When Two Worlds Collide

by SoundofInsurrection

Argyria Metaxas always wondered what it'd be like to be in the world of Krynn and meet her favorite mage. She never expected them to invade her world. Now she and a 20yr old Raistlin must work together to discover what brought him to her world, and she finds the reality of dealing with the snarky mage equally more thrilling and more frustrating than her wildest expectations.

84. Book5 Chap9 Defenders of Magic Part 1

Chapter Nine

Defenders of Magic- Part 1

Argyria watched the two Gods of Magic place their hands on Raistlin's shoulders; and then like a movie's film having a section cut from it and spliced to an empty cell fifteen frames later, the three were gone in the space between nanoseconds, vanished into thin air as though they never existed.

Silence reigned within the upper floor of the bookshop for near half a minute, unchallenged and supreme.

Then Argyria's shocked mind began to process her lover was truly gone and, despite best efforts and hopes, there was a chance he may never return because of where and what he was being sent back to face. A sob all but cut off her breath as it forced its way out. Despite how hard she was trying to keep her composure together, there were only just so many strains on her not fully recovered health and body that could be had in so short a time, and her shaking legs began to give out. Her hand shot out to catch herself on the counter, but the action was unnecessary.

Just as had happened five years earlier, an unexpected pair of arms wrapped around Argyria to steady her. Except this time, the arms weren't ethereal. They were very real, solid and warm, and they were pulling the still-too-thin priestess back up and holding her to a warm body that smelled of wood smoke, spring flowers, something earthy but not quite identifiable, and something wild and dangerous that vaguely reminded the young woman of ozone after a lightning strike.

Argyria looked up in surprise, as the goddess had seemed a good fifteen feet away just a moment before, then remembered spacial distances probably meant little to deities. Dark eyes stared down at her; eyes that seemed black from afar, but so close it could be seen they were a deep red like garnets. Deep red garnet eyes that were all the more arresting because of the wisps of magic that the young priestess could see shifting within as little sparks of magic danced in and out of her vision around the goddess.

The Mother's full lips pulled into a regret-tinged frown as she said, "Sending one you love so dearly away and into known danger is one of the most painful experiences to endure. If I could have spared you the experience, I would have." As more tears welled up in silver-grey eyes- metallic eyes that were a reflection of one divine father's influence, and darkened and framed by lashes that were the influence of the other- the goddess pulled her unwitting daughter close in the first true comforting embrace she had been able to give since placing the newly formed soul within the vessel their champion proxies had created.

Delicate, long fingers of one hand gently stroked long auburn locks that had been her influence as the young woman's face buried against red robes. "For what comfort it may bring you, Penelope, know that it was correctly concluded that our intent is to eventually return your beloved to you in perpetuity, and we've included contingency measures within our plans for any potential complications we could theorize. So long as it remains both of your desires to be reunited with one another, Raistlin should be returning to your side by one means or other."

Argyria didn't want to be crying, but the tears almost seemed to have a life of their own as wary relief from the reassurance mixed with all the other turbulent things she was feeling; and the protective aura coming from her goddess was like being wrapped in some sort of sanctuary spell that promised whatever happened inside its radius wasn't going to be used in judgement against her. The tears fell all the faster, and seemed to disappear the moment each touched the soft velvet against her face.

A familiar feeling began to steal over the priestess-in-training; as when she meditated outside and it felt as though her sorrow and anxiety were being absorbed bit by bit by the earth, replaced by a calming, steadying energy. Which, Argyria realized when she became consciously aware of the influence, made a perfect sort of sense because the earth itself was not just The Mother's domain, but an extension of her awareness and influence. The Mother had let her awareness take a different form, a human-like form, and was offering the same solace in a more direct way that didn't require her priestess to reach out first.

The tears finished running their course, just as rain ran its course and then dissipated once the cloud had exhausted its stores. When Argyria was done crying, she felt like she had shed something toxic that had been within her the last several weeks, though it was hard to put into words what precisely it had been. Whatever that tainted feeling could've been described as, the subtle weight of it being gone from her thoughts made a difference. She was left feeling like the little seedlings of hopeful thoughts she had been trying to nuture, but were being stunted by that lingering taint, now had a more hospitable environment to grow from.

The Mother pulled away enough to look down at her daughter, a thoughtful look forming as her agile fingers shifted to slowly twining around one of the forelocks framing the teenager's face. The goddess's voice was wistful as she said, "One of the drawbacks about being a purely divine being is that it takes immense power, focus, and intent for one of us to be created. Demi-god offspring with a mortal lover can be created with but a sliver of energy that their divine parent regenerates back relatively quickly; but they are also proportionately weaker offspring who lack the full benefits of immortality and divine tier power. It is exceedingly rare for one to accomplish everything needed to harness their divine lineage enough to ascend, staying bound to the mortal half of their nature and consigning their descendants to mortal existence because each generation subsequently becomes further removed from their heritage. True divine offspring take a far greater initial sacrifice of power to form, however; it's difficult for deities who are not one of the primordials to spawn proper divine children, and most must settle for such half-breeds if they desire progeny. If one is capable of, and willing to make, the longer term sacrifices needed to create a proper divine offspring, however, they have the satisfaction of knowing their child will come into existence with all those many divine traits that are their rightful heritage, and there's a chance that child might someday grow strong enough to likewise spawn their own offspring...

"Those of us in the earliest tiers of existence, we were born because the primordials wanted very specific aspects of existence to gain sentience and aid them in keeping everything balanced. Or in Takhisis's case, it was often a compulsive need to make sure she had at least equal footing with Paladine for her attempts to take control of the universe's balances and sway them in her favor. They created us in not so dissimilar a way to how mortal creatures sometimes innately evolve to create new or varied organs for improved survival. Because we were created to fill such specific, specialized needs, we came into creation with that directive being almost the whole of our awareness and identity. A lung fulfills its purpose in the human respiratory system, but it doesn't have the same self-awareness that the brain controlling the whole of the organism does...

"The level of autonomy we first had was little better, the primordials were still pioneering such modes of creation and lacked the experiences needed to refine them. Even for those who didn't mean for such domination of an offspring's identity, like Paladine, we were still by design less their children and more their needed tools... But as eons passed, most of us couldn't help but gain semblances of self-awareness, developed our own little nuances, preferences and habits that were compatible within our purposes for being. Some deities, especially because of their natures, are content to remain in that state of pseudo-autonomy but ultimately under the direction of their progenitor. Others, like myself and my counterparts, eventually yearned to expand ourselves beyond our limited, specialized scopes of existence. Some, because of their very natures, could not evolve beyond those original directives because they lacked the strength and versatility...

"The three of us were fortunate that we are the embodiments of magic itself, which reaches into all corners of existence and interacts with so many other aspects of creation. We had the right combination of self-awareness, power and adaptability to slowly start teaching ourselves how to do versions of related tasks to our own, bit by bit building up our skills until we were functioning like lesser versions of the primordials. Those of us who have managed to do so have gone on to try various experiments with our newfound freedom of expression. Some explore parts of creation previous unavailable to them, some set about trying to create something of their own. The latter having a multitude of results depending again on natures of the deity and their dedication to their aims. And no matter how successful we might be, we are still very much tied to our primary natures and certain first quirks we developed remain with us...

"To this day, there are few who properly appreciate why I adore the color red so much. My mages of Krynn who wore robes in my honor generally didn't think on it beyond the color correlating to my moon there, and didn't question the color of the moon beyond it being some way for me to keep it distinguishable from Solinari's platinum moon and Nuitari's moon of dark energy. Even as I've evolved from just being the Goddess of Neutral Magic- taking on, among other traits, necessary aspects of a nature goddess to properly support this world we sought to foster our own complete civilizations within, and brown or green being more traditional for such deities- red remains my favored color of representation. Do you know why that is?"

Argyria stared up at her goddess in confusion to the sudden question, which followed an unexpected bit of insight into how the goddess was both Lunitari and The Mother and subsequently how Krynn and Earth were connected, and shook her head. She offered in a hesitant voice, for a more proper answer, "When I read about you as Lunitari, I figured it was to mark the fact that neutrality wasn't something so simple as a mix of light and dark, good and evil, or white and black. Neutrality is just as much it's own distinct state of being as the other two, so grey would have been inappropriate for your mages. I don't know why you picked red, out of all colors, though."

The Mother gave a pleased smile at the answer. "That's more than most infer, and you are correct that my reasoning was for such a purpose." Still playing with the lock of hair twisting and spinning along her pale fingers, gaze watching the strands catch the light from the ceiling and shine brighter hues of red, the goddess explained something few were ever told. "Red has always seemed to me to be the truest color of neutrality as it is found in so many aspects of existence that are themselves neutral. Most fires, for instance, burn red. Fires are often used by primitive mortals, giving them sheltering warmth from winter's cold weather, a means to cook meals, protection against wild animals who feared being burned. And a tiny spark of fire in the wrong place, at the wrong time, can set millions of acres of forests ablaze, incinerate thousands of humanoids and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of animals before they can run far enough away.

"Those animals- many adorn themselves in the color to show their good health and attract a mate, and many more are the venomous creatures whose red markings warn but one bite or sting will bring their victims death. So many wholesome varieties of vegetation that herbivores and omnivores survive on are shades of red; as are many herbs that carry within them medicinal or spiritually enlightening properties. Yet there are almost as many toxic plants that bear red petals or leaves and can harm or kill the foolish or unwary who eat them. Some," the goddess added with a knowing smirk, fingers leaving hair to lift an amulet that rest around her daughter's neck and one perfectly sculpted nail carefully traced over the stones, "are both deadly and beneficial, if in skilled hands that belong to a mind bearing the knowledge of how to tap into either use as it's needed…"

That assurance for the functional direction of the priestess-in-training's awakening gifts brought a fleeting, self-conscious, smile to Argyria's lips as her gaze went to the aconite pendant and its red-violet petals.

