As Stephanie spoke that one word, all of Hunter's senses started tingling as he noticed Stephanie's Divinity begin to brighten and fully solidify inside her body. No more was it flowing around like blood; now it had turned into a pillar of light, just like what the brothers had.
Hunter smiled at her. "It appears that that was right. Your Divinity has solidified making you a Divine One now."
Stephanie's eyes widened with surprise and joy. "So I'm like you now." She slowly grinned as she walked up and hugged Hunter. "I'll do everything I can to become stronger so we can spend an eternity together."
Hunter laughed happily as he wrapped his arms around her as well before he let go and backed away. "Okay, now it's time to practice and try and see what you can do."
Stephanie nodded as she backed away as well. "Okay so how do I see my Divinity, as you call it?"
"Close yours eyes and look inwards. Try and see the cosmos inside you, and watch as it takes the shape of your body before a pillar of golden light forms in the core of your abdomen."
Stephanie closed her eyes, calming her senses down until she was in a relaxed state much like meditation. However; unlike meditation which focuses on a person's soul, she began to instead look deeper and past her soul. Slowly in the void that existed with her closed eyelids, Stephanie began to see that the darkness was becoming brighter. She gasped in shock as she finally saw that the darkness was actually a giant shadow of herself, and that she was quickly backing away from it, allowing her to see the entire entity.
Looking around she found that this giant shadow version of her appeared to be sitting in the heavens as far away there were stars and galaxies. Faintly she heard Hunter's voice coming from what appeared to be a very bright cluster of red tinted golden gas clouds. "What you are seeing right now, is what I call the soul space. To be honest I just think it's a cool name for it since we don't really know anything other than the fact that our Divine Pillars lie here, and to get to it we have to look in on ourselves, past our souls.... Anyways, once you see your shadow, look towards the abdomen and see if you can see a golden pillar of light glistening there."
As Stephanie looked back towards her shadow, she saw what Hunter was talking about; however, her Divine Pillar wasn't only just golden, it also seemed to have rose red spots all along its height. She also noticed a smaller pillar, both in height and width, that was only golden in color unlike the larger one.
Faintly Hunter called out again, causing Stephanie to look back over at the red gold cloud. "Okay, now if you can see your Divine Pillar, I had reached out and touched it which allowed me to gain some basic information about Divinity and Deities. So if you want, you can reach out and try touching yours as well to see if there's anything for you to learn."
Stephanie turned back towards the pillars, trying to decide which one she should reach out towards. The smaller one was solid gold, much like what Hunter described while the other and larger one seemed to have coloring in it. As Stephanie opened her mouth to ask Hunter a question, she was forcibly pushed out of her soul space due to not being strong enough mentally and spiritually to multitask in two different "dimensions".
Hunter watched as Stephanie's mouth opened before her eyes fluttered open in complete shock. Then just as quickly as the surprised look appeared, so did pain as her face contorted in slight anguish and her eyes became unfocused. Hunter, becoming very worried, rushed forward and pulled her into his arms and tried to help ease her pain.
After a few minutes, Stephanie's face finally relaxed as her eyes re-steadied causing her to realize she was in Hunter's arms. "Are you okay?" He softly spoke as he tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. She nodded as she slowly looked around her, still finding that they were in the woods next to the Python's cave. "Do you wanna tell me what happened?"
Stephanie looked back up towards Hunter before she slowly recalled what occurred in her soul space. "I did everything you said, allowing me to see my Divine Pillar, but instead of a single golden pillar like you said, I instead had two. One was larger than the other, and the larger one was not only golden but had a shade of red spots all over it. When I went to open my mouth to ask you which one I should touch, I was forcefully sucked back into the shadow before pain began to blossom all over in my head."
Hunter nodded his head. "I don't really know to be honest. Back when I first saw my Divinity, I only had one pillar, but now I have five pillars, all of varying sizes and colors.... If there was a way that I could enter your soul space and look as well, I might be able to discern some more information, but I don't really have a clue as to the first step of doing that."
Stephanie listened to Hunter mutter to himself, feeling warm inside as he tried coming up with a way to help her overcome her confusion. Suddenly her eyes widened as she thought of the golden red gas. "Hunter, there might actually be a way."
Hunter returned his focus towards Stephanie as he raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to continue.
"Back when I was in my soul space, I saw as you said, the cosmos and many different stars and lights. When you began speaking to me, instead of being right next to me like you were, your voice was very faint and actually came from a distant golden red cloud. I was able to see it, but it was so far away that your voice sounded like a whisper. By the way, that cloud was massive!"
Hunter listened closely to Stephanie's recounting. After she finished, he sat there in silence as he contemplated and hypothesized about what Stephanie said. During these couple of minutes, Stephanie looked up at him, finding her heart beat speed up as she studied his jawline and his focused and educated gaze. She began to slowly blush before she quickly looked away, thinking to herself, [Jeez, he's so handsome looking when he's focused!]
Finally, Hunter stirred and refocused his gaze at Stephanie, catching the fading blush on her cheeks. As his eyes filled with warmth, a gentle smile spread across his face before his face began to blush as he began to slowly bring up the awkward topic. "So um... I guess the golden red cloud of gas is probably where my soul is located. To be honest I thought everyone's soul spaces were separate, but I guess it's not wrong that they should have some way of connecting and interacting with each other since soul attacks do exist... But anyways, um, there might be a way for me to see your Divine Pillars, however if I'm not wrong not only is it slightly dangerous, but it could be considered one of the most intimate exchanges between two people."
