I come to in a bed only marginally more comfortable than the stables. My eyes open, and I blink up at a ceiling that wouldn’t look out-of-place in a church. Are those angels? No, since they’re goblins, I guess that makes them formers?

I sit up, feeling the bed beneath me creak and whine. Straw mattress, as usual. This must be…?

“So, you’re awake.”

Turning to my side, I find one of the two hostesses sitting a pace or two away, a spear laid across her lap. Without answering her, I glance around the room. It’s fairly small, more of a closet than a full room, but there’s a bed, and the painted ceiling makes it clear that this place used to be really fancy. There’s a crack running across the roof, down the wall, through a half-barred window, and all the way down to the water damaged, hardwood floor. I turn to look at her again, happy to find that she only looks marginally more irritated than before. “I don’t think I caught your name before. Would you mind repeating it?”

“I never said it to begin with.”

“Oh. In that case, I’m Kitty.” I shoot her a smile, which somehow brings a look of disgust to her face. Right. “And you are?”

“Holly,” she says, clearly making the conscious choice to not give her full username. Curious.

“I see.” Allowing the smile to linger, I give a slight bow where I sit, and say, with full earnestness, “Thank you, Holly, for letting me sleep in here tonight. Ghosts terrify me, so—”

“Great. Okay, so,” she hurriedly stands up, “if you’re so grateful, please express it by getting the hell out of here.”

Wow. That’s pretty harsh. As her guest, I’m in no position to argue, though, so I quickly slip out of bed. It might be a bad thing that the floorboards feel warm to me, even though they should be freezing cold. My shirt is largely unbuttoned for some reason, so while I head towards the door, I begin buttoning it again. In turn, Holly stands up, her spear at the ready as she takes her place behind me. Wow, I can feel her eyes burning a hole in my back. If I do anything slightly threatening, I think I know just where that spear is going. “So, um,” I say, once I’m at the door. “What about my quest?”

She grumbles something I choose not to catch under her breath before answering, saying, “Mo—er, the Goddess showed up half an hour ago, so She’s still doing Her storytelling for the kids.”

“Oh, it’s no trouble, I can wait.”

“I’d prefer you didn’t,” she growls.

I pause in the doorway. “Wait, what do you mean? Do you want me to barge in while she’s doing all that?”

“No, that isn’t—” She huffs, frustrated, shaking both her head and spear at once. “Just shut up, okay? Looking at you is bad enough without having to listen to your grating voice.”

Wow, harsh. “No need to be mean about it,” I mutter as I resume walking. Once I’ve taken a few steps, she starts following me again. We walk almost the full length of the hallway before I turn back to her and say, very plainly, “I have no idea where I’m headed. Would you mind showing me the way?”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“And leave my back open? Not a chance.” She gestures down the hallway with the tip of her spear. “Keep going, then to the right, down the hallway, and the first door on the right.”

“Ah. Okay. Thanks, Holly.”

“Just keep walking.”

“Yes ma'am,” I say, trying my best to put the directions to mind. Still, her paranoia is starting to worry me. Sure, we had a bit of an altercation, but that was, like, two whole years ago! Or was it three? Whatever, my point still stands. Then again, being murdered tends to leave a bit of an impact, so… Once I start descending the stairs, I decide to do what’s right. “By the way, sorry for killing you.”

“Pardon?”

“You know, back in the tutournament? When we had the team fight, I fought your team, and you…”

“Oh, no,” she says. “You didn’t kill me.”

“I didn’t?”

“No.”

“Huh. That’s good, I guess. I thought this was about—”

“But you did kill Glyph,” she says, suddenly icier than ever before. “Tore her throat out in front of our eyes. And for Myra, you crushed her heart. Laugh, you crushed his head. Harness, Fair, Tyg… You killed all of them.”

I resist the urge to mention that they weren’t killed permanently. The damage persists, nevertheless. “I’m sorry.”

“Stop saying that.”

“Sorry?”

“It’s hollow.” With her walking behind me, I can’t see her face. I can only parse the venom in her words. Dripping, acidic. “What do you think you did? Spilled juice on me?”

“Of course not.”

“Besides, we’re even.” Now, I hear a smile in her voice. Furrowing my brows, I turn back to look at her, several questions lingering on my tongue. But I don’t have to say any of them. Triumphantly, she answers my unsaid question, simply saying, “I got to kill you, after all.”

I blink at her. Memories bud in the back of my head. “You were the one who…?”

She holds up her spear, a catlike grin spreading across her face. “With this very spear. After the show, a man offered to buy it for a million points, but I refused.” Smile slipping off, she sighs, crossing her arms as she glares down at me. “Meeting you again… It’s a shame you can’t be killed, or I would have loved for my spear to kill you properly.”

“That’s kind of insane,” I tell her, like a sane person would. “You do realize that’s a weird thing to tell a person, right?”

“It would be, if I were saying it to a person, which I am not.”

Ouch. I genuinely have no idea how to respond to that, so I turn around, and continue walking. Down the stairs, and first door to my right… If I sniff a little, I can smell a bunch of kids in here, alongside… Something else. Something that smells like freshly baked bread, and sweat, and tree sap. Something that can’t be anything but her.

I take a breath before spinning around to face Holly again. “So, should I knock, or…?”

The door behind me opens. The scent of fresh bread wells out of the room and into the hallway, nearly suffocating. Warmth—unreal, unusual warmth, like that of a fireplace in winter, radiates onto my back. Making me sweat.

“There you are, Kitty! Right on time,” a doubtlessly divine voice says, right behind me. All warm, like any mother should be. Slowly, cautiously, I turn around. There she stands, twofold, two images, layered on top of one another, each one hazy as though in a fog. If I close my right eye, I see a small, stout goblin, her wrinkled face shaped into an expression of gentle welcome. The apron and rolled up sleeves only serve to enhance that image. But, if I close my left eye…

It’s a child. A little girl, no more than nine. Her dimpled face, speckled with freckles, splits into a big grin, one of her front teeth missing. I frown at her. “You are…?”

“Or would you rather be referred to as Hope?”

“Ah, no, that really isn’t necessary,” I say. “Kitty works just fine.” If I close my right eye again, she’s almost at the height of my eyes. If I close my left, I’m looking down at her. “I’m just not sure…”

“Would you care to join Me for a moment? The children are very excited to meet you.”

“They are?” I flash around to look at Holly, who looks about as confused as I feel. Turning back to the goddess of children, I gesture at myself. “Me? Are you sure?”

“Of course! New residents are rare, so you are beyond welcome. Please, come along. Children can be quite impatient, even when they’ll be rewarded.” Taking me by the hand, she guides me into the room. Holly looks as though she really wants to say something, but with too little time to actually put together her thoughts, there’s nothing she can do but watch helplessly as I’m dragged away. “Here he is! Everyone, give a big welcome to Kitty!”