Making my way now. Ben answered as he walked into the world’s gate network, passing through to reach his ultimate destination of the siren’s capital and the main church of their god where three individuals were waiting as he arrived, sitting in the yard.
One was Woszan, the high priestess of Telenen who Ben had met a few times by that point, the woman giving an air of comfort to the other beside her as she spoke to Mirrian, the mother of one of the world's few natural demigods and victim of the god she’d loved, leaving her stranded on that alien world.
The demigod in question, Kalley, looked like she was just waking up from a nap on her mother’s lap, rubbing at her eyes and scratching at some of the feathers along her arms before she noticed him walking over, silently nudging her mother to draw her attention as the two older women noticed him as well.
“Mirrian, Kalley, Woszan, so nice to see all of you again,” he greeted as warmly as he could, but still saw the youngest girl flinch away. Even with the system, he couldn’t help but look strange and alien to her eyes, which he couldn’t deny that he was. His facial features were just different enough from a siren’s for a child who wasn’t used to it to not be completely comfortable, and he was more muscular than most members of that species too. Add in the fact that he had no feathers of his own and he had to have looked almost plucked to the child, but he hadn’t come unprepared, even if he gave the others a chance to speak first.
“Ben, thank you so much for coming,” Woszan greeted, genuinely meaning it too, while Mirrian was a bit more subdued.
“Hello again.”
Kalley said nothing but he’d expected as much and with the mother seeming withdrawn as well, he decided to lead things. “I’m not sure if you’ve all eaten yet, but I’ve prepared lunch. Why don’t we snack and talk a bit? Not to toot my own horn but I am one of the better cooks in the world. I think you’d enjoy it.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t want to trouble you,” Mirrian tried to start, losing that chance as Ben pulled out a fully set table from one of his rings, the food he’d prepared the night before already on it.
“It’s no trouble. Please, help yourselves. I think you’re going to like it.”
With both older women starting to eat. To Woszan, it seemed nothing more than an excellent meal but as for Mirrian, the small gleam of recognition she felt upon seeing the meal was rewarded with the taste, matching the foods of her lost homeworld with flavours he’d pulled from their memories when he’d first met them, a single word on her lips as tears started falling from her eyes.
“How?”
“Like I said, I’m an excellent cook on top of being an excellent mage,” he explained as he materialized a cookbook before their eyes, handing it off to Woszan and explaining as he did. “It’s full of recipes from the old siren homeworld, recreated with the ingredients of this one as best as I was able to match both the flavour and appearance. Just in case you want to talk to your gods about maybe trying to open a restaurant in the city that matches the classic flavour or if you just want to have someone learn how to cook it for these two.”
“Oh, of course, thank you,” the other woman said, taking it with her own interest considering that those would be the tastes of her people’s lost homeworld, with even Kalley seeming a bit more interested once she started eating, looking Ben’s way and getting a wink.
“I made dessert too,” he whispered her way like he was sharing a secret and finally got a small smile as the child remembered the cookies he’d already shared, letting them eat together and chat as they did, even if Ben did his best to keep the conversation light. There were topics that he was sure Mirrian wanted to discuss, but not in front of her daughter, and as the meal came to an end and dessert was eaten, Woszan stood up.
“Kalley, what do you say you play with me for a little bit? I think your mom would like a minute.”
As wordlessly as she ever was, the girl looked at her mother for a moment, seeming hesitant before giving in, looking more weary at Ben once more now that the treats were finished, that he had another trick to help with.
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“And take this while you do,” he told her, seeing her eyes light up as he handed over a freshly materialized doll that perfectly matched the one the girl had on her old world, lost so many thousands of years ago.
Woszan might not have noticed the significance of it, but Mirrian certainly did, looking at Ben in shock as the other two walked away.
“How did you get that?”
“I made it,” he said, switching to her native tongue. “Before being a master mage, I consider myself a master craftsman. Something like that is nothing.”
“Master craftsman, master mage, is there anything you can’t do?” She asked, switching to her original language as well, and looked grateful for the chance to speak it.
“It feels like there’s too much, if I’m being honest,” he laughed. “What matters is working around those weaknesses though. Still, if there’s anything else I can make you from your homeland that might leave you more comfortable, I’d be happy to help.”
“I don’t know if there’s anything that could make me comfortable here,” she told him, looking like she might cry again. “I’ve lost everything. In all of your power, can you give me back my world?”
“I-”
“I’m sorry,” she cut him off. “That wasn't fair of me; it’s just… having Kalley was a challenge. I love her so dearly and I wouldn’t trade her for anything but when I did, I had to leave my friends and my family and… I always thought that one day I might see them again but now I know that that isn’t going to happen either. How’s anyone supposed to deal with this?”
That broke her down, the tears falling silently to keep from drawing her daughter’s eye while Ben reached out and held her hand, trying to give what comfort he could.
“No one expects you to deal with this perfectly. It’s hard, it takes time, but… Mirrian, for what it’s worth, I understand at least some of what you're going through. The circumstances aren’t the same, but my world is lost to me too. I know how badly it can hurt knowing that you’re not going to see it again, but it can get better. As you meet new people, as you build a life here, things will get easier.”
“How am I possibly supposed to build a life here, knowing that in mere months it’s going to come crashing down?” she asked him. “All of this, and my daughter and I are both still going to die.”
“That’s not set in stone. This world has more benefits than you could possibly know going towards its survival, and more important than that, it also has me.”
“Ha, when even the gods can’t save this world? Rather presumptuous of you, isn’t it?”
“Maybe, but I’ll let you in on a little secret. I’ve stood face to face with the demon’s god and I can tell you with honesty, I think we have a chance.”
A one or two percent chance as things stand, but still, that’s got to count for something, right?
“Do you really believe that?”
“Yes,” he told her definitively. “As long as you're alive, no matter how bad things get, there’s always a shot at a brighter future. No matter how bad things seem right now, I refuse to believe in a future where they can’t get better and I’ll prove it to you.”
“I don’t think you can.”
“Maybe not when it comes to the long term, but the short term? Easy. What’s currently your biggest problem on this world?”
“The fact that it sounds like my daughter and I are going to die?”
“No cheating, that’s clearly a future problem. I said current.”
She thought for a moment, not sure how to answer before ultimately speaking from her heart. “Getting used to all of this then. This world, it’s… my old home was nothing like this. Even the sirens here are different in ways I don’t know how to connect to. Everyone is so powerful and everything moves so fast and it’s just… people have so much more.”
Sounds like a bit of culture shock overall, which isn’t shocking considering that, compared to her homeworld, this planet is surprisingly advanced.
Compared to Earth, it felt like Ben was constantly seeing a strange mix of medieval, modern, and futurist technology, all made possible through the application of magic, but that wasn’t true for her. Mirrian grew up in a world of that universe, what technology existed played by the rules of it and followed certain development milestones, but on that current world, technology, along with magic and magical development, had progressed by leaps and bounds past what had existed in her time. It was basically like being transported to a world so far in the future that what she would find was unimaginable when she’d lived her life as a humble farmer in a small village before that. What did she need to make her comfortable?
“Alright,” Ben nodded. “I can see that. Living in the city was always going to be a bit much, so let me find you something that will suit you more. I’ve just got one more question before I start.”
“What?”
“I get all of this is new and strange to you, but considering that one change is a bit bigger than the rest, how do you feel about non-sirens?”
“Um, fine, I think? There’s only a few I’ve spoken to, including yourself.”
“Great, in that case, let me look into something. I’ll talk to your gods about it too and see if there might be a solution.”