Chapter 10

Emily and Jane spent the next 3 hours with Karen, but as both had to get homework done as well, they took turns. With their homework done and Karen still not really with it, Emily and Jane came to the conclusion that letting Karen be alone was out of the question. Making up their minds to sleep in the same bed with Karen in the middle, Emily walked Karen in to the dining room to eat some food before bed. They had to feed Karen, who now just sat there looking in to space. Mum's only comment was to say. "The lights are on, but no one is home."

With the food eaten, Emily and Jane bathed Karen to clean her, and then took turns in the bath themselves.

With everyone clean and full of food they moved to Emily's bedroom and got in to the Queen Size bed that Emily had in her room. With Karen in the middle, Emily on the right of her and Jane on Karen's left, they found themselves falling asleep way to fast to be normal.

[Emily, Jane & Karen]

All three of them found themselves standing in a great hall.

"We are back again." Emily said, standing to Karen's right side.

"Yep, that we are, question is why we are back." Jane said, from Karen's left side.

Karen looked on without saying a word, with a blank look on her face.

Jane looked over to Emily and spotted Karen for the first time.

"KAREN! How did you get here?" Jane asked.

"What?" cried Emily, turning to look at Jane and seeing Karen for the first time as well. "KAREN! Why are you here? How are you here?"

"She was in-between you as you fell asleep so that I could bring her to me. You did not think that having her sleep in-between you two was your idea did you?" came a female voice from behind them.

"Goddess, I am happy to see you again. But never the less I am surprised to see you so soon." Emily said, turning around to look at the place the voice had come from.

Jane turned too, but Karen just stayed where she was, looking in to space. Emily and Jane looked at her.

"We've got to help her, Goddess. I believe her mind has hidden itself away from the outside world." Emily said.

"Well done, yes, she has hidden her core self away deep inside her mind. Left by herself she would not be of any use to anyone, however I am not a goddess for fun. I have the power to return her to normal, and then I will offer her a gift. I think you both know what that gift is, don't you?" said the goddess as she walked over to Karen and hugged her from behind. "Come back to me, my child, I need your help." Both the Goddess and Karen glowed with a white light. So bright was the light that both Emily and Jane had to turn around and look away.

"What? Where am I?" Karen asked.

"Oh, thank the Goddess, your back to normal." Emily said as she and Jane turned back to look at Karen.

"Emily?" Karen asked. She than looked down to see a pair of arms hugging her from behind. She turned in the arms to face the one who was hugging her. "Oh My, I am dead."

"No, child, you are not dead, but you are asleep, it is the only way I can interact with anyone who is in the earth realm." replied the Goddess.

"It is you, right? The Goddess. The Giver of Life and Magic. The one whose name is known only to her closest allies and friends." Karen asked.

"Yep, that is me." said the Goddess with a smile on her face. "And I have a Gift for you, if you wish to accept it."

"A Gift, for me? What did I ever do to get a gift from the Goddess?" Karen asked.

"What indeed. Well, luckily I don't have to explain to everyone who asks me why I did something or offer something. I just do it. My gift is the gift of colour magic, it will sit alongside your gnome magic that you already have. You will be able to cast both types of magic. It will not take away from the magic you already have, it will only augment the magic that is already there. So will you accept my gift to you?" asked the Goddess.

Karen looked into the eyes of the Goddess. "I would be mad to turn down any gift from the Goddess. I accept your gift."

"Good!" the Goddess stepped back from Karen and placed a finger of her right hand on to Karen's forehead. A stream of purple light flowed into Karen. Karen started to glow with a light purple glow all around her, and it slowly changed from light purple to a rich purple colour. Removing her finger and lowering her hand, the Goddess said. "It is done."

"I feel the same." Karen said.

"And so you should. However, from now on you and all your offspring will have colour magic. Use this gift well." The Goddess turned to Emily and said. "One down, two to go. And I believe you already know who they are, and now you know how to bring them to me. However you should go slowly with the other two."

"Ok, can you not tell us anything more of what is going on?" Emily asked.

"How I wish I could, but time is limited. I can only send two of you back in one go. So I will send you and Karen back first. Jane will join you soon after." Saying this and without giving Emily or Karen time to reply, the Goddess placed a finger from each hand on their forehead and said. "Wake up now."

[Jane]

"So it is just you and me now, Jane." said the Goddess. Jane had just watched her friends vanish from the hall.

"Yes, just us."

"I have something I need to ask you, Jane."

"Oh, well please ask away." Jane said.

"I want to ask you to be there for Emily. There are some hard times coming. But don't tell Emily this, if she knew about them she'd never stop asking questions when she comes here, and there is limited time when you do come here for that."

"Ok, look after Emily. Got it!" Jane replied.

"Good, then I will see you again." and the Goddess placed a finger on Jane's forehead. "Wake up now."

[Emily]

Emily and Karen sat up in bed at the same time. Emily looked at the time, it was 5:00 AM. She looked to the other side of Karen expecting to see Jane there, but she was not there. Only an empty space was there.

"Guess Jane's not back yet." Emily said.

"That was real? I just met the Goddess and you and Jane was there, that was no dream, right?" Karen asked.

"Yes, that was real, we both were there. Well, it looks like Jane is still there."

Karen looked to her right and spotted the open space.

"Most of the last hours are a blur to me. I seem to remember a bath, and some food. But that is it."

"How do you feel now?" Emily asked.

"Like I did two years after my grandmother died. The pain and loss is still there, but I can live with it. If that is what you are asking." Karen replied.

"Good. That's better than you were."

Just then Jane reappeared.

"Oh! My Goddess, that made me Jump." Karen said.

"Yes, me too." Emily added.

Jane sat up from the bed and looked around.

"Damn, I am never going to get use to that." Jane said.

"You just reappeared out of nowhere." Emily told Jane.

"So wherever we go when we meet the goddess, our bodies go too." Jane said.

"Looks that way." Emily said.

"Do I really have colour magic?" Karen asked.

"One easy way for us to find out. Follow me." Emily said, and the three of them followed Emily down to the magic room.