"The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.

The name that can be named is not the eternal name.

The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.

The named is the mother of ten thousand things.

Ever desireless, one can see the mystery.

Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations.

These two spring from the same source but differ in name;

this appears as darkness.

Darkness within darkness.

The gate to all mystery." -Tao Te Ching Chapter 1

__________________________

Isfet exhales the last puff of her smoke, drops the butt of her cigarette in her cup with barely a sip of water left inside.

Isfet: "...’The existence of Seiõr has been around before humanity and spans as far as the universe goes.

Even beyond that.

Seiõr will always exist, for it is the energy every universe uses to sustain existence.

The first actual Child of Seiõr, was a lonely, pitiful human woman named Ymir."

Stephanie’s eyes grow wide as she too, is hearing the name for the first time

Stephanie(whispers): "...’Ymir’?"

...

Within Stephanie’s mind, something only she can hear *CLICKS*.

...

Everyone else (other than sleeping Bethany) at the table turns and suddenly, the entire room begins to glow a golden lime green hue.

No longer caught in her ’trance like state’, Stephanie has added a golden base to her once pure lime green SoulSeiõrShield.

Her entire body is covered in the breathtaking illumination.

Peyton almost falls out of his chair from being completely caught off guard by the new sight.

Peyton: "What the Hell?!?"

His shouts wake Bethany up and she actually does fall out her chair.

Bethany: "What the F-!"

*Crash!*

Bethany: "Owww!"

The equally confused young lime gre haired woman examines herself and the new two toned ’armor’ of Old Norse magic coating her while MamMon DæMon explains the concept to Peyton.

MamMon DæMon: "You see, Rookie, because you are attached to one of those symbiotes, it grants you the opportunity to see exactly what you were missing out on in this world."

Bethany gets off the floor and picks her chair up while the latest guest to the home continues.

MamMon DæMon: "I knew you were special when you were able to create a SharedSoulSeiõrShield without maintaining direct contact...Let me ask you something, my dear Stephanie.

How are you feeling right now?"

Tristan scared eyes can’t move away from his purpose’s new mysterious energy.

Stephanie: "I...I feel...

I feel..."

She looks up at a worried looking Tristan, his face changes to relief from seeing her exuberant smile.

Stephanie: "I feel... amazing!

I feel like I’ve had 15 coffee’s, and some espresso shots!

I’m so full of energy right now!"

MamMon DæMon: *chuckles* "That is a good sign, I guess.

Now let me ask you, dear boy.

How do you feel seeing the love of your life like this."

Tristan: "Why is she like this Madame MamMon? Her original SoulSeiõrShield was nothing like this.

Did Isfet’s story...?"

He turns to look at the also confused and stunned Isfet and Ichythis.

Isfet waves her hands in front of her to dent any intentions.

Isfet: "I swear, I didn’t know anything other than what my sister told me as kids. Honest."

Ichythis takes a final toke from her cigarette and puffs out the smoke. She discards the filter and pulls out her pack with only 2 cigs left. Her narrowing eyes are clear proof she’s contemplating on whether or not to smoke the last two cigs she has.

A smirking MamMon DæMon is side-eyeing the addicted chain smoker as she lets out a disappointed sigh and closes the top, but before she can put the fag pack back in her pocket...

MamMon DæMon: *chuckles* "Don’t you fret ’Little Fish’. Go ahead..."

From under the table, out of the left arm sleeve to the witch’s Money Tree Cloak, two cartons of premium cigarettes are in her green nail painted hand and she slides the extremely rare post-apocalyptic commodity over the table.

MamMon DæMon l: "...’Smoke em if you got em’.

Am I right?"

Ichythis doesn’t reach for the smokes, neither does she say a word of acceptance.

Instead her eyes dart from the two cartons back up to the DæMon.

Knowing all about Ichythis and her unwavering integrity, the woman in her cloak smiles back over at her.

MamMon DæMon: "Don’t worry, Little Fish, I’m not my little ’gangster’ of a sister, trying to coerce or bait you with morally degrading jobs to solve my rotten problems.

Nor do I believe in the law of reciprocity."

To prove her conformity to the group, MamMon’s fingernail slices the side of one carton, she then opens a pack.

She removes one of the high-class tobacco sticks, tosses the rest of the pack towards Ichythis who catches it, and puts the golden filter between her luscious lips.

Ichythis looks at the gifted smokes in her hand then at Isfet.

Her acquaintance shrugs and holds out her hand for one.

Instead, Ichythis slides the whole other carton to her fellow smoker, then looks at the DæMon.

Ichythis: "Where did you get these?"

MamMon DæMon: "I have my ways."

