Marie was actually glad to go to school again. After over two weeks of isolation it made her feel like her life had regained a sense of normalcy. A lot of people wanted to talk to her and Callie had to run interference for her more than once, but Marie wasn't as bothered as she might have been. The mere fact they were willing to approach her was a welcome sign. But some things were different than she remembered.

Others now invited Callie to join them in their games, whether in the playground or on the game field. Marie spent first recess being dragged into a soccer game Callie insisted they join. They didn't win in the end but it was surreal experience. Marie went back to class feeling like she'd been dreaming.

At lunch recess, Marie went outside with her book as customary and sat under the tree with Raven. They said nothing and did nothing but read and draw respectively, but it was one of the most enjoyable lunch recesses Marie could remember having because at no point did anyone try to mess with them nor did she have to worry about it. And at the same time, Callie, Tandi, and Floa played don't-touch-the-ground tag with the other kids in the playground.

After school, the five friends returned to the park and began making a miniature town in the sandbox.

"Feels like everything's okay now," Tandi commented. "none of us have to worry about bullying anymore."

"Not from those three, anyways," Floa said. "But there are bullies everywhere. One thing I learned from this mess is that even grownups can get bullied."

Mantles flashed green. It had been an eye-opening lesson for all of them.

"At least there won't be any bullies around here anymore," Callie pointed out, ever looking at the silver lining. "Mom said she's going to get together with all the other parents and make sure that doesn't happen ever again. Then, nobody will have to worry about getting bullied."

Marie hummed and packed the side of the mound that would be their town hall.

"Marie?" Marie lifted her head and met Callie's concerned look. "You're not talking much today."

Marie flashed grey. "It's just… it fees weird. I feel like I'm still dreaming and I'm going to wake up for the first day of school again."

Floa shuddered and glanced away. Marie frowned at that but decided not to pry, remembering that Floa had been having bad dreams lately. She had probably been remembering something. Marie hadn't had the best dreams since the incident in the caverns either.

Knowing that beast was still inside her, knowing it could break loose any time she lost control and hurt or kill someone, haunted her at night.

"You still working on something for the talent show?" Tandi asked Callie.

Callie grimaced. "Yeah… I've sorta been uh… stuck. It's hard."

Marie smiled. "Well, now that I'm better and I can leave the house again, I can go back to being your manager and help you get back on track."

Callie's head sunk between her shoulders, ripples of shame travelling through her mantle. Marie's eyes narrowed.

"You haven't been practising."

Callie gulped. "I've been practising… a few times. I've been busy."

Marie crossed her arms, mantle turning purple and blue ripples of doubt passing along its surface. "Doing what?"

Callie leaned away. "You know… stuff. Thinking about my costume and some of the poses I'll make–."

"Nobody's going to care about that if you don't perform, Callie! You're the one who wanted to dance so why don't you want to do it?"

Callie groaned. "But it's so boring, doing the same thing over and over and over again."

"That's what learning choreography is! It's learning all the movements until you can do the whole sequence right! That's what makes it impressive. It takes work but it shouldn't be difficult for you." She sighed. "I guess I'll just have to do it with you."

Callie's looked at her with big, bright eyes. "What?"

Marie's face flushed but she didn't avert her gaze, meeting Callie's eyes. "I'm going to do the whole thing with you so you don't mess up your first chance to stand out and maybe get scouted."

Callie's eyes lit up, smiling, and she gave Marie a big hug. "This is gonna' be great! I knew it would be better doing it together!"

Marie suppressed a groan. "Yeah yeah, don't get all worked up. I'm only doing this as your manager."

"Excuses," Tandi sang. Callie agreed.

"Marie, you're fired."

Marie jerked as if slapped, eyes wide. "What?"

"I said you're fired. I don't want you as my manager anymore."

Marie felt like a knife had been driven into her gut, leaving a wound that was slowly and painfully bleeding out. Being Callie's manager had given her a sense of purpose and worth when she'd had none. She had always thought that even if she couldn't reach great heights herself, she might attain something great if she could help Callie reach stardom. Would Callie take that away from her just like that?

"C-Callie, but… but…"

"No buts," Callie insisted, then she grinned. "Now you don't have any excuses. Now you have to perform with me. We'll get a manager together."

Marie's emotions suddenly did a sudden about turn, going from anguish to anxiety.

"What? But… but…"

"You have to do it," Callie repeated. "No butts. I'm not doing it without you and you'll feel super bad if I don't, so you have to do it."

Marie whined and buried her face in her hands, the coarse grains of sand still stuck to her palms and fingers aggravating her skin.

