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Kurnous tapped the table lost in thought. Marius had just reported his meeting with the person that had utilized the Sacred Lady's power. The report had been very detailed and contained word-for-word quotes, as one of the most important parts of his reports was tied to the truthfulness of those words. The person had not been vague with her words, although she hadn’t revealed too many extra details either. One of the things that had become quite obvious was the fact that she was almost certainly a reincarnator, and one at least somewhat familiar with the Divine politics of this world. Someone familiar with the old politics considering they were familiar with the name Ynnead. So, someone from the Sacred Lady’s time or earlier. That made them a relatively old reincarnator. Several generations of otherwise immortal gods had come and gone since then, which meant so many years that few people could even understand the number.
She had also directly denied any connection with the Sacred Lady, which removed the fear Kurnous had of her. There were only a handful of reincarnators that truly scared him, especially those that hadn’t reached immortality yet. No matter how skilled, they would be relatively powerless until then. So, if he didn’t need to fear her, then the question was, how could he use her? And how could he find her?
Marius had made it rather obvious that he had not been in a rush to make his report. He’d had the man followed of course, but Marius was a slippery one, and the meeting with Ynnead had not been seen by anyone. Marius had given her plenty of time to disappear, and he had likely also made sure to share his report with others as well. The great houses and families of the Divines would all be interested in the information and the girl. Chief among them the House Titanica. And considering Shiva was one of their close allies, Marius had likely given them an advance warning.
“What do you make of this?” He asked his wife, one of the Goddesses of Beauty. She had a strong claim on one of the most heavily contested Divinities, and for several good reasons. Her appearance being only one of those reasons.
"There's something sketchy going on. I believe Marius was truthful in his report but was it the whole truth? Your son, Tethrine also seemed to be on to something before this mess with Princess Ynnead and the dimensional waves messed things up. That lead might have gone cold, but it might be worth exploring nonetheless.” The goddess gave her input. She and her husband were actually distant cousins, an unfortunate result of trying to keep the bloodlines pure. Not that Divines had to worry about genetic defects.
“Might be worth checking out indeed. We have precious few other leads at the moment. Marius did not want to oblige us with a memory of her appearance. He also mentioned that she approached him in the form of a phoenix so he probably doesn’t know either. As a result, we do not have her exact appearance. We can guess that she looks a lot like your twin sister. We also know that she has likely inherited the hair color shared by those that have the bloodline.” Kurnous was not happy with what they had. Too much guesswork and possible false assumptions.
"That's not a lot to go on." The Goddess agreed. "And even that's all speculation. And while rare, the hair color isn’t unheard of in the Higher Planes. That said, finding a Godling with the right qualities shouldn’t be too difficult.”
“We said that when your sister sent her into the Higher Planes in the first place. It took us almost two decades to find any hints of her.” Kurnous countered. Several search parties had been sent after the child, though they didn’t know which plane the child had been sent to.
"Maybe, but it's much easier to hide a baby that we know nothing about. Now we at least have a starting point, even if she erased all traces of herself." The Goddess didn't disagree, even if she was more positive about it. "We should send Tethrine some assistance."
As they were negotiating the exact details of the help, a golden decree suddenly appeared in front of both of them, as well as every Divinity in the Divine Planes, forcing everyone to kneel in respect. “What the Scourges?!” The goddess asked in shock after the meaning inside the decree had been passed into her mind.
“It seems our competition truly was informed before us. They got to father.” Kurnous grunted.
The message ordered the recall of all the Host personnel from the Higher Planes, with the exception of the Emissaries and the warriors required to deal with the Scourges and the dimensional issues directly. From this point forth all travel to the Higher Planes would be subject to extreme scrutiny and an evaluation by the Grand Marshal of the Heavenly Host. The order was issued jointly by the Heavenly Emperor and the Grand Marshal. Incidentally, the Grand Marshal was a Titan with a Divinity, but no specific domain or concept he ruled as the god of, as he was simply the Grand Marshal. That meant he was a Divine, but not one of the gods.
“Why would the Emperor approve of this? He should know this will only give our competition the advantage.” The goddess asked, clearly confused.
