A Summoning, Part XXXII

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Part XXXII
~Star~

About midmorning, between one class and the next, Steph grabbed Anika and pointed in a particular direction—at a short, white-haired girl sporting some feathery wings. "Hey, there she is! That's got to be her, right?"

"Probably, yeah..."
"Let's go, let's go!" He led her over to accost the young-looking celestial, giving her a friendly wave as they approached.

"Hi there! I don't think I've seen you around, right?"
"Most likely not," she said. "Erm, the situation is..complicated, but I am a transfer student from another college," she said.
"Heheh, is that what the veil people said to say? I guess that works. Awh, you don't have to worry about me and Andrew here, though—name's Steph, by the way," he said, offering her a hand to shake. "Andrew's one of Zotha's followers," he added quickly and much more quietly.
"Oh, I see," she said, taking the hand gently and returning the gesture. "Stella. She must have sent you along to help me get settled? But there's no need, I've been well taken care of."
"That's good to hear," Anika said. "I—she didn't specifically send me or anything, actually. We just, thought you might want to have a few people you 'know' around campus, is all."

"Yeah, and they probably didn't brief you about the college's culture all that much," Steph said. "There's a few traditions we have that it might make getting along with your fellow students easier if you follow, y'know."

"Uh...right," the other Kitsune nodded, catching on. "Did they say anything about those?"
"No. We've been mostly concerned with living arrangements, and setting me up to take classes next year," Stella said, "Since it's very near the end of the current school year, after all. In any case, your help is most welcome."
"That's great. Hey, we can walk and talk," Steph said, gesturing in a direction and starting to lead the way for the other two while she continued.

---

Thomas was in the cafeteria for lunch, taking a couple of pieces of meat from each station that served it to add to her plate, when she heard someone running up from behind her and slightly to her left. It was the girl she and Zotha had saved/transformed/named the Thursday before, Stella. "Hey," she said as the short, white-haired girl came close.
"Miss Toma! Hello," she said, stopping a couple of steps away to give a brief, sweeping bow for some reason. "May I join you for lunch?"
"Sssure, if you want," she said, scratching her head with one finger. "I haven't found a table yet, still just getting food."
"Understood," Stella said, grinning and nodding. "I haven't eaten here before; is there anything in particular you'd recommend?"
"Eh..everything's pretty much mediocre-okay. I'd stay away from the soup, it's weirdly spicy..unless you like that kinda stuff," she said, shrugging.

"I have never tried spicy food before! Where is this soup?" she said, looking eager.

"Uh..that big pot over there. But..it's really not the best representative of how spicy food's supposed to.." Before she could really finish explaining, Stella was already running off to get some.

Well, it was a little hard to fault her eagerness. Thomas couldn't imagine what it was like to be simultaneously a full-grown adult with functional knowledge of the world, and yet also born yesterday. Or...last week, whatever. There had to a be a lot of things that normal humans (or whatever) tended to experience at some point while growing up that she might know about, but would never have experienced before. Curiosity about such things was only natural...but cafeteria food like this as one of those first-time experiences was...

Maybe she could invite Stella out somewhere a little nicer for dinner, she thought. Let her find out what actual good food was like. Given her size, she...probably wouldn't eat that much food, right?

Thomas had a large pile of food on her plate because she was a dragon now, and her appetite for meat had proven voracious ever since becoming one. She found herself in a hard-to-suppress kind of foul mood if she didn't eat enough and got hungry in the middle of a class, too. However, when they came to a table to sit across from each other, Stella's pile was taller. It wasn't large portions of a few things like the dragon-girl, of course—rather, she seemed to have gone out of her way to get at least one of every single item available until the tray simply became too full, and possibly too heavy, to add any more.

"You uh...gonna finish all of that?"
"I intend to try it all!" she said, grinning. "Everything is already paid for, after all, so there should be no harm, right?"
"I guess not. Always feel bad about wasting food myself, though," Thomas said with a slight shrug.

