Sam puts two of the big spinach-filled fish sticks on Hilda’s plate. They smell delicious.

“Thanks, Sam.” Hilda smiles.

I then follow up and put the pot of mashed potatoes in the center of the table.

“Some good old soul food.” My sister laughs as she puts some mashed potatoes on her plate. “Just what I needed.”

Nikki waits for my sister to have filled her plate and looks at Sam and I in the meantime. “How uni by the way?”

“Well…” I tell her about Gamma and the canceled lesson, and our trip to the arcade. Both Hilda and my sister are paying attention to our conversation as well.

“I know that arcade.” Hilda nods knowingly. “The owner called in for some advice for his arcade machines some time ago.”

“But we don’t do things like arcades though.” Nikki comments.

“Indeed, that’s what I told him as well. I did send him to a company which restores old gaming consoles and things like that. I know them because I have called them before for some of my own consoles.”

“Wow, they should’ve given you a commission then.” My sister jokes.

“Nah, they do good work. They deserve every cent they can get. It’s already hard enough to earn a living by doing that kind of job.”

“I can imagine the clientele not being that big.” Sam nods.

“That and getting replacement parts is not easy either.” Hilda nods in return.

“The nice story aside, don’t forget to not let your food get cold.” My sister points at Hilda’s fish sticks.

“Right. I really wouldn’t want these to go to waste.”

Sam and I sit down and get our plates filled as well. What I like doing with these kinds of fish sticks is push out a bit of the spinach to cover the mashed potatoes with and then scoop everything up on my fork. I don’t know why it tastes better like that, but it just does.

My sister swallows a big bite after which she starts talking again. “I got to admit though, I am a bit surprised that Veanya didn’t forget about the choker part. I guess I was a bit too harsh this morning.”

“Were you talking shit about her?” Hilda asks.

“Just a tiny bit.” I chuckle. “But it was more out of concern than anything else.”

“You should still be carefull with Gods and Goddesses, Lise.” Hilda grins. “They are not particularly known to look upon those kinds of things kindly.”

“Eh, I don’t think Veanya would do such a thing.” I shrug.

“I mean, now that we know divine entities are a thing. Wouldn’t that also mean that myths as we know them, could also be real?”

“Hmmm.” Sam puts her fork against her lips. “That’s a good point.”

“So Zeus and all that crap could be real?” Lise puts her utensils down for a second and scratches her chin. “I had honestly not thought about that before. Would Veanya know an answer to that?”

I shrug. “I could ask the next time I see her.”

“Couldn’t you message her now? Otherwise we are going to be on the edge of our seats for days.” Nikki spurs me on with a big smile on her lips.

“Yeah, Ami, let’s just send her a message.” My girlfriend does exactly the same thing Nikki is doing. Which does work it’s magic on me.

“Alright… I’ll ask.” I take out my phone and start typing out a message while I say what I write out loud. “Hey, Veanya, do you know if Zeus and all those other gods and stuff are real or not?” I silently look at my phone for a couple of seconds before I look up from my screen. “That sounds a lot like a message someone would send while they are drunk, right? Or am I the only one who thinks that?”

Hilda chuckles. “What are you on about? That’s a compleeetelyyy normal question.”

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I roll my eyes and press send. I actually got a bit curious as to what the answer would be as well.

We continue eating our dinner while we wait for a reply.

When our plates are all but finished we still haven’t gotten a reply back.

“Huh, she must be busy.” Sam shrugs.

“Probably.” I give her a nod back.

Then all of the sudden we hear something crash on the floor behind us in the kitchen. Scaring the bejeezus out of our cats, who immediately run towards our bedrooms.

Gamma is standing there, looking disappointed at the space behind the counter. “I told you to prepare, V.”

“That was way too wild, Gamma.” I can hear Veanya’s groaning voice. After which she slowly stands up. “Couldn’t you give me a bit more time to prepare?”

“I already gave you ten seconds. How much longer do you want me to give you? Twenty? I don’t have that time.”

“But we’ve already been talking about this longer than that? Is that not wasted time?”

“But that’s because you weren’t ready!”

