"This looks nice," Amy commented as we turned off the road and onto the long driveway.
I nodded, "Yeah it does."
It was a two-storey farmhouse, set back from the road on a good-sized lot. I'd guess it was an acre or so, with mature trees in front and out back. I also caught sight of a large garden at the back when we came up the drive. There were a couple vehicles along side the house in front of a garage, a small silver car and a black SUV. Amy pulled up and parked next to them.
As we emerged from the car I could hear the sounds of a dog barking, and a glance at the house revealed a large dark-coloured lab inside the screen door. It was barking but its tail was wagging, so I figured it was more excited about guests than trying to scare away intruders.
I glanced at my girlfriend and apologized, "Sorry I forgot to mention the dog. She said she's got a couple cats too. I hope that's ok?"
"It'll be fine," Amy smiled. "As long as none of them start talking to us."
Emma came into view inside the door before I could respond to my girlfriend's attempt at humour. My coworker took hold of the dog's collar and gently scolded it, "Hush Farah, you'll scare them away."
"Sorry," she grimaced to us as she opened the door. "Farah gets so excited whenever we have guests. She's harmless, but she's very eager to greet you and get pets. If you're uncomfortable around dogs I can put her out in the backyard?"
I shook my head, "I think we'll be ok."
Emma kept a firm grip on Farah's collar as Amy and I came inside, while another woman coming to stand next to my coworker. Without letting go of the dog Emma began the greetings and introductions.
"You must be Amy?" she said to my girlfriend. "Theresa's told me a lot about you, but she didn't mention the exotic look! I love the hair and eyes, it's a very striking combination."
"Thanks," Amy replied with a smile. "And I take it you're Emma, it's nice to meet you."
Our host gestured to the other woman who was now standing next to her, "Amy, Theresa, this is my wife Carol. Carol, this is Theresa from work, and her fiancée Amy."
Carol was a little taller than Emma, but neither of them stood as tall as me. She looked about the same age as Emma too, somewhere in her early forties. She had dark eyes, and her skin was a deep rich dark tone. Her black hair was trimmed above her shoulders and looked stylish. Both she and Emma were dressed casual, in stretch jeans and t-shirts.
"Hello Theresa," she greeted me with a friendly smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you. And Amy, nice to meet you too."
After all the introductions my girlfriend crouched down and gave the dog some attention too. That seemed to be enough to get her to calm down, and after that Emma showed us around the house.
The kitchen was big and friendly, there was a good-sized dining room, and a cosy-looking den. She also pointed out the downstairs restroom, and while we didn't go upstairs Emma said there were three guest bedrooms plus the master bedroom suite up there, along with another bathroom.
As we had a look around Amy stopped in front of a couple pictures on the wall and asked, "Is this your daughter?"
"Both of them," Emma replied with a smile. "That's Mara on the left, and Mira on the right."
The two photos looked like the same girl, in her late-teens. She was even wearing the same outfit in both pictures, a black tea-dress from the look of it. Both pictures depicted an attractive girl in her late teens, with dusky-coloured skin that was noticeably darker than Emmas, long straight jet-black hair, a cute rounded face, and dark green eyes. The one Emma said was Mara had a mischievous grin on her face, while the one she identified as Mira wore a warm, friendly smile.
I didn't comment, but once again I felt certain Mara and Mira were two versions of the same person. The only other explanation was the two were identical twins, but there'd been too many other hints and clues I'd picked up listening to Emma talk about her child. Or children, depending how you counted them.
"They're very pretty," Amy commented.
"Thank you," Emma smiled. "They can be a handful at times, but they're mostly both very good."
Carol seemed to suppress a laugh at that comment, then asked "Can we get you two something to drink? We have wine, there's vodka coolers, or I know one of you is driving so we also have soda, we can make coffee, or we have bottled water, both still and with bubbles."
Amy and I both asked for a glass of wine, then Carol suggested "I'll get the drinks, Emma why don't you take our guests into the den and get comfortable?"
"Come on," Emma smiled as she led my girlfriend and I into the den.
It was a small living-room type area, with a fireplace at one end. There was a love-seat against one wall under a large window overlooking the backyard, and opposite that was a sofa. A couple chairs sat between the love-seat and the fireplace, and one of them was home to a pair of curled-up cats. There was also a dog bed on the floor by one end of the love-seat.
