My hand was idly stroking Sabrina’s head, while my mind was going a mile a minute, considering the best options for me, for Sabrina but also for Chris and Jenn. I didn’t really want to abandon either of them, but if Chris wasn’t willing to step up, there was little I could do. Training Jenn might be possible but given that she was the primary caregiver, and food provider, for an infant, I was doubtful about that option.

Sabrina, on the other hand, had that obvious potential and given that Silva had received divine guidance to get us here, the potential already had a claimant. Which left me wondering how I’d best go about introducing the claimant and the prospective follower. If Mundus had some sort of ceremony to introduce a mortal to their god for the first time, I had no idea how to perform it, nor did I think I’d be the best candidate for such a ceremony. Simply because I wasn’t already in the service of Hecate, which would mean Silva would be the obvious choice to lead such a ceremony, given that she was the senior follower of Hecate in the group, likely in the area as well.

Just the idea made me snort in amusement, thinking that the worship of Hecate truly went to the dogs… Maybe they could introduce howl-alongs, or a bark-circle or something along those lines, I was certain Silva could come up with something. But sadly, as amusing as those ideas were, they didn’t help me get little Sabrina in contact with Hecate, assuming that getting into contact was what Hecate actually wanted. It didn’t quite feel on-brand for Hecate to seek out a follower, but Silva had guided us here and the connection between Hecate and Silva was already confirmed. It would be so much easier if the Gods could simply give out a quest for their follower, something along the lines of ‘recruit the little girl’ or maybe to recruit a dozen people. Though, I had a feeling that such quests would only go to their actual follower, so not to a free and unbound agent like myself, not without having some sort of sting attached to the quest. Something to bind me to the church, not that there currently was a Church of Hecate in the area. As things currently were, the congregation would likely set up shop in the local dog-park.

But in regards to connecting the two, I did carry the Blessing of the Moon, given to me by Hecate. Maybe that could be leveraged into a ritual to contact the deity and through that forge the connection between Sabrina and Hecate. If that actually was what the Goddess wanted.

Alternatively, I was quite certain that I could use the Zevarra Agha to create a connection between Sabrina and the Grandmother. I knew the Grandmother, I had conversed with her in the past using the Astral River as the medium to connect us, and I had an item she had gifted to me. If we were on the same plane of existence, I would be completely confident to contact her, even with my somewhat lower attributes, but to call Mundus from Terra was a bit of a different problem.

Connecting Sabrina to Lenore would be even easier if I used the feather she had sent through, but that was a unique object of great power, not something I wanted to use casually. To say nothing about Lenore’s affinity, I didn’t really want Sabrina to be purely connected to a creature of Death, nor did I think that Lenore actually wanted to gather followers. Knowing her, she would happily gather a few chosen followers, all of them powerful in their own right, and engage in a direct exchange of favours with them, not the much more involved bond between a god and their followers.

Thinking about the Grandmother and Hecate brought with it another startling realisation. Hecate was known as a three-formed deity, one being with three bodies or forms. Sometimes those three forms were described as Maiden, Mother and Crone, each representing different concepts and attitudes. The jump from a Crone to the Grandmother wasn’t terribly far, making me wonder how that would work. How similar could deities be, before things became wonky? It was a question I had already wondered about, namely when looking at the different Asgardian and Olympian deities, there were quite a few that shared aspects, to the point that scholars had studied how the names and images had shifted as people migrated.

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But how did that work with distinct entities, beings with their own egos, not just images and rituals made by humans? Would the Grandmother lose her identity if she managed to become a deity, subsumed by the greater deity that was Hecate? Or would the Grandmother form some sort of conflicting image, trying to usurp parts of Hecate’s domain?

Getting caught up in a conflict between two deities sounded like something I would rather avoid until I had a lot more power. Once I had enough power to assert myself, I’d happily get involved but until then, I wanted nothing to do with that level of conflict.

Though, thinking about it, was a conflict truly necessary? My understanding of Hecate was that she wasn’t too interested in mortal followers, she was interested in the mortal mastery of the Arcane. Similarly, the Grandmother had never come across somebody who needed to assert her dominance. Sure, after that insane fire-mage had attacked me from afar, she had gone out and smacked the guy around but otherwise, she had been holed up in Neyto for what I thought had been centuries, never even trying to build herself a kingdom of her own. Even when the Dryads of Tegi started to mess around with things better left untouched, she had only sent what could be considered a token-adventurer, namely me, to check things out, she hadn’t gone and taken them out herself. And there was no doubt that she could have done so, most likely far quicker than I could ever manage. But no, despite the rather massive mess the entire situation could have, and partially had, devolved into, she had stood by and observed. That didn’t indicate that she was terribly territorial, though it might simply be a matter of interest. She might simply not have cared about the dryads, similar to how, before the change, I might not have cared if a bunch of racoons had been going through the trash in the backyard. Some things, while in your area of interest, simply didn’t rise to the level of annoyance that made dealing with them a priority.

But regardless of their motivations, I wouldn’t try to involve myself, certainly not on the Grandmother’s side. As much as I liked her, I wasn’t willing to defy an active deity, especially not one who gave me a blessing that was possibly lessening the influence of the Curse of the Sun.

Before I could formulate a real plan of action, Lia came back into the shelter, easily ignoring the few hostile and many more fearful glances directed her way. Nobody dared stand in her way, likely due to the hook-chain she had casually wrapped around her body, letting the bloody hook dangle at her side, or maybe due to the equally bloody cleaver she had on her other side. Either way, she came over and the small grin she had on her face bloomed into a full-fledged smile when she spotted Sabrina sleeping on my lap.

“Mother, have you found a little sister for me?” Lia asked, her voice easily loud enough to carry in the quiet room, maybe even wake a few of the sleeping people next door. It certainly was loud enough to disturb Sabrina, who tried to burrow deeper into my lap.

“Quiet, Lia, the little one is trying to sleep,” I chastised her, trying to maintain a stern demeanour while Sabrina’s burrowing was tickling me.

“Muh, okay,” she nodded, before sniffing the air, her head focusing on the plate I had used for the grilled meat earlier, “You made food? Where is it?” she asked, looking incredibly eager.

“Sadly, it’s all gone,” I shook my head, “The little one had her fill, and the rest was demolished by the locals. They’ve been subsiding on canned goods and stuff since the change, no fresh meat at all,” I added, amused at the look of horror on her face. The only time she had really been left without fresh meat to hunt was while she had been Shattered, a time she barely remembered.

“We’ll have to go hunting again,” Lia decided, before briefly looking around the room. “Where are your friends? And did you figure out why Silva wanted us to come here?”

“Jenn and Chris went back to bed, they’ve got to deal with a baby, I think they get their sleep whenever they can,” I explained, before gently poking the sleeping child on my lap, “And in regards to the other question, this is Sabrina, Silva brought us here for her. I’ve got some ideas about the significance but whether they are true, I’ve got no idea,” I admitted, before nodding for Lia to take the other side of the couch. I had some thinking and planning to do.