Ardaniahna looked around as she climbed out of the water. This was the part that she hated, but she couldn’t see any way of avoiding it. She took a deep, calming breath, then let it out. Slowly, she could feel magic begin to gather around her. It wasn’t like home. There, magic was plentiful. Here, magic was thin and almost absent. She couldn’t blame the area. The level of magic had been lowering for far longer than humans realized. Since long before the birth of the one known as Jesus Christ. Now, besides scattered locations around the globe, only the East and West poles have large supplies of magic. Even the ley lines barely have any left to keep them open.

Once she had gathered enough magic, Ardaniahna cast her spell. Her tail began to glow. Her fins began to thicken and shorten, and an indentation formed in the middle of her tail. It lengthened until it stretched from her fins to just shy of her crotch. Then it started to deepen, separating her tail into two. While it wasn’t painful, it was uncomfortable. It wasn’t long before her tail had separated into two segments. Soon after that, the segments were recognizable as legs.

Slowly Ardaniahna stood on her newly formed legs. At first, she was unsteady. But she quickly gained her balance. After a moment to make sure she was steady, the mermaid took her first step. After a couple of minutes of practice, Ardaniahna was walking smoothly. She was even managed to run a few feet. She then walked back to the lake shore where her belongings were hidden.

Ardaniahna looked in puzzlement at the human clothes that had been gathered for her. She recognized the skirt and blouse. She had seen pictures of humans wearing those before. She didn’t know what the foot coverings were called, but she did know they were for her feet. But what was the white cloth with one large hole on one end and two smaller holes on the other end for? She didn’t even want to think about the triangular bowls with all the straps.

After some thought, Ardaniahna decided that the white garment was meant for her legs. She pulled those on then looked at the, maybe, garment with the straps. She quickly decided that she did not know what that was for and she didn’t want to know. It didn’t take her long to finish after that. She reached back into her supplies and brought out a crystal. She closed her eyes and concentrated. After a moment, the crystal began to glow. The glow brightened then dimmed and focused on a spot on the crystal.

The mermaid opened her eyes and studied the changes in the crystal. “I’m ready,” she told herself. “Hopefully I’ll find the emissary before anything happens.” With that, she started walking in the direction the glow was pointing.

* * *

“A succubus,” cried Carol. She jumped up, grabbed her daughter, and immediately ran from the table. Her husband reacted the same as he grabbed their son. The only one who was left at the table with the demon was Matthew. She did not know what a succubus was, but with the way her aunt and uncle reacted, it wasn’t good. Unfortunately, snakes can not move backwards. Matthew found herself raising her upper body as she tried to jump back.

The supposed succubus did nothing. She just watched them all with a weary expression on her face. “Are you done,” she asked. “Honestly, if I was going to do something to you, I would have done it while you were asleep. It would have been much easier then.”

Matthew found he had to agree with that. It would have been easier to kill them in their sleep. She quickly lowered her upper body back to the ground. Two of her hands grabbed her breasts to stop the resulting bounce and jiggle. She now realized why women with large breasts did not like energetic physical activities. She hoped her mother knew where to find some really good bras. Or, at least some really good bra makers since she doubted anybody made bras for a four-armed woman.

“But you’re a succubus,” Matthew’s aunt said.

“And your point is?”

“We’ve been told that succubae are evil,” Carol said.

“By who,” Callingenia asked. Carol blinked. “The Catholic Church, that’s who. The very same people who declared you and yours to be devil worshipers. You are not devil worshipers. I know this. Are you going to let those people tell you who is and who is not evil?”

Callingenia sighed. “The Council of Nicaea was the first effort to organize all the different sects of Christianity from all over the world. It met in 325 AD and, primarily, dealt with the question of Christ the Son and his relationship to God the Father.”

“I’ve heard of that,” Donald said. “The council decided which books would and would not be in the bible?”

“Common misconception,” the succubus said. “The selection of the books had begun well before then. The council only brought the different sects to the same page, so to speak. The Catholic Church had decided that everything they deemed not of God, was evil. And they had a very broad definition of for what they deemed not of God. The Council of Nicaea let the various sects around the world.”

“Then there’s all the information they have stored away in their archives,” Callingenia continued. “That includes not only the public and the not so secret archives. But the really secret one that only certain members of the Church know about. And those, like me, who are old enough to have lived through the things the Church would rather not the public know about.”

Carol and Donald stared at the female. They had not expected a history lesson. Especially one they didn’t need. They knew Christianity marked them as devil worshipers. They knew they weren’t so, they should have, at least, guessed, that they may have been wrong about other things. “So, you’re not going to try to take my husband’s soul,” Carol finally asked.

