A/N: Things start to make a lot more sense now.

  Even if Sophia wishes with all her heart that it wasn't so.

  -x-X-x-

  Misfortune and Folly.

  Her Uncle's final words hang in the air even as Sophia stands absolutely still. She wishes she could call him a liar. She wishes she could cim he's trying to deceive her as he's been deceiving them for weeks now. Unfortunately… there's no denying it.

  The God of Tyranny's st 'attack' hadn't been directed at Sophia so much as it'd been directed at the divine bindings that she hadn't even known were there. But then how could she have known? All her life, all these hundreds of years that she's existed… it turns out she's been living a lie. She was never a Goddess of Wisdom or Equity. That was simply what her father's weaving enforced, to hide his hypocrisy from everyone else.

  "You see now. As I said before, my brother's magic should have unraveled ages ago but here we are. Still, I suspect if you look back you'll see the signs. Misfortune and Folly are powerful domains… when used against one's enemies."

  Sophia flinches hard at that, finding herself reliving so many moments since her father's death the day the Heavens fell. She'd run because she had no choice and she kept running because it was either that or be killed. But there isn't much to be said about the power of Wisdom and Equity in a situation where you're fleeing from your life from bloodthirsty pursuers.

  Looking back, Sophia wonders if she might have unconsciously influenced them into foolish mistakes that let her keep ahead of them. And… what she'd thought were very conscious uses of her divine power in the form of her Equity Domain could be likened to serious cases of misfortune instead. Indeed, Sophia had told herself that it was only fair her hunters have a harder time when they were several men chasing one single goddess.

  … But was that really equity? No. She'd been continuing the lie. The one she'd fooled the most… was her.

  Likewise, looking back at the encounter with Gentleman Grays in Amberwell makes it clear that her falsified domains had pyed no part there either. Rather, she'd simply pushed a bit of folly onto the crowded bar in the form of befuddlement that had sted long enough to allow them to get away for a time.

  And Elric Steelwater… the man was a dead man walking without her 'help', but there was no denying that Sophia had felt nothing but negative feelings towards him when he'd held that bde of celestial metal to her neck. In hindsight, the bounce that Oren had managed with his sword had been a truly special thing… perhaps a little too special. Perhaps Sophia had been unconsciously pushing some Misfortune in Lieutenant Steelwater's direction…

  Commander Hogarth is another obvious example in hindsight. His overconfidence had proven to be his undoing. What sort of man rises to the rank of Commander without questioning how someone like Oren could have captured a goddess like Sophia? How did he not have an ounce of survival instincts when he was effectively trying to browbeat Oren into submission. It smacked quite heavily… of influenced Folly, didn't it?

  Even Aureo… oh. Sophia's eyes widen as she realizes Aureo had known by the end. After all, it was against Aureo that Sophia had used her divine power the most. Throwing as much of it as she dared without drawing his attention until the very end. But then at the very end Aureo had looked at her… and he'd seen something. He'd seen what Sophia herself had been unwilling and unable to see.

  "… This… this isn't fairness, you dumb bitch. You're not bancing the scales. You're-!"

  The River God's final words ring through Sophia's head as she stands there, frozen in pce. Law's weaving must have been paper thin by that point with how much Sophia was using her divinity to influence the battle. Aureo had seen right through it. He'd been about to tell her at the end there. He'd been about to reveal the truth to her, even while in the throes of madness and rage stoked by Tyranos. However, before he could do so, she and Oren had killed him.

  Her Uncle is right. Looking back, it's so obvious now. Each time she'd thought she was drawing on her domain of Equity, she'd instead been using Misfortune to imbance things in her and Oren's favor. And far from being some sort of Goddess of Wisdom, she'd instead been unconsciously pushing the essence of Folly itself onto her enemies, making them make unwise and foolish decisions time and time again.

  "It would seem Law finally found something he loved more than his control."

  Sophia flinches, looking up to see Tyranos staring at her bemusedly. After a moment, the Ancient God shakes his head.

  "… But even you could not make him change his ways. In the end, he tried to force a compromise. He tried to make you something you were not so that he wouldn't have to kill you. And that… killed him."

  That sends a jolt through her as she's reminded of the point Tyranos had been making before this reveal. The King of the Void had cimed Oren was never supposed to be able to kill her father. He'd only been supposed to weaken him. And yet, Oren had managed to murder the King of the Heavens… because Law had weakened himself beforehand.

  "A deity's domains are sacrosanct. What Law did… oh, if only he was here so I could ugh in his face now. My brother committing a worst crime than anything he could ever accuse me of… and against his own daughter at that! For a God of Justice and Righteousness, it would have been like pcing razors under his fingernails before stabbing a dagger into his chest and leaving it there for good measure. Every day you lived, every day he betrayed everything he ever cimed to stand for, it was killing him."

  Tyranos scoffs and gestures past Sophia, causing her to gnce back and see Oren on his knees. He's not having trouble breathing at the moment at least.

  "And thus this insect was able to kill him. Shameful. Truly shameful. If only he'd listened to me. If only he'd stopped for just a second."

  Blinking, Sophia furrows her brow.

  "What… what do you mean?"

  Smiling, Tyranos shrugs.

