Bryce
I sighed as I turned to see a dark elven woman standing there in blue jeans and an oversized purple jersey with gold accents and a strangely familiar black spider symbol across the chest. I had something similar to a half-baked plan to deal with her, but even in the best case, it was going to be risky. So, I decided to at least try to talk to her first. “Zesh, if I had known Kai was going to be here, then I would have been more careful.”
“It wouldn’t have made a difference. Your paladin friend is carrying one of my holy symbols, which allows me to see through the wards on your ship. It works even when they aren’t aboard. Although, I’m still not entirely sure why.”
“Damnit, Sora. That would have been nice to know earlier.” I glared at the kitsune, who was still frozen near me.
“Don’t be too hard on them. Kai visited you three times since your return, twice outside of your ship. That sort of thing creates ripples that are easy to track.”
“So, it’s Kai I should be annoyed with?” I asked, which caused Zesh to laugh.
“If you need someone to blame, then she’s as good a target as any, but I wouldn’t recommend actually trying to do anything about it. That woman is a force of nature, and trust that I speak from experience when I say you’d have better luck containing a supernova in a glass bead than you would trying to admonish her.”
“That feels oddly specific.”
“Only because it is, and perhaps some day when I’m feeling particularly petty, I’ll tell you that story. But not today. We have too much to discuss already.”
“Do we?” I raised an eyebrow at the goddess. “And here I was, expecting you to drag me back to Tess’s afterlife without so much as a fake apology. It’s good to know you at least have the decency to explain yourself first.”
“Has my name truly fallen so low that a mere candidate would speak to me with such blatant disrespect?” Zesh grinned at me, and I felt the icy chill in the air turn to frozen daggers as she held me in place with her glare. “It’s no matter. What’s been forgotten can always be remembered, and it’s about time I teach the next generation to fear me.”
She stepped forward with an outstretched arm, and I sent a tendril of mana into her eyes to loop the paralysis spell back in on itself. The effects were immediate, freeing me and freezing her. It would last about as long as it took for her to realize she could end the spell herself, but that was more than enough time.
I closed the remaining distance and placed a hand on her stomach then another on the back of her neck. I channeled Kai’s mana into her core while pulling her own from the top of her spine, forcing her core to cycle faster. It only took a few seconds for enough of her mana to corrupt to the point where the paralysis spell wore off, and she pushed away from me the moment she regained control. “What did you do to me?”
The black smoke in the air slowly dissipated as the crowd around us began to move again. “I ‘donated’ a significant amount of Kai’s mana to your meridian network. Far more than what she gave me. If you’re extremely diligent with your study, then you should be able to acclimate to it in about a decade or so. Of course, you could always just isolate and purge it naturally over the next couple of months. Until then, though, I wouldn’t recommend trying to cast anything.”
“Bryce, what’s going on?” Thea stepped in front of me and pressed herself up against my body. I was about to answer, but then Kai appeared nearby wearing a pair of shorts with a matching white, pink, and blue jersey.
“Z, what the heck? I thought you were just going to talk to her.”
“You knew about this?” Sora asked. “You promised you weren’t going to help her find Bryce.”
“No, I said I wasn’t going to help her catch Bryce, but that’s not a problem because Z isn’t going after her anymore.”
“Wait, what? She literally just attacked me.”
“I was trying to teach you a lesson about respect, but instead you crippled me using my wife’s mana,” Zesh growled.
“Because you used a paralyzing spell on me. I could have done a lot worse, and it still would have been justified.”
“Hate to say it, Z, but she's kind of right here. You can clearly see what her mantle is going to be, and if she was able to fuck with your mana that much, then it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that she could have killed you. Or maybe even worse.”
“It was your mana, not hers,” Zesh argued, but without any of the indignance. “Fine. I’ll admit that perhaps I could have handled things better.”
“Hey, tell her, not me.” Kai nodded in my direction, and the dark elven goddess sighed before turning towards me.
“I apologize. I should have made my intention clear from the start instead of attempting to control the situation.”
“Aw, babe!” Kai rushed over and embraced the other goddess. “Did I ever tell you how much I love watching you grow as a person?”
