"Alright, Leanne, are you ready to get up?" Ada asked Leanne's prone form in bed.

Leanne didn't answer right away. She sat up in bed rubbing her eyes and yawned. Ada was tempted to ask if humans on Urth naturally slept this long but decided that might be a little rude. Leanne had a rough day and unlike Ada's constitution, Leanne was still mortal. The girl shook her head and saw Ada. Instantly, her facial expression changed to that of shock.

"Goddess Ada, I am deeply regretful of my actions," Leanne bowed her head and said.

"What are you talking about? All you did was sleep until it's almost noon and then pretend my question wasn't important," Ada said trying to hide her smirk.

"Goddess Ada, I am very sorry for being negligent on my duties and ignoring you. Please punish me however you wish," the girl said as her face turned white.

Leanne was much too easy and fun to tease, Ada thought with wry amusement. She wondered if the other gods all expected their followers to have this level of ridiculous seriousness in interaction. There was no reason to think she was better than Leanne just because she had superhuman powers. If the other gods didn't respect the mortals, maybe this was another reason God put Ada here. "God damn you!" Ada thought as she shook her fist at God. This was all in her mind; she really didn't want to risk Leanne seeing her as half-crazy.

"Leanne, calm down. You have done nothing wrong. Sleeping is important and I respect that you are taking care of yourself. Also, getting yourself to an awake state can take time too," Ada brushed away her concerns. Then she added, "Honestly, I feel like I'm the one at fault for barging into your room without knocking."

"Goddess Ada, this is your palace," Leanne said.

"Yes, but this is your room. I gave it to you and you deserve privacy," Ada replied. "And please stop with the goddess title. One little nap and you're back to your old habits. I hope that doesn't stick around."

"God- Ada, I'm sorry," Leanne said.

"Alright, this is enough apologizing back and forth. We have important things to do today," Ada said. "I have already shown you the adjoining lavatory here so I'll let you get ready. The robes for you as my new seer are in that wardrobe over there. Choose whatever outfit you like. If they don't fit you, let me know so that I can make another one but I think you're fine. I made them originally based on my size and you're about the same size as me."

With these words, Ada walked out while Leanne arose from her bed.

"Soap yes. Water yes but running water no. Perfume yes. No toothbrush or toothpaste. No shampoo or conditioner. No deodorant. This world really sucks in hygiene. I am so glad I am not a mortal here," Ada muttered in the hallway to herself.

She wondered if there was a way to introduce some more hygiene to her cloud palace here. She wouldn't be bothered by the terrible body odors since she was a goddess but she wouldn't want all her followers to live in a floating pigsty. Also, there was the matter of disease. Many people in medieval times didn't live past the age of 30 due to early death from many disease and illnesses easily preventable with soap.

"Something to improve on would be soap that has antibacterial compounds. A trivial item but could be important. I won't always be around these mortals to heal them," Ada thought aloud. "In fact, soap here is more important than SOAP though Simple Object Access Protocol is important as well. I mean it allows language independent client-server interfaces using XML. That's important for sure though with the increasing usage of REST among developers, maybe SOAP is not as important as it could be. Hmm, this could be a terribly corny joke -- developers that decide to go with plenty of rest end up smelling worse due to not using soap."

The appearance of Leanne provided a welcome respite from the strange rabbit hole that Ada's mind was veering into. She was wearing a silver robe which reached to a little below her knee with a gradient colored logarithmic spiral embroidered on the front. The default design was a boring golden four-sided star which struck Ada as completely unworthy for anyone with any imagination to wear. She thought of explaining to Leanne the hidden beauty and meaning of the logarithmic spiral but decided to save that conversation for another day. Maybe she would give a talk on mathematics once she has more followers.

"Let's go to the dining room," Ada suggested. "Are you hungry?"

"Ada, if I may so, I'm extremely hungry," Leanne said. "I can eat a cow."

"Hmm, as I suspected, just resetting your stats doesn't mean that you obtained any new nutrients to survive. We're going to have to get you some real food or you might really starve to death," Ada said in seriousness.

Leanne didn't reply but Ada could feel that with the silence, there was something on her seer's mind. They walked the remaining dozen steps in silence. Once they have entered the dining room, which ironically had no food, they sat down opposite of each other. The girl still seemed deep in thought. Ada stared at Leanne with raised eyebrows.

"Ada, if I may ask you..." Leanne finally spoke up timidly.