"…Red is the color most appropriately tied to the most instinctual emotions that come straight from a mortal's heart. Love holds the power to lift people out of misery and strife, and in turn create magnificent futures together. Desire and passion warms the body with its own fires, and often leads to life being renewed. Courage inspires mortals to face immense odds, to pick themselves up after they've been knocked down and left for dead, and push forward to claim a victory... And then there are the more volatile emotions. Fury to the point where one feels they're seeing red, and reason is consumed so thoroughly that only reaction remains. Unhindered passion that turns to greed or possession, covetous and often destructive to what once inspired that desire. And hatred, from when a heart is so devoid of love and compassion that the worst of acts can be committed and one would believe them justified…"

Garnet eyes darkened further with a hint of sadness as the goddess's finger stilled its movements on the amulet. The Mother continued speaking, gentle tone now turning somber, "...Perhaps most important is that red is the color of blood." The priestess's expression became, quite understandably, conflicted at that mention as her gaze turned back up to meet the goddess's. "Something that all advanced forms of life possessing beings cannot exist without. Blood is shed when life is brought forth into the world; and if that process goes awry, lives can end instead. All the things a body needs to survive its life after birth, hale and happily, are brought to it through the flow of blood; and any number of corruptions to that blood can bring illness. Blood is so often shed when life comes to its end- on battlefields, through injuries, through grave illnesses. And blood can be a powerful offering in magic, sacrificed with the purest of intents to protect something so dear to one's self that it is worth part or all of that precious life connected to the offering. It can also be the vehicle to cast some of the darkest magics for curses, necromancy or the temporary consolidation of power to cast magic normally out of one's reach. The last of which being something you've been abruptly familiarized with in recent months…"

Argyria gave the smallest of nods to that statement, and it was to her benefit she had the goddess's calming presence to help bolster her self-control and keep back new tears at the reminder of what the Wolves of Eris had done and been aiming to further do. It was because of those sanguine rites that so many had been murdered, and surviving them is why she was still having such trouble with eating properly. Seeing the goddess' solemn expression, she asked with fearful reservation, "It's not going to be the only time something like this happens, is it? This really is only the beginning."

The Mother's expression became all the more grave. "We do not know exactly what will be coming next, but we know our enemy and her forces well enough to know that things will get worse before they are defeated. And because we need to concentrate our power on dealing with her, we need you and those strong enough to rise to the challenge and face her forces. Which means that, yes, in the relative near future you will see matters of war that will be difficult to witness taking place."

Argyria looked down, eyes closing as she struggled to hold back the growing fear at that confirmation. She asked with little hope of receiving much in the way of details, given how gods were said to operate, "Can you give any warnings about what sort of forces those are?"

"I am needed elsewhere now, but in the very near future, all three of us are going to be convening a needed meeting of minds to better organize our counter efforts after how things have been playing out." To the surprised look given to her, Lunitari gave a faint smirk. "We're choosing to follow Paladine's example of being a little more interactive during wartime so as to make sure our champions are where they need to be, and we're trying to be less confusing than he sometimes is. I know what's coming is going to be difficult for you to endure, but I believe you'll also be victorious, especially with the support you're going to be receiving."

Argyria's brows knitted together in confusion. "Why do I get the feeling you don't just mean my father and Raistlin, if he's able to survive in Krynn without going all scary Godslayer again?"

Lunitari gave a fleeting laugh and said with a hint of mischief, "You'll be finding out soon enough..." The goddess placed a fleeting, light kiss to the priestess' forehead. "I can't remain any longer, but Maggie has been made aware of Raistlin's departure and is waiting for you downstairs." The Mother said intently as her daughter's expression showed her returning worry, "Takhisis may be a primordial being of immense power and an unfortunate disregard for consequences, but Paladine is working with us and we are a far more coherent force than she and her self-serving allies. Not matter what tactics and tricks she tries, no matter what forces she manages to slip into this world and what they attempt, keep faith that this is something that can be survived. And trust that you are never truly alone. We have never abandoned those we have claims to. We've drawn sanction on ourselves at times for refusing to commit to divine compacts when the others have otherwise agreed to withdraw their influence because we will not betray our longer standing promise to our followers. Even when you can't see us, even if we become more distant for the sake of our long term plans, we are always watching over you and will provide what aid can be given. So long as all of our wills are working towards the same goal, we will craft the resolution we desire."

The young priestess gave a small nod, trying to accept that reassurance for all it was worth, particularly because of who it was coming from. Thinking on her Sihir lessons with her mage fiance, Argyria said what she hoped would be an accurate modification to the lesson he had been trying so hard to teach her. "Omukami sharpuk derli, e iderli omshar elek shardish."

The Mother's dark garnet gaze became a faintly brighter shade of red as she gave an approving smile. "Exactly so, Penelope." She took a step back from the young woman, and her form lost transparency as though fading away into the ether. Her voice was clear in its resolve, however, as it echoed back that powerful truth of magic in Sihir- "We will it to be so, and it will be so by our command."

.

.

.

Having Maggie there after Lunitari departed helped keep Argyria from having a breakdown at the shop. The customer Maggie had just before the deities showed up had been compelled to make an exit, and Maggie closed up early for the day.

They went back to Maggie's house and over cups of soothing tea, Argyria explained just what had happened and what was said. Maggie took it in quietly, and then offered what words of comfort she could because the younger woman was on the brink of tears again. Maggie saw to it that her apprentice ate something for dinner, then offered to have her stay the night at her house. The offer was declined because there was a little familiar who was unaware of what had happened and needed her mistress to let her inside the apartment for the night.

Maggie gave Argyria a ride home and said that if she needed a few days off from work, she was free to take them. College was starting Monday and she wanted the young woman to hopefully be in a proper head space for the start of the school year.

"I'll think about it," Argyria said ambivalently. "I don't know if being stuck at home with my thoughts is better right now. At least there's distractions at work."

Maggie nodded in understanding. "Of course. Send me a text in the morning to let me know how you feel, and we'll take matters from there."

Argyria gave a nod, and then leaned over to give her mentor a hug. "Thank you, Maggie."

"Of course, fey-child," Maggie said, returning the hug. "If you start getting upset tonight, don't think it will be inconvenient for you to call me. We can talk on the phone or I'll come back over."

Argyria nodded and gave a strained smile. "I'll keep that in mind. I think I might give Lexi a call. I know she's not at the theater house tomorrow, so she might be able to come over without worrying about being too tired the next morning for things that need to get done."

Maggie nodded again and gave one of Argyria's hands a gentle squeeze. "That sounds like a wise idea. I hope she can make it over."

Argyria grabbed her things, and Raistlin's jacket that had been left on the counter, from the back seat. Gabby wasn't home yet, despite the later hour of the evening. Heading inside the house, she looked up at the stairs leading to her apartment with a faint sense of dread.

Argyria bit her lower lip to hold back a heavy sigh and hugged the abandoned jacket closer to her chest. She quietly climbed the stairs, and by the time she reached the second floor landing and turned to climb the next flight, each time a foot met stair it felt like a weight was being added to her shoes. Each weight was a piece of reality as it settled in on her.

Step. Raistlin wasn't coming home with her.

Step. Her fiance wasn't just going to be late tonight.

Step. He wasn't being delayed because of a mishap with 'Geny.

Step. Or because they had gotten caught up in training for some new thing they were doing.

Step. Raistlin wasn't coming home tonight.

Step. He wasn't coming home for many nights, more than likely.

Step. She wasn't sure just how well his future Master of Past and Present powers would get him home.

Step. He said he'd try to return not long after he had been taken away, but they didn't know exactly how much time was between them.

Step. If he overshot things, he might appear in the future somewhere; depending on how taxing the trip was on him, especially with worlds traveling too, he might not be capable of more jumps to get the timing exactly right.

She reached the bend in the second flight of stairs.

Step. How far ahead could he possibly accidentally send himself from the current point in time?

Step. Weeks? Months? Years?

Step. ... All his things were in the apartment...

Step. What was she to do with them?

Step. Leave them where he left them?

Step. What if this started dragging out weeks, or months?

Step. If this ended up seeming an extended absence, should she pack his things up in the closet to keep them safe and clean?

Step. She really didn't want to be having to think about things like this.

Step. This wasn't fair. This felt so wrong.

Argyria stared at her apartment door off to one side. Having her cousin come over was seeming like a better and better idea by the moment. She had a momentary thought of dashing back down the stairs, calling Lexi from outside and waiting for her to arrive before going in so she wouldn't have to face this by herself. She knew it was an irrational idea. This wasn't something to run away from, it was just an empty apartment.

Argyria took the keys out from her purse and turned the locks with shaking hands. A teeny, tiny part of her hoped against hope that maybe, just maybe, she'd open the door and find Raistlin waiting within. Maybe he had finished in Krynn in the past, and figured out how to come home to her. There were literally the spans of entire lifetimes, dozens upon dozens of them even, that could have past for him in what seemed hours for her. He could have sent himself to Maggie's first, and found the shop closed for the night, so instead of scrying around to look for her, he decided to wait at home where he knew she'd eventually return. It'd be an older Raistlin waiting, obviously. It might even be a Raistlin vastly changed from how she had just seen him hours before. Things might have gone close enough to what the books said of his original timeline that he'd be returning with black robes and white hair and hourglass eyes and golden skin. It wouldn't matter because it'd still be him, trying to keep his promise that he'd return as close to when he left as possible so she wouldn't have to spend much time missing him.

