I was kicked out of my tank earlier than I wanted to be by grumpy looking workmen. From listening in on their grumbles I took it that the repairs weren't going all that well. There weren't enough replacement parts for some things and they would have to wait until a boat went to the mainland and back again with the supplies needed before certain things could be fixed.

They were most concerned about the underground. I guess the earthquake had weakened a few walls and there was some serious concern about cave collapse.

Aggie realizing I was intentionally dawdling began to rush me through breakfast.

I was fed and dumped into the lake as soon as Aggie got the wind up. She gave me a lecture about eavesdroppers and hoped I wouldn't get into the habit of listening to the mundane ramblings of others.

I had suspected there was a cave system underground since there were a few caves near the north end of the lake. I was too much of a coward to explore too far into them though. The two I'd found weren't very deep and were mostly grottos rather than caves.

Adam had mentioned another one that was completely submerged hidden in among the roots of the trees along the northwestern bank, but I hadn't spotted anything during my swims. Not that I'd been looking particularly.

Making use of an underground cave complex made logistical sense to me. This was a research base after all. The geological studies that could be done alone would be a good reason. Not to mention the volcanic activity and the diverse monster population that could also be studied.

I was floating along under the water when I felt the current shift a bit. Something had hit the water disturbing it. I glanced around and someone was trying to orient themselves in the water having slipped from the lift chair into the water.

It wasn't Adam. His coloring had been more on the natural side. This person must be Filmore. His coloring was in shades of yellows. His tail was a pale yellow that looked more like a cream and he had brownish splotches. He'd decided to shave his head and where once there had been brown coloring there was now white.

So his hair had gone white as well. It was hard to tell with just two of us, but it seemed like Adam was the odd one this time. Filmore got himself turned around. I'd gotten used to Adam's fins but seeing Flimore's split fins left me rather jealous.

Why was it only the males that had maintained some semblance of legs? Sure, it looked like each leg was the end of an eel, but I was still envious. I was told that their basic anatomy had stayed roughly in the correct places. Mine had decided to change entirely. It was one of the many injustices of this world.

I waved to Filmore when he turned and spotted me. I floundered around a bit trying to get used to using his new fins in open water. I wondered if I had been like that the first time they dumped me in here. Probably.

I swam up to him and helped him get right side up. Then we both broke for the surface.

"Thank you, Miss Rille," Filmore tried to give an approximation of a formal bow but ended up submerging himself instead. I grabbed him by one of his arms and helped keep him steady.

"Marcy had been so worried about you. I'm glad to see you safe and well," I told him.

"Yes, we were allowed to meet up a few days ago. She told me you'd been helping with the children. I can't thank you enough for that and for keeping Marcy's hopes up."

"It was no problem at all and Marcy is usually the most cheery of us all. She's aglow with being a new mother."

"Quite right, but when she's by herself she sometimes falls into fits of melancholy. Having friends who've survived to share the burden of our new afflictions seems to have helped her cope."

"I think I understand what you mean. Having people to share a hardship with makes it easier."

"Yes, that's basically what I mean."

Filmore nodded and smiled at me.

Pleasantries out of the way I began to talk about the lake. I gave him some advice about keeping his gills clean and how to avoid getting tangled up in weeds.

We were drifting and I didn't realize we'd gone so far until I felt the currents change and Adam swam up to us. He had one of his fishing nets wrapped up in his hands and one of the fishing spears he'd fashioned tied with string to his back.

"Hello," he said tentatively swimming up to us.

"Hello, Adam," I called. Then I began introductions. "Adam this is Lord Filmore Cooperwrite. Filmore, this is Adam."

"Lord Cooperwrite," Adam said formally with a head nod.

"Just Filmore is fine. We are all equal when it comes to our new situations after all." Filmore flipped one of his fins in emphasis.

"True enough," Adam nodded. "Do you like fishing? I've been trying to work out a method of fishing while underwater."

"Traps would probably work best," Filmore answered. They both got into a discussion of fishing and different techniques they could use.

I gave my excuses and left them to debate the merits of box traps versus net traps.

There was a sandy beach area that I could pull myself up on using some low hanging branches. Getting back into the water was a bit undignified since it was essentially me rolling into it until I was deep enough. Still, I thought the rolling was better than flopping about like a walrus.

