Aili had expected the monks’ arrival. It made sense that they would contact the gods to both investigate about their involvement and reassure them about the tremor and the general situation with Koidan.

She hadn't expected them to send so many people, though, and not the day immediately after Saia’s departure. Most of them were sentinels, judging by the leather belt around their waist. The only one who wasn't wearing it was Riena.

Whatever reason they had descended the mountain for, she couldn’t allow them to find Rabam.

“Good morning,” she greeted the group of monks as soon as they stepped past the line of white stones.

Meanwhile, part of her was looking inside Rabam's house. He was still asleep, since he’d spent the night awake eluding the sentinels, talking to her in the temple and delivering Zeles to Suimer. He had refused to sleep on Mili's bed, moving blankets and pillows on the kitchen's floor instead. She didn't have the heart to tell him that the spot he’d chosen was closer to Milvia’s place of death than the bed was.

“Wake up,” she said in his ear, sending a speck of buzzing viss into his body.

“Good morning, Koidan,” Riena said. “We're here to make sure that everything is working as usual. I need to talk to you, can I come to the temple?”

The question was just out of courtesy. While Riena spoke, the sentinels divided into groups that proceeded toward the village, choosing different directions. Ten groups of two sentinels each, a net wide enough to notice any attempt to escape toward the mountain. It was clear they were looking for something.

“Sure, come in,” she said to Riena.

“Also, would you mind telling your people that there are monks entering their houses soon? I don’t want them to worry.”

Aili did as told, her voice resounding inside every living room.

“What's going on?” Rabam asked.

“Did you move in the open, yesterday?”

His face dropped into an expression of guilt.

“After I attacked the boys, yes. I was desperate and thought I was about to leave the mountain forever.”

“Then they're looking for you.”

She surveyed the village: now Riena was walking toward the temple, while the sentinels had stopped at the first houses of the village and knocked on the doors.

“They know your house is supposed to be empty, so if we're lucky they’ll avoid it. But it's a huge risk, and if they find you there you'll be trapped and they’ll know I'm on your side.”

He was retreating toward Mili's bedroom now, to hide behind the wall.

“So what do I do? Leave?”

“No, they're still looking from the mountain.”

“Then what?”

Riena was almost at the temple. Aili remembered how good she was at reading emotions. She couldn't afford to face her questions unprepared.

She focused on the scholar's face, trying to guess the true reason behind her visit. According to what Saia had told her, the monks had come very close to being completely subjugated. They considered Saia, a rogue goddess they couldn't control, their biggest threat. So obviously they wanted to secure their position as best as they could while she was away.

“Then what?” Rabam repeated, almost shouting.

“Give me a second.”

The monks had found the shards cut in half and knew that Saia had taken them with her. So the next move was to check whether they still worked as intended, and the best way to make sure of it was to temporarily deactivate all of the gods.

Greeting them had been a mistake; now they knew her shard wasn't working.

The sentinels had already finished inspecting the first ten houses and were heading toward the next ones. She couldn’t forget more sentinels were looking from the mountain, ready to alert them if someone tried to leave in other ways.

“Change your clothes,” she told Rabam.

He set out to look for something to wear inside Mili's drawers, forgetting his superstitions for a moment.

Riena opened the doors of the temple and stopped in the doorway.

“Show me your sphere, please.”

Aili opened a cavity inside her chest and took out the sphere. Riena came closer, reaching out with a hand.

“I’ll be reading your emotions as we talk.”

Aili nodded and put a knee on the pedestal, balancing to hand Riena her sphere. She wasn't surprised by any of her requests, so far. It made sense to keep her where she could be easily deactivated, if she suspected she was Saia's accomplice.

Riena held her with both hands. She made a step back, away from the statue.

“Let's start with your friend Saia: has she talked to you about a plan to hurt or go against the monks in any way?”

Aili knew she needed to answer with half-truths, shielding her feelings with the worry she felt for Saia, Rabam, and Zeles. After all, Riena could read emotions, not thoughts.

“I knew about her resentment against Vizena and the monks, but she didn't tell me about a plan to hurt you.”

That was true, at least. Saia hadn't told her how she planned to save Zeles, and that included everything she had done to become a goddess.

“Now what?” Rabam asked. He had wrapped colored blankets all around his body. From the chaos in the barely-shut drawers, she realized he probably hadn't found anything of his size.

“Hide your face too.”

“Do you know what Saia has done?” Riena asked.

Aili realized that letting her continue on that line of questioning was dangerous. She could corner her with one key question, especially if she was too distracted by Rabam to come up with an answer quickly enough. She needed to take her by surprise.

“Yes. She told me.”

Riena opened her mouth to say something, then closed it. She stared at the sphere, her grip slightly stronger.

“You talked to her?”

“Yes, last night. She contacted me and told me she had become a goddess.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

“She had my shard. She didn't show it,” she quickly added, anticipating her question. “But I'm sure she wasn't bluffing.”

She waited for Riena to make the connection inside her head.

‘Yes,' she wanted to scream, ‘I know you don't have my shard. I know you can't control me.’