“Gods, no” Callingenia said. “Souls can only be given, not taken. Besides, all of the gods would be pissed at me if I tried to do anything like that. You don’t want to know how many humans found that out.”

“So those who sacrificed people’s souls,” Carol began.

“Killed those people for nothing,” Callingenia finished. “When they died, the gods punished them for their actions.”

“What about necromancers,” Donald blurted.

“Those killed people to raise power. There is a lot of power released in death. Even with a normal person.”

Matthew couldn’t help herself she asked, “What about Voodoo and their making of zombies?”

“That’s something different,” the demonic looking woman said. “They aren’t taking the souls out of the people’s bodies. Instead, they’re imprisoning them. All of their effects are through that. The dolls and soul jars are just representatives of their traps.”

Callingenia clapped her hands. “Now that’s enough of that. You need to finish your breakfast.” She pointed at Matthew. “Especially you. Your body needs more fuel than you’re used to. The only problem is, you’re primarily a carnivore. Fruits and vegetables won’t do anything but change the flavor and texture of your food.”

Donald frowned when he heard this. Feeding a family of five was not cheap. Especially in today’s market. His job was the best paying one, but it kept the bills paid. Now that Matthew will be eating mostly meat, that will put a strain on the budget. Even with what Carol brings in, it will be tough.

“After you finish eating,” Callingenia continued as the family came back to the table. “I’ll test you to see what magic are capable of.”

“Magic,” Matthew asked.

“I can handle that,” Carol said. “I have been trained.”

“You can teach the magic of the Wiccans,” Callingenia said. “I’ll teach her the other magics she proves capable of.” She studied Matthew for a moment. “I really hope she’s can shape shift. Otherwise, hiding those will be, difficult.”

Matthew blushed and tried to hide her breasts with her arms. “I didn’t ask for these,” she said.”

“The gods will have their amusements,” Callingenia sighed. “But this time, I don’t think that’s what happened. I think most of the goddesses had a hand in making your body. Several of them are sex or fertility goddesses after all. Not to mention the ones who are the goddesses of children.”

This made sense to Matthew. If the goddesses each tried to influence how her body turned out, it was a wonder that she hadn’t turned out worse than she had. “So, do you think I can ask them to alter my body,” she asked. “These will get in the way.”

“I’m sorry, but no. Once they changed your body, they can’t do it again. For one, there’s not enough magic for them to do it. And that’s if they all agreed that your body needed changing in the first place.”

“Oh.”

Carol’s heart went out to her new niece. With what had happened last night, the girl did not need to hear that. She made sure her daughter was sitting and eating her breakfast. Then she went to Matthew. The snake girl looked up as she approached. Carol wrapped her arms around Matthew and looked at Callingenia. “Is there anything we can do,” she asked.

Before the succubus could answer, the doorbell rang. Callingenia suddenly turned back into a beautiful, but normal, woman. They all looked at each other. “Are you expecting anybody this morning,” Callingenia asked.

“Not really,” Donald answered as Carol shook her head. “Steve did say he’d come by to replace the door today.”

Callingenia’s eyes narrowed. “Do you mind if I answer it?” When neither Carol or Donald said anything against her, she started walking toward the door. She got to the door as the doorbell rang again. “How may I help you,” she said as she opened the door.

Standing in the door was a Best Buy delivery man. He was tall and the succubus considered him above average in looks. He was staring dumbly at her. Held loosely in is hand was an electronic clipboard. After a long moment, the man shook himself. “Is this the Bridges residence,” he asked.

“Yes, it is.”

“I have a delivery for a Matthew Stout.”

Making sure she kept her senses on the delivery man, Callingenia looked back toward the kitchen. In the door stood Carol, Donald, and Matthew. All of them shook their heads. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Are you sure this is the right address?”

He looked at the clipboard. He then looked at the address written on the house. “This is the right place,” he said. “I have a refrigerator and a deep freezer for a Matthew to be delivered to the Bridges residence.”

Again, Callingenia looked back. The three shrugged. “I’m sorry,” she said. “But nobody here knows what you’re talking about.”

“Perhaps I can be of service,” an accented cultured voice said. The succubus and the delivery man turned toward the voice.

Standing before them was tall thin man. He was well dressed in khakis, an off-white button shirt, and tan loafers. He had a swarthy complexion and thick, slightly wavy black hair. His facial features suggested that he was from India.

