Cire woke up with a haze, her body felt heavy as she tried to move. Her head pounded like she was hungover, her eyes were blurry when she opehem and she had a ringing in her ear. She stirred, clutg her head in pain as she tried to sit up. She was gently pushed back down as her body’s strength gave out.

  “Cire, rex. You’re still rec.” Lily’s voice whispered to her, she felt like they were moving. But everything spun when she opened her eyes, so it could have beeigo.

  “Wh-what happened?” Cire asked, her voice crag ahroat felt dry. She felt fine earlier when she woke up to Elsie’s shenanigans, but now she felt so weak.

  “Seems like you caught something while rec… Or your body thinks it’s sick. You have a fever and have been asleep for two days.” Lily said, her voice calming as Cire focused on it. She nearly shot up when she heard how long she was out, but Lily was quick to keep her down. “Cire, rex. It will pass soon, Ana and I made sure of that.”

  Cire’s head spun as she processed what Lily had said to her. How could she have been out for two days? It felt like only a couple ho she was holding Elsie’s hand as Jasmine had her way with her. She tried to focus on Lily’s face, but her vision was blurry.

  “Cire. you check your sheet for us? There might be a status or message that could help us.” Lily said she had moved to grab something. Cire the somethi and cold touch her forehead. She tried to nod her head, but she couldn’t move very much.

  She opened her sheet and was hit with several notifications. grats! You’ve gained followers. grats! Yoddess has gained influence. Both of which sent her mind into a whirlwind, but she pressed on. Status: Weak Healing Fatigue. Healing too much causes your body too much stress. Status: Weak Diviigue. eled [Unknown]’s power and caused too much stress on your body.

  “Divine… Fatigue?” She got out as she read it. She heard shuffling as another voice broke through.

  “D-diviigue?!” Ana said with a mix of intrigue and panic. She rested her hand on Cire’s cheek, cheg her temperature. “Lily! Did Toni look as pale as she does?”

  Cire heard Lily mumble to herself as she recalled the singer from before. He did look incredibly pale and tired the day after. “He did… Cire, did you dream of yoddess?” Lily asked.

  Cire tried to shake her head as she got out between bored breaths. “Gained followers… and influence for Her.”

  “Holy Goddess… I was right. Jaz, you did get us followers!” Lily said as she stood up and out of Cire’s view. Ana moved to Cire’s side as she cuddled under her arm.

  “W-we theorized about why you glowed in your sleep a couple days ago. I thought you were visited by H-Her again, but Lily thought it was something else.” Ana whispered into her ear. Her voice soothed Cire as her headache slowly faded. “I lost our bet…”

  Cire wao ask about the bet so badly. She knew what it meant and what the prize probably was. She’d give anything to see the results of the bet. Her body and spirit craved to hear what her lovers would get up to. But her mind slowly faded. She was falling back to sleep as her eyes felt heavy. Ana’s presend voice soothed her

  bato slumber.

  The night before the rest of her party had a meeting to go over what they had learned. Elsie, who was asleep for a whole day, was filled in with what her sister and Lily had figured out. The three put their heads together and tried to figure out what was wrong with Cire.

  “So you see the healing fatigue but nothing else?” Elsie asked the two. They both could read illnesses and ailments due to their csses, but couldn’t find anything wrong with her.

  “No… we see something, but it’s shrouded…” Lily said, furrowing her brow. She stared at Cire trying to analyze her illness.

  “S-shows up as a bunch of random symbols.” Ana said.

  “And she’s not poisoned or dying?” Elsie asked, her shoulders tensing. Both shook their heads.

  “She’s not losing any mana or health and the symptoms are like a severe case of Healing fatigue. My best guess would be reted toddess or her power.” Lily said, rubbing her .

  “But that’s never happened before.” Elsie retorted. She recalled when the Goddess visited them as the orb and Cire’s dreams. “But… the other times were dreams. And Jasmine…”

  “S-she used their ception to ma. Both didn’t require Cire's direct strength.” Ana said as she recalled her arrival. She spoke to Elsie in her head, ‘She glowed like Jasmine did and apparently like Toni did when he eled the Goddess.’

  ‘But wouldn’t Jasmine have had a simir rea?’ Elsie asked, as Lily watched on in the silence.

  ‘No, maybe She didn’t use Jasmine’s body or energy. She used Cire and Jasmine’s pregnana herself.’ Aed, she had spent quite a bit of time with Lily discussing Cire’s dition. She was leaning towards Lily being right, but her worry was more for their bet.