Using the same type of Seiõr she had on her hand to melt down the metal door that was protecting the last two remaining "Sisters", with one fingertip MamMon lights the cig. Undeterred by the irritation of smoke, she never takes it out the corner of her mouth and puffs any inhaled smoke out the other corner. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Tristan(grumbling): "Okay, sure. Why don’t we just hot box the whole house?"

The beautiful ex-Roronora police officer looks back one more time from the pack to the DæMon.

Ichythis: "And you can get these whenever?"

MamMon DæMon: "I will know when you’re close to being out, my dear Little Fish."

Peyton leans over to Bethany and whispers to her. The usually over lusty young woman seems very disturbed by him getting too close.

Peyton (whispers): "Why does she keep calling her ’Little Fish’?"

Bethany(annoyed): "I don’t know."

MamMon DæMon: "You see, and this is for everyone at this table, us DæMons have been through a lot and yes, most of it is from our own complacency. Especially when we were all so willing to kill our ’Wave Sisters’ for the attention and praise of our mothers at the time.

I’ve learned to cherish these moments with friendly souls when you can, because their are so many others that aren’t so friendly."

Away from the conversation, the light *pit-pats* of bare little feet slide through the door from.

Everyone except MamMon looks over at Petra rubbing her eyes, not noticing the fact ’Mizzuz MamMon’ is there, nor realizing her big sister’s new two toned golden SoulSeiõrShield.

Petra: "Stephy. Tritty, Auntie.

I’m thirsty."

Bethany pulls her seat out making it *skkkrt* across the hardwood floor and then circumvents around the table, walking by the blonde smirking Scandinavian witch.

Bethany: "Don’t worry, Hun! Let’s go get you some juice-"

Tristan: "Water!"

Bethany: "Water, then I’ll bring you back to bed okay?"

She escorts the tired, thirsty, little girl out of the dining room leaving the adults to continue their conversation.

Tristan takes a deep breath and sits back down.

Tristan: "Please, Madame MamMon, why does Stephanie have a golden base to her SoulSeiõrShield?

Why does she have a different demeanor to her?"

Without removing it, MamMon takes a puff with her eyes closed and opens them to answer.

MamMon DæMon: "Remember when I was explaining the Æther, how I said, ’whenever an advanced enough Seiõr user can ferment enough PsychoSeiõr to access a Mindscape, the Aether immediately becomes the Æther’? Well that’s why our dear Stephanie here has just become such a new important piece to our team."

Tristan: "No!

Stephanie is not allowed anywhere near real danger!"

The topic of discussion chimes in behind him.

Stephanie: "Tritty..."

Tristan turns to his promised wife to be and their eyes lock. The eyes of the young man in love tear up looking at the one young woman he’s been around since they were kids. Both his eyes drop their respective forms of tears as she gives her word.

Stephanie: "Tritty, when we both experienced how much joy Shelly brought Katsu on that first day of combat training, from her brute strength alone, I won’t lie, I got jealous of her.

Not of his love for her, because trust me, I receive more love than I know what to do with from both you and the girls."

Fidgeting in her seat from the rush of energy, and now properly paired with her usual timidness, the two tone SoulSeiõrShield vanishes as the woman of the house continues.

Stephanie: "I-I was jealous of her strength. I wanted to be able...

I wanted the same ability she has.

I wanted to be able to step up to any challenge for the man I clearly love."

Tristan: "Steph..."

MamMon listens to the scene of true love play itself out while puffing on her cig, as well as the other two women smoking from their gifted packs. Taking one last looooooong drag that turns more than half the extra long cigarette into ash.

It makes the other two drop their individual smokes in amazement.

MamMon DæMon: *exhales* Besides, who said anything about her being in danger?

You might not be a 2nd Generation, but with this discovery, along with Persephone and the ’prize’ of our Holmgang in a couple days, I could have 3 sources of PsychoSeiõr and someone else other than myself with a SanguineSoulSeiõrShield."

...

...

...[Back at Tomodachi Town/Sanpaku]

As everyone is entering one by on into one of Daisuki’s portals back home, the last two in line are Shelly being held up by Katsu.

Suddenly...

Shelly: *ACHoo*

Katsu: "Bless Ya! Haha, what’s wrong..."

He tries to to hold back a laugh but before Saku enters through, behind him he hears...

Katsu: "...Did Shell not sell sea shells by the sea shore?

Hahaha"

Shelly humors him with an in pain giggle to his most corny joke ever.

Shelly: "Please Katsu, no more alliteration for a while. Please?"

Saku rolls his eyes.

Saku: "Freakin’ nerd."