Saintess Summons Skeletons

After Zephir resolved the chaos caused by Saria, the sisters had been given their belongings back as well as some privacy. They were currently in Saria’s bedroom. The decoration of the room was minimalistic, but what little there was was in total disorder, with open books and clothes strewn on the floor.

After a long while of awkward warmth between them, two could still barely believe they had been reunited, they managed to calm down, both sitting on the bed.

Saria started braiding Sofia’s hair as if it was the most natural thing in the world. “You’ve outgrown me.”

“I had a big growth spurt after I entered the Orphanage in Skyreach. You grew a lot too.”

“You were in Skyreach?” Saria asked in disbelief, “Zephir searched everywhere. He even took me with him. Is it possible we missed the one you were in?”

“Does Verenha sound a bell?”

“We went there! I remember! There was even that one blind kid!”

“Sirius?” Sofia asked.

“That’s it! But then how…” Saria’s hands stopped for a moment. “Did we reach there before you?”

“Sirius entered the Orphanage eight months after me.”

“No way… Zephir asked everyone and even checked the ledgers…”

“I get why he was so shocked to have missed me then. I think I know what happened somewhat. But that’s… Let’s start from the beginning maybe.”

“Right, how did you even survive to begin with? I couldn’t see much for reasons but I know it was a huge mess…”

“Ah yes, I found your murder cave. You sure gave that prick Hemdal some of his money back.”

“My murder… You went to the mountain?!”

Sofia turned around to be able to see Saria’s face, she took out the brush she got from Saria’s old hideout. “That’s how I found you, you left some hair on this, I had a diviner search for you.”

“That was you! Zephir complained that someone was trying to spy on the sect with scrying spells!”

“Eheh. That’s what led me here. And it wasn’t cheap. I still need to pay the guy.”

“You do?! I can pay, I’m sure you saw in my lair, right? You can take as much as you want, Sofia.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, I can get my own money, besides, the old elf doesn’t want money. He wants a signature from Sun.”

“Sun?”

“Sun.”

“I’m not sure I can help with that…”

“Don’t worry about my stuff, big sis. I can handle this. Just wait until I tell you everything that’s happened. I didn’t get strong enough to beat you by sitting on my ass, you know.”

“Right… Then how did you survive? Reaching the orphanage with all these monsters roaming the country, and the pink corruption, I don’t even understand how you managed that. I only survived by living like a rat, alone on my flying mountain. And because the system gifted me with a good class…”

Sofia let herself fall back onto Saria, who hugged her from above. “We’re gonna be here all night, aren’t we?”

Saria smiled, “We have all the time in the world, I’m not letting you go again.”

Sofia smiled back, “Shared feeling. So how I survived the flood… Well first I stabbed the slaver guy in the face and ran away with my chain when the whole thing started. And from there I fell into the torrent the river had become due to the sudden escaping into the sky of the mountain. Next thing I know, I wake up half-dead on the beach. The monsters never spilled onto the coasts for some reason, so I managed to find other people and our group of lost people became a refugee caravan. There were a few strong people that kept the group together. It took three years to go through the mountains and the mines in the north and reach Skyreach.”

“Three years… Is that when you got your class?”

“No, I was the only kid in the caravan, they would never let me participate in the fights. Though I did get hit by a stray arrow once. I got to the orphanage after that, and I only got my class something like two and a half years ago…”

“So late? And you’re as strong as me already? Were you trained by that Dragon lady?”

“Erredis? No, I barely met her before coming here. I got strong quickly because… Uh. Well. Let’s start by explaining how I got my class, even by the standards of the sect it might be weird…”

Saria was walking around her room, trying to digest Sofia’s ‘Short version of her adventures’, throughout which she had made all kinds of funny faces.

“So, let me get this straight. Just to be in the clear. You’re the Saintess of Scripture and also trying to kill Him.”

“Sort of.”

“And you’ve been adopted by some kind of forbidden God whose name erases people from existence.”

“That’s Aphenoreth, yes. You can say it too, we’re safe. There’s only one of the four Lords that we’re supposed to not speak of out loud for some reason.”

“Of course… And then you became sort of Sorrow’s Apostle, but not really.”

“You’ve seen it firsthand, it’s not far from how you transform into a tiny Dragon.”

“You have a point I guess… This is my specialization though. No dark sacrificial ritual to the chatter gods… But let me finish, you cleansed a lost city in the Margin, saved another Apostle from an underground prison, and then went on to go up the spire and defeat the thousand-eyed cheater?”

“That’s a way to put it. Oh, speaking of which… This is what I got out of it.” Sofia commented while showing the crown. Quickly looking over the description, she added, “It looks like Victory liked our last fight, my win against you is worth 15% strength.”

“I swear… I’ll go back up and beat His green ass if I can.”

“Good luck with that, big sis.”

“... And so after all that, you decided to find me, but first you stopped by the actual sun, then the moon, and brought back the Ancestral Plague Dragon with you.”

“Yeah.”

Saria stopped her restless walking. She laughed. It was a warm and hearty laugh that echoed through the room and beyond. She laughed until she couldn’t anymore. Wiping her tears, she stared at Sofia, a gleam in her eyes. “Sofia… I can’t believe you’re still this crazy!”

“Ah! You’re one to talk, big sis ‘I decorate my walls with skulls and was adopted by a Dragon’.”

Saria laughed again. “Hey, I didn’t have any choice, skulls were all I had, you on the other hand… You’ve been touching some bones.”

“Well, uh. It is what it is, In a way I wanted to become a necromancer for you, you know.”

“Look at you selling your big sis’ skin so cheap. I’m not the kind to die so easily. If it wasn’t for that damned flood I could’ve even gotten us away from the slavers that same night…”

Sofia sighed, “The process was terrible, but now that you’re here again… The results aren’t bad. Don’t you think?”

Saria sat next to Sofia again, resting her head on her shoulder. “I’d have to agree, but really only because you’re back. I’m happy here. The people in the sect are like a second family, will you stay here with me?”

“I don’t know. Probably not. I enjoy traveling around now, discovering lost dungeons, and the forgotten mysteries of the world. It’s exciting! I wouldn’t mind being here occasionally… But won’t you come with me instead?”

It was Saria’s turn to sigh. “Maybe? I can’t abandon this place and the people here. But I could come with you sometimes. So the best way is probably to do a bit of both? All the rooms in this corridor are mine, you can pick one for you and one for each of your heroes too. What do you think?”

“Stay sometimes, leave sometimes, maybe together, maybe not? I guess… We can’t live tethered together, we both have things to do and places to be… But I don’t want to lose you again…”

“As if I’d let you disappear a second time! You made a mistake by finding your big sis, Sofia. I’m never letting you go even if you beg.”

“I can beat you though.”

“Tssk, you got me by surprise, If we rematch… Also the way you kept accumulating [One with suffering] is cheating! It’s straight up cheating!”

“Want to talk about how nothing at all could restrain you in any way without being completely dispelled by some weird shockwave? How’s that not cheating?”

“Eh, I fought hard to get that second specialization, you know.”

“Oh, so that was actually a specialization… Hey Saria.”

“Hmm?”

“Why have you not shown me your status page yet? You’ve been staring at mine for an hour!”

“My status… There’s a lot to explain. At least yours still somewhat makes sense. Mine uses words from the heroes’ worlds. And when heroes try to explain them to me they get censored! I can only guess what some of them mean by context clues, it’s so frustrating…”

“Whatever, I spent so long speaking and you’ve barely said anything about yourself! Stop being so selfish!”

“Still throwing tantrums, my baby sister. How are we ever going to find you a husband… Here, have a look at the absurdity that my class is.”