  ‘I guess it makes sense.’ Elsie said, g to Ana. ‘Did you tell Lily about our telepathy?’ To whia nodded. Elsie sighed as she liked having something just between her and her sister. But she’d o tell Cire and Jasmine about it eventually.

  “So Jasmine lied to the vilgers about our strength, they believed it, and now Cire has followers?” Elsie said out loud. Recalling what had caused Cire’s worsening dition. “Well that’s one problem partially solved, any idea on rituals or worship?”

  Both shook their heads as Elsie let out a sigh. They’d have to find a priestess or something for that. “But, at least we figured out how to gain followers. No thanks to that goddess.” Jasmine said, finally chiming in.

  “True… Good job with that by the way.” Elsie said as she eyed Jasmine. She still felt a bit nervous around her since yesterday’s fiasco. “Way to use that northerner.”

  “Hey, she didn’t even e back for the corpses. And the vilgers hadn’t see all. If she cared, she’d have looted their cave or corpses.” Jasmine said, shrugging.

  She couldn’t remember which of her former friends said it, but she said something like, “rumors bee facts and facts bee legends.” It was when they discussed the Tyrant’s tale and his aplishments. Some of which seemed impossible and others too unlikely for the strength he had at the time. Her old party member suggested they were fake in the beginning to help his image.

  She shook her head, remembering which girl had said that after thinking more on it. The same one who spread rumors about her ex girlfriend and ruihat pirl’s reputation. She still ’t believe she turned a blio those things back then.

  “Whatever… I hope we run into her more. She was so sexy. Her arms nearly put Cire to shame.” Elsie said as she shifted to y in her sister’s p. “I’ve got wat a bit, wake me up when it starts.”

  A her sister fall asleep in her p. They stopped the discussion there a about preparing for the night. Elsie was awoken ter for her shift and the party set out the day, hoping for Cire to wake up and crify things.

  Cire woke up feeling much better. Her eyes could foow and her head wasn’t pounding. Her body was sore, but not weak like st time. She slowly sat up, feeling the blood rush to her head as she did. It looked to be early m, with Jasmine missing from the bed.

  She slowly shifted to the driver’s seat, careful not to wake anyone. Jasmiched as she shakily climbed to join her. “Cire, thank the Goddess. You actually have color in your face. Are you alright?” She said, relief in her voice.

  “Hungry, thirsty, and sore, but I feel much better. The fatigue has finally passed. How long was I out?” Cire asked as she situated herself o Jasmine. She felt the air and looked out to the rising sun.

  “Only half a day this time…” Jasmine said, watg the girl carefully.

  “Anything of note happened since I’ve been out? How’s Elsie and Ana been?” Cire asked.

  “They were shaken up, both because of the fight and your dition. Elsie’s been a lot calmer though. Might have to do that more often.” Jasmine said with a bit of a giggle. She wao lighten the mood, but it wasn’t her forte.

  Thankfully, Cire ughed with her. “Jaz… you nearly sucked the soul out of her. She couldn’t string a word together.” She said with a giggle.

  “True! She was so calm and obedient for the past couple days. It was so nice.” Jasmine tinued. “We were able to make great time traveling, even with the vilge celebrating.”

  Cire tilted her head at that. “Celebration?”

  “Yeah… They wao celebrate in your honor that day, but you were out of it. So they celebrated in your honor. Both because that bigger troll apparently has been causing them troubles for a while, and to thank yoddess.” Jasmine said, rubbing the back of her neck. She wished she had saved some of the food, but they would have spoiled. “retty iing, mostly just them praising us.”

  Cire pursed her lips as her stomach rumbled. She missed out on their generosity and their food. “Ugh, well at least they believed you.” She said, leaning her head on Jasmine’s shoulders.

  There was a light pause as the two looked to the rising sun. “Are you doing okay? Like mentally?” Jasmine asked, shifting Cire to her p. “I know how hard you take these things… That troll was smarter than we expected an-”

  “I know. I just fell for it so easily.” Cire said, interrupting her. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”

  “I ’t… I worry you will end up like me.” Jasmine said, her voice breaking a bit. “You know how hard it is for me… and I said it before, lean on me.”

  Cire nodded befently rising to face her. “I know… I’m healing and so is my pride.” She whispered befiving her a kiss. “Thank you. I just o repce my shield now… I liked that thing.”

  Jasmine ughed as Cire tilted her head. “Funny you should mention that.”

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