Their entrance into Epemirial's Dominion was surprisingly uneventful. The mortals that inhabited the realm did not initially spare them much mind, only inclining their head slightly and mumbling greetings when they passed.

Aperio let her aura spread through the Dominion a little more while also making sure no passerby would listen in on her conversation with Caethya. She no longer bothered hiding her presence — something that got an immediate reaction out of the inhabitants. Confusion was the most prominent reaction which was quickly followed by fear, most likely because the mortals did not know what the sudden influx of mana meant. Did Epemirial punish them like this?

She let her mana flow in the way it wanted, trusting her instincts to make a connection with this realm as they had in the Court. What required a more conscious effort on her part was the checking of each and every mortal Soul present for runes or other signs of tampering.

"What did you find?" Caethya asked as Aperio took a deep breath and balled her fists.

The All-Mother moved her hand through the air, reality splitting apart in its wake. A thought connected the large tear she had made to her Void, letting a tiny fraction of the River of Souls flow through it.

"She did it to everyone," Aperio hissed, trying her best to not summon Epemirial and grind her into dust. "Every Soul here has been marred… Abused by her. They fear the mere presence of my mana."

"Maybe because they can feel your anger?" Caethya asked as she brushed her hand over Aperio's arm, letting her mana flow into the All-Mother. "They do not know that it is not directed at them, after all."

"That does not make it much better," Aperio replied, taking a deep breath of the nothing that leaked into the realm alongside the small bit of the River she had diverted. "I would have to be a lot angrier for a normal mortal to notice. That they can feel this means they know what they are looking for."

Caethya looked at the mortals that surrounded them, most of whom were trying to steal a glance at the All-Mother and her disciple when they thought they would not notice. "Maybe," she said. "I do not know how a normal person would perceive your emotions." She held up her free hand as Aperio opened her mouth to speak. "But I do know that your emotions very much influence the world at large.

"After your encounter with Vigil and Inanis," she continued, moving herself in front of Aperio, "the atmosphere of the world changed. I bet you noticed that too."

"I did," Aperio said. It goes both ways, she added in her mind. The influence the inhabitants of her creation had on her had become less and less as time went on, having come to a point where Aperio was no longer certain if their emotions even did anything to her anymore. But maybe that is because I somehow feel… less in general.

Things that would have made her unreasonably angry in the past still managed to get her blood boiling, but it was nowhere near as strong of a feeling as it had been before. Caethya, on the other hand… That part of her seemed to be unaffected by whatever change had happened to her.

"Maybe it has something to do with the armlet?" Caethya asked. "Ever since you started wearing it, you haven't seemed to be as angry. Even when it comes to things like this."

"Is that bad?"

"No," her disciple replied. "Just a little weird. Was this, perhaps, why you wore it in the past? So your anger would not influence your creation?"

"Maybe," Aperio mumbled, brushing her wing over the armlet in question. She could feel the mana inside it; almost like her well, but not quite the same. Definitely old. There was an intangible touch of sadness that flowed through her when she thought about the armlet a little more — a weird contrast to the comfort it brought.

"I was — am," she corrected herself, "attached to it. I know it meant a lot to me in the past, still does in a way. I just don't know why." Or why it has a feather design when everyone says I did not have wings before.

"Maybe something to ask Ferio about once we are done here," Caethya said, looking at the growing group of mortals that was starting to form around them. "I think they are ready to talk."

"It would seem so," Aperio said, a thought dismissing the barrier that kept her conversation with Caethya private. Another thought informed her disciple that she should talk to the mortals, Aperio herself quite sure that they would not be that receptive to her questions. My presence alone might already taint their answers.

The mortals did not speak immediately, just staring at the All-Mother and her disciple. Caethya removed her hands from Aperio's arm and turned to face those that had gathered around them. Most of them seemed unsure whether to speak or to bow down in front of who they had already recognized to be a Goddess.

Aperio wanted to reassure them somehow, but could not think of what to do. A smile, maybe a few words of encouragement were in order, but the All-Mother could not bring herself to do that. Just looking at the people gathered in front of her brought a tinge of sadness as well as anger to the forefront of her mind.

She wanted to help them beyond healing their Souls, despite the fact that it was likely the biggest thing she could do for them. Do they even know what happened? Or do they think Epemirial helped them, like Laelia thought Vigil helped her?

The sound of Caethya clearing her throat took Aperio from her wandering thoughts. "I know you have questions," her disciple began, holding up her hand to quiet down the whispers that had already started. "We will try to answer them as best we can, but we have some questions of our own first."

Aperio lowered herself on the ground and loosely wrapped her wings around herself. It did not really serve a purpose, but the All-Mother hoped that it would help calm the mortals down a little. Having her loom over everyone while they were already scared was not really desirable to her. Epemirial fucked them over enough.

"I will start with a simple question," Caethya began, clasping her hands in front of her chest. "What kind of duties do you have here?"

Her question was greeted with silence, the mortals glancing at each other. Some whispered to their neighbours, seemingly assuming that the All-Mother would not be able to hear their words.

So they think we work for Epemirial? That was the most common subject being whispered by the inhabitants of the realm. They seemed to think that the Goddess of Duty and Loss had sent Caethya and herself to take care of something while she was gone. Did they think she left on her own? Aperio had assumed it was fairly obvious that Epemirial had been taken against her will. But then, nobody really saw it happen… And they probably can't sense much with their auras.

