The days after Vixus had warned the Council of the Church’s activities were calm, much too calm. While Vuthe hadn’t really expected either the Government or the Paranormal Council to move openly, the fact that even the Church kept mostly quiet about it was alarming, at least to her.

The world at large didn’t seem to care much for her stunt, despite it being in the media for a few hours, everyone seemed to have forgotten about it quickly. The sensationalist media had its upsides after all.

There was, however, one thing that bothered Vuthe personally. While many put off her appearance as some kind of publicity stunt, and those in the know thought it was simply some kind of fancy magic trick, there were those who believed every word Vuthe had said and began worshipping her.

While she had outlawed her own religion centuries ago, there had always been a few who worshipped her in secret, but they never petitioned her, never asked for her help, always keeping things quiet. It was the reason she had left them alone, as long as they kept quiet she hadn’t found any reason to stop them, trying to deny everyone would be a fool’s errand regardless.

Here, however, her new worshippers didn’t have that kind of respect. They didn’t know her story, her past, or her displeasure towards petitions. To anyone that had simply witnessed the event from the outside it looked like a Goddess, or someone that at least was powerful enough to parade as one, came out of the Shadows to make her public debut.

That’s what she gathered from her new worshippers anyways. And they were annoying. They petitioned her for so many things she really couldn’t be fucked with, but once more her duty bound nature drove her to at least respond.

She had made her mind up to only accept specific petitions from now on, but deciding it and putting it into practice were two entirely different things. Every time she denied a petition, even if it was something utterly laughable, she felt terrible. It was as if she slowly but surely returned to the evil roots she so desperately tried to escape from. At least in her mind.

And today was once more another day where she got multiple petitions. None of them were of any import, although one did stick out to her. It wasn’t particularly notable, just different from the rest. It was a petition, but not one directed at her, yet her connection to her domain had told her of it. She wasn’t certain what the petitioner wanted, as she didn’t have a direct connection to them, but she could feel their tiredness of life. Whoever it was, they had made their peace with the world and wished for release.

Even if Vuthe would have been inclined to help them in their wish, she couldn’t. While the petition did land with her, it was only a remnant of what it had been, a wish observed from a distance. The best she could do was to make sure that they at least got some response, but how that response looked was up to magic.

Maybe their wish was heard, maybe it wasn’t, she really didn’t have any way to say for certain. Suicide was nothing new to her, once upon a time she had considered it herself, and this wasn’t the first time someone had come to her with the wish for death, but this was the first time she could feel how utterly earnest that wish was.

This wasn’t your typical person with suicidal thoughts, there was no doubt, no helplessness, no fear there. There was only calm acceptance. It was almost creepy in a way. Whoever this petition came from they were certain of their wish. They had made their peace with it. And it frightened Vuthe, to a degree.

She had experienced some seriously fucked up things in her life, and while she too had once upon a time dabbled with the thoughts of death and the release it would bring, she had never been able to enact it herself. It had been the reason she went on a rampage, she needed someone else to do the deed. It had been a wish filled with doubt and a cry for help, luckily one answered by her friends.

This person had none of those, and while they petitioned someone else for help with their wish, it wasn’t out of fear or self-doubt. Something else was involved, but she could not see what it was. What did someone have to experience for such an earnest cry for death? The thought alone was frightening.

Shaking her funk off, she returned to the other petitions, quickly looking over what they brought to her, and then either ignoring them or telling them to piss off, depending on how foolish their wish was and how earnest their prayers felt.

If someone was hesitant of their belief in her, they could still contact her, but it was also much more likely they would leave her alone after being told to. The truly problematic ones were the fanatics, those who would try and explain everything away to support their belief.

To those petitions she only answered as a last resort, she had decided. For the moment she would let things go their way, and tried to ignore the guilt that crept up in her with every unanswered petition.

Outside of that the Council monitored the reactions of the different groups and the public, even going so far as daring to hope that things might go over smoothly.

