I sat up slowly. I looked at the peg ying near the edge of the yurt and sighed. “Get me a wheelchair, I’m not walking on that thing anymore today. Oh, and Dekarru, send her a message that she should wait for me in the sitting room of the manor she is a guest in. Completely naked and absolutely embodying patience.” Dekarru chuckled and nodded before heading off.

  Flyt gave me a worried look. “You’re not going to actually-”

  “Oh no, not at all. But I’m not letting her think her status as a Hegemony princess means a fucking thing here. She will behave like a guest and be thankful, or she will stop being treated with kindness.”

  “That seems a bit…” She shrugged.

  Ephi took Flyt’s hand. “She’s one of the royals. You know, the reason our family and friends are dead?”

  “I don’t want to hold on to that anger. We’re gone from there. We have a new home, new lovers, new lives. Hate won’t bring my mother back, but it will poison me if I hold on to it.”

  I smiled and scooted over to Flyt, kissing her softly. “I promise you, I’m not doing this out of hate. I think there might be a chance to make things better for her, I’m just trying to make sure that happens if it’s able.”

  “By humiliating her?”

  “By making her stop thinking of herself as better than others. I think maybe she doesn’t want to, but she’s been trained to by who she is, who her family is.”

  Flyt sighed and nodded. “Okay. That makes sense I guess. But does that mean you’re going to make her come here at some point? Traipse around the Encve District in the nude?”

  I tilted my head and smirked. “That… is a lovely idea actually. I’ll look into it. In the meantime, I have to go be a Saint for a bit so I will talk to you lovely gals ter.” I kissed her tenderly then turned to gave Ephi the same, a reminder of my words from before, that she is loved.

  Minutes ter, Dekarru returned with a wheelchair. Azuriel and Carmil insisted on escorting me, and also that the three of us cleaned up before we went because we stank of sex and were literally dripping in the fluids of the time we’d spent with the tribe.

  So it was that about an hour ter we arrived at Dekarru’s manor. Two floors, a good dozen decently sized rooms per floor, all dark wood and red brick and cssy. There was a rge garden out front with some lovely summer flowers in a corner and vegetables throughout the rest of it. Tomatoes, gourds, zucchini, onions, and a few others I couldn’t recognize. All small plots but clearly well tended.

  Dekarru smiled. “I let some of the locals grow food here, better use than rose bushes I’ll never see. Bit of a community garden, warms my old heart to know this pce is seeing use.”

  With Azuriel pushing my chair and Carmil swimming in my bloodstream, Dekarru opened the door and led us in. Turning left and walking into a rge and comfortable looking room with sofas, rugs, and a rge hearth, we met with the princess and two of her guards armed with short spears.

  They all turned and gawked at the nephilim who entered with us, awe, wonder, and a slight hint of fear obvious on their faces. I smiled brightly and looked the woman and her escorts over. She had listened and was completely nude. She sat in a soft chair facing the entry way, fingers gripping the arms of the seat in what was, to me at least, an obvious attempt to stop her urge to cover herself.

  Perky, slender, pink caps to her small breasts and a light tuft of dark bck hair between her legs. Her two guards were… also naked for some reason? One had dark skin much like Tendri’s, though a much more muscur build with very small breasts and a very thick bush. The other was elven and pale, short golden hair matching her neatly trimmed muff and much rger breasts than either of the other dies.

  “You know, I only demanded you be nude.”

  The elf woman spoke up, defiance in her voice. “We would not allow our princess to suffer this humiliation alone. Whatever you would do to her, we ask you use us instead!”

  “Or I could simply demand all of you? You have no real power here after all.” I spoke pinly, the elf blushed hard. I don’t think it was any sort of arousal as much as worry and embarrassment.

  I looked at the two guards, spears gripped tight in their hands. They stared at Azuriel, a very specific fvor of fear in their eyes. I activated my senses and read them like open books.

  Angels attack their homes. Celestial forces burn their temples when left undefended. Archons descend upon their heroes and officers. The Hierophant apparently HATES the Hegemony. Good to know.

  “You were hoping that if I could not be convinced to fuck you instead of her, that you might be fast enough to kill me before you were struck down for the offense. But now you see my escort and that hope is dashed. You know your princess is mine. Even with my obvious, hampered condition.” I gestured to my missing leg.

  Azuriel’s wings raised, I could FEEL the anger from her. “You will not touch her. I will burn you all and see your princess begging for death if Esme comes to harm!”