Argyria knew it was a long shot hope; but it had been a little flicker of hope as she turned the doorknob and let the door swing open...

But the apartment was silent. The lights were all off. No Raistlin, as she had just seen him or otherwise, was waiting in the living room for her to return.

Argyria knew on some level that she'd find the rest of the rooms empty. Even for Raistlin, if he managed to somehow travel between worlds and the majority of time between them, he'd be horribly drained and probably wouldn't have the strength for a long time to make another time leap. If he overshot things by just a little time, instead of arriving too early or decades late, it'd be safer for him to just find her in whatever future time he was in.

Even still, the young woman checked the rest of the rooms, hoping maybe to find her fiance in one of them.

A glance in the kitchen showed he wasn't in there quietly sipping a cup of tea to fortify himself.

There was no Raistlin in the bathroom, changing out of black robes and back into his less conspicuous clothes from this world.

Argyria stepped over to the bedroom, hoping maybe to find an incredibly exhausted, and incredibly exasperating, sleepy mage in their bed, all but comatose from his world and time travel. But Raistlin wasn't there either...

The apartment really was entirely empty.

And then she noticed something different in the bedroom. The clothing Raistlin had been wearing when the gods took him- they were sitting, neatly folded, on the chair in the corner. A glance towards her closet showed his white robes were gone off the hanger.

Tears began to come then; he truly was gone from this world for who knew how long. Argyria buried her face against the jacket that smelled of her lover and rose petals. She had been crying too much all day and she was so tired of crying. But the tears weren't obeying, they stubbornly kept creeping out between her tightly squeezed eyelids.

Argyria shook her head in frustration and a hand rifled through her purse until it found her cell phone. She opened her eyes and with blurry vision and shaking hands sent a brief message to her cousin. "Race was sent back home. I need you." She slumped against the door frame, lowering herself to the floor as she waited for a response. Knees pulled up and jacket was used as a pillow.

Lexi's reply came quickly, barely two minutes later. Argyria had to wipe her eyes clear and then read: "We'll be there within an hour! You're home?"

Argyria typed back "yes" and then set the phone aside, burying her face against the jacket once more and giving up her fight against the tears. She couldn't help but hope as she waited for her cousin and best friend to arrive that the impromptu visit might prove unnecessary. She knew it was not doing her any favors to keep hoping now might be the moment Raistlin appeared... or now... or perhaps now... But she couldn't help hoping, and crying more when each minute passed and he still wasn't back.

What if something went wrong? The Mother said there were contingency plans in place and he should come back... But what if he didn't? What if something drastically different happened in Krynn because of his time here? What if at any one of the many moments he came so close to death, he didn't make it through?

A different thought sneaked into her mind, despite the fact that she tried to smother it out of existence as it formed. A thought that made her feel terrified and guilty at the same time.

...Lunitari said he'd come back if they both still wanted him to... What if going back to Krynn and everything he faced there made him not want to come back home to her? What if that's why he wasn't keeping his promise to return almost at the same moment he had left?

Argyria didn't think Raistlin would casually ignore everything they had been through, everything he had promised her... But what if after the war, and all the emotional blows he had taken, he decided maybe he was better off staying in his world for some reason? What if he got nervous again- worried that she hadn't really meant it when she said she still wanted him to come home? Would he psyche himself out, convince himself she'd be happier or better off without him?

Or what if he ended up with his same deicide plans, maybe with the thought that he'd need such power to make the trip, and got himself trapped in the Abyss and dead again?

She had no way to know if things went horribly, horribly wrong... Not unless the gods decided to make another appearance to tell her. And if things went horribly, horribly wrong, the gods would be pretty damn busy running damage control, trying to find some new plan to protect the world without Raistlin's help. They might not have a chance to tell her, or at least not for some time.

Argyria heard Gabby scratching at the window to be let in, and leaped up to let her familiar inside. As soon as the window was open, the fluffy kitty made a jump to reach her mistress's shoulder and said mistress barely caught the cat in time.

As her mistress gave her a desperate hug, instead of chastising for the hasty greeting that included claws to cling on the shirt, and she let her soothing aura start rising up, Gabriella asked, "He's been sent back, hasn't he?"

Argyria just nodded in answer and let herself plop down on the edge of her bed to sit.

Gabriella rubbed her face against her mistress's with concern for the deep distress she was sensing. "He'll be back."

"Hopefully..." A miserable sniff. "Maybe."

Gabriella would have sighed if she had the capacity. She said instead, "He's an abrasive jerk of a mage at times, but he loves you and he's who he is. He'll be back."

"Unless something goes wrong and he gets himself stuck in the Abyss again."

"Even if he does, he gets back out. You told me and Maggie that your father said he had other incarnations. One of them will find you."

Argyria felt a flicker of hope return at that thought, hand pausing its petting of the familiar... And then she remembered the other thing her father said, that Gabby was overlooking. "My father also said the gods had to completely erase his memories of his life as Raistlin to keep him from going Godslayer again... If that happens again, he'll forget this too and other incarnations wouldn't have any reason to find a way back..."

Gabriella had no immediate answer to that. Then the familiar butted her head against her mistress's face as a thought struck her. "Well, then find out if something has gone wrong."

"How?!" Argyria asked, tears slowing as she stared at the familiar with pure bafflement.

Gabriella's blue-green eyes reflected her faint amusement as she said, "You have about ten different divinatory tools in this apartment. Use one."

"In case you forgot, you big dummy, I suck at divining things," Argyria reminded her familiar. "That's why I have so many. None of them have helped."

"Yeah, and four months ago you couldn't see magic around you, or draw much in, or tap into your own for more than passing attempts. Yet three weeks ago you made an amulet all on your own because you wanted to protect the magic slinging idiot from some of the consequences of his own arrogance. I'm laying bets on if you want to divine an answer to if something has gone wrong with Raistlin's plans to return, you'll manage it."

Argyria gave another sniff, staring at the familiar doubtfully. After several seconds of silence, she asked quietly, "...What if I can do it, but the reading shows something did go wrong?"

Gabriella wiggled a bit and, when she felt her mistress's arm loosen around her, leaped onto the bed. "Well then at least you'd know and we can start plotting ways to make your father use his stupid mage powers to track the other idiot mage's closest incarnation and then find some way to reunite you two so you don't spend the rest of your life this miserable."

"I appreciate the thought, but my father is the uber scary warmage and conqueror of many weapons skills that he is; and he loathes Raistlin almost as much as he hates a certain source of all evil bent on wrecking this world. He'd be ecstatic if Raistlin never came back. I'm thinking we'd have better luck asking Takhisis to start being on the good guys' side than getting my father to help us track down one of Raistlin's incarnations."

"You got a better plan, then?"

Argyria sighed at the familiar's question and said reluctantly, "No..."

"Then stop crying and get scrying," Gabriella said bluntly.

Argyria gave another sigh and glanced down at her hands, resting in her lap and fingers twisting together anxiously. Silvery-grey gaze turned up and she looked around to the different spots on shelves holding her tools, wondering which might be able to give her a coherent answer.

"Try the deck Maggie gave you?" Gabriella suggested. "You've been studying it the last few months and the meanings of each card are straight forward."

Argyria considered that suggestion. "...Maybe, but I haven't used it before. And I'm not sure what sort of layout to do with it. Typical three card, past-present-future simple layout, would be a bit confusing to try because of the whole time travel stuff. I could very well pull answers about a wrong point in time or based on how things were before for Raistlin. I don't think I can hold my concentration for more complex stuff like the star, pyramid, or 15-card storytelling layouts."

The familiar curled up on a pillow to get comfortable for the wait. "Then maybe let your intuition decide? Concentrate on what you want to know, and see if something forms on its own."

Argyria heaved a sigh, then gave a nod. "Yeah... I guess I can try that." The priestess-in-training stood up and went out to the living room to fetch her deck from the glass-sided bookcase. As she approached it, she noticed something else had changed in her apartment from how it was before.

The hourglass Ivan had given her. It wasn't under a magical effect anymore. The sands had started to fall at some point while she was gone, probably as Raistlin was being sent back, and now they lay in their little pile at the bottom of the glass.

The sight almost brought new tears. Their time together really was over. Hopefully only for now, he'd hopefully be coming home as promised... But the hourglass's sands running out almost felt like a bad omen; it felt too final to see it run out.

Argyria gulped against the tightening in her throat and made herself open up the glass front to the case. She tried to tell herself not to panic over the sight. It didn't mean their time together was permanently over, just that this visit had run its course and time was now flowing along without interruption. Ignore the stupid hourglass and grab her tarot deck.

Despite that chastisement, the young woman's trembling hand went to the ancient hourglass. She lifted it up, and saw the fine sand at the bottom shift with the movement, tilting as the hourglass tilted. Her silvery-grey gaze went to the bronze dragons and mages on the three posts. The dragons had been facing up before, and now she turned it so the mages were standing right side up, wanting a proper look at them, thinking of her mage.

The sands tumbled towards the funnel as her gaze scanned the robed figures... and stopped at the narrow opening. Argyria didn't notice immediately, but when she did, she gave the hourglass a confused look, eyes narrowing at the funnel as she flipped the hourglass back over.

That's when she saw something... A tiny spark of magic was flickering in the funnel. Argyria pulled the hourglass closer, and noticed then that there was the faintest distortion inside, the light not passing through it properly... There was some enchantment blocking the sands from passing.

