Chapter 33: Chapter 32: Ireland

“Well then, Faith I’ll leave Helena to you, I assume you two have a lot to talk about.”

“You’re leaving?”

“Yes, I’m going to head over to Ireland to see how the situation is over there. I should take care of it before it becomes a problem.”

“Helena.”

“Yes, Mother?”

“Don’t leave the house until I’m back. I’m leaving you in Faith’s care, I assume you also have questions for her. Otherwise I want you to live as you want, we’ll talk about how you want to live after I’m back, so you’ll have some time to think. We’ll also have to deal with your new, appearance. Vampire’s aren’t exactly well received.”

Looking at Helena, if I didn’t know better she truly could be my child. She’s a bit smaller than me, maybe around 150 cm, and she looks to be around 15-16, I guess that’s more or less what her age was before she died. Her hair has less saturation than mine, instead of the blood red she has more of a pink hue, but it’s still visibly red. She has normal pupils, but her eyes are golden. A bit murkier than mine, not completely pure, but golden nonetheless.

“Yes Mother.”

I can tell Faith still isn’t that happy with the way she addresses me, but she is my child, my kin. They will have to work that out between them. I’m curious as to what Faith will do, I can tell she still loves her.

I look at Faith, and decide against kissing her in front of her ex-girlfriend, at least until she can collect herself. I’m assuming she has a lot of thoughts running around in her head.

“Well then, I’ll be on my way.”

As I turn around and walk towards the door, I can feel Faith grabbing my hand. Turning around I look into her eyes, and I see her insecurity. This girl is trouble. Flitting my fingers through hers, I look into her eyes and give her a warm smile, leaning in to give her a quick kiss, as I see Helena flinch in my peripheral vision. More to talk about I guess.

“Take care.”

 

---

 

“Thank you for coming, Miss Ethenia. We’ve been in a stalemate for the past few weeks, the rebels are still trying to garner sympathy from the citizens, saying that the reason we remained a republic is to not forget our roots and our ancestry. I really don’t know what to do except escalate this into a full-blown armed conflict.”

“No worries, I’m planning on heading over to them and have a talk with their leader.”

The president stops in his tracks and looks at me.

“I’m sorry, did I mishear that? You’re planning on going to them to talk?”

“No, you heard me right. That would be the quickest way to resolve this conflict, wouldn’t it?”

“We’ve tried to contact them, but they refuse to communicate. Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

Pesky mortal. Questioning my decision. Oh. I’m doing it again, but I’m not wrong. I can tell that something in me has changed, or, maybe not changed, maybe this is how I’m meant to be. I don’t care for these mortals, but Faith is right, I should at least not call them mortals out loud.

“There will be no issues with that.”

I can tell he’s still uncertain, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t care what he thinks. Honestly I don’t even care what happens to this country, I just want to make sure this won’t affect my plans. Resolving this conflict will go a long way towards my legitimacy, not that I honestly care, but it is the path of least resistance.

“Well then, I’ll be on my way. I’ll stop by and inform you when the conflict is resolved.”

I can tell my confidence is baffling him. I’m so sure that I’m going to be able to single handedly resolve this conflict. Normally he’d be right to question such a claim, but I’m not normal, not in comparison to the others living on this planet. I’m a goddess. I might still be a fledgling compared to my sister, but I’m a goddess nonetheless.

After a few hours of leisurely strolling towards the rebel army, I arrive in front of a manned outpost. The way here was quite scenic, it’s a beautiful country, and I can understand wanting to keep it like this, or maybe even revert to their roots. I didn’t see a lot of conflict in the streets, the citizens went on with their days like there’s not a civil war happening in front of them. This is a good sign, maybe this avatar won’t be an idiot. Since the first encounter against Ifrit’s avatar, it seems the divine beings have found a way to mask their connection. They can’t fully hide the divinity, but since then we, well, I guess now I, haven’t been able to tell which avatar is connected to which divine being. It does make it a bit of a hassle, but oh well.

“Who are you?”

“I’d like to speak to your leader.”

