A/N: Hey readers. This is only a short but it introduces the "Dark Force" that has been influencing things since chapter 2. I wanted to name her but there are some hints to her identity hidden within the chapters. She will be named later but for now she is, The Phantom Goddess! xD Happy Reading!

Playing with the new mortal girl had been funny; watching her squirm and panic as she escaped from her bath when she had materialized in the water had cheered her up. Especially when the girl came over with a puny stick to poke into the water as though it would help her. Even if she'd stayed in there instead of hovering around the ceiling, the stick wouldn't have done anything to her. She was immortal after all.

She'd watched, glaring at the girls back as she watched her dry herself. How dare she enter her town? She and her friends hadn't been in the town for long and they were already on the road to fixing everything she had worked so hard to destroy. She had thought that because Dreyas was small town in the middle of nowhere, situated atop a hill of a place people rarely visited, she could have her fun. But no, someone had to come along and ruin it.

She had tried to make them leave before they even entered when she felt their approach. Looking over their small band, the mortal tied to the horse had been the easiest target. But before she had done anything, the woman astride the horse had thrown the rope and ridden off into town, leaving her friends. It had annoyed her that one had separated and she couldn't get them all together as she had planned, but she still had her fun. While the man had being near fainting from lack of food she tipped him over the edge, creating an illusion to confuse and hopefully scare them off. When it didn't work she kept her calm. Right up until the other goddess had turned up. She'd had no choice. To keep from being identified, she needed to flee until it was safe again.

It made her feel so pathetic and weak to hide from another, but if she wanted to take the place, she needed to be careful. It seemed to her that the goddess answered the call of the little blonde mortal, thus setting back her plans. Annoyed, she fixed the girl as her next target.

She had her chance to cause mischief after the other goddess has relocated them to the healer's house. She'd spied the girl receiving medical attention from the healer. The blonde mortal already looked uncomfortable, but it wasn't enough. So, when she was baring herself, she influenced the unconscious young man; prodding at his conscience until he left Morpheus's realm. What had unfolded before her eyes had resulted in the first joyful laugh she experienced in over five hundred years.

But despite her efforts to annoy and cause enough mischief to convince them to leave, they had stayed the night. It irked her as she floated around the blonde mortal how much she seemed not to care about the embarrassment and humiliation. She had worked over it, apologizing and talking to her friend. But when the goddess realized that there was someone that seemed to be doing a better job at annoying her, she put in the effort to make sure he continued.

When she thought the strong one was starting to become suspicious she attacked her mentally, deluding her and wearing her down physically; throwing her strength back at her to tire her, giving the goddess time to create further discord between the blonde and the boy. It worked for the most part. There was already a noticeable rift between them, caused by suspicion and hostility. All she had to do was play on it.

A perfect opportunity presented itself when the girl escaped her bath and ran out frantically into the basement where the boy was heading. She pushed them into each other and sat back to watch them blow up. And sure enough, the girl's fear from the incident in the bath and the suspicion she held toward the boy was enough to make her feel vulnerable to lash out at him. As the boy was trying to talk her down, the goddess whispered at the blonde's mind, reminding her of the night before where he'd seen her and made her defensive again and aggressive.

The goddess left then, satisfied that she had caused enough strife to make them want to leave. The temple had been as decorative and beautiful as ever. But not for long. Her clueless followers would soon return with more equally clueless men to turn into brainless slaves to feed her power and she would finally be able to destroy the temple to make room.

She felt at the top of her game, stronger and as cocky as she'd ever felt as she glanced around the interior, making mental alterations. Which was why it was such a blow to her ego when the mortals walked into the temple together! She fumed silently from her alcove as she watched them admire the temple that was soon to be hers.

Thinking quickly, she took control of the high priest, bringing him out of his prayer to force the mortals out. Knowing the priest was stuck in his ways she allowed herself to alternate between his own words and hers. For a while it looked as though her plan was starting to get the desired effect. The strong woman was getting angry and touchy and the other two looked as though they didn't want to be there. Which was fine for her, because she didn't want them there either. She waited, pushing further, making the priest more and more hostile to pressure them into leaving. But the goddess felt something very strange while she played with her puppet.

She looked up from her toy and looked over at where the feeling was radiating from. The strong one, the dark haired warrior that the two travelled into the town with was looking over in her direction. The goddess shook her head, scoffing. It was impossible. No mortal could see an immortal that was hiding intentionally.

She glanced behind her, wondering what it was that she was looking at. She even moved to see for herself properly, moving the priest with her. But when she looked again, the warrior woman was looking at her. Directly at her in the spot she'd moved to! Then she stepped forward, ignoring her friend's touch and spoke. To the others it may have looked as though she was speaking to the priest, but she knew that what she said was meant for her.

Angry that the mortal woman was challenging her, she influenced the priest to react in kind to her emotions so that he spoke his own opinions to the younger ones and her own to the warrior. But the more she let herself go, the more she spilled into the priest's soul and lost control. He broke away with her rage and started for the young girl.

She reached out with her power to hold him but before she could, the boy that had annoyed the blonde to no end stood before her protectively. Fury shot through her as she witnessed his courage against the raging priest. She felt her power slipping and tried to grab hold of the priest's consciousness again. But out the corner of her eye she saw something flash. Peeking out from under the boy's rough tunic was a small silver object attached to a thick piece of string. The necklace didn't look important until she felt her power being repelled back from the priest.

She hissed at them all, aware that she couldn't be seen, albeit one however vaguely, and turned to dematerialize, vowing silently and vehemently to herself that she'd be back soon.