The reaction was instantaneous.

Tanya’s eyes widened, and her mouth opened to let out a scream, but no sound escaped her throat. Instead a familiar but no more comforting glacial aura erupted out of her. It ran over her hair, turning it cadaverous white, her eyes devoid of colour and her skin pale as alabaster. Her lips, poisonously lovely to look at, twisted in amusement, before she grabbed his chin and kissed him on the lips.

“Whispering my name in your lover’s ear? Why, Outsider! That was such a romantic gesture.”

Lukas rolled his eyes. “I summoned you because I need some answers.”

Her lips spread into a slow, slow smile, which in turn, became a quiet, rolling laugh. She let her head fall back with it. She sat there, laughing at him for ten long seconds, and Lukas felt his face heat up with an irrational embarrassment.

“Stars,” she murmured, “you’re adorable.”

“And you’re a psychotic murderhobo,” said Lukas. “We had an accord. So, again, mind if I get started?”

Frost lifted a fingertip to her lips as though she needed it to hold in more laughter. Then she smiled again. “Is that how you think things will happen?”

“We had an accord,” Lukas stressed. “You swore you’d help me when I needed it, and you’d give me all the information I need to get Inanna back.”

“Ah-ah-ah!” She wiggled her fingers. “It doesn’t work like that. It is true I am obligated to answer your call and aid you, but nowhere does it state that the aid shall be… how do you put it? Complete? Useful? I could give you an incomplete truth and there would be nothing forcing me to act otherwise. The same holds true for the information you want about resurrecting your goddess.”

Lukas clenched his fists. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Her lips slithered into a smile again. “It means that I can and will aid you, but at your personal cost. Nothing is free, my dear Outsider.”

“We had a bargain—” Lukas began heatedly.

“And it is because of that bargain that I’m even willing to play with you,” Frost finished for him. “It’s like you said, Outsider. That my vessel is worth something in your eyes is the only reason you agreed to it. But that isn’t true, is it? You live and breathe for your goddess, and for her, there is no stone you’ll leave unturned, nothing sacred you will not defile, if it means you can get her back.” She licked her lips. “Without hesitation.”

Lukas felt his jaw get a little tighter. He didn’t agree with her words but didn’t feel the need to correct her assumptions either. “And so, you’d take advantage and demand whatever services you want from me in return for information?”

“Nothing so trite,” said Frost, waving her hand airily. “I have big plans for you. Soiling it for some petty benefits is so not my style.”

She idly stretched out her hand. Frost arose out of her palm and began forming an ornate ice dagger, its sharp tip resting on her smooth skin, held in place by invisible hands.

“Then what do you want?”

She watched him, her eyes sparkling. “I cannot ask for a claim over you, because my vessel has it. As does this goddess. But let me see….” she tapped a fingernail to her lips again and then said. “How about a question for a question? Does that sound fair enough to you?”

“That’s a fairly broad area. You could ask me my weaknesses, or my secret plans for all I know.”

“Again, nothing so trite,” Frost said. “I am only trying to understand you, Lukas Aguilar.”

Lukas crossed his arms. “Why this sudden interest?”

“Isn’t it obvious? You’re a soulcrafter. An anomaly. An existence just as unique as myself. You absorbed Meynte’s memories and are studying them. You are learning all you can from observing my vessel. I’m certain you’ve already tried to study Everfrost with your perverse gaze. Is it not natural that I would do the same?”

“I’ve been studying Meynte. But I have certain… benefits that help me filter information without letting it override me.. And yes, I’ve been watching Tanya, observing her, but it’s not like she’s undergoing some outlandish transformation into an existence overnight. For all I know, she’ll become something slightly unique but still, unremarkable.”

“Then surely you won’t mind me engaging in a little banter that yields unremarkable results at best.”

Lukas gritted his teeth. “Fine. But I reserve the right to stay silent on certain topics.”

“So long as you answer another question in its stead.”

He thought for a moment and then nodded.

Frost leaned toward him, her expression placid and enigmatic. Slowly, she raised her right hand and touched his left cheek. “How… undaunted.” She met his eyes. “Fine. Ask your question.”

“You said I could bring Inanna back through Taboo. I want to know how?”

“Bringing back your goddess. Is that how you plan to destroy the warlord?”

Lukas narrowed his eyes. His time with Inanna had given him a good experience in reading between the lines. “I didn't think it could be achieved that quickly. Unless, you’re saying it can?”

Frost shrugged. “Anything is possible, Outsider. Isn’t that what Potential is all about?

“But we aren’t talking about Potential, are we? We’re talking about Taboo. The antithesis of Potential, of Truth.”

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“Yes!” said Frost, a childlike eagerness in her voice. “Yes, we are. Infinite are the ways of Creation, but equally endless are the ways to revert it back to the Formless.”

“Alright,” said Lukas. “How does it help me get Inanna back?”

“The pieces are all in front of you. You have only to assemble them.”

Lukas cocked his head. “Are you being intentionally vague? Why can't you just tell me what the hell you’re talking about?”

She frowned and studied him. “What do you know of gods, Outsider? Of divinity Of Truths and Emperors? How does one rise to one?”

Lukas frowned, thinking about that question. How did one become an Emperor? And eventually a god? The last time he had delved deeper into such thoughts, he had been tossed around in a maelstrom of knowledge, perceptions, images and memories that were too many and too powerful to make any sense of. This time, it was like dipping his hand into boiling water. Like a hot knife cutting into his conscience threatening to overpower his sanity. He struggled with it. Tried to wrestle it back. Even with Alpha Condition, it was an uphill struggle. His mind broiled under the strain, writhing in tormented agony. Something that wasn’t him and yet, a part of him surged within, swimming in his veins and saturating every inch of his body. It was all he could do to prevent it from leaking through.