“Not necessarily. Yes, House Titanica will be able to benefit by sending their own people, but everyone else? The Grand Marshal will deny them as well. Besides, many of those already in the Higher Planes answer to us, and our son is the Emissary of the area where Ynnead was sighted.” Kurnous rubbed his chin a bit in thought. “Father likely also wants to prevent a large influx of immortals suddenly rushing the Higher Planes to search for her. That could lead to fights between immortals, and the Higher Planes would not be able to deal with the collateral damage. It would also draw the wrong kind of attention.”
“Ah yes. We aren’t the only ones that would like to get to her. Imagine if the Demonic Gods got their hands on royal blood.” The goddess shuddered. “Maybe this is for the best for now. It will delay things, but to our advantage. Well, ours and the Titans.”
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Prince Tethrine had been briefed on the situation but found it slightly difficult to accept. There wasn’t a single thing he could point to that would be wrong, but the pieces didn’t quite fit together as they should. It didn’t help that he didn’t have time to investigate thoroughly either. It had been somewhat vexing that Marius had found answers so much faster than him. To make things worse, after Marius had made his report, many of the immortals that had helped with the Scourge problem with just their presence had been recalled. That had left Tethrine and his underlings running from one place to another, making sure the Higher Planes were not overrun by the Scourges.
When he finally did get a moment of peace, he decided to take a more direct approach. His mother had noticed something off about the Grand Medjai, so he decided to visit the man directly. That way the man would not have time to develop plans against his visit. He’d get to the bottom of this. As he arrived at the Grand Medjai’s tower, he was of course allowed in immediately. While he was being escorted by a relatively modest-looking servant, he noted that the place seemed to have fewer servants than one might expect. He could sense the tower was largely able to maintain itself magically without even gathering dust, but servants were often seen as a status symbol.
"Emissary. What brings you to my tower?" The Grand Medjai Arjuna greeted him politely as soon as the servant led him to a cozy-looking office that was quite disorderly with stacks of paperwork everywhere. The man himself was dressed in a deceptively simple-looking cloak that seemed to be made of shadows that clung to his body.
“Grand Medjai.” Tethrine nodded in polite greeting. “I came to follow up on something. It’s in connection with the time you visited my abode last. You recall that you had urgent news and barged in during my meeting with another person.”
"I remember. I also remember apologizing at the time, and I believe we all agreed the news was urgent enough to warrant my intrusion.” Arjuna wasn’t sure where this was going. He had expected that matter to already be behind them.
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"Indeed. My visit is not about that. I only mentioned it to remind you and to draw your attention to something. Do you recall anything from the person I was meeting with?" Tethrine led the discussion in the right direction.
"We were not introduced due to the urgent situation, but I do recall she was a very attractive and powerful looking woman who looked quite a lot like you," Arjuna recalled. How could he forget, as the woman had looked like an older version of Karna.
Tethrine laughed a bit at Arjuna’s words. “My mother would be quite disappointed she made such a small impression on you. She’s one of the Goddesses laying claim to the Divinity of Goddess of Beauty after all. She did mention that you looked at her a little weird.”
“My apologies if I offended.” Arjuna raised his eyebrow. He could see how the woman could make a claim for the Divinity, though he had largely ignored her beauty due to how much she looked like his daughter.
“Ah, you misunderstand a bit. With her position, she is used to getting certain types of looks, and even if you only saw her illusionary image, most men would’ve been affected. You weren’t. She mentioned that you actually looked at her more like you recognized her. So that got us thinking if there was a reason for that. Have you seen anyone who looks like this?” Tethrine created a small illusionary image of his mother standing on his palm.
‘Ah, so that’s what this is about. It’s almost scary how well Karna had predicted something like this happening.’ Arjuna thought to himself. Despite the fact that Karna had successfully lied to Marius, they knew it was only a matter of time until someone mentioned to the Emissary that Arjuna’s daughter looked remarkably like him. That would ruin the lie about her leaving the world and there being no one that could be used as a hostage left behind. That’s why they had hatched a plan.
