The entire day at uni goes by pretty fast, all things considered. When you have interesting lessons without much waiting around, time flies by faster than you would imagine. After the lessons have ended, I tell Carol and Hailey about our little chat with Gamma and Veanya yesterday. And how they are setting up the ritual site on the side of a mountain.

“On the side of a mountain?!” Carol exclaims. “Are they mad?”

“It has something to do with aether, the elements, or something… or so they told me.”

“Haven’t they considered some of us may have a fear of heights?”

“Look, you’ll be fine. I’ll be there as well to keep you safe… even though I’m not a big fan of heights either.” I look at the bracelet around my arm. “At least we won’t have to climb up to the peak like I had to for this little thing here. That was a lot scarier.”

“You climbed the side of a mountain, Ami?” Hailey asks.

“Yeah, our whole group did. We made it through that perfectly fine though.”

“Oh! That reminds me! You still need to tell us that story about what the heck you’ve done in Turn of Destiny! Don’t leave me hanging again!”

“Haha.” I chuckle. “Let’s wait for Sam and Max to get here so we don’t need to retell it twice.”

“Alright.” Carol concedes, and together the three of us wait for Sam and Max to get here after their lesson. Luckily for us, and for them as well, they don’t have a boring meeting today. So they show up in front of our campus building about ten minutes later.

“I got a text message to hurry up. What’s up?” Max asks the moment they arrive.

“Ami and Sam are going to tell us a story!” Carol replies happily.

“Are we?” Sam tilts her head in confusion.

“I did promise her to tell her the story of what has happened in Turn of Destiny.” I innocently scratch the back of my head. “Better do it now before she catnaps me or something like that.”

“I’d never do such a thing to my dear friend!” Carol hugs me. “Okay, maybe if you refused to tell it for another week or so, then maybe I would.”

Hailey laughs. “Yep, that’s Carol for you.”

We don’t stick around in front of the campus building for that much longer and start searching for a couple of benches in the park where we can get some privacy. Soon enough we find a couple of empty ones, actually not that far away from where we were standing. Since it’s pretty cold outside there’s even less students around in the park than normal, even then, because of the size of the surrounding park, it’s never really busy.

“Has everyone settled in? Noone needs a blanket to fight off the cold?” Hailey puts her hand in her bag and takes out a blanket for herself. “I have an extra one.”

“No, I’m fine.” Max smiles and shakes her head. With a Carol on her lap she mustn't be feeling too cold.

Sam and I then start retelling our story, starting from the moment we met each-other in the forests back on the old continent. Then what happened at the town that was infested with bandits and where I raised a large chunk of the populace back to life. How the inquisition found out about a new upstart religion. Our trip across the ocean with Captain Taylor and then our adventures on the Dwarger continent. With the big finale the siege of the Dwarger capital and my small detour to Bolasf.

“Holy shit. I thought that it would be quite the story, but I didn’t expect this at all.” Max looks at us with open eyes.

“Yeah. We heard some things about it but I never thought it would be… you know… such an epic tale.” Carol agrees.

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Hailey just looks incredibly interested. “Next time you have such a story, please do tell me. It’s pretty fun to listen to your animated retelling of it, Ami.”

“I will.” I smile at my other friend.

“I’m curious about something.” Sam raises her finger. “Did you really hear that much about Ami? In your short time of ToD.”

“Max and I spawned practically together in a forest. Once we made our way to the closest city we could find, we heard a couple of players there talk about how some of their friends had been ‘yeeted and deleted’ by a pink-haired cat girl.”

“Then one of the players appeared who’d fought in the battle himself. And he started telling about his point of view of the battle and then how he met his end.” Max continues.

“Oh by the way. We haven’t told you yet, but the native inhabitants of the lands have also started to speak more and more about this mythic savior. The protector of all that’s good and the one who smites all who does harm and whom should be feared by all evildoers or they’ll be sent directly to their deaths.”

“Oh no…” I pout.

“Is that such a bad thing?” Carol chuckles.

“Well… Ami doesn’t really enjoy everyone worshiping her as a Goddess. But because of the way she is and how she acts. It’s kind of inevitable.”

“It’s not really the Goddess part that annoys me most anymore. It’s the agressive parts of the title that come with it.” I explain.

“Most people have started to call her the Goddess of both Justice and Vengeance.” Sam adds on to that.

“Ah, I do think I’ve heard that name drop as well.” Max nods.

“And what city were you in?”

“I’m pretty sure it’s called Ribaquen.”

“The religion already got there?! Our party started in that city, it’s so far away!” I lower my head.

“It is the capital of that region, is it not? Traders spread rumors very far and fast, and that’s without taking into account players respawning.” Max says. She’s right… but still…

“And I think there are definitely worse names they could’ve given you, Ami.” Carol says. “Like the Destructor, the Vindicator, the Reaper…”

“I suppose…”

“But I’m glad to hear you’ve at least gotten used to a bit of the attention.” Sam pats me on my head. “Because I don’t think that’s going to slow down.”

“I know…”

“But that’s enough about us, what have you done in your couple of days in Turn of Destiny? And don’t skip out on the details.” Sam directs the attention away from me and onto Carol and Max.

“I’m sorry to be that person.” Max says as she looks at her phone. “But could we keep that for another time? It’s already gotten pretty late.”

Sam grabs her phone as well and looks at the screen. “Oh shit. Have we been talking for that long?”

I look over my girlfriend’s shoulder and see that we somehow spent one hour and twenty minutes retelling our story. “Oh yeah, we should probably go home too.”

“Okay, I’ll promise to tell you all the story tomorrow though. I promise it on my pristine soul.”

“So, what you are telling us is that that promise is pretty useless?” Sam chuckles. “C’mon you should’ve seen that one coming.”

“I did, otherwise I’d be disappointed in you.” Max winks. She then helps her girlfriend stand up from the bench. “Ami, Hailey, Sam, see you around tomorrow then?”

“See you tomorrow!” I reply and we wave our friends off as they leave us to go and do their own thing.

“Are you going to be able to get home, Hailey?” Sam ask Hails. During our storytelling she’d also grabbed the second blanket and had draped that around herself. She kinda looks like a Hailey cocoon.

“I’ll be fine.” She smiles at us. “I think I’m going to stay here for a bit longer, I quite like this place.”

“Are you sure? Try not to get a cold, okay?” Sam asks. I really like the concern she shows for my friends.

“Here, I’ll boost up your immunity system a bit more.” I smile and focus on Hailey while I stealth cast a potent heal on her. “I don’t actually know if this strengthens your immunity system but it can’t hurt.”

“Thanks.” Hailey smiles at me. “The only thing that would make me even happier is a nice warm cup of soup.”

“Sadly enough we have neither instant soup, water or a cup with us.” Sam chuckles.

“I could warm it up for you though. I’ve already done that for a couple of tacos.”

“That’s interesting.” Hailey nods. “That could be very useful in certain situations… and not only when you want your take-out to get home warm.” She giggles.

“Like keeping your girlfriend warm when we are telling a very long story.” Sam says.

“I thought you were plenty warm with me on your lap.” I pout.

“I was, I was just kidding, little kitten.” She gives me a kiss on the cheek. “Anyhow, have fun in your little quiet spot, Hailey. See you tomorrow?”

“See you two tomorrow.” She reciprocates with a big smile.

“Bye bye Hailey!” I wave as we leave her behind, looking like a very comfy Hailey wrap in her natural habitat.