As Rahmiel was preparing to leave, Dee decided it might be a good time to slip in a question she had been holding back so far. She didn’t want to give the archangel leverage by admitting how much the answer meant to her. “Oh, would you mind helping me with a little something?” She asked keeping her tone light.

Rahmiel turned back to look at Dee. She was experienced enough to know that Dee would not have mentioned anything if it didn’t hold at least some importance. “Depends on what you have in mind.” She replied noncommittally. She was rather eager to say yes, as that might help her save more of her people later on. Still, it was better to not make promises until she knew what was being asked of her.

“I’m looking for information on someone. An Assembly scientist named Selvaria.” Dee inquired with some trepidation.

Rahmiel knew at least partially why Dee was looking for Selvaria. Empyrean had given an incomplete report on what had happened, as he needed to report to the council on what happened to the power Selvaria had gotten from the hells. That’s why they were all searching for Dee in the first place. However, Empyrean wasn’t the type to go into detail with his failures, so Rahmiel didn’t know all the details. She was given enough information to know that Dee had at least some of that power, which explained the girl’s rapid rise to immortality. Perhaps the girl was looking for the rest of that power. She was also aware that there might be other reasons for Dee to find Selvaria, as the Assembly scientist was the person responsible for the destruction of the hells. As a demon, Dee might be interested in revenge. Or she might just want to see an old friend again.

In any case, there was no real reason to keep the information secret. “Empyrean, the Archangel of Order in case you were unaware, sealed the pocket dimension she calls home. He also forcefully moved the entrance. As far as I know, Selvaria should be fine otherwise. I’m not entirely sure where the entrance was moved, but he couldn’t have moved it too far as it was something originally created by Selvaria and not him. I’ve heard rumors that his Seraph are holding guard over the entrance though.”

“What would it take to gain entrance?” Dee asked a little reluctantly. The more she asked, the more obvious it became how important this was to her. Though that ship might have already sailed, so she didn’t feel too bad.

“Well, that’s a bit more complicated. I can try to help you find the new location of the entrance. Empyrean has no real reason to hide that information from the other archangels after all. I could ask the Archangel of Hope to find out just to make sure our connection is not discovered. You would also need to get past the guards, but I suspect that will not be a problem for you when the time comes. The problem is the seal itself. Empyrean most likely used the specialized sealing techniques of Paradisia. Sealing others is one of Order’s specialties after all. Those techniques are usually reserved for sealing powerful demons and wrongdoers that might turn out useful later on. Such as Selvaria in this case.” Rahmiel explained.

“You have no way of lifting the seal?” Dee asked surprised. Rahmiel was an archangel as well.

“A seal made by someone else yes, but not Empyrean. The ability to remove the seal is based on a person’s position in the hierarchy of Paradisia. Officially the two of us are both archangels and thus equal, but there’s a slight twist. It probably comes as no surprise, but as the Archangel of Order, he is also the Champion of the God of Order. Now in practice that doesn’t come up very often, but strictly speaking it does place him above me in the hierarchy. Only someone with a higher rank or someone with clearly superior strength could remove the seal. And seeing as he is a Champion of a major god and an archangel, there aren’t that many people that can boast being either.”

“Who exactly would qualify then?” Dee asked again. She wasn’t entirely sure of the situation outside Pantheon. She didn’t know who to approach.

“Well, seeing as you carry the power of our goddess, who also created Paradisia, you would qualify if you also became her Champion. Just having the wing is not enough. Without becoming her Champion, the title is still kind of unofficial, as you haven’t fully taken on the mission she has given you and the techniques are from the Order side of things, so Lumen’s power weighs less on the scales. The Morningstar also could do it. Beings with enough power on the other hand…hmm let me think. The eldest dragons of the Eternal Dragonflight, the leaders of the Assembly, and the Morningstar of course also has more power so he qualifies twice. Other than that, the focus of the power of chaos and…darkness.” Rahmiel suddenly looked up as some pieces fell into place in her mind.

