Celestial Worm

Part Twenty-Six: Incursion

[A/N: this chapter commissioned by Fizzfaldt and beta-read by the author of Ties That Bind and The Long Way Home, Karen Buckeridge.]

[A/N 2: for other (non-Worm) Celestial Wars sidestories, see here and here.]

Lady Armina, Mystallian Goddess of War
Somewhere in the Unknown Realms

"We need to talk."

Chance looked away, even as their mystallions blurred past dozens of galaxies in the Unknown Realms with every wingbeat. "I know." They'd been travelling for half an hour now, in the direction Chance had pointed them, but Armina needed answers. In his typical bratty fashion, her little brother was being difficult.

Armina dropped her voice to what anyone else would consider a pants-wetting growl, though to her family it was merely considered 'getting 'serious'. Of course, when she got serious, galaxies died. "Don't make me force it out of you."

Chance let out an exasperated huff and turned back toward her. "Yes, there's a mortal where we're going who's praying to me. And yes, I know how weird it's going to be to have an establishment field in a realm that's not Mystal, let alone one I've never been to yet has a mortal in residence I who somehow believes in me. But I don't see what the big deal is. We drop in, grab Janesha and bloodlink home. The end."

Armina, who'd been through an unwanted establishment field with this particular brother once already, pinched her lips together and adamantly shook her head. "What exactly did the mortal say in his prayer, and how exactly did he say it? We have no idea what belief he holds about you."

"He didn't say anything about me at all, really." Chance reined Gambler to a halt, Gladiator slowing at the same time. "But if it'll make you happy, here," he said, holding out his hand to her.

"Absolutely nothing about this whole situation makes me happy," Armina grumbled, but she took her younger brother's hand anyway and swept into his mind.

Even though they were both ranged mind-benders, range only worked if there was a generational gap between them. As siblings, they were reduced to touch contact.

Which was why Chance offered her his hand voluntarily rather than irritate her into forcing the issue. Once she had a challenge to face, she had to win; it was encoded in her very essence.

They convened inside his mind, where he created a comfortable half-ring sofa for them to relax on while he brought up the memory. With less irritation than he would've expected at the delay, she settled onto the sofa and took up the goblet of ambrosia she found at her side.

"Okay, here we are," he said briskly. Armina took a drink from the goblet then set it down, watching intently.

The memory started to replay, with Chance watching Armina squash slugs. Then an impression intruded into his mind, of a mortal; middle-aged, skinny and balding, kneeling in prayer.

"Lord Chance of Mystal, hear my prayer," he murmured. "You are the only one who can help us. Your niece is here, and she has become established. Please, come and save her and my daughter from one another. Lord Chance of Mystal, hear my prayer …"

"It's just more of the same," Chance said, freezing the memory. "He went through it about five or six times, repeating exactly the same thing. I'm not a Weaver like young Columbine, but you and I have enough kids to know the prayer of a desperate parent when we hear it."

Armina rubbed her chin, deep in thought. "The 'niece' bit clearly means Janesha, unless we've had any other family members go missing in the Unknown Realms recently. So the little twit's gone and gotten herself established; that's going to get messy. But I'm not sure what the next bit means, exactly. Save her and his daughter from each other?"

"Well, duh," Chance said at once. "The daughter's the one who's worshipping her, and Janesha's encouraging it. She's got a case of Single Worshipper Syndrome, and we're the ones who get to unravel it. Joy."

Single Worshipper Syndrome wasn't a commonplace occurrence, at least among Mystallians, due to the care that most of the adults took in raising their children to know the dangers of premature establishment. She'd heard of it happening now and again in other realms, and it always caused problems. It was almost as bad as letting a hybrid get loose in the realm, mainly because it involved a full-blooded celestial.

A celestial forming a close relationship with a mortal, instead of allowing them to worship him (or her) from afar, sometimes led to shenanigans such as the celestial taking his worshipper along with him as they travelled from one realm to the next, all the while retaining the fullness of his godly power. When the locals objected, the celest and the mortal could escape to the next realm, leaving irritated gods behind with no way to pursue and inflict retribution, and leading to inter-realm bitterness and bickering. Inevitably the smartass little godling's mortal power source got squashed by a quick-thinking celestial, followed by the wayward celestial being 'educated' in the many reasons why one should not irritate other gods while one's own powerbase was so fragile. This generally led to an entirely different type of inter-realm bitterness and bickering.

Either way, it was a fucking stupid thing to do.