“Hmm, it would be easier to just show you why I reacted as I did. I’ll need to send my daughter a message. She’s currently in training and it could be bad to just barge in and interrupt her.” Arjuna then used the code they had agreed upon beforehand. He purposefully allowed the Prince to hear and understand the magical message. ‘Daughter, the Emissary is currently in my office. Would you join us as quickly as possible?’
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“That was quick.” Gem commented while doing something she’d done the first time after Karna had visited the Spirit World, which was to assume the form of her master. She also knew the form normally annoyed Karna, as any trouble Gem stirred up would be pinned on her instead.
Except this time she didn’t look exactly like Karna. She looked very similar, but there were some very subtle but obvious differences. Her hair had both white and blue in it, but it wasn’t the almost glowing white the royals seemed to possess. Her face also had several subtle differences. The changes were enough that if someone were to look at Gem and the Prince side by side, they would no longer think that they were obviously related. Instead, they would think the two looked somewhat similar.
“They must have heard some sort of rumors before. Now be on your best behavior. Just because we can disguise your presence for a time, the spell won’t fool the Emissary forever.” Karna grimaced a bit. There were two obvious problems with the plan. First, as Gem had assumed her form for a time, the spirit could also copy her presence as a Godling, a necessary part of their little ploy. Secondly, the plan called for Gem to act like her master. There was no doubt Gem could do it. If she wanted to.
“Don’t you trust me, master?” Gem asked, faking a pout.
“When there’s an opportunity for mischief? Not for a second.” Karna shot back without hesitation.
“Smart. I’ll try to limit my instincts for now.” Gem easily agreed. She too knew the situation was serious.
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“I see. Well, I suppose this explains a few things.” Tethrine could see the resemblance as soon as Arjuna’s daughter stepped into the room. The similarity was easy to see. “I’m surprised I didn’t hear about this earlier.”
“Well, we didn’t want to create any trouble or start any rumors. She has been out of the country almost the entire time you’ve been the Emissary. She was also stranded by the spatial phenomenon as I explained last we met.” Arjuna provided by the way of explanation.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Emissary." Arjuna's daughter offered a fractionally small curtsy. Tethrine almost burst into laughter at the obvious falsehood of her words.
"She is a Godling," Tethrine stated, noticing the girl's aura.
"From what we can tell, you're correct. We have no idea who her parents are, but her kind are sometimes sent down to us for various reasons." Arjuna said, picking his words carefully.
Tethrine of course knew he was right and knew about those reasons better than Arjuna. There could be any number of reasons, most related to power struggles, illicit relationships, and illegitimate heirs. “Could I ask her a few questions privately?”
As this was part of their plan, Arjuna obliged and left the two alone. It was much better for Gem to answer any questions instead of Arjuna being questioned. “So, not your first life?” Tethine asked, testing the waters. As Karna’s spirit, Gem was exempt from the rule that disallowed reincarnators to converse about such subjects. Most spirits were, as otherwise their masters would not be able to talk about the subject at all. Even item spirits were usually able to hear spoken words, even if they didn’t necessarily understand them. The spirits already knew about the reincarnators, so it made sense they were exempt.
“Let’s just say that I’m probably older than you despite how I look.” Gem smiled a bit.
Although impolite, Tethrine used a skill that allowed him to discover the target’s True Name. His eyes narrowed. “Spirit King?”
“The Name was received as a measure of power, not an actual position. Interesting life that.” There was nothing stopping someone from reincarnating as a spirit.
“Huh. Interesting.” Tethrine had never considered the possibility. Spirits could live almost forever, so it would explain why she considered herself older than him without actually knowing how many lives he had lived.
“Now as interesting as this is, why are you here? I don’t need divine attention just yet and I was in the middle of training.” Gem prodded the prince. And by training she meant very actively sleeping and lounging around, gathering power.
“Right. Let’s get straight to the point. Are you the Sacred Lady, and if not, are you connected to her in any way?” Blunt questions would be harder to dodge.
“I’m not the one you call Sacred Lady. I can’t say I have no connection with her. I did live at the same time as her. Why do you ask?” Gem deflected the other question a bit.
“Some believe she was a reincarnator and has now returned. Have you seen a person that looks a lot like this?” Tethrine used the image of her mother again.