  I turned to see violet fmes crawling across her body. Gods she was a wonder. Absolutely terrifying to the guards and the princess who was frozen in fear. But to me? Beautiful. “Now now Azuriel. They won’t try anything, will they?” I asked, staring pointedly at the princess.

  She shook her head and with a breath stood on trembling legs. “No… Saint Dreaminger. Y-you will be obeyed, I swear it.” She walked to me and knelt down, hands on my thighs as she stared between my legs. As she reached for my pants I grabbed her hand.

  “Why don’t we wait until you tell me why you need my attention so badly?” She looked into my eyes and the entire world wobbled slightly. I shook my head, then stared at her. I pushed my skills, but she was unreadable. I took a breath and pulled from the Dream, from Vei’Ryn, and felt power surging into me. She gasped, I knew it was happening again, I was tapping into that power and becoming more like my Goddess. My skin moved, my hair danced, my eyes glowed.

  I stared into her eyes and saw the edges of the lie. An illusion?

  “Drop the mask.” I commanded.

  Terror filled her eyes. “I don’t-, wh-what mask?”

  “Drop it or I leave and the Elders can decide what to do with you.”

  She swallowed and turned to look at her guards. Tears fell down her face, a face that changed.

  The guards averted their eyes. They clearly knew, but also knew to pretend they did not. Dekarru grunted, a sign of rare surprise for the old oracle. Azuriel tilted her head and stared, unsure how to process what she was seeing I think.

  The princess’s hair shrunk into nothingness, her body darkened, tan turned to red and skin turned to scales. She stood slowly as I released her hand, her body no longer human but more like a humanoid snake. Ears were repced by the fred hood of a cobra, eyes were a warm yellow with long slit pupils, her nose was two small holes on a simple bump above her lips. Her body was about the same shape as before, but with a long slender tail wrapped around one of her legs.

  Dekarru was the first to speak. “I was lead to believe that the former High Shaman and his wife were both human.”

  “She is not my mother,” came the reply, dripping with bitter hurt. “I am a conquest princess.”

  I cleared my throat. “Expin please? And do sit down, I think we have a lot to discus.”

  She stepped back, seeming to realize that she was being tested. “May I and my guards get dressed?”

  “No. In fact, Azuriel, would you help me out, I think we should all get more comfortable. This is the home of a member of the Path after all.”

  A few minutes ter, Azuriel, Dekarru, and I were all nude as well and sitting on a couch across from the princess. She tried, and failed, to not stare at my dick. As did her guards. Dekarru ordered the two to sit, them standing at attention like that was killing the mood. They protested, but this was the oracle’s house after all, so they sat on a couch next to their princess’s seat and tried not to look as nervous as they clearly felt.

  I took a breath. “Alright. First off, tell me what a conquest princess is, and then why you need me.”

  The serpentine princess hesitated, her forked tongue flicking the air in what I read as fighting her nerves. “The Hegemony spans many nds, cims many nations and kingdoms under its banner. Not all-, no, most of them did not join willingly. One means the High Shaman has of preventing rebellion is taking a person from a conquered nation’s ruling family and adding them to his or her harem. Both to keep as a hostage, and because…” She tensed, the words stuck in her throat.

  I answered for her. “Because then the children of that concubine and the High Shaman are a member of both nations. It muddles matters for heredity and can, in theory, make a conquered nation feel like they have a say in their rule. Or at the very least make them hesitate to fight against a ruling family that includes one of their own royals.” I sighed in annoyance at the Hegemony getting even shittier every time I learned more about them.

  “Yes. My mother was the queen of a nation of people known as mia. The High Shaman took her once he took their nd. Killed her husband and children, and-”

  I cut her off, seeing the tension spike in her body as she spoke. “You don’t need to continue. I am not so cruel as that.”

  “And yet you have me debase myself when we meet.”

  I tilted my head slightly, raising an eyebrow as I looked into her eyes. “The Hegemony is a vile nation ruled by a vile family. Willow Creek is flooded with those who were lucky enough to escape the madness of your war of succession. Even if you were still a princess of that nation, and lets not kid ourselves your brother has certainly named you an enemy of the state by now. But even if you were still a princess, you would find no friend here. The so called ‘peace’ between the Hegemony and Willow Creek was nothing but a healthy fear of our power. The knowledge that while your father or his predecessors might have been able to conquer us, the effort would exhaust the nation so badly that their other enemies would be able to fall on them like vultures on carrion and pick the mighty Hegemony apart.”