The interesting thing was that this mortal, one Danny Hebert if Armina was reading Chance's memory correctly, was fully cognisant of the danger and was praying for assistance in splitting up the pair. So, not only had she become established, but she'd taken just one worshipper. For the mortal's sake, Armina decided coldly, Janesha had better not have been made over into a wish-genie, or the man would not be getting his daughter back ever again.

"So you'll become established in that realm when you get within five metres of him." She spoke bluntly; it was something they both knew. "With a powerbase you know nothing about."

"Which he says will let us separate his daughter from Janesha," Chance argued.

"He says," repeated Armina sardonically. "When was the last time you decided to trust a celestial's well-being to a mortal's word for any reason?"

"He's really worried about his daughter," Chance reminded her. "I can kind of relate."

"All we have to do is pull her five metres away from Janesha and the problem is solved," Armina decided. She jabbed Chance in the chest with her armoured finger. "You're not going within five worlds of this mortal before I've ascertained what he has planned for you. Do you hear me?"

The last thing any of them needed was to go through all that again.

Taylor
The Next Day

Perhaps it was merely an illusion, but Taylor thought Earth Bet looked a good deal more peaceful than it had the last time she'd looked at it from this altitude. Said altitude being somewhat above low earth orbit. She and Janesha were hovering near the planet's latest satellite, which just happened to be composed of all the waste plastic that had been clogging up landfills, waterways, oceans and lifeforms, until Earth's newest goddess decided to put it all in one place.

Janesha had allowed her to feel the sensation of the microplastics being removed from her body, though she'd spared the rest of the world the same experience. It had been, in a word, weird. Looking at the multicoloured globe of plastic next to them, she shook her head. "It's hard to believe just how far it had spread," she said.

Despite the total lack of any sort of air, her voice carried easily to Janesha's ears. "I was shocked too, petal," the teenage goddess said serenely. "But if there's anything mortals know how to do, it's taking destructive behaviour and applying it to excess. You've been producing plastics since the nineteen fifties but never started to recycle until the eighties. Only a small fraction of it has been burned or recycled; the vast majority of your plastic trash was dumped in landfills or allowed to wash out to sea. Out of sight, out of mind."

She gestured to another ball of matter, a little farther away, that they weren't going to be doing anything with. Although Taylor's mortal eyes couldn't detect anything special about it, she knew that it was somewhat radioactive. As it should be, being the sum total of all nuclear waste that had been stored or abandoned on Earth Bet since mankind had begun dabbling in such materials. There was rather a lot of it.

"Yeah," sighed Taylor. "That should really be our motto, shouldn't it?"

The waste plastic sphere was significantly more than a mile across, and weighed more than five billion tons. If dropped in the ocean like the world's biggest fishing float, the wave it produced would make Leviathan's worst efforts look like a toddler splashing in the bathtub. Which merely begged the next question. "Okay, so what are we going to do with it?"

"That's something I was going to speak with you about." Janesha held up one finger, a little above her head. Obediently, the globe moved sideways until it was resting on her fingertip, then began to spin almost idly. "There is enough plastic in this ball to gift every adult on Earth of driving age with a solar-powered vehicle, specifically suited to their needs. Even now, despite the upcoming plan to end pollution, internal combustion engines are once more belching soot and carbon monoxide and other noxious substances into the atmosphere. It's almost as if they expect Me to just keep cleaning it up, now that I've done it once."

Taylor wasn't quite sure how to address that, so she kept quiet. Janesha either cheated by using mindbending or had gotten good at reading her expressions, because it didn't take the celestial girl long to get it. "Oh, you have to be joking with Me!" Janesha burst out. "They actually expect this?"

"Well, yeah." Taylor shrugged. "One of those self-destructive behaviours you mentioned is laziness. There's a significant portion of the population that's willing to turn over any tedious job at all to the first person who offers to do it, then whines when they're expected to pay for it to be done." She paused, thinking about what she'd just said. "Well, I guess that bit's greed. They get it for free once, they want it for free forever."

Janesha chuckled. "That, at least, is not specifically a human trait. The difference is, celests get everything for free. If We trade in anything, it's favours and boons."

"Well, and divine miracles for us mortals," Taylor said with a smirk. "Paid for by belief and prayers, maybe?"

That got her a dirty look from Janesha. "You make Us sound downright mercenary. If and when you meet the rest of My family, I strongly suggest you keep that opinion to yourself. Being My high priest would not save you from retribution."