“You mean aside from you and me?” Gem couldn’t resist snarking a bit.
"Obviously." Tethrine couldn’t resist a small smile at the shitty joke.
“I think I know who you mean, and yes. She spent a brief time on this world from what I know.” Eighteen years was extremely brief in the grand scheme of things. “I think she was actually annoyed by my appearance.” Gem gave an internal grin at her little joke.
“Were you friends?” Tethrine asked. He had noted that while the girl’s answers left a bit of room for interpretation, they were relatively direct and honest.
“No, though I suppose you could say friendly.” Gem said honestly. She didn’t consider their relationship to be one of friends. They were many things. Master and servant, and family would be the two ways Gem would’ve described their bond.
“Lovers?” Tethrine asked just in case and this time actually laughed as the girl made a face.
“No! Although, now that you mention it, she is pretty hot. That said…” She waved at her own face and body. The implication was clear to Tethrine. They looked too similar. “Also before you ask, no I’m not becoming your lover either. Same reason.” That last part was an obvious lie, which the Prince could sense.
“Wasn’t asking.” Tethrine shot the idea down just as fast. “Do you know how to find her?”
“I could probably find a way if necessary.” She stated without hesitation. “But I can’t tell you. Oaths. Incidentally the same applies to others that might be of help.”
That was the solution they had stumbled upon. Both Arjuna and Tsumi had been quite amused as they took oaths that would stop them from answering certain questions if they were asked by an immortal. Those two had been the only ones to take such binding oaths, as it would be impossible to get the entire student population and all of Karna's friends, but they hoped this little charade would take care of that. Oaths could be broken but the results could be extreme and even deadly to those that did break them.
“Of course," Tethrine grumbled. He had expected his quarry to take care of any tracks left behind. There were ways to lift oaths, but it would require a god to interfere. And the gods that had that sort of power, like Shiva, were not inclined to do so, both because they were all competitors of the Emperor and because their own Divinities went against such things. That’s why they had been granted such power in the first place, as they wouldn’t abuse it.
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Karna gave a relieved sigh. The spells in the room had allowed her to eavesdrop on the conversation Gem and the Emissary were having. Eavesdropping on the two had actually been extremely easy as reincarnators sometimes relied too much on the security provided by the fact that they wouldn’t be able to talk about matters relating to reincarnators if someone else could hear them. After all, the inhibition didn’t apply if the one doing the eavesdropping was also a reincarnator.
Gem had done well with their little charade. The spirit hadn’t even said anything too troublesome, which was a small wonder in itself. Karna had half expected the spirit to try and hit on the Emissary just to create some trouble for her. For some reason, the spirit seemed to enjoy it when she got into any romantic or erotic entanglements, the voyeuristic bastard.
With this, they had managed to buy some time. Now that the Emissary could vouch for her, and the man called Marius could do the same, she had purchased herself a chance to grow stronger. She had paid for that time by drawing even more attention to herself in the future, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to stay under the radar of the Divines forever anyway. Now she needed to make sure to use the time she’d managed to acquire well. Cultivation was a path that required you to tread carefully and slowly if you wanted the best results, but that didn’t mean there was no way to speed things along.
She also knew that the upcoming Expansion would provide a great opportunity for her. Firstly, it would draw everyone’s attention away from her for several decades. She only needed to stay hidden until then. Secondly, the Expansion would also bring along the opportunity to gain access to resources that were usually hard to acquire. As the new worlds would be unclaimed, the mad scramble would allow many with the right kind of karma and senses to gain many unique opportunities. Thirdly, and most importantly, it would also provide her with the opportunity to forge herself through battle. Strength gained in a safe environment would never equal the tempering of battle. So far, she had lived a very peaceful life as those around her tended to be too weak, or way too strong. That would need to change.
“I wonder if I can speed things along a bit and bring the Expansion about sooner than it normally would?” She considered seriously. That would require tampering with the grand formation that governed this universe. Even the Divines would be leery about attempting something like that, as even they didn’t have enough power. However, although Karna didn’t have power, she did have knowledge. And she knew the formation didn’t need any large changes. The universe was already teetering on a knife’s edge, and all it needed was a little push in the right place and at the right time.