"Make yourselves comfortable. Don't mind the cats, they've claimed that chair but they'll move if someone wants it."
Amy smiled as she approached them, "What are their names?"
Our host grinned, "Pumpkin and Spice. Pumpkin's the orange tabby of course, and Spice is the darker tabby. We're pretty sure they're brothers."
"They're adorable," my girlfriend said as she held out her hand to offer them pets. "And you picked some very cute names for them."
Emma shook her head, "I can't take credit for that, they were already named when I adopted them. Same with Farah, all three of them were rescues. Do you and Tess have any pets?"
"We didn't," Amy replied as she continued petting the two animals. "We might have been adopted by a cat last night though."
While the two of them were talking about the critters I wandered around to look at the pictures on the walls. The one that first caught my eye was a group of young women. And I found myself staring at the two in the middle, as I realized I'd been wrong after all. Mara and Mira were there standing side by side in the photo, two completely identical twins.
There were three other girls in the picture with them, and I was positive they had to be the polycule Emma mentioned. One girl was a tall busty blonde, and as much as I detested the word all I could think of was 'bimbo' as I took in her figure and the tight revealing clothes she was wearing. Across from her was an attractive curvaceous redhead, and the last one was a small mousey brunette who seemed almost lost in a huge dark hoodie.
"Ah," Emma commented as she realized what I was looking at. "That's Mara and Mira and their girlfriends, from a little over a year ago. The blonde is Mara's oldest friend, Melissa. The redhead is Susan, and the brunette is Amber."
I almost did a double-take when I remembered Emma mentioned her daughter's oldest friend was trans, but looking at the tall busty blonde in the photo I honestly couldn't believe it. And I couldn't help thinking of April and Ada, and what Amy did for them. Knowing what I did about magic and the supernatural, it left me wondering if the girl in the photo had some unnatural help in her transition.
Meanwhile Amy joined us to look at the pictures as well. After a moment she asked, "Are your daughters still in school? They look about ready to start college."
My coworker replied, "Actually they both just graduated last month, same as me? Mara was in a three-year photography program, and Mira got a diploma in health-care services. She's started looking for work now, but Mara's already decided to go back to school again come September. After three years minoring in drama now she wants to take that as her major."
"Oh? They must be older than they look," I commented.
Emma grimaced slightly but all she had to say about that was, "Yes, they are."
By that point Carol had joined us, carefully holding four glasses of wine. She handed them out and Amy and I both thanked her for the drinks. We didn't sit down right away though, there were more pictures on the wall I wanted to look at.
A few were obviously from Emma and Carol's wedding, and Amy and I both commented on how stunning the pair looked together in their bridal gowns. Mara and Mira were in a couple of those shots, along with an older couple who were obviously Carol's parents. The lack of any parents on Emma's side was sad, but then she had her daughters there instead.
Then I spotted another photo of the twins and their girlfriends, except two of the girls were different. Mara and Mira were in the middle like the first image, wearing matching black outfits again. The small mousey brunette was there too, lost in another huge hoodie. The redhead was there as well, but she'd changed significantly between photos. She was noticeably taller, her figure was slim, her bright red hair was cut very short which gave her a sort of stern look. She was dressed in a men's blazer. I'd have almost believed she was a different person, except it was the same face, obviously the same girl.
On the other hand the tall busty blonde was missing completely. In her place was a new girl with sandy blonde hair and a very average figure, wearing a t-shirt and blue jeans. She looked like the archetypical girl next door, pleasant and attractive but also fairly unremarkable.
"That was taken here last December, when they all visited for the holidays," Emma commented. "We host the whole polycule at least every other month it seems. Anyways let's all get comfortable shall we? There's about a half hour before dinner will be ready."
She sounded eager to get us away from the photos, which left me thinking there was something in them that she didn't want to explain or discuss. I knew that could easily have been something mundane like family drama, but my mind went straight to the supernatural. I figured there had to be some clues in the pictures that something unusual was going on in my coworker's life. Or the lives of her children.