However, you just had to know that Murphy was listening for exactly those thoughts so that he can give you a good spanking.

At the start of the third week after the incident something changed. Chell Bertner came running to the Palace, panting and demanding to speak with the Council.

The Palace itself was a far cry of what it used to be and would be more fittingly described as the Town Hall. It was only slightly more imposing than the rest of the houses in New Thelvadore, and honestly couldn’t be compared to the Palace they had once had. Maybe one day they would rebuild it, but for the time being the Council had decided to keep things subtle.

Their people, predictably, didn’t much care for its use and it was quickly referred to as the Palace, considering that it was home to their Governmental body, and no amount of explaining and pleading from the Council could change their minds.

So, reluctantly, they had accepted the name and even the guards at the entrance. One of those was now leading Chell Bertner into the big meeting room, a room which was much more like her old throne room to keep up appearances.

“Lady Bertner wishes to speak to you, your Majesty!”, the guard announced with a salute. Vuthe just waved to him.

“At ease, Soldier. You may return to your post”, she said in her benevolent Monarch’s voice, before turning to the woman in question, “Miss Bertner, it has been a while. What can we help you with?”

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Chell didn’t waste any time on formalities, “We have a problem. The Government and the Paranormal Council have multiple surveillance and communication networks that they share between them, to make sure that magic remains hidden. Now most of them have suddenly stopped working, with multiple points of interference being detected!”

Vuthe glanced over to the rest of the Council, noting that Corellanium was already deep in thought, most likely trying to figure out what it meant.

“What is the Governments and the Paranormal Council’s take on this?”, Tizanta asked in her calm tone, although Vuthe noted that she seemed a bit more tense than usual. It was understandable, between Vixus losing contact with some of their bodies, the utter lack of reaction towards Vuthe’s appearance as a Goddess, and now that it didn’t take a genius to realise that something big could be happening soon.

Chell took a moment to reply, looking uneasy. “The… Government has its theories, but they are unproven so far. We always had a few splinter groups who preferred magic to be public, some are more radical than that. We think that it may be one of those trying to do something.”

Vuthe didn’t think that was the case, but she kept her opinion to themselves. Then she remembered something and sent out a shadow to fetch Scythe. It was just a hunch, but she wanted to cover her basis.

From the reaction of her friends they also didn’t put too much stock into it, especially considering that if it was only a small splinter group, the Council didn’t really have to bother much. Whatever their angle was, New Thelvadore would most likely be left alone in that case.

“What of the Paranormal Council?”, Tizanta prompted, but Chell just shook her head.

“They wanted to speak with you personally on the topic. I was asked to facilitate a meeting.”

Predictable, in Vuthe’s eyes, but that was what a liaison was there for. She just shrugged and waved her hand in dismissal, “Once they got the place and time we will be there. I would offer to host the meeting, but New Thelvadore is still being built, and considering that we still haven’t gotten anywhere with our discussions I am not too inclined to be that polite.”

Ever since the discussion of governance had come up, the German Government had expertly ignored any and all attempts to reach any form of agreement, and truth be told Vuthe was getting tired of it. Things had become less focused as events progressed, so there hasn’t really been any attempt to finally find a solution for the issue, and if they wanted to continue like that, she was more than happy to tell them to shove off.

Predictably Chell didn’t seem happy about that statement, but she nodded regardless. No matter how much of an annoyance the government was, the woman knew how to do her job and Vuthe liked her quite a bit. She had already offered some accommodations as thanks, but Chell had politely declined them, saying that she had to stay impartial. Which was a good thing, but at the same time Vuthe thought she was overdoing it a little.

Regardless, it didn’t take long for Chell to return with a time and place, surprisingly enough the Paranormal Council meeting chamber was chosen. And apparently the entire Paranormal Council would be present as well. Vuthe had yet to meet most of them, so far she only really had any contact with Tika and Gerald Loltharim, so she was looking forward to seeing who the others were.

Just as they finished preparations Scythe walked in, looking bored out of her mind and ready for some action.