She continued. “That’s what Umbra wants from you, isn’t it? She needs a new focus.” She burst out into laughter combining amusement and her feeling of absurdity. “Oh, this is rich. The Goddess of Darkness wants you as the focus, and the Goddess of Light send you against her own people. No wonder she is so confident you will succeed. The two goddesses joining hands in something like this is just…well this really is a cherry on top of this particular cake.” The archangel felt a little speechless.

Dee didn’t bother denying it and left the archangel to make her own conclusions. ‘So. It seems that if I want to see mother again, I need to go with the wishes of the gods.’ She silently messaged Croestia.

‘You could try seeking the help of the people the pigeon mentioned.’ Croestia said even though she knew Dee had already dismissed this possibility and could guess the reason.

‘I’m fairly sure it would be easier to rely on my own power than seek the help of the others. I’m getting the impression that breaking the seal will require quite a bit of effort even from them. It would also be a fairly hostile act against the angels. The leaders of Assembly seem the most likely candidates and they would have moved already if they were inclined to do so. It’s unlikely they would do it now just because I ask politely.’ Dee argued.

‘Might still be worth the effort of asking.’ Croestia pointed out.

‘True. It’s not completely impossible, so we should keep the option open. Still, it seems I’m getting pushed a certain way no matter what.’ Dee conceded the point. This was likely one of the reasons Umbra had been so certain that Dee would go along with her wishes. Could the gods themselves interfere by breaking the seal with their power? It was worth asking at least. Some priests managed to manifest miracles due to their faith. She somehow doubted it would be as easy in her care though.

“I will handle the entry, but I still need to know the location of the entrance. I would consider it a favor if you were to find that out for me.” Dee returned to the original subject. She looked at Araqiel. “Consider it repayment for allowing her to observe me.”

Rahmiel smiled. She knew she might be able to extract a larger prize for the information, but this was good as well and might build a little good will between them. Besides, she was going to push the real work to the Archangel of Hope anyway, so it didn’t require all that much effort on her part. “Agreed. She knows how to contact me. Feel free to have her do something useful in the meantime as well.”

Araqiel wasn’t too fond of the idea and protested vociferously, but the protests fell on deaf ears.

------

“And so, this is Araqiel. She’s an angel and will be staying with us for a while.” Dee introduced Araqiel to the representatives of Five Winds. They needed to be aware that there was an angel here to avoid problems. So far Dee had been the only one with any angelic blood in her, and one of the representatives might mention something thinking that Araqiel was just Dee changing her appearance for some reason. Also, they needed to know when not to speak of certain things, since Araqiel was still in effect an outsider. The representatives were not stupid, but they were playful and might make mistakes out of ignorance.

“What do you mean ‘And so’?!” Shioko asked raising her voice. “You didn’t explain anything!”

Nyx and Moirai had gotten over their own shock after all they had heard earlier and were now busy laughing as if none of this had anything to do with them. They were still absorbing everything, so their amusement was only on the surface.

Dee looked firmly at Shioko. “Very observant of you Shioko, as befits someone of your position.” Her tone made it clear she wasn’t going to explain anything either.

“Leave it be.” Kawhena said with a sigh. “This isn’t the first stray Dee brought in and so far they have all worked out fine.”

“Stray?!” Araqiel demanded indignantly. No one paid any attention to her outburst.

“Oh, good point.” Shioko replied, suddenly mollified. “Still, I would like to get a bit more information every now and then. She doesn’t need to be so mysterious all the time.”

“It seems Nyx and Moirai know something.” The Anshar representative pointed out but didn’t ask any questions. “That’s good enough for me. If there was a problem, they would tell us.”

Truth be told both of the Meilin had a lot of problems with what they had heard, but not because they were dissatisfied with Araqiel’s presence or anything to do with the Five Winds. The two were worried about Dee. The more they heard about what awaited Dee when she left, the more worried they got. The more they heard, the more certain they also became that Dee would actually leave some day. They were less than happy with that, although they realized it was something unavoidable.