"Okay, I can do that." Taylor reached up and let her fingers trail over the surface of the immense sphere currently rotating just above her head. "So, were you sold on the idea of plastic electric cars for everyone in the world, or was that just you thinking aloud?"

"It was but one notion I was entertaining," Janesha said. "Tell Me, what would happen if I chose to renew all mined-out natural resources?"

That was a no-brainer. "They'd start mining them all over again." Taylor waved her hand in a half-circle. "Wrecking the environment just as hard as the laws would allow them to. And if it was easier to get and use fossil fuels for power, they'd do that instead of going to clean energy." Reaching up, she tapped the slowly revolving plastic globe. "And if you recycled that for bags and stuff, they'd start tossing them again."

"Despite the fact that I have provided them with an easily-followed plan to create clean energy and bring air and water pollution to near zero, all with their own efforts," Janesha said, sounding more than a little frustrated.

"People do what's easy, not what's right," Taylor reminded her. "That effort they need to put into the plan? Even if their government is backing it, if they don't have a personal vested interest in seeing it succeed, there are people who just won't bother. People who, if they don't get more out of it than everyone else, would rather see it all fail."

Lightning sparked in Janesha's eyes and crackled down her arms. "If you were not here to counsel restraint, I would be strongly tempted to remake their minds to heed My commandments and treat their world more wisely."

"Please don't." Taylor didn't think she would, but it didn't hurt to say it anyway. "There's something that Mom once told me. In situations like this, it's a good idea to remember that the world's population as a whole lacks good education, especially in matters like this. Even today, one in seven people over the age of fifteen don't even know how to read. Also, half the world's population is below average intelligence. And finally, the people with good education are not necessarily the ones with high intelligence. So the fraction of the population that's well-educated enough to make an informed judgement and smart enough to make a good judgement …"

"… is a relatively small number," Janesha concluded. "So I see. Your mother is a wise person. Perhaps I should consult her on how to bring wisdom to the rest of the population before I turn them all into small amphibians for a day out of sheer irritation."

"While that would be hilarious, it's probably not the best idea in the world," Taylor admitted. "Maybe going slow for a bit would be a good idea. There's nearly seven billion people in the world today, and I don't know how many in Aleph and all the others. It takes a while to change that many minds."

Though Janesha was still visibly annoyed, the lightning ceased to crackle over her skin. "Very well. I have already replenished farmlands, all over the world. Minefields in Africa and elsewhere have been cleared. All struggling crops are now flourishing. Cattle and other domestic creatures are fat and healthy. As of last night, every single homeless person has a room to live in and a bed to sleep in. There were defunct businesses that could bring needed services to people, that are now open once more, with previously unemployed people filling the functions they are skilled in. The mechanisms for bringing food to all of those unfed mouths are in place. People merely need take action." She dusted her hands off. "While We wait for them to get around to helping themselves and others, how else do you suggest We improve the quality of life for the mortals of Earth Bet?"

"Crime rate," Taylor said decisively. "There's got to be a lot of people who've committed crimes, gotten away with it, and will do it again, that the cops don't even know about."

"Yes. There are." Janesa crossed her arms. "And as Goddess of All, which includes Justice, that offends Me." She began to glow.

"Wait, what are you going to do?" Taylor asked hurriedly.

"I shall visit Justice upon each and every one of them," Janesha decided, her skin glowing brighter and brighter.

"Wait, how about you turn them over to the local cops instead?" Taylor tried to make her tone as persuasive as possible. "We actually have laws for this sort of thing. They can be arrested and charged and sentenced. Mortal justice for mortal crimes. Save the divine justice for crimes against celestials."

Janesha took a breath, and the glow gradually faded away. "You are correct, of course," she conceded. "I will not waste my time and effort on mere mortal criminals, except when they seek to harm My followers." She frowned. "Though why does your country have a higher proportion of people locked away than any other nation on Earth Bet?"

Taylor shrugged. "That's … not something I know about. I don't get Civics until next semester."

"I can see when Justice is being perverted, and this is happening here." The glow returned, though now it was confined to Janesha's eyes. "There are people confined unjustly all over the world, but none more so than in the United States. Where one person gets a suspended sentence for a crime, another gets five or ten years for the very same crime, because the judge wants to 'teach them a lesson'. Yet the lesson is nearly always 'how to be a better criminal'."

"So what are you going to do about it?" Taylor hoped Janesha wasn't going to just start killing people out of hand. Eidolon had kind of deserved it, but mass slaughter wasn't exactly her thing.

