Kahari was startled awake by the sound of someone clearing their throat. It took him a moment to realize he wasn’t in his tent…or in his bedroll…or anywhere he recognized. He blinked and looked around and spotted a short, almost elven girl with pale skin, white hair, and striking red eyes. He felt the blood drain from his face as he processed what he was looking at. Something screamed at him that he was looking at one of the Divine, a goddess of this world. One he knew full well as he noted the horn-like crown on her head, and the black shirt and skirt that fit her form. This was none other than Detia, dark sister of the moon, and the mother of chaos. While strictly speaking not an evil deity, she was capricious, unpredictable, and favored her own children, the Moon Moths, over all others.

What the hell could she want with Kahari? He swallowed, daring not to speak as she calmly sat down in a silver chair, and gestured for him to take his seat in one made from black iron across from her. As he sat down, he noted that they were in what seemed like a parlor, everything here was touched by divinity, he could just feel it. It was a plain room, plush carpet, dark but neutrally colored walls, and comfortable but plain furniture. He had a hard time believing this was being used by a Goddess, but here he was.

He turned back to face her as a Moon Moth entered the room. A rare species of form armed bipedal moths, she was covered in soft white fur, and had four arms that each ended in three fingered hands. Delicate looking wings extended from her back, white fluffy antenna extended from her head, but what drew his attention most was that her eyes were…inverted. Instead of white, then the colored iris, and black pupils, they were black with white pupils. No other color. The woman herself was wearing finely made clothes made of fur, and some form of cloth. Whatever they were, Kahari could tell at a glance they were magical, and seriously magical at that.

The Moon Moth quietly poured some tea for Detia, bowed, and left quietly. Detia added some sugar to the tea, stirring it as she finally talked.

“Level 9 huh? Disappointing, but you’ll have to do.”

She took a sip of the tea, setting down the black porcelain cup gently with a clink.

“I have a message for you to take back to your little association.”

“W-why me?”

“Anyone important enough for the message is too powerful or too well shielded for me to draw here. You meet the bare minimum requirements I needed to pull your soul here, however temporarily.”

She stated simply, folding her hands on the table.

“You know who I am?”

“D-Detia, Goddess of Change and Chaos.”

“Very good, smarter than the last mortal I pulled here. Fortunately, he was just smart enough to keep me from ripping apart his soul.”

Kahari swallowed as she spoke.

“Here is the message for your little club child, and listen well. Thirty-three years ago, on the night of a new moon when our power over the mortal realm is at it’s weakest, my twin sister Rettia was stolen from me. No mortal could do this, only a God or Goddess of equal or greater power could do so.”

She took a bite from a sandwich on a plate next to her tea as she let Kahari digest the fact that a Goddess could be kidnapped.

“While my sister is too soft for her own good, she is dear to me, and whoever did this knew precisely the rules we have to operate by. Her body is still here in our home, but her mind was ripped from it and imprisoned in a mortal vessel. This allowed her to be brought down to your little corner of the world, where she could be hidden from my sight, and I could not simply walk in and destroy the fools holding her.”

The Moon Moth returned at this point, placing a new sandwich on a plate in front of Kahari.

“Over the last thirty-three years I have eliminated divine after divine and their congregation from my list of suspects, the first being my long standing rival of Adeallus. To be frank, I always considered him unlikely. I may hate his self righteous guts, but he doted on my sister, and would never stoop to such levels. Still, I was going to do my due diligence, and make damn sure it wasn’t him.”

She glowered at Kahari as he sat there listening.

“Eat fool, you can hardly expect to carry a spark of divine will without some of my power.”

Kahari opened his mouth to respond, found no words would come to him, and instead of looking like a fish gasping for air, grabbed the sandwich and took a small bite.

“Ten years ago my servants on your plane of existence finally discovered the mortal agents holding my sister. I believe you have some personal experience with them, the Night Talons. I also discovered that my sister continues to fight them, burning out no less than eight vessels in the past thirty-three years, their husks still tainted with divine energy.”

Kahari took another bite, now less scared, and more curious as to where this was going.

“Unfortunately, as now ex-members of your little Association, they took advantage of it’s numerous pocket dimensions, portal network, and the arcane shielding on it’s holdings to hide her and themselves from my sight. I have many agents, but searching two continents and many thousands of ever changing locations is more than they could handle on their own, and that was just the areas we could confirm Night Talons operated.”

A book levitated down from a nearby shelf, bound in white leather with blue gems studded on the cover, it landed on the table and flipped open as Detia examined it.

“Fortunately for me, me and my sister are very close, despite being opposites in many ways. If one of us is killed, indisposed, or otherwise unable to lead our flock and do our duties, we take over for the other. Only the highest ranks of her temples and some select servants outside our home are aware of her disappearance. I would not sully her name by acting out of character for her to the unknowing. This has greatly increased the number of forces at my disposal. In fact, it was your contact with one such servant that overcame the last hurdle, and allowed me to contact you. You know her as Silverleaf, I know her as Rettia’s ‘Cardinal of the Waxing Crescent’.”

“Wait, Silverleaf lied to us?!”