'What is that meant to mean?!' the priestess-in-training thought with no shortage of trepidation. '... Is this supposed to mean we're cut off from one another?! Would that be permanently, or just for now?!' Out loud she called, "Gabby! Come here!"

"Whatever it is, it's not my fault!" Gabriella called back in instinctive response to the upset tone her mistress had, and there was a quiet thump as the familiar leaped to the floor. "I've not been home all day!"

"No, that's not it! I want you to look at something." Argyria turned around and crouched down to show her familiar as the little cat came around the corner. "The hourglass, the sands finished falling, but now there's some sort of magical block in the funnel." She flipped it back, to show the sands could fall down, but got stuck. "Do you think this might be some way for the gods to tell me something went wrong and he's not coming back, our times are cut off from one another?"

Gabriella's blue-green gaze looked over the hourglass in surprise, coming to a stop a few inches away. "I have no idea... If plans went wrong, wouldn't it make sense to shatter the hourglass to show plans were broken?"

Argyria sat on the floor, still staring at the enchanted hourglass. "I... I don't know. Maybe? But then, why block the sand in the hourglass?"

The familiar shifted to sitting on her hind quarters as well. "I'm a smart cat, but I'm still only a cat. I don't know what the gods are thinking unless they tell me."

Argyria gave a distracted nod. "Fair. Sorry. I'm a bit frazzled."

"Understandable..." Gabriella tilted her head a little, gaze still examining the hourglass. "Nothing else different about it?"

Argyria shook her head, but gave it another inspection to be sure. Everything else looked the same as far as she could tell. She looked at the line of runes she couldn't read, but they seemed the same pattern that said, "The sands of time never cease falling." She ended with the hourglass turned mages up, and the sands stuck at the top.

Why weren't they falling anymore? It wasn't even that they were stuck mid-fall like before, and nothing was moving. The sands on the top could jiggle around just fine, but that blockage was stopping them going through the funnel. What could that represent, especially juxtaposed with the universal message the inscription represented?

After a couple minutes of staring at the hourglass, Argyria had a thought form and wondered out loud, "Raistlin seemed pretty certain he had figured out the hourglass properly before, to mean his personal timeline in Krynn had been paused while he was here... What if this means things are still in progress for him in Krynn, which is why the sands themselves can move like they should, all those little moments in time for the past shifting about, but he hasn't gotten to a point where he can break out of the past and make it back here?"

Gabriella considered that and then said with reservation, "That's plausible... Maybe if you leave it mages up, with the sands stuck at the top, we'll see sands slowly being released as he makes his way through time as a countdown? Or they'll start flowing normally for a short while and then stop again to indicate the gods have paused his time in Krynn and are in the process of sending him back again for giving aid?"

"Maybe..." Argyria heaved a sigh. "So, I guess that means all we can do is wait and see what happens with the hourglass to get a clue if we're on the right track of thought?"

Gabriella nodded. "Maybe instead of trying to divine something more nebulous about Raistlin's status, try for something more stable like if we're right about the hourglass?"

"That would probably be easier... I'm occasionally able to pull off simple yes/no stuff. If we get a no, we can make another guess and see if I can verify it or not."

"Runes then?" the familiar suggested.

Argyria considered that. "Futhark or Ogham? The hourglass is in proto-Germanic Elder Futhark."

"You understand the Ogham as individual symbols far better than the Futhark. Even if you're just selecting two to be yes and no and then trying them out, you'd probably pick better Ogham for representations."

Argyria nodded in agreement and set the hourglass aside, and went to her bedroom to fetch the dark green pouch that had the Ogham sticks in it. Maggie had helped her make this set, with each rune made from a different wood that corresponded to its meaning. She sat back down across from Gabby and dumped the little lengths of woods into her hand, glancing over the rough symbols she had carved and burned into each miniature tablet.

Some priestesses used unworked sticks that had the proper number of side-twigs naturally occurring on them for their corresponding runes. Maggie said that worked just fine, especially back when people didn't necessarily have the tools to engrave the sticks. That meant, however, lots of jabby pointy ends that could get caught on something and snapped off, ruining the rune's shape and needed to replace them more frequently. Maggie's line felt it was far less wasteful to use this method of creating the runes, and they hadn't noticed complications from doing so. Having all the rune sticks being roughly the same size and the sigils represented as carvings, rather than differently shaped sticks, had been noted to actually make it easier to do unbiased readings. A priestess couldn't rifle around in their bag, so easily feeling which runes were which by touch, and subconsciously pull the runes that corresponded to what they were hoping to pull.

Argyria considered the meanings of the Gaelic runes Maggie had spent so much time teaching her, gaze going over each uniquely colored and textured stick and its carving. Finally, she said, "I'm thinking Willow for 'no' on this one, as part of its connections are to the emotion of grief as things shift into balance, and if I can't figure this out or Raistlin's not coming home, I'm going to be pretty damn upset with that being how this plays out. And Hazel for 'yes', as it's the strongest tied to divination and inspiration, which would indicate we figured the meaning of the hourglass's enchantment out correctly."

The familiar's gaze went over the divinatory sticks and then gave a nod. "If that's what your intuition is nudging you towards, that should work."

"I can't think of another for the 'no' in this situation that would be appropriate. 'Yes' was a toss up between the Hazel or the Hawthorn, as it's a love and fertility rune that is nuanced towards longevity and contentment of the connection, which is kinda the hope for if things go right for Raistlin coming home and we get married... but I think that might make it too personal for what I want and influence a false yes."

"Hazel sounds the safer choice, and still appropriate."

Argyria nodded and dumped the rest back in the bag. She cupped the two rune sticks in her hands, debating how to try selecting an answer from them. "Screw it..." she finally muttered. "Old school toss, whichever one comes up face up with the sigil showing, that's the correct answer."

"And if they're both face up or down, you weren't concentrating hard enough?" the familiar asked.

The priestess-in-training nodded. The familiar settled into being curled up in a ball to wait. Argyria sighed and then closed her eyes, trying to form the question properly for this means of divination. She decided on- 'Will the hourglass's sands start moving again to indicate Raistlin is leaving his past in Krynn to return to this time and world?' That seemed about as neutral as the question could be asked.

Argyria gave a small nod to herself and then began making little motions with her cupped hands to shake up the sticks inside and let herself lose track of which is which so she couldn't slant the throw to her own desires; forcing her thoughts to simply concentrate on the question and hoping to feel a tickle of her intuition to indicate it was time to release the runes because she had pulled an answer and put enough energy in them to make them fall properly to show that answer.

The priestess-in-training wasn't sure how much time passed, but she repeated that question in her mind what felt like a hundred times and didn't feel any shifting magic or intuition nudging her.

Giving a frustrated sigh, Argyria stilled her hands and opened her eyes with a shake of her head. "It's no good. I'm not feeling anything."

Gabriella looked up at her mistress and said, tone trying to be reassuring, "You can always try again later? Divination is one of the trickiest magics there is because of how Time influences things, and we are dealing with distortions in Time happening now. You've had a lot of stress today, you might have more luck when you've had a chance to relax."

"Maybe," Argyria said halfheartedly with a small shrug. "Or maybe because Time is being distorted from Raistlin traveling, there's no real answer to be given because it's not settled on how this will play out?"

"That's also possible," the familiar agreed. "I suppose we just wait and see after all."

Argyria nodded and grabbed the bag holding the rest of the runes. As she was dumping the two sticks with the rest, Lexi's familiar knock resounded on the door and keys could be heard. She was just tying back up the bag when her two best friends walked in. Darlene had a clear bag with three half-gallons of ice cream stacked inside, one each of their favorite flavors, and a paper bag with bottles of wine peaking out the top. Lexi had one with bags of chocolate and another with different potato chips.

The sight brought a passing smile to Argyria's lips. Leave it to them to show up with all the good stuff. At least she had the consolation prize for losing Raistlin and yet again being a failure in magic all in one day- yummy comfort foods and her best friends for company.

Food got deposited on the kitchen table and then Argyria was wrapped in a tight group hug as she joined them in the kitchen.

As Darlene released the younger woman from the hug, she said, "I messaged the guys to let them know Race was gone for now, and Bri decided he's blowing off work tomorrow. They'll be here in the next hour with more junk food and pizzas, and some of their movies. Evan's making sure one of the pizzas is garlic white sauce with cheese and mushrooms so you'll be able to nom with us. We're making this a weekend sleepover to make sure you're good."

Argyria gave a laugh, not terribly surprised and more than a little relieved by that pronouncement. "Is Brian going to get in trouble for not showing up?"

Darlene gave an unconcerned shrug. "Eh, he hasn't skipped since everything happened two months ago. If they've got a problem with it, he can always tell them to go screw. Vic's starting his new job next week, so he can pitch in on rent until Bri finds a new job that won't be so uptight."

"What about your clients?"

Darlene gave another shrug. "Nice thing about having my own station and being responsible for some of the rent at the salon, I can pull what my boss used to on me and make one of the trainee girls cover for me. Already sent out texts to tell them to work it out between themselves."

"Anything in those bags for me?" Gabriella asked from the archway.

Darlene and Lexi gave small jumps of surprise and turned to look at the cat. Lexi exclaimed, "Jeez, I am still not used to you being able to talk! Give a girl a heart attack, why don't you?"

The familiar's voice reflected her amusement as she said, "Well, unless something happens to Mistress, this is my new state of being, so you might as well get used to it already."

"Easier said than done," Lexi said wryly, crouching down to pet the familiar as the cat started rubbing against her leg.

"So, treats?" Gabriella asked.

"Sorry, didn't think to grab you something," Lexi said. "We were in a bit of a hurry."

The familiar gave an annoyed sniff to that answer.