  She turned away from me, anger and shame in her eyes. But she turned back after a moment. “Are you so different? You maintain your nation by fear and strength of arms, do you not?”

  Dekarru ughed, a heavy and powerful one that left her shaking. At the sight of the princess’s confusion I sighed. “No. She’s ughing because the answer is no. Willow Creek is a nation that exists purely for cooperation to keep others from fucking with us as a whole. There is no fear, no strength of arms, the various groups within even sometimes fight each other. Though usually just in honor duels, not full blown battles. But we all cooperate for the most part, simply because it works.”

  The complete and utter disbelief in her face was profound. “What? That… a nation cannot hold without fear.”

  “And who taught you that bullshit, eh?” Dekarru barked back. “Your worthless asshole of a father? A monster who knew nothing but blood and terror? A small minded fool who built his entire world on bloodshed? He knew NOTHING! As his father before him, his mother before him, her father before her. I remember your rulers going back many generations and all have been little more than idiot children solving their problems with violence because they were too fucking stupid to do otherwise!”

  I felt honest anger in the oracle’s tone, though tempered, controlled. “Y-you are wrong! Brutish it may be, but fear keeps territories from attacking!”

  I sighed. “And why, just why, would they not attack you? Think of your own mother and her people. He had to use blood and fear to suppress them, yes?”

  “Well yes, they grow violent-”

  “Because the High Shaman attacked them. Burned their cities? Killed their people? Kidnapped their queen and forced himself on her? Tell me. What part of that demands a peaceful understanding?”

  She hesitated. “Conquest is simply-”

  “A fool’s game.” Dekarru did not let her finish. “Your father could have simply extended a hand of cooperation, negotiated trade deals with their leadership, proven himself a friend and ally. Instead he raped and pilged and killed and brutalized. Violence against a murderous dictator such as him is justified. There are always other ways, but your father and those who came before him chose a path of extreme suffering. Not because it was right, or even easy, but because they were simply cruel.”

  She sat back in her chair, raising her legs to her chest and wrapping her arms around them so tight I was almost worried she would hurt herself. “You ask me to toss aside all of the lessons I have been given in my life.”

  I shook my head. “Not all of them. I can see so much more than you want me to, princess. I see the mask you wear still. The one you made to protect yourself from your father and people like him.” She looked up at me, worried. “Drop the mask. It does not serve you here and I see through it anyway.”

  She shuddered softly, tears streaking down her face. “You tell me things I suspected already. My family is evil, we deserve to burn. Maybe if I had won the war-, but no, I was outpyed.”

  “No. If you’d won I think you would have fallen. You would have kept the mask on until it became real. You would have simply been the next tyrant.”

  She ughed, but it was a bitter and ugly sound. “Yes, I imagine you are probably right. There is no hope for any with this blood.”

  “Oh, there is always hope if you look for it.” I sent her a gentle smile. “Like now, I have hope that we can actually speak as people and not pieces on a board moving for advantage. Now you can honestly tell me why you need a Saint.”

  She hesitated again, a sniffle preceding her voice. “You are a Saint of dreams, mine have been… difficult. Very difficult. I am haunted by my father and his gods. I do not sleep more than an hour or two before I wake, my breath caught in my throat and my heart beating so fast it hurts.”

  I took a breath. “Well I can certainly take a look and see what’s going on.” Suddenly I felt a pulse of worry, hesitance, warning. Vei’Ryn was telling me this was no small matter. I fought the urge to react visibly.

  “Y-you will? What, what must I do to earn this?” She asked, her hood pulling back in what I read as nervousness, a blush maybe?

  I ughed. “Princess Viranatta, I only sleep with people who give me informed and enthusiastic consent. I do not simply take what I want from others. In fact, most of the people of this world are like that. You just happened to be fathered by one of the extremely horrible folks.” I gestured around at all of us. “This? This was meant purely to see how serious you were, and how much of your arrogant royal attitude was a bluff. Also to throw you off so I could more easily read you.” Then I sat back and shrugged. “Not to mention I’m just really comfortable naked. Path life has been wonderful for me.”

  Dekarru snorted and reached over to pat my head. “Don’t I know it, Stareyes.”

  “So…” The princess looked my in the eyes. “I don’t have to…, do what you said before?”