But she kept quiet instead, playing the part of the innocent scholar who wasn't interested in power games. Which she wasn't, usually, but they were threatening her.

She could feel her own frustration grow. Riena could probably sense it too, so she focused on the sentinels. They were proceeding with their inspection, moving in a diagonal line. Two more sweeps and they would have reached Rabam’s house.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“What else has she told you?”

“She wanted my help to overthrow you, but I don't share her views.” A half-truth. “She’ll be back and we'll talk then.” A hope, but strong enough it could be exchanged for a truth.

“I can't do better than this,” Rabam said.

Aili had only marginally paid attention to what he was doing, so her whole being trembled with hilarity when she saw how he had used Milvia's make-up: his eyes were painted of a heavy blue, cheeks contoured quickly to shape his face a bit differently. It was clearly an improvised disguise, but combined with the shawl that hid his hair and the blanket that covered his lower face, he was unrecognizable.

“You monks really are good at this stuff,” she commented, thinking about their ceremonies.

She realized Riena had caught her hilarity too and decided to use it.

“As if I could ever betray the monks,” she said. “After all I've seen and experienced. I can use the viss ten times better than before, and I barely need to focus.”

Riena raised her eyebrows.

“You don't give me the impression of someone who wants power.”

“No, but I want knowledge.”

Riena nodded.

“So you know that we have no way of controlling you, except for pitting the other gods against you. Will you give me another shard?”

She had both hands wrapped around her, so it wasn't like Aili had a choice.

Riena probably expected her to be shocked or surprised by that request. She wasn't. It was the natural thing to do.

First, the monks had deactivated all of the spheres using the half-shards. In doing so, they had discovered that one of them was missing. Vizena's, or so they thought.

Second, they had sent the monks, either just Riena and her sentinels or other groups too, to check on each deity. The only ones awake were her and Vizena. If Vizena's shard was actually missing, it meant that Koidan's half-shard, apparently identical to the others, wasn't working.

Third, they wanted to get their power over them back before beginning to properly untangle all of that mess. Thus, asking for her shard.

As soon as she'd realized her mistake, when Riena was still far enough from the temple, she had considered taking a piece of glass from the windows, putting it in the indent of her sphere and pretending to detach it when Riena would have inevitably asked for it. But it was extremely easy to verify whether it was authentic, she just risked betraying herself.

“I’m not sure I can,” she said.

Truth: the glass seemed extremely delicate, even if she knew it wasn’t.

“If you prefer, I can deactivate you and bring you back to the village. We have the right instruments.”

It wasn't a threat, as much as a way to state that she didn't have a way out of that request.

“What do I do now?” Rabam asked, panic in his voice.

He wielded a kitchen knife in one hand and a chair in the other. Aili looked outside and saw the sentinels leave the houses behind his own. They just needed to cross the street, walk around the building and knock at his door.

“No, I want to try,” she told Riena.

She mentally drew the shape of a shard on the external part of her sphere, copying the scar she already had from the day she became a goddess. She had waited too much to act and now was losing a piece of the advantage Saia had given her. Sure, she still had the other seven shards, wrapped in cloth and buried by Rabam under seven different trees, but it wasn't that great if the monks could deactivate her at any moment. She needed to plan less and act more. To take risks, to throw some metaphorical snakes at her enemies.

She cut the shard, then held back her energy from the mountain. Just an instant, but enough to cause a tremor.

Riena took the shard, then held her and the sphere tight as the floor trembled.

“Now,” Aili said to Rabam. “Leave the chair, hide the knife, go out as if you were scared of the tremor.”

He obeyed. More people were pouring out of the buildings, both the ones the sentinels had already examined and the others. The monks themselves stopped for an instant, taken by surprise by the trembling. When they resumed moving, Rabam was already mingling with the scared inhabitants. He slipped from one group to the other, heading toward the mountain and past the line of sentinels.

“Was that you?” Riena asked.

“Yeah, sorry. I was very nervous and focused a bit too much.”

She nodded, looking at the shard.

“Well, this was an unusual request, and a very delicate one. I'll tell the priors that everything's fine.”

Aili's vision blacked out. She was awake a second later, briefly wondering what had happened. Her statue was toppling over, so she steadied it. She saw Riena standing at the center of the temple and remembered.

“Sorry, but I needed to make sure,” she said. Her expression had softened now that she had obtained the shard.

“With you being close friends with Saia, we suspected you might be an accomplice.”

“I imagined that,” Aili admitted.

“You won't be above suspects for a while. They might send me back if they find something else.”

Aili used her statue to nod.

“Koidan,” one of the sentinels outside called out. “Tell everyone to return to their houses.”

Aili focused her attention outside: the inhabitants had gathered at the two squares of the village, the post office having the biggest crowd despite covering a smaller area. She found Rabam there, standing awkwardly between two groups and catching everyone's curious glares.

“Yes, of course,” she answered the sentinels.

She chose one of Lausune’s biggest families, checking that they lived near the temple, in the first area the monks had examined. She told Rabam to approach them.

“Hello, Mairi,” she greeted one of the women. “Can you please host my friend for today? He just arrived after a long journey and needs to rest a bit before going forward.”