"I have some wet food in the fridge for you," Argyria said to placate her. "I can pick you up something tomorrow from the grocery store when it's open again. I'll need to pick up a few things anyway if everyone's going to be here."

The girls spent the next forty minutes starting in on the ice cream, waiting for the guys to arrive before Argyria explained what happened so she only had to retell things once. The guys came in with armloads of food and sleeping bags, and all but dogpiled Argyria sitting on the couch with hugs as soon as their stuff was set down. She laughed at their antics but exclaimed for them to get off because they were squishing her ice cream carton. Evan passed the carton off to Lexi and the group hug continued for the next few minutes. Argyria didn't have any further complaints, glad to be surrounded by all the concerned but supportive vibes coming off her friends.

Everyone grabbed plates of whatever food they wanted, Darlene poured white wine for the girls and the guys cracked open beer cans. That included Evan, who decided that if he was going to break his drinking cherry, the events of the last few months definitely warranted it. Unless things got rowdy and the neighbors called the police, which they weren't going to let happen, they could get away with the underage members of the group drinking here.

Argyria was grateful that even the pizzas she wasn't eating were kept to different veggie and cheese options so the apartment wouldn't smell like meat. She could at least handle the sight of meat or red stuff now, but the smell was still making her feel nauseous and trying to eat either was out of the question. She wasn't really hungry after the small dinner with Maggie and then eating a big chunk of her ice cream, but she grabbed one of the pizza slices to nibble on.

People found or made themselves comfy spots in the living room. After a few minutes of munching and slurping, Lexi tentatively ventured asking how Raistlin was sent back. Argyria decided to gulp down the contents of her wine glass first, as wine gave her a happy buzz, and then explained what had happened. She ended up opting for a second glass of wine to finish the story without breaking down into tears, and was starting to feel tipsy halfway through slower sips of it as she talked, but she managed to get it all out.

"Well, damn..." Victor was the first to say something when she went quiet. "That really kinda sucks. Would've been nice if we could've said goodbye too, but at least they didn't make him do a complete vanishing act..."

Brian nodded in agreement, finishing off his third can and then saying, "Yeah, no shit. If they had poofed him out the same way they sent him in, that'd be pretty good grounds for switching pantheons to less dick-ish gods."

That got agreeing laughter or nods from the rest of the group. Even Argyria couldn't help the giggle-snort of laughter that slipped out as she tried to cover her mouth with her hand to stop it.

Evan asked as his laughter died off, "Do we even know any other gods to give nods to, that aren't Krynn parallels? There's the three old ones, I'm guessing their spouses are real, and then the Gods of Magic, and probably some others mentioned as from Krynn. Are there other pantheons, or is that it?"

That stumped everyone in the room. Argyria eventually said, "I can't think of any aspects of divinity known to be real in this world that aren't one of them. I think it's just the one pantheon and different guises of those gods."

"And it's kinda hard to go Atheist when we know they're real," Brian said dryly, rubbing at a pink-tinged cheek beneath the rim of his glasses. "So I guess we're stuck with them, for better or worse, and gotta hope they don't get too heavy-handed."

That got nods or short answers of agreement, and more beers were popped open by the guys.

"So, what now?" Lexi asked with a frown. "We're all stuck waiting for either more bad guys, or Raistlin and then the bad guys, to show up again?"

Argyria gave a shrug, feeling her mood slipping with that question. "I guess so? I've got my training I need to try to get through, but I have no idea how that's going to help or what to otherwise do. Kinda fumbling in the dark on this one."

Evan gave a displeased raspberry noise to that. "Bugger that. If we're basically on the brink of our own War of the Lance type scenario, then there's gotta be more we can all do than just sitting on our arses and waiting for the shite to hit the fan or a mage rescue. The Companions all had various things come up that helped prepare them for the war."

Darlene reminded him with a grimace settling in, "Yeah, but that was the Companions. In case you forgot, we're the NPCs who need to try not getting ourselves killed in the crossfire."

Victor gave an annoyed groan. "I'm calling bullshit on that plan. I don't want to be a nameless red shirt."

"I don't think we really get a choice," Lexi said, then took a bite of her veggie loaded pizza.

Brian glanced around and then said, "Yeah, sorry Vic, but I'm not seeing a sign up sheet anywhere to enlist out of the canon-fodder category."

Victor gave a grunt to that, squished his fifth can down, and then reaching for a sixth as he said, "Like I said, this is bullshit. The Companions all got to have each other. And now, what? The gods just expect us to wave Ria and Race and Daddy-Vader off whenever bad guys show?"

Argyria gave Vic a confused look. "'Daddy-Vader'?"

"Oh, that's right," Lexi said through giggles. "We haven't had a chance to tell you just what we were up to after the funeral..."

That little anecdote of their failed attempt to storm the mausoleum caused Argyria to shake her head and laugh. "You guys are the greatest... Gods above... No wonder Uncle Eneas was so pissed, though." More giggles slipped out. "Vader dogpile... Oh my gods..." A full giggle fit ensued as she imagined the look on her father's face if they had managed to burst in as first planned and had done so. She wasn't sure what he would have done in that scenario, but the initial surprise that would be on his face would have been priceless.

Conversation shifted for the remaining hours of the evening to whatever topics they could find to distract themselves from the heavy questions on the future and whatever looming chaos was going to descend down on them.

A few hours before dawn, they skipped pulling out the couch for some of them and settled for tossing down blankets and sleeping bags in the center of the living room. The six young adults crashed in a big cuddle pile on the floor like they used to as little kids; unspoken agreement reached that it was better to have the comfort of their friends nearby to keep at bay their stressed thoughts, and not embarrassed to concede to that collective insecurity because it was just them there.

.

.

.

The group didn't wake up in Argyria's apartment.

In fact, when their eyes first opened, within moments of each other, and they looked around, they weren't even aware they were awake.

They were laying in a semi-circle around one another, and darkness was all around them, with their immediate area only dimly lit by some source of light no one could spot.

"Okay... This is a new one and fucking trippy," Brian murmured, shaking his head as he forced himself to a sitting position.

"Woah..." Lexi said, not used to being so aware of being in a dream. "You look so real."

"Okay, dream-Lexi," Brian said with sandy-blonde eyebrows furrowing. "Stop that. I'll make the self-aware comments in my own dreams."

Evan looked between the two. "Of all the things to dream my first time getting pissed, I go with you two arguing in some weird void space? Well, at least this might be good for some game scenario..."

Off to one side, an especially out of place voice could be heard saying, "What in the... Okay, this dream is just getting eerie now. Guiding Janet out of darkness almost makes sense after everything that happened at the Solstice, but why the hell am I seeing you lot?"

The original six looked behind themselves and saw Norman and Janet walking inside the little radius of light with them.

Janet stared at all of them in bafflement. "Um... I've apparently got more unresolved issues than I realized from what happened... At least this isn't going nightmare fuel yet, with ending up in the middle of stuff in the woods..."

"Uh... Guys..." Argyria said, still glancing around. "I... I don't think any of us are dreaming..."

"Alright, I'm agreeing with dream-Brian," Victor said, deep voice laced with consternation. "I don't like my dreams acting like they're aware I'm dreaming and confusing things all up."

"Vic," Argyria said, uneasy feeling growing. "I'm never aware of my dreams! And I'm aware of this! And I'm seeing magic spark thingies everywhere. Whatever this is, I don't think this is a dream."

"Penelope is correct," Nikolaos's voice came from one side of the group. He and Eneas stepped into the light as well, and the Metaxas patriarch couldn't completely mask the limp from his still healing injuries. "This is a dimensional space within reality, controlled by the three celestial stooges of magic."

"I'm not sure who you are..." Only Janet, Norman and Argyria recognized that faintly accented voice, and turned to see Professor Khouri entering opposite the two Greeks. The middle-aged Egyptian was dressed in flowing, creme colored silk sleeping clothes for comfort from the summer heat; and two usually concealed tattoos could be seen through the lighter colored fabric- a viper wrapped around his right ankle, and a red canine with closed eyes resting at the center of his pelvis, long curved ears framing his navel. His raven-black hair was pulled into its usual short tail, and his cinnamon-brown eyes were narrowed on the offending party. "...However, I would suggest speaking a bit more respectfully of The Three, as you are correct about where we are and I'm certain they can hear every disrespectful word."

Ria's mentors were walking within the radius of light a few feet away from the semi-retired Dark High Priest, and their expressions were quite in agreement with Osaze Khouri's chastisement.

Nikolaos's disagreeing snort was cut off as the three deities in mention appeared in the space open at the front of the assembly. Said deities had changed their appearances from their Krynn avatars, as all but one gathered were of Earth and that one was used to their various Earthly avatars.

The God of Light's silver-streaked golden hair, formerly falling just past his shoulders, was pulled up in a higher sitting tail and tied off with a white leather hair thong. A crown rest above his brow and glimmering platinum eyes, heavy with laurel and olive leaves crafted from the finest gold and myrtle blossoms sculpted from delicate white jasper and leaves of malachite. His flowing white robes of a mage were replaced by a white Doric chiton, whose deep purple lined hem fell to mid-thigh in athletic pleats, pulled close at his flat waist with a wide, white leather belt that had amethysts and albite lining the top and bottom edges in an entwining geometric pattern symbolizing infinity. A forest green hunting chlamys was thrown back from his powerful arms, and held in place at one shoulder by a large golden pin fashioned in the shape of a sun, with glittering red and orange opals inset into the rays.