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"Perhaps we should introduce ourselves," Aperio offered, trying to keep her voice as gentle as she could. With her aura as prominent as it was in the realm, that was easier said than done.

"A good idea," Caethya said, bowing slightly to the still-growing crowd of people that surrounded them. "I am Caethya, a Demigoddess of Creation." She hesitated for a moment before Aperio informed her with a thought that she could continue and she gestured towards the sitting All-Mother. "And this is Aperio, the All-Mother."

Luckily, the proclamation of her title did not yield the results Aperio had feared. The mortals surrounding her did not seem to know what that title was supposed to mean. Or they are very good at hiding it.

"What are you here to do?" a raspy voice called from the crowd. "Do you serve her majesty?"

"No," Aperio replied, her voice a little more forceful as she focused on the man who had spoken. "I serve no-one."

"We came here because we have a few questions," Caethya said while also offering a small prayer to Aperio, asking her to let her do the talking. "And to fix a few problems," she added after the All-Mother squinted at her.

"What do you wish to know?" another voice asked. "If you can come here, the Lady must surely value you."

Caethya hesitated for a moment, seemingly unsure what she should ask now that the people seemed ready to help. Asking them if they knew why their Goddess was so against Aperio was not really possible when they thought that Epemirial had invited the two of them here. Still, why did she not inform her followers that she got taken against her will?

"For one," Caethya began, "we would like to know about The Veil. One of its members has gone… missing and we hoped that maybe someone here would know what they were last up to."

Aperio was certain her disciple was asking about Miesto, the messenger she had killed before finding Gyesfal. Why is she asking that?

A mortal further back in the crowd raised their hand, dropping a few of the scrolls they had been holding. "Do you mean Miesto?"

"Yes," Caethya said with a small smile. "Do you know what their duty was?"

Are we in a school? While Aperio had never attended one herself, she had been close enough in proximity to the Royal Academy of the Inaru Empire to know how the institute worked. What was unfolding in front of her now was fairly similar to what happened in the very first classes people took. Just that none of the mortals here are children… If they were, Epemirial would have found herself a very quick end.

The mortal dropped the other scrolls they had been holding, before quickly bending over to pick one of them back up again. "Yes!" they exclaimed, fumbling with the ribbon that held the parchment closed for a moment before finally getting it open.

They cleared their throat as they unfurled the piece of parchment before beginning to read. "Miesto Mirkael. In charge of tribute collection for sectors one through four. There are no marks on him until he disappeared nearly a week ago."

The rustling of parchment as the mortal opened another scroll was almost deafening in the quiet room. "His last orders were to confirm an interruption in The Work." They hesitated for a moment, lowering the piece of parchment before they continued. "He is currently missing, presumed dead. Signed by Epemirial herself."

"He is dead," Aperio confirmed, looking at the mortal who had read from the parchment. Why do they have it if they obviously don't read it? She could not think of another reason why the mortal would be surprised by the fact that it said Miesto was missing, presumed dead. "What is your duty here, mortal?"

"A C-Courier, m-my Lady," he replied, bowing deeply and dropping the papers he had just read from. Ah, that makes more sense.

"Do you know of Gyesfal?" she asked, holding her gaze on the mortal before sweeping it over the crowd. "Anyone?"

"We all know of the afterlife, my Lady," another mortal replied. "That is why we all work as hard as we do. So we can be reunited with everyone in Gyesfal."

Aperio let a bit more of her Void flow into Epemirial's Dominion at the words. Selling eternal torture as the afterlife, she thought. Disgusting. The worst part was that Epemirial was not even lying. Technically, they would be reunited with people in Gyesfal. That's just fucked up.

"Gyesfal was not what you think it was," Aperio said. She did not really care if the mortals would refuse to answer her; what she wanted to know was on the scrolls they carried, anyway. Don't need them to read those.

The magic that guarded them against prying eyes was awfully flimsy for something used by a Goddess, not even requiring a conscious effort to bypass. Should have looked at them earlier.

"Was?" a mortal asked, quickly adding, "What do you mean by that? My Lady."

"That it is no longer there, and never really was what you were told," she replied. A thought brought Caethya, herself, and every mortal she could find in Epemirial's Dominion into her Void proper.

A larger section of the River of Souls was diverted with another thought, causing it to flow through the crowd she had just brought here.

"This is where you go when you die," Aperio said, gesturing towards the countless lights that floated in the River. "Your Soul joins the others here as they rest from the life they had and prepare for the next."

It was a bit of a lie, but telling the mortals in front of her that they would forget everything they knew was not something she wanted to do at the moment. "And sometimes," she continued, spreading her wings slightly as the River flowed past her. "I have to use it to heal the Souls of mortals."

Caethya sighed at the words and shook her head. A moment later a prayer from her disciple came, asking why she had brought them here instead of further questioning the mortals. Aperio simply showed the Demigoddess what she had found on the scrolls some of the mortals had carried. The reports, plans, and other details that she was sure the mortals themselves would have never told them.

"Heal? Us?" a mortal asked, trying to see the River's invisible water as it swept past her. "Why?"

"Because your Souls have been tainted by a traitor," Aperio replied, not specifying who the traitor was. "I will not stand for a world filled with slaving Gods."