Karena leaned back in the plush seat with a sigh of satisfaction.

First-class accommodations were so much better than the cramped shuttle seats she’d been forced to sit in before obtaining her new position.

To think it all came about because she wanted to hide the manipulated falsehoods that had been put on her record. Her old boss had twisted the truth and made things sound so much worse than they were. And the worst part was that the Commander had gone along with it!

She’d gone to school with his daughter! He knew her! Well… he’d known what she showed him, but wasn’t that the case with everyone? Nobody showed their true self, or else they’d risk exile.

Everyone knew that!

Thinking about the betrayal still caused her hands to unconsciously ball into tight fists. Hearing that his precious space station had somehow crashed into Sumar had felt like karmic retribution.

It probably was, given the appearance of the gods just a month or so earlier.

When the request to aid Gentrius came, Karena had been excited to volunteer. They handed her a blaster and made her go through a week of training, but it was pretty simple.

You point and shoot at the monsters. You didn’t even need to aim, really. The weapon basically did it all as long as you were pointing in the general direction of a monster.

Before they left the wastelands – she refused to call it Horizon or Harvest or whatever the idiot locals wanted to call it – she’d worried that her citizenship might be denied because of the wording on her exile paperwork.

She didn’t want the misleading document to keep her from regaining everything she’d lost. She wanted to hide it, so it made sense to pray to a goddess whose domain involved secrets.

The worst that could happen was nothing.

But that wasn’t what happened. Lady Grace was able to see her, to recognize the worth she held. The goddess understood and valued her.

Her secrets were laid bare, and Lady Grace accepted her, and even offered her a class upgrade. She was able to shift from being a boring Analyst to a Priestess. Karena hadn’t hesitated for a second. She’d known the value of advanced classes.

She also knew such changes normally took a race upgrade to achieve, but not for her!

Karena was special. She’d always known that about herself, but to have it verified by an actual goddess? It was one of the highest points of her life.

It grated on her to pretend to be normal. But secrets were a crucial part of her goddess’s domain. Even her new class had to be hidden.

Karena could admit that hiding her association with the Goddess of Assassination and Secrets was probably a good idea. She didn’t want people to get the wrong idea about her, after all.

As far as the other aspect of Lady Grace’s domain… well, there was a time and place for everything. She’d focus on the ‘secrets’ part and leave the ‘assassination’ to others.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Mostly, she smirked to herself as the shuttle stopped climbing, and one of the stewards began taking food orders from the other first-class passengers.

Food on a shuttle used to be horrible, but with the arrival of magic… It was like going to a restaurant. Everything was fresh and perfectly made.

Karena took her time perusing the menu. It was smaller than she would have liked, but it was fine. She was on a shuttle, after all.

Once the steward moved on to the next person, Karena’s thoughts drifted back to the reason she was traveling in the first place.

Isamie Stone.

Who would have thought that little tramp would manage to land herself a seat on a city council, especially after her face and the fact that she was an exile were shared with everyone?

Isamie had to be a very accomplished liar to manage such a feat.

Perhaps she worshipped Lady Grace, too? If so, the goddess obviously didn’t care about her. Otherwise, Karena was sure she’d get some kind of warning feeling when she thought about usurping the younger woman’s authority.

Karena hadn’t been able to obtain any details about Isamie’s fall from grace, but it had to have been spectacular. The leadership had been sucking up to the so-called genius way too much for her to get exiled over anything minor.

Isamie certainly wouldn’t have been exiled if she’d been in Karena’s place. They probably would have bent over backward to get rid of whoever bothered her.

In fact, wasn’t that basically what they’d done? Isamie had made a complaint against Karena, and everyone jumped to make her happy, even if she was only going to be living on the ship part-time.

They were looking for reasons to get rid of Karena, all because their little prodigy didn’t like her.

Karena had known from the moment she saw the girl that she’d be nothing but trouble, and she was right!

Sure, things ultimately worked out for the best, but that was because Karena had taken control of her destiny instead of allowing herself to be pushed along. Karena was sure she could have easily managed the same – or greater – heights without the stigma associated with becoming an exile.

But none of that mattered now.

Karena was powerful in her own right, as both a Priestess for a real goddess and the wife of a very important businessman.

She was blessed, in the truest sense of the word.

And her blessing was totally worth a little secrecy.

She might not be able to punch a monster or throw fireballs at her enemies, but that didn’t mean anything when she could just pay someone to do those tasks for her.

Karena had power where it mattered.

And she was going to use that power to gain more power while coincidentally ruining that little tramp’s life. Isamie Stone deserved it.

She was a real exile, after all.

Karena had little doubt the little genius had gone power-crazy or something. She’d probably gotten drunk on her little successes and showed her true colors.

It was just unfortunate that Karena couldn’t access anything about other exiles, much less Isamie. Either the servers housing the information had been destroyed during the monster attacks, or someone had hidden it in a way that prevented her blessing from allowing her to find it.

It was probably the first since she doubted her goddess would be restricted from mundane information sources.

Then again, being able to find something was not the same as being able to access it.

Regardless, the details behind the other girl’s exile didn’t really matter. If she couldn’t access the records, it was doubtful any of the people she associated with could.

And Karena never bought the whole ‘she’s a tech genius’ thing her bosses and coworkers tried to sell her about the girl. She might be smart, but there was nothing special about her.

If Karena couldn’t gain access to the records, that meant Isamie certainly couldn’t. And since nobody could prove or disprove anything about exile records…

Karena grinned as her meal was delivered, though she barely noticed.

She had made plans as soon as she learned Isamie was alive and in a position of power. Karena had put together a team that would ensure Miss Stone’s authority was undermined and her reputation ruined, just like Karena’s had been.

Getting a foothold into the burgeoning city was still her primary goal – business before pleasure, and all of that. But it wasn’t like she couldn’t accomplish both tasks at once.

With her blessing to see that which was hidden, Karena should have no trouble ousting the girl.

She wouldn’t attack her directly; that would be too obvious. Besides, there were plenty of people on the council she could use as proxies, given enough time. People were easy to manipulate if you knew their secrets and weaknesses.