“As if we’d let a random woman into our base.”

“Dude, isn’t she that goddess chick? I remember seeing her on tv.”

“Goddess? Hah. As if.”

This is tiresome. This is why I hate dealing with mortals. Insects. Their brains work so slow, they can’t even comprehend the truth. I guess this won’t be as effective as when me and Athena did it, but it will have to suffice for now.

Letting my divinity seep through me, fusing with my aura as I extend it to cover the entire outpost in front of me, and the base behind it.

“I said I’d like to speak to your leader. We can do this peacefully, or I can annihilate every last mortal in this location. The choice is yours.”

I can see the two men I previously spoke to pale, I can feel their life force becoming erratic, as their bodies try to keep up with the pulse of divinity that hit them, and my aura covering the entire area. They look at each other, before one of them pulls out a radio, and the other opens the gate to let me through. Couldn’t they just have done this from the beginning?

“Wise choice.”

I walk through the gates and look around the base behind the outpost. Instead of occupying a city with citizens, they’ve set up a perimeter around the forest. I can tell they’ve tried not to hurt the natural fauna, maybe they’re not hypocrites after all.

A few minutes later, I arrive at what I can only assume to be the tent belonging to the leader. Walking through the tent I can see a woman around the early thirties sitting on a chair, with a mountain of papers in front of her. Paperwork? Interesting.

“Hello, avatar.”

 

---

 

Faith POV, just after Ethenia left.

 

Shit. I just kissed her in front of Helena. This entire situation is weird. I’m almost afraid to turn around. What will Helena think? My memories of our last conversation flooding my brain.

“Faith?”

I turn around to see Helena standing there. Her hair is different, her eyes are a different colour, and she’s a bit smaller than she used to be, but her face, her mannerism, she’s still Helena. The girl I loved. The girl I still love.

“Haah. I guess a lot has happened since you, went away.”

Helena looks at me with a reproachful look. Is she mad that I got together with someone else? Is she still mad that I betrayed her?

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“Faith. Stop. You don’t seem to have changed at all. What happened to me was not your fault, it was mine.”

“But I didn’t stop you! I couldn’t help, I didn’t help. I did nothing. I just waited, hoped for the best. Everything would have been different, we could have run away together before your parents, brainwashed you.”

“Yes, there are a lot of different things that could have been, but Faith.” Helena walks up to me and strokes my arm the way she used to in the past. Taking my hands into hers as she looks up at me, staring into my eyes. I’m conflicted. I can still see the girl I fell in love with behind those eyes, but they also remind me of who I’m in a relationship with, Ethenia, her “mother”.

“You don’t need to blame yourself. Instead of thinking about the past, why not think about the future? We’re finally back in each other's lives, albeit, a bit different than what it used to be.”

“Why do you call Nia “mother”?”

“I don’t know. It’s instinctual. To me she’s my mother, nothing else. I don’t know exactly what I am or how it works, but I can feel a connection to her, when she made me into, this.” She motions to her new body. “Something rooted itself within me, something fundamental, like it’s been imprinted on my soul. She is my mother, my new family, my kin.”

Knowing Nia, she probably did exactly that. I’m assuming this is why she didn’t want to turn me into a vampire, she suspected this kind of modification. I don’t want to call it brainwashing, she’s still Helena, she just, has a new family, a fundamentally different one. I knew the risks and I still had Nia do it. It’s still better than killing her, I think. 

“Are you happy like this?”

“I don’t know? It’s too soon to tell. I’ve been living for, I don’t know how long in a cold shell, my mind forced to watch as my body did things I didn’t want it to do. I know what mother did to me, I can feel it, but I don’t regret it.”

“What did she do to you? She did tell me about the risks, but I still want to hear it from you.”

“I don’t know the full extent yet, but I know I cannot go against my mother’s wishes. I cannot disobey her, question her, she’s like a divine being in my life.”

Funny, that’s sort of exactly what she is. I need to talk to Nia when she’s back, but for now, there’s something else we need to talk about.

“So. Helena, what are we going to do?”