Janesha set her jaw. "Those who have been imprisoned for entirely egregious reasons are being released and reimbursed, by My decree. All sentences for any given crime are being reduced to the minimum given for that precise crime, also by My decree. Those who have already served that time are being released. Government bodies are being advised of corruption within the various justice systems, and being warned that to ignore My commandment is to bring My ire down upon them."

"Whew." Taylor could only imagine the amount of turmoil this was going to cause. "You don't do anything by halves, that's for sure."

"I am the Goddess of this world, petal." Janesha's smile was satisfied. "It is past time that Justice actually meant something."

Taylor couldn't actually argue with that. "I bet Canary's pretty glad of that, too. I wonder how many people have appealed their sentences from the Birdcage so far?"

Janesha's smile turned into a smirk. "Almost half of them. Most will be denied, and rightfully so. Their crimes were heinous. But some will persist, and a few will succeed in being released. Already, there are advocacy groups taking those cases and running with them." She raised her eyebrows. "They've never met these prisoners, but they're trying to see if they can be freed anyway?"

Taylor shrugged. "Some people are willing to make the effort on behalf of other people. For every irritating selfish asshole out there, there's also someone who'll go above and beyond for people they don't even know."

"That is not the ratio as I see it, petal," Janesha said dryly. "There are far more people willing to ignore the pain of others at best, and hurt them for their own ends at worst. Or at least, those are a lot louder than the others."

As she spoke, a blob of metal appeared about two yards to her left. Taylor watched it growing in fits and starts; although its growth slowed as it enlarged, it was gradually swelling. She pointed at it. "Okay, so what's that?"

"Guns, knives and other weapons being used to hurt My followers unjustly," Janesha explained. "And guns that are illegally owned by people who have a specific grudge against My followers. Your country also has a great many of those."

Taylor knew about that part, anyway. "It's called the Second Amendment. You know about the Bill of Rights?"

Janesha paused, very briefly. A flicker of an eyelash later, she nodded. "I do. You mortals should live longer."

That was somewhat of a non-sequitur. Taylor tilted her head. "You're going to have to explain that one to me."

The blob of metal suddenly swelled to several times its size. Janesha nodded at it. "A man just attempted to use his car to run down his wife for leaving him. She prayed to Me. He now has road rash, a broken leg, and no car."

"Okay," Taylor said. "But what about the longer life thing?"

Janesha sighed. "Your Constitution was written by men dead two centuries. Interpreting their exact meaning involves understanding the thoughts and intentions of people from an entirely different era of your society. Speech patterns change. Writing styles change. Values change. Were they to see the result of their writings once set in stone, they would surely lobby to go back and revise their words for more clarity. Whereas if I wish to get a better understanding of what a celestial wrote a million years past, I merely have to ask them."

"I can see that," Taylor said cautiously. "Do mortals often have to ask celestials what a particular passage in their holy book actually means?"

Janesha frowned. "It doesn't work that way, petal. Unfortunately."

"I don't … ah." Light dawned. "If they believe in a specific interpretation, that's what the truth is, yeah?"

"Quite literally, yes." Janesha smirked. "Did I ever tell you about Lord Uriel and the white-goods thing?"

Taylor blinked. "I seem to remember that, yes. Some of your cousins playing a prank, as I recall."

"Exactly. It only worked when he was within five metres of the people who believed in that aspect of him, but while he was there, it applied. Overall, it's majority rule. If a religious war breaks out and the only worshippers left are the ones that hold the view of a fire and brimstone god rather than peace and light, then you better believe there'll be some fire and brimstone going down."

"So what happens when your attunement field finally catches up with the realm and all your other worshippers finally get to interact with you directly?" asked Taylor. "I mean, I see why you were telling us it's better to be attuned first, so you could make sure they knew exactly who you were. We don't want a hundred million worshippers each having a different idea of who and what you are."

"Worry not, petal," Janesha assured her. "I thought of that. In broadcasting the knowledge of My ascension to divinity throughout the world, I passed on to the mortals of this realm your knowledge of Myself. They will come into My glory already knowing the truth."

"Ah, crap." Instead of calming down, Taylor became more worried. "You built that cathedral right next to my house, and I haven't even gone there once to tell your believers about you. You must think I'm a horrible high priestess."

"If I needed you to preach My word, you would be there already," Janesha said with a serene smile. "Those who enter are filled with peace, and see visions of Me when they pray. Once We have brought this realm to rights, you will have time to preach My word, and bring more people into My light. Already, I have cathedrals assembling in cities around the world, where My followers may share in My peace and harmony."

