"Zin Swada was...is such a dedicated and exceptional midwife. One of the youngest in her field completing her midwifery degree qualifying at the age of nineteen," the employer said walking through the hospital corridors with Pricilla alongside. "Completing your midwifery degree qualifying at the current age of eighteen and to be invited to Parliament earlier this year to discuss maternal mental health and maternity discrimination, you're quite impressive, too, dearie," the employer added glancing at Pricilla. Pricilla gave a gracious nod.

"I know Zin has worked here for a year already. And I'd only worked six months at this hospital before I left for Camp Hypnos but I assure you my recovery there won't interfere with my midwifery duties here. I can balance them both."

"I have no doubt you can. You did quite well when you were here. You were honest from the start about your reasons for requesting an absence. And you've only been gone for such a short time. Relax, Pricilla."

After finishing her dayshift in the delivery suite at the hospital, Pricilla stopped in the ICU to sit at Zin's bedside.

"There's been no change in the past week. I'm sorry," the doctor said to Pricilla.

The doctor left. Pricilla held back her tears. "Meron will be here tonight for a visit," she said clearing her throat. "I helped deliver so many newborns today I lost count. I was a bit nervous coming back here to hospital. But it's like I never left. I felt so at home. Being able to bless them with the Bone Doctrine again gave me peace of mind." Her brows furrowed. "Giving you back your doctrine should've awakened you by now, Zin."

"Code pink..." a voice said over the PA system. Pricilla rushed out of Zin's room, ran down the corridor as the alert continued, directing her to where the emergency is located. All the babies seemed to be crying simultaneously in their sleep. Nurses, doctors and other midwives swarmed the area tending to them.

"Let me see what's in plain sight, bring it in my purview. Light it with my firelight," she whispered amongst the chaos as she held one of the babies in her arms. Her voice illuminated a large black marshmallow ring encompassing the newborns. There was a salty stench in the air. "Keep this discovery from the naked eye, only let me see what's inside, set it alight. Protect all those new to life and those who give life to the world," at this calm urgency of her voice the dismal ring burned away leaving only the faint odor of smoke. The cries stopped and the babies' sleep sound again.

"We'd better move the newborns and their mothers to another floor, until we can find out where the smoky odor is coming from," one of the doctors advised.

After those patients were relocated, Pricilla checked the rest of the maternity and pediatric areas of the hospital before returning to Camp Hypnos. There seemed to be no sign of the entity.

The next day, the campers gathered at the lake on a hot July afternoon. Meron was on his riding lawn mower mowing the grass. He wore a face mask and googles on his eyes to keep the smell of and flying of grass from his nose, lungs and allergy eyes. He wore a wide brimmed sun hat with neck flap, long sleeved flannel shirt and jeans to keep the grass from irritating his skin.

"I've got the peppermint!" Stevfan shouted like a kid on Christmas morning, running down the lakeshore, holding an opened envelope in one hand and a wrapped blood red peppermint in the other. "I get to switch places with Benjamina Kafoshi, Selasi Herry and Rosegf Stybbs for a week on my favourite cooking show, The Great Qualinan Baking Kind of Show. I've been a member of their pen pal programme since I was six. Fans choose their favourite chef on the show to be pen pals with. I chose Rosegf Stybbs. We've been pen pals for twelve years. After the week is over, I get to cook a special dish with them in a live broadcast on the show."

"Oh, that's why the peppermint is so exciting it means you get to have your dream come true. I'm so happy for you, love," Kevyn said with a smile, giving Stevfan a hug.

"Yes, that too. But it means I won the first week. Two others in the pen pal programme have won the second and third weeks to switch places with the cooks," Stevfan said handing the envelope to Kevyn. Shyko, Pricilla and Andar huddled around as she took the letter out to read.

"It does say two others' names were drawn as well. They are scheduled for week two and week three. Each cook draws a name from the piles of letters they received up to the twelfth year anniversary of the show's pen pal programme. Rosegf Stybbs chosen from his pen pal letters first and he drew your name. The first week's winner will receive this letter and a red peppermint. The second winner... Wait a minute. Did you read the rest, Stevfan?" Kevyn said stopping in the middle of reading the letter, raising a brow.

