Marigold didn’t get close to Fomoria.

“You’re back.”

“I am here.”

He looked around the garden at a passing butterfly, and when it tried to land on his ethereal form, it became covered in his shadow.

Marigold watched it shift, growing in size and creating extra wings from nothing, then she burn it to ash with a fireball.

“That was unkind. I like butterflies.”

“Amber, I’m going to take that armor off, carefully.”

Marigold sliced cleanly, and Amber’s armor fell to the ground, but the clothes underneath were unharmed.

“Now. Fomoria, I have some questions.”

He cocked his head to the side.

“Do you know who I am?”

“Marigold.”

“Do you know where you are?”

“No.”

“Do you know how long you have been gone?”

“I don’t know. I saw time pass sometimes. Two weeks?”

She sighed.

“Do you know who this is?”

“Amber. She is my sister, and I love her very much.”

“Have you made contact with anyone before now? Have you touched them?”

He could trust her, right? So why didn’t he answer?

“Fomoria, have you made contact with anyone before you got here?”

“No.”

Fomoria straightened his stance and his tone became sharper, more what was remembered of him.

“Where did you make contact? How long has it been?”

“What are you going to do to them?”

“We need to study them. To make sure that they are safe. Do you know what your touch does to things?”

“Not yet. I need to…”

The words escaped him and his body language became softer.

“I need to do something with them. The woman with the roses, I did something like this with her.”

It took a moment to realize what he meant, but she moved past it.

“You know me, you know I don’t want to hurt anyone. Remember all the talks we had? I’m Mary, and I’m Marigold.”

“Mary…”

More memories came to him, yet they were not painful as some others, improving his mood rather than hurting him.

“I saved a mother and child. If I lead you to them, and any harm comes to them, I will hold you accountable. You might not think that I can, but I am unkillable now. The best you can hope for is to trap me somewhere and hope that I do not escape.”

“That is the Fomoria we all know. You have my word, I will not harm them without a very good reason.

We don’t know if your touch is poisonous yet. Can you retrace your steps to find them?”

“I… I can feel them. The mother, my magic is fading, but the infant, I left my mark.”

“Good. Amber, find Yara and go back to the camp, make sure Sepul doesn’t hear about this.”

“Alright.”

Fomoria seemed to teleport, but he was really just taking steps through the crossroads.

On Earth, there were overlapping worlds, Midgard, Elfheim, The Divine Lands, Hades, so on and so forth.

Aarde had just two, the physical world, and the crossroads.

Fomoria existed in both, and the crossroads were easier to travel through, a space where space didn’t really exist, a purely mental world.

When Marigold was near him, he was a mass of energy that was hard to look away from, and he easily passed that energy on to whatever else he touched.

But the moment he was out of sight, he was just background noise, he was invisible to everything, hence neither her or the other gods being able to find him since his return.

It made following him more than a little difficult.

“We need to put a bell on you.”

Out of nothing, he formed a bell and rang it, the sound sending a chill up her spine for reasons she didn’t understand.

“Nevermind, no bell.”

He shrugged and kept walking, not even conscious of how fast he was moving.

They came upon the small cottage, and nothing seemed amiss.

“This is the place?”

She saw a young boy peering out the window, then the father came out with an arrow knocked.

“What do you want from us?”

His eyes were fierce, and his bow bore the crest, the skull and broken chain.

“Your wife nearly died, but was rescued by a black mark on her chest, the same as your child. I am here to make sure they are still alright.”

Fomoria raised his hand and the hunter saw the shape.

“He… he did that? The devil in the shadows?”

“This is Emperor Fomoria.”

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The man knelt, there was not a doubt in his mind once the pieces were put in front of him that her words were true.

“My most sincere apologies, your majesty. I had no idea that it was you.”

“It’s fine. May I see them?”

“Of course.”

The mother was inside making dinner rolls, and Fomoria looked intently at her hands, rushing past the hunter before he had a chance for introductions.

“Your rolls aren’t proper, they won’t be even, they will open up.

Fold over at the bottom, then cup your hand over them and roll in circles, the bottoms will seal into perfect balls.”

“Oh. I’ve never been good at this. I was a maid, not a baker.”

She turned around and saw him, but hardly reacted.

“Your majesty, it has been some time.”

“Mary, did I know this woman?”

He cocked his head to the side.

“Not that I know.”

“I was a maid, before that, a slave. You saved me from a market, and I met my husband while buying supplies. I don’t know that we shared more than a half dozen conversations, but you were always a wonderful man. I shouldn’t be surprised that you showed up in my hour of need and saved my daughter.”

She began to cry, kneeling in prayer towards him; she was part of the Cult of Fomoria.

“Thank you, thank you for everything you’ve done. I wouldn’t be standing here, I wouldn’t be a mother.

I would’ve just been another body in the service of some monster.”

Her husband rubbed her shoulders.

“I’m very sorry. I don’t remember.”

His flames became dimmer.

“It doesn’t matter, you saved me, you saved my daughter.”

Marigold found it all touching, it genuinely did pain her to do it, but she came for a reason.

“I need to examine you and your daughter. Fomoria is… not himself, his powers are unknown.”

“Is that why he abandoned us?”

“No, that’s because he died. His soul and mind were severed. It’s taken him this long to regain consciousness, and he has yet to take a body of his own. It’s a miracle that he is back at all in such a short time.”

“My daughter is resting, you’ll need to wait. His blessing has faded, but I still have it on my chest.”

“Fomoria, why don’t we examine her somewhere more private.”