“Oh no, she is very honest with you, she just did not know that her chance encounter with you would allow me to pull you here. It was I who instructed her to offer you support, as the Night Talons overplayed their hand. I don’t know yet where they hold my sister, but I know what they plan to do this coming spring. They plan to sacrifice her divinity to try and bind the armies of hell to their will, and turn them on Ouroboros.”

Kahari raised an eyebrow at this, was it even possible to do such a thing? Before Detia could answer, the servant from earlier, looking extremely nervous, rushed into the room and bowed.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“I’m sorry for the interruption mistress, but a visitor is here. I could not refuse his entry.”

“Out with it! Who?!”

“Adeallus has arrived ma’am.”

Detia audibly groaned, and looked angry, very much resembling a pouting child at the moment. She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed.

“Fine, see him in and prepare a setting.”

“At once mistre-”

She could not even finish before the door slammed open and a man that seemed to be made of living gold entered, wrapped in robes of white and orange.

“Detia my dear! I hear you have a mortal guest!”

“Adeallus, you know damn well how t-”

“Is it this whelp here?”

Adeallus closed in on Kahari, clearing not caring for what Detia was saying and grabbing Kahari by his tunic, lifting him from the ground to stare into the boy's eyes.

“Disappointing, I was hoping you’d finally overstepped your bounds, but it seems you’re playing things by the book.”

He unceremoniously drops Kahari back into his seat, and promptly plots himself down on a stone throne dragged quickly into the room by the flustered Moon Moth.

“You know full well what’s at stake if I don’t deal with the red tape properly.”

“Yes but you’re you, I’d expected you to slip up by now.”

“Quiet fool, I’m busy giving Kahari here a message, and information.”

“Oh come now, that’s no fun.”

“No, but I will not risk my sister’s life for a fleeting desire of mischief.”

“How very unlike you, are you sure you aren’t sick?”

“No Divine has gotten sick in forty thousand years fool.”

“Doesn’t mean it can’t happen again.”

“You can shut your mouth or leave, I won’t warn you again.”

“Spoilsport.”

“One.”

“Oh come o-.”

“Two.”

“Fine! Fine!”

Adeallus crossed his arms and settled into his seat, glowering at Detia as Kahari could practically feel the stress dripping off her. Adeallus may be a god of Justice and Light, but he acted more like a child than the goddess before him that looked like a child. She took another drink of her tea to calm herself before turning back to Kahari.

“As I was saying, they plan to use a forgotten technique of blood magic to steal my sister’s divinity, and use it to bind one of the seven armies of the Infernal realm to their service. I suspect Pride, but it could be any of the seven armies of the West, or the twenty two current ones of the East. When the time for war comes, servants of myself, Adeallus, and Rettia will be joining your little association for the battle.”

She glared daggers at Adeallus as he looked like he was about to say something, who just smiled at her. Rage flushed her face, and Kahari suddenly felt like an ant caught in a cyclone, swallowing with fear.

“When my priest of the Waxing Crescent arrives, he will be selecting one person of every party that has joined your little ad hoc army, and grant them a temporary blessing that will let them identify my sister regardless of what wretched form they’ve trapped her in for now. Well, every party but yours. To bring you here I already had to bless you, so I just threw that into the mix. Don’t worry, I expect nothing from you except for the delivery of this message and the earnest attempt to free my sister.”

She took another bite of her sandwich to give Kahari time to memorize everything, or more accurately, give her blessing time to imprint her words in him for transfer.

“Per the rules of the Divine court, no divine may stand upon the mortal realm without mortals completing the right ritual to summon one of our avatars, or some very specific hurdles are cleared. Similarly I could not bring just any mortal up here on such a whim, there were many hurdles to jump to bring you here. You had to already be facing my enemies, you had to be sleeping, and you had to be one of the Awakened. I had a great deal of choice with your little group. Three Awakened and two sleepers? Unfortunately Bedora and Nissa did not have the personal ties to my foes, so rather than wasting my time on a more complicated way of calling them here, I brought you here.”

Adeallus actually spoke up here.

“For my part, I’ll be buying everyone some time by strengthening the barrier between Nisteria and the Infernal kingdoms. It may only be a few hours, but it may buy you the time you need to win your little war. Normally I wouldn’t get involved in this, but I owe Rettia a great deal, and I always pay my debts.”

Adeallus suddenly sounded extremely serious as he spoke, before quickly relaxing again after having said his piece.

“Whoever frees my sister shall receive a boon from myself, if it’s a group effort that whole group shall receive something. I could hold you here for several hours more, but I have more work to do and little time to do it, now go mortal, and deliver my message with haste, lest I become displeased.”

She snapped her fingers, and the last things Kahari saw before the room vanished from his sight was Detia’s fist sending Adeallus flying and out of sight. He was suddenly very glad that she had kept calm-ish while he had been there.

Kahari’s eyes snapped open, and suddenly he felt himself drop to the ground as the beam of red light holding him aloft released. He groaned as he hit the ground, and found the rest of the party already awake and looking at him with concern. He could only manage to say one thing before exhaustion overwhelmed him.

“I have a message to deliver.”