I was beginning to figure out how things worked here. Having a somewhat unique perspective of seeing in everyone's head at once, I was probably the foremost expert at knowing just what the hell was going on with all these multiple realities everyone was experiencing.

It was, on one hand, frustrating and a bit headache-inducing. I'd realized that subconsciously, at least, I'd become a bit like AEGIS with her cam-drones in relying on other people's perceptions and thoughts to keep track of everything going on around me -- Athan and the gang's, most of all, since they'd so insistently integrated themselves into my life. And suddenly having none of those perspectives in agreement was hurting my head more than I thought possible.

But on the other hand, damn was it entertaining. Especially the bit where Karu went off and murdered all Lia's friends, or the part where I got to murder everyone or...well, most things involving murder were pretty much up my alley. Most of the time, most of these guys were just too uptight about a little senseless slaughter. But with the extra layer of being removed from it all...or even from themselves…

Well.

Point was. I thought I was doing okay.

Until I sorta, kinda, got in touch with a god.

Yeah, that kinda put things in a new perspective.

From about the time I crawled through the gap in the inner wall, I met minds with the entity at the center of this whole place. The 'our god' they kept prattling on about, and also the only resident of Oasis who wasn't, as I'd dubbed them, a toad.

'Our God' was, basically, the opposite of a toad. In a couple of ways. Instead of my mind sliding off of...his? Hers? Its? It felt like I was actively being drawn in. Like...the open intimacy that Athan and I could share, except the town slut version of that. Free access to anyone who wanted a hit. Like this was a mind that was accustomed to being completely open and exposed to others.

And also, in exact opposition to a toad's, there was the opposite of nothing going on in that mind; there was way too much. It felt like...well, it was hard to comprehend, being so goddamn alien, but I had to figure out just what the hell I was living here.

For starters, all the lives of everyone in the city were in here. Not their thoughts...not their simulated realities either, but something...kind of both. It was like...focusing on a piece of music so intently that you could pick out a single instrument and follow it. Watch it dancing up and down the scales, envision the notes it was playing as they struck. That was something I used to do as a child, when I had my requisite Asian music classes.

Except instead of an instrument, it was a person, and not quite their thoughts but...something counterpoint to a thought. Whatever a thought was, if you took the mold of it and had all the negative space that would make a thought into a whole, that was what this thing was full of. And there was a goddamn symphony of those, hundreds and hundreds of them all playing in concert, with this god-thing being the conductor and band at once, beaming out these inverse-thought-things to everyone in the city, every toad outside the city, just...a crap ton of people.

The illusions or multiple realities or whatever was part of it, sure. But there was so, so much more going on, such an interplay between this thing and the minds under it. There were rules, too. Shortcuts made by this mind-thing to help it rule. How the guards were programmed to defend the city from outsiders, and we'd slipped through the loophole of not being outsiders. How anyone in the visions could see and hear clergy if they were within the inner city, how Athan and we had been able to see and hear and fight Dragon and Rio, even if not each other.

I was just...floored by the massive might of the mind in front of me, and all the gargantuan piles of senseless shit I couldn't begin to wrap my head around.

I could, however, say hi. And I did. And boy, did that throw it for a loop.

Dragon looked at me, aghast as I'd ever seen him. Rio went limp in Athan's arms. Athan and all the others sorta flinched as their realities returned to normal. Everyone in the city shuddered to a stop. Toads around the world froze in their tracks. And the mind, the Our God, it looked at me and blinked in absolute incomprehension, all of its million minds stilled at once at my little introduction.

And then, like a pot of water boiling all at once, hi frothed through the minds, a billion times over, both asked and stated, both question and answer, a thought more concrete and less complex than any this thing had in...in hundreds of years at least, I could feel.

Hi. I hadn't even been casual enough to throw it my typical flippant 'sup, and I kind of regretted it when I saw what a big production this suddenly was.

"Saga?" Athan asked with all the coherence of a drunk. "What's going on? Why can't I...where are you?"

I didn't really have the bandwidth to deal with him at the moment, so overwhelmed was I by the billions of echoing hi and the mind babbling them. "I'm here, silly, I'm just...busy," I said, dismissively.