Meanwhile, Frost just watched him like a hawk.

Then he spoke. “The first step is to become a Pathforger. To forge a path that does not exist, and travel along it, until it reaches the destination. The World would take notice of him, and he must suffer through the constraints of existing Truths, he must have the strength to hold the weight of Existence upon his shoulders. For only then, can he be the vessel of this new Truth. For only then, can he be called Emperor.”

Lukas didn’t know it, but his eyes were glowing an electric green. Images of Inanna, not the Supreme Queen, but an Emperor, flooded his mind. He saw her walking through that valley of flames, and knew that the power she was looking for, the power she desired, was not a Rule to Bind to the World, but one to bind it to herself. It was an absolute height of selfishness, of a greed so intense that even the Universe itself felt like an opponent. Something — someone to steal from.

“You’re right,” said Frost at last, an enigmatic smile on her face.“An Emperor Binds aTruth to herself. So long as she exists, she anchors it to the World. But should she choose to share it, she can forge a pact with the Greater World. He’d would hand the truth over to the world and become a God. Impossibly powerful, absolutely terrifying, but no longer the owner of the Truth. She’d become its keeper, an Authority-wielder, and in exchange, transcend to Divinity.”

“So a God is basically someone who makes a Rule… and gives it to the world?”

“Essentially,” Frost confirmed.

And what happens to the truth if the God dies?” asked Lukas.

“You have a one-track mind, don’t you?” Frost laughed. “Should an Emperor die, her Truth fades. Perhaps remnants of it will remain through their bloodline. . Should a god perish, the truth remains. Forever is it etched upon the world. The authority of the god will form into a relic. A path that leads to the empty throne of the fallen god.”

Lukas suppressed the urge to touch the Pendant hanging around his neck.

She had called it a relic.

Inanna’s relic.

It was what had stored her reflection within it for time immemorial. It was what had harvested what little faith she could gain from Earth. It was what had started all this in the first place.

He met Frost’s eyes. He knew what she was really saying. Or rather, what she was demanding him to admit.

He closed his eyes. He was treading in dangerous waters. Frost was a chaotic neutral element at best, and an impossibly devious and dangerous opponent. The only reason she was playing along was because her current motivations aligned with his agenda. He was sure that the moment she got what she wanted, she wouldn’t think twice before stabbing him in the back.

She had made it clear. A question for a question. He would get an answer, but in return, he would have to give an answer in return. Every step he’d walk ahead, he’d leave himself increasingly precarious, exposed, susceptible to backstabbing and betrayal.

He opened his eyes.

“When Inanna fell,” he said softly, carefully measuring his words before uttering them, “it wasn’t because anyone killed her. The Inanna I knew was a reflection of the original, stored in this Pendant,” he grasped the ornament with his right hand, rubbing it gently with her fingers. “It was her Relic. Through this, she reached out to me. And when I perished in the anomaly, she reforged my soul with her divinity, sacrificing her existence so that I might live.”

Frost was no longer smiling.

“She wanted me to find out what happened to her original form. With me dead, and her bound in the relic, she’d hit rock bottom. There, inside the underground crypt, no one would find her. I was her best bet, even if it cost her everything.”

“Well,” she said at last. “It was a worthy trade.”

Lukas frowned. He wasn’t sure how worthy it was. Not that he was complaining about getting a new chance at life, but he couldn’t help but feel that he was messing things up more and more as he went along. He had nearly exhausted the divinity within him, and if he fucked up just one more time, it would be gone for ever.

Igniting her divinity would grant her a temporary manifestation, and Inanna needed permanent solutions.

“Show me her memory,” she said. “If we must resurrect this goddess of yours, I need to understand what she was. What she represented. Her Truth, her Ascension. Her greatest moment that made its mark upon the very Origin. Show me this… Inanna.”

It was the first time Frost had actually called Inanna by her name. All this time, she had referred to her as ‘goddess’. Whatever it was she had inferred about her, must have hit a nerve for her to acknowledge her as someone worthy knowing.

Given how she was the literal antithesis of a goddess, that was saying something.

“Show you… how?”

“Open your mind to me. The last time I tried this, you were defiant. Ill-mannered. You made me fight for it. This time, let me in.”

Lukas swallowed, hesitation surging within him. Inannas memories were an utterly, utterly personal thing for him. He hadn’t even talked about them with Tanya, and she was his lover. And yet here he was, about to share his memories of her, with Frost of all people.

“Are you ready?”

Lukas frowned, conflicted about what to show her. For a moment, he thought about showcasing his first meeting with her. When she had first introduced herself, but quickly rejected that thought. She wanted to see something memorable, something significant. The fight between Inanna and Frost was out as well, because she was merely possessing his body and not actually fighting. His thoughts paused about how she had thrashed the Ifrit King around, but quickly discarded. It was powerful and exciting for him, but for Inanna, it was probably as mundane as taking out the trash.

He needed something else. Something better.

He thought back to Inanna’s earliest memories. Her hanging on the wall, as a corpse. No, that wouldn’t do either. He wouldn’t display her at her weakest. He needed her at her strongest. The memory of her being dragged around by Ereshkigal wouldn’t do for the same reasons. That only left a different memory.

One born of fire, defiance and sheer will.

“I’m ready,” he murmured.

Frost reached up and her slender, icy-cold fingers touched his forehead, like a mother checking a child for a temperature. Her thumb pressed exactly in the center of his forehead, right between the eyebrows. She stayed that way for a long moment, her eyes distant.

“Go on,” she said. “Show me.”

And so he did.