"What?" he said with a furrowed brow, putting the peppermint in his pocket and reaching his hand out for the letter.

"This," Pricilla said taking the letter from Kevyn, handing it to him and pointing to the paragraph where he should begin reading.

"Bring the peppermint and this letter to the show to be automatically entered into a chance to win $10,000. Once you bring these items you will be taken by limousine to a house owned by the cooks to stay for thirty-six hours with the other two winners who won in the pen pal anniversary programme. To compete for the monetary prize each contestant must answer correctly a series of trivia questions and make a unique dish which will be blindly judged by the show's select judging panel. The first one to reach four-hundred points will have a chance to present their unique dish for judging and to win the money if their dish wins over the judges," Stevfan swallowed hard and looked at the group. "Bloody hell."

"The pressure is on, mate," Shyko said putting a hand on his shoulder.

Stevfan took a breath and said, "No kidding. The last bit says this part of the contest will be broadcasted live on the telly," he said looking at the very last paragraph of the letter. "And whether either of us contestants win the money or not, each of us will still get to cook with our favourite pen pal cook on the show after the switching places week is over. Either way there are rewards."

"I wish we could see you on the telly. But Camp Hypnos doesn't allow us to have a television anywhere on the premises. I suppose it's to not muck up our recoveries," Shyko scoffed.

"Just know we'll be there in spirit," Pricilla said as they all gathered in a group hug.

The next morning by Qualinan Underground, Stevfan arrived in Crystal Façade, a city in Qualina, built of solid glass bricks. The blue sun shined in the sky casting its blue haze over the area as it did forty hours/per week.

"I'm Violynn," a young woman of eighteen said pointing to herself.

"Hello, I'm Stevfan."

"The name's Monasugar," a young man the same age as both Violynn and Stevfan said, extending his hand to him. Stevfan shook his hand firmly. "Didn't think I was going to get here."

"You wouldn't have been here to take advantage of this opportunity if it weren't for my best mate, Sauiede being admitted to hospital," Violynn said to Monasugar, with a furrowed brow and an accusatory look in her eyes.

"It's not like I had anything to do with it. Stop looking at me like I did. I just met you today and I don't know your best mate either," Monasugar snapped at her with a sneer.

"All right then. This is going to be quite interesting," Stevfan murmured leaving the kitchen where the other two contestants are. He found his assigned room with his name on the door, opened it and wheeled his suitcase inside. Over a twelve hour-period, they'd gone through rehearsals to get the mechanics of the show as much to focus and memory before going live. This competitive portion of the longstanding cooking show was the pilot and the first episode.

Each contestants' had a panel bed-shaped game board standing upright with a flat screen embedded in it, facing outward with a PlayStation-like game console. The answer and questions boards were built into a motely-colored wall shaped like a ball with holes in it and a bunch of smaller colorful balls inside accessed manually during each players turn in time-sensitive sequences. If a player doesn't answer the question correctly or fails to answer the question before the fifteen second-time outs they lose three points and another player can steal the chance to answer and chose the next question. If the player who steals doesn't answer the question correctly or within the time frame before time-out that player will also lose three points and the third player can steal and give it a go. If neither of the three players fail to answer the question correctly or in time. All three lose a point each. If a player does answer the question correctly and before timing out they gain ten points.

Ten hours passed, and the contest began broadcasted live Qualina-worldwide with a live studio audience. Violynn, Monasugar and Stevfan were in a equilateral triangular pattern to keep each of the three contestants at a fair distance.

"Hello, everyone I'm Supervisory host Mubry. I'll be overseeing this portion of the game as the players vie for a chance to win $10,000 dollars. The first player to get four-hundred points will win the prize," the humanoid robot said coming up from under the stage through a pivotal slug slot. "I will begin the game by choosing the first question," the robot opened its chest and revealed the flat screen similar to what the players have and took the game console from its ribcage compartment. "After this question is read and responded to the process with speed up."

The robot pressed the question button and the ball in the centre of the triangle pushed out one of the small colored balls forward fitting into one of the holes. A voice spoke from the ball reading the question, "In 1990, what launched during STS-31?"

Five seconds passed. Violynn pushed her answer button. The ball read aloud her answer. "Hubble Space Telescope." There was a pause. "Correct. Ten points."