“Please tell me we’re not like that,” Thea looked up at me, and I shook my head, but Sora answered before I could.
“No, you’re much worse.”
“Shut it, Softie, I wasn’t talking to you.”
“I’m not entirely sure what’s going on here, but perhaps we can move it to a more private setting?” Daria interrupted. “The seats we have reserved for you are quite secluded.”
“Of course,” I agreed and pushed Thea towards the elevator before turning back to the two goddesses who were still embracing. “Zesh, I appreciate your apology and offer my own for how things ended up. With that being said, I respectfully request that you come with us to explain why it is that you’re no longer hunting me.”
“But the fight is about to start and our seats are better.” Kai pouted, and Zesh seemed like she was about to break. So, I offered a compromise.
“In that case, perhaps I should come sit with you? Assuming that there’s an open seat nearby?”
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
“That would be acceptable,” Zesh agreed, which caused Thea to protest.
“Wait, if Bryce is going, then so am I.”
“Sure, whatever. We’ve got plenty of room. Now, come on, the fight is about to start.” Kai rushed over and grabbed both of us before teleporting to their seats. And by seats, I, of course, meant an overstuffed, leather couch sitting maybe ten meters from where the fight was set to happen. “Wait, where’s Z? She didn’t follow us?”
“She can’t teleport, remember? I used a part of the mana you gave me to corrupt hers.”
“Oh, right. You should maybe figure out a way to fix that. Z can hold a mean grudge, and you definitely don’t want the goddess of fate upset with you. Trust me.”
“Wait, she’s the goddess of fate?” I asked, but Kai had already disappeared.
“Yeah, her ‘official’ title is ‘The Fate Weaver’,” Thea answered as she plopped herself down on the far corner of the couch. “Supposedly, her domains are order, fate, and prophecy, but we both know how reliable that sort of information is.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I complained as I joined her. “That would have been nice to know before I tried to hide from her.”
“You should have done better research,” Zesh argued as she appeared nearby and sat beside me on the couch. “You only have yourself to blame for your ignorance. Especially if the knowledge you lacked was held by your partner.”
“Go easy on her, babe. She was born after you graduated and you haven’t exactly been the most active since then.” Kai pointed out as she appeared on the couch near her wife with a drink in each hand. “Here, and before you ask, yes, I paid for it. I even used real money this time.”
“Thank you, my love.” Zesh took the plastic cup, then made a face when she drank from it.
“Don’t like it?” Kai asked as she took a sip from her own.
“It’s… quaint.”
“It was thirty credits.”
“As I was saying, I don’t dislike it.”
“She’s lying,” Thea scoffed, which earned her a glare from the goddess. “What? You were.”
“I had nearly forgotten how irritating your father was to have around. It’s no matter, I’ll simply have to be more selective with my wording.”
“I would have expected the aspect of order to be averse to lying,” I pointed out, and Zesh shook her head as she took another sip from her cup.
“A lie is merely a tool, just as the truth is a weapon. Neither have any inherent morality, and either may be used to maintain order just as easily as they can sow chaos. To believe otherwise is naïve at best, and outright malicious at worst. It’s a concept that Inim was never able to wrap his mind around. Truly, that man was infuriating.”
“How about we change the topic before I do something that you’re going to regret?” Thea was clearly starting to get angry, so I took the opportunity to step in.
“Perhaps you could explain why it is that you’re no longer hunting me?”
“To say that I was hunting you would imply that there was ever a point at which I didn’t know exactly where you were. Although, to your credit, you did manage to hide from Tess with some degree of success. So, you’re welcome to take pride in that minor accomplishment.”
“Okay, then, let me rephrase the question. Why are you no longer planning on dragging me back to Tess’s afterlife?”
“Because when Kai returned with the news of what you gave Mother, I convinced Tess the danger of the situation and managed to get her to agree to give you a chance to make up for your mistake.”
“Why would you do that?” I asked, but was interrupted by the arena announcer before Zesh could explain herself.
