Sally May Duncan watched Jo play in the backyard. She smiled as she thought back to that day five years ago. Then she had been an old woman and she had found the love of her life in Katherine Sue Duncan. At that time Sally's last name had been Poore. They knew that they were made for each other and Sally had moved in with Katherine. Then a few weeks after they had met Katherine became bedridden because of her age and her health was quickly on the decline. The doctors had said there was nothing they could do and Katherine had only a few days left. After the doctors had left Sally had fallen down on her knees and cried out to the gods, "Please spare her. We've just found each other and we love each other. Please, I'll do anything so we can have more time with each other."
At that moment a woman appeared in front of her and said, "Your pleas have been heard."
"Who are you?" Sally had asked.
"I am Aphrodite," Aphrodite had said. "I'm here to offer you the opportunity you asked for but you have to do something for us."
"What do I have to do?" Sally had asked hope in her voice.
Aphrodite had held out her hand and in her palm was a ring. She said, "Take this ring and give it to someone. You'll know who it is when you see them but you can't just hand it over to them. They have to do something for you out of the kindness of their heart. You can't ask them to do anything though. When you give it to them after doing whatever they do for you and you give them the ring and they put it on you must instruct them to say 'I wish no one could take this ring off my finger'. After that you can tell them that it will grant their wishes. If you don't follow this then the ring's power will not work."
"I guess that we won't get what I asked for if I don't do as you say."
"Oh I was able to convince Zeus to allow you two to have more time together even if you don't follow these instructions," Aphrodite had said with a smile that set Sally's nerves on edge.
"How come I don't like where this is going?"
"Well if you follow the instructions you two will be made young again around twenty-one. If you don't follow the instructions then you two will become statues of nude eight year old girls. You will be able to see each other and be together for all time but you will never be able to touch each other. You will never be able to talk to each other. Of course this all depends on whether or not you take this ring."
Sally was shocked. One way she and Katherine would be able to grow old together and the other way they wouldn't grow old but they wouldn't be able to tell each other how much they loved the other or even touch each other. "That's harsh," Sally had said finding her voice.
Aphrodite had looked guilty as she said, "This is very important to Zeus and to be honest I wasn't suppose to tell you what the punishment would be. I'll have to face Zeus for telling it to you."
"Why did you tell me then? Won't he be mad and not grant my request?"
"He'll be mad but he's already given his word that should you do this and follow the instructions you and Katherine will have a chance at being together for a long time. As to why I did it I'm the goddess of love. I just can't stand to see true love linger like that never being fully expressed. Now will you take this ring and do what we ask of you?"
Sally didn't hesitate after that and took the ring. Aphrodite had smiled and disappeared. The next day Sally had seen the young man she knew she had to give the ring to. Leaving her purse behind she had walked out of the store hoping that the young man would return it to her out of the kindness of his heart which he had. She followed the instructions and as soon as she returned home her request was granted leaving both her and Katherine twenty-one again. It was soon after that they found Jo on their doorstep. Somehow Sally knew that she had been the young man.
Sally came back to the present and called out to Jo, "Jo sweetie. It's time for dinner."
"Coming Mama Sally," Jo said running back into the house.
"Go wash up," Sally said giving Jo a quick hug.
++++++
Rachael walked out of the portal as Carmen was going off to prepare their defenses. She noticed that Lutfiyah looked a little down and asked, "What's going on?"
"Astara is sending someone else here," Greta said with a sigh. "Evidently she's going to appear to be human."
"Well I believe I can handle her," Rachael said with a smile. "If she's possessed I'll be able to free her. If not well it will still be one less demon we have to worry about."
"She seems to have some humanity left," Jean said. "We might be able to convince her to join us."
Rachael thought that over. That would be nice if they could get her to join them. However if she's going to appear as a human then trying to convince her to join them would tell her they were expecting her. "I don't think we should try to get her to join us," she said at last.
"And why not?" Jean asked looking affronted that Rachael would say such a thing.
"If we try that then she may figure out that we know what she is," Rachael said.
"What do you suggest then?" Greta asked.
Rachael thought for a moment then said, "Let her look around and leave."
"But she'd tell Astara what she learned," Laila said in shock.
"We should be able to control what she learns," Rachael said. "Amy had said her world only had one "God Bomb". If we can convince this demon that the destruction of Ninjatta was a one time thing and that we don't have much in the way of defense then they may think we are a soft target. That will give us the element of surprise and give us a fighting chance."
"They're going to make another Ninjatta," Lutfiyah said sadly.
"Is Astara planning on sending it here?" Rachael asked horrified.
"She says that we'd be looking for another one," Lutfiyah said.
"Well then we don't need to worry about that then," Rachael said. "It's a good thing we have your ability."
"There's a new chapter," Lutfiyah said then read it.
"Well Carmen is right and it's not the answer to all our problems," Rachael said thinking. "Lutfiyah is only reading what happened in the past. Astara could launch her attack on us right here right now and we wouldn't know it in advance. Maybe we're relying on Lutfiyah's ability a bit too much."
"Agreed," Greta said. "Lutfiyah, in light of this I still want you to check the site just not as often."
"What if I lose my ability though?" Lutfiyah asked. "That's one of the options."
"I think I have an idea of what we can do if that happens," Rachael said. "We know there's other worlds. Lutfiyah's ability might be letting her see in on one of these where this is just a story."
"How does that help us if she loses her ability?" Laila asked.
"We could go to that world and read the story there," Rachael said. "Though it may not be worth the effort. We would only be able to read what has been posted and we'd have the same problems as we do now except with the travel to that world."
"I wonder if we can go and change Astara by making a chapter and posting it there," Greta idly said.
"Maybe that would work in one world," Rachael said. "I don't think it would for our's though."
"Why is that?" Laila asked.
"I've always thought that when someone writes something that it's actually flowing through them from a different world," Rachael said. "With us being from this world the story we wrote wouldn't be from our's. And since Astara is now part of this story we wouldn't be channeling her change but the change of a different Astara."
"So that idea's out," Greta said. "It looks like we'll have to prepare as best we can."
"We should see if anyone else has an ability that could help us," Jean said. "There must be more seeing as Rachael and Lutfiyah have abilities."
"We should also look for any magical weapon or artifact that could help us," Rachael said. "If Excalibur is real then we should see if we can get it."
They discussed a few more options before deciding what to do.