and Maylia and Afyne appeared on either side of me.

“What happened?” They both asked me, concern in their voices.

“Long story short, I was just talking to god.” I said. “In person.”

Maylia and Afyne caught their breath and stared at me.

“Surprisingly, I didn't react like that when I saw him, even though I knew who he was.” I said. They helped me up and I put the chair upright and we all sat down at the table again. I looked at my messed up plate and the almost perfect impression of my face in the rice. “That looks weird.”

“Forget the food and tell us what happened.” Maylia ordered, so I told them exactly what happened. “Well, at least you know.” She said. “Now what do we do?”

“This doesn't change anything.” I said and picked up my spoon and stirred the rice to erase my face from it. “I still don't want anything to do with them.”

“Hunter, can you really ignore them after hearing about your true purpose from god?”

“You and I have done just fine so far, and according to Queen Celestina, so have they.” I said. “I don't see any reason to change that.”

“But...”

“I'm taking the queen's advice. I can choose to do what I want. If that includes avoiding the others as much as possible, I'm going to do that.”

“They are supposed to be your support.” Maylia said.

“You are my support.” I said and took her hand, then put my spoon down and took Afyne's hand as well. “You both are.” I gave their hands a squeeze and let them go. “We should eat and then walk around the town to check things out.”

“Hunter...”

“Maylia, I'm fine... besides my head hurting. Who knew that tables were that hard?” I asked and ate a spoonful of rice. “Hey, this isn't bad.” I said and scooped up some chicken with the next spoonful of rice and ate that. “Not bad at all.”

Maylia looked at me for only a moment, then started to eat herself. Afyne saw us both eating and she started to eat, too. We ate the meal fairly quickly and I slipped the dried and broken bun onto the side of my plate, then waved the woman over to us. She looked at us through the slightly opened door to the kitchen and didn't come over, so I kept waving. She came out, quite reluctantly, and walked over to us sheepishly.

“How much...” I started to say.

“It's free.” The woman said and cut me off.

“If you won't tell me, I'll just leave money on the table.” I said.

“You... you had a divine...” She stopped taking and shook her head. “I can't charge you money after you experienced that.”

I thought about how much the other meals we had were and about what Hoquan said about paying a copper for his whole family to eat at the first inn we had stayed at. I looked at the custom meals and guessed a copper each, and since I had made a bit of a mess and a scene, I put five copper onto the table.

“Let's go.” I said and stood, then I walked around the table and held my hands out to Maylia and Afyne. Neither of them hesitated as they took my hand and I led them out of the restaurant. “We have work to do.”

It didn't take us long to walk around the small town and to talk to several people. A few of them vehemently denied the existence of any monster, others claimed ignorance, and most of them lied. We were fortunate that one old man had no problem telling tall tales, especially after I offered him several copper coins, and he gave us the whole story. He told us when it started, how long it had been going on, and who was missing. He presumed they were dead, mainly because of what the monster was.

A giant snake.

That would explain why there are no bodies. I thought as he grossly overestimated its size. At least I hope he's overestimating.

I gave him the copper coins and thanked him for his time, then Maylia, Afyne and I went back to the inn. We were met with even more stares and murmurs. I was sure it was because of what happened in the restaurant, so I ignored them and we went upstairs to our room.

“Whew, I'm tired.” I said and took some nightime things out of my bag of holding, which included Afyne's packages that Maylia asked for. She opened another one and pulled out a small nightgown for Afyne that matched hers, and I took out the man version for myself. We quickly changed and put away our fancy clothes and changed for bed. Afyne covered her mouth and tried not to laugh when I changed into my nightgown.

“Hey, it's all they had.” I said as I quickly washed Maylia's and my underthings.

“You look like a girl!” Afyne exclaimed and laughed.

“It's the long hair.” I said and shook my head from side to side and used presence to fluff it out. Afyne stopped laughing and stared at me. I hung up the wet clothes on the line above the tub and walked over to the bed, then pulled down the covers and climbed onto it. “Come on, climb in.”

Afyne blinked her eyes at me and didn't move.

“Don't worry. Just like when we took a bath in the tub, I'm not planning on doing any boy and girl things with Maylia tonight.”

Maylia took her hand and led her to the bed, then had to pick Afyne up and tucked her into the bed beside me. Maylia climbed in herself and I covered us all in the blanket.

“Be forewarned.” Maylia said in a serious tone. “We are cuddlers.”

I chuckled. “Don't scare the poor girl.” I turned onto my side and looked at Afyne, who laid there with wide eyes. “Maylia and I are used to hugging at night, so if you get caught in the middle, don't freak out, okay?”

Afyne nodded several times and Maylia turned onto her side and faced her, too. We could partially see each other over Afyne's head.

“Goodnight.” I said and closed my eyes.

“Goodnight.” Maylia said and closed her eyes, too.

After a few moments, Afyne took a deep breath and let it out as she sighed. “G-g-goodnight.”