After some more comfy cozy cuddly bath time we get out of the bath, or more accurately, Sam lifts me out of the bath and starts drying me off.
“I’m so sore, Sam.” I complain. Getting out of the warm water hadn’t really helped as all my muscles started to ache again.
“I’ll give you some more massages in bed, I promise.” She smiles and towels me completely dry after which she dries herself.
“Ami, Sam! I have put your clothes on a towel in front of the door!” Hilda calls from the other side of the door. She must’ve heard my groaning.
“Thanks!” Sam calls back and walks over to the door. She just opens it slightly so she can take the fresh clothes from outside and then closes the door quickly behind her again. “Oh darn, silk pj’s.”
“Silk?”
“Yeah, feel this.” Sam offers the pile of clothes to me. There’s a pink and blue set of clothes stacked on top of each other. I slide my hand over the fabric and it feels incredibly soft.
“Wow…”
“I know right.” Sam smiles and starts to look at the two sets of clothes. “I think the pink one is for you, it’s the smallest. She hands me the pink pj’s and I quickly put them on while she puts on her blue set. Weirdly enough it's almost a perfect fit for both of us.
“Nice. It almost feels like I’m not wearing anything, yet it’s keeping me pretty warm. What about yours, Ami?”
“Mhmm. It’s perfect.” I nod.
We take our other clothes with us out of the bathroom. When we leave we see that our entire group has gathered in the lounging area. My sister is grilling something on a stick in the fireplace.
“Had a nice bath?” Lise asks while she’s chewing on something.
“Your sister has found a bit of bacon and she wanted to grill it over a fire.” Nikki shakes her head with a deep sigh.
“Hey, I was hungry.”
“I am too, but this house has a kitchen, you know?”
“Can I have some too?” I ask, my tummy is grumbling at the smell of the cooking bacon.
“Hilda has put on some stewed meat for us.” Nikki replies.
“Yep, it’s stewing along in the kitchen.” Hilda nods.
“I mean, she can have some as a snack, right? She did save our bacon.” My sister smirks at her own bad joke.
Even Sam sighs at that one. “Really Élise? Really?”
My sister starts to laugh at our reactions while she gets up from her kneeled position in front of the fireplace. “Here, give those clothes to me, you can have this skewer. I’ll go put them in the washing room or whatever that room is called.”
We trade what we have in our hands and Sam piles her clothes on top as well.
“Then we will already go to the dining room.” Hilda gives us a smile and accompanies us at our side. “Don’t worry, it’s nice and warm there as well and the seats are comfortable too.”
Hilda didn’t lie. The seats in the dining room were in fact really cozy and with another fireplace burning next to the table it is pretty toasty in here.
Once my sister returns Hilda goes to the kitchen to take the stew off the fire and brings some bread with it to complete the meal.
Since the bacon on a stick didn’t really see much sunlight once it reached my hands I almost immediately started eating.
It doesn’t take long for all the food to be completely gone.
“So, Ami, if you don’t mind us asking, what exactly happened to you? Or do you want to tell us tomorrow after you’ve slept for a bit?”
“No, I can tell you now… I think it would be better to try to delay our sleep until the evening anyway…” I shake my head. I think it’s almost mid day outside, if we decided to sleep now we would just wake up in the middle of the night.
“That’s fair. I wasn’t planning on sleeping either.” My sister gives me a smile.
My girlfriend just looks at me and gives me a smiling nod too. Waiting for me to do my story.
“So… when we were fighting that spectral being…” I explain everything from the moment where I go into communion with the souls of the people to the point where I blast the pope into his beloved cathedral. My family stays quiet the entire time, listening to what I have to say. “...and that’s basically that.”
“Basically she says.” Hilda chuckles and scratches the back of her head. “So that being was a combination of the negative emotions and the souls of the people who got sacrificed. You then purified them in your body while going to the capital of Osvik. Led a mob to where the dungeon was. Raised a giant cathedral into the air. Revived the people. And then you killed the pope by releasing the negative emotions you gathered and then you blasted him into his beloved building.”
