Bethany was still asleep on one side of him and Tara was on the other side, not asleep yet but getting there. Eli couldn't sleep, not that he did it that much anyways only sleeping for about two hours every other day. His mind wouldn’t sit still, he was going to really have to focus during this conference to keep everything in order if he was having this much difficulty keeping his own people in order. It wasn’t that it was difficult to lead them, it was more like it was difficult to not lead them, especially with Bethany, Tara, and Alora. He knew they would do anything he said and that is not the kind of thing that makes for healthy relationships. Then a system window appeared.

  “Gwen has made an oath on your name as her deity.”

  “If the oath is broken you will own her soul.”

  “This oath can only be cancelled by you.”

  Eli sat bolt upright startling Tara, “What is it honey?” she asked as she sat up and put a hand on his back, she could feel how tense he was and she began to worry. After several seconds of silence she asked again, “I’m getting worried, what is it?”

  “This.” he said and shared the system window with her.

  Tara read it, then read it again, “Do not tell anyone about this.” she said as she started to get tense worrying about him and how he will handle this. “Set all oath related system windows to mute and ignore them. If no one knows about them then they won’t ask you about them and you can put it out of your mind. At least until the conference is over.”

  He began to relax, “You are right, I have bigger things to worry about, just remind me to come back to it when things settle down.” He then let out all of his tension and sighed deeply, “probably take a few decades but I’m sure things will eventually calm down.”

  “Lay down, I want to put my head on your chest when I sleep.” Tara said with a yawn.

  He did as she asked and held her while she slept, he wasn’t going to sleep though, not with everything that was on his mind. To keep himself relaxed he played with Tara’s hair as she slept which triggered an odd memory. Even with his emotions suppressed in the past, he can remember this urge he had to play with her hair anytime they were close to each other. Eli remembered how odd it was that he kept wanting to do it, it wasn’t something that he thought about, it was more like how when a song you like comes on and you tap your foot or move to the rhythm. Now that he was doing it with her cuddled up to him, he understood that he had feelings for her this whole time.

  A few hours went by and Eli got up, being careful not to wake the two in bed with him and he went back up to the roof. It was the dead of night and he could see the lights coming from the central city in the safe zone. Candles, torches, and light stones sold by the system store were not very bright, but when you have a city of millions it is easy to see. As he let his mind wander he wondered what life was like for those in that city and others like it. Ghost was no longer in charge of the city and it was still going on just fine from what he could see from this far away. Then he wondered how his people would fare if he suddenly was gone and resolved himself to keep getting stronger, his people would survive but they wouldn’t live like they could with him alive.

  Alora joined him on the roof and wordlessly sat facing him, mirroring his cross-legged pose. She could tell he had something on his mind and she wouldn’t interrupt, she would wait and he would acknowledge her when he was able to give her his full attention. They sat like that until the sun came up and Eli’s mind seemed to settle some as he opened his eyes and gave Alora an inquisitive look.

  “I’m just wondering what it is I should be doing, or rather, what I should be learning. As an apprentice, shouldn’t you be teaching me something?”

  “Well, aren’t you eager this morning? I’ll give you that first lesson right after I speak to the other you for a quick moment.”

  “You know she can hear, see, and feel everything I can right? Also, she has named herself, I don’t like the name but she seems very taken with it.”

  “She can tell me herself, while you share senses, you do not speak for her.” Eli said then motioned for Alora to get closer. They both leaned forward until their foreheads were touching. Entering her mind he was standing in an exact replica of the rooftop he had just been sitting at, complete with the night sky. Standing next to him was the other Alora, her twin soul, functionally her subconscious on the outside, but everything in here.

  “You have returned so soon, I didn’t have time to tidy up the place.”

  “I would argue that a tidy mind is not aspirational, it leaves little room for new ideas.”

  “New ideas are an expansion of the mind, it is not such a static space.”

  “Ah, but wouldn’t a non-static space be categorically untidy.” Eli said with a smirk, he was confident that he had won the first battle of wits in the war that was sure to come. This twin soul of Alora’s was exceptionally sharp minded, almost as sharp as her wit, and they both enjoyed conversing competitively.

  “As the mind is an abstract place, its relative tidiness is also an abstract concept.”

  Eli tapped his chin in thought, he walked right into that, one of their first conversations had been about if strength is relative and she had led him into a trap. “Alright, alright, you win this round.”

  She hugged him tightly, which to Eli felt like his soul was getting a warm squeeze of happiness, “I’ve missed you,” she said. “Ever since that intimate time you spent with Alora and you pulled me to the surface to experience it as well, I’ve been a bit flustered. It wasn’t just that it was my first experience, it was the knowledge that it was possible that has had my mind a bit overstimulated.”

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  “I wanted you to feel included, you are just as special and important to me as Alora is. By the way, she told me you have decided on a name, I’m excited to hear it.”

  “Yes, I have named myself Alistasia Ashen. Could you be a dear and help me mark that name into myself?”

  “As much as I would love to be your dear, how about I show you how to do it yourself? It might take some time since I go by feel and instinct, but I think it will be very helpful to you to have more control here.”

