White box

Mythical powers

The source of that oppressing and god-like presence was her little brother, whose nose was being wiped by Bill.

"Marcus-- the hell happened to you?" Stephanie asked, not even noticing she had used 'Marcus' not 'Tim' to name him. Marcus's expression also wasn't good, although Bill seemed not to mind.

"You feel like a god," she put it in words, but as she said it, she also felt perhaps only seeing side people felt it, as Bill had just picked a wet wipe to clean what had left-- Looked like Marcus had gotten a nosebleed.

Bill had a wry smile on his face as he said: "People have been noticing for six days already, but it is true that it wasn't this obvious."

Stephanie caught on a door frame. Heck?? Wasn't he a normie?

Marcus's eyes, too, opened wide in disbelief, not looking better than her expression, which meant that-- Marcus had not seen this coming at all.

Bill pulled Marcus into a hug, seeming confused, but also sort of worried about Marcus. "You became Tharurun six days ago, right? You climbed in my bed while I was sleeping, but when I snapped awake, I felt like I was in a temple."

Uh-- why had Marcus went to climb in Bill's bed just after becoming a god? It was true that Stephanie felt like something was a bit-- different about Marcus on the days when she saw him these past six days, but it was just slight oddness, it wasn't-- anything obvious. Just who or what was Bill?

"Why didn't you say something?" Marcus mumbled against Bill's shirt. Since the apartment was otherwise silent, Stephanie heard those words.

"I'm more surprised about you two not-- noticing," Bill said, looking over at Stephanie as well. "You use magic all the time."

There was a silence, then Stephanie asked: "Bill, are you a seeing side person?" While, yeah, it would explain a lot, it also felt odd how Marcus hadn't known at all.

Bill thought a bit; then, a recognition passed his eyes. "I only started seeing those fuzzballs just now. I looked them up, and net said they are Dustbuns and that I should call Guild for a free anonymous consultation."

Uh-- ok. That made Stephanie recall a conversation she had with Carl recently.

--

"For what reason do normies become seeing side people?" Stephanie asked as she was grinding some pan horns into a rough powder.

"Do you mean true normies or dormant types like yourself?" Carl asked.

"Both," Stephanie said.

"Well, for dormant types, it takes just one experience of significant magic use," Carl said. "Someone attempting to charm them a bit can do the trick, a god casting a blessing on them at a temple might do it, them getting wounded and someone pouring healing potion on them can do as well."

Hm. Well, that means it was likely someone else could have done it for her other than Marcus, not that Stephanie was complaining.

"For true normies, though," Carl said. "There are many ways how normies can quit being normies - such as turning undead, slipping into another dimension, being possessed, powerful curses or blessings, and also - being screwed a lot by astral types who give away aether rather than taking it. That's actually how witches came about - priestesses who bore children of powerful astrals."

To avoid any misunderstandings, Carl added. "It doesn't happen to male priests for female goddesses, but I think there was a case of a male priest under a male god if you get the drift."

--

Stephanie had gotten the drift and - there were some things you were better off not knowing because Marcus had-- well-- her eyes squinted. He was totally at fault here.