Raven observed. "You got suckered."

Marie just groaned again while Callie giggled, smiling with triumph.

Floa sighed. "Are you sure you two aren't sisters?"

When it was time to go home, they bid goodbye to their friends and Callie and Marie started on their way back. As they neared, they saw someone familiar sitting on the grass in Marie's back yard.

"Gramps!" The two girls ran across the grass and hugged the old squid from both sides. He laughed with an exaggerated breathlessness.

"Easy there, kids. Gramps isn't as sturdy as he used to be."

Callie giggled. "Thanks again for visiting me in the hospital, Gramps."

He patted her on the head. "Sure thing, sugar beet. Proud of you for holding up so well. I wish I could have come here sooner but I had to clean up the government's messes again. Every time I try to drop out they drag me back in."

He looked at Marie and gave her cheek a playful pinch. "And how are you doing? I heard you solved your bully problem."

Marie's eyes darkened. "Gramps… I almost killed people. That's bad."

Gramps shook his head. "It's a bad thing to have to do and you shouldn't have done it in this case but sometimes it's what's necessary. If your grandmother and I didn't kill then we'd be ruled by Octarians, if your mother didn't kill, then you wouldn't have your aunt Mora or Callie."

Marie bit her lip. "I heard about it from one of my friends but I know Mother doesn't want to talk about it."

Gramps nodded. "It wasn't an easy thing for her to deal with. She saved someone's life but it cost her her job and she nearly went to prison –would have if they hadn't been able to prove those crabs were bent on murder. Not all that different from your situation, except it wasn't what it seemed."

Marie flashed green. "I didn't know what else to do. Maybe I could have run but… but I think I was just tired of running away."

"You were fed up," Gramps agreed. "Everyone has their breaking point, Marie, it's normal, you just don't see it very often in peacetime because you usually have other ways of solving the issue before you get to that point."

"We thought we had," Marie mumbled.

"No," Gramps corrected. "The problem was sent away for a while, it wasn't solved. I don't know enough of the details to tell you what the real problem was but I know it could have been handled a whole lot better. You had to rely on someone else to solve your problems. Way too many people do that these days. It was different before the war; everyone worked together." He sighed sadly. "Calamari County just isn't like it used to be."

Callie touched the short lengths of her tentacles. They had almost regrown their clubs now, but looked like a pair of floppy ears on the side of her head.

"Gramps, were we the problem? Every time something happened, it was because of something we did. Maybe we did something to make them start bullying us in the first place."

Gramps let out an ugly snort. "Of course not. Callie, you're a sweet girl but there is such a thing as being too nice."

Callie frowned. "There is?"

"Do you think those singers and idols you look up to so much didn't step on toes to get where they are? It's a rough, industry and sometimes you have to fight your way to the top. People get their feelings hurt when that happens. They'll be envious of you because you get further than they do, or your more popular, wealthier, whatever. Your mother went through the same thing. You think people weren't bitter and envious towards her for being so pretty and popular?"

Callie had the look of someone who had just spilled their dessert. She had always believed singing and performing was all about making other people happy. The idea she might make some people sad or have to crush people's dreams to attain her own dream of stardom was a shock to her.

Marie reached across and grabbed her hand. "Callie, you're the one who always believed in doing your best. You were never sorry about it before you shouldn't be sorry now. It's not your fault if other people are upset because you tried your hardest."

"That's right," Gramps agreed. "If you don't try your best, you'll have regrets later and you'll let people you care about down. That's a lot worse. Remember that envy is a selfish feeling, and people always envy other people that seem special."

Callie perked up. "You think we're special?"

Gramps laughed. "Of course you are. You girls are both very talented and the things that people bullied you for here will help you stand out when you get into show business or whatever you decide to do."

"But I don't like standing out," Marie protested. "That's what got us bullied in the first place."

Gramps patted her head. "I know you probably wished you'd hatched normal, Marie, but you didn't so you're just going to have to deal with it. The best way to deal with being different is to own it, embrace it. If you can't avoid standing out then be exceptional and turn that weakness into a strength."

Marie stared. "Be… exceptional?"

"Of course. Don't hold back. Be the best you that you can be. I might not like Reina, but she's still a matriarch and she didn't become one by trying to be like everyone else. The world needs people that stand out."

Marie nodded. "Because if you didn't stand out, you never would have been the hero of Arrowana Castle."

He nodded smiling. "Now you're gettin' it. And your mother would never have become the best Enforcer the National Security Force ever had." He looked at Callie, "And your Dad wouldn't have become an archaeologist."