  I shook my head. “No, but if you really want to go down on someone, your guards are both madly in love with you.”

  The two naked guardswomen both gasped and started stammering out denials. The princess herself buried her face behind her knees and radiated embarrassment.

  Dekarru poked my shoulder. “That was mean.”

  “Whaaaaat? You don’t volunteer to get vioted in pce of someone just because it’s a job. Besides, despite the fact that they clearly have been trained to ‘not see her’ like this, both keep sneaking gnces and they have so much affection behind their eyes. It’s beautiful, honestly. I think they could see through both of her masks already.”

  The princess cleared her throat and spoke up loudly. “What must you do to examine my problem, Saint Dreamsinger?”

  “Sleep with you.”

  “But you said-”

  “I meant literally sleep. Like, be unconscious. So we are both in the Dream. Don’t worry, we don’t need to share a bed or anything. Just be asleep at the same time. So I guess what we’re doing now is having dinner, rexing in this lovely manor, and waiting for nightfall.”

  She took a breath and rexed. “May we get dressed now then?”

  “In a Path home? Don’t be silly.”

  “But I am not-”

  “I’m joking. Go get dressed if you want. But know that we won’t be.”

  “Are you going to… fornicate in my presence?”

  I ughed, Dekarru ughed, even Azuriel snickered briefly. “Not unless we become much better friends. But this manor belongs to Oracle Dekarru, who is the leader of the Green Mother’s Path. Meaning we are within our rights to remain as we are.”

  The elf guard cleared her throat. “It might be meaningful to attempt to share in local customs… y-your highness?” Then she turned deep red as her brain caught up with what she’d said.

  “I told you they love you.”

  Weirdly, the princess actually agreed. I was honestly not expecting it, but she ordered her guard to all follow Path custom in kindness to the one offering her home to them and soon there were six naked guards and a naked princess all being awkward about it. The guard captain was thankfully, extremely professional. Though the only other male member of her guard had to excuse himself as he couldn’t manage to keep it down.

  Honestly, same my dude. I was only able to control that because I’d gotten used to nudity and managed to draw a mental line between naked bodies and sexual situations.

  Dekarru and I briefly considered just telling them to get dressed and be comfortable, but if Viranatta was making an effort like this, we’d let her. Also the idea of a Hegemony Princess possibly converting to the Path was almost as funny as an angel doing so.

  More good news was that when Weren found out we were having dinner in the manor, she rushed over to drool over the big, high quality kitchen and cook for us. Additionally, Luvetra came with her. When she held me I suddenly felt a wave of relief to the anxiety I had not been aware I felt. I guess I was actually a bit afraid of the guards, even with the more than capable nephilim there to protect me. In my mind, Luv was my shadow guardian, and without her there I didn’t feel quite safe.

  Dinner was incredible even by Weren’s standards, though having it in a dining room big enough for everyone in the manor was odd. I think I’d gotten too used to tents and dining under the stars. It was good, warm, comfortable, amusing. The blushes around the table from the princess and her guards were adorable to be honest. Especially once the remaining guard returned with the sudden ability to control himself. Everyone knew he’d ‘taken care of himself’ to do so, making the awkward blushing just that much more hirious.

  But once the food was served, nerves all soothed rapidly. Weren bullied all the guards into sitting and eating with the rest of us, ciming quite honestly that she would be insulted if the food she made for everyone was ignored by any of us. Once they tasted the meal, the enjoyment of the food broke down anxiety built barriers, and everyone rexed. The dark skinned guard even cried, apparently it tasted like her grandmother’s cooking. A bittersweet gift to one who’s family was lost in the fighting years ago.

  There were questions once dinner was done and Wen retreated to make dessert treats for everyone. Questions from all of our guests about the way Willow Creek’s government worked. How they maintained unity without the brutal violence of the High Shaman and the bloody demands of obedience from the Thundering Pantheon.

  They were shocked that the tens of millions who lived within the massive nation’s borders simply agreed to get along. The princess was not quite as surprised as the others, but even she was clearly having difficulty with the idea of mutual cooperative aid. The fact that the various regions and the numerous cultures and peoples within each all just decided that being one nation was good for them all without any threat of violence to keep the agreement going was unusual for them at best.

  But, for the most part they all seemed to like the idea. Even if they mostly seemed to think there was some trick to it they had not figured out yet. But I believed that they would learn in time.

