Ren

  It took me a moment to register where I was. It had been a few days since I was there and our visit was very brief. Still, the presence of the blonde elf in spectacles reading a book was confirmation enough.

  ‘Hi, Telly,’ I said.

  Zi-Lind jumped and turned towards me.

  ‘Oh,’ she said and corrected her glasses as they got misaligned when I startled her. ‘You are awake. That's a relief.’

  ‘Why? What happened? The last thing I remember is… is…’

  Come to think of it… there was the altar room and… something happened there.

  ‘Probably not much,’ Telly finished for me. ‘Some of it may come back at some point, but it probably won’t be a lot. Ere will explain soon.’

  That reminded me where I was.

  ‘Am… Am I dead?’ I asked, a deep cold pit in my stomach.

  Telly shook her head.

  ‘No. Don’t worry. As I understand, this will be something you won’t need to worry all that much in general, but…’

  ‘Ereshkigal will explain.’

  The elf nodded.

  ‘Don’t take this the wrong way, Rennie. I am not keeping you in the dark on purpose. This stuff is so above my paygrade, I don’t understand enough to even begin to speculate.’

  ‘No worries,’ I smiled at her. ‘Can’t expect a goddess to keep you in the loop about everything.’

  Telly laughed.

  ‘True enough.’

  ‘Can you tell me at least how Caei and the rest are?’

  ‘Alive, best I can tell,’ she shrugged. ‘At least they haven't popped up here yet.’

  'Thank the gods,' I sighed in relief.

  ‘Based on how agitated Ere was, they did cause quite a mess which she is trying to clean up now.’

  ‘You have no idea, Telly,’ I suddenly heard the goddess groan.

  I looked around and saw the goddess of Death standing at the entrance of the room, looking absolutely spent.

  ‘Though, for once, the literal divine mess was none of Lilyth's doing, Ren,’ she continued. ‘Walk with me, please. You too, Telly.’

  Zi-Lind looked at Ereshkigal in surprise.

  ‘You are also involved, if indirectly. So I think you also deserve to know.’

  Teliar helped me to my feet and we followed the goddess out of the clinic. She led us into the forest and found a neat large stump all the three of us could sit on cross-legged.

  ‘So… you see… a certain someone, who shan’t be named, decided to use the four of you to solve a very old problem and…’ she began once we were all comfortable, and explained what happened in the chamber.

  ‘So there you have it,’ Ereshkigal finished. ‘Don’t worry. Your soul is fine now, I checked. Better than fine even.’

  ‘Yeah… about that…’ I began confused, trying to wrap my head around the story. ‘What happens to me now… like am I… still mortal?’

  ‘No,’ Ereshkigal shook her head. ‘You aren’t a god either. The best way to describe you would be quasi-divine? So are technically Lilyth and Caeileera, but they don’t know it and they have far less… god stuff in them than you do.’

  ‘Aren’t you supposed to keep that stuff a secret?’ I asked.

  ‘Before mortals, yes. Telly here is bound to secrecy as you all will be once you end up in my service, while you well… are… one of us now. After a fashion. At least, enough to let you in on some things you are going to start noticing anyway, though be sure not to repeat anything you learn here to anyone. Plus… you will need to be trained.’

  ‘Trained?’

  ‘You have gotten access to powers no mortal should. So… someone needs to make sure you will not accidentally cause too much damage with those. This will fall on me and Nyx. But first, you need to know something. As you can imagine, cases like yours do not occur often. This has happened a few times before and we tend to review those cases individually. As usual, there were three camps: one calling for your destruction, one for keeping you as is and one for completing your apotheosis. Only The Blood spoke against you, probably as a fuck you to Caeileera.’

  ‘Why?’ I furrowed my brow. ‘Not that I mind, but in my previous line of work we tended to look down on competition.’

  ‘It’s complicated. Tutoring you in Divine Politics will take time, but the simple version is: You didn't choose this and the Prism's powers, yours now, are too useful to let them just fade away. Due to this, the decision was made to for now teach you how to use them, which will likely take decades, and we’ll figure out whether to fully make you one of us later.

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  That shocked me.

  I can become a goddess.

  Then a second thought came.

  Do I want to though? That would mean… abandoning the girls.

  ‘I can no longer read your thoughts, but I can still tell what you are thinking,’ Ereshkigal laughed. ‘If you decide to undergo full apotheosis you can still live here for all I care. I can use all the help I can get. And if you don't, the deals you have made with Nyx and me still stand, so if you die… your shapely bird ass is still mine.’

  She winked at me.

  Is she flirting with me?

  ‘Excuse me, Ere,’ Zi-Lind spoke up. ‘But why am I here? You could have explained this to me separately.

  ‘I could have, yes. But the thing is, Telly, you and Ren are about to become the best of friends.’

  Ere explained to me that since I could be spending a lot of time in her realm, I would need some company and something to occupy me, which would be helping Telly around the clinic.

  ‘I definitely will appreciate an extra pair of hands, ‘Zi-Lind agreed. ‘Even if it is just to bring me things I need.’