The points she earned showed on the flat screen of her game board with a short, melodic sound. She pressed the question button. After an hour of the game show playing live, it was over for the time being. Violynn, Monasugar and Stevfan retired to the house. There was thirteen hours left until there'd be a winner.

Violynn left her room and snuck into Monasugar's. He was reading a book, he'd brought with him when he first arrived.

The suckers inside her nostrils flared, the little spiky tentacles in them were searching the air. She raised a furrowed brow. Monasugar continued to read. She got closer to him and tried again. "You have no scent. That's impossible," she said moving backward, stunned.

"Are you trying to flatter me or something?" Monasugar asked closing the book and turning towards her and standing up from his bed.

"No. It's just strange. Usually my intended victim..."

"Victim? Were you trying to seduce me or kill me?"

"I was intending to do both but you don't have a scent. I can't do it without a scent. I'm going to bloody starve to death."

"What? Are you a vampire?"

"No. But I have fed on one or... a few before. I'm a demi-muse."

"Demi-muse?"

"I'm a mortal god, the offspring of a higher god and a human, the descendant of Zeus and Mnemosyne."

"You're wasting your time with seduction as far as I'm concerned. I'm not at all attracted to you or anyone else romantically or sexually for that matter. I love people. I love my family and friends. I'm aromantic asexual. I love your look. You're definitely a goddess."

Violynn had the eyes of an Arabian Mau-gooseberry-purple, oval to almond shaped, and set at a slight angle. Her skin was a midnight purple like the natural color of her full lips. She was striking with a strong jawline and chin and an attractive nose. A deity symbol of two light purple squiggly lightning bolts connected together went from her hairline to her eyelid and continued down to her cheekbone where they stopped turned inward toward each other.

She had a long, sleek body. She had long whitish-blue eyebrows that feathered out past her cheekbones towards her jawline. Her long hair matched the color of her eyebrows. There was a purple organic headpiece similar to an ancient Egyptian Neme on the crown of her head, biologically fused to her skull, falling to her shoulders.

The Neme had stripes along the sides also matching her hair, creating a diamond shape where the headpiece jutted a bit over her forehead. The headpiece jutted out some at the back. For ears, she had a bladed tube with brackets on them two together curved upward in the form of a knoll or mountain and two others separate shaped like the archway of a bridge, conjoined by a curved blade shaped like an adjustable wrench in the centre. They were grown out from a natural cave-shaped hole in the headpiece.

On one side of her graceful neck was a wavy light purple marking. She had a fleshy turtleneck and wifebeater t-shirt design on the upper torso with ribbing and a small purple oval gem casing with the part of the top sticking out through the ribbing. There was a circular garden patterned symbol on her upper arm half-covered in mystery by a physiological shawl which was a part of her shoulders and back.

"But anything more than platonic is out of the question. As far as killing me goes, I'm not going down without a fight. Good luck with that," Monasugar added.

"There would be no fight if I kill you. You'd be too weak after I'm done with you to have a go at it. Maybe seduction isn't the proper word. I've never been attracted to gender or genders period. Sexuality, asexuality, non-binary or otherwise doesn't matter to me at all. Strange, it's never been a sensory problem for me before," she said putting a finger on her chin in thought. "But, that might be why I can't sense your neuro-scent, if you have one, because you're aromantic and asexual. I've fed on all sorts but never an aromantic or asexual. Your neuro-receptors must be blocking me because of that. I'm neuro-romantic and neuro-sexual. I'm only romantically or sexually attracted to people's or beings nervous systems. I feed on nervous systems. It's like catnip to me," Violynn said letting out a murmuring growl.

"It's possible. But why are you targeting me. I'm sure Stevfan has a nervous system, too," he pointed towards the door.

"You're in the lead in the game. You're in my way, mucking up my chances of getting the money. Stevfan's position in the game is no threat to me at the moment."

Monasugar swallowed hard at the thought of what she'd do to him, if she could.

"Why don't we join forces, instead?" Monasugar said smiling, pulling out a chair from the corner of his room, gesturing with his hand in a gracious manner offering her to take a seat.