Callie tilted her head, curious. "Then how do we stand out in a way that helps other people?"

"Learn things, new skills, develop new talents. The more you learn the smarter and better you'll be, and you'll be able to avoid problems like the ones you just had."

Callie made a face and groaned. "Ugh, but learning's so boring."

Gramps laughed. "Then find something fun to learn. I hear Marie's going to start learning how to fight from her mom, why don't you take the lessons together? And, if you want, I can teach you a secret code language."

Callie's eyes lit up. "A secret code language?"

"Sure, I know how girls love sharing secrets. It's a lot easier when nobody can eavesdrop and understand what you're saying."

Callie giggled. "That does sound like fun."

"I figured you'd think so. Now, you better get home. Your mom's probably wondering where you are by now."

Callie pulsed blue. "Okay." She gave him a hug. "See you later, Gramps."

When she was gone, Marie asked him, "Are you sure what I did was okay, Gramps?"

"I never said it was okay, just understandable. I saw a lot of people do what you did during the war. It's not something you have to worry about repeating anytime you might lose your cool a little. It's a natural survival instinct. I understand it so I'm not afraid of it. You shouldn't be either."

Marie acknowledged him but she also kept in mind that he hadn't been there and might not understand exactly what happened. Marie knew she wasn't normal, knew that there was something different about her, and she had a feeling that applied to Callie too. They shared too many abnormalities between them for it to be coincidence. Would Callie have snapped too if she hadn't fallen unconscious?

"Marie," her mother called. "Get in here and put your school things away. Dinner will be ready soon."

"Coming, Mother!"

"And Dad, you get in here too before you catch a cold."

Gramps grunted. "Always so bossy. Never respected me as her father." Marie declined to comment and helped him to his feet.

"If you need a motivation to get rich and famous, Marie," he said as they headed to the house, "do it so you can look after your father when he's older."

Marie asked. "Is that part of being 'exceptional'?"

He laughed and patted her on the back. "It most certainly is."

Floa had never travelled to the city by herself before. She felt grown up as she sat alone in the train car waiting for the right stop. Around her, nobody else seemed bothered by the fact that an eight-year-old was travelling alone. This only confirmed her suspicion that people in the country coddled their kids too much.

When she reached her final stop, she disembarked and found Priestess Winterveil waiting for her just off the platform. Floa ran up and hugged her as if she were a relative.

"Nice to see you again too, Floa. Brave of you to come all by yourself."

Floa huffed. "After what I've been through, that's nothing."

"I suppose not. Hold on to that courage."

Winterveil escorted her to a waiting taxi that drove them to the city's edge where a huge stone building sat along the coast, bigger than the Temple of Knowledge and Temple of Retribution campuses combined. Despite how far away it was from the city's core, it was bustling with people, more people than she'd seen since moving to Calamari County.

"That's where we're going?"

"That's right," the priestess answered. "That's the Vasilika, the highest temple in the Ecclesiarchy. Think of it as like the head office."

The taxi dropped them off at one of the side entrances, which Floa guessed was forbidden for members of the public. The halls inside were polished and shining, the ceilings several stories above her head. Clerics filled the hall, carrying papers or just moving purposefully from one room to the next. Floa had been to malls that were less hectic.

"It's really busy in 'ere."

"It is like that sometimes. There is a lot of keep track of and organize so it keeps a lot of people busy."

They turned left down an adjacent corridor then took a right. Although these corridors were no less grand they were considerably less busy. Floa saw only a handful of people before they reached their destination.

Two enormous statues guarded either side of a stone archway. Both wore hooded cloaks, their faces hidden. One carried an old weighing scale in an outstretched hand. The other held an enormous knife in two hands in front of it, pointed towards the floor. Floa had never felt intimidated by stone before.

Beyond the archway, on the other side of the small antechamber, a set of huge doors made of large, dark timbres loomed ahead of them, flanked by a hallar on each side, one of them was male. It was the first male hallar Floa had seen.

Well-padded seats lined either side of the antechamber. Floa found the chairs very comfortable but her anxiety was starting to overcome her excitement at all of these new experiences.

"Why did we have to come here? Why didn't we go to the Temple of Revelation?"

Winterveil smiled. "Because everyone you would need to talk to there are here, as is everyone else who wants to talk to you about your dreams."

Floa frowned. "Everyone else? I thought –." The large doors opened inward, but their massive iron hinges didn't even squeak. She couldn't see what had opened the doors either. Inside, all she saw was light, yet it didn't hurt her eyes at all to look.