The sun was just starting to really get warm. It was drying up the dew on the grass and was getting high enough to give the usually shady beach some real warmth. I shiver went up my back as I shut my eyes and let the sun warm my body.

"Hello Rille," a voice from directly beside me said. I won't lie. I started as upright as I could get. A boy of about fourteen sat beside me. He had on a white tunic belted at the waist with an ornate gold belt. His hair was spiky but was pushed back from his face with a golden headband. He was frowning down at me but it changed into a slight smile as I tried to get myself into a more dignified position.

My brain sort of gave a stutter. That's all I can really call it. It went completely blank in the shock of it all. I knew full well that the person sitting beside me wasn't a person. There was an atmosphere about this child that told my vacationing brain what he really was.

He was a god.

Once my brain caught up with itself and came to that conclusion, it decided to desert me again.

"I'm going to need you to focus, Rille. We need to talk, you and I," The boy reached out and flicked my forehead with his finger.

I don't think he did anything magical but the finger flick worked to kick start my thought process.

"Um, hi." Given its recent absence that's best my brain could do.

"I don't have a lot of time," he sighed and rubbed his head. "There is a barrier on this island that prevents the gods from even noticing that the island is here. It also prevents me from leaving. I'm stuck here and I need help."

"A barrier? On the island? You mean like a magical barrier?"

"Yes, but it's more than just magic. There is something else here something older than I am that keeps the gods away."

"If it keeps gods away then why are you here?" Good a logical question at last. Though perhaps asking which god this child was should have been higher on the to-do list.

"I came because I was called here. By your mother in fact. Now, I'm trapped." He waved his hand in the air all around him.

"My mother!" How on Elrich had my mother known how to summon a god?

"She's an old petitioner. She caught my attention this time due to her desperation."

"Wait," I adjusted myself in the sand and tried to catch up. "I don't get it."

"Nineteen years ago your mother, stuck in a loveless abusive marriage called on me. I granted her a Special Skill in exchange for a sacrifice. I gave her that skill and you and your father were sacrificed," he shrugged as he said this and glanced around the small beach.

Something like a cannonball formed in my stomach. Vague memories from forgotten dreams were trying to surface.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Chance?" I asked with a lot of trepidation. If I was right, maybe the rest of that dream was real too?

"Yes, I am Chance. I hope you don't think too poorly of me. I'm not an evil god. I'm not one of those goodie goodie gods either. Your mother made a deal with me, that is all."

"Chance," this time I made it a statement. He was one of the minor gods. Son of Esaias, who was definitely not minor.

"I'll start over," he sighed. Then leaned back on his elbows gazing out onto the lake.

"I'm Chance. A few years ago I was summoned by your mother. There is a ritual that is done that if the right conditions are met summons me. Those who meet those conditions are given a skill called Luck Leech.

"Your mother met the condition and offered up your father and you as a sacrifice. Luck Leech is exactly how it sounds. You leech the luck from someone else, in this case, the chosen sacrifice. Luck Leech literally takes all the luck one person might have and takes it from them."

"A sacrifice," I whispered. My own mother had sacrificed me.

"Don't think too harshly of her, she was desperate. Your father would have eventually killed her if he had lived you know."

I thought back on all the hardships we'd had and the bouts of spontaneous windfall.

"Now for the problem. Your mother summoned me again."

"Are you here because she used me as a sacrifice again?"

"No, the opposite. She's using herself."

"What?" I thought I'd been confused and hurt before but this was even more baffling.

"We didn't know about all this," he waved his arm around. "The Island, the experiments, or none of that. The barrier keeps us from seeing it. We knew about the plague because of all the deaths, but we didn't know about the cause or where they'd taken the survivors.

"So when Maple summoned me I was more than a little surprised at all this," he waved his hand around again, "and surprised at the condition you are in. It's both remarkable and an abomination what has happened here."

"I'm sorry this is going rather fast and I am confused." I held up a hand in an attempt at something. Perhaps I wanted him to stop so I could think over what he'd just told me. I just couldn't seem to process all of it.

"I'm getting to that be patient." He rubbed his elbows more into the sand trying to get comfortable gave up and decided that talking to me flat on his back was a good option.