"Why would you want to build an alliance with me? I can't feed on you so I know it's not because you fear me," she said a bit apprehensive, glancing at the chair.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend. You know that sort of thing," he said shrugging one of his shoulders as she sat down with her brow raised suspiciously. One of her eyes she kept trained on him. "I'm intrigued by you and your unique sexuality, Violynn," he said with a sensuous grin. "You and Stevfan are practically neck and neck in the game. Now you don't want it to take a turn, do you?" he said with his hands on each side of the back of the chair leaning in close to her so his eye would meet hers.

"Maybe it will, maybe it won't."

"But you don't want to take that chance, right?"

"Right. Nowhere in the rules did it state three players need to remain in the game for the game to go on, only that one of us has to get four-hundred points first before the other player or players and the game ends. To be fair, the game would go much smoother if we only had two players left in the game," Violynn said with a devious smirk.

"I like how you think, Violynn. Get rid of the dead weight, I like it. After this is all over, you and I should get takeaway and have a chat. Get to know each other a bit more."

"I'll think about it. But I'll have a go at Stevfan. Wish me luck," she said with a smile getting up from the chair and leaving the room.

"Good luck," Monasugar said after Violynn closed the door behind her, rubbing his hands together with a fiendish look in his eye, grinning.

Stevfan didn't want to go to sleep. He had no control over what might happen if he'd drifted into dreaming. Aware he was on t.v. he didn't want the public to see how his body would react during REM sleep. He downed a few cups of coffee after the show to stay wired awake. He did sit-ups as he thought about his next game plan to get ahead.

"I didn't hear you come in," he said to Violynn looking up at her. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm just admiring the blue sunlight," she said with a smile, her eyes trained on his naked torso adorned by the blue light.

"You can easily do that from your room. Did Monasugar send you over here?"

"I'd never do another's bidding?"

"No. You don't seem the type. But if there was something in it for you, you might."

He stood up and turned around to put his shirt on. She sniffed the air the suckers in her nostrils turned bright red and the spiky tentacles in them emitted a moaning sound as they danced along Stevfan's hairline, crown and nape of his neck. His nervous system echoed a melodic-neuro-scent of Frasier fir reminding her of Christmas with a sexy melody. She retracted them as he turned around.

"No, no, sweetheart. This isn't going to happen."

"What. Why not?" she said raising a brow with a tone of disappointment in her voice followed by a frown.

"When I'm in a state of competition that's all I think and feel. That's all I'm feeling right now. I know you can sense that from my neuropathways."

"How do you know what I am?"

"I've read books on the muses. Your subspecies is rare."

"A handsome young man who's also a scholar. I don't know if that's lucky or dangerous. Quite impressive." She paused for a moment. She moved closer to him and sniffed his head. "Yes, they're firing on all cylinders set only on competitive mode blocking my opportunity to drain you of all neuro-energy," she let out a sensuous groaning growl. "I'm starting to think I'm losing my touch."

"Monasugar wanted you to seduce me neurologically so I won't be fit to continue on with the game."

"Of course he did. What are you going to do? Beat him bloody. I don't mind saying I'd find great pleasure in that. He pretended to align himself with me so we could take you out."

"You were doing the same thing, pretending to align yourself with him," Stevfan raised a brow with a smirk on his face, looking at her.

Violynn put her hand on her chest, feigning astonishment at the sheer thought.

Stevfan sighed, shaking his head at her attempt at being shocked by his accusation.

"No, I'm not going to pummel him. That's exactly what he wants. And then we'll both be thrown out of the game. Me, for assaulting him and you for inciting violence against his person."

"Whether I'd drained you or you'd given him the beating of his life, either way he's playing deadly and dirty and we have to come at him just as bloody hard as he's done."

"Remain as his ally. At least let him think you are. If I win, I'll split half of the money with you," he extended his hand to her.

"That's a grand idea," she said shaking his hand.

She went back to her room. A few minutes later, Monasugar opened the door ajar and stuck his head in and asked her with a whisper. "How'd it go?"

"I've got him right where I want him," she whispered back to him.

"Good," he said leaving, closing the door behind him.

"And you too," she said with a murmur and a low chuckle.

Violynn's heart beat in falsetto in anticipation. Her skin shimmered like stars as she made a sensual chirping sound and the brackets on her ears lit up like an arcade game. "My heart is allowed to dream tonight," she thought.