To his left, standing in the middle, was The Mother, who was dressed to match that consort currently in his season of reign. She wore an ancient peplos dress of sheerer white linen, in the Spartan fashion of falling to mid-calf and having slits up either side to the upper part of her shapely thighs to allow for quicker movement. Aconite and Delphinum blossoms, fashioned from red-violet amethysts and malachite like Argyria's necklace was, decorated all the hems of her robes. Large pins fashioned as such blossoms held her shoulder folds in place, and smaller pins down the length of her pale arms pulled the sleeve folds into place. Her long white-streaked ebony hair was coiled up and around her head, and almost seemed held in place by a modest crown decorated with engravings of wheat grass, and opals in the shapes of suns lined the forehead band. Her eyelids were shaded with silvery-black khoal, which contrasted enough with her dark eyes to bring out the deep red tones in them.

To the other side of The Mother stood the Dark God, in his favored summer persona of his avatar from the Old Kingdom of Egypt, appearing as he had been depicted before its reputation had been damaged by his mother's cults' influences. His was the most drastic change of the deities to those who knew of their Krynn personas. His jet black hair was now blood-red and fell in waves to his mid-back. Besides that veil of dark red hair, the only thing covering his lean, sculpted torso was the wide silver Wesekh necklace draping over his shoulders and upper chest, bearing an elaborate interweaving of deep red carnelians, jet, and malachite beads, as well as tiny silver beads fashioned into scorpions and ankhs.

The moony face of Nuitari was slimmer now, chiseled and almost animalistic in its cold planes and sharp angles. His eyes were ringed by burned galena paste as eyeliner and finely ground malachite powder on the lids, drawing an unwary person's notice and then trapping their attention with his void-black gaze until such time as he wanted to release them from his influence. Around his hips was wrapped a shendyt cloth that fell to just above his knees, the linen dyed deep red and held in place by a twisting silver serpent belt, whose head and tail came together and were caught in the jaws of his mythical canine staring out in silent menace. While the other two deities wore Grecian leather sandals, the Dark God stood barefoot. And at the end of each finger were longer nails, thicker than a human's and pointed like an animal's; and each clawed nail was dyed in the ancient fashion of using henna, appearing as though they were stained in dried blood.

The Dark God's glacial voice was wry as he said, "Thank you, Osaze, for once again being one of the two prime examples of why I prefer my wolves to my black robes these days. What wolves may lack in raw magical power, you more than make up for in ingenuity, adaptivity and loyalty."

Osaze gave a pleased nod of acknowledgement to his deity's praise. "It is, as always, an honor to serve and uphold your laws, Lord Set."

Nikolaos gave an annoyed huff of breath and muttered, "Fucking kiss-ass druids..."

The Dark God turned his gaze on the champion conqueror formerly of the Order of the Black Robes, who made a point of not looking directly into the deity's ensnaring eyes. "I'm only narrowly being outvoted and barred from delivering a punishment for some of your recent provocations and behavior, and am abiding that vote because I know you've already brought onto yourself lesser but keen punishments as direct results of certain actions. Do not push the limits of my counterparts' compassion or my patience."

Nikolaos gave another huff, but grudgingly kept his silence as his jaw tightened to hold back another flippant response.

Nuitari glanced to Solinari and gestured to the group. "Apologies for the trouble from that quarter. The show is all yours, cousin."

Solinari gave a fleeting smirk and said wryly, "Thank you for bringing him to heel at the start so this gathering can go smoother."

Nuitari gave a nod, but kept his silence.

Solinari's platinum gaze went over the small assembly of eight young adults; all but Argyria and Norman were continuing to look at the deities in states of pure shock as realization washed over them that this was real and those were actual gods in front of them. Norman was mildly off guard because he had only ever felt influences of his deities, occasionally heard the whispers of his particular patron, but had never seen them properly. He wasn't sure if he should be taking this unannounced audience as the greatest of honors, like Professor Khouri and Ria's mentors seemed to be; or if he should be quaking with fear over what such a gathering might portend, given recent revelations about Ragnarok being on the way.

Argyria was likewise off guard because the avatar changes were so very different from their Krynn personas she had seen just after lunch that afternoon. Solinari's looked like a cross of the depictions of Apollo and a young Zeus. Lunitari's seemed the summer version of Persephone, a more colorfully adorned iteration of her somber depictions as the Underworld Queen. And Nuitari was, as Professor Khouri addressed him as, in the guise of Set for his off season of power...

Which made an odd sort of sense when considered against certain stories of the deity being especially active in Egypt during the summer but also more fallible to his counterpart of shifting names- Ra, Horus the Elder, Osiris. Set was said to protect the other gods from the ancient serpent, Apep, and ensured the sun continued its daily appearances. When Set retired in the winter to the lands beyond Egypt that myths said he held uncontested dominion over, that must have been the Dark God taking up his mantle in Greek worship as Hades and with The Mother at his side, leaving the Egyptians' to their worship of the God of Light descending down into the underworld as the reincarnating king and the Dark God receiving increasingly desperate prayers as Set to return for longer hours to guard the sun and subsequently allow the earth to regain its warmth and fertility.

Set let them wallow in cold until the spring, enjoying extra time in his foreign kingdom. But he'd eventually concede to resume longer hours guarding the sun, and fertility was restored to the lands, which would be related to the mythos of Persephone exiting the Underworld to join the God of Light... but in Egypt, where that was especially revered, Set was also said to be the cause of the month long, vicious seasonal sandstorms marking the coming spring. Which was probably the Dark God expressing his displeasure at handing the Mother over to the God of Light and resuming his secondary position for summer...

"Such a clever girl, to put it together that quickly," Solinari's amused voice broke Argyria out of her contemplation. As her silvery-grey gaze turned up to look at him, a smirk pulled at his lips. "Think on other cultures' mythos your mentors have been teaching you, and you'll see more interplay of that pattern with one another. The Dark God can be such a sore sport sometimes..."

"If you'd like me to..."

Nuitari's challenge was cut off by Lunitari, who said with an archly quirked eyebrow, "We have an audience who is need of being given certain explanations, some more so than others; and they might not realize you two ruffling one another's feathers is more sport than malice these days."

Nuitari's dark eyes narrowed as Solinari's smirk increased a fraction, but he gave a dismissive flick of his hand. "Then get on with it. The children won't snap out of it any quicker by letting them stew in their shock."

Darlene briefly raised a hand and cleared her throat, the first to rally her courage, if not her full wits. "Yeah, um... about that? What is going on here? Why are we all here? And what's with ditching the robes we've read about? You two," she pointed to Solinari and Lunitari, "are dressed like something out of a theater epic a la Shakespeare like Lexi's troupe just put on for Midsummer Night's Dream; and you," she pointed to Nuitari, "were described as Uncle Fester with Snape's hair, but now you're looking like a metal musician who moonlights as a Furry's Dom."

That description incited a wide range of reactions. Mortified looks of varying degrees were sent Darlene's way from the four elder druids, Norman, and Eneas. Victor and Janet stared at her like she was crazy and/or must have a death wish. Nikolaos gave a snort of laughter before he could contain the reaction, and a few seconds behind that Evan sounded like he nearly choked on his attempt to swallow his laughter. Openly entertained laughter came from Lunitari, while her counterparts leveled mildly annoyed glares on the young woman.

One of Argyria's hands clapped over her best friend's mouth to keep her from saying anything else as she noticed the two gods' reactions and fought to contain an inappropriate but reactive giggle of her own.

Lexi's hand went over her own mouth in shock as she whispered loudly in warning, "Darlene! You don't speak to gods like that!"

As Darlene turned a mildly confused, and not remotely apologetic, look at her girlfriend, she mumbled from behind Ria's hand, "What?! It's true!"

"It's traditional regalia from before the various religious wars ramped up and then everything was homogenized!" Argyria whispered back, hand tightening over Darlene's mouth. "I'll show you some books I have that have collections of pictures of ancient statues and paintings with similar designs when we're out of here. Until then, be quiet about it before they curse you for being rude!"

"Or we could just send her back now and she won't have a voice in these proceedings..." Solinari's quietly spoken words sounded like a threat, despite that such would seem preferable to being the subject of a divine curse.

"And what proceedings are we having?" Victor asked warily. "Are we in trouble for something and about to be placed on a divine held trial to answer for it?"

"Aw shiiit," Brian said quietly. "Is this about the bad behavior in the cemetery?"

Janet's gaze went to her boyfriend. "What about a cemetery?"

"You're not sitting in judgment for something done wrong," Solinari said, tone and expression impassive now. "This is about the on-going complaints most of you have had about being on the sidelines for recent matters and the prospect of continuing to be so..."

Confused looks were exchanged by the young adults among themselves.

Then understanding began to creep in on Argyria and her gaze went from the Lord of Light to The Mother. "Wait a minute?! Is this what you meant by..."

Lunitari gave a nod, full lips curling into a knowing smirk. "Yes."

Evan looked over at Argyria. "Uh, Ria, meant by what?"

"We need to explain a few things to you children," Solinari was the one to answer. "And once you have been made properly aware of the situation, you have a choice to make." None of the young adults had anything reactive to say any longer, and the deity continued speaking. "You've all recently been brought to awareness that things in your world aren't quite what you thought they were. Gods and magic exist outside stories, those stories of Krynn are likewise mostly accurate to events that happened in the past, and we're in the early days of what promises to be the most important battle to ever be fought in this world. What you're unaware of is how we got to this point, and the full extent of where it may potentially lead.

"Many millions of years ago, the three of us were as you've read about us in the Dragonlance books- Gods of Magic who only held influence over our mages. As time went on, our powers and aims expanded. We searched the far reaches of the universe for a spot of our own, and came across this solar system and a world that was already capable of sustaining life. The primordial you know from the books as Gilean had claims over this sector of the universe and, having other things to concentrate his attention on, he had been allowing it to evolve without divine guidance of any sort on its own.