"Well, okay, if you say so." Taylor was pretty sure Janesha wasn't lying to spare her feelings, so she felt a bit better about it. "I saw a lot of people going in and out of Sagun's church, too. That's got to be making him happy."

"It is only his due," Janesha agreed. "He has a ready-made worshipper base, one that he did not even know he was cultivating over the last thirty years."

Taylor sighed. "Yeah." She looked down at the Earth again. "We're really making a difference, aren't we?"

"Well, what sort of a Goddess would I be if We did not?" Janesha's laughter rang clearly in the vacuum of space. "Your world has been crying out for succour for years, and lo! I am here."

"Here you are, indeed." Taylor rubbed her chin. "How about those world leaders? Any more trouble from them?"

"None worth mentioning." Janesha beamed serenely down at the imperceptibly rotating globe. "Each and every one is making full preparations to carry out the plans contained in the books. And to think; it only took one lesson to teach them who held the real power in this realm."

Taylor snorted. "Answer: not them. I'm glad they saw sense. Dad was all sorts of unhappy that we'd pushed matters that hard, but it looked like we were right and he was wrong."

Danny

"So hey, what do you think about the Goddess?" asked Kurt as they passed each other by in the lunch room. "Taylor's her high priestess or something now, isn't she?"

"Yeah, she is." Danny opened his lunchbox. "Not exactly the kind of after-school job I would've expected her to get, but there you have it."

Kurt chuckled. "Ain't that the truth." He took a bite from his bologna sandwich, chewing thoughtfully.

"So what do you think of what she's been doing?" He knew he was cheating slightly as he hadn't actually answered the question, but Kurt was one of his oldest friends, and Danny valued his input.

"Well, it's been impressive, that's for sure." Kurt smirked. "Never seen so many asshole Presidents and Prime Ministers and suchlike with their tails out of joint all at once." He paused to take another bite.

Danny knew Kurt too well to let that lie. "I hear a 'but' coming."

Once Kurt's mouth was empty, he nodded. "Yeah. But." He took a deep breath. "There's a lot of folks, an' a lot of lobby groups, just had their agendas trampled all over. These folks can't do anything against her personally, everyone knows that."

Danny nodded. He was absolutely aware of the rules for setting up a powerbase, and he had no doubt Taylor had leaned on them heavily when she started worshipping Janesha. The Goddess of Earth Bet was guaranteed to be impervious to mortal harm, and to be able to confer the same invulnerability to Taylor.

"Which leaves something stupid," he said quietly.

Kurt nodded. "Yeah, that. Maybe blowing up her cathedral, or attacking her followers. I doubt she could be everywhere at once. People are gonna get hurt, an' probably more again when she finds out an' brings her own personal hammer of pain down on them." He stretched and yawned. "You ask me, she's doin' the right thing, but goin' about it all wrong."

"Yeah, you could be right there."

They are lunch together, talking idly about unrelated matters. The battered radio in the corner burbled a half-heard background counterpoint to their conversation with the occasional snippet of news, none of which made Danny any happier.

When he finished, he nodded to Kurt and headed back to his office. He locked the door and got down on his knees. Closing his eyes, he clasped his hands together.

He had no idea if this was even working, but he had to have faith that it was.

Lord Chance of Mystal, hear my prayer ...

Chance

"Alright, where to now?" Armina gave Chance an irritated look. "You keep saying we're almost there, but I'm not at all certain you know where 'there' is."

"I know we're close by." Chance tried not to let his sister's tone rattle him. "The prayer came from this direction. She's established, so there must be a realm somewhere around here."

"If there is, it's not very large." Armina sniffed. "What was the girl even thinking, to try to start her own realm, much less become established before she's even attuned to it? Is she so terrified of the idea of returning home?"

"I doubt that very much," Chance said. "Besides, Columbine would've said something if Janesha was unhappy. If you ask me, she's just being a bratty teenager doing bratty teenager stuff, with no idea of what can bite her on the butt."

"By the time I'm through with her, she'll wish something had bitten her on the butt," grumbled Armina. "I swear, none of mine ever gave me one tenth as much trouble."

"Liar," Chance laughed. "Or have you forgotten when Barris was caught spying on Columbine and her friends skinny-dipping in the forests outside Pandess? Or when Llyr and Lillith got into a snit over Danika being established as the goddess of the stars? Or when…"

"Oh, will you shut up!"

