“You all did an excellent job. Seriously, kudos to you,” Lucy writes to me. “You’ve taken down your first palace, despite facing some pretty unique challenges. I expect great things to come from you in the future, Ashley.

“That said… I am disturbed by some parts of your account. The fact that you have somehow already drawn the attention of Moloch is very troubling. Yes, I am familiar with him. In addition, fighting a monster made out of metal like that is very unusual for a palace. It is rare for the interference to be so direct. They must have been expecting you.

“Okay, I think I owe an explanation as to what I’m talking about. Let’s start with Moloch.

“Moloch is essentially a sort of shapeshifting demon. He is able to take a variety of human forms. Moloch usually takes the form of a man, like you have seen, but technically has no physical form and has appeared as a woman in the past. He also may be able to turn into more monstrous forms, though I have not personally seen him do this. Moloch will usually try and present himself as someone extremely attractive to whoever he is addressing. He probably tried to take the form of an attractive man because your group had two girls and a boy, and so he figured it would give him the best odds. It sounds he was right, but not in the way he expected. When Moloch first approached me, he presented as a male, but the charm didn’t work on me because I’m a lesbian. The next time we met, he took the form of a woman. One time, he even tried taking the form of one of my previous lovers, which I admit almost worked. I still have no idea how he knew to do that. Anyways, you probably figured this out based on your own personal experience, but Moloch is an evil bastard, and you should not trust a single thing he says, ever.

“I have been trying to decipher Moloch’s agenda for decades, and have not derived much. He seems to like to hang out around areas in the United States where power is concentrated; government, churches, and rarely, large businesses. Moloch usually doesn’t act directly. He likes to plant “seeds” in the Shadow Realm that infect people automatically when left to their own accord. More on that later. I already knew that Moloch carries out extensive operations in Texas, and the information you’ve given me further confirms this. I think that he is also involved somehow in activity in both coastal regions. My good friend in California has recently reported strange things happening in the region, though I still need to investigate this more thoroughly. In addition, I think I may on the cusp of uncovering a dark secret in the northeastern US, which I’m convinced that Moloch is behind.

“As for this ‘Mask Person…’ I usually just call her ‘The Dark Trooper.’ Yes, don’t be fooled by the voice, I’m pretty sure this person is a woman. She has been working for Moloch for about as long as I have been working against him. I don’t know much about her history. And yes, that gem you saw implanted into her gun is something like the pink one that you have. I would love to know how she got it. I suspected that she had found a fourth stone, but I have yet to see it, so I’m very glad that you reported this detail to me. Since it is green, we will name it the Emerald Stone.

“And finally, let’s talk about Moloch’s ‘seeds.’ Thanks to your work, I can now say without a shadow of a doubt that Moloch has planted an evil entity in the southern US. I call this entity “Eris,” and it has taken the form of a woman the few times I’ve seen it. Eris’s purpose is to take people in the region who have impure hearts, and corrupt them to the level of being unrecognizable. The judge you fought was clearly not finished being corrupted, so it’s a good thing that you got to him when you did; you have saved your locality a lot of future trouble. It seems as if Eris took an existing monster and made Pavia a part of it. Usually, the reverse happens; Eris’s influence causes a person to grow into a monster organically. Judging by this, I can only assume that Moloch somehow knew you were coming.

“These ‘seeds’ are extremely difficult to find and destroy. And trust me, we want to destroy them; they are responsible for corrupting people that have committed many atrocities in the past. I wouldn’t be surprised if some historical events, like the rise of Nazi Germany, were caused by some other supernatural entity planting a seed that got way too powerful. I have defeated a few of them in my day, but Eris so far has eluded me. Keep on defeating villains in the region, and eventually, you will find her.

“I can’t say for sure, but I’m guessing that the weird football stadium area your team ended up in was actually in the Shadow Realm. It sounds as if there are more entrances to the place, so I will try and find one of them. I would just love to take a closer look around there. Okay, I’ve talked enough. Any questions?”

“I’m going to be honest,” I write back, “I think I’m more confused now than I was before you started trying to explain everything. Are you saying that there’s been a supernatural war happening in America for decades that nobody knows about?”

“Well… it’s not really a war, it’s more like a bunch of competing espionage schemes. It’s okay if you don’t get it; I understand that this is a lot to take it. How about you sleep on it tonight, and we can talk about it later?”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Okay, sure.”

“Talk to you later. God bless.”

I close the journal and set it back into my drawer.

Well, it seems as though Lucy is now willing to fully spill the beans on this entire operation.

It sounds like she wants me and the others to take out “villains” in the region so that we can find and destroy this Eris character. It’s not a mission which I necessarily asked for, but I think that I should see it through anyway. For years, my fury at society has been pent up, so it feels good to finally be able to do something real about it.