"The barrier, it prevents gods from interfering with what is going on here. However, when I'm summoned I 'know' where it is I'm supposed to go." He used exaggerated finger quotes. "But I couldn't get here. I found myself about a mile out staring at this magical barrier. I poked at it a bit to determine what it was for. Then decided it was worth investigating and sort of broke in, but now I can't get out again.

"It was the casino, you see. All places of gambling are my territory so I forced my way through the barrier by insisting to the magic that the casino was mine. It worked, unfortunately."

"You attached an anchor to the casino and pulled your way through, but now there is nothing on the other side to latch your anchor too in order to force your way out," I summarized. Chance was a bit impetuous. He probably should have just gone to the other gods first and said 'hey look there's this weird invisible island maybe we should all check it out'. Instead, he'd decided to try and do a solo investigation.

"So I found myself stuck, but I figured since I was stuck here I might as well do what I came to do. I met with your mother and that was when I got my second surprise. She's a tree you know?" He turned his head and glanced in my direction.

"I'm aware," I said simply. I'd already gone through what Aggie called a 'grieving phase' for my mother's condition.

"So she summons me and explains that she's dying and wants to transfer her luck on to you. She'd been told you'd survived but hadn't been able to see you do to her rooted situation. I took it upon myself to examine the other rooted people. It's amazing, it really is. They are trees but so much more than trees.

"They have formed a collective consciousness. It's not a high-level consciousness but still, it's there. They aren't individuals anymore but rather one tree. That's not right though since there is more than one tree," He paused in thought.

"So my mother is going to be gone either way. It's still death."

"Um, yes and no. She's not going to the Abyss but becoming part of the collective that is the forest of rooted people. So while her personality, what makes her what she is, would be gone, her life force is being used to live within this forest.

"But I digress. Maple asked me to transfer her Luck Leech to you and used herself as a sacrifice. If she dies before she's fully rooted she will go to the Abyss, but if she doesn't die and becomes part of the forest complex then you'd be able to Luck Leech from the entire collective of trees. There are so many of them at this point that none of them will die. However, it's not something I would usually agree to.

"Given the circumstances though, I believe you may be my best chance of getting off this island. Your future is in flux and if I give you Luck Leech you may just accomplish something.

"Do you know how a god is killed, Rille?" He suddenly sat up and changed the subject.

"You can't be killed. Your body can be destroyed but then it just goes poof and you end up reforming in the Abyss."

"You're right normally, but do you know that gods can be permanently killed? Do you know how it's done?" His eyes squinted at me in the sun and he had a furrow forming between them.

"Gods are immortal, that's the point of being a god, right?"

"Yes, normally but in our history, there have been times when gods were killed. During the war with Apep is the most well-known example. Gods were killed then. Do you know how? Can you guess?" He leaned forward a bit anticipating my answer.

"Well," I said slowly. "The war was between the demons, the humans, the gods, and Apep."

"There were the demon generals. It was before I was born but I've been told they had the powers of minor gods. So in this war, Apep had the generals.

"Now to kill a god for good, it takes a god. Do you understand?"

"Only a god, or someone with god-like power, can kill another god?"

"Essentially yes, there are ways to trap a god, but to kill a god it takes a god. Now there was that one god who decided he'd had enough of godly life and made himself a sword... but technically he's still a god even if a human is wielding him. So he doesn't count.

"Even still, it takes a lot of doing to kill a god. The soul has to be destroyed along with the body and that is particularly difficult to do. My point is that I'm in danger here and I really need to go get help."

"You're stuck here, but I don't see how that's so dangerous. Just ask whoever put up the barrier to let you back through." It seemed logical to me. Chance was just being melodramatic.

"Don't you see Rille? No, I guess since you don't have magic you wouldn't..."

"I have magic now, I just can't use it," I interrupted.

"Not being able to use the magic is just the same as not having it. What you don't seem to grasp is that a god can always circumvent normal mortal magic. So this barrier that is up here isn't normal. Are you following?" He looked at me to see if I understood. I nodded.

"Right. So right away I discovered that this barrier wasn't normal, but I wanted to know why it wasn't normal. Who had put it here and why? I think I know why, but who is a bit trickier. You see there are at least two other gods on this island along with something I've never come across before. A very powerful being. One of these three, or all of them together, put up this barrier and since I don't want to get permanently snuffed out of existence I need your help."