"Just making a point. Kids will be kids. It's literally in their job description to be immature."

Armina shook her head. "At least this isn't over a boy. As far as we know, anyway."

"No, Yasadan laid it out pretty plainly," Chance reminded her. "She thought it was her familial duty to defend your deeds, and Thor got his furry panties in a wad. She probably just headed out there to cool off before realm-stepping home, then just kept on going because why not? It's what I did at her age."

"Mmm." The noise was more a growl than anything else. She hated the way he flippantly threw remarks like that out, when he was the only one who didn't remember the thrall-withdrawal hell he went through. "I can't fault her for that particular impulse. The execution, though, that's another matter entirely."

"Yeah, well, I bet Thor will be regretting it once Yasadan gets through lambasting him." Chance grinned. "Don't blame her, either. Exiling the kid for something that wasn't even her fault? Where does he-" He cut himself off in mid-sentence, as the words flooded into his mind.

Lord Chance of Mystal, hear my prayer. You are the only one who can help us. Your niece is here, and she has become established. Please, come and save her and my daughter from one another. Lord Chance of Mystal …

"Where does Thor what?" asked Armina.

"Hah!" Chance exclaimed. "Got him!" He swung in the saddle and pointed back the way they'd come, and down slightly. "We overshot by about twenty thousand galaxies."

"You've got to be shitting me." Her complaint notwithstanding, Armina guided Gladiator around to follow Chance on Gambler. "How small is this realm she's hiding in, anyway?"

"Won't matter once we get our asses inside it." He flicked his reins, a visible signal for what he was about to do. "Gambler … step."

Taylor paused, her expression turning suspicious. "What do you mean, none 'worth mentioning'?"

For an answer, Janesha gave an airy flick of her hand. "There may have been intense discussions of a nature intended to be utterly secret, behind closed doors, within secrecy fields, held in a language known only to the speakers … well, and to Me, of course." She removed a glove just so that she could buff perfect nails on her sleeve. "Two of the discussions even removed themselves to another iteration of this world, through portals that I believe are illegal in every way. There was but one topic to the discussion; the removal of Myself as Goddess of this realm. The methods proposed were inventive and varied. Some even believed that cape powers could be used to carry this out."

"Well, that would be impressively futile," Taylor decided. "What did you do?"

"The two groups using portals … well, I shut down the portals. With them on the other side." Janesha's eyes twinkled. "Their reactions when they found out were … amusing. The rest of them found themselves hosting a divine visitation. Each and every one was willing to kill not just Myself but you, Danny and Annette, and the entire city if necessary. I will not stand for that."

Taylor's eyebrows rose. She hadn't known of this at all. "What did you do with them?"

"I will admit, this was a dilemma," the young goddess said. "My power did not cow them, so they could not be intimidated. Neither could I have simply mindbent them to My will; in the absence of Weaving, the emotions behind such a mindset would eventually filter through, leaving us with the same problem in a year or ten. And you dislike killing out of hand, so I could not erase them from existence."

Realising she was being strung along, Taylor gave her a dirty look. "C'mon, don't leave me in suspense like this."

"Very well, if you insist." Janesha rolled her eyes. "I placed them on the moon. There is food and water, and much time to think about how I could have put them somewhere without air. And, in time, when they have taken the time to consider matters, I will ask them if they wish to come home."

"What if they climb out of the bubble?" Taylor asked. "You know some of them are likely to try."

"If they wish to kill themselves, that is of no moment to Me." Janesha's voice was serene, as if they were not discussing human lives, stranded on the moon. "But I will not do it for them."

"And if more decide to take up where those guys left off?" asked Taylor. "Are you going to put them on the moon as well?"

"What would you have Me do, petal?" Janesha spread her hands expressively. "These mortals have performed horrific acts in the past, to be certain, but each and every one was out of loyalty to their home country, and within the laws of that country. Only in planning My downfall have they gone wrong and now that I am forewarned, their worst measures will not so much as scratch My skin. Still, I cannot encourage this behaviour. Surely you agree that exile is more merciful than murder."

"Yes … no … argh!" Taylor ran her hands through her hair, somehow not dislodging the tiara on her forehead. "I'm not good at this sort of problem! No matter what we do, someone gets hurt!"

"And yet, if We do nothing, everyone in this city is at risk," Janesha pointed out. "Hard choices are a fact of life."

"No, no, wait." Taylor blinked as a solution occurred to her. "Mind-bending."

