Chapter 688: In Bloom

Nerissa turned to the voice that cried that out and opened her arms for the torpedo. Nerissa tilted back slightly at the sheer impact before hugging her sister. “Rhapso, I have missed you. Have you been well?

The fellow Nature Nymph nodded her head as she proceeded to pick Nerissa up and spin her around as everyone else closed in. They were all delighted to see their sister back. Her wild antics were deeply missed in her absence.

She was suddenly bombarded with questions, too many to answer in a short amount of time, but one question, loud and authoritative, broke through. “Nerissa, what ails you?”

The room turned silent and turned to the male Nymph that spoke. His body was lustrously gold, with short golden hair and a body built by the gods, literally. He walked over in his toga, his authority silencing the excitement before stopping directly in front of Nerissa. “Did you not hear me sister? I asked what is wrong with you?”

Nerissa feigned ignorance and got straight to the point. “I am not fully back, my intrigue has not been sated yet, I am here to report an incident at the college that involved the summoning of powerful Psionic entities.”

Murmurs began around the room as she said this. Some were dissatisfied she wasn’t staying long, others were talking about human hubris and others were getting ready for a quick purge.

One didn’t take the missdirect however, and continued. “Your Aura is off Nerissa. Tell us what is wrong. I am worried about you.”

After the group heard that and looked at Nerissa, they then all did realise. Something was different about Nerissa. She felt… Out of season?

Nerissa looked at the leader of the group and replied. “Thespius, I am fine. Can we just-”

“-Take off your helmet.” Thespius interrupted. “You are home sister. It makes no sense to keep your visage hidden. Take off your helmet, your armour, let us see you before you leave again.”

Nerissa sighed, she knew this was going to cause a kerfuffle. ’I just want to get back to Apollo before he… I don’t know? Blows up the moon in a series of hysterical and intriguing phenomena.’

The thought made her laugh, because for some reason, she felt like it was somehow microscopically plausible and she needed to be there to see it!

Still, she sighed, there was no use hiding it, here came the kerfuffle.

Opening up her armour and stepping out of it, a series of gaps emerged from her kin as a large pile of leaves left the armour with her. Not only that however. But her skin was spiralling with colours not of her usual green. Blue, Purple, Red, Orange, Brown, and yellow covering her body all over like a cascading tattoo. Her hair also shared this pattern with only flecks of green showing through the cacophony. She then spoke up, saying what everyone was thinking.

“I am blooming. I wanted to keep it quiet to protect my friend, but I guess nothing gets past you, does it Thespius?”

The golden Nymph walked forward and took Nerissa’s arm into his hands for closer inspection. “By Zeus… You really are in bloom. How is that possible?

Nerissa wasn’t surprised by the stunned silence in the room, she was naturally very shocked when she realised she started blooming. No one had bloomed since the gods walked amongst them after all.

However, she had no reason to lie to her kin and spoke honestly. “I am speculating it has something to do with the side effect of my blessing to Archon Apollo and the satisfaction of my feelings recently being at extremely elevated levels. Other than that, I have no idea how I am blooming.

“Has your power increased Nerissa?” Phoebe asked, the one whom she had most recently seen.

“Well, as you can tell from all the leaves I have shed, yes I have had a steady growth in strength. Psionic energy is pouring into my being like a moth to a flame. By my calculations I am 2% stronger than I was after a week and I have not slowed down yet.”

That news was staggering to the Nymphs present causing a storm of emotions and elevated conversation between everyone. Nymphs didn’t get stronger over time the way a mortal would by training. They were unique beings, created by raw Psionic might made manifest.

One of the very few ways a Nymph could get stronger was through blooming, but the phenomenon was so rare that some of the younger Nymphs present had never actually seen a bloom in progress before. Hence the madness currently claiming the barracks.

Speculation began to choir out through the crowd on how this could have occurred, different to what Nerissa had guessed. Some were outlandish, some were a bit crass, but one, spoken by Rhapso, was so heinous that it silenced everyone as she spoke it.

“What if this male Apollo is our goddess reborn?”

Everyone turned to her in shock. Another nature Nymph made of Apollo’s Psionic energy then shouted at the top of her lungs.

“Heresy!”

Others also joined on that bandwagon and began pelting Rhapso with slander at her words before Thespius yelled with Psionic amplification.

“Enough!”

Everyone turned silent as the leader looked over the crowd. “Yes, what Rhapso just said was… A very bold statement for sure, but it was worth saying. After all, we know that some of the gods are still out there in some form. We know Artemis is doing her own thing in her broken state. So is Thanatos. We have speculation about the Athenians holding some sort of secret and we also are worried about the traitor returning one day. Look, we all know what happened during the incident. Our entire civilization was thrown into chaos in a moment, but we also know our gods were capable of insurmountable things. Tell me, could reincarnation actually be possible for them? Just think it over before giving your sister such hateful looks.”

The Nymphs thought this over for a moment. Most were still very aggrieved by the heretical claim, but others could see Rhapso’s train of thought. While they were mulling this over, Thespius turned to Nerissa and asked. “What do you think Nerissa? Is it a possibility?”

The multicoloured nymph let out a soft giggle hearing that before shaking her head. “No, no I don’t think he is. Apollo is quite something, but not my goddess reincarnated. Though if you want, I can ask him the question? He is a very open book, I am sure he will find the question amusing.”

After Nerissa said this a bunch of blue leaves suddenly sprouted from her hair before falling down, prompting a wave of awe from the younger Nymphs. Nerissa wasn’t particularly enjoying being a novelty and swiftly got back into her armour after it happened before speaking once more.

“Well, now that is out of the way. Shall I get to the reason I actually came back? Or do you have more questions about my bloom? Show of hands, who still has questions?” She said, immediately regretting it as a good number of her kin raised their hands.

She loved them all dearly, but they were interfering with her getting back to Apollo faster, but she asked who had questions, she would answer any questions they now had.

…

King Dickon was doing work in his study with his staff when the door opened, he looked up, disinterested, before going back to his work. He then snapped back upon realising who it was and smiled nervously, but also glad to see her.

“Elaine? Are you well? Do you wish to join us?”

His wife didn’t speak, but waved him to come outside before leaving the room. Dickon looked around to his staff before standing up. “Excuse me a moment chaps, the boss wants a quick word.” He said, getting a few chuckles from the table.

After leaving the room and seeing his wife standing there, he immediately said. “You look lovely today. Have you done something different with your hair?”

Elaine didn’t respond to the compliment and got to the point. “The Praetorian Nerissa has returned.”

Dickon frowned in confusion, not sure why Elaine brought this to her attention. “Oh yes. I remember her Purple accents in her armour? Where did she go again? Didn’t she-!!!”

His eyes widened in realisation before smiling. “Very good. I will issue a royal summon. Thank you darling.” He went to hug his wife, but she stepped away.

“I will be in the throne room waiting… Make sure you are eating Dickon, your face looks a bit gaunt.”

Dickon then watched as his wife walked away and smiled. Whatever he did to upset her the way he did. She still cared for him, that was good. It meant he could fix his mistake. For now though, he had to set up an interrogation in a way that seemed like casual chit chat or the interrogation target would just leave.

…

Five minutes later a man stuck his head out of the door into the hallway. “My King?” He asked, confused before realising he was gone.

“Huh, must have been a booty call. Lucky, lucky man…”

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