  We all rexed in the lounge for desert, a sweet pudding made with a kind of red beans called zuka (pretty sure they were what was called adzuki on Earth). I was going to miss what Wen could make with a full kitchen.

  Sitting and rexing with the wonderful treats, we talked about music mostly. Viranatta liked to sing, but war chants were the only thing appropriate for a member of the royal family so she didn’t know many songs. Dekarru promised her that if she continued to behave, she’d see about getting a music pyer and records brought to her. It cheered the half-mia deeply.

  But eventually we grew tired, calming tea was served, and sleep came for us. Dekarru decided to enjoy her grand master bed for once, Weren joining her. Luvetra, Azuriel and I had a big nest of bnkets and cushions made in the lounge we could all pile in. Carmil told me she was staying inside me, just in case something happened. I was warmed by the thought, I’d honestly been missing the feeling of her in my veins.

  Viranatta insisted on sleeping in the room with us, her two guards from when I’d first arrived staying by her side for this as well. Despite my insistence that physical distance didn’t really matter much if at all to the Dream, she would not budge. She and the guards joined us wearing simple but comfortable sleep clothes, not willing to fully commit to Path pajamas and understandably so. A very arrogant part of my mind wanted to cim she was sleeping with us because she was falling for me. But honestly I knew it was because she was scared. The closer it came to actually sleeping, the stronger her fear grew.

  In fact, it got so bad that I had to send a runner to have Jaina join us. The princess was so wound up that sleep was not going to come easily, but the healer did have a spell to send willing targets to sleep immediately. Whatever these nightmares were like, they were messing with her badly. No wonder she wanted my help.

  With the promise that she would let Jaina use her spell, I wished Viranatta a good night and curled up with my lovers to drift to sleep.

  In the Dream, I found Daisy and Vei’Ryn quickly. Both were tense, worried. My Goddess held me close. “My Saint. This will be a trial.”

  I stared at her. “What the fuck am I walking in to?”

  She shook her head. “I cannot answer. But know that if things progress too far, help will be right behind you.”

  Daisy growled and nodded, her fluffy tail swishing behind her slowly and her eyes narrowed. Something about the sight was honestly scary. I hugged her and kissed her forehead. “Okay. Is it worth it?”

  My Goddess paused, hesitating before she answered. “If you think it is, than it is.”

  I didn’t think she could tell me anything of note. But she was worried, Daisy was scaring me, and… wait, something was wrong with the Dream.

  I saw the threat that bound me to the princess come to life as she fell asleep and drifted into this realm. It was red, hurting, something about it was just wrong. I drew on my power and a rifle formed in my hand, my light armor crafting itself from dreamdust around me. I took a breath and slid along to thread and into Viranatta’s dream.

  I was immediately struck with an urge to vomit.

  The dream was a nightmare, but not a nightmare, not right. It didn’t feel formed from the Dream, it felt forced onto it. I scanned the field of death and blood I found myself in. It was a hellish, twisted, and vastly rger version of the battlefield I’d first awoken in as Esme. Thousands of corpses and literal rivers of blood as far as I could see. But there was a point of light, dim and red, but light nonetheless.

  I ran towards it, gripping my gun tight. Hands of the dead raised to grab me and I parted the ground they y on, making myself a clear path. It was harder than it should have been and the dead started climbing into the path anyway to stop me. But they were not fast enough.

  I ran toward the glowing red light and found Viranatta curled up on the ground. She was sobbing as an old human and a group of ghostly figures stood over her, screaming in a tongue that made no sense to me.

  WRONG.

  I felt it searing through my blood, pure fury boiling in my every vein at these things.

  THEY DO NOT BELONG.

  I raised my rifle as I ran, pausing only briefly to send a bullet into the old man’s chest. A bullet not of lead, but of DREAM, the power of the realm tearing through him like a torch tossed into a haystack.

  “GET AWAY FROM HER, MONSTERS!” I screamed, my voice trembling with rage I could not expin.

  The figures turned to me, and grinned.

  A wave of power rushed from them and threw me through the air as I approached them, sending me dozens of feet away. I rolled when I hit the ground and righted myself quickly. Another wave came at me and I raised a wall to intercept it. It cracked and shuddered at the impact. I popped around the wall and sent a round into the group. They shifted aside and avoided the dream bullet as if it were hardly moving at all. Another wave of power and the wall burst. I hit the ground bleeding.