"I already told you, petal, even if I removed all awareness of their need to destroy Me, the emotion would still colour their thoughts." Janesha tilted her head. "Or do you have another solution?"

Taylor spoke thoughtfully, her words speeding up as the idea built on itself. "Well, what if you didn't take anything out? Left their knowledge as it is, but implanted something. The absolute certainty that no matter what they try, they will fail. If you forced them to internalise that knowledge, they'll almost certainly start looking for a way to compromise rather than confront you directly."

"And that will work?" Janesha sounded dubious.

"Well, it should." Taylor shrugged. "We're really good at deluding ourselves, but once we accept the status quo, it's amazing how fast we can adapt to a new way of doing things."

"I suppose," Janesha mused. "But-"

Abruptly, her expression changed. The serenity was overlaid by a taut grimness.

"What?" asked Taylor. "What is it?"

"They're here," whispered Janesha. "In the realm."

"What? Who? Who's here?"

Janesha's voice was distant. Slowly, deliberately, she cracked her knuckles.

"My family."

Danny

"... from one another," murmured Danny. He paused, then took a deep breath. Still nothing. I'll try again tomorrow. Opening his eyes, he reached out for the corner of his desk to help himself to his feet.

"This is the one that's been praying to you?"

He stumbled as the voice cut sharply through the still air of the office. Looking around, he almost fell back to his knees from the sheer surprise of seeing two imposing figures standing in the doorway to the back room on the opposite side to him. Conveniently, about twenty feet away. He'd never seen them before in his life, but he knew who they were.

"Lady Armina!" he gasped, for the black-armoured woman could be none other. "Lord Chance! You came!" The gold-eyed man's uniform was easily recognisable from the pattern of the one that Janesha had worn for most of her stay, while the same rearing-mystallion image was emblazoned on the chest of the heavy plate worn by the woman. At that moment, the relief that poured through him was almost palpable.

He only managed one step toward them before Lady Armina-he was careful to refer to her title even in his thoughts-blurred toward him. Before he could react, he was driven up against the wall of the office, her gauntleted hand gripping the front of his shirt. His feet dangled inches from the floor as she held him there with no apparent effort. Fully aware of how strong celestials were from Janesha's example, he didn't even try to struggle. Fortunately, though her clenched fist was pressed against his throat, the durability of his body ensured that he was still able to breathe.

"Where is Janesha?" demanded Lady Armina, her black eyes boring into his. "And … why can't I read you?" She half-turned her head toward her brother, though Danny was fully aware she kept most of her attention on him. "Are you sure he's not a celest? I can't even detect his mind! And most mortals would have a broken bone or two by now."

Trying not to make it seem like a hostile move-even as tough as Janesha had made him, that would not help him against one of those enormous swords, he was sure-Danny held up his right hand and waggled it so she could see. Then he reached carefully across with his left and pulled the seclusion ring off.

A moment later, he'd been dropped to the floor and the ring plucked from his grasp. Armina glared at the simple gold band, while keeping one heavy armoured hand on his shoulder. "What are you doing with a seclusion ring, mortal?" she demanded. "Where did you get it from?"

"We both know you already have the answers you seek from me, Lady Armina," he replied respectfully. Any thought of resentment at being treated so roughly was thoroughly tamped down as he reminded himself that these beings kicked planets into suns if they so wished. "She took it from another celestial, who tried to kill her, and gave it to me."

"And he's got no idea who these other celestials were, aside from the fact that they were here long before Janesha arrived … oh, and they were opposing the other celestial in this realm, from behind the scenes." Lord Chance said, proving Lady Armina wasn't the only one rifling through his memories. He held out his hand, but still stayed outside the room. "Let me see it."

Without looking, Lady Armina flipped the ring back over her shoulder, where Lord Chance deftly caught it out of the air. "Well?" she asked, over her shoulder.

Knowing he was being intentionally ignored, Danny still wanted to be heard. "Please. Janesha and Taylor don't see how badly what they're doing can go wrong, and they're not listening to anyone. Your niece needs an adult in the room who can put their foot down and make her listen, and that's not me."

His words may have fallen on deaf ears for all the reaction he got. Lady Armina maintained her grip on him and her attention on her little brother. "Well?"

The Mystallian God of Luck examined the ring so closely, Danny wouldn't have been surprised if he could make out the molecular structure. "It's not one of Strahan's," he said eventually. "I don't know where this is from, but he didn't make it." He looked up and his eyes met Lady Armina's. "Which means there's another magic-capable celest out there somewhere."