Somehow or other, Stella managed to eat in a way that was...cute. She picked each item up gracefully and carefully, using the appropriate utensils every single time as if social graces had been drilled into her from birth..which was maybe not far from the truth? But it was particularly her expressions: The bright grin when she found something she liked, the face she made at an unexpectedly strong or bizarre flavor, and of course her reaction to the weird soup.

"Waaah!" She winced to the point of closing her eyes and stuck out her tongue. "Why does that hurt? Do people actually enjoy this sensation?!"

"With the right combination, yeah. Just..drink some water already," Thomas said.
"Ah!" Stella took her cup and quickly chugged about a third of it before setting it down, still frowning slightly. "Bleh...my sincerest apologies for not heeding your warning before!"
"You just wanted to try something new," the dragon-girl shrugged. "Look, you..uh, actually do you have a..phone, or something?"
"Oh, yes! I was furnished with a basic cell phone," she said, producing what wasn't a smartphone from her pocket.
"Okay. Give you my number, then?"

"If you'd like," she said, tilting her head slightly.

After they exchanged numbers, Thomas said, "Look: This place's food isn't really the best. If you're free for supper, maybe we could go somewhere a little...better. Is what I was thinking."
"Ohh, yes! That'd be wonderful, Toma," she said, smiling brilliantly. Was she...sparkling again, or was that Thomas's imagination? She was too distracted by this to bother correcting Stella about her name...again.

"Cool. Uh.." The dragon-girl scratched the back of her head, trying without success to figure out why her face was feeling slightly warm. "A-anyway, you should probably just..avoid that soup for now."
"Indeed," Stella nodded.

A few minutes later, the winged girl seemed to either realize or remember something. "Ah, yes, right! Err, miss Toma, do you..have the means to contact Zotha?"
"I got her number, sure."
"There is..well I. Mmmh." She seemed to require an unusual amount of thought to form the right words. "I need to speak with her, very privately, ab-about a thing." She reached her hand up to twirl some of her hair around an index finger. "Yes. Is it possible you could help me arrange a meeting this afternoon?"
"..Sure. After her classes, I guess?"
"That would be acceptable," she nodded.

"Yooouu, want me to just, like, give you her number?"
"Oh! Er, I-I'm unsure if it would be appropriate for me to contact a goddess so directly," she said.
"Zotha would be cool about it, trust me. But..I don't mind passing it along anyway, if you're..worried?" Thomas said, sensing that she was very nervous about whatever this was.
"That would be very helpful. Thank you!"

"….All right then."

---

Zotha waited again near the edge of the forest, standing with her arms crossed. What do you suppose this is about? she thought Jess's way. Thomas said she seemed unusually nervous and awkward about it, and was insistent that it needed to be a private meeting...

I have a hunch that it's some kind of message from Sol, maybe. It would make sense for her to be nervous about delivering something from her creator... Jess sent off the mental impression of a gasp. What if she's supposed to attack you!? Sol doesn't like you, right?
Fox only said he 'complained to keep up appearances', but if his 'job' involves maintaining the veil and keeping order, then it's reasonable to assume he's among the half that doesn't like me. But unless there's been some change in the deadlock—which I believe Fox would've told us about—it would be pretty stupid for him to attack me like this. My link with you is well-known-about, so no matter how privately we meet you'd know right away if I were attacked.

I'll keep an eye on you, then! Jess said back. And I'll go to Anika right away if anything seems off.

Thanks, dear.

By now, the short celestial was walking up, looking about as nervous as Thomas's messages had implied. She came close and gave a quick but graceful, sweeping bow. "L-lady Zotha. Errm, is that the right way to address you?"
"I'm not picky, just my name alone is good enough," she said. "And..bowing really isn't necessary either."
"Ah, erm, are you not an upperclassman at the college?"
"..Yyes, I guess so? I don't actually know how joining near the end of a semester works for what class you're in, but.."
"I was told it was traditional to bow to upperclassmen that way, at least at the first introduction," she clarified.

"Uh-huh. And, who told you that?"
"Steph and Andrew...ah, one of your followers?"

