My eyes went wide “You’re WHAT?!”

  She pet my head with a sigh “No not like that… okay slightly like that, but no.” she smirked and stifled a giggle “I’ll expin, don’t fret my Saint. Just think about it, if it were as bad as what you’re probably imagining would the Green Mother be eveely okay with you?”

  I let my jaw hang sd just stared at her.

  She sighed. “Alright, do you know what a demi-god is?”

  I shook myself bae level of funality. “Um… like, god children, right?”

  “Exactly! And what do childreually do?”

  I tilted my head a bit as I guessed “Grow up?”

  “Bingo!” she pet my head again “Thing is demi-gods run around in groups of their friends and ohey’re older, lovers. They grow close and form tight knit groups.”

  It slowly hit me what she was talking about “… pantheons?”

  “Love how smart you are my Saint.” she giggled. “Additional plication, demi-gods subsist on iergy and their parent’s leftovers fine, but fully developed gods need worship. Devotion literally sustains us.”

  “I…” I sched my eyebrows together. “I’m missiails here. Why not just have your parents go ‘hey, give some love to my kid’ or something?”

  “Yeah… so they ’t. There are rules.” She held up a hand “A ohat the oldest gods wrote into reality across the multiverse. Basically, new pantheons have to establish themselves without help.”

  “And you’re… from a different world, but setting up on this one?” She nodded “But, why?”

  “Our inal world is… plex. Like, a few thousand gods in dozens of pantheons and most of them still around and very active. We have a cult there right now keeping us going, but they won’t st more than a year or ten at the very most. The other pantheoheir own forces to snuff out our worshipers. petition there is murder and we’re not killers, so we’re losing. We’re dying.”

  I shook my head “But wait, there are pantheons here, won’t you have the same problem?”

  She snorted “Puh-leeeeeze. There are like five pantheons oris.” I stared in fused silence “Reltris? Oh wow you don’t even remember the name of the your own world. Man, we seriously brain-fucked you. Okay look, the stronger you get the more that will fade, promise.” She shook her head. “MY POINT! My point is that there are far fewer gods here, there is even a ret void a new pantheon step into, also the uping-...” she snapped her lips shut and stared at me with a hint of worry.

  “The uping what?” I gred at her, respectfully.

  “You ’t know about it yet. Rules. I’m holy sorry my Saint. But I will help you and yours prepare even if you don’t know it. But seriously, get the fuck out of safe pces a some levels under your belt or shit will go badly for you, and us.” she s me gently. Then took a breath. “But as I was saying, the Uvtrayl gods died within the past tury, weakened enough by ck of worship that the Thundering Pantheon was able to crush them.”

  “Wait, but they have a emple!” I found myself still at least a little ed for the fate of my almost home.

  She shook her head sadly. “It won’t matter, their gods are gohe gifts they grao mortals still linger, but they are growing weaker every geion and will disappear entirely after a just few more. Which I hate because they sounded like fun folks, but even gods ’t e back from the dead. Not this kind of death anyway.” she stroked my cheek softly. “So, there is a hole we step into now that the Thundering shitbags are distracted and weakened with their churd nation tearing holes in itself. Though, we least one local god to basically give us some small bit of… think of it like diplomatic prote. If the Green Mrants that to me we actually work in the open to a certain degree.”

  I took a long, slow breath and nodded “Okay. Okay that tells me so fug much, thank fuck.”

  She hugged me close “Sorry, I probably could have worded the first part better, huh?” I just nodded a out a groaning sigh. “Oh! By the way my Saint. I heard you.”

  “You heard me what?”

  “Pray! You prayed to me!” She cheered “I ot tell you hoy I was, that was my first prayer! I mean, not ting the cult. Which I really don’t want to. They are kind of crazy and terrible people and I would feel bad about using them but they are exactly what you think of when someone says ‘cultist’. It’s a bummer that we hem, less of a bummer they will be gone soon.”

  I blinked and thought about what she meant by prayer, but then I remembered and I felt tears in my eyes “How could I not thank you for that?”

  She just shrugged “She needed a good night’s sleep. I ’t do that often, but I could do it then.” She reached over and stroked Daisy’s head gently. “Even this little one couldn’t help her much. What she has aren’t normal nightmares, not like what baku eat. She needs help, and the nightmares will fade… mostly. Probably.”

  I squeezed my Goddess’s shoulder and smiled. She started to stand and I stopped her “Oh! I o ask, why do people bond to me so quickly? Is it a Skill? Something about being your Saint? Am I affeg people’s minds somehow?”

  She sighed heavily, annoyan her voice. “You would already know that if you GOT STRONGER. Seriously Esme, levels, power, answers will e with them on their own without needing to ask a god.” she bopped my head gently. “But I tell you that what’s happening isn’t mind affeg. No one is having their free will ency removed or maniputed… okay…” she grimaced. “Carmil did. But she was going to eat you so I kind of had to!” She blurted defensively.

  I rubbed my face “Okay, I uand that and I think she will to. But the others? What’s going on there?”

  “You untangle people’s hearts when you’re with them. The knots people tie their emotions in and the yers of trauma and g meisms and self deception? Time with you weakens it all. Talking with you speeds it up. Sex with you pushes it to max speed.” she winked and gri me.

  I raised a brow “I’m sorry, trauma? Are you saying I fuck people into better mental health?”

  “Yeah! Sorta… it’s ditional obviously. If someone’s having an episode, shoving your co them isn’t going to make anythier. Not to mention that trying to sedueone who’s pretty messed up just give them different trauma. But I’ve learned you have pretty good judgment so I don’t think you’re likely to fuck things up in that ecifically.”