“Ahum.” My sister coughs. “Why did you two teleport into our kitchen?”

“Ah, sorry.” Veany apologizes with a slight bow.

“It is faster like this.” Gamma shrugs.

Veanya quickly gives Gamma a head chop.

“Ouch! What was that for?”

“Again, WE both apologize. I asked Gamma to teleport us here so I could reply to Amicia’s message.”

“Couldn’t you just have texted? Or called?” Nikki looks perplexed at the situation, while being relieved that nothing in the kitchen broke.

“She broke her phone.” Gamma ads, quickly as usual.

“When you messaged me, I took my phone out of my pocket, but as I read your name, the phone slipped out of my hand and fell.

“Oh… do you want me to fix it?”

“That’s going to be hard.” Gamma replies.

“How so? You just need the parts so Ami can use her magic on it.”

“That’s the issue.” Gamma nods.

“We were standing on the edge of a mountaintop.” Veanya looks incredibly guilty. “We were just having a nice chat while eating a snack. Took out my phone, phone fell, phone fell very far. Can’t find the phone anymore, and even if we did, it probably exploded into a lot of tiny pieces.”

My sister is facepalming pretty badly right now.

“Before you ask why we were on the side of a mountain. It’s to prepare the ritual site for your friend Carol.”

“On top of a mountain?!” I call out. “Why is it on the top of a mountain!?”

“It’s on the side, Amicia.” Gamma says.

“Same difference.” Sam shakes her head.

“It’s a small plateau, it’s desolate so we won’t be seen. And has a good connection to the elements so we have the perfect environment to do the ritual.”

“I didn’t need all that, I just needed one candy!”

“But you also turned into a divine being, we do want to avoid that.” Gamma clarifies.

“Oh my Goddess…” I mimic my sister by facepalming as well right now. Whatever I say it’s probably not going to change anything anyway.

“I officially retract the compliment I gave both of them earlier.” My sister then says. “I think everyone agrees.”

Hilda nods. “I can see where this is coming from, yes…” She looks at the two other deities in the room who are looking at us with a confused expression.

“Compliment?” Gamma tilts her head.

After a couple of minutes the situation settles a bit as things return to their usual state. Except for the fact that we still have two Goddesses in our midst.

Gamma has taken up a seat and is right now munching on one of the leftover fish sticks I gave her. Veanya is standing next to the kitchen counter, casually leaning on it.

“Thank you, I was famished.” Gamma says, half the fish stick is almost gone.

“Do you not do anything slowly?” Sam asks, surprised to how fast she’s eating.

“No, not really.”

My sister coughs. “Anyway, Veanya… you wanted to answer the question Ami had sent?”

“Yes, I did.” Veanya nods. “It’s actually pretty interesting.”

“Please, do explain.” Nikki says, while she already starts cleaning up most of the plates.

“Do you remember I told you about that one God that oversaw Earth?” She directs herself to me.

“I think I do.” I nod.

“Yeah, you called him an irresponsible prick if I recall correctly.” Sam ads.

“Yes, that one.” Veanya nods back. “As far as any of us know, that’s the only God that has ever ruled over this planet. That means that all those different Gods from the hellenic pantheon for example, either must be made up, or all depict the same God in different shapes.”

“Ah! Right, some of you can shapeshift.” I reply, remembering Veanya’s granny days.

“Some, like me, do indeed have that power. I’m not too terribly familiar with the God who ruled over Earth, except for that he was a complete douche, but it is possible he also could do that.”

“Huh, that is indeed pretty interesting.” Hilda agrees.

“What do you personally lean towards, Veanya?” Sam asks.

“Hmmm, personally I’d say those Gods in particular are just an explanation for natural phenomena and other mysterious yet explainable events.”

“It still makes you wonder though.” Sam continues.

“It does. I’ll ask around if someone knows a bit more but don’t get your hopes up.” Veanya smiles. “It’s a long time ago.”

“We’d appreciate that.” Hilda thanks our clumsy Goddess.

-I think I personally would like to meet Artemis if she really existed… She sounds cool…-