"Thank you for cooking for us Sonj," Tucker said as he sat down with the rest of them around a checkered tablecloth that had been laid down on the ground.

Sonja set down several bowls of steaming food and I peered over her shoulder, taking in the wonderful smells. There were not many senses one kept at death, and upon smelling Sonja's cooking I was thankful that sent was one of them. Orchid looked over to me, smiling at my actions.

"I'm glad you aren't one of the sad ghosts," Orchid said to me. "They get very tiresome. It's nice to see another smiling face amongst all the others."

I caught a glimpse of Jordan eyeing us both as he sat between Martha and Tom. When my eyes met his he quickly looked away, spooning some food onto his plate.

"Is he scared of us?" I asked.

"I think he's scared of being ridiculed more than he already is," she replied.

"Aren't you going to eat something Declan," someone I was not looking at said worriedly. I really had to get used to everyone's voices.

I looked at Declan, who had come to sit with the others but was still slouched over in defeat. He shrugged his shoulders in response.

"Please eat something," the same person, Martha, said.

Champwan came over with a plate of his own and sat down next to Declan, who seemed to compress even further away from the world at the sight of him. Champwan scowled at this, clearly trying to seem agitated or upset, but I saw the genuine hurt in his eyes.

"Dec," Champwan said, "please eat something." He put a hand on Declan's shoulder gently, but Declan shut his eyes tightly and shrugged him off. He stood up so abruptly that Champwan jumped a little.

No one said anything as he walked over to the covered body and lay down about a meter from it. Concerned, I floated after him. He lay on the ground with an empty expression before closing his eyes. I watched his breathing slow before returning to the rest of the group.

"I'm really starting to worry about Dec," Sonja said. Some of the others nodded, though it was obvious that everyone agreed.

The rest of the meal passed in silence with no sound coming from the group other than that of plates and forks clacking. When they were done eating they stacked the plates and silverware on the table cloth and folded it up. Dianite then waved a hand and made the whole thing disappear. Even he seemed distressed by Declan's behavior and could not find a way to lighten the mood.

Everyone broke off into groups to go to sleep; Tucker and Sonja, James and Martha, and Jordan and Tom, though they seemed to be trying to appear nonchalant about it. The others lay down on their own and quickly fell asleep in the dark expanse.

Despite their attempts, Tom and Jordan soon ended up in eachothers arms, smiling for the first time since I started following them.

------------------------------

As the living people slept, Orchid and I watched. I had taken for granted how entertaining they had all been when they were awake, and even the two gods seemed to have decided a good night's sleep would be beneficial tonight.

"So..." I said to Orchid.

"Hm?" She asked.

"Why were they fighting that god?" I asked. "And that other man? They called him..." I struggled to remember his name

"World Historian?" She said. I nodded. "World Historian is the father of the three gods. He was using Mianite to destroy the others so that he could rule the entire realm, and Mianite wanted the same thing for himself."

"So the three gods are Mianite, Dianite, and Martha?" I asked thoughtfully.

"Oh, I forgot Martha was a god now," Orchid said. I gave her a curious look. "'The three gods' are Mianite, Dianite, and their sister Ianite, but she... died recently. Martha is her daughter and Andor and Alva are her grandchildren."

"So do any of them still follow Ianite?" I asked. "Even though she's dead?"

"You really have forgotten everything, haven't you," Orchid marveled. I did not know what to say; I thought we had already covered the fact that I knew nothing.

"I thought that was normal," I said.

"Yeah," Orchid said, "but every ghost I've met has at least remembered the basics."

I sighed. "Just another thing about me that's different I guess."

"Hey, don't sweat it," Orchid said supportively, "You're just special is all; there's nothing wrong with that."

I sighed and lay back on the ground, resting my hands behind my head.

"So what do we do until they wake up?" I asked as the boredom continued to overtake me.

"We wait," Orchid said. She noticed my expression. "You kind of get used to it. This lot really does spoil us with entertainment when they're awake."

And so we waited.

And waited.

Until I noticed something odd happening.

"Orchid," I said, sitting up for the first time in what must have been hours.

"Hm?" She said without opening her eyes.

"What's going on?"

She sat up and we both looked around. The odd transparent floor was slowly turning to grass, and a few hills were growing up from the flat land. Some grew so quickly I could see rock being exposed from underneath.

"Oh this happened last time too," she said nonchalantly. "After the first night they all woke up on a small island. Looks like this one's quite a bit bigger; maybe it generates it based on the number of people traveling through."

"It?" I asked.

"The Void," she said as if it were obvious.

"Oh."

We watched in silence as the rest of the island began to take shape. Trees sprouted around us, forming a small forest off to one side of where the others lay asleep. The ground between where Declan lay and where we sat began to sink down into the darkness, filling with water and forming a large lake near the center of the island.

The only thing that did not change to replicate The Overworld was the sky. It stayed black and starry, even as it began to get lighter out. There was no apparent source to the light, but it was as if the sun were beginning to rise over the strange new land suspended in time.

One of the sleeping people groaned and I looked towards them to see Tucker roll over, falling away from Sonja's arms. She opened her eyes in response, rubbing the sleep away as she sat up and looked around.

"What the..." James trailed off as he too sat up. Martha followed him immediately, almost as if her sleep had been tied to his.

"It's just like Trinity Island," Jordan said fondly, poking Tom, who groaned and rolled over in a similar fashion to Tucker. Tom covered his head with the coat he had been using as a pillow and Jordan tried prying it away from him. "Come on Tom," he said. "Get up. We're on an island again."

"Five more minutes," Tom replied.

"Rise and shine boyos," Dianite said, picking Mot up into a standing position with one swift movement. When he was released, Mot nearly fell over, visibly disoriented. He staggered slightly before standing up and leaning back to crack his stiff spine.

"Oh my," he said. "Where are we exactly?"

"Not-So-Trinity Island 2.0 from the looks of it," Jordan said.

"Here we go again," Tucker said. "At least we don't have to worry about death as much as usual."

"Why wouldn't we have to worry about death just because we're on some island?" Mot asked skeptically.

"Last time we were traveling through The Void we all ended up on an island like this," Tucker said.

"Trinity Island," Sonja reminisced, apparently thinking that restating this phrase would clear it up for those of us who had not been there. "When Tucker and I died we became ghosts until we got to Ruxomar, where we came back to life."

I watched as Jordan's eyes went wide. "Wait, so you were... There? The whole time?"

Tucker nodded and by the look on Tom's face it seemed he had caught on to what Jordan intended.

"So you saw..." Tom trailed off, hoping Tucker would say whatever it was without him having to first give it away.

"It was a pretty small island," Tucker said simply, raising an eyebrow.

Sonja whispered something to Jordan, making his face turn paler than my own.

"I ship it."

[Author's Note]

So there's been a lot of speculation about Iris being Alva's ghost, but what do you all think of Orchid? I haven't heard anything about her yet.