It was wide, and open, and all the vomit from the newbies had been cleaned away. It smelled as it always did. A whole lot of nothing mixed with the slightest, tiniest hint of smoke from the other side.

Eventually, after another deep breath, I stepped forward to the altar. I usually would spend my exp levelling my classes here. There was an intelligence managing every altar, and I was already familiar with this one.

‘Hey Jam. I’m back.’

[Greetings, Fiona.] I grimaced at its use of my full name. [You have done well to come back here. The return of a gateway includes a large reward of experience.]

‘Good to know. Any procedures to go through before I can go about spending it all?’

[A few. Contacting Gatekeepers. Connection established. Stand by.]

A new voice rang out in my mind. Mechanical, but a myriad of them. The same one which welcomed me on my first time through the mirrors.

[Fiona Bellum. Your recovery of a lost gateway is much appreciated.]

A long silence hung in the air after they’d spoken, the dozens of sounds leaving my head aching slightly. Just like the first time, I was completely sure a few of them spoke in languages that I’d never heard, and a few less in languages that plain didn’t exist. One of them seemed to speak in signs, too.

The silence stretched out to be uncomfortable, until I eventually broke it. ‘I am glad to hear that,’ I thought back at them. ‘What do we do with it?’

[Gateway extraction has been deemed impossible. Further measures must be taken.]

Again, they stopped abruptly, leaving my head spinning. Waiting for me to say something, give a confirmation. ‘What measures?’

[All gateways require a keeper. Searching. No free keeper to assign.]

This time, when the voices cut off, I was close to retching. The conversation was so distinctly uncomfortable, their thoughts so alien, that it felt like Jam had a lot of trouble even sorting it out into something I could understand. And it still hurt.

I wasn’t even left to recover in silence. It felt like each and every one of the voices was now whispering amongst each other. Thousands of them, chittering and chattering right inside my head, like dozens of tiny legs scraping at my eardrums. Eventually, the muttering paused, and the voices spoke as one.

[Due to the lack of resources, a new keeper will be generated. Standby. Collecting personality data.]

The word “generated” slammed into my head like a cannonball. Something about it was so distinctly off. Like it spit in the face of all life. I hardly had the time to even consider what the fuck it meant that they were collecting my personality data.

[Success. Keeper will now be assigned. Please be prepared for a short blackout, Fiona Bellum.]

I had a moment to be confused what they meant, before another weight smashed into my head. It felt like a small island had flown into me, physically knocking me back and off my feet, actually lifting my body into the air a bit. Somehow, I activated just a hint of Qi, softening the landing on the cold stone.

The lack of heat was almost comfortable, keeping me awake even as flickers of black taunted the edges of my vision. I gritted my teeth and forced myself to stay awake. No more passing out; I’d done enough of that in the last couple weeks.

I lay there, on the floor, the moment stretching into eternity. The entire time, I was fighting back against unconsciousness, as voices rushed about in my head like a colony of bees. I heard them chitter to each other, a discordant symphony of unintelligible noise.

Until it was done.

There was just one more message the gatekeepers had for me.

[Congratulations on your survival, Fiona Bellum. We hope you work well with your assigned keeper.]

And finally, they withdrew from me.

The experience left my teeth rattling, as my head fell back. I lay on the stones and they felt almost like a soft bed. The blood rushing through my ears was loud, but still felt so much quieter than the voices, even as I desperately gulped in air.

My assigned keeper kept quiet until I gathered myself, a small gesture for which I was more than thankful. Finally, it spoke.

[Hey Bell.]

It was just a single voice, and I’d had a chance to catch my breath, so it didn’t quite stun me. Still, I took a moment to gather myself some more before replying. ‘Hello, who’s this?’ I finally called into the emptiness.

[I’m your assigned keeper. I have been generated to be your companion.]

My newly acquired voice in my head seemed almost happy to have been picked for its purpose. I briefly considered if that was because it was simply born and allowed to exist because of me, or because it had the desire to serve inserted. Maybe it was simply glad about not having to spend its life as part of the swarm. I sure would’ve been.

Holding my aching head, it took me a moment to reply. ‘Cool. Alright. What do you do? What do I call you?’

[This keeper does not have a name yet. You may provide one yourself, Bell.]

I… strangely didn’t mind the nickname it gave me. It was one only my brother usually used. ‘Any preference?’ I asked the keeper.

[Yes. If this keeper is allowed to choose, I would like to be referred to as ‘Cass’, short for ‘Cassidy’.]

