It occurs to me as I stare up at the night sky of the Shadowed Plane that I don’t remember what happened with that damnable vampire.

But I’m definitely too weak to ask now.

Artemis took me here as soon as I asked, as though my life depended on it.

Maybe it did.

Either way, I can feel the plane’s lifeforce draining into me, slowly filling a yawning chasm I don’t remember ever having been there.

How did I never notice this before?

I asked my foxkin… partner, to check the status of the plane once I’d recovered enough to think clearly and she’d moved me to a relatively safe place, concealing me with a thick blanket of illusions.

When she’d returned, she’d confirmed that it was all leveled.

Everything. Even the castle.

My home is a flat desert.

I sigh.

So much work. So much effort, even if I was and am so stupid and slow to apply it.

But I’m not going to give up.

I’m going to rebuild this place, even if it’s to spite…

…

“Artemis?” I ask quietly. “Who was behind this? Do we know?”

She blinks at me. “Remember?” she asks.

“No. No I don’t. I… forced that vampire into submission, and then I… I don’t remember.”

Tilting her head, the foxkin reaches into her furs and retrieves her writing tablet.

The same old writing tablet, worn with time. I remember when I gave her that for…

For…

When did I give her that? I didn’t give her that, she already had…

Ugh.

It doesn’t matter.

She seems to be done writing anyway, at least for now. She holds the tablet where I can see it.

Erebus, it reads. Erebus, Dolos, Themis.

The vampires were always Erebus’ subjects from the beginning.

Themis provided the radiant weapons. Apparently there were more than just the chain thing that Aubrey had been using.

And Dolos… motherfucking Dolos. He planned the whole thing, as a spectacle for the gods. Entertainment.

They destroyed my home for entertainment.

Although, Erebus had left a message with Aubrey. A message for me, meant for him to deliver when he was gloating over my broken corpse.

“So sorry, sister,” it went. “A good effort, but for naught. I won’t let you have your nice things. You don’t deserve them.”

Sighing, I nod. Artemis wipes the slate clean.

At least I annihilated her daemon and pet vampires.

…

“Does a curse transcend planes?” I ask.

My foxkin nods at me. “Moon.”

“I see.”

So I actually did a lot more damage to them than I’d thought.

I wonder if the moon is visible on whatever damned plane Erebus calls home.

Gods I hope so.

***

Only a matter of hours later and I’ve already recovered more than all the time I’ve spent in Elysium.

I’m even back on my feet, but I doubt I’m strong enough for anything as intensive as Spellspeech yet.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Artemis flashes me a worried look but I wave her off. “No, I’m not going to. Don’t worry.”

But something inside me is telling me I can at least… do something.

So I manifest a feeler.

It’s weak, and not very long, but I can make it, and I can move it.

I try lifting a small rock nearby… and my will strains against it, but I manage.

Then I let it fall.

This is already so much better.

I look around. She wasn’t kidding, this place is barren. Even though I can feel the mana permeating the land, not even the razorvines are back.

They’re just gone.

Which leads me to believe there probably isn’t anything remotely threatening here either.

I take the house key from my dimensional storage – another source of stress to my will apparently, and apply just enough mana to open the portal.

It doesn’t take much. It never did.

And as soon as it opens, I head to the door, gesturing for the foxkin to follow.

She looks hesitant for a moment before casting another series of glamours and entering with me.

…

So familiar, and yet not.

How long exactly did I live in this ramshackle building-in-an-interstitial? Not very long, I thought…

…

I wander around it, randomly glancing at different things.

Remembering.

The stovetop is cold and empty, even gathering dust. Where did the dust come from? There isn’t even airflow in this building.

I sit for a moment in my usual chair and stretch before a twinge in my back leads me to wince instead.

In the dining area, the table is empty and clear of anything but more dust. Artemis had been sure to move everything into her dimensional storage when we’d moved into the castle. The chairs are neatly pushed in, even mine, although I’m pretty sure I never pushed it in myself.

I never bothered. There wasn’t a point.

There wasn’t a point to any of this playing house.

Why did I, then?

I don’t know.

I amble absentmindedly to the hallway, stopping first at my own room.

Mine, and Izahne’s.