“So, what's this about, sis? Your shade friend didn’t say anything ‘sides you wanting to talk to me?”, she asked in her usual tone of bored indifference, although Vuthe could see a spark of anticipation in her eyes.

“Remember our dinner date with Scarlet? You told me about this group that sounded like trouble. I had Shade following them but they didn’t move so far, now we have a situation they might be involved with. I wanted to ask if you could keep an eye on Scarlet and the family and rattle the heads of anyone who wants to try something. No guarantee they are even involved, but I’d like to keep ahead of trouble.”

Scythe shrugged, obviously slightly disappointed, “I can do that, although I don’t think it's needed. Scarlet has an entire fucking security service at her disposal, but I guess it’s better to have one of us around. I’ll tell my squad to be ready.”

And with that she gave a sloppy salute, turned around, and left.

“That went smoother than expected…”, Vuthe mumbled, slightly surprised. She had expected Scythe to buckle more against being ordered around.

“You really have no clue about yourself, do you?”, Tizanta said with a sigh, “Of course she will help protect Scarlet. Sometimes I do wonder about you.”

Vuthe would lie if she said that that didn’t sting a little, but it wasn’t all too important and she still had to prepare for eventual movement of whatever shadow group Vixus was worrying about.

Waving away the conversation she returned to the topic at hand and called for one of her elite strike teams.

Thelvadore had, once upon a time, an entire division dedicated to covert action, although most of the members had either died or left service, and the more the war carried on, the less such covert movement had been needed. The result was that only two and a half teams still survived to this day, now part of the normal army, however in times of need they would return to what they did best: Move around unnoticed.

To that end there was only one draconic part of the team, an ancient Ocean Serpent, with a specialty in silent casting. The rest was mostly made up of different types of Beastkin, who were naturally more inclined towards stealth.

The serpent in question was one that even Vuthe sometimes went to when it came to studying magic, for he had figured out to cast silently. In this case that meant to cast magic without disturbing the magic around him, outside of the very effect he wanted to achieve, his casts were, for the lack of a better description, silent to most magical senses.

The way he achieved that meant that effectiveness was greatly reduced, but for any covert missions it was an incredible skill to have.

And this Serpent in question was the first to enter the throne room, five Beastkin following behind him.

“Your Majesty, you called?”, he spoke in his usual rough tone. Serpents tended towards a graceful appearance, he however made even the most burly Hydra look scrawny. Towering over the Council at close to seven and a half feet he was a sight to behold, and entirely atypical for the rest of the squad. But he had proven his meddle and was one of her best.

“Saiam, welcome. Yes, I apologise in advance, but I have need of your covert skills. We have a bit of a situation and I want you to help us figure out what it is”, Vuthe explained with a smile. She liked the man well enough, he was exactly the kind of soldier she liked to have in her ranks, loyal, creative in his solutions, and he put others' lives before his own.

“Just tell us the target and what to look for, your Majesty. It’s time we get some more action”, one of his squad mates spoke, a rather young looking foxkin, although Vuthe knew that that was simply magic. In a few years the woman would have to retire, as she was going on in years.

“Your target is the Church, or whatever subgroup Vixus has an eye on. Speak to them to get the basic lay of the land and see if you can’t figure out what they are up to. It might be nothing, but I’m not naive enough to believe that.”

The group seemed a little unhappy about being involved with Vixus, but they simply saluted and left, ready to start their work.

With that done, Vuthe returned to the desk in the middle of the room, filled with a giant map and multiple notes at multiple places. The only question now was, who exactly was responsible, and what did the Government and the Paranormal Council have in mind for their meeting. She would know it soon enough, but she couldn’t help but be uneasy. Something about this entire situation bothered her, but she couldn’t say for sure what it was.

However, she had learned to trust her instincts, especially since it seemed that Tizanta shared her concerns, even if she hadn’t said anything yet. Hopefully things will go by smoothly. But by this point it was hard for Vuthe to truly believe that…