Winterveil stood and Floa followed her lead, taking her hand again and following her into the light. At some point, the doors behind them closed. She looked behind her but the doors seemed to have vanished and she couldn't detect any walls, just more light and a powerful energy.

Floa's hand tightened around Winterveil's fingers.

"Don't be afraid," she whispered. "What you are seeing is something few even in the Ecclesiarchy ever see."

Floa relaxed somewhat, distracted by the fact that what she was experiencing was a rare privilege, whatever it was. But she had barely begun to contemplate that when several figures appeared almost from nowhere.

She immediately recognized the Arch-Sehr and High-Priestess Sivalli, but there was someone else dressed in a more fancy version of the green and blue robes that Winterveil wore. Last of all, and most starkly of all in the seemingly infinite white room, was the only seated figure.

Wrapped in a hooded cloak of the deepest black, they seemed to suck in all the light around them. Glowing blue eyes peered out beneath the hood and Floa felt their gaze on her. Her knees almost turned to liqud beneath her but she managed to remain upright just long enough for Winterveil to kneel.

"Archon, it is a truly blessed day. I am honoured to meet you."

Floa didn't so much kneel as collapse into the appropriate position. That dark, hooded figure was the Archon? The head of the Ecclesiarchy!

The Archon was the speaker of the gods, their voice in the mortal world. She was the authority on all things divine and answered to no one on Earth. Even the Monarch was not above her.

Floa heard a soft chuckle. "No need to fear, child. This is a joyous day." The Archon's voice sounded old yet it had the strength and vigour of someone in their youth, and it seemed to come from everywhere around her at once.

"We are about to learn part of the truth of your dreams and why you had them. You see, everyone else in this room has also had a dream, all links in a chain leading towards some divine revelation."

Floa dared not look up, but she did feel some of the fear and tension leave her, replaced with anticipation.

There was a rustling of fabric as the Archon stood and Priestess Winterveil coaxed Floa to her feet.

"Come," said the Archon. "Let us change to a more appropriate venue."

A portal opened and Floa realized it was the doors they had entered through. She could see the antechamber and the hallway beyond. How had they hidden it so well?

Their party moved slowly but purposefully down the widest corridor Floa had yet seen in the Vasilika. After they passed through a set of open doors; however, the environment changed.

The stone seemed colder and dirtier. Older maybe. It was darker too, with hardly any lights, and all the fixtures, furniture and decorations looked antique. Had they stepped into some kind of ancient temple?

The Archon seemed to read her mind. "This is the palace of Queen Immelina. She bequeathed it to the Ecclesiarchy after her passing and it became the Vasilika until we created the new section that better suited our needs. For now, the palace is usually used for storage and housing for some of our acolytes and clerks."

They came to a huge set of bronze doors which parted before the Archon as if they could not stand to be in her way. They entered a huge hall, lit from above by lights in a raised section of the ceiling and through the dirty windows on either side, at least the ones that weren't boarded up.

The room was filled with crates, storage boxes and other items covered in old tarps and blankets. They followed the Archon down the centre of the room until they came up to what was obviously the room's centrepiece.

A huge chair, which Floa guessed was the throne if they were in a palace, sat ahead of them, only slightly raised above the floor and covered by large, dusty sheets.

Their party stopped and the Archon turned to face Floa, gesturing. "Now, child, who do you see sitting on that throne."

Floa frowned and looked closely at it. The throne was so big that she couldn't even reach the armrests. The way the blanket was draped also seemed to indicate that nobody was sitting on it.

"I don't see anything."

The Archon hummed. "Perhaps this will help." She made nothing so much as a gesture, yet the sheets covering the throne began to slide and collect in puddles on the floor, revealing a gleaming silver throne, shaped by the wind and decorated with gleaming stars.

Floa's breath was taken away as she gazed up at it with whole new eyes, and then she saw it… saw her. The giant adult Marie from her dreams sat on the throne, not feral like she had been there, but calm and collected; regal and dignified. She held a large silver hoop with three keyes of gold, iron, and crystal. She was dressed in a stunning silver gown and she wore a crown of gold studded with gems as impressive as the ones in the throne itself. She could see it as clearly as if she were really there, yet she also knew she wasn't.

Floa began to feel woozy and started to sway. Winterveil held her steady. "Easy, Floa."

Floa shook her head, and the image vanished from her sight, yet she couldn't forget it. It was seared into her mind now.

"What did you see?" The Archon asked.

Floa swallowed. "I saw… Marie, but grown up. She was… queen, I think. I'm not sure. She had the crown, the dress, she was all grown up." She scratched her head, trying to think.