“Uh, yes. I think that’s pretty much it.” I nod.
“Holy. Shit.” My sister then took a drink from her glass of wine. “So Ami has basically overthrown an entire system of government in an hour or so?”
“Yeah… I think she did…” Hilda nods.
“No wonder you are that tired.” Nikki blows out a bit of breath.
“And all the voices are out of your head now?” Sam asks.
“That must have felt super weird, didn’t it? When they were still part of you.”
“Yes. But I’m happy I did it for them…”
“You are such a good bean, Ami.” Sam took me in for a big hug. “But like I said before, next time you do something crazy like that, please take me along.”
“And us too!” My sister jumps in. “I would’ve loved to see that cathedral blow up. Very much so actually.”
“And I would’ve liked to add some flames to it as well.” Nikki adds.
“At least everything turned out fine.” Hilda replies. “But yes, take us with you next time. And about that… Do you know how to teleport now? Or how does that work?”
I tilt my head. “I am not sure…. I think so? I did it completely instinctively but I do think I need to have been to a place before I can teleport to it. Or at least have memories from that place.”
“Ah, so you used the memories of the souls you carried along to teleport to the capital of Osvik?”
I nod. “I think so, yes.”
“And I guess you don’t know if you can take people with you?”
“Nope.” This time I shake my head.
Hilda smiles and rubs her chin. “Well, there’s lots of things to test out tomorrow. And I also want to test if we can do the same thing ‘in real life’.”
“Woah, imagine being able to visit Hilda without even having to move. That’d be awesome.” My sis shakes her fist in excitement.
“Or teleporting like other countries like I talked to Ami about.” Sam smiles.
“Although you’d probably still need a visa in a lot of countries.” Hilda says.
“Well, does that really matter if you don’t need to cross the border?” My sis starts to discuss.
“I’m not sure. Don’t you need to show your visa in hotels and stuff like that?”
“I don’t know. You are the adventurous one.”
“I’ve actually not gone outside of Europe, you know?”
“Wait, you haven’t?” I ask Hilda.
“Is it that surprising?” She chuckles at my question.
I nod. “Kinda, yes.”
“There’s plenty of places to see in Europe itself and I’ve not even discovered it all. Plus, I’d feel somewhat lost by myself on another continent.”
“That’s surprisingly cute, Hilda.” My girlfriend comments.
“Oh, shut up, you.” She gives her a wink.
“You can always join Ami and I when we go to Japan.”
“Yeah! That’d be fun!”
“Really? Thanks for the invite.” Hilda smiles. “But won’t that make those two a bit jealous?”
“Ah, don’t worry about us.” Nikki waves Hilda’s concern away.
“We’ll have fun either way.” Lise winks.
“Mhmm, lots of fun.” Nikki gives her partner a kiss.
“Right, want a tour through the rest of the house so we can leave this two lovebirds alone?” Hilda proposes.
“Yes, let’s.” Sam nods.
“As long as you go slowly.” I groan and get off my chair. Having been seated has soured my legs even more.
“Don’t worry, babe, I’ll just keep carrying you.” Sam takes me in her arms.
“Won’t you get tired too? You’ve shot your bow a lot today.”
“It’s fiiine.” Sam tries to lift me but fails miserably. “Nevermind… apparently my arms have decided to give up as well.
Hilda laughs. “Just let me lift her, I barely had anything to do today.” Hilda walks over and takes over from Sam. And just like that I was being princess carried by our half-elven leader.
“Let’s show you the rest of the downstairs rooms first.” She smiles and with me in her arms, she starts guiding us through the mansion. Leaving my sister and Nikki behind at the dinner table. Just before we leave I peek over Hilda’s shoulder, just in time to see Nikki bring her mouth to my sister’s neck.