Hauntingly Beautiful Girls

"I kissed a deity and the deity liked it"

Tense moments pass by. The visitor is the most visibly shaken.

My husband's face is frozen and his eyes have the color glaze.

With a gasp the visitor slaps one hand up to his neck and stiffens his posture. His eyes take on a blue inky dark glaze.

His far arm shoots out to reopen the case. A hand moving with precision. Opening a part of the case in the top cover.

A silver rimmed oval mirror floats up. It becomes entangled by the light chain at the top in a latch, but untangles on its own.

It floats forward to Lauren Cooper, showing the image of an owl.

It presses in close. "Let me get a closer look at you!"

A white filament wafts out of the mirror. It grows a dewdrop at the end and lands with a sticky small touch on her forehead.

Lauren is completely paralyzed motionless. But the inward motion of this deity in her mind distracts from that shock.

She is being read like a book. Or being examined like a cherished private collection.

The deity grasps everything but ignores information about other realms. Looking at her life from the emotional perspective.

Joys in reading stories and seeing others present them. Joys in sharing stories with friends for both enlightened cheer and shared sadness.

The human practice of rushing to skills that get praise and letting go of the work for things that are difficult.

The tendril pulls back into the mirror and it turns to the bond servant.

The image in the mirror is that of the deity, not the owlish form.

"You are a bond servant to me in a term of fifteen years! Payable to your people at the end to cover the expense of raising you!"

The glaze and stiff posture drops. "Y-Yes deity!"

"I will settle a sum of six..."

The mirror turns back to Lauren and Lauren sees the owlish image in it. The mirror flips back to the servant.

".. seven times your compensation to be her life guardian. Payable to your people even if you die doing it."

When the man servant nods with an expression of little choice, a second symbol appears on his neck.

A shield with crossed arrows behind.

It appears on the neck just behind and slightly up from his bond mark to the deity.

The mirror turns towards Lauren Cooper and hovers close. She giggles in amazement.

This is just real magic!

The mirror backs away slowly, and settles in the case. Chain falling slack, and the image vanishing away.

The two men start breathing. Taking large deep breaths and looking at each other.

Lauren regains their attention "So that was a deity. They seemed nice!"