‘Fine by me,’ I replied. ‘So, then, what do you do that makes it so necessary to have you?’

[Because the gateway you found is heavily damaged, it has been fused to you. However, controlling a gateway is very complex work. Therefore, I have been assigned to manage your [Gateway] ability. Also, I am here to guide you through your new set of abilities.]

It didn’t sound so bad at first glance, but then again, the goddess had told me to be suspicious. I decided to remain… somewhat tentative for now, saying as much to Cass. ‘Alrighty,’ I told her, ‘if there’s anything you need me to know, please do. Otherwise, I’ll be heading off to my parents now. The mirror gates still function normally for me, right?’

[Nothing has changed about your personal travel to and from Eden. Right now, there’s nothing I still need to tell you. I hope your trip to the other side goes well.]

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

This part really solidified that Cass was made from my own memories. There were very few people out there who so consistently refused to call that place by its proper name. Eden was fine, but calling the other side, “Neamhan”, by its name, felt wrong. It had done very little to recognize me, and I didn’t want to recognize it.

Despite all that, I still had to go there and see what it was all about. Determined, I finally shoved my worries about Cass and the keepers aside, and instead stepped into the hallway leading to my mirror gate.

Well, it wasn’t really mine. Our guild’s, more than anything. But that usually resulted in me not seeing anyone else go through it, which made it feel like mine. So it was kind of my mirror.

The one I walked through didn’t really matter, since it would anchor me to whichever one I picked. Still, this was just more familiar, and right now, I could do with some familiarity, even if it came from the other side. As I walked down the hallway, I could already smell the air clog up slightly with smog.

My face drew into a grimace. I wasn’t looking forward to breathing filthy air again. Even the stale, dusty bit of cave air I’d been breathing for over a month was better than what the other side had to offer.

And then I finally stood in front of the mirror. I reached out slowly, touching my hand against it, and felt the glass ripple at my touch, then grow malleable. I slowly plunged my arm through it, up to my shoulder, then paused for a moment to hold my breath.

Another step later, I was in between, then another two steps and I was through.

Immediately, I found myself back in my apartment. It was stupidly clean, as it almost always was. I hardly even lived here, so I tried to not leave anything standing about. I would often spend a month or more in Eden, so having anything that could rot or spoil was a horrible idea.

Instead of focusing on how lifeless the place was though, I tried spotting if things were out of place. And yes, they sure were. My bed was unmade, my blanket wrapped up in a ball. My nightstand had shifted recently, with there being a small gap in the dust on the floor. And some of the things on my kitchen table had been moved as well.

Wow, she’d really gone so far as to look under my potted basil? Not that it was still alive, but that was low. There was no money to be found there.

I sighed, accepting the reality for what it was, then opened up my hidden drawer by pushing against the side of the table with some force. I pulled my phone from there, and flipped it out of airplane mode. Before the messages had time to come flooding in, I placed it down on the table as I went to change.

My family was all about appearances, so the shorts and shirt I put on for my trip to Eden just wouldn’t cut it. Instead, I had to wear a bra, which was far less comfortable than the undershirt of my armor in Eden, then some decently nice clothing, and jeans. I refused to wear a skirt, no matter how much my mom wanted me to.

Nothing against skirts, actually, more about telling her to fuck off already.

Finally, once I was dressed, I picked up the phone again. A few dozen missed calls, a few dozen missed texts. Most of them were strewn across a couple days, a couple of them within minutes of each other. I sighed.

They knew that I was unable to pick up when I was “at work”, and yet they pulled this shit all the time. I scrolled through the messages absent-mindedly as I brushed my hair. I already missed Ann and the hum of Qi in the air. The view from my window was so bleak and gray, I was starting to feel like a bird in a cage.

There was half a moment I considered taking a deep breath to calm myself down, before I thought better of it and decided to spare my lungs. The AC didn’t do a whole lot against the smog in the air. Sighing wearily, I scrolled past the all-caps messages about what a horrible daughter I was, and that I shouldn’t have ever been born, then went to grab my car keys.

It was going to be a long day.

As I descended the many sets of stairs to the ground floor, I started dialling numbers. My brother was first. He was understanding, and only left me a couple updates on what had happened in the family. Mom and dad divorced a long while ago, but that didn't change the fact that they’d fought each other at thanksgiving.

It was the middle of summer, now. Not that it mattered much, but I should’ve maybe taken an umbrella. Oh well, too late; I wasn’t climbing all those stairs again.