"Yes?"

"Ada, I am unsure whether I should ask this but ..."

"Leanne, this is getting annoying. Please just say it."

"Ada, I have heard that the gods have divine food which they can conjure from the air. There have been myths of mortals who dined on such food and claimed that it was the most nourishing delicious meal they have ever tasted."

"Let me guess. You would like me to conjure up this divine food and satiate your hunger."

"Ada, no. That is just a thought in my head ..."

"Leanne, if I knew how to conjure up food, whether mortal or divine, I would have done it a while ago. But it seems that I cannot conjure up anything for you to eat," Ada sighed. "Do you even know what the food is called?"

Leanne shook her head.

"I really can't help you this way then," Ada sighed again. "But here's an ocean beneath us. Do you eat fish?"

"Ada, I can eat fish but without a rite to please Poden, I do not find it wise to consume any animal in his domain. He is a very powerful god and though he may appear to be absent, he can be surprisingly aware of even the most minute violations."

"What does such a rite require? There's plenty of fish in this sea below us."

"Usually, every seaside town has at least one disciple of Poden who would perform this rite at the beginning of every month which then allows anyone in that town to fish without incurring Poden's wrath. From what I know, anyone who is not a disciple of the ocean god cannot do the rite."

"Oh my God! I thought the gods here were petty but this is just ridiculous. You can't even eat fish without some priest performing a ceremony?"

Leanne simply nodded.

"In that case, we only have one option which is something we're going to have to do anyway," Ada said.

"What is that?" Leanne asked with curiosity.

"We'll have to purchase some food and we need to be discreet to do so. I don't want a repeat of last time where everyone just starts assaulting me. The only good thing that came out of that is you but I really can't risk getting the attention of the other gods right now," Ada said.

Leanne blushed when she heard her worth being praised by Ada.

"Ada, are you saying that you have to pretend to be a mortal to buy meat and produce at a seaside village?"

"That would be terribly demeaning for a goddess wouldn't it?" Ada mused at the thought and smiled. "I think this could be interesting. I have yet to observe how mortals interact. I suppose we can dress up as moderately well-to-do merchants."

"Ada, I don't know if that would be the best disguise. We will stand out. Female merchants are rare here in South Tesia and I look like a Tesian," Leanne shook her head.

"Hmm, that would be the case if we were still in South Tesia. I believe we're currently above the waters near the continent east of Tesia."

"Exicoz? That is at least eight hundred leagues east of where we met!" Leanne gasped in surprise.

"Well, these divine clouds tend to move fast in the right wind," Ada replied smugly. "What are these Exicozans like?"

"Ada, Exicoz is the continent. The locals call themselves Anonans named after their mythical forefather Anon. A thousand years ago, they were all part of an empire called Azute. After that empire's collapse, the interior towns slowly rotted away while the trade cities have become thriving independent city-states. Those loosely align with each other and tend to fight each other as much as they fight outsiders. It is a wonder that that their cities still thrive with commerce."

They seem to act like the independent city states of medieval Italy which was also where the renaissance began, Ada thought. She gestured for Leanne to go on.

"The cities are known to be unscrupulous cutthroats amongst themselves and with followers. Give them enough gold and they'll turn their back on their previous benefactors in a second. They have been mercenaries in every major war in the last several centuries and most of them have switched sides at least twice in the middle of it. The Anonans pay at best lip service to almost all of the gods except for Poden who they have to appease and to Yuano who they actually respect."

"Well, this seems like a place where female merchants wouldn't be considered an oddity. In fact, being a merchant seems like the perfect type to blend in," Ada said with a smile.

"Ada, are you sure you want to do all this just to satisfy my hunger? Though I understand their tongue, I have never been to this continent and I do not know my way in any of their cities."

"Leanne, I assure you that your stomach is not the only reason I want to do this. I need to understand the outside world and a trade city presents a perfect opportunity for it. I was thinking of asking you a million questions and I still might but there would be questions you couldn't answer. You know I'm a new goddess to this world and to ensure we have followers, we need information as well as food."

Leanne nodded. She asked pragmatically, "Ada, what do you want me to do to prepare?"

"While you were asleep, I have already done quite a lot of preparation. For starters, I think we'll probably need some kind of identification paper on who we are. We also need to create a good backstory for both of us and ensure it's consistent. Other than that, we need to dress the part. I would also need you to teach me their local language. As a goddess, this should not take long to learn."