"Busy? With...Saga, tell Karu to stop! Wait...I can tell her on my own. Karu!"

I had to laugh. He sounded so insistent, so scared. Here I was, basically running my fingers through the clouds of heaven and he was almost passing-out from brain failure, and still he was so concerned with petty shit.

"Busy with fixing all your problems, Athan. It always seems to fall to me to pick up your messes. And you are one messy, dirty boy. Not that I mind," I said, trying to ease his mind.

"What are you doing? This is a really bad time to be fucking around, Saga," he said.

"Oh. I know. I'm helping, like I said." He had absolutely no idea what was going on here. "Lia's my friend too, you know. And I thought, I'd be damned if I let her die without at least coming in there and maybe getting stabbed myself. And I'm so glad I did."

"Because...you didn't get stabbed? I'm so lost."

"Because I'm speaking to their manager. I found the guy that runs the place. And he and I are having a nice chat about employee performance at this joint."

"Their god?" he asked.

"The very same."

"BLASPHEMER!" Dragon shouted, his voice like thunder. Actually made me jump a little. And actually made Our God jump a little too, through me. It didn't like that, it felt waves of irritation at feeling things, even just through me. I wondered if it was gonna go in and blow up Dragon's brain or something like that.

But it didn't, couldn't really, I felt. It didn't work that way. Sure, the thing had absolute control over what we saw and felt, but it wasn't really running that shit any more Athan was in charge of manufacturing his own piss. I guess that wasn't a terrible metaphor, in that...in a weird way, all who were under Our God's umbrella were sort of extensions of it. Not in the slavery sense that Athan was harping on about, but in a...one-body-under-one-mind kinda thing. It was itself formless; its form was everyone. It directed people as it wanted, but it didn't do so directly. Maybe a better metaphor would be...that the visions were like nerve impulses, and people were its muscles.

Which reminded me of a conversation we'd had long, long ago about how powers worked. They weren't something we could turn off, they were just...another muscle to flex, to our minds. They acted as involuntarily as our bodies.

Well this thing was taking it to another level, using its power to run our bodies and our powers. Creepy as hell.

Also went a long way towards explaining all the jank we'd run into since figuring out our situations -- the toads weren't really people anymore, they were dedicated vessels. The 'toad'-ness of them was their own minds atrophying as our god-dude here removed from them the burden of decision-making and slowly converted them into just a piece of itself. Each bit had specific duties, and anything outside of that, they just weren't equipped to handle.

Kinda made me proud that we were gumming up the works so effectively, honestly.

Despite just screaming at me a moment ago, Dragon was now fully wigging out, as was Rio, who'd been dumped unceremoniously on the ground. She seemed to be seizuring a teensie bit, and he was...well, he was doing his best existential-breakdown impression, melodrama-ing it up as hard as he could. The whole nine yards -- on his knees, holding his head, screaming at an uncaring sky.

At least he'd let Lia go. Or, more specifically, the second he'd shown weakness, she'd broken free and stuck his own knife in his arm. He hardly seemed to care about that when the sheer, edgy oppression of the world was apparently bearing down on his blackened, miasmic soul, or some shit.

Kinda wanted Our God to get ahold of itself because the screaming was kind of annoying. That and seeing the infinite cosmos of its works was a heckuva lot better than this weird echoing burble it was doing with hi.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Our God reacted sheepishly to this thought, as though embarrassed to remember it was supposed to be doing something, and then all at once, picked up right where it'd been, a thousand worlds and a thousand minds swept right back up into their matching realities.

It was funny to see everyone else suddenly jolt as their worlds changed around them. Rio stopped thrashing and Dragon stopped screaming, both of them peering around with an intensity of a lovestruck couple picking out their soul-mates at an airport terminal. It was kinda gross.

But still, somehow better than Dragon regaining his feet, panting for breath, putting his disgusted sneer back on, and shouting all number of threats at me.

Apparently I was a blasphemer and ruiner of all things, corruptor of purity, annihilator of all that was just and right, defiler of all sacred and sacrosanct, unraveller of truth and enscriber of falsehood. He didn't say all that, but that was the jist of half of what he was saying. The other half were the horrible things he'd inflict on me, as properly due for all the above.

I yawned, obviously, and strutted my scrawny ass right up to his face.

