"Of all the places to hide my son, my gift to you, why'd you choose here, Sair?" I ask the orb containing her essence. She does not reply in any meaningful way and her destructive obsession makes it pulse as if it is a club light. Walking down the kind of aisle I once saw my beloved walk down in a dress of shining white and pink, I look around. Idly repairing and dismantling the pews, windows, carvings and all that rests within this abandoned building.

I arrive at the stairway leading down into the hidden ritual chamber. At an uneducated glance, it seems like such a strange nuclear bunker, a god's greatest paranoid. Taking my first step down, I light up all the torches and change them to licking flames rather than proximity spells. Dripping water echoes up or down to me from somewhere and my feet deafen with regularity.

Coming to a stop by a small chamber on my right, I walk into it with a frown. My oldest friend slithers his tongue out as if to laugh about old bad memories. It was the first time I ever met him, back in this chamber after I was captured on that mailboy run. Those who had chained me up wanted his power, but, they could not do so without killing me.

Bashmu could not allow that lest he die too.

"You replaced a lot of my body, didn't you, you greedy little viper!" I hiss bemusedly at what was my greatest source of nightmares for some time. To be so vividly aware of the bloodshed your body was committing but to have no control over it. I might've even killed Sair and the others that night. Were it not for me already being riddled with desperate final impalements and full clips of priest-blessed bullets.

The spawn of Tiamat may not be of the same stock as devils, but, holy power still works quite fine. All that changes is the divine origin of the light-affected energy. I frown as I think back to my decision to not allow such a concept to exist in the current world of my children's design. Counteractive forces still came to be, but, not in the same way as they did as was the case during my mortality.

"So... What was your reason for making a place like this, Sair?" I ask pointlessly as I rub a hand on one of Bashmu's first acts after his release. To have never touched the physical world for two-thousand, five-hundred and seventy-nine years precisely. He must've been like a druggie at the point of breaking their addiction, only to be given such a bountiful dose.

My powers flash through the chamber as my mind gets to work trying to figure this place out. Nin claimed he touched a game piece here and then started to experience visions of some kind. No, a memory he was actively involved in, taking the driver's seat partially like a barely in-synch computer bed potato. Reversing the flow of time throughout this portion of creation, I watch Nin as he comes into the chamber.

I end my influence over such a fickle domain and bend over to pick up what I pulled from the past. A rook piece, that which can go in a straight line for as long as it wants, at least, until the walls of reality stop it. A thing I once considered magnificent, the ability to either reincarnate the traditionally unmagical mortals or, an enhancer. Sair took me in like that, granting me great strength in both muscle and skin.

"Despite my old piece being here, you never intended for me to find this place, did you?" I question Sair's compressed form as I pull her influence from the stone and metalwork. My mouth slowly opens as pleasant memories come through my mind. Her first pisstake, mine, first kiss, first handholding, the near sexual misses, the love, the laughter, the joy... I blink and compose myself.

Did she pull all of this out of herself so that she may hate me forever? Or, is this all the signs that she still does love me, that she is not so consumed by fire as my children would have me believe? I don't know what I would rather have. But, I do know I do not want what I have right now.

The chamber starts to vanish from existence as I step back onto the stairs. Heading all the way down, I look longingly at the great pyramid built underground. The man I based Iderim-Ovi on once fought his bloody way up those steps to save the girl crucified atop it. His Welsh power was quite explosive that night, so raw in its hatred for one black-winged woman.

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I sigh and shake my head, it was a painful beginning, but, it galvanised us all into something stronger. All because one little high school student couldn't keep it in his trousers when it came to a lovely if clutzy nun! Well, he could, but, barely. I huff a laugh as I recall how it was revealed that despite his debaucherous tendencies, he was actually incredibly disciplined.

As his confidence grew, he had to be, lest he wind up in a lovely courtroom for less than savoury actions. My smirk widens as I remember how I frustrated him so egregiously once I became king. They said Prima Nocta was a myth, but, I quite happily proved that one wrong. Sair flashes angrily as she seems to pick up on my reminiscing.

"I was quite the idiot, wasn't I?" I ask her as I sigh in remembrance over how badly I strained our relationship doing that. Shortsightedness took me over for the sake of having a laugh, a mighty good and stupid one. Walking up to the pyramid, I notice something in the shadows and I pull it out. Screaming and kicking, the one most likely to fit the description of Nin's lunatic comes face to face with me.

"WHY YOU SHITT-" he screams before I silence him.

"Let's open you up..." I mutter as I pop open the hood and look into his finer mechanics. Not a real mortal, but a mirage, one that can interact with the world and those within it. Nothing special, but, he must've been made for a reason given how out of the way this place is. Sair was smart in putting Iderim-Ovi here as I only come here for her.

Waving the annoyance out of time with fading, echoing screams, I lean against the stairs and stare up at the dark, cavern-like ceiling. Holding my hand up, the church and ceiling vanish in a blast of light that leaves a circle of retreating clouds. Shifting to a nighttime view, I slowly look to my left and blink at my delusion. My delusion of a smiling Sair, enjoying the starlight with me...

Putting a hand up, I start to pinch the distant glows and a growing collection of marble-like orbs appear. Rolling them out across the ground, I gently allow Sair's orb to join them and I sigh. All of them, my friends and companions from a time long gone. Their families and the rest of the world from there.

Staring up at the spiral of glittering light, I look away as I acknowledge what they are. The souls of all those who died because of me. Even the kingdom I did it for ended up being destroyed again because I somehow came to the conclusion it was an acceptable loss. Strange how that came to be, that which I worked to save was an acceptable loss... The new friends and companions I built up as well, when I fell from the burning sky with that bronze mask.

They all died, all of reality came undone until I was all that was left.

Pulling out the orbs of my closest friends, those I betrayed to save my kingdom, I let them float in front of me. Sair, Kone, Okena and Iakb, their orbs dance in wide orbits and swirls and glow as they make sparkling noise. More orbs join them and I look into myself somewhat literally, in my hands, a steadily growing array of treasures and weapons.

"Giving it all back won't bring you all back..." I remark as I pick up a mostly blue, gold-edged blade. A one-winged mortal comes to mind and I wipe my eyes clean of any annoying build-up. I've been in denial about it for so long, even as I recreate so much of what I destroyed through what might as well be copyright-evading knockoffs. Blades that can cut anything, the power to create and all these other simple things...

My fingers can't seem to...

"How many times do I have to say sorry and try...? Why does it never end? It just keeps happening over and over and I keep making things worse..." I cry as I hold the recreated souls of my friends and family close.

I start to shake my head.

"No... Iderim-Ovi, he came back to me. That mortal... He saved him when I had otherwise abandoned him. Nin... Nin Urtuan." I tell myself before my mind locks onto the mortal responsible for getting my son back to me. I open a one-way, undetectable view into his current locale.

Placing a hand on my chin, I watch him as he keeps testing the memory of a goddess. Slicing just a little bit more tart for himself with each greedy pressing of the knife. The odd bit of fruit falls or jagged break-off in the crust? He takes it into his bowl.

"It's a start... I'm one up from before, one up from before..." I mutter as I stop watching him with the wave of a tired arm. Bringing my mind back to the here and now, I get back to looking into the details behind this place's construction. I can figure it all out with less than the snap of my fingers if I wanted, but, I want some alone time.

I glance towards the souls as Kone's rolls towards me, independent of my actions.

Clutching her gently in my palm, I try to force a smile, "How about you, what can you figure?"