Armina

The look in Chance's eyes said that he wanted to confer in private, so she nailed the mortal with a command to stand still and not move or speak. Then she crossed the room to where Chance stood and reached out for her brother's hand.

As before, they reconvened in Chance's mind. In the space in front of them was the anomalous seclusion ring spinning gently in midair, and the layout of Danny's memories as they pertained to Janesha. Armina had only glanced at them, but it was clear that Chance had gone over them in much more detail.

"What do you mean, another magic-capable celest?" She folded her arms and looked closely at the ring. It looked just like every other seclusion ring to her, save the ones her nephew had made to special order.

Chance sighed. "You saw. There were hostile celests here, in this realm, when Janesha arrived. I don't know if any of them were the mage, but on balance I'm thinking not. For some reason, they came after Janesha and Taylor without even trying to talk first. I can't believe how many times Janesha nearly got herself killed since she got here! I mean, did you see that talot?"

"What talot?" Armina hadn't done a deep-dive into Danny's memories, because what happened a week or two ago was irrelevant to her. She went in to get what she needed. Where Janesha was now and how the little twit had managed to get herself established so that they could 'un'-establish her.

"This one," Chance said, and replayed the memory of Janesha's crash landing from Danny's point of view.

Armina scowled. "Yeah, right. I doubt this pitiful mudball has got anything that'll surprise me … well, fuck." She stared at the unfolding drama of a mortal taking on a talot with nothing more than a metal bar to protect Janesha. Mystal's quintessential warrior, she may have been, undefeated in battle, but she also knew when to back off. "Okay, perhaps I was wrong. Are you sure he's a mortal? He's a lot tougher than I remember them being, and facing off against even a baby talot requires a certain amount of balls."

"For the first part, that's Janesha's doing." Chance isolated the part of Danny's memory that showed the teenage celestial powering up first Taylor and then Danny. "As for the second part … well, that's all him. He had to have known it was capable of ripping him to shreds, but he stood up to it anyway." He dusted his hands off. "Anyway, you know this means we owe him for saving her life. When was the last time you heard of a mortal doing that for a celestial?"

Armina grimaced, aware that once more her smartass little brother was correct. Mystal was a proud pantheon and as stiff-necked as they came, but they understood honour and obligation as well as anyone. If a member of another pantheon had saved Janesha's life, they would have of course been grateful and treated the fellow celestial as an honoured guest. For a mortal to earn the same level of gratitude … it had been a long, long time since that had happened.

Deciding to shelve the question until she had all the information, she turned back to the memories. "What about these other celestials? Where do they come in?"

Rubbing his chin, Chance frowned. "From context, it looks like there were two other factions in this realm when Janesha dropped into the middle of it. One was this Lord Scion, the god of superheroes." He smirked when he said the word.

"Really?" Armina shook her head in disgust. "Here we are, looking for one of our own who just happens to have become established, and you're getting amused at what another god does as a hobby."

Chance rolled his eyes. "It was actually quite helpful in the beginning. Janesha managed to avoid being worshipped by anyone else simply by going around in her uniform and letting people assume it was her 'costume'." He cleared his throat, then continued. "Anyway. Lord Scion doesn't seem to have been aligned with this other bunch, who were very much behind the scenes. The girl told her father about it after the fact, but she left out a lot of details. All we really know is that after she became established, Janesha killed two of them but the third got away. That one hasn't shown up since, probably because he knows not to invade the realm of a full-blown goddess. I'll say one thing about the mortal girl, she didn't mess around when it came to giving Janesha her powerbase. She went the whole hog, with extra courses on the side."

They didn't need the conference space anymore, so Armina dropped them out of it. "Well, it won't matter," she said, folding her arms. "Janesha's not attuned yet, or anywhere near it. All we have to do is separate her from the mortal girl, mind-bend her not to worship my granddaughter anymore, and bloodlink straight back to Mystal."

Chance blinked. "One … ah, two problems with that."

Armina gritted her teeth. "What. Problems?"

"First …" Chance drew a deep breath. "She started a church. People are going into it and worshipping her."

"Not necessarily a deal-breaker." So long as the new worshippers weren't inside establishment range, they couldn't influence Janesha. And she knew of various ways one could get rid of inconvenient followers. Mortals were easy to kill. "What's the second problem?"

Chance pointed and Armina turned, staring at the empty spot that had previously held one mind-bent Danny Hebert. "He's gone."

End of Part Twenty-Six