Hearing this Stephanie blushed scarlet, thinking that he was implying towards making love. Thinking back to one of the many interactions she had with the Stormbreaker family, Stephanie continued to become bashful and was only able to look at Hunter out of the corner of her eyes. [I wasn't expecting to go this far that quickly.... Grandma was right, all men are horney beasts, I hope Hunter isn't like what grandma claimed grandpa was like. I guess it's fine since he agreed to marry me, and I can't really say I'm not excited...]
Hunter saw her look, and caught the mixed scent of excitement, fear, love, and anticipation. Already knowing what type of reaction a person back on Earth would have if someone said this, Hunter quickly lifted Stephanie's chin up, looking her in the eye. Clearing his throat from awkwardness, Hunter softly whispered, "I didn't mean that...."
Stephanie blushed even more as her eyes widened and embarrassment seemed to engulf her very being.
"What I meant was something more intimate than physical contact between lovers. Um, I mean, if you want, we can try connecting our souls... or at least bring them closer together so that my soul isn't so far from yours."
Stephanie stood there thinking while her blush was just not willing to recede. Not trusting her voice, she finally nodded as she resolved her decision and looked at Hunter with excitement.
Hunter blushed before he coughed and continue speaking. "So try entering your soul space again, and this time I'll enter mine as well. Since you can't speak while in the soul space yet, try seeing if you can move your soul space towards the cloud. I'll try finding yours and moving to you as well."
Stephanie nodded before she sat down on the ground, holding Hunter's hand as he sat down next to her. Closing her eyes, she quickly entered her soul space seeing her shadow, the pillars, and the cosmos again. Looking around at the distant stars, she finally turned and looked towards the cloud of gas [Was that what Hunter called it? I wonder what gas is...] before she tried forcing her conscience to try and move that way.
Like a soft whisper, Hunter spoke. "If you've entered your soul space already, I'm going to enter mine as well.... I'll make sure that no harm happens to you."
In her soul space, Stephanie smiled as warmth spread in her chest. She happened to look back at her shadow at that time, trying to see if it was following her and saw a soft red/orange glow appear in the shadow's chest before it entered her Divine Pillars. Surprised she went back to the pillars for a closer look, but found no change to either of them. Having realized that the shadow wouldn't just follow her, Stephanie tried reaching out and grabbing a hold of the shadow's left hand before she began moving towards the gas cloud again. Looking back, the shadow finally began to follow her as it was slowly dragged from it's original spot. Looking back towards the cloud, Stephanie realized that it would be a very long while before the two would be close enough to each other.
....
As Hunter entered his soul space, he saw his vibrant shadow that was surrounding his five pillars. Hunter looked at the pillars, noticing no change from the when he looked at them the last time he had gotten a new ability. Finally he turned and looked around, seeing the cosmos in all it's splendor.
He slowly looked left and right, trying to see if he could spot any movement amongst the stars, however he saw nothing. He didn't even see the gas cloud Stephanie had talked about. [Is the gas cloud my soul or is it blocking Stephanie's way and we are actually farther than we thought? What if it's dangerous?!]
"Stephanie! Stop moving. I can't see the gas cloud you mentioned earlier and there's a chance that it could be very dangerous to you. I think we need to come up with a different plan to connect to each other."
Hunter began to worry about Stephanie's safety, and as his emotions began to gather and cluster together, his soul shadow began to light up vibrantly before tendrils of soft lift began to snake out from the shadow and began slowly spreading through the cosmos, much like a tree's roots as it expanded and grew.
....
Stephanie heard Hunter's faint but worried voice and so she stopped moving towards the cloud, sitting and waiting for Hunter to come up with another way. All of a sudden, her soul shadow softly lit up as light tendrils began to expand outwards in a circle before they wavered and then began dashing towards the cloud.
Worry and fear flashed in Stephanie's heart as she watched the tendrils snake together to form a single, large tendril of light. As she watched, another large tendril appeared, snaking out of the cloud, much like that of a predator. As Stephanie's tendril connected with the other tendril, she felt a sense of familiarity and strangeness at the same time. All of a sudden, her soul shuddered before it began to be quickly dragged, along with her, into the cloud. Passing through the cloud, Stephanie saw no change in the cosmos except she now could see another giant soul shadow and standing next to it was Hunter, who's worry and unease had relaxed and he was smiling happily as Stephanie drew near.
Finally the soul shadows stopped next to each other, with a solid light connection occurring between the two shadows were their hearts would be, and as the two of them calmed down; they began to see pulses of light come from each soul shadow before they travelled down the connection towards the other shadow. As soon as the first light pulse from Stephanie's soul reached Hunter's, memories began pouring into his mind. Everything that had transpired in her life slowly became known to him, just as Stephanie slowly experienced Hunter's life on Earth.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephanie Stormbreaker:
Appearance: Raven black hair, dazzling green eyes, dimples when she smiles, taller than Hunter by a few inches
Personal Gear:
Weapons/Armor:
iron capped breastplate (great)
iron threaded cloak (great)
Thunder Shaker: (legendary) iron tipped thin ox tongue spear
Jewelry:
Transdimensional Facility Ring: (gold band with a red ruby inlaid in it) It is a large house/storage. Has a large storage room, a forgery room, living quarters, a kitchen, a library, and a large garden.
Hell's Red Rose Rings
Other: Siol citizenship plate
Physical Abilities:
Attributes:
Strength: 11
Constitution: 11
Dexterity: 15
Intelligence: 22
Wisdom: 18
Charisma: 13
Magical/Divine Abilities:
Level 4 Storm mage: Can cast all storm spells from level 1 to level 4.
Age: 12 years old to 14 years old
Soul Age: 12 years to 14 years old
Race: Human Divine One
Relationships:
Grandfather: Abelard Stormbreaker
Lovers: Hunter, Linrun
Divinity Pillar:
Pillar Types:
Human: Golden, Rose red
Deity: Golden