Sunlight streamed through the window, and Gaius got up blearily. Despite having a full night of sleep and rest, as well as someone to hug, he didn’t feel refreshed at all. The events of the previous day — the great gods’ return to Orb — had placed an intangible strain on his mind, and he didn’t like where they were going.

After all, if the God of Earth had perished, in a battle where the great gods already outnumbered the Demon God to begin with, it could only mean that the World’s Blight was overwhelmingly superior to begin with. Once one cracked, it was very likely that the others would follow suit in short order.

Shaking his head, he glanced at Isabelle, who had dark eyebags. She too had stirred awake at almost the same time he did, and she looked as bad as he felt.

“Morning.” Gaius rubbed her head, choosing to omit the word ‘good’.

Isabelle stared at his nose for some reason, and then snuggled up to him. Patting her back, Gaius laid back down on the bed and looked up at the ceiling, pulling her onto his chest.

“Did you have a good rest?” Isabelle abruptly asked. “You look awful.”

“I think I did,” Gaius replied, letting out a long, drawn-out breath. “I’m tired too. But I don’t think I’ll be able to get any sleep for now.”

The back of his eyelids was like mini-Displays, Displays that replayed Rahwei’s final moments over and over. It was a stark reminder that even the great gods could be killed…but no one really needed that. After all, the God of Water had been murdered not too long ago.

If even they could die…

Gaius wrapped his arms around Isabelle and held her close. His arms were shivering, and the bad dreams he had last night were beginning to vanish from his memories.

“Don’t be scared, alright?” Isabelle whispered. “I’m here. None of us are going to die. We’ll make it through this, no matter what.”

Gaius fervently hoped so, but he didn’t dare to say his wish out loud. Giving her a little squeeze, he got back up and shared some moments of quiet intimacy with Isabelle.

Brushing back her hair a few moments later, he stood up and extended a hand to Isabelle, which she took with a small, amused smile. It didn’t take long before the two of them washed up, and as they pulled on their clothes, Gaius wondered how the kids were taking their first night in a foreign room.

“Do you think Nakama and La-Ti are alright?” Gaius asked.

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“They should be,” Isabelle replied. “Can you help me with this clasp? It’s stuck…”

Fixing it on for her, Gaius watched Isabelle pull on a nice-looking shirt and then checked his own clothes. Given that they were expected to be battle-ready at a moment’s notice, he had spent some time last night preparing a belt full of artefacts and knives for Isabelle.

Clipping it around her trousers, Gaius busied himself with draping a cloak around her shoulders as Isabelle watched on helplessly, and then tied her hair into a ponytail.

“Any discomfort?” Gaius asked.

“Feels great,” Isabelle replied. “How about you?”

With a surge of will, a grey suit of armour coalesced around him. Gaius glanced at the grey knife in his hand, and then shook his head wryly. “I’m always prepared.”

A light bulb lit up in his head, and he rummaged through his backpack. “Right, you should take these too.”

“Your Formless Pauldrons?” Isabelle asked. “But…”

“I don’t need it anymore,” Gaius replied.

It was true. He no longer needed much in the way of artefacts, since he could generate whatever his imagination wanted within his Domain. Only a few things still remained — the Terminus, Custodian and the Moonshot. The rest weren’t needed anymore.

He’d given up on Palisades, given that just about every enemy that had given him a run for his money had broken through them effortlessly. As that was the case, he had passed them all over to Isabelle, who hadn’t been slacking off in her own preparations either…leaving her with a huge surplus.

Isabelle fiddled with the artefact for a while, and then popped it on her shoulders, where it promptly turned into a very unassuming set of decorations. With that cloak on, she looked very much like Gaius’ conception of a hidden expert, the bigshots who stayed low profile the whole way.

He liked this look of hers, and from how she was twirling over and over, Isabelle probably did too.

“Now that I think about it, when I first met you in Heritage, you didn’t seem to be actually prepared for a journey inside,” Gaius commented. “Now you look ready to go inside and dig out some ether cores.”

“No, thank you very much. You can create them on your own now, so I don’t think we need to do that, do we?”

“True, but…” Gaius’ words drew to a halt.

“Something wrong?” Isabelle asked. “Do you want to sleep in for today? We can just rest in our room instead. The War Council or whatever can wait; you’re more important.”

Gaius shook his head. “No. I just thought of something. I’m not sure why I didn’t think of it earlier, but…”

“What are you talking about?” Isabelle asked.

“Remember that enhanced vision I used?” Gaius asked. “Why didn’t I use it yesterday, when the God of Earth died? If I did, I might have been able to see even more secrets, things that could be essential to my understanding of divinity. But…”

He shook his head. “It might have made me more capable. Stronger.”

Isabelle thought through his words for a moment, before reaching out to rub his hair. “I think it’s best if you don’t get used to falling back on those eyes, though. They make you seem emotionless.”

“I know.” Gaius took a deep breath. “Alright, let’s go check in on the kids, and then make our way to this War Council thing.”