“Moving on, there are certain things I would like to gain access to.” Dee suddenly spoke up, changing the subject. She handed a small list that she had made a few days earlier as she considered all the possibilities with her new powers and how to develop them. The items were not something extremely expensive, but they were somewhat rare and required intricate magic. They were also necessary to one of her plans.

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“Humm, this is somewhat out of our specialty.” Shioko stated thoughtfully as she looked at the list. “It could be arranged, but our enchanters aren’t really specialized in things like this. It might be easier to get them from outside sources than wait for our mages to get familiar with the spells.” She also didn’t mention that with their own mages doing something like this as a new thing, the items might not work perfectly. Normally enchanters would iterate on a particular enchantment over several prototypes, but that would be kind of pointless for something they didn’t need to make more than once.

The representative of the Threads of Fate extended her hand and took the list. “We could arrange these.” She said after a moment. The empress could make several deductions just from the nature of the items on the list. Many of them were things you would need when trying to travel to the elemental planes. These kinds of items were rather rare, but their community dealt with rare items.

“But…?” Dee asked. She had heard a slight tone of quid pro quo in the seer’s voice.

“Well, I can arrange these. That’s not an issue. The reason you may have noticed a bit of hesitation is because there is something that you could help us with as well. I hesitate to say that it would be in return for these items, but that’s how it would seem to be working out.” The empress hesitated a bit. This was a good chance to set some of her plans slowly in motion. Getting Dee’s help would make things easier, and might even make similar requests easier in the future. She had not planned on using these plans until a bit later, but when opportunity came knocking…

Dee made a small ‘I’m listening.’ gesture.

“Well, this new area is rich in certain materials very useful for creating high-end weapons and armor.” Of course it was. That was one of the main reasons the empress had recommended this area. “The Five Winds have several skilled craftsmen and excel at mining and smelting such materials, but we aren’t really equipped to process and use the amount and quality of materials we now have access to. We could always sell those materials, and we eventually will, but it might be better to first take this chance to utilize these materials for our own use. To get the best out of the materials, we would need craftsmen with some rare skills.” To have the majority of the Five Winds equipped with the highest quality weapons and armor would go a long way towards improving their strength and security. Even the Celestial Court used materials of similar rank for their own soldiers and immortals.

“I’m not sure how this has anything to do with me?” Dee asked with a small frown. She had exactly zero skill with enchanting. And as a psion she would never have any skill in that field.

“Well, you might pretty soon. There are certain communities and races that have the best skills with these kinds of materials and with enchanting high-end weapons and armor. Surprisingly, these skills aren’t exclusive to high ranking communities. We are seeking the expertise of several races and communities to aid in this process. For example Razark already left to ask the help of some Saurian friends of his and I will approach a few more soon enough. We would like you to approach three groups in particular due to your…shall we say connections? The first one is the Mystic’s guild. You are familiar with the grandmaster of the Radiant Sun, and he can get you in contact with the right people.” The empress explained her thoughts.

“That sounds doable. What else?” Dee felt that the worst was still to come. Her ties with the order were a bit odd, but she had gotten along with the grandmaster during Faylen’s wedding.

“The second group is the Lacademonians. Razark mentioned that you and Shunkaha were acquainted with one of their people during your training. If you two try to make contact that way, things should go more easily than if we made official contact to ask for their assistance. The last one…well, there’s no nice way to say this. We need you to make contact with the Sidhe.”

Dee rose up from her seating position with agitation and then sit back down, feeling her outburst to be a bit excessive. “That might prove difficult.” She stated finally.