Mairi took a look at Rabam and quickly agreed.

“Everyone, please,” Aili announced loudly, making the air in the two squares vibrate with Koidan's voice. “Return to your houses.”

They obeyed, causing more chaos. Rabam scuttled behind the family, murmuring a 'thank you'.

“One last thing,” Riena asked. “What do you know about Vizena?”

Aili had already relaxed, so that question made her energy buzz uncontrollably. It was clearly noticeable, and the more she waited the more Riena would suspect of her.

“She's evil,” she blurted out. “Saia hated her.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” Aili didn't know what Riena was expecting, so she doubled down on the truth. “You saw it yourself, how she treated her village.”

“Yes, but there are some people who are protected by her controlling tendencies. Has Saia said anything about being part of them?”

“No. She hates Vizena, I'm sure of that.”

“Or,” Riena said in a tone of challenge, “It was all a ruse, and she's on her side. Maybe Vizena planned all of this.”

A small part of Aili was glad that her confusion was genuine and she didn't have to lie. The rest was freaking out.

“That's... unlikely. I don't understand, she also spoke at the debate against Vizena.”

Riena relaxed once again.

“Sorry, I needed to make sure you weren't sided with her.”

She gave her the sphere back, clutching the shard with the other hand. Aili took it and held it in the palm of her statue, still confused.

“Is there something wrong with Vizena?” she asked.

Riena watched her statue, clearly trying to gauge how much to reveal.

“She's resentful because we took some years of her life.”

Aili nodded. Zeles had been smart to come up with that excuse: that way, he could keep his interactions with the monks to the bare minimum.

“And,” Riena continued, “She's not letting us inside the village.”

“What?”

The woman grimaced, and Aili realized she’d almost shouted in her ears.

“She created a wall of air around the village. The people of Suimer can go in or out, everyone else can’t.”

Aili wanted to know more, but there was a necessary question she had to make.

“And you can't deactivate her?”

Riena produced a bitter smile.

“I’ve said too much. Daira told me that you're smart, good at learning things and connecting the dots. If you come up with a way to take Vizena back under our control, I'm sure any suspect toward you would disappear.”

A sentinel entered the temple.

“We've examined every house, there's no trace of him.”

Riena stopped him by raising a hand.

“Thank you for your collaboration,” she said, looking at Koidan’s statue. “Please let us know if you notice anything out of the ordinary.”

Soon after that, the monks were retreating through the forest. Aili observed them, her thoughts still buzzing from Riena's words. She needed to send Rabam to Suimer as soon as it was dark, to find out what had prompted Zeles to act as he had.

She spent the next hours stressing about the interrogation, both her answers and Riena's. Rabam was resting in a guest room, with proper clothes on and a clean face. She wanted to discuss the situation, but she needed him rested if she wanted to send him out that night.

The sun was becoming orange when she felt a distant nagging at her attention. It was as if something was slightly pushing her viss, the deity equivalent of a tap on the shoulder. The feeling came from Dore's side of the border, which meant that the monks had awakened the other gods.

“Do you need something?” she asked, making the air tremble near the line of white stones in a spot where their borders were close.

“Yes. I don't know what to do and I want your opinion.”

Aili couldn't tell how urgent the request was, since he was purposefully keeping his voice neutral. It could be just another trap from the monks. She shouldn't assume Riena was the only test they had sent her way.

“Sure, tell me everything.”

“Vizena's weird.”

Aili tried and failed to glance at Suimer in the distance, beyond Tilau's houses.

“Why?”

“Her viss feels different. As if... As if she was replaced.”

Aili was glad she could control her voice. Otherwise, she was sure it would have been an incoherent sound like the desperate buzzing of her viss.

“Are you sure? How do you know that?”

“You can tell the difference between mine and Mivion's viss, right?"

“Yes.”

“Same thing for me. And her energies have felt different since I woke up. The first time, I mean. Early this morning.”

Right: he'd been asleep for a long time, then the monks had finally awakened him just to shut him down immediately after like everyone else, to make sure his shard still functioned properly.

“And it's not just that,” he continued. “Her energies feel like the viss of the Koidan before you.”

“Zeles?”

“Exactly, him.”

Aili shifted her main focus to the inside of the temple. She listened to the thud of her steps on the marble to calm down a bit.

“They cracked him,” she said.

“That's what the monks have told me, but what if they're wrong?”

“Have you asked them about Vizena?”

“No. That's why I've contacted you. I've been asleep for a long time because they suspected of me. I want to lay low for a bit, and this is the kind of thing that would make them suspect of me again. What if I'm wrong? What if they'll think it's a trick or a ruse?”

Aili relaxed a bit. As long as the monks didn't know anything about that, the situation would have been stable enough for her to reason with Zeles.

“I agree, it's weird,” she said. “I think you should keep it to yourself, for the moment. I'll investigate a bit with the monks if they come back here.”

“But don't mention me.”

She thought about how she had incriminated him to save Saia. She didn't feel particularly guilty, since that was one of the reasons she had succeeded in her plan against Vizena. Still, she didn’t feel like hurting him further.

“I won't. Thank you for your trust.”