Specifically, I have grown to loathe a certain type of person that is troublingly common around here: A person who claims to be a devout Christian, but their every action is inspired by greed and cruelty. You can say it’s a bit of a pet peeve of mine. And those feelings have only intensified after witnessing Zoe’s plight. Nobody is perfect; we are all sinners, after all. But for someone to so brazenly ignore the teachings of Christ- while claiming to act in the name of Christ- is not excusable.

Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox now. Speaking of Zoe, she’s currently sleeping in my lap. She dozed off while I was helping her with some biology work. She’s so cute when she’s sleeping. We’re probably going to have dinner before too long, but for now, I just let her rest, taking the time to play with her lovely curls. All the while, I keep an eye on my phone, as we wait for Nova’s update. Still, I don’t worry too much about it. We already put in the work. And in that moment, watching the sun set through my window, I feel a serenity like I haven’t in a long time. I can only assume that it’s the calm before the storm; soon enough, all hell is bound to break loose again. (I never claimed to be an optimist.)

----------------------------------------

Oh man, I just can’t wait for this. Soon enough, everything is going to change. My dad’s being all gloomy; my sister is biting her nails; my mom is wearing a smug expression. I feel pretty smug too- I’m remembering back to when I used my lightning powers to blow those winged things out of the sky. It happened here, in this very room, yesterday. Man, isn’t life weird?

The person I’m watching the closest, however, is Pavia himself. He’s just kinda… siting there. Looking over a bunch of notes. Kind of taking a long time. He seems… I don’t know. Uncertain, maybe?

After a while of this, he says, “Mr. Mosely… may I have a word with your two kids?”

“Um, sure,” my dad says. Kat and I walk up to him.

“Now, answer me honestly,” he says to us in a low voice. “You have been living with your father for the past few years… correct?”

“Yep,” I reply.

“Do you two feel… reasonably well cared for? Is your father a fit parent?”

“Absolutely,” my sister says, trying to push herself over the stand to make herself look taller. What a dork. “We may not have too much at our home… but dad does the best he can. We’re happy together.”

Pavia looks at me.

“Uh, what she said,” I say.

“Very well… you may be seated.”

We both sit back down where we were. Mom is getting antsy at this point. We hear a clip-clop as she walks up to the front in her high heels. (I never understood why women wear those. They look painful as hell.) She starts speaking to Pavia in a low voice. Eventually, though, they’re talking loud enough that we can hear it.

“…Make something of their lives. You can’t do this. You don’t want this on your conscious.”

“Madame, please. This is my court. Please take a seat and await my…”

“No. I cannot believe that I am being disrespected like this. You’re finished, you hear me? Oh, you laugh now, but I think that the ACLU will be very interested in knowing why you’re denying a mother the right to properly care for her children. They will certainly be notified…”

“You do that, then.”

My mother is infuriated. She begins walking back to her table, ranting as she walks. “This is the end of your career, you hear me? You have no idea what powers that you’re messing with.”

“Miss Vasquez, be real. I’ve proudly served this town for years now. Who’s going to replace me? Jared Carson?”

“Damn you!” My mom shouts. It seems like she’s finally lost her temper; she’s totally dropped her whole professional shtick. As she gets back to her table, she grabs it and flips it over in a rage. Then, she just grabs her briefcase and walks straight out without another word.

My dad is pretty confused by all this. “Um… Sir… Justice Sir… uh…?”

“Hmm… It seems as if my hunch about that woman was correct. I ought to report her for contempt of court… Anyways. Go to take your children home, Mr. Mosely.”

My dad’s eyes go wide like saucers. “Wait… are you serious?”

“Yes, I am. Upon further review of my notes over the case, I began to suspect that I was not taking into account all aspects of parental fitness. I have decided that you will retain custody of both children for the time being.”

“Well, that’s… great. Uh, thank you very much, Justice.”

“Wait, Dad won?” Kat said, looking positively giddy. “Awh hell yeah!”

“Excuse me young lady!” My dad interjected. “Do not use that kind of language here. Do you want the Justice to change his mind?”

Pavia apparently didn’t hear anything. “My apologies if I misjudged you at first. You had better take care of those kids. I don’t want to see you in this room again, understand?”

“Understood, sir. Absolutely, judge sir. I will do my very best,” my dad said awkwardly, getting up from his seat.

“May… may God’s blessing be upon you,” Pavia says.

“I very much appreciate that,” my dad says.

As we head for the back of the court, I nudge Kat in the ribs.

“I told you he was going to win, idiot. You didn’t believe me.”

“Oh shut up! You had no way of knowing,” Kat argued back. “Hey dad… do you think we can go to Sonic again to celebrate?”

My dad doesn’t respond immediately. He just laughs.

And man, is it a relief to see the last of this god damn courthouse. And you know what? I feel a really good feeling. I’m not really sure exactly how I’d describe it. It’s like… I did something really good, for myself. It’s like how it feels when I win a match on Pokémon Showdown, except like, times a hundred. It’s cool.

End of Arc 1

Thanks for reading!

Arc 2 will be coming in early 2020. Until then, have a good Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanza/Whatever!