Instead, I hurried to the car, ignoring the scant few raindrops that landed on my hair, and turned the key. The engine hummed to life, the machine loyal to me even after I spent so many days away. I loved my car.

I’d bought it before I started making money from Eden, and it’d cost most of my savings back then, even though it came from a school acquaintance and they offered a good price. Barely used, just a couple miles on it. The lacquer was scratched in a few spots since the dude’s little brother had taken it for a joyride, but there hadn’t been a major accident and it worked perfectly fine. Just cosmetic damage, and a very angry set of parents.

It served me loyally that day as it always did, the dust quickly brushed off of the fake leather seats, as my foot sank against the gas pedal. I had no idea what day it was, but the streets were empty.

When I turned onto the highway to get to my mom a little faster, my brother finally deigned to call me back, landing himself on speaker phone.

“Hey Bell,” his voice rang out from the middle of my armature. “You finally back from work?”

“Sure am, Broski,” I replied, somewhat missing the cheery tone I’d been aiming for. “I read most of your texts, thanks for keeping me in the loop. You’re dating again?”

He gave a soft chuckle. “Yeah. Sarah’s great! In fact, you should meet her. Today, at night? We can go to your favourite barbeque.”

I had, in fact, missed barbeque. My brother always knew how to push my buttons. “Alright, more than okay with that. Sarah’s the name? How’d you meet?”

“At a bar,” he replied, “where most good stories start.” I disagreed with that one, and almost said that all good stories start in Eden, but the words died in my throat. He wasn’t part of that world, and he would never be.

Instead, I just gave a half-hearted chuckle, focusing on the road. “Really now? Hit me with it.”

“Well, funnily enough, she actually approached me. I was out with a couple old college buddies, just people from the same major, no one whose name you know. We were drinking, then Sarah and a few friends joined us. One of her friends knew one of my buddies, you know how it is. We got to talking, and turns out we share a few interests. Similar taste in movies, both taking martial arts classes, that kinda deal.”

My eyebrows flew up at that. “Martial arts? What kind?”

“Sword fighting, believe it or not,” he said, and I could almost hear him puff out his chest.

I snickered slightly, trying my best to hide it from the mic, but I’m sure he heard. A breath to stabilize after the laughter, then I squeezed out a reply. “You’re taking swords classes? How’s that going for you?”

He hesitated to answer. “Somewhat decent. I’m not great, I guess, but not horrible. Instructor says I got some promise.”

This time, I didn’t laugh in the slightest. “Really? That’s awesome, Broski. I’m proud of ya.”

The blush was almost audible in his voice. “Well, thanks Bell. I appreciate it. Seriously. At any rate, Sarah's also taking classes, though at a different place. More and more of those academies popping up. Super weird.”

“Yeah, totally,” I replied. Definitely couldn’t imagine any reason why more of them would be appearing, what with all the people flocking to Eden, and crime on the rise even on this side. “Anyway, continue the story, please. I wanna get to the good parts.”

“Right, yeah. So, we talk about that a little, then the group starts splitting up. Me and Sarah are chatting, super nice stuff, and we hit it off really well. So we don’t notice until everyone else has already headed out. We were both a bit tipsy, but I also didn’t exactly want her to feel unsafe, so I suggested going for proper food, since it was getting late and I started to get hungry.”

“Gentlemanly,” I whistled.

“Oh shut up,” he laughed. “Anyway, we head to a restaurant, some place serving very unauthentic ramen. We have some soup, laugh a good bit, chat some more. It’s past midnight at that point, so I offer to walk her home. No shot of either of us driving. The walk was nice, under starlight and all that, and super quiet. We got lucky as hell, with the smog clearing enough to actually catch a twinkle or two in the sky.”

I nodded in understanding. “You’re right, that is lucky.”

“Yep. We chat, I bring her home, she invites me in. I accept. Nothing super crazy happened. It was a very cozy night, honestly, just watching some movies and cuddling before I fell asleep on the couch. Next day, we make breakfast together, and decide on meeting again,” he finished the story. Good timing, too, I was pulling into mom’s.

“Damn, happy for ya bud. I just got to mom’s, though, talk to you later?”

“Yep, sounds great. See you at eight,” he said.

“See you at eight,” I repeated, then hung up. I took another dozen seconds standing in the garage, before finally convincing myself to swing open the door. It was small, and I had to squeeze a little to get out, but I managed without getting too much dirt on me. For safety’s sake, I patted myself down again, before walking up to the door.

I’d hardly raised my hand to the doorbell when it swung open and an adorable little monster jumped out at me.