Dance of the Gods

After reading through the letter a few times she looked up at the ceiling and just stared at nothing silently.

Her brain was slowly working through everything Floyd wrote. While she didn't know why he acted the way he did, Veronica was certain that he was right on a few things at least.

She learnt about the Theater from The Artist, when he spoke of its power. She also saw its creation and had some miniscule control over it. It still wasn't exactly clear to Veronica how powerful it would become, but since its as old as the Universe, it must be really strong.

Another information she knew about was that mysterious person. When she read about the ritual that caused her arrival here, she remembered one of her earliest nightmares.

In there she saw herself be made after some random girl was stabbed in the alley. Back then she had no idea what that foggy mess of colors meant, but now she knew what every color referred to.

The cloud around her body was made up of three distinct colors, pink which represented the Dancer path, orange which represented the Vocalist path, and finally rainbow which represented the Soundless path.

These three paths and colors kept appearing and she was finally understanding what they could mean...

'There must be some connection between them. They were present when I arrived, they also make up my eye's color, and the Theater is made of these three colors... But what does this connection mean?'

The longer she thought of it the more she realized the ever present problem... She had lack of knowledge!

But the thinking wasn't for nothing, as she recalled all three path's descriptions she finally learnt something about the Mysterious Him.

There was only one path in the mysticism book that sounded really scary... The Soundless. Everyone is afraid of them since their strength lies hiding in plain sight.

Veronica didn't know much about the future orders of said path, but she had a feeling that the passive forgetfulness she constantly fights with is part of it.

Another information Veronica knew to be true was the warning related to June, the 4th Order Vocalist, which was called Harmony.

Veronica had no idea what she wanted to achieve by enticing violence, but Veronica wasn't stupid enough to try and stop her. She still remembered the nightmare when she got a glimpse of June.

Somehow June noticed her and changed the dream into something terrible. The only reason she managed to survive was because the Theater saved her. But it left a deep mark in her mind. After that she tried to be much more careful with nightmares, but luckily she didn't have as many anymore.

'We should probably leave Hammon... If things get more dangerous with the protests we will be in danger too... I will talk with Suze when I get back!'

With that decision the last line Floyd wrote came to her...

Another advice: If you want your family to stay alive, you should leave them too. You will only bring danger to their lives!

There was no reason he would lie in a death letter, and she wasn't dumb. She knew how much danger everyone around her was, but giving up her new family seemed terrifying.

This was still a new world for her. She didn't want to be alone. As her thoughts moved she remembered that she wasn't alone.

Her eyes moved slowly and settled on a very anxious Michael. At that moment she realized something... It was time to make a choice.

She either shows him the letter and explains everything hidden within, or in other words gives him her full trust. This could help her in a lot of ways. She would have someone to rely on, someone who knew where she came from, someone she could trust.

The real problem came from the fact that he might take it as a joke, or think that she is insane. That would cause the trust to fall apart before it even began.

The second option was much more simple and cowardly. She could decide to not show the letter and continue to pretend that she was just a normal barmaid turned ascended.

Veronica had already noticed the cracks in this plan. If she went with the second option, Michael would never trust her, and she would stay alone. That was her biggest fear... Loneliness.

There would also be upsides to the second option, but after she realized her fear of abandonment, the decision was already made.

With a small move she pushed the letter in front of Michael. He didn't look at it, his eyes were glued to Veronica. At some point the anxiety left it and a bit of fear took its place.

He knew, or at least felt the change in the air. A decision was made by Veronica, but another had to be made by him as well. But not yet, first he had to learn more, then had to make the choice if she is worth believing or not.

With a deep breath he turned away from the trembling Veronica and began reading. A lot of things didn't make sense in the letter, but he tried his best to fill in the blanks by his previous knowledge.

When he reached the part talking about her arrival, he glanced at Veronica, but only for a moment.

He read the letter about a few dozen times before finally placing it on the table. His face was a bit grim and confused, but before Veronica could've said anything, he spoke.

"So, I assume you aren't actually from Hammon." He said with a weird face. "Nope." She answered.

"Where are you from exactly?" He asked with curiosity and a bit of skepticism.

"I'm from a place called Earth. It's a planet that is very similar to yours, but more technologically advanced." He nodded then turned away for a minute. Eventually he looked at Veronica with a grin.

"I guess I can say now that your beauty is out of this world." This caused her brain to malfunction. The only answer she managed was a high-pitched "What?"

"Because you are not from this world, and because you are beautiful. But I can come up with a less cheesy compliment if you like... Hmm... How about alluring alien, or maybe delightful extraterrestrial?" His ramblings did nothing to get Veronica's head straight and she continued to stare at Michael like he lost his mind.

"Do... Do you actually believe me? And you have no problem with it?... Are you insane?" She asked incredulously, causing Michael to laugh.

"What? Did you think that learning this information would send me into a spiral of disbelief? Come now, we live in a world with actual gods and their angels. We fight people who get consumed by their own powers, powers that shouldn't even be impossible..." He spent a few seconds finding the words to say next.

"...It is very strange and unheard of what happened to you? Hundred percent! Will my opinion change about you? Sure! Will it be a drastic change? Not really!... It just made me more interested in you... and where you came from!" He added the last part a bit more forcefully, trying to keep his cool.

Veronica didn't say anything. She tried to, but no matter how much her mouth moved, no sound came out. Eventually she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and calmed herself.

"So, what do you want to know?" She asked with a lot of self-control. Michael looked thoughtful for a moment, then stared into Veronica's bewildering eyes and only said one word... "Everything!"

...

After that they both spent the next few hours in that room, talking. Just like he requested she told him everything about her past, well most of it anyway. You couldn't really tell 20 years of your life in a matter of hours.

She talked about Earth mostly and how different it was. Michael was especially interested in the lack of magic and supernatural in her world. Also, the fact that religion only played a spiritual part in the modern society was strange as well.

Veronica tried to explain technological advancements like cars, electricity, internet, etc. But she quickly realized that she had no idea how any of that worked.

The subject which she talked the most about was history. Unlike science she could talk for days about it. She tried to sum up the history of humanity in an hour, but she got carried away at the ancient civilizations and she didn't even reach the Roman Empire.

Michael watched all this with bright and curious eyes. The facts were interesting, but what truly amazed him was Veronica. He had never seen her so animated. It was like she was a husk of herself previously, but now she had been rejuvenated.

As she talked about history –which was her favorite subject– everything about her changed. It was mind-blowing, weird, cute and just outright delightful.

At first she spoke with a hint of awkwardness, but Michael tried to ask as many questions as possible, and after a while she became comfortable with speaking of her past.

He learnt about her life growing up as a regular person. The history subject came up when she spoke of her studies at University, that derailed the conversation for a while, but it soon came back on track.

They were sitting on the couch when she finally talked about her friends, parents and siblings. She turned really sad then, understandably so.

"...They probably think I'm dead... And I won't see them again..." She said her voice breaking. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she sniffled.

Gently Michael placed an arm over her shoulder, and she leaned on him, accepting the silent support. He didn't want to lie, to say that 'you will see them again'. It might've been wrong, but he despised lying and he wouldn't offer vain words for a wound that only time would heal.

They stayed like that for a long time, in silence. Eventually a knock came at the door and Gerald tried to open it. After failing to do so, he shouted in.

"Can you two finally stop having sex in there? This recreation room, isn't your bedroom Michael. Put on some clothes and open the door!"

Michael's face burned red, as Veronica giggled under his arm. She got up from the couch and walked to the door. It took Michael a bit too long to realize his mistake, but it was too late to stop her at that point.