I feel a brief tinge of jealousy from Artemis, but it leaves as quickly as it came. I reach a hand out and scratch behind one of her ears, which is pretty easy considering she’s shorter than me. She leans into it.

I look around the empty room.

Empty, aside from the bed, and the empty dresser that Izahne didn’t need to bring with us, considering how well-appointed my own quarters were in the castle.

Moving along, I open the door to Abaris’ room. Similarly empty, other than the furniture he’d brought. Again, he didn’t need them…

“Is Abaris alive? Or Mimir?” I ask.

“Fled,” Artemis answers.

“So yes?”

She nods.

“Good. I’m going to find them when I rebuild this place,” I say with conviction.

There’s no point in ignoring useful resources, after all. I can make use of the social bonds we’ve already formed to pressure them into…

Into what?

I sigh and move on to the next room.

…Omorth’s.

It’s empty, of course.

…

…!

I turn quickly to my companion. “Where is Philip!?”

***

I’m still slowly recovering. Quickly slowly recovering.

Apparently being in an interstitial doesn’t matter, as long as the entrance – or one of the entrances – is on my plane.

I can probably abuse that later. Maybe I can make a second door here that connects to Elysium. That way I can still come home while I’m…

…

I furrow my brow.

Even if I keep having these annoying fits of confusion, I’ve at least progressed enough that I can manage a full dozen feelers again.

I can even use most of my Skills, though not particularly well or for very long.

“Well?” my companion asks.

“Hm?”

It occurs to me that I’ve been reclining in the sitting area for some time now. Possibly hours, possibly days. I never have had a good sense of time, Izahne was always the one who said when it was time to rest.

In a sense, I guess I’ve been resting almost the entire time I’ve been home again.

Artemis blinks down at me as I lay on my back, head on her lap.

“Maybe it sounds strange, but you’re much easier to… I don’t know, understand? Now that you’re not pretending to be some prim and proper maid. This you is better, I think. It feels more genuine somehow.”

She huffs out her nose in response.

“It’s a strange feeling, you know? Being alone with just one other person. The last time I did, it was when I was newborn, with Nyx trying her best to keep me from doing something stupid and dying. I couldn’t even speak to mortals then.”

I idly stroke one of her many tails.

…

The silence stretches on for… I don’t know how long.

But I don’t fight it.

***

Finally. I’m strong enough to leave this place.

Even my divinity has mostly recovered – who would have guessed that a goddess of night would recover more quickly on the plane of eternal night?

“It’s time,” I say to no one in particular.

But there’s no question to whom I’m speaking.

Artemis tips her head to one side as always, and I offer her a small smile.

“First will be… hmmm hm, I think I’ll go with Nyx.”

I focus my newly recovered will on the bond with my former Assistant, pressing both mana and some of my will itself in and through it.

And after an hour of focusing, gently maintaining the pressure… I feel it stir.

“Good. That didn’t consume nearly as much as I thought it would.”

I take a breath.

“And now for the others.”

***

“You shoulda just let me sleep forever!” Pearl complains, but I’m pleased to see her – even her – awake and moving again.

But not unlike me, it’s going to be some time until they’re all fully recovered. It would seem that their recoveries are tied to my own, but not being an actual god limits just how quickly certain things can recover.

Like souls.

Apparently when I’d supplied Artemis with all that mana, she’d drained all of them through me as well.

Which would explain the current circumstances. As I understand it, we basically burned their mana circuits – part of their Akashic Selves. And those do heal… albeit slowly.

Unless you’re a god.

Their initial reaction to Artemis was kind of funny.

“Olive? Why are you dressed so weird?” they’d ask, or “You seem to be giving off a very different vibe than before… is that an Aura?”

Nyx seemed the least surprised. In fact, she’d even said that ‘Olive’ had always felt off, like she was hiding way too much even though you couldn’t concretely tell for sure.

Like she was hiding way too much power, and presence.

Which I guess makes sense.

She doesn’t have just one Mantle.

She has four. Archery, The Hunt, The Moon, and The Untamed.

She’s one hells of a beast.

And she’s mine.

Philip hisses from the corner of the room, partially concealed underneath some kind of display table holding a wooden vase. Artemis bares her teeth at him and he immediately goes silent and still.

And so he should.

My wife is one hells of a predator.

...

...

I really need to talk to Izahne.

Artemis was my wife before her, after all.