Cleo´s Trial

Hannah Aurelian

Her blonde hair billowed around her as teal magic swirled closed behind her. “That was some tricky portal work, some help would have been appreciated…” the young woman complained as she looked to her slightly older companion. The two glowing women stood in an alley, the younger dressed in flowing teal robes while the slightly older blonde wore a rich green. “Earth...or a replica of it…” the older woman spoke softly as her vibrant aura dimmed, “She has created a world from our history, It makes sense to stick with what you know I suppose.” The younger woman stared around blankly as her aura also faded away, “This place smells awful, why would she make such a distasteful world.” The two women slowly stepped towards the street, the older woman shifting her clothes from robes to a green summer dress and sandals, “This is more the local style Hannah, copy me so we can blend in, I’ve shielded our energy but…” her voice trailed off as they came out into a large plaza, “Oh what have you done sister…” Hannah had stopped listening to her mother as soon as the massive statue came into view, a towering feminine form glaring down over the population, “It looks similar but it’s not a very good rendering of her…” Hannah said as the two women stood looking at the huge stone giant. “That’s not her, I don’t think, I think that’s who we’ve come to see?” Hannah’s mother said slowly, “Let’s move somewhere we can talk, something is wrong, maybe you can sense it.” Hannah smirked as her teal sundress caught the sun, she had made her fabric so thin that a light breeze would send it in a cascade, “One small adjustment,” her eyes glowed a soft teal as the statues face shifted from a glare to a warm smile, “There, much better!”

  As her mother led her away from the square towards a coffee shop Hannah tried to hold in her giggles as people behind her started calling out for a miracle and praising their goddesses blessing. “Mortals are mortals whatever universe you’re in it seems!” she whispered to her mother as they entered the small cafe. Her mother shook her head but couldn’t hide the smile, “I think you’ve substantially reduced the time we will get to play tourist.” she complained as they took a table by the window to watch. The two women ordered hot drinks and relaxed in their chairs to watch the crowd building outside. Hannah felt the uneasy feeling crawling over her skin as the crowd grew larger, “What is that oily feeling...makes me want to take a shower…” she complained as her mother raised an eyebrow, “About time, that’s Cassi’s power, Although not actively...I sensed something was off but witnessing this display of worship has confirmed some things,” she said slowly sipping her Coffee, “Oh it's been decades since I had Coffee, This is wonderful.” Hannah sipped at the black brew before coughing it out, “Eww, You actually like this bitter water?” she said with disgust as she snarled towards the offensive cup. Her mother laughed as she turned back to the display outside, a huge woman in white robes had just strode into the square and was kneeling down listening to the people. “Well, that’s a serious scale, she must be a hundred feet tall, Priestess robes too, Traditional, I respect that.” she acknowledged, Hannah didn’t really like looking at other women’s huge feet and turned to yell at the barista who was staring out of the door, “Hey, Could I get something with some flavour?” she called annoyed as the young man begrudgingly went back to the counter.

Turning back to her mother she sighed, “So standard Priestess hierarchy? We’ve ruled this way for as long as I’ve been alive, Why are you so impressed?” the younger woman said with a frustrated tone as the huge toes wiggled outside the window. “She’s running an extraction spell over the energy you used on the statue,” she said slowly as if thinking through every word, “Why would you teach your priestesses to do that unless you were worried about other gods...curious” she finished as she sipped at her coffee. Hannah sat up and looked up at the titan outside as her large finger drew a sliver of teal power from the statue's face, “So what? She’ll find out it wasn’t her masters magic? Is this a problem?” she said incredulously. Her mother shook her head again, “I thought I had taught you better, You can feel it, Cassi’s power is everywhere, It’s not just her power that made it, it is her power, everything from the planet to the people...It’s like she splashed her body out across time and space, This universe is her power.” The two women sat in silence as Hannah thought about what her mother had just said, “So, like us, Cassi went into hiding...but she hid within the fabric of the universe itself...that’s smart, We got very lucky finding her…” she reasoned slowly as her gaze shifted back to the crowd, “So this God, Cassi’s daughter...She is drawing her mother’s power from her mother’s creations, That’s twisted…” she said twisting her face into a grimace.  The older woman looked out across the crowd as the huge priestess vanished into the sky, “She probably wasn’t born with the innate divinity we enjoy, This system, this self-contained cycle of divine power was probably the only way Cassi could ascend her daughter to our level...a slow process indeed if you are trying to mask your power across many worlds…”

The two women sat in silence as they considered, Hannah spoke first, “We shouldn’t have come, we’ve put Cassi’s whole plan at risk,” she admitted before accepting a fruit tea from the Barista who had appeared behind her. Her mother gestured to the square with her mug, “We can free Cassi from herself, also, She’s here,” the woman said with a warm smile, “And she's nervous, I can sense that even with our powers shielded.” Hannah casually looked to the square where a young woman with long brunette hair stood in a casual jean skirt and black tank top, her eyes sweeping the area. “Why is she so on edge? Isn’t she the Goddess of this world?” she said perplexed. Her mother giggled, “Everything is Cassi’s power, the blue aura of wisdom, even our young friend’s rival gods are all drawing on Cassi’s power...Her priestess just bought her a trace of green divine energy…” she said hiding her grin with her coffee mug. Hannah baulked, “Oh...Ohhh...So...Plan B?” she said with a sigh, her mother nodded, “Plan B”