Emma and Carol sat together on the love-seat, so Amy and I settled onto the sofa across from them. The dog joined us as well, she flopped down onto her bed next to our host's feet.
The four of us exchanged the usual smalltalk, Carol told us about her work at the university's IT department. She worked at the U of T's Mississauga campus, where Emma attended for her psychology program. That was how the two of them met, over lunch at one of the restaurants on campus.
And Amy told them a bit about herself, like how she was taking an EMT training program at the same college that I just graduated from. She admitted she wasn't working over the summer, but obviously didn't mention anything about her goddess stuff. Instead she went with a more ambiguous 'working on some self improvement ideas', and fortunately neither of our hosts pressed for more details.
Then Emma and I talked a bit more about what we were doing, mostly regarding our work with Beverly. That lasted until dinner was ready, then the three of us moved from the den into the dining room, while Emma put the finishing touches on dinner before serving it up.
Carol poured us all more drinks, except Amy switched to soda since she'd be driving later. The food was nice, Emma did a pork roast with mashed potatoes and roasted veggies.
There was more small-talk over dinner, Emma mentioned her daughter Mara had become a pretty good cook and always volunteered to look after the meals when everyone was over for holidays or visits. She said Mira had started helping with that as well, and Carol joked that was one of the only times the two girls could be trusted to stay out of trouble if they were left unsupervised together.
By the time we'd all had enough to eat it felt like I knew a bit more about Emma's girls, except there were still some odd questions. Like there were times she still spoke as if she only had one daughter, while other times she talked about both of them. And I'd noticed that she didn't have any pictures of the girls growing up. No childhood pictures, no baby pictures, not even the ubiquitous school photos that most parents I knew had on display somewhere.
I also kept thinking back to our conversation in the break room at work. I was positive my colleague had a run-in with something demonic, and she obviously knew something about the supernatural. I wasn't sure if that had anything to do with her daughters or if it was a separate mystery, but I was very curious about both of those topics.
After dinner I got the chance to talk with Emma alone, as Carol and Amy returned to the den while our host started clearing the table and taking care of the dishes. I volunteered to help, which meant she and I had a chance to talk in private in the kitchen.
I moved a little closer to her as she was rinsing off some dishes and commented quietly, "While we have a few minutes alone I was wondering if we could pick up where we left off yesterday at lunch?"
She gave me an uncertain look, but didn't respond right away. So I pressed on, "You've encountered something supernatural, haven't you? Something dangerous, something demonic? Don't worry, I'm not going to judge you or try and debunk whatever you have to say. I have some experience with the supernatural as well, although not with anything negative or demonic."
Emma was still looking uncertain, maybe a bit wary. She glanced at the door, but Amy and Carol were both in the den, along with the dog and the two cats. After a second or two she sighed softly, "I was targeted by a demon, just after I started university. She manipulated me and messed with my mind. Because of her I almost... My life could have ended three years ago. I was only saved thanks to another demon who had reason to intervene."
She shuddered slightly then shook her head and sighed again, "Supernaturals walk among us Theresa. They can look and sound like us, and we have no way of knowing who they are. We have no defence against them, all we can do is keep our heads down and hope we don't draw their attention. Or their ire."
Before I could respond she added, "You were asking about this yesterday in regards to possession and plurality? The answer is yes, a person can become plural through magic. I call it thaumagenic plurality, but obviously I can't publish that term anywhere. Nor can I even mention this sort of thing in public."
"Emma I'm sorry," I replied quietly. "I'm glad you're safe, that you escaped whatever that demon did to you."
She asked warily, "What about you Tess? You said you've had supernatural experiences as well?"
"Yeah," I nodded slowly. Even though she'd just revealed her secrets to me I was still hesitant. I pushed through it though, "In addition to my work as a therapist, I'm also a cleric? Sort of a priestess I suppose, for a real life Goddess. I've witnessed and experienced a few of her miracles. And she shared some of her power with me when she made me her cleric, so I can do some magic of my own."
I couldn't resist showing off a little after making that claim, so I picked up my and Emma's empty wine glasses. Both immediately filled with a swirl of golden light, that faded to reveal they were once more full of wine.
Emma's eyes went wide and her mouth hung open as she slowly took her glass from me.