Helena motions to the couch, and we walk over and sit down. Her head leans on my shoulder, like she used to, except she’s so small now. Like Nia in her, well, I guess only form now.

“I don’t know Faith. I don’t think we can go back. I still feel the love I felt for you, for me it’s as if I just woke up the day after everything happened, even though I know it’s been years for you. I don’t know what we will do, but we can’t go back. It will take time, we’ll probably be more like sisters than lovers, who knows, maybe mother will allow us to be together as well, though I don’t know how that will work.”

That would be a bit, unusual. My ex becoming, oh no, she would technically be my step-daughter wouldn’t she? I mean I’m not married to Nia, not yet. Yet? Another time Faith, not now. One thing she said doesn’t sit right with me though.

“Helena. Our lives are not decided by Nia. She’s not “allowing” us to do anything. Yes I’m with her, yes I love her, but my life is still mine.”

“That may be the case for you, but for me I would need mother’s permission.”

Haah. Nia what have you done. No, this isn’t her fault. She warned me, repeatedly. She told me this was a possible outcome, well, not the whole “mother daughter” part, but still. I wanted this.

“I guess we'll just have to see where this goes.Won’t we?”

“Yes, probably.”

I put my hand around Helena’s shoulder. I don’t know what will happen to us, but Nia would allow me this much at least, right?

 

---

 

Ethenia POV

 

“I see. Well the HDA only asked me to resolve the situation, they didn’t specify how. If what you’re saying is true, I think we can find a solution. First I’d like to speak to Eriu.”

The woman, Saoirse as I’ve come to know her, looks at me with incredulity.

“Can you do that? I know we, avatars, as you called us, have a connection to our divine beings, but how can you talk to my goddess?”

“Aren’t you forgetting something? I am also a goddess. Anyways. Ask her if she’s willing, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

A few seconds later, Saoirse gives me a nod.

“Athena, if you would.”

“Gladly, she should be contacting you in just a moment.”

“Thank you.”

While I’m having my conversation with Athena, I can feel a string of divinity reaching out to me, almost like when I reconnected with Athena, except it’s different, temporary.”

“Eriu, I presume?”

“Yes. So you’re the new goddess that Athena spoke of. Nice to meet you.”

I raise an eyebrow at the, incredibly normal form of speech. I guess not all divine beings likes to talk in archaic language.

“Saoirse said you wanted to ask me some questions?”

“Indeed. I assume you’ve listened to our conversation. Is what she’s saying the truth? Can I trust you, and her not to do anything but steer Ireland back to it’s path before the world was disconnected from the divine realm?”

“Yes. While I can’t control what Saoirse does without breaking her, not something I want to do. We’ve found a certain connection, a common goal. I want to see Ireland back to where it was before all the modern influences. While I don’t mind the technological developments, they will help my citizens a lot in their daily life, I want us to reconnect to our ancestry. They have strayed too far from the path, leading down a spiral of destruction.”

“I see. I don’t mind. I’ll even help out after I’ve dealt with a few things on my own.”

“Thank you. Glad to have you as an addition to our ranks. It’s been a while since someone ascended. We’ve had a few from other worlds since Earth was disconnected, but I think it’s been about a thousand years since the last one.”

Our divinity disconnects. I really don’t know what to call this, it’s different from me and Athena. We couldn’t feel each other's emotions or thoughts, it’s like we spoke, just mentally. I don’t know yet if I can trust her, but I am the only true divine being on this planet, and from what I can tell the other divine beings can’t come down here, I need to talk to Athena about that later. Anyways, back to Saoirse.

“Well, it seems we have an agreement. You will not do anything for a while. I will inform the president about a cease fire, and that we have found a solution to the conflict, but that it will require a compromise. I’m sure if I tell him that his ancestor goddess wants this as well, that it will help. I’ll make sure they don’t try anything untoward until I’ve dealt with my side of things. If there’s nothing else I’ll take my leave, you’ll probably hear from me within a couple of months.”

I get up and leave the tent, guess I’ll have to go inform the president about things. Wonder how he’ll react.

 

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