“Welcome one and all to this very special exhibition match, and whoa boy do we have a treat for you tonight. Crowd favorite, and prime alpha of every shifter pack here on Drassun, Lysc ‘The Kiss’ will be going up against a literal demon from the hells in a blood duel. Here’s what we know, folks, Esmer, the demon, was part of a friendly fire incident in which he killed two ranking members of Lysc’s pack, and was then killed by Lysc herself before eventually being resurrected. Now he’s back to make things right in the eyes of the alpha.”
The announcer continued on to describe the terms of the duel, but I stopped paying attention the moment I noticed Kai seething nearby. Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one, which meant I could leave handling the chaos goddess to her wife.
“Love, what’s wrong?”
“Nobody deadnames my son,” Kai growled before disappearing from the couch. The announcer was cut off shortly after.
“I’m confused. How could he know his deadname?” I asked, and Thea sighed before answering.
“Es probably told him since he doesn’t technically have a deadname. ‘Esmer’ is gender neutral, so he didn’t actually change it, just which part he goes by. You know, because he’s a boring jerk.”
“He doesn’t owe you a unique or unusual name. If he wishes to keep the name given to him by his parents, then I think that’s admirable.”
Thea glared back at the goddess. “You’re seriously not going to do anything about your wife murdering an innocent sports announcer?”
“Kai and I are equal partners. We don’t police each other’s actions. Besides, I’m still trying to unravel what your girlfriend did to my mana, and let’s be honest, there’s no such thing as an innocent sports announcer. I’m sure he’ll deserve whatever she does to him.”
"Okay, in that case, maybe you could explain why you convinced Tess to give me a chance? If I like your answer, I might even help you fix your mana issues."
“You really are insolent, aren’t you?” Zesh leaned back into the couch with an appreciative half-smile.
“Sorry, I’m kind of playing from behind here. I need every advantage I can get.” I smiled back at her, and she laughed.
“Don’t apologize. I respect it. So long as you have the skill to back it up, and you don’t make it a habit of using that skill against me, then perhaps we can make this work.”
“Make what work, exactly?”
“Kai and I are trying to create the first divergent pantheon in more than forty-thousand years, and she wants you to join it.”
“But you don’t?”
She shrugged. “I’m mostly indifferent to you as a person, and while your mantle could prove useful if Tess doesn’t shred it on principle, my real interest is that Kai chose you. In order for this pantheon to work, it needs to have some semblance of balance between our two aspects, and to achieve that, we have a rule only allowing us to add new members if we each do it at the same time.”
“And let me guess, you have somebody you want to add?” I asked, and she chuckled.
“I have a long list of different gods I would like to add, and despite the numerous recommendations, Kai has yet to elect a single person. Now, not only has she made a choice, it’s a surprisingly decent one. That is assuming you survive long enough and actually get to keep your mantle after ascending.”
“I don’t suppose you know what the chances of that happening are?” I was mostly joking, but to my surprise, Zesh shrugged and gave me an actual answer.
“Surviving? Perhaps thirty percent. Forty-five if Es wins the fight tonight and you’re able to get Lysc to help against Mother. The mantle, though, that one is far more difficult. There’s no known precedent, and for obvious reasons there can’t be one, at least not publicly. Combine that with Kai being directly involved, which makes any sort of prediction that much harder, the best I can give you is a coin flip and a suggestion to let Tess know that you’re willing to keep the mantle a secret after she finds out about it.”
“Wait, I don’t understand. Lilith and Chorus both told me that soul mantles would absolutely be stripped should one ever appear, and what I learned in Tess’s afterlife pretty much confirmed it. Why wouldn’t you have any precedent to know how she’d react?”
Zesh blinked back at me before finally asking the obvious question. “You don’t know what your mantle is, do you?”
“No, Kai refused to tell me twice now and I don’t know for sure which event triggered this candidacy.”
“Actually, babe, she told you yesterday that your mantle was farts, and you refused to believe her,” Thea joked, and I glared at her, but Zesh responded before I could make my threat.
“That’s ridiculous. What would even be the point of a mantle like that? No, your girlfriend is set to become the goddess of magic.”