  “What the fuck is going on?” I coughed the words out, pain that should not be possible ncing through me.

  One of the figures raised a hand and massive two headed axe came into being in its grip. It rushed me and swung, far, far too fast. Fear grpped me and I couldn’t move. But just before the bde would have struck, a bck and white blur smmed into the figure and sent it spiraling away.

  I turned to see… “Daisy?” But different. Rippling muscles and massive cws were new features, her general shape being far more like a massive bear than a tapir now. She reared back and roared, her angry cry brimming with so much power that it shook the ground beneath me and made the figures retreat a few steps. Her mouth was filled with sharp teeth, bared in rage and promising pain and death to the figures the threatened me.

  “Little baku, little gifts, little Saint, all doomed.” One figure spoke, its voice somehow both a whisper and impossibly loud. “This one is ours. Run away and hide and you get to avoid our eyes for another day.”

  I stood and lifted my rifle, aiming and sending another bullet to them. “There’s my answer you piece of shit.” They dodged, but not so easily this time.

  The figures all ughed and several came at me and Daisy, various weapons raised and murderous grins on ethereal faces. I took a breath and waited. A torrent of thoughts and feelings cascading into my mind in the moments before they reached us.

  This is the Dream.

  I serve the Dreamer.

  This is my realm.

  THEY DO NOT BELONG IN MY REALM.

  I didn’t need to look, I felt it coming. I leaned to my left just as the sword cut through where my neck would have been, my gun already shifting into pce. Before the figure even finished its swing a bullet tore through it’s side making it scream in pain and rushed back to the group.

  Daisy shifted right with her entire body and swung a cw to the left, two figures were caught in the sudden movement and screamed as they retreated as well. Another slipped behind her, but my next round tore through it before it could touch my friend.

  “Worthless whore! You dare strike at your betters!?” a figure in the group yelled.

  I cycled the bolt in my rife and gred pure hatred at them all. “Get the fuck out of my realm you parasites.”

  “We will tear you apart and recim our vessel, you cannot stop us!”

  Then everything went wrong. They all moved as one and a wave of power sent me flying and Daisy stumbling. Bdes fell and we barely managed to avoid losing our heads. Daisy and I were both hurt, cut, bleeding. These things, they could hurt a Dream Saint in the Dream. This was bad. But I wasn’t giving up on stopping them. Not just because they were obviously hurting someone, but because something in me was screaming that they were twisted and wrong and needed to be PURGED.

  So I did what I had done so many times before. I ignored the pain, got up, and fired my gun again. It caught the one closest to me by surprise and tore a chunk out of it. More rushed me but I was too damned pissed to be scared now. I pulled up a wall in the path of one, it burst through it immediately but that distracted it long enough that I put a dream bulled into its gut and sent it reeling back. Another wall blocked a few just long enough that Daisy rushed behind them and tore into the group with a fury that matched how I felt. This was not an easy fight, but we were at least holding our own.

  At least at first. Unfortunately any damage they did to us lingered, but the reverse was somehow not true. They recovered and returned to the fray while Daisy and I grew tired and weak.

  As we started to be worn down, injuries slowing while they stayed strong, one ughed. “FOOLS! You can not fell us. Small, weak, pitiful! We are doom, we are eternal, and you are nothing!”

  “You are loud mouth shit-bags that are poking your stupid asshole faces where you aren’t wanted. Piss off back to your sty and get back to your pig-fucking already you pathetic losers.”

  I think I hit a nerve because one screamed in anger. “YOU WILL PAY! We will fy you alive in the Dream and in the waking world and once we are done we will come for your worthless gods and break them all before we tear out their hearts!”

  “THANK YOU.”

  The words, spoken in my Goddess’s voice, caused the very air to tremble. Something was happening. Something that made the figures all panic and rush me at once. But the ground between us burst in a blinding light of exploding power. Once I could see again, I saw the Warcry standing thirty feet tall, shield and spear in hand and braced in a combat stance. The bck fumes of her hair were joined by fme on her scalp, fueling the rising smoke that billowed above her. Her steel body glowed bright throughout, as though heated by a mighty internal forge. She was angry, dangerous, and the figures hesitated to come closer to her.

  “So much for your threats then. Here stands only one of us and you whimper and hide like the spineless cowards you are.” Kai Set’Aara spoke, her words chilling my heart. It felt like… like receiving an order to engage the enemy. The beginning of a battle. The moments before the first solider died. This was war, and even these powerful figures knew it.