Cleo

The square was crowded, hundreds of her devoted gathering to witness ´her´ miracle, the truth, however, was making her heart thunder through her chest as she spun, power throbbing against every mortal, probing them for any hidden power. She prowled through the crowd hunting for anyone who stood out, someone here did not belong and she had to know why. Cleo broke from the crowd and glared at the surrounding buildings, letting her power build as she pulsed out waves of invisible power, hunting. She whispered to herself as she stalked into an alley, trace magic of the similar green hue, “What is this...green divinity doesn’t exist…” A few moments later she realised something was wrong, her eyes blazed blue as she stared at the cafe over the plaza, a ring of nothing, her magic flowing around it like a rock in the stream, “That’s...not possible…” she exhaled as she drew her power back into herself, striding towards the cafe.

The cafe looked normal enough, irritated looking barista, standard menu. As she slowly glanced at the two women sat by the window her eyes narrowed, one looked about her age with a fine teal sundress, the same colour as the energy trace, the other looked to be in her early thirties in a deep green dress. “I’ll just have a juice,” she said casually to the barista as she slowly approached the table the women were sat at, her blood racing more than it had in years. “Is this seat taken?” she asked politely, gesturing to an empty seat in front of the window. The older of the two smiled and gestured to the chair. Cleo felt their stares as she sat, they were studying her as much as she was them. The three women sat in silence as the barista put a fruit juice down in front of Cleo who promptly sipped it, “So, are you new in town?” she said casually. The younger woman grinned, “Yep! We arrived this afternoon, it's a lovely plan..city, I’ve never seen a statue that big before!” the girl spoke with a joyful timber that Cleo couldn’t help but find endearing. The Goddess raised her eyebrow in a smirk, “Oh? Where are you from? It is my understanding that these statues are in every city…” she counted as she innocently sipped her juice. The younger girl looked irritated, “We are from out of town, not one for city life, What about you? Have you lived here long?” she said with a sweet smile. Cleo felt a twitch of anger as the two women smirked at each other, then she felt it, her power pierced whatever unnatural barrier had been blocking it, immediately her eyes flashed as she probed the two women, trying to identify what they were.

Mortals...They were mortals...Cleo’s anger got the better of her as she let her power banish the two women back to her temple. Her mind raced as she sat alone in the cafe, the barista cowering on his knees a few feet away. “It doesn’t make sense!” she screamed at the cowering man, “I’ll get answers from them! On my terms!” she said with frustration as she snarled at the cowering barista, “This fruit tea was awful!” she continued in her flurry of annoyance, her hand lifting as a swirl of power enveloped the whimpering man raising him into the air, “I am the Goddess of this world! No-one else! Me! Understand!” she said as her insecurities came pouring forward, her fist came together and the man instantly compressed in the air before her into a ball of flesh, “Urgh..sorry… eww...I got a bit...emotional” she confessed to the pile of gore before vanishing from the cafe.

Appearing back in her temple she stalked over to the cage the toys were being kept in, sure enough, the two blondes were in there with the sex toys, “You two have some explaining to do!” she snarled through the bars before tapping the cage into a spin and storming away.

Sarah Aurelian

The large cage swung gently as their huge captor stormed away, Sarah smiled at her daughter before breaking out into a fit of giggles. “She’s such a teenager!” she managed to say between her laughter. Hannah looked back from where she was looking out through the bars, “Why isn’t she interrogating us now? Why wait?” she said shaking her head in confusion as her mother tapped her head, “This is why…” she said recovering, a small image of Cassi appeared between the two women, the hologram looked as amused as Sarah as it started to speak, “Welcome to the universe Sarah, you could have given me some warning you were coming!” Sarah smiled at Cassi, It had been a long time, “Sorry, you didn’t exactly leave an address, besides when I found out you had a daughter I had to come to meet her!”  she admitted jovially. “Hi, Auntie Cass!” Hannah interrupted excitedly. Cassi just grinned as she looked over them, “So where are you now then? I sensed you arriving on my daughter’s world but you blocked my attempts to contact you!” Sarah shrugged, “Was hoping to get some tourism in before the big reunion but Hannah wanted to have some fun,” she said slightly defeated. Sarah turned to the huddled group of people keeping their distance at the other side of the cage as if interacting would be a death sentence, “YOU THERE, WHERE ARE WE?” she called over to them listening for replies. Hannah broke into laughter as Sarah grinned, Cassi saw the change in atmosphere and spoke up, “What? What’s so funny?” Sarah turned back to her friend with a wide smile, “Apparently we are in the sex toy cage! How exciting is that!” she declared as Cassi cringed, “I didn’t need to know that about my daughter! Also, you two better not! That’s disgusting!” she said with a scolding tone. Sarah smiled sweetly, “That’s not up to us, we are lowly prisoners if she wants to have her way with us then…” she continued as Cassi snapped, “NO! I will come and spoil your fun immediately!” she declared as Hannah spoke up, “No worries aunt Cassi, I have no desire to be anywhere near your daughter in that way!” Sarah giggled, “Talk soon sis!” she said quickly before cutting the communication as the huge figure stomped back in dressed in long robes, bringing herself to loom over the cage, hands firmly on her hips.