…This isn’t working.

Sure, the tablet went through to her… I think.

And all the other things I tried sending… My first guess was that she just wasn’t aware it’d been added to her dimensional storage, so I added more things.

Bigger things.

My hope was that maybe if her dimensional storage was suddenly full, she’d at least notice that?

Maybe?

I have no idea. What else am I supposed to do?

…

It’s not like I can just, put myself in her dimensional storage…

…

…

Can I? I don’t think I can… How would I even do that? Can I put people in there? I looked at the description with what I thought was Spellspeech long ago… it just said inanimate objects.

So, nothing living… or…

…

Wait one gods-damned minute.

There’s no way this is going to work. It can’t, it absolutely can’t. It’s the stupidest idea ever.

(There’s no way it’s more stupid than any of your other ideas, idiot.)

Maybe it sounds weird, but I’ve kind of missed you, I think.

(Well I haven’t missed you, not one bit!) Nyx snarls in the back of my head.

And that’s fine.

But it’s time to try the most stupid thing ever. The thing that can’t possibly work… and even if it does, there would be so many other limitations… probably…

I spawn one of my kin… and for the first time in centuries, only one, and without the intent to use the gray cloud of them to wipe out countless mortals. I take a deep breath, and then…

Into my dimensional storage it goes.

…

…

…

It… it worked.

It fucking worked.

Are they inanimate? I know they’re supposedly undead, but…

(What? That makes no sense!)

I know! It’s the dumbest thing ever!

And it won’t help me! If she doesn’t notice anything else being put in there, how is she going to notice a wraith!?

…Which brings me to the next experiment. Somehow it feels like there’s even less chance of this working.

But I’m going to try.

I’m going to try something, I project to my fox wife… I have no idea what she’s doing, and this definitely won’t work, so it shouldn’t matter.

First, I focus on her dimensional storage, and give my stored kin a little push.

…And through it goes.

…

I am so confused. But, well. That brings us to the next step.

If this works, it’ll be a strange breakthrough for sure. It would have so many implications…

And so much room for me to abuse. Which is exactly why it won’t work!

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

(Shut up and fucking try it then.)

I’m going to!

Shifting my awareness to the wraith stored elsewhere… a whole plane away… I’m suddenly surrounded by darkness.

Or, a weird, colorful darkness at least… I have no idea what I’m looking at, but I’m pretty sure it’s the inside of my wife’s dimensional storage.

I feel around with my senses… True sense? So useful! I should really thank my silent benefactor for it sometime, assuming I ever talk to them. Considering how it’s gone so far I’ll probably never even see them.

But what I do see… is a way out. The magic or whatever it is surrounding me seems to pull together into a swirl… right over there. And oddly enough, moving in here is easy, maybe too easy.

I push myself – or my kin in this case, up against the swirl and pressure it with my will.

And the next thing I know, my surrogate is floating before a very confused and surprised goddess!

“It worked!” I grate through it. “I can’t believe that actually worked! Oh, I’m going to abuse this so much…”

“What!?” my wife blurts. “WHAT!?”

I grin back at her… or would, if my kind had facial features. “Not only can I store my kin, but I can send them through my bonds and pop them right out of your dimensional storage!”

Flabbergasted. She’s absolutely flabbergasted, I can see it on her face.

“Okay! So I’m going to list the horrible implications! First, it means I can spawn literally thousands of them and just store them, and pop them out wherever and whenever I want! Which… won’t be much faster than spawning them, but the point stands! Next, it means I can smuggle them wherever I want, either in my own storage or in… in… hmm, I wonder if I can…”

Experimentally, I shift my consciousness back to my main body and spawn another kin… into my storage it goes, and then into Omorth’s.

“It works! Why does it work!? Anyway, let’s move on! It also means I can, in effect, activate someone else’s dimensional storage Skill remotely! Although hmmm, hang on…”

I make yet another, shove it back in Artemis’ storage, and find… well, that will work. I pick one of the thousands of dresses floating around in here, and give it a push, and… it stops. It’s not going through.

“Oh. Well, can’t have everything I guess, I can’t push things out of your dimensional storage at least… that’s a little less broken. But I can at least do this!”

(‘Less broken’? This is the most broken shit I’ve ever seen, and you’re already stupid broken. I don’t even want to think about what you’re going to do with it. I literally don’t.)

Then don’t watch!

(I don’t have that choice!)

Then… watch I guess!

A sigh ripples across our link, but that’s fine. I don’t really care.

What I do care about…

…Is that this means I’ll have a chance to talk to my missing wife…

Maybe.

“Would you be a dear and put this wraith back in your dimensional storage?” I ask the still confused goddess currently looking the monster all over.

And…

It doesn’t work.

“Is this unique to me then?” I ask no one in particular. “Oh well, I’ll just leave it here I guess.”

Without another word I drift it down through the floorboards, far enough that I find soil, and release my possession.

I have work to do. Serious work.

***

(So what was this serious work?)

I’m gonna do it!

(When?)

Soon!

(How soon?)

I said soon! I just need to… get ready. It’s been a really long time… maybe she doesn’t even want to see me.

(You mean like me?)

Would you just shut up! Gods…

I’ve been floating in my former throne room… now really just a patch of stone in the middle of a bunch of rubble…

…With Pearl still sitting where a corner used to be, a corner I ordered her to when she kept standing in the same place on the edge of my dais and making quiet sorrowful noises. I just got tired of hearing her, to be honest.

I wonder if I can find a way to get her to… wherever Izahne is.

Maybe.

Not that it particularly matters.

…

While I’m thinking about it, I decide to push one of my kin into the storage of each of my retainers… just in case.

…And feel Nyx promptly dump hers out.

Hey, sure. I’m just trying look out for you or whatever, never know when you might want me to, I don’t know. Destroy something or whatever.

(I don’t want you anywhere near me. Less reminders, please.)

Fine.

(Fine!)

Ugh!

(Ugh yourself!)

I rub the bridge of my nose… in a move that I’m sure is mirroring Nyx’s own right now.

…

When did I materialize? I swear I’ve been in ash form for… a very long time, I think.

Nula, I project…

And my head maid appears from nowhere in a hurry, dropping to kneel as always. “Yes, my queen?”

“Was I materialized this morning?”

“Yes, my queen. You were in this form when you awoke this morning.”

…

“Strange. Alright, that’s all. Thank you, Nula.”

She bows even deeper, then vanishes.

Huh. I wonder why that happened…

I quickly form yet another of my kin and possess it, just to look at myself… hmm, no, I don’t really look any different…

Although my eyes are red again, apparently. And solid red at that… didn’t they used to be dark in the middle or something?

And blue.

Ah well. Maybe it has to do with all those humans I ate, who knows.

I think I’m thoroughly distracted enough now though. At least I think I am.

A comforting feeling presses forth from my link to Artemis… which I won’t pretend doesn’t help, at least a little.

So there’s no time like the present.

I take a deep breath…

And move the kin I’d just created into my dimensional storage…

And…

Hm.

Izahne’s bond is actually resisting this time… at least a little…

But one forceful shove sees it through, and I promptly possess it.

…

It would seem that whatever force is keeping me from communicating with her is making this difficult too… I feel like I’m possessing it through water or something. It’s slow… and hard to move…

And very empty in here.

Was it this empty before? I swear that Izzy was sentimental, and held on to a whole bunch of stuff…

What happened?

Well, there’s one way to find out for sure. A glance around confirms that her dimensional storage is the same as Arty’s…

And so I head to the focal point, and push.