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"This looks nice," Amy commented as we turned off the road and onto the long driveway.
I nodded, "Yeah it does."
It was a two-storey farmhouse, set back from the road on a good-sized lot. I'd guess it was an acre or so, with mature trees in front and out back. I also caught sight of a large garden at the back when we came up the drive. There were a couple vehicles along side the house in front of a garage, a small silver car and a black SUV. Amy pulled up and parked next to them.
As we emerged from the car I could hear the sounds of a dog barking, and a glance at the house revealed a large dark-coloured lab inside the screen door. It was barking but its tail was wagging, so I figured it was more excited about guests than trying to scare away intruders.
I glanced at my girlfriend and apologized, "Sorry I forgot to mention the dog. She said she's got a couple cats too. I hope that's ok?"
"It'll be fine," Amy smiled. "As long as none of them start talking to us."
Emma came into view inside the door before I could respond to my girlfriend's attempt at humour. My coworker took hold of the dog's collar and gently scolded it, "Hush Farah, you'll scare them away."
"Sorry," she grimaced to us as she opened the door. "Farah gets so excited whenever we have guests. She's harmless, but she's very eager to greet you and get pets. If you're uncomfortable around dogs I can put her out in the backyard?"
I shook my head, "I think we'll be ok."
Emma kept a firm grip on Farah's collar as Amy and I came inside, while another woman coming to stand next to my coworker. Without letting go of the dog Emma began the greetings and introductions.
"You must be Amy?" she said to my girlfriend. "Theresa's told me a lot about you, but she didn't mention the exotic look! I love the hair and eyes, it's a very striking combination."
"Thanks," Amy replied with a smile. "And I take it you're Emma, it's nice to meet you."
Our host gestured to the other woman who was now standing next to her, "Amy, Theresa, this is my wife Carol. Carol, this is Theresa from work, and her fiancée Amy."
Carol was a little taller than Emma, but neither of them stood as tall as me. She looked about the same age as Emma too, somewhere in her early forties. She had dark eyes, and her skin was a deep rich dark tone. Her black hair was trimmed above her shoulders and looked stylish. Both she and Emma were dressed casual, in stretch jeans and t-shirts.
"Hello Theresa," she greeted me with a friendly smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you. And Amy, nice to meet you too."
After all the introductions my girlfriend crouched down and gave the dog some attention too. That seemed to be enough to get her to calm down, and after that Emma showed us around the house.
The kitchen was big and friendly, there was a good-sized dining room, and a cosy-looking den. She also pointed out the downstairs restroom, and while we didn't go upstairs Emma said there were three guest bedrooms plus the master bedroom suite up there, along with another bathroom.
As we had a look around Amy stopped in front of a couple pictures on the wall and asked, "Is this your daughter?"
"Both of them," Emma replied with a smile. "That's Mara on the left, and Mira on the right."
The two photos looked like the same girl, in her late-teens. She was even wearing the same outfit in both pictures, a black tea-dress from the look of it. Both pictures depicted an attractive girl in her late teens, with dusky-coloured skin that was noticeably darker than Emmas, long straight jet-black hair, a cute rounded face, and dark green eyes. The one Emma said was Mara had a mischievous grin on her face, while the one she identified as Mira wore a warm, friendly smile.
I didn't comment, but once again I felt certain Mara and Mira were two versions of the same person. The only other explanation was the two were identical twins, but there'd been too many other hints and clues I'd picked up listening to Emma talk about her child. Or children, depending how you counted them.
"They're very pretty," Amy commented.
"Thank you," Emma smiled. "They can be a handful at times, but they're mostly both very good."
Carol seemed to suppress a laugh at that comment, then asked "Can we get you two something to drink? We have wine, there's vodka coolers, or I know one of you is driving so we also have soda, we can make coffee, or we have bottled water, both still and with bubbles."
Amy and I both asked for a glass of wine, then Carol suggested "I'll get the drinks, Emma why don't you take our guests into the den and get comfortable?"
"Come on," Emma smiled as she led my girlfriend and I into the den.
It was a small living-room type area, with a fireplace at one end. There was a love-seat against one wall under a large window overlooking the backyard, and opposite that was a sofa. A couple chairs sat between the love-seat and the fireplace, and one of them was home to a pair of curled-up cats. There was also a dog bed on the floor by one end of the love-seat.