"That's enough." The Archon placed a gloved hand on Floa's head and Floa felt the lingering wooziness vanish instantly. "You have done well, child. Now, the meanings of the other dreams have become much more clear. Yours will become more clear with time but now we at least know what we have to do."

Floa didn't understand. Do? Do what? What did they have to do? She was going to have more dreams? Why? And how was Marie supposed to become a queen?

"Do you wish to join the Ecclesiarchy, child?" The Archon asked. "Do you desire to become a sehr, a priestess?"

Floa nodded without thinking. She had already thought about it a lot ever since the incident in the caverns. She had seen what a difference people like Sivalli and Witnerveil could make and she desired to make that kind of a difference herself.

"Then it shall be. Once you are old enough, you will begin your formal training. We will be glad and blessed to have you."

Floa felt a huge sense of relief and accomplishment. She had been accepted, and by the word of the Archon no less. There was no better guarantee. Of course, that meant the pressure would be on her to perform too, and she had no idea what to expect or how to start.

The Archon reached into her cloak and pulled out a thick book, handing it to her. "These are the Founding Principles. These are the things everyone in the Ecclesiarchy must know and every other person should know as well."

The book was heavy, its pages lined with gold leaf. She flipped through a few of those pages and paled at the sheer number of words, in small print and no pictures.

The Archon chuckled and patted her head. "Worry not, child. You will learn it all in time. For now I recommend you convince your parents to attend congregations and do so regularly."

Floa suppressed a grimace. She'd always found congregations boring and her family had attended them only on special occasions. Now, such things were to be a part of her life.

"In the meantime, while everyone else gets busy, why don't I give you a tour of the palace. You will need to become intimately familiar with it in the future."

Floa frowned and walked with the Archon and Priestess Winterveil, leaving the others behind as they began some kind of quiet discussion. "Why?"

The Archon leaned in and Floa could see a smile peek out from under the hood. No, not just a smile, her whole face. The face was not one of an old inkyora like it should have been, but of a young and vibrant young inkyora no older than her twenties, but her eyes were those of someone who had seen more than a century of life.

The sight was fleeting, and the darkness seemed to cover her face again as if through an invisible veil. The Archon said, "you will see."

Marie trembled slightly, pawing at her dark robes with white lily flowers. They were the ones she usually wore when fan dancing with her mother. Now, she was about to show them to the entire town. Next to her, Callie wore a similar set of robes, but magenta and covered with white polka-dots.

Ahead of them, the previous talent-show act was ongoing, someone playing guitar, though they were missing every fifth note or so, but their competition was the last thing on her mind.

Callie put a hand on her arm. "Don't be nervous; we'll be fine."

Marie forced the trembling to stop and let out a deep sigh to try and relax herself. "I don't think I'll ever be comfortable with being the centre of attention or in the spotlight."

Callie giggled. "But if we're the centre of attention together, then you're only half of it, right?"

Marie smirked. Callie's logic was odd at times but her sentiments were always sweet. She had done a lot to help her heal in the month since her hearing.

"I still think I would have been just as happy to be supporting you, but as long as I can watch you shine I think I'm okay with that. At least this way I can watch it up close."

Callie shook her head. "If you promise that you'll try your best then I think you won't have any trouble shining either. I bet you'll even end up liking performing as much as me."

Marie doubted that, especially as the other performance ended and the audience clapped. They were up next.

Callie held her hand. "Just relax. Once we start the routine you'll forget all about the audience."

"But we're not supposed to forget about the audience," Marie argued. "You've always said that performing is about bringing joy to other people."

Callie's smile broadened as if proud of her. "You're right. Then think about them wanting you to do your best to. Nobody wants to come to a talent show and see someone bomb on stage, so they're cheering for you too."

Marie remarked. "A few months ago, that might be what they would have wanted."

Callie smirked. "We still would have shined anyway and we'll show them tonight."

Marie smiled and gripped Callie's hand tighter as the announcer began to introduce them.

"You may be right," she whispered. "But I have a feeling I'm always going to be in your shadow, Callie, that's just how bright you are."

Author's Notes:

The story's not over yet. Stay tuned next week for the epilogue!

So now you see how Floa would become a priestess. I know it was probably hard to imagine at the start that our rough and ready girl would become a wise and gentle young acolyte and then priestess, but there you go. And you see the start of the Ecclesiarchy making their preparations.

Also, a hint to the rise of the Squid Sisters as a musical duo. It's not quite the festival that made them famous but it's a start.

Hope you enjoy the final chapter next week. See you then.