Who can resist tea?

I nearly jumped as a woman touched my shoulder. “Agala, of the past,” she said.

A second woman walked next to me. “Lilium, is the present.”

The third touched the top of my head. She was rather tall. “Drewchel, shall be the future.”

The three that were one. The one that were three. From what I gathered, calling them mere gods may have been an insult. Agala began pouring tea in a cup in front of me. With Lilium adding honey and Drewchel adding Marianne’s milk.

“You will drink,” Drewchel said.

I felt such pressure from the three and It was clear what the aim here was. Poison. Or rather, was I confident enough to drink my own brew. How could I ask a god to drink something I was scared to. I took a deep breath and took a sip. The taste was even better than when Rosemary had made me some.

“Rosemary will forget the honey,” Drewchel said.

“Huh? Wait, she is going to serve me tea again, but or did you mean-”

“You were focusing on the wrong details,” Agala said.

“We are aware of everything you ask,” Lilium said. “And you need your strength.”

They sat down and began sipping their tea. I did the same. They said I needed my strength, and who was I to argue with a god. When I had finished I looked at them.

“I want,” I paused, obviously I wanted Master back, but I felt that was not something they could grant.

“You miss him, but you miss him no longer if you handle your work,” Lilium said.

“Wait, Master. You can-”

“No,” Agala said. “It was not up to us. But rather it depended on you.”

Depended on? She made it sound like I already did.

“Your Master will be presented with a chance to reach for everything he could ever want, and he will fail and you will miss him,” Drewnchel said.

But, wait future? Okay, so their speech is all clunky. Got it.

“We give you the same challenge we give him. With the same prize available,” Lilium said. “The rules are simple. Each ribbon is a universe. The things you want the most are in some of them. If you find the one, then you take it.”

“Brace yourself, this was not pleasant,” Agala said.

My head felt like it was going to explode suddenly. Wait I felt like I was falling. Falling through spiderwebs. It was gross and overwhelming all at once. I reached out and touched one and wait! No, I was crying over Master’s **** in that one. These are ribbons? They are like single threads of silk.

So thin that even thirty bunched together was hard to see. There must be millions. No, Trillions was too small a number.

I grabbed some to stop my fall and thoughts poured into me. Pain! Sorrow. Joy? Wait what was, no it was gone. This was insanity. How could anyone understand anything in here.

“I can,” Rosemary said. What, oh. No, it was coming from a thread. I pinched that one between my fingers. “Hello Celeste.”

“Rosemary, how can you be speaking to me?” I asked.

“I am not. You are not even in this universe, just with the sisters I can see so much beyond my eyes. And right now, the sisters are showing you what I see.”

“The web? You can’t be-”

A wind blew and my mind was overwhelmed as I fell, more threads touching me and so much data that my head felt like it was going to explode.

“Grab on now!” Master shouted.

I locked my hands onto the silk as it burned my hands. Where. Wait. I am already holding it.

“My little maid. No, don’t ask that, you have a better question, don’t you?” he asked.

This was so eerie! I wanted to ask if he would accept me but I felt a sense of knowledge he couldn’t. Which meant I would be wasting time. I took a deep breath. “Where should I go?”

“Where you belong,” he said and another wind blew me further away. Wait! No! I was losing access to all the spider webs!

I grasped and grabbed one. It was shocking that I managed that. Oh this one was clear. Myself looking in the mirror. “No Celeste, not this one. I bet you to it. But I did it. It can be done. Get back in there and find what you need! Want you want! After all, I already did.”

Okay! I leaned my body back and jumped towards the webs!

The next thing I knew, I was opening my eyes in front of the three sisters. They were smiling. A single spider web was in my hand.

““Will she be happy with her choice?” Drewchel asked.

“It is up to her to decide,” Lilium asked.

Agala handed me a sheet of paper. “This was your choice, if you had enough faith for it was something you had to decide.”

“I wonder if you will like your choice, but with what we will do, we shall be done for now,” Drewchel said.

The three sisters were gone. Nothing but a letter to guide me.