“There isn’t a person in this room who hasn’t seen her breasts before.”

The comment gave Marigold whiplash. It was back to his more normal voice, it was his cold wit, but the target was strange; He would’ve minced his words when dealing with someone like her.

Marigold ran her battery of tests, and found the woman to be healthy, overly so even.

“When you were touched by him, how long before you recovered?”

“I began to feel better in just a few moments, and in a minute I was in perfect health.”

“Strange. Fomoria, how bad was the infant?”

“There was a woman, she wanted her, but I told her no.”

“A woman?”

“With the big horns, the ones that go up and then in, like triangles.”

“You saw Life? And she let you save the mother and daughter?”

“Yes.”

“Well then. Simply put, your daughter was dead, and healing magic takes energy from both the caster and the subject. He shouldn’t have been able to save her, he shouldn’t have been able to save you.”

“That is how great his majesty is.”

“No. It means… There are things at play that I don’t have the time or desire to explain to you. All you need to know is that his magic saved you, and so far as I can tell, you have no ill side effects.

Now I need to see your daughter.”

“She’s sleeping.”

“I understand, you don’t know me, you don’t trust me, but I will examine your daughter, and she will be calmer being held by her mother.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

Fomoria’s body twitched and his face froze.

Then as though nothing happened, he returned to himself.

“I’m sorry. Please, you can trust her. She didn’t mean to threaten you. It was a misunderstanding.”

“You can examine her, can’t you.”

“I don’t even remember who I am. I had to be told my name, that I had a sister, that I have three sisters, that I have a wife. I can’t trust myself with this. Please, just ease her mind, mother to mother.”

“You have children?”

“I… I had and lost. Please, your daughter may be in danger, we don’t know what Fomoria’s new powers do to living beings, and infants are so sensitive to magic.”

“Of course. I’m sorry, I-”

“No, no need. I understand what it’s like to constantly worry about them.

Even with them gone, I still think of what might’ve been done to change things, hundreds of years make no difference.”

The cottage had two rooms, really, just a main room where the rest lived, and a large closet with a window.

It wasn’t something built by the family, they simply found the cottage while fleeing from Kor.

The crib she rested in however, was made by the father, along with most of the furniture.

Their guess was that it was a hunting cottage, part of many others in the area, likely owned by the Cast and abandoned after they fled.

The first thing Marigold noticed was troubling at first.

“She isn’t breathing.”

“WHAT?”

“It’s fine, really.”

The mother ran to grab her, but Marigold held her back.

“She’s perfectly healthy.”

She was shaking with tears in her eyes and her husband rushed to her side.

“The mark seems to be providing everything she needs. Has she eaten since being revived?”

“Hardly at all. I was worried she might be getting sick again.”

“That makes sense. Her body is small and the requirements are as well. Likely by being in the sunlight the mark is absorbing that light mana that comes from it and decides to stop breathing or eating.

Fomoria, you told me on the way here that you intended to keep the mark on her forever?”

“Yes. So she would never need to worry about her health, so she could have a better childhood than-”

He froze up and contorted again as he processed the memories he had.

Marigold just left him to do that and examined the infant more.

“I can’t say if it really will last forever, but it shows no weathering on the edges, the size and shape are exactly like Fomoria’s hands are now, so it likely hasn’t shrunk any. The issue is really that we have no idea what exactly the mark does. I am going to leave for now, but I will give you something to think about.

I want to move you inside of The Veil, away from all of this, so we can monitor the long term effects of the mark on a developing child.”

“How long do we have?”

“I will return the morning after next. When Fomoria wakes up-”

He returned to normal and let out deep guttural bellows.

“We will get out of this place. I have my own questions for you now.”

“Morning after the next.”

The husband and wife nodded.

Fomoria stood in a nearby clearing, his body gaining more definition.

The vagueness and vapor gave way to musculature and a flowing cloak.

But his face was still a mess of fire, his eyes still squiggly white holes.

“How is my family?”

“Your parents took very little time to understand what happened. It seems Harlan collects strange and esoteric texts which your father reads and shockingly understands. He’s like you in that sense, he leapt far ahead in some ways but is still missing certain somewhat fundamental skills.

His time at the academy has shown him to be a very good mage really, just someone who doesn’t learn well with the rigid teaching they have in the army.

Ava took it hard. She didn’t seem to think you would be back in years. She also finally found a man who could meet Harlan’s standards.

Amber, you saw her already, but she’s become a strong military leader and is doing everything she can to keep the peace.

Autumn… she just acted like it didn’t matter. I think she either understands more than I can tell, or she understands nothing of it but has faith in you.

Darrath is safe, Periwinkle has prevented Xol from getting near the island, though nobody else can either.”

“Is there anyone else I care about?”

“Mercedes, do you remember her?”

“She… she does more than I can thank her for. I don’t know if my empire would be where it is now without her.”

“The camp we set up to take the refugees from Kor is being run by her. Your sister keeps the peace with a sword and she with a pen. The empire somehow hasn’t collapsed entirely, mostly because you built so many powerful allies and not every Other is dead yet.

Carmilla is gone, and I don’t know where. She and I fought Xol once, then she just disappeared with her daughter.”

He looked away from her.

“How long? How long have I been away from here? Doing nothing as everything I built is destroyed and everyone I love put in danger.”

“What matters is what we do going forward.”

“How long?”

“Six months.”

He didn’t reply anymore, he asked no more questions, yet Marigold wasn’t allowed to leave, lest the gods lose track again.