  Three rushed her at once and she swatted them all aside with the pole of her spear like they were nothing. Annoyances. More swarmed her, shifting and twisting and positioning themselves around her to come from several angles at once. She ughed and sent them all hurtling away with lighting quick sweeps of her spear and sms with her shield. It was like a veteran Spartan fighting one legged children.

  They drew back into a group again, screaming out angry insults. “You are no real threat, no church, a handful of worshipers, one Saint. You will fall like all those before you.”

  “WILL SHE NOW?”

  I looked up and saw— “Goddess, oh my goddess, glorious and mighty and eternal.” I could not stop my words as I saw her. The sky itself was her face, her eyes entire gaxies, her power too grand and infinite for me to fully comprehend in that moment.

  “BLAME YOURSELVES LITTLE ONES. YOU ARE THE ONES THAT DECLARED WAR ON US. YOU DREW ME HERE AND GAVE ME THE POWER TO ACT AGAINST YOU. NOW I CLAIM YOUR PRINCESS AS MY OWN. YOU HAVE NO HOLD ON HER. LEAVE OR I WILL BREAK YOU.”

  “You would burn your power away doing so!” one figure screamed.

  “AND YOU WOULD BE HUSKS. I WOULD FALL BUT MY PANTHEON WOULD BE MORE THAN ENOUGH TO WIPE YOU OUT IN RESPONSE. YOU CAME FOR ONE OF MINE, YOU THREATEN US IN MY REALM! YOU ARE BANISHED FROM THIS PLACE SO LONG AS MY POWER HOLDS! BEGONE, PATHETIC WORMS!”

  Suddenly the dream around the figures tilted sideways and they all fell into an abyss that appeared beneath them. They seemed to fight it for a moment, but only for a moment, before they let themselves fall. Somehow I knew that was true. They could have resisted, but didn’t.

  Vei’Ryn reached a hand down to help me up, her form returning to the figure I knew. She hugged me close and trembled as she cried. She’d been afraid for me. More arms wrapped around us, the Warcry squeezing us in a tight embrace. Daisy’s trunk draped over my neck and I turned to see her returned to her cute, fluffy tailed baku shape with her wounds rapidly healing, as were my own.

  “I was so afraid.” My Goddess’s words were a whisper in my ear. “I knew they were stupid, but I couldn’t-, we couldn’t do anything until they challenged us.”

  “Divine rules I take it?” I asked, she nodded. “We need to check on Viranatta.”

  Mentioning the princess made the them all pull back, hesitantly. I reached out and id a hand on Kai’s arm. “Thank you Warcy.” I said with a bow of my head.

  Kai gave a broad grin. “I know I’m a goddess of defensive warfare, but I have been itching for a fight with those monsters since we arrived on Reltris. No need to thank me, I’m feeling DAMNED good after embarrassing them like that.”

  I smiled at her and gave a nod of thanks and acknowledgment, then jogged over to the princess, leaning down to pce a hand on her shoulder.

  She was muttering quietly, terrified. “I’msorryI’msorryI’msorryI’msorry-”

  “Viranatta. It’s okay, we drove them off.” I spoke loud enough to cut through to her. She opened one eye to look around, then the other. Slowly she uncurled and gazed at me, then at Kai. She trembled, tears leaking down her face as she stared wide eyed at a god. Moments passed before she started to recover.

  “G-great one, wh-why have you saved me?” She spoke, lowering her head.

  Kai smirked. “I didn’t, Vei did. I just helped a little.” She gestured to the side and I watched the princess nearly colpse as she endured the divine infinity of seeing a god for the first time twice in only a few minutes.

  Once Viranatta recovered, Vei’Ryn lifted the woman to her feet and started to speak to her. She told the woman that she was protected to an extent, but worshiping the Dreamer would increase it. I kind of figured that was the case, but I had other concerns.

  I stepped closer to the Warcry and asked her quietly. “What were those things?” I had a sinking suspicion. But for once I hoped to my gods that I was wrong.

  Kai looked at me, a few moments of quiet passing. This wasn’t dramatic pause, this was her knowing that her words were going to hit me hard and she didn’t really want to speak them. But I had asked. “That was the Thundering Pantheon. You just picked a fight with some of the strongest gods on the pnet, and unintentionally provoked them into decring war on us.”