“My name is Hazen Acharya,” he said. “I represent the Kashi Vishwanath in the holy city of Varanasi in India.”

Callingenia blinked. “You flew all the way from India o here? The gods only made their announcement last night.”

“Oh no,” laughed Hazen. “I was nearby. I was visiting my younger brother. He is here studying to be a doctor. I was called by my mother. She told me what the temple was doing and suggested that I make sure you would accept this and other gifts to come.”

“Other gifts,” Mrs. Bridges asked her husband.

“So, it begins,” whispered Callingenia. “I’m not sure we have to floor space for another refrigerator and freezer.”

“That is not a problem. I have made arrangements for a small crew to come here. With your permission, we could add onto the house.”

“We’ll have to think about this. We were not expecting anything like this.”

Hazen smiled. “How could you have expected this? No one can predict what the gods will do. We can only pray for guidance.” Both looked up as delivery van pulled up. They could see two more in the street behind that one. “Perhaps we should pray for more time? After all, the gods should be listening to you.”

* * *

Ardaniahna was tired and miserable. Her new appendages throbbed and ached. Even the things on the ends ached. What was those things called? Feet! That’s it. Her feet ached. She had been walking for hours, following the light on her crystal. Although she did not know how far she had walked, she did know it was the furthest she had ever walked. Before, all she did was walk from the water, up the beach to gather the few items the merfolk could not grow underwater.

The crystal had led her along a strange path. In the park, the path was stone. But it was unlike any stone she had seen before. It was flat and smooth. The segments all exactly the same size. It was almost as if it had been poured. After she left the park, the path changed. It got wider and changed from grey to black. It also got spongy, but yet remained hard. It was also like with the same stone-like material that was in the park. She couldn’t explain it. The elders hadn’t said anything about this. But then, they hardly say anything about the surface world as it was.

Ardaniahna stopped walking and looked around. The buildings had changed. Those near the park were tall. Taller than anything she had seen before. Even taller than what she thought could be built without the support of water. Now the buildings were much smaller. She could see people coming out of and going into some of them. She thought they could have been homes for some of the humans. Even if they didn’t look like any she had seen in pictures. They didn’t have small sections of grass in front of them. Hopefully, she’d get to the emissary’s home soon.

From the position of the sun, it was a little past noon and Ardaniahna was finally getting close to the emissary. At least, that’s what her crystal indicated. The mermaid was happy about that fact. Some of the looks the humans were giving her were making her nervous. She just wanted to get to the emissary. The crystal suddenly flashed. Ardaniahna looked at it then looked around.

The buildings here looked more like the homes she had seen. Small sections of grass in front of the buildings. Some of them had vehicles on more of the stone-like material. A few of them were even separated by fences. Unfortunately, not wooden picket fences. Instead, the fences were made of metal. But only one house had several vehicles in front of it. There were also several big human males there. They looked like they had been doing work of some kind. After studying the scene for a moment, the mermaid checked her crystal. The brightly shining light was pointing directly at the building with all the humans.

Ardaniahna sighed. She did not want to do this with a bunch of humans watching. She wasn’t even sure which human was the emissary. Chalchiuhtlicue did not tell them what the emissary looked like. The only way Ardaniahna could find the emissary was to use magic. With a cautious look around, the mermaid extended her senses toward the building. Inside, she could feel several humans and one that was and was not human. That one felt like the priests and priestess back home. That was most likely the emissary.

Ardaniahna eyes suddenly widened. She felt one that was definitely not human. It was there with the humans. Very close to the emissary. She didn’t know if the humans knew it was there or not. And she couldn’t take the chance. She did not want to get on a god’s bad side. She started walking toward the building. She needed a way to get that non-human away from the emissary. Before she could make a plan, she sensed the non-human move. It was coming for her! The mermaid quickly readied the few battle spells she knew. Hopefully she could at least stun it so the humans could do something to it. And hopefully they’ll wait until she could explain what was going on.

As she prepared herself, Ardaniahna studied the other. Something about that one was starting to feel familiar. If she didn’t know better, she would have said the other was a nymph. But that was impossible. Why would a naiad, a water nymph, be sent here when she had been sent? But it wasn’t a naiad. But it was nymph-like.

That was all Ardaniahna had time for. The nymph-like creature appeared in directly in front of her. She stared at the beautiful female. Her dark, mysterious eyes stared back, then suddenly widened. Like a bolt of lightning, she knew exactly what the female was. Together, they both raised a hand and pointed at each other.

“What is a succubus/mermaid doing here?”