"We went to Gilean with a request to be allowed to make use of this solar system, and specifically this planet, to try creating our own world to have influence over. Gilean asked us why we wanted to expand our roles as gods, what we planned to do with the world, what we were hoping to create. We explained to him that we understood that matters in Krynn evolved as they had because of the clashes Paladine and Takhisis had over who should hold dominant sway over that border world, and that things were too deeply set to be able to change there."

Solinari's gaze turned to Yevgeny, and he said to the Dark High Priest with a wry smirk, "Your thoughts you shared with Raistlin about the nature of Krynn echoes many of the frustrations we had with it and said to Gilean." Platinum gaze swept back over the young adults before him. "Krynn is extremely polarized- good versus evil, magic-users against those with martial leanings, divine versus arcane; and anyone caught in the middle because of their personal neutral inclinations or by chance was forced to pick sides to be pitted against one another. That was how Paladine and Takhisis had arranged things to try keeping the other from gaining a greater foothold on the world and expand out their influence.

"The three of us, while we have developed our competitive rivalries since gaining sentience, do not have the same visceral reactions to one another that the primordials do. We are not embodiments of conflicting aspects of the universe that clash with one another to both create and destroy. We are Magic, Sihir, itself, forcibly split into three identities that were originally formed by what our progenitors felt most reflected their values and would give them more direct influence over magic. Being these separate sentient identities is something we are forever stuck with because of that tampering, but our innate nature calls for us to be united as one force working together. Trying to sincerely harm one of the others would literally be an act of self-harm because we are tied to the same aspect of creation. And because of the conflicts between our elders, and the natures of their clerics being the direct arbitrators of divine will for mortals, when we finally had the ability to have followers of our own we were forced to grant magic in a different way so as to not throw off the balance of clerics in Krynn. We created the mages to be outside that circle of influence, to desire a pursuit of magic for magic's sake, rather than use it as a tool to advance a divine agenda. And while we were able to create such magic-users, it had some wildly unexpected results in the early years. We had to refine the process to fit within the structures already established, and further compromised our visions of what our followers were meant to be.

"We wanted to form a more cohesive structure for ourselves and our followers, but we were instead forced to sharply divide everyone up into the Orders of High Magic; and were then stuck trying to give tenants to keep them cooperating with one another as the three of us do. And with only being allowed to give the raw arcane side of magic, without spiritual purpose attached to it, we discovered it was all too easy for mages to come to see themselves as entirely apart from their world and fellow mortals, to seclude themselves into their Towers and strongholds and set about pursuing their own self-gratifying agendas that pitched them against one another. Their powers being different than a cleric's terrified the clerics and set the two factions against one another, furthering the rift between our followers and the rest of Krynn. Our vision, our followers, just didn't fit within that world, and trying to find new ways to maintain our presence was only going to continue creating problems for all involved.

"We wanted to start over from the beginning, with new followers who saw themselves as part of an encompassing family of magic-users to accomplish our goals; to see one another as natural aspects of a whole that should be respected instead of barely tolerated for survival. We wanted to gift our followers with a full spectrum of magic that included aspects of 'divine' magic we had been previously denied permission to grant. We didn't have the power to grant such magic to an entire world of people, but we wanted to have our followers see themselves as guides to the rest of the mortals, rather than anomalies. We meant for them to teach others to follow our ways and desire access to such magic, and for the population to revere that role enough to want to protect those blessed with magic, so that as we continued to grow in power we could slowly expand out our gifts to our world and its people. If things went as we hoped it would, we'd eventually be able to grant minor magics to the general populace to ease their daily lives, and our chosen representatives would keep things in balance with their greater magics.

"Gilean was, I believe, amused by our dreams of such a magic utopia. Fortunately for us, however, he was more so intrigued by the sincerity he sensed from the three of us. He could tell that we truly had no desire to be extensions of our progenitors' innate conflicts, that this wasn't some ploy by one of us to separate the others from alliances with other gods and then take over a project as the sole deity reigning after so much mutual energy was expended to start it. He could sense we truly wished to form a new structure to accommodate both our individual innate natures as gods and our collective identity of being Sihir, and subsequently allow us to have a lasting alliance and peace among ourselves. The idea of us trying to strike our own personal balance and foster such a world of cooperation for followers appealed to Gilean's nature. It made him curious to see if we might have any success in our goals, or if certain traits we had inherited from our progenitors would be inflamed as we were given freer reign as gods and we'd end up in the same cycles as our elders.

"After much time spent in thought on the matter, Gilean informed us that he would grant us the favor of allowing us to inherit this small sector of his domain. He wiped out the majority of species currently living on this world, including what you mortals call dinosaurs. Such creatures outside divine influence didn't possess souls or the capability to evolve true sentience; they would have complicated our population attempts and he knew we didn't have enough divine energy for multiple attempts at this experiment. He then ordered one of Lunitari's sisters, the embodiment of Nature itself, who is called Chislev in Dragonlance, to populate this planet with more conducive plant and animal species for our mortals to live among. To give our experiment the most unbiased influence to grow from, he gave us knowledge of how to create his favored mortal race, humans; and suggested we keep this first attempt at a world to just the one race to minimize potential conflicts, and permission to modify that divine design to accommodate the sort of society we hoped to foster. Chislev gave Lunitari instruction and training to maintain the natural balances she had created so that they could be maintained once her active influence was pulled from the world.

"Being given that permission by Gilean, and aid from both him and Chislev, we steadily extricated our influence from other parts of the universe. We crafted our own dimensions for the afterlives of our mortals, and collected up the souls of our devout followers so they would not be left to other deities' devices once we completely removed ourselves from all but our world. Gilean had put some protective magics around this little corner of creation to help keep the other gods from noticing our project and potentially damaging our attempts while they were so new. However, we were also told that when that magic faded, we'd be responsible for continuing the protection of our world and its inhabitants, to act as the proper patrons we aspired to be and keep our designs in motion. Understanding that, we reinforced his wards with magic of our own and then set about creating what would eventually become the human race of this world..."

"Which proved a great deal more challenging than we had expected it to be from our experiences of influencing a small faction of mortals in an established world..." Lunitari said, tone vaguely rueful, as Solinari paused his history lesson for the mortals. "Trying to keep track of so many beings, as a younger deity whose awareness and avatars can only be in a very limited number of places at a time, it almost seemed establishing things properly was going to ultimately be efforts in futility and we'd eventually have to report to Gilean we had failed."

Nuitari gave a sardonic snort of laughter. "That's putting it diplomatically. It was like being three shepherds trying to keep a million fucking cats in one centralized location, at all hours of the day and night without rest, without the aid of sheep dogs or others means of wrangling; and with the cats darting off in every which direction at the first chance they got, and rapidly spawning more cats to try herding while we were busy chasing different groups down or culling the herd of weak lines or other disruptions to the health of the whole colony."

Solinari chuckled at that description as the young mortals stared at his darker counterpart with mild indignation for the comparison. Giving an agreeing nod, he said in good humor, "That's actually an apt metaphor for those early millennia. We managed to get pockets of our followings started, however..."

Nikolaos gave a clearing of his throat, eyebrow raised at Solinari.

The Lord of Light gave a sigh, "I was about to add that we did so in part by deviating for a short time from our initial plan, occasionally slipping one of our old human followers' souls into the new world to aid us in getting matters back on track. And yes, we appreciate the aid given by those volunteer sheep dogs..."

Nikolaos's dark eyes narrowed and he shook his head. "You're welcome, you annoying prick, for understanding this was a fledgling society of mentally stunted cats hyped on catnip and bailing your asses out by agreeing to help keep them in order and learning to behave, instead of laying waste to the whole lot of them for being so fucking useless compared to those in other worlds."

"Thanks, Uncle Nikolaos," Lexi said dryly.

Nikolaos glanced over at his niece. "You're excluded from that generalization because you spawned from Patroclus, much later in existence than those in mention. The early humans here were a mess to constantly clean up behind, and have since devolved back in recent millennia."

"Which leads into the explanation of our current situation..." Nuitari said, glacial voice taking on a hint of impatience, clearly trying to keep the conversation focused and moving forward.

"Something to do with Takhisis finding our world and trying to destroy things here?" Norman asked, wanting all the pieces of this story to finally put it together in his head properly.

Lunitari nodded to the Priest of Light's question. "Yes. Just as we were finally starting to move this world into an age of having proper civilizations forming and followers understanding enough of our teachings to begin properly harnessing magic, my father's wards began to fade. We tried to reinforce our own protective magics as we sensed his dissipating, but by that point we had invested so much into this world and its population that we couldn't get our wards to the same strength his had been. And with our consciousnesses being so conspicuously absent from the rest of the universe, the other gods had been scanning about to try discovering where we had spirited ourselves off to."

Nuitari's expression became stormy with displeasure. "They ended up finding us. Some of the other gods didn't care about our project. Not once they saw it was as isolated as it was, with us trying to stay as close to our own domains as possible so as not to step on their toes; and with being told by Gilean that he had allowed us to take up residence in that part of his universe and utilize his race, and Chislev confirming that she had willingly granted Gilean's request to share a small bit of her influence with her sister so Lunitari could manage that critical aspect of maintaining our world on our own. My mother, however, being the avarice bitch that she is, was among those who didn't like what we were doing. She called a Divine Council and tried to make a case that our world went against divine compacts. She claimed Gilean was using our naive idea in a rare play to expand out his own influence by sheltering our world in his part of the universe, and having us create so many extra humans, and utilizing Chislev to help influence everything here towards neutrality. And even though we were maintaining the world through our own power, she claimed we were utilizing magic tricks to usurp other deities' domains to do so.