  Eli then put his hands on either side of Alistasia’s head and touched his forehead to hers. This is when things got out of hand, Alis’s will and soul were able to rival his in power when she drew strength from Alora and their minds were working together. Suddenly they were equals and it almost made Eli bail out of Alora’s mind entirely, but he could sense that she was not being hostile. Instead, she was only trying to match him so she could better understand the process. To them this process took days of sleepless work with their souls connected very intimately as he would feel something then share the feeling and what his instinct told him it was.

  When they were done, and she had filled in the empty space in her soul where a name went, they separated themselves and stood inches apart, both breathing heavily. They both had learned a lot about souls and how they were essentially the subconscious part of the mind, but more importantly they learned about each other's souls in a very deep way. Alis had a crush on him, it felt similar to how he thought a teenager with a crush on a famous singer would feel but it was changing the more they spent time together. Eli also sensed the system getting close to recognizing her as her own entity which had some potentially dangerous possibilities.

  He mentioned none of this to her, partly so she wouldn’t be embarrassed and partly to avoid the inevitable second identity crisis that would come with her being her own fully separate being. It wasn’t going to happen soon so there was time to ease her into it. They calmed down but did not break eye contact, there was an unintentional intimacy when two people knew each other's souls like they now did. Finally, Alis turned away and took a step back, there was worry on her face but she didn’t bring it up and he felt it wasn’t his place to try and dig it out of her, especially since he was now realizing why Goshen had warned him about the strength of twin souls. This strength seemed to be more potent when inside their minds but he was sure they would figure out how to use it on the outside given time.

  “Well, I should get back, Alora needs to start training and I need to prepare for the conference.” he paused and was doing his trademark chin tapping in thought. “Now that I think of it, I may need your help with some of it.”

  “You want me to help with an introduction or maybe some diplomatic discussions?” She asked.

  “You read my mind. I am starting to feel like I need to really add some drama to my interactions with people. When they hear ‘Demi-God’ they are going to expect me to act a certain way and the closer I can meet those expectations, the further away I am from having to flex my actual power.”

  “I think you should flex and not say anything, demonstrate your power on the first person who speaks to you inappropriately or make a suggestion to the group you are wholly against. If they don’t know how strong you really are they will think they can gang up on you and take you out. Make it heavy and dramatic so they understand the gap between you and them, you might even kill one so abruptly it sets a tone for everyone else.”

  “I’m not going to play tyrant, I’m not trying to rule the world, just hold those who are ruling to account if their people are suffering.”

  “I don’t think you are naive enough to think you can do that without them putting a bounty on your head big enough to get them to team up against you.”

  “I’m counting on it.” Eli said with a smirk.

  “Oh, so you are playing the long game. You want them to try so you can make an example out of them.” She paused and started pacing while playing it out in her mind. “So you let them get big heads during the conference, some bad guys realize you are going to put a stop to their good time so they come together to come after you. Now you have the worst of the whole group all together and you come out the good guy when you kill them. That’s clever, but it has so many possible points of failure.”

  “You give me too much credit, I don’t plan that far ahead, I will be easy at the conference and see who makes a point to publicly oppose me. That's as far as my plans go. I’m good with tactics, not strategy. In fact, if you think you can handle strategy, I would love to hear about what you think my plans should be the next time I'm in here.” Eli said, hoping that giving her something to do would help her feel less like she isn’t part of the group, especially since no one knows about her.

  She took on a very serious and dangerous looking expression, “I don’t think that will be in your best interest. If I make myself indispensable to you, it might go to my head.” Her words sounded like a warning.

  “Relax, I didn’t say I would do what you say, I just would like an outside opinion. I’m often caught up in things and can lose perspective of the long term effects of my choices.”

  Her expression relaxed, “That, I can do. However, it will cost you a favor each time.”

  “That's reasonable, but the first one is already paid for since I help with your name.”

  “Fair enough, now go and don’t you go easy on Alora. She is tougher than you think and both of us want you to make us into something truly special.”

  Eli kissed her forehead and vanished.

  Goshen’s head appeared next to her, their telepathic link manifesting to make it more personable to hold conversations. She smirked at him, “I told you he wouldn’t even flinch when facing equal strength.”

  “I’ll admit you were right, but did you notice how much it took to match his?” Goshen asked.

  “I was focused on other things but it was all of my strength, about half of Alora’s, then you added more than double that. Now can you tell me why you had me test him like that?”

  “I needed to be sure, but with power like his, If the system lets him live long enough to become a full deity he will have half the integrated universe kissing his feet and the other half selling entire planets for the resources needed to kill him. If he knew how to use his will to its full potential he would even be a threat to me and my family someday.”

  “So should me and Alora stay with him, or look for an out?”

  “The longer you stay the more power and knowledge you can get from him. The system will keep testing him and it always has a lesson in mind with each test that you will want to learn without having to be tested yourself. My suggestion is to glue yourself to his side and learn for as long as you can. You have some time yet but the system will be preparing him to fight people from the integrated universe next and those are going to be some harsh trials where he will have to do a lot of killing.” Goshen explained.

  “So stay close but stay safe?”

  “You don’t want to ever be safe, that is how you stop growing.”