"Why can't you just ask them to let you out?" I still thought that simply asking would be the easiest method.

"Don't you see? They don't want me to escape. They know I'm here and are looking for me. It's simply luck that I've been able to avoid them. Good thing I'm the god of luck," he laughed depreciatory. "They don't want me to get out and let the others know what is going on here. If the other gods found, the ones responsible for this place would be sent before Zeus himself. Punishment for this sort of thing..."

"But they are helping us. They brought us here to rehabilitate us. I suspect they are studying us while they do it, but since we are the plague survivors that's only natural. "

Chance looked at me and sighed.

"There is only so much information I can give you without breaking the rules of freewill. You are a little wary of the things that happen here. That's good. To begin with, I want you to find out what is going on in the underground caverns. You are the only one who can get Maize down there."

"Wait, what does Maize have to do with this?"

"I popped in on her earlier. She's one of mine even though she worships another. She's not all that she seems and neither is this island. Rille, you need to start thinking. Maize needs to get into the underground. The cave system under the lake connects to the underground. The two of you need to work together."

"But I don't," I began but Chance suddenly stood and glanced into the woods that bordered the lake.

"I need to get going. One of the ones I'm trying to avoid has tracked me here. Rille, this island is wrong. What they've done here is wrong. They will stop at nothing to keep this from coming to the attention of the gods. Rille, I'm sending you and Maize down there in order to find out what you can. You're my inside group. I'm taking a gamble on this working out. I'm putting people into play and I'm hoping that will turn the game around." He stepped up closer to me and bent over bringing his face against mine.

"Do you agree to help me?" He asked looking into my eyes. What was I supposed to do say no to a god? You never said no to a god.

"Yes," I agreed.

"Good. Then close your eyes. A little mind-reading prevention. Don't want them to be able to read your thoughts when you're trying to subvert them." He reached out a hand to the back of my head and I closed my eyes. There was a warmth against my skull where his hand was. He used his hand to tilt my head up and I felt a light brush against my lips. Just the softest whisper, but where there was contact there was fire. My lips were burning.

My eyes popped open just as he was pulling away.

"Luck Leech," he smiled. Then he waved and poofed away.

Three seconds later there was a crashing through the bushes behind me. I looked at the disheveled Cantrel. He had twigs sticking out of his hair and his shirt was dirty. It looked like he'd just taken a tumble down a steep hill. Then he looked me in the eyes.

A chill went down my spine. Oh shit. How had I missed it?

"What is going on here?" He snarled at me. There was no more pretending to be nice with him. His eyes held fire. When I didn't answer quickly enough he stormed up to me and grabbed me by my arm. Even though I was heavier than I used to be he was still able to lift me practically up to face level.

"Answer me girl!" He screamed.

"God," I breathed out between the pain. My arm was close to dislocation I could feel it.

"Which god? Don't lie to me I will know. Tell me," he brought his face closer to mine and his eyes caught mine.

"Chance. Chance came because Mom summoned him. She wanted to transfer her skill to me since she's dying."

"And did he?"

"Did he what?" I whimpered. He shook me by the arm.

"Did he transfer her skill?"

"Yes, I think so. He kissed me." Cantrel suddenly let go of my arm and I landed with a thump.

"You are telling the truth. Was there anything else? Did he say or do anything else?"

"He mostly just laid here in the sand and sunbathed." I pointed to the indentations in the sand where he'd lain.

"He sunbathed." Cantrel's voice had gone from angry to low and menacing. I flinched.

"Yes, right there." I pointed again.

"And what was he doing while he sunbathed?"

"He told me not to blame my mother for using me as a sacrifice since my father would have eventually killed her." I wanted to look away from his eyes but I couldn't I physically could not look away. I even tried falling a little to the side and my eyes never wavered from his.

"Anything else?"

"No," I lied. I was lying he said he'd know if I was lying but some inner instinct told me that I could lie about this. The rest was inconsequential but I had to keep hidden Chance's plans.

"I see," Cantrel stood watching me for a few more seconds then his head jerked up and he swiveled on his heels and he pushed back through the bushes and trees.

"God," I whispered to myself. How had I missed it before? Cantrel wasn't human. He'd never been human. He was a god.