"Dragon. Dude," I said, while he sputtered. "Here."

I took the knife out of his arm, which spackled a line of red on the white floor, and pressed it into his palm. Handle-side first, because I was making a point here, not a hole. And then I took that hand, placed it over my heart, point-side this time, and invited him in.

Still hurt like a bitch when he punched through though, and my heart did that thing where it sprayed blood all over that it liked to do. He hardly blinked, until I stood up, and then he couldn't stop blinking.

"Who are you?" he asked, though I didn't think the question was really genuine, because he killed me again instead of letting me answer.

"Saga," I said, from my back when I came to. "Nice ta meet'cha."

"Heretic!" he bellowed. And of course the killing again. Always the killing. Dude needed to take a chill pill.

He kept this up a while before it sunk in that not much was really being achieved. At which point it was apparently time to go back to questioning me.

"What is this? What have you done!?"

"Dude, chill. I'm just an Exhuman who doesn't die."

"Which you should know," Athan said, with an unbearable grin. "Because I hear you know all the Exhumans on the planet. Part of your calling, I thought?"

"Ooooooh," added Lia, helpfully.

Which meant, wait...the visions had started up again, but we were outside of them still. Or...at least...could see each other? I pondered for a moment and then realized that wasn't necessarily true. It was possible I was just seeing a new vision, which matched up with where I was right now. I wondered if all of Our God's little workers just had a moment of sudden, unexplainable deja-vu or something, which they'd all forget about in a moment.

Although, difficult as it was to pull myself out of its mind, I did flip through the thoughts of the others and it seemed like we were all in order here. Disorienting as fuck, having so many realities to keep track of.

And then I got stabbed again and died. Oh yeah. Got distracted from the murderer climbing atop me. Silly me.

"Satisfied?" I asked him. "You've only done me like, thirty times now in a row. I know you've got some stamina to you, but goddamn."

"You will explain yourself. You will...you will stop...interfacing with our god!"

I yawned again. Died again. Came back again, with a saucy wink.

I still couldn't see inside Dragon's head, or any other toad's, but I could kinda get an impression from the other side, from inside Our God. And I was surprised by what I saw.

While most of them were living in what amounted to a normal world, albeit a very simplified one where they just bumbled down paths left obvious to them, stripped of decisions to make for their dumbed-down minds.

Dragon's world was...just normal. There wasn't any supernatural bullshit being crammed into him by his god, just...the world. It was bizarre, that he apparently grew up here, in a totally normal reality and wound up...so off.

Speaking of which, he offed me again, which pulled me out of the whole god-mind interfacing bit. I had to wonder if he was doing that on purpose, and thought I'd tease it out of him.

"You get it now?" I told him. "I'm not afraid of you. You can do nothing to me."

"I can inflict pain," he said darkly. I rolled my eyes at him and snapped my middle finger backwards with a crack, and then held it up for him to see. When it came back, I was also making a convenient gesture for him to enjoy. Bonus!

Also confirmed that he wasn't aware that I couldn't psionic when I was dead. Which was neat.

"But this is impossible. There's no record of such an Exhuman."

"Oh there is, it's just like, a hundred years old. I was actually on the news a few months ago, blowing up the Raven's Nest, too. You miss that one?"

"That was a publicity stunt to dupe the recalcitrant into accepting his mold," Dragon argued, pointing at Athan.

"Yeah, I miss Blackett, too. Guy was pretty good about turning bad situations to his advantage. And kind of a slimy prick like you, with a penchant for killing lil' ol me. You sure you're not related?"

At that he merely killed me again. He was sure taking his time to figure out my schtick over there.

"Oh, should I not have said that? Daddy issues? I understand."

He spoke, but not to me. At AEGIS this time. "How do you tolerate her existence? Why do you suffer her company?"

AEGIS gave a calculated shrug. "Useful meatshield, I guess. I think Athan wants to turn her into some S&M toy."

"I do not!"

"Oh, and a code-X," I said, twisting the knife. I enjoyed watching all kinds of unfamiliar expressions crossing and recrossing Dragon's face, and I was pretty sure he was going to kill me another thirty times, before he finally just settled on defeat.