"Make yourselves comfortable. Don't mind the cats, they've claimed that chair but they'll move if someone wants it."
Amy smiled as she approached them, "What are their names?"
Our host grinned, "Pumpkin and Spice. Pumpkin's the orange tabby of course, and Spice is the darker tabby. We're pretty sure they're brothers."
"They're adorable," my girlfriend said as she held out her hand to offer them pets. "And you picked some very cute names for them."
Emma shook her head, "I can't take credit for that, they were already named when I adopted them. Same with Farah, all three of them were rescues. Do you and Tess have any pets?"
"We didn't," Amy replied as she continued petting the two animals. "We might have been adopted by a cat last night though."
While the two of them were talking about the critters I wandered around to look at the pictures on the walls. The one that first caught my eye was a group of young women. And I found myself staring at the two in the middle, as I realized I'd been wrong after all. Mara and Mira were there standing side by side in the photo, two completely identical twins.
There were three other girls in the picture with them, and I was positive they had to be the polycule Emma mentioned. One girl was a tall busty blonde, and as much as I detested the word all I could think of was 'bimbo' as I took in her figure and the tight revealing clothes she was wearing. Across from her was an attractive curvaceous redhead, and the last one was a small mousey brunette who seemed almost lost in a huge dark hoodie.
"Ah," Emma commented as she realized what I was looking at. "That's Mara and Mira and their girlfriends, from a little over a year ago. The blonde is Mara's oldest friend, Melissa. The redhead is Susan, and the brunette is Amber."
I almost did a double-take when I remembered Emma mentioned her daughter's oldest friend was trans, but looking at the tall busty blonde in the photo I honestly couldn't believe it. And I couldn't help thinking of April and Ada, and what Amy did for them. Knowing what I did about magic and the supernatural, it left me wondering if the girl in the photo had some unnatural help in her transition.
Meanwhile Amy joined us to look at the pictures as well. After a moment she asked, "Are your daughters still in school? They look about ready to start college."
My coworker replied, "Actually they both just graduated last month, same as me? Mara was in a three-year photography program, and Mira got a diploma in health-care services. She's started looking for work now, but Mara's already decided to go back to school again come September. After three years minoring in drama now she wants to take that as her major."
"Oh? They must be older than they look," I commented.
Emma grimaced slightly but all she had to say about that was, "Yes, they are."
By that point Carol had joined us, carefully holding four glasses of wine. She handed them out and Amy and I both thanked her for the drinks. We didn't sit down right away though, there were more pictures on the wall I wanted to look at.
A few were obviously from Emma and Carol's wedding, and Amy and I both commented on how stunning the pair looked together in their bridal gowns. Mara and Mira were in a couple of those shots, along with an older couple who were obviously Carol's parents. The lack of any parents on Emma's side was sad, but then she had her daughters there instead.
Then I spotted another photo of the twins and their girlfriends, except two of the girls were different. Mara and Mira were in the middle like the first image, wearing matching black outfits again. The small mousey brunette was there too, lost in another huge hoodie. The redhead was there as well, but she'd changed significantly between photos. She was noticeably taller, her figure was slim, her bright red hair was cut very short which gave her a sort of stern look. She was dressed in a men's blazer. I'd have almost believed she was a different person, except it was the same face, obviously the same girl.
On the other hand the tall busty blonde was missing completely. In her place was a new girl with sandy blonde hair and a very average figure, wearing a t-shirt and blue jeans. She looked like the archetypical girl next door, pleasant and attractive but also fairly unremarkable.
"That was taken here last December, when they all visited for the holidays," Emma commented. "We host the whole polycule at least every other month it seems. Anyways let's all get comfortable shall we? There's about a half hour before dinner will be ready."
She sounded eager to get us away from the photos, which left me thinking there was something in them that she didn't want to explain or discuss. I knew that could easily have been something mundane like family drama, but my mind went straight to the supernatural. I figured there had to be some clues in the pictures that something unusual was going on in my coworker's life. Or the lives of her children.