  ‘I imagined you would,’ Ereshkigal beamed. ‘And in return, you will work as an exhibit whenever I will be training Ren’s senses. Don’t worry. I won’t be teaching her to read your mind or anything. Just that… Ren using [Divine Sight] or similar abilities on me would likely drive her mad.’

  ‘[Divine Sight]?’ I asked.

  ‘Something you are not ready to use yet. And that you will need to experience to understand. That being said… try to investigate Teliar like you would an item.’

  ‘You okay with that, Telly?’ I asked.

  ‘Now, I am,’ she smiled. ‘I was afraid you would just do it.’

  ‘That would be wrong,’ I shook my head and shuddered.

  I couldn't imagine someone doing that to me. It made me feel… naked.

  ‘Ah,’ Ereshkigal said. ‘So you do get it. The kind of responsibility you now have.’

  ‘How… how… Do you do it?’ I asked. ‘I mean… do you…’

  ‘We try not to,’ Ereshkigal said with a sad smile. ‘You don’t have to worry about being able to read people’s minds. That's not really an ability most gods have.’

  ‘The Prism could use mind control on me,’ I pointed out.

  Ereshkigal cocked her head at that.

  ‘Maybe the Prism developed some new skills while in hiding. Interesting.’

  ‘I am shocked you didn't know that,’ I said, remembering that she was able to read my mind before.

  ‘I read souls, not minds,’ she answered my thoughts, making me wonder whether she was bullshitting me.’ And yours is now outside of my reach. I have a similar problem with Caeileera, though to a slightly lesser extent.’

  Ereshkigal didn't elaborate further and I didn't press her for details.

  My thoughts went back to the training. I looked at Telly. She definitely looked displeased about the perspective, despite her stated approval. I took the air in and let it out. Something inside of me was screaming against doing that to the elf.

  ‘Will you be mad at me if I decide against testing that ability?’ I asked after a few more moments of uncertainty.

  Ereshkigal only smiled.

  ‘Why would I? It is a difficult thing to ask and if anything, your refusal shows me that I cast my vote correctly.’

  ‘And how did you vote?’ I asked.

  Ereshkigal looked at her left wrist and said:

  ‘Would you look at the time!’

  Before I could protest, she snapped her fingers and I woke up in a dark room. It took me a moment to register it, but I could now see the entirety of it, despite my [Darksight] being vestigial before that.

  Godhood seems to have its perks.

  I looked around and saw that this was the room the altar chamber I found was the exact copy of. That meant that whatever I was lying on must have been the central block.

  Lilyth was sitting next to me reading a book I’ve seen her with on the trail. It was one of the detective novels from our library.

  She must have heard me stirring as she turned towards me and softly whispered:

  ‘You’re awake.’

  I nodded.

  ‘How are you?’

  ‘I’ve been better, but otherwise I am okay.’

  Lilyth let out a relieved sigh.

  ‘You have no idea how happy am I to hear that, Rennie.’

  ‘Where are the others?’ I asked, not seeing them anywhere.

  Lilyth pointed to the far corner of the room where Aki and Caei were cuddled together fast asleep.

  ‘How long have I been out?’

  ‘Around three hours. We’ve been taking watches next to you, but then they fell asleep and I didn't have the heart to wake them up.’

  ‘I can see why. They look so peaceful.’

  I could have sworn Lilyth slightly furrowed her brows at that, but it could have been an illusion.

  ‘It’s been a long day for all of us,’ she agreed instead.

  ‘Didn’t you want to join them? I would have woken all three of them up.’

  ‘Just in case,’ she said softly. ‘I got some vague message from Nyxie that all was fine with you, but one will always worry.’

  I guess that is true.

  Then my gaze fell upon the book Lilyth was reading, and I realised that there must have been more to it. She must have noticed where I was looking so she simply said:

  ‘I wasn’t always like this. I was very aloof and not that fond of closeness. Sometimes I miss it. Those were much simpler days with a certain peace to them, so I’ll happily take any chance I can get to be… my old self.’

  ‘Sitting alone and reading?’

  ‘Or playing video games, playing with my cat or just watching some show or funny videos.’

  I vaguely understood what Lilyth was talking about based on her tales.

  ‘There are also the nightmares…’ she whispered. ‘They were bad enough without… without… today. And now… that we are in this hellhole…’

  So this IS the Tower of Trials.

  I sat up and took her hand in mine.

  ‘Don’t worry. We’ll protect you from them.’

  ‘Thank you,’ she sighed. ‘But enough about me. How are you actually holding up, Rennie? I can’t help but notice that since you’ve been hit by the Met-Lilyth Curse, you have, in a very short time, lost the woman you loved, as well as your brother and father. Almost got killed by a god too. This can’t be easy on you.’

  That question hit me hard. Over the years I got so good at bottling up the emotions I was doing it unconsciously. The presence of Caei did salve some of the wounds that Leera’s … disappearance caused… but… being forced to answer that question… forced me to confront the fact that in less than two weeks I have lost almost every single person that mattered to me. So before I could say anything I could feel tears flowing down unbidden from my eyes.

  ‘I miss them sooo much,’ I cried.

  Lilyth said nothing. She simply wrapped her hands around me and started gently rocking me until I calmed down. I did my best to quiet down my sobs but didn't do a good enough job, and soon Aki and Caei joined us.