"Then it is the end," he said. "We have failed. I have failed."

"Failed what, bub?"

He stared at me intently. "Failed our god. There was only one law, and that was to permit no fiend of mind to touch him, and we failed."

"Oh. Yeah you did. I'm touching him all over."

Dragon trembled, and I kinda wished he'd get off of me. I'd expected Athan to be a pathetic noodle at situations like this, but seeing Dragon let himself go was something else.

Suddenly I got my wish. As though pulled aloft, Dragon rose off of me, and over by the buildings, Rio got up as well, like they'd just heard a dog whistle. The rest of us exchanged glances before I picked up on it too -- a distant rumbling, more felt than heard, coming from...everywhere it seemed like.

"Now?" he panted. "Why now?"

"It is too early," Rio said. "It hasn't been a month even."

I cocked my head this way and that and realized the rumbling wasn't coming from everywhere, it was coming from the white stone, which was basically everywhere. It was vibrating, so little that it wasn't perceptible to the touch, just...a weird, low-key background noise, almost like static.

"Uh, what's that mean?" Lia asked.

Rio snapped to face her with surprising speed. "Visitors. Maybe invaders. Hopefully just traders. I...apologize, but the good of the city demands we attend." She chewed her lip for a few seconds. "Or...that's what I would say. Black hells, I have no idea what to do. Between you all, and our god, and now this--"

She seemed anxious to go. I found it interesting that Our God had seemingly zero interest in the fact people were showing up, or if he did, it wasn't any kind of interest I could interpret as such. Not like how it'd fixated on me saying hello. To it, this was all just business as usual, I guess. People coming and going.

"Just turn them away?" asked Athan. "Or wait, better idea. Saga, break us out of this shit, and then we'll just leave your little city with those nice people. Tidy up all your problems at once."

Rio gave a somber smile. "I doubt it. You are here to stop me from making weapons, correct?" He nodded, and she continued. "Then I doubt you'd leave with them peacefully, as there is only one export from Oasis."

"Then just tell them you're done making guns. Shop's closed."

"I would never!" she shouted, suddenly flustered. "That is my calling! And it sustains the city, besides!"

"Technically," AEGIS cut in, pushing up her glasses as she liked to do, "making weapons is your calling. Nobody says you have to distribute them to the world."

"Making the best weapons. And there is no way to quantify that if they are not tested on a battlefield. Art such as mine cannot live in a museum."

"I mean...it could," Lia shrugged. "But if the issue is really just her feelings, can't we just kill her?"

"I agree," added Karu, weapons humming.

"How about we put that as plan B," Athan said, giving Rio a significant glance. "As much as I also just want to get out of here and get back to Moon, it sounds to me like we've still got options. Peaceful options. For once in our lives, Dragon and I are somehow not trying to kill each other and…" he gave an exhausted, defeated shrug "and maybe that's just making me tired and sentimental, but I really think we can figure out a better way."

"But not a faster way. And faster is better," Karu clarified.

"I've always said, killing is a failure, dude," Athan replied. "Any time you kill, it's just because you weren't willing to put in the effort to figure out a better solution. Right now, it doesn't seem like anyone needs to die."

Rio gave him a warm nod. "Thank you."

"Thank me after we work something out. I might be sparing your life in exchange for your calling."

"Well at least you are willing."

"The way I see it, if Dragon's willing to stop trying to kill me, I can at least hear you guys out. He's the psycho murderer here, not me."

"I have only ceased," Dragon growled "because I have realized the futility of action. No matter what I do, she will destroy our god, and our lives with a thought. All is already lost."

"Yeah, sucks to suck, doesn't it?" I grinned at him.

The ground tremble-hummed again, making Rio and Dragon both seem very nervous.

"We should go," she said. "If they attempt the gates, the warriors will have no choice but to interpret it as an assault. Only the high clergy can see and speak with them as people."

"Well you're not going alone," Athan said. As Rio started to express something resembling thanks, he cut her off. "Because we're not letting you sell them any more guns."

"And I'll be right here holding your little god hostage," I said, looking around for a nice tree to camp under. "So, y'know, keep that in mind."

Rio looked between us, mouth open, wordless, before slumping in defeat.

"I understand," she said. "Let us be off."