“Well look. The Sidhe have some of the best smiths on Pantheon and they specialize in using the power of celestial bodies in their work. If we called for them and the smiths suddenly found out about you later on, then things would get complicated. If you were to make contact yourself, however, that problem would be avoided as they would know what they were getting into. Also, despite the fact that your separation was a bit questionable, you’re still acquainted with the new Queen of the Unseelie. I get the sense that it would be good for you to resolve any issues that connection has left behind, and now might be the best chance. Also, it’s kind of bad that you have a bounty on your head. I’m not sure if taking along the new queen’s sister would help or hinder things, but since she is here I’ll leave that decision up to you.” The empress was confident with Dee’s abilities, which is why she was pushing her to do this. The Five Winds had other ways to reach her goals, but this was hitting multiple birds with one arrow.

“That’s a steep price for some magical items.” Dee said with a grimace.

“True, but I’m not demanding results. I’m just asking for you to try. But you are right in that I’m asking for more than I’m providing, hence why I hesitated to say this would be an exchange. I’ll provide some extra to make things more even. I think I know what you have in mind with these items. I can help you with your little project if you want.” The empress also noted that the items Dee had asked were for three people. She assumed the other two were for Nyx and Moirai. The two psions would benefit from this enterprise as well.

“Fine. I’ll do it.” Dee replied with a grimace. She had vaguely planned on meeting Noyala again sooner or later to resolve some lingering issues. She had been planning on waiting until her strength was a bit higher, but her current strength sufficed. ‘I think her sister mentioned that she changed her name to Artenia when she took the throne.’ Dee thought idly.

------

Dee had gone to find Eilian, to see if the Sidhe woman wanted to see her sister again and to test something. She was not surprised to find the Sidhe princess once again in the same atelier she had been in the last time. The place was once again filled with Jun painters practicing their craft. Apparently they had moved on to painting humanoid shapes as there was a Dagon man dressed in just a toga standing still on a platform. She was half surprised that the man wasn’t naked; as that would have matched the stereotype in her head. She soon realized that it required more skill to combine both clothed and bare parts in one painting.

Dee sneaked behind Eilian and noted that the Sidhe had improved a lot since the last time she visited. “You’ve become good at painting the texture of cloth, but the muscle definition still needs work.” She commented.

This caused Eilian to jump a bit in surprise. Out of consideration, Dee had picked a moment where the surprise would not ruin the painting. “Dee! How did I not sense you creeping in here?” Eilian was truly surprised. She knew Dee could be stealthy when she wanted to be, but she should still be able to sense the power of life within her. Dee had visited a couple of times before with the new form so that was no longer a surprise.

“I’m testing something. Apparently it was successful.” Dee commented with a smile. The range at which the power of life could be sensed was growing smaller and she had found a temporary solution among the information left behind by Xinglong. The little trick allowed her to hide all that power of life inside her Domain, which was in turn hidden by Xinglong’s power surrounding it. It could not be held up for long as the power was part of her body, but still.

“Well, with this you could enter the forest for a short time.” Eilian commented as Dee explained what she had done.

“Yeah, about that. They want me to make contact with Noyala…err, I mean Artenia. I’ll need to get the bounty removed while I’m there, but mostly I’m there for business. I wanted to ask if you wanted to go back to visit your family? I could take you there quickly and protect you. You could also help me with my business.” Dee suggested, explaining why she was going in the first place.

Eilian hummed a bit before answering. “I think I should. I need to find out what happened to my parents after my sister took the throne. I know there was no love lost there. I want to know if they’re alive at least, and see them if possible. If they are still around, they could help you with the smiths. Our family had several of them working for us. Some of the best ones in fact since my parents were leading the armies of the Winter Court.”

“Well then, get packing.” Dee ordered with a smile.

“But my painting!” Eilian whined a bit. She had fully dedicated to her new passion and didn’t want to leave the painting unfinished.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll model for you in return if you want.” Dee promised without thinking it through completely.

“In any clothing I demand?” Eilian suddenly asked for confirmation, her mind already planning furiously. “Or lack thereof if I so ask? Like you said, I need to work on painting humanoid targets.” That was not exactly what Dee had said, but it was close enough.

“Err…” Dee realized that she might have promised more than she thought.