"Andrew is, sure." She more or less worked out what might be going on. "Are you aware they're both Kitsune?"

"Oh, yes, of course. They both have the...well, there isn't a word in English for the sense I mean to refer to, so I'll use 'scent'. Their magic 'smells' Kitsune-like, and Andrew's 'scent' is quite strongly so, so I was fairly sure that was the case," Stella nodded. "Oh, wait! Is this one of their famous pranks?"
"Most likely."
"Heheh," the short girl giggled adorably. "I see!"
"You're...not upset or something?"
"Oh, not at all. I understand it's something of a friendly gesture among their kind to trick someone in such a way that the victim will know who did it. I suppose I'll just have to come up with some way to gently retaliate later, to return the gesture...ah, but erm. I got rather off-topic there, my apologies," she said.

"No, I'm the one who brought it up, it's fine.

"So—is this place private enough? Or.."
"I-it might be better to have this conversation in your own 'realm', if you have one. That is—somewhere that's identified as your property, which you have complete control over. It would be...more difficult for anyone to listen in, in such a place, though not impossible," Stella rattled off.

"Got it. Just step through here," the goddess offered, placing a portal between them to the worship center.

"This more or less matches that description," Zotha explained once they were both inside. "So, what is that you needed anyway? Anything wrong with the form you wound up in the other day?"
"Oh, not at all! I'm quite enjoying this look for the moment," Stella said. "I wouldn't want to disturb you for any minor customization if I changed my mind later, either; I believe there are plenty of other means to be transformed in the present day."
"Sure..."
"Ah, erm."

Zotha waited through a silence just long enough to be awkward. "...Yes?"

"Err, my sincerest apologies. I-I just don't want to make any mistakes with this."

"Just go for it. You aren't going to offend me or anything," the goddess shrugged. "Remember I was a perfectly normal human less than two weeks ago, and still have pretty much that attitude."

"Er, right." The short celestial softly cleared her throat. "I'm here to..to give you a formal invitation. My creator, Sol, wishes to..invite you to visit him in his realm around this time tomorrow, when it is convenient for you. Among the topics he would like to discuss, is, uh—he'd like to thank you personally for your part in completing the mission and saving the life of one of his people, namely myself. It's very...aah, this invitation is exclusive to you and no one else, but as you have made miss Jess a part of your 'nature', she is allowed to come along if desired."

"...I see. And, this is an invitation, not a summons?"
"Absolutely," Stella nodded. "Sol will hold no ill will toward you if you choose not to come, in view of your current, somewhat precarious position. However, he also gives the utmost assurance that you will come to absolutely no harm in his realm unless you yourself provoke it by actually attacking him. Even if you did so, he would still much rather just cast you out of his realm than retaliate in any, uhh. Injurious way. This is because, among other considerations, he does not wish to provoke the hostility of those gods who would like to see you succeed, including his sister, La Lune."

"I guess that makes sense. What kind of transportation would I, and possibly my priestess, use to reach this realm of his?"
"Ah, r-right!" Stella nodded, as if to herself. "If you accept the invitation, then I will be authorized to open a portal from a neutral location of your choosing to Sol's realm, which will remain open but hidden from the view of others and carefully guarded against intrusion for the entire duration of your visit. A-apologies, I was meant to include that in the invitation itself."

"No problem..."

So, what do you think?
Are you kidding me?! Sol's a sun god or something, and probably ridiculously powerful! He can probably just snap us into dust with his fingers if we're in his own realm!

He says he doesn't want to, and there's good reason to believe it.

How do we know we can trust him at his word? Jess countered.

"Hmm...I'm leaning toward accepting, but I still want to deliberate some more before actually making a decision," Zotha said. "How long do I have to give you an answer?"
"Up until the proposed time of meeting," Stella said. "Erm, again, the reasons you may have doubts are understandable. You're encouraged to consult any resources you feel will help you come to the right decision."

"That's good, I'll definitely do that. So, I give my answer to you? Plus the more specific when and where?"
"R-right. Either personally, or through a liaison, or uh..phone. Anything," she nodded, "as long as I can be certain it's a message from you."