Emma and Carol sat together on the love-seat, so Amy and I settled onto the sofa across from them. The dog joined us as well, she flopped down onto her bed next to our host's feet.
The four of us exchanged the usual smalltalk, Carol told us about her work at the university's IT department. She worked at the U of T's Mississauga campus, where Emma attended for her psychology program. That was how the two of them met, over lunch at one of the restaurants on campus.
And Amy told them a bit about herself, like how she was taking an EMT training program at the same college that I just graduated from. She admitted she wasn't working over the summer, but obviously didn't mention anything about her goddess stuff. Instead she went with a more ambiguous 'working on some self improvement ideas', and fortunately neither of our hosts pressed for more details.
Then Emma and I talked a bit more about what we were doing, mostly regarding our work with Beverly. That lasted until dinner was ready, then the three of us moved from the den into the dining room, while Emma put the finishing touches on dinner before serving it up.
Carol poured us all more drinks, except Amy switched to soda since she'd be driving later. The food was nice, Emma did a pork roast with mashed potatoes and roasted veggies.
There was more small-talk over dinner, Emma mentioned her daughter Mara had become a pretty good cook and always volunteered to look after the meals when everyone was over for holidays or visits. She said Mira had started helping with that as well, and Carol joked that was one of the only times the two girls could be trusted to stay out of trouble if they were left unsupervised together.
By the time we'd all had enough to eat it felt like I knew a bit more about Emma's girls, except there were still some odd questions. Like there were times she still spoke as if she only had one daughter, while other times she talked about both of them. And I'd noticed that she didn't have any pictures of the girls growing up. No childhood pictures, no baby pictures, not even the ubiquitous school photos that most parents I knew had on display somewhere.
I also kept thinking back to our conversation in the break room at work. I was positive my colleague had a run-in with something demonic, and she obviously knew something about the supernatural. I wasn't sure if that had anything to do with her daughters or if it was a separate mystery, but I was very curious about both of those topics.
After dinner I got the chance to talk with Emma alone, as Carol and Amy returned to the den while our host started clearing the table and taking care of the dishes. I volunteered to help, which meant she and I had a chance to talk in private in the kitchen.
I moved a little closer to her as she was rinsing off some dishes and commented quietly, "While we have a few minutes alone I was wondering if we could pick up where we left off yesterday at lunch?"
She gave me an uncertain look, but didn't respond right away. So I pressed on, "You've encountered something supernatural, haven't you? Something dangerous, something demonic? Don't worry, I'm not going to judge you or try and debunk whatever you have to say. I have some experience with the supernatural as well, although not with anything negative or demonic."
Emma was still looking uncertain, maybe a bit wary. She glanced at the door, but Amy and Carol were both in the den, along with the dog and the two cats. After a second or two she sighed softly, "I was targeted by a demon, just after I started university. She manipulated me and messed with my mind. Because of her I almost... My life could have ended three years ago. I was only saved thanks to another demon who had reason to intervene."
She shuddered slightly then shook her head and sighed again, "Supernaturals walk among us Theresa. They can look and sound like us, and we have no way of knowing who they are. We have no defence against them, all we can do is keep our heads down and hope we don't draw their attention. Or their ire."
Before I could respond she added, "You were asking about this yesterday in regards to possession and plurality? The answer is yes, a person can become plural through magic. I call it thaumagenic plurality, but obviously I can't publish that term anywhere. Nor can I even mention this sort of thing in public."
"Emma I'm sorry," I replied quietly. "I'm glad you're safe, that you escaped whatever that demon did to you."
She asked warily, "What about you Tess? You said you've had supernatural experiences as well?"
"Yeah," I nodded slowly. Even though she'd just revealed her secrets to me I was still hesitant. I pushed through it though, "In addition to my work as a therapist, I'm also a cleric? Sort of a priestess I suppose, for a real life Goddess. I've witnessed and experienced a few of her miracles. And she shared some of her power with me when she made me her cleric, so I can do some magic of my own."
I couldn't resist showing off a little after making that claim, so I picked up my and Emma's empty wine glasses. Both immediately filled with a swirl of golden light, that faded to reveal they were once more full of wine.
Emma's eyes went wide and her mouth hung open as she slowly took her glass from me.
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