  “I will in others though?”

  “I have told you, several times since we first met, to get stronger. You have not even hit level twenty.” she pced her hands on my shoulders and looked into my eyes “Esme, my Saint. I love you dearly, I do. You have done so much so well. But if you remain as weak as you are much longer none of this will matter and we’re all dead.”

  My eyes widened “I… hadn’t realized.”

  “Partly my fault, I wasn’t hammering home the message. I am now. Where you are has monsters and demons which both give experience. Get outside ao growing. sider that a and from yoddess. Because it is.” she stared into my eyes and I could feel how serious she was “As much as I love watg you make friends and fuck your lovers, the experience you get from it does not hold a dle to what you will get by fighting monsters. So go do that. Whatever you have to do to go fight, do it.”

  I took a breath and nodded “Yes, my Goddess. I swear it will be so.” Reverence when she was being this serious just felt appropriate, you know?

  She gave me a small smile. “Good. Though, you are right on the edge of your level. I help you by letting you gain some css based experience.” She smirked as she grabbed my hands and put them directly on her divine breasts. My brain came to a plete stop and I just stared at her chest under my palms “Mmm, there we go~ Now, I have to go get ready to either make a friend or be murdered. I’ll speak to you again in a few days my Saint. Unless I don’t in which case I hope your life is less plicated!” She giggled as she stood and floated off.

  I looked at my hands, still held out and groping air “Oh… kay… that happened.” I shook myself and looked down at Daisy “Hey, wanna go wandering through the Dream together? See what kinda of silliness we find?”

  Daisy squealed happily and hopped up and started heading off. I stood and caught up to her, petting her softly as I walked along beside her.

  The dreams we passed ranged from surreal to fetishistic but were mostly just kinda odd in the way of dreams. However after a bit I stopped us as I felt a tug. “Daisy, hold on, I feel something. I think it’s someone I know, it feels familiar.”

  We skipped across the Dream and came to a se that made me almost weep with jga and Briggavel holding a pair of little half-orc/dwarf babies and g happily at them. Gods they deserved to be happy. I slinked away quietly, unwilling to disrupt that dream.

  was a sight that made me angry. “Daisy, eat that please?” my baku friend waddled over a P on the nightmare versions of me and Carmil. They had been standing over a curled up and g Luvetra, insulting her, saying they couldn’t believe how easy it was to manipute, lie to, and use the desperate monster. As they squeaked from being ed, the light in the room we were in brightened and my love slowly looked around in fusion.

  I rushed over and held her. “E-Emse?”

  “That wasn’t me. That would never be me! Carmil either!” I was g then. “We love you so much. You live in our hearts Luv!”

  “What, wh-what’s happening? Is this a dream?” she slowly slipped arms around me.

  “All you o know is that you are loved, so much. I would tear the world apart to see you smile.” I kissed her hard, pressing myself against her and squeezing tightly. I broke the kiss after some time and rubbed my forehead on hers. “I fug love you. Never doubt that.”

  But then Daisy oking me and I knew doing more would be too much. So I kissed her again and then dashed off, rushing outside of her dream before she could say more.

  “Thank you Daisy.” I said as we slowed and I pet her softly. “You’re a good friend.” and she wiggled happily and nuzzled against me like a giant cat.

  We walked past a few more dreams. Weren had a kit that was bigger thaire vardo. Carmil was just floating in a red sea and smiling and I didn’t want to know more. Jaina’s was… lets just say that she was serving the publi hers. All of the women iire city in fact. Several of them more like me, anatomically speaking.

  Then I felt a pull, like following a string someone id out. I ear to a dream and another beside it, both practically identical. Re and Flyt, but youhe two of them and a simirly aged noble elf boy were running around some noble manrounds and causing trouble for the staff and just having fun. It was nice. But I could make it nicer, or at least I felt like I could.

  I reached out to both of the dreams with my mind and focused, pulling them together and f them to be ohe sisters paused and then looked around, then at each other. They realized they were dreaming quickly, and that they were both real immediately after. I heard them cry and cheer and run around their dream manor. But I didn’t stay. This was for them.

  I did see a slim thread that was attached to them though. So I followed it curiously. The dream I’d found arently that boy’s. He was older now, an elf man with big muscles and a beard and swinging a sword and hanging out with knights and manhandling barmaids and uuugh. It was such a stereotypical mase fantasy dream that I felt dirty being on the edge of it. I’d had enough of it and started to leave.

  But Daisy waddled into the dream, reared back, and P!

  And suddenly there was a woman alone in a garden. She had features like the elf man’s but softer, she could have been his sister. She wore a pretty yellow sundress and had a hairband with an e flower on it. She looked around fused “What happeo all of the knights… wait, what happeo my voice!?”

  I stepped in as she started panig “Hey, hey you’re okay. This is a dream, you’re safe.”

  She turo stare at me. “This... this is a nightmare! No, no make it stop! I’m normal! I’m normal! I am! What did you do to me!?” she screamed, tears streaking down her face.

  I rushed forward and ed my arms around her, holdiight “You’re okay, you’re okay. It’s gonna be okay.” I pulled her against me as I stroked her hair softly.

  “Please, I ’t, I ’t be this. I’m not a girl, I promise.” She was sobbing against me. He? I was so fused. But, Daisy eats nightmares, right?

  Then she or he woke up and I was just on the Dream path again. I turo my friend “That… was a nightmare you ate, right.” and she stomped a foot as if offended I would even ask that, nodding vehemently. “Yeah, I thought so.”

  And then I woke up too.