"Got it. Thank you for the invitation."
"Oh uh, um, you're welcome!"

Zotha led the way back to where they had come from. "Erm...h-how do you think I did, out of curiosity?" Stella said, reaching up a hand to nervously twirl a finger through her hair. It seemed she was no longer 'speaking for Sol' at this point. "I was chosen to..give the message because I'm the only celestial you personally know at all, and so would be most likely to trust that I had no ill will—plus since I owe you a debt of gratitude myself. B-but I was rather nervous about getting right..."

"You delivered it just fine," the goddess said. "If I understand correctly, you were nervous because you wanted to please Sol by doing a good job, not out of fear that he'd get angry if you did a poor one?"
"That's exactly right," Stella said, nodding. "Sol is not the kind of god who recklessly lashes out. He is committed to protecting humanity, as I said before, and is known to be the most level-headed out of all of the gods."

"I could say your vote of confidence doesn't count since he could've just put that belief in your head himself, but..I'll take it into consideration anyway," Zotha said. "Thanks again, see you tomorrow maybe."
"R-right."

---

Through some further correspondence by text, Thomas worked out when they could both go for supper, and—since obviously Stella didn't have a car—she waited next to her own vehicle in the parking lot for a few minutes until the short, white-haired girl arrived. "Yo," she waved. "How'd the uh..thing go?"
"Oh, uh, just fine. I'm sorry, I can't talk about any details. It's a..it was a very..very private..kind of thing."
"That's no problem. Sooo...hop in?" she gestured at the passenger door, and Stella nodded. If Thomas were really curious, she could always just ask Zotha, but honestly she wasn't. It was probably some godly politics stuff that a normal mortal would have neither a good reason to know about, nor any real interest in.

"I picked out a...steak place, but they have a pretty diverse menu," she explained on the drive over. "Good prices, too, but..I'll pay."

"Oh? I wouldn't mind putting in my share," Stella said. "I have a sort of 'allowance' while I'm settling into the world, to reflect the kind of support that one's parents would normally provide at one my apparent age."

"Oh, didn't know that. Well...I won't take the offer back, but we can go dutch if you insist."

"Mmh. Perhaps I'll just return the favor later, then," she offered.
"...Sure."

Given her behavior at lunch, it was no surprise to find Stella staring intently into the menu in indecision from the moment they sat down, as if hoping one of the options would start glowing to let her know she should pick it. "Hmmmmmnnnn...." That squinting, concentrating expression was...very cute, honestly. She broke her gaze to order a drink and then set the menu down in defeat. "Is there..anything you particularly recommend here?"
Thomas sighed. "I think you'd be better off asking the waitress, honestly. I barely feel like eating anything that's not meat lately. The last few times I had vegetables in front of me I just stared at them."

"I'll do that, but..hmn. Are you..a very young dragon?" Stella asked with a slight air of curiosity.
"I guess?" she shrugged. "I mean, I was human until very recently...Zotha helped me 'awaken' or whatever, I guess."
"That explains it," she nodded.

"..You, know something about being a dragon I don't?"

"Oh..? Well, I didn't expect so, but it's possible."
"I didn't know magic existed before Zotha...happened, either. Please."
"Aah, certainly! It's just—young dragons tend to need an unusual amount of food, mostly meat, to build their energy up until they can take a fully adult, draconic form," Stella said. "For those born directly to other dragons, already in their natural form, they remain that way; but the 'young' form of one who awakens from a humanoid appearance instead still requires the same kind of nutrition. As I understand it, they gain better control over their appearance and magic after that, and while the craving for meat never completely goes away, it usually becomes more mild after that point. Amongst dragons, they tend to refer to awakening as 'hatching', and anyone who hasn't attained that 'adult' form a 'hatchling'...sorry, am I going too fast?"

"No, I got it," Thomas said. "Guess I can put up with this a little better, knowing it's not forever. Anyway..it's not like I don't enjoy eating meat, if only because of the weird new instincts."