"We made the argument that our idea was our own, and Gilean was only involved because we went to him with the thought he would be the most understanding of our aims. After he had gifted the groundwork for our project, he had left us to our own devices and hadn't sought to influence the results in any way. And while yes, to maintain the balances in the world and populations, we had to utilize minor aspects of the other gods' domains, every single one of those hypocritical fuckers taking issue with that existed in their higher-awareness states and had the ability to direct their divine powers because of sihir, because of us. Their magical beings, their dimensional beings, their beloved clerics and other adepts all existed because they steal bits and pieces from us as the sparks to then grow and influence with their domains. They can only extend their awareness out the way they do because divine essence is innately intertwined with magic to form the directives for their influence. They had been siphoning and twisting us for their purposes and own worlds since the dawn of time. The only thing that had shifted was we had been granted self-awareness, by the primordials' own doing. We were now conscious of how bits of us were being used by the others, and now we were following the precedent they had made by taking advantage of the same divine inter-dependency for our purposes. If they wanted to start nitpicking who was treading on whose aspects of creation, we could start actively putting our self-awareness towards further consolidating ourselves, and when they couldn't easily tap into us like they were so used to doing, we'd see how well they kept their creations together and under their influence..."

"That threat must have gone over well..." Argyria's thought was murmured before she was consciously aware she was saying it, interrupting the Dark God's explanation.

The Dark God gave a snort of derisive laughter. "We may have pissed the dissenters off, but we also cowed them enough to vote to let us continue our project, instead of my mother getting her way and everything here being wiped out of existence or restructured to accommodate primordial designs. That's as much of a win as it gets when dealing with other gods and their jilted pride when they realize what comes around goes around. None of us get to keep the totality of our divine privileges without conceding the same allowances to the rest of the collective."

"So..." Evan said slowly. "What happened after that? From what's in the Dragonlance books, I'm guessing Takhisis held a grudge about not getting her way?"

"To say the least..." Nuitari said grimly. "Not only was she embarrassed by losing the vote in a Divine Council she called, she came to the abrupt realization one of her own spawned deities was no longer playing by her rules and was ultimately outside her control."

"I have a question... If you've split from Takhisis, does that mean you're not evil these days?" Janet asked tentatively, still trying to wrap her mind around the concept of the Gods of Magic being real and them, not the God she was raised with stories of, being the creators of her world.

That simplistic, but understandable, question caused a chiming laugh to come from The Mother and a smirk formed on the Lord of Light's lips.

The Dark God gave a wolfish grin as his gaze turned on the mortal and she tried to look anywhere but at him out of instinctive fear of being under his scrutiny. "Your naive dualistic view of the world is almost cute..." Janet's cheeks flushed with embarrassment at the sardonic tone lacing the glacial voice aimed at her.

"It might seem naive to you," Brian said, drawing the deity's attention off his girlfriend, "but I was kinda wondering the same thing. As far as I've been given cause to know, evil always turns in on itself by its own nature, and can't be trusted. Maybe I'm wrong about 'Geny, but he doesn't give off 'Servant of Evil God' vibes. So it's seeming like you're rolling with a different lifestyle these days, not just rocking a different costume and changing up the servants' powers."

"It's a complicated answer to give," The Mother replied seriously. "What you understand as Good or Evil is based on the most extreme stereotypes of the primordials' existences and influences. When we were simply the amorphous aspect of the universe that is magic, we were in a singular pure state that wasn't bent towards ideologies or morals. As Solinari explained, when the primordials created us, they did so by forcibly dividing us from one another, tearing our passive identity into three and molding them as fitting to serve under each of them. In our first stages of being, we were deeply tied to those identities and understanding of ourselves."

"The soulmate theory," Lexi said quietly, voice tinged with sad understanding, hazel gaze going to her father for confirmation, "but on a divine scale, and being split into three instead of two."

Eneas gave a brief nod and said seriously, "That's the right idea."

Darlene looked between the two Lambrakis members, mind searching why that sounded familiar, and then understanding hit. "Oh…" Her dark blue gaze went to the deities. "Oh, that massively sucks… No wonder you seemed so bare bones and stereotype heavy for identities in the books; but you guys were always marked as operating in different ways from the other gods, like the monument placements at Godshome."

The Mother nodded in confirmation. "During the era of Krynn's history you've read about, that was still an early stage of us becoming aware of just what had been done to create us. We had realized why we had formed at the same time, when most deities' existences came about with some span of time between them. Certain traits we had been given felt unnatural and abrasive to us. Which was because they had been crafted by the primordials, who viewed things from their perspective of existence and didn't properly understand just what they were inflicting on us by dividing the essence of magic as they had. When we were simply the Gods of Magic and patrons of mages, that was our first attempts to try reconciling that splintering of our essence from one another, but we were still heavily influenced by our progenitors' wills. As time has passed, we've discovered that we can't reverse being torn into three separate flows of magic, but we've been able to chip away bits of those less compatible traits and form new identities for ourselves that better balance what we have dominance over and what we share."

"If you'd like to think of it in terms you're familiar with," the Lord of Light offered to the younger mortals, "consider your D&D alignment charts as a color gradient scale, rather than nine definitive boxes any being ends up placed in. As a collective, being the sum of pure magic and consciously making efforts to keep our actions in alignment with our original unified state of being, we're what you'd consider as something that's True Neutral. When our consciousnesses are artificially reconnected and we're acting in unison, we're not acting with consideration to morality of good versus evil, nor laws born of a consensus of logic versus unthinking chaos. We are magic, and we simply exist and flow throughout all of creation and react as needed to preserve our innate nature. When we're needed to act as individual deities, our identities diverge from that purely existing state of being."

The Dark God gave a nod, and expanded on that explanation. "Solinari could be viewed as being just south of the middle of the 'Good' row when he's like this, as he's still tied so heavily to Paladine's influences, but not so much as to still be at the top edge of the 'Good' field because the reality of our creation has caused him to reconsider the wisdom in following some of Paladine's strict edicts for his spawn. And he's just barely to the left of the vertical line between 'lawful' and 'neutral' good because, while he still feels bound to hold to his word and most divine edicts, us getting pitted against our counterparts and screwed so often has him willing to bend on how strictly he's keeping to the letter of the law. Of the three of us, Lunitari's shift is the least drastic because Gilean's nature of being all that is Pure Neutrality is the least discordant with our innate nature of being Magic, and he gave her identity as Lunitari a bit more autonomy to develop. She stays in the center of the 'Neutral' row, but shifts to the right to be just over the line into 'Chaotic'; especially since taking on some of the wilder aspects of a nature goddess to maintain this world. She keeps to our compacts because we are devoted to each other first and foremost, but the curiosity Gilean instilled in her has been inflamed and she's become one of the biggest tricksters and rule breakers among the divine if we don't keep an eye on her."

The corners of The Mother's garnet eyes crinkled ever so slightly as she laughed at that observation of her nature having evolved as it had. "I've simply kept the other divine from re-imposing certain unnatural mandates on us, and allow us to continue evolving closer to what we once were."

Nuitari gave her an amused sidelong look. "To be clear, I wasn't voicing complaint with your antics, only stating as honestly as I know the current state of being."

Lunitari gave an agreeable nod to that.

"...So, if they're in the middle of good and neutral rows, does that means you're somewhere in the middle of the evil row?" Evan asked the Dark God, following the pattern.

Nuitari shrugged, causing his Wesekh to give an almost melodic rustle as the beads and charms tapped against one another. "I'd say that I'm solidly in the middle between 'Lawful' and 'Chaotic', and I'm straddling the line between 'Neutral' and 'Evil'. These days, I'm putting more weight on the Neutral Foot to aid with our long term stability, and some like my mother take that as a betrayal of my creation and a weakness; but in reality it allows me to lash out all the faster and harder with the Evil Foot to snap an interloper's neck and then make a proper recovery for my own personal balance and be ready to deliver the next blow."

That answer got an appreciative laugh from his two High Priests, and Yevgeny said, "That is very good way of looking at such. If I need remind apprentices of how and why we balance wolf duties as we do, I am borrowing explanation of yours."

The Dark God gave a nod, wolfish grin creeping back on his face. "You're more than welcome to."

"So you're more necessary 'darkness' than evil these days," Darlene said, "but Takhisis is still raging evil, and she's now trying to take over our world because she didn't want to let you cut the umbilical cord and then was embarrassed when the other gods made her let you?"

"If only it was that simple…" The Lord of Light was the one to answer, as his darker counterpart's expression became stormy again as the focus was brought back on their current situation. "Her aims were once to take over this world, but that's shifted as time has gone on and we've thwarted her attempts… Because of certain things that have come to pass, she's now bent on the destruction of this world and the three of us; and we know that after that she will be expanding that destruction out to the rest of the universe and the other gods, to try securing control of the cosmic order and then attempt to build new worlds as the sole deity."

That pronouncement received unanimously alarmed expressions and a few exclamations from the young adults. The expressions of the older mortals in the meeting were grim, having been apprised of the situation before being brought together with the other factions and the younger attendants.

"How is that even possible?!" Victor's deep voice was the loudest of those speaking, and his questions summarized much of what his friends were asking. "How would she be able to destroy entire worlds and other gods?! Aren't there rules against that kind of stuff?! And how do you three know that's what she's planning?!"

Solinari signaled for the commotion to cease, and the young adults were all but compelled to still their tongues. "We know because this is the third timeline, that we're aware of, that we've been trying to keep her from success in her aims."