They ordered food; the dragon-girl took their biggest steak and some loaded fries (while potatoes were technically vegetables, she still found them tolerable, especially with some cheese), and Stella ordered the waitress's top recommendation, which thankfully wasn't one of the most expensive items on the menu.

While they were waiting, Thomas said, "I'm a little curious...how's you starting as a student, most of the way into the semester, work exactly?"
"It is an unusual situation, of course," she nodded, "but getting me a place to stay and a way to eat was high on the list of priorities for my starting in the world, and if I'm going to college anyway, starting it right away is a relatively cheap way to achieve that. Essentially, I'm officially a transfer student from a school with a completely different set of classes. For the end of this year, I'll do the review material for classes 'comparable to the ones I was taking before' and then take their final exams, and whether I need to actually retake those classes or can move on to the sophomore ones depends on my exam scores. I'm quite confident I'll do well in all of them, so starting next fall I'll just look like an ordinary sophomore transfer student."

"...How's sending you to college 'cheap', exactly?"
"There are some scholarships reserved specifically for newly-made celestials who wish to go to college. Of course, they're not publicly known that way, and plenty of other people benefit from them, but that's what their original purpose was, and they're still used for it whenever necessary."

"What'll you do over the summer?"
"I thought I might use some of that 'allowance' to travel. See a little bit of the world for myself," she said. "That is—without it being to chase down a demon. When I expressed this idea before, it was met with a lot of encouragement."

The dragon-girl headtilted slightly. "Do you..know how to drive already? Or...technically have a license?"
Stella nodded. "Knowing how to pilot a few common means of transportation was considered important knowledge for my original mission. However, actually purchasing a vehicle for me was outside of the budget constraints and not at all necessary in the first place. I believe if I travel to Europe, I can get away with using public transportation for the most part—and I wouldn't be able to bring a car with me to go there in the first place. It also helps that most of the languages I know are from those countries."

"Most of the..how many languages do you know?"

"Seven," she nodded," which is about average for a newly-made celestial."

"I guess...if Sol knows every language, why not make someone who can already speak a bunch of them, huh?" Stella nodded again, in agreement.

Thomas leaned back in her seat a little, crossing her arms. "A tour around Europe, though, huh. I'm almost jealous."
"Oh? If you're..not busy over the summer, I could see about bringing you along?" Stella offered tentatively.
"What, seriously?" she sat up. "We've barely even met."
"Maybe so, but you did save my life and help complete my mission." The way she said this made it sound like both acts were of about equal value in her eyes. "I certainly owe you more than a few plane and train fares. And I would likely enjoy it more with a travel companion than alone, anyway."

"Hmmhh...I dunno, actually. Being a dragon complicates everything for me. Do you know I can't even sleep unless it's on a big stupid pile of gold?"

"That hadn't occurred to me..but this would be far from the first time someone with unusual needs that can't be explained to mundane humans wanted to travel. At the very least, it couldn't hurt to ask."

"Well...consider me interested, I guess. There's some stuff I'd need to figure out, and I won't be mad if it can't happen on your end," Thomas said.
"Eheh..that's fine. I'll be sure to let you know."

"Do you..find being a dragon distressing?" she asked after a pause.
"No, it's all really just minor annoyances compared to what I get in exchange. I mean—I'm super strong, supposedly immortal, I can do like..earthbending, and tunnel through the ground at will, and fly. I mean, if I can find a place to do that where a bunch of 'mundane humans' won't notice me, anyway. And I have like some kinda acid breath which is fifty-fifty...I mean: It's cool, in a way, but also really easy to imagine situations where it'd be extremely inconvenient."

Stella nodded slowly. "While I have only a few of those advantages myself, I'll certainly concur on the joys of flying. There are many pockets of land that ordinary humans can't actually access, which might be ideal for leisure flying without kicking up a fuss."
"Really?" Thomas leaned forward slightly. "You know any nearby?"
"Certainly. I could show you their locations later. It..isn't possible to use navigational technology to reach such places, for fairly obvious reasons, so I would have to direct you manually instead."