  "My brother and I… we fell out because we had differing opinions on how to govern all of Creation. After we finally rose up and put an end to the Otherworlders, the whole of the universe was our oyster. It wasn't separated back then. The Heavens were a distant twinkle in Law's eye and the Void was somewhere that nobody sane would ever go, lest they wind up trapped there for all eternity."

  The Ancient God scoffs.

  "The so-called 'mortal' pnes were home to everyone. Deities and mortals alike. And we were in charge. The two of us along with all of those who fought beside us to wipe the ste clean, kill the Otherworlders who were already here, and destroy any knowledge on how to summon more of them. But Law has always loved his edicts. His commandments. His rules."

  The way Tyranos says 'rules' makes it clear exactly what he thinks of his brother's ws. He sneers it out, rolling his eyes in disgust.

  "I didn't mind some of them at first, especially early on. I certainly didn't think I would ever want or need to summon an Otherworlder at the time, and after the damage they did to Creation, it made sense to come down hard on anyone who did try. And the other early ones… well, it made sense. There was no reason to squabble amongst ourselves when we had all of Creation and so very many mortals to py with."

  Tyranos gets a distant look in his eyes for a moment that makes it clear he's reminiscing. But Sophia doesn't make a move. She knows better at this point, knows that anything she could try would just end in her and Oren's deaths.

  "… And then the fool went and decided all of his commandments, edicts, and rules would apply to all of us gods and goddesses as well. Not just the mortal insects scrambling in the dirt just to survive. No, he wanted to police us all. He wanted to control us. He wanted to judge ME."

  This is clearly a pain point for the Ancient God because as Tyranos snarls out that st word, the cave shakes for a moment with his poorly restrained rage. His face contorts into something truly nasty and vile and it's obvious he's not happy about whatever he's remembering.

  Sophia takes a step back, but just as soon as the quaking starts, it ends and Tyranos is back to normal, like it never happened. For a given value of 'normal' anyways… her uncle is still oozing malevolence just as he's been doing since he shed his guise as God of Travelers and Roads and revealed his true nature.

  "I tried, Sophia. Oh how I tried. But your father just couldn't share. We were supposed to rule together. I won't deny my domains are what they are. But your father tempered me once upon a time. Until he betrayed me. Until he chose his pathetic mortal followers over me, his own brother."

  Tyranos hums for a moment before shaking his head.

  "He had to die. Him and all those who helped him imprison me and my followers in the Void for all these millennia. There was no other way. Even if we'd broken free, it would have just been the schism all over again. Gods fighting gods, all across Creation. No, things had to be done more delicately than that."

  Sophia chokes on her own spit at that and for the first time in a while, finds her voice.

  "Y-You call this delicate?!"

  A fsh of irritation appears on Tyranos' face before he just smiles at her condescendingly.

  "Darling niece… yes. This is about as delicate as it gets. I haven't wiped out the mortals altogether, have I? In fact, I've given them purpose. I learned something from st time… I learned how to use my brother's beloved pythings for my own purposes. A healthy dose of Tyranny here, a stoking of the burning embers of Conquest there… and the God Hunters were born. With the right support, they've carved a swathe through the gods and goddesses of the Mortal Pnes all without knowing who they truly serve. It's glorious."

  Sophia swallows hard at her uncle's excitement.

  "B-But why? Why go this far? You already had Oren kill everyone in the Heavens. Weren't they who stood against you in the schism? What did the gods of the Mortal Pnes have to do with any of it?"

  For a long moment Tyranos just stares at her. And then, almost bnk in his delivery, he answers the question.

  "Nothing. And that, my niece, was all they had to do. Powerful Gods of Oceans, of Mountains, of the Sky itself. And what did they do when the schism started? They sat back and watched. They did nothing as Law enforced his own special tyranny upon all of us. They didn't fight back, they didn't stand up. They let it happen, they accepted his rule, and they allowed him to throw me into the Void. For that… they deserve to die. Every st one of them."

  A horrified shiver runs down Sophia's spine, even as her uncle smiles again.

  "But that fate needn't befall you."

  Wait, what?

  "I won't lie to you, Sophia. You've been lied to enough all your life. If you had died in the Heavens or been killed by Raythe or the God Hunters at any point before now… I would not have shed a tear."

  Wow. Sophia wasn't even sure how to respond to that. Thankfully, she doesn't have to.

  "Still, there is a pce for you now in the future that I'm building. You're too young to have wronged me and mine. And truthfully, having learned what Law did to you… you were as much a victim of his excesses as I was… as any of us in the Void were."

  Was he… was he seriously trying to recruit her? After everything he'd done? After everything he'd said? Did he really think she would join him? Just like that?

  "I can see the incredulity in your eyes dear niece, but think about it. Really think about it beyond just your anger at me. You are a Goddess of Misfortune and Folly. If you'd been born thousands of years ago to any other god or goddess besides your father, you would have wound up in the Void with the rest of us. If you'd been born at any point in the thousands of years since to any other deity besides Law, you would be dead."

  … He wasn't wrong about that, she had to admit. The only reason Sophia had been allowed to live was because Law couldn't bring himself to kill her. And yet, that hadn't stopped him from binding her, from limiting her with divine shackles that suppressed her true nature and repced it with falsehoods.

  "I'll even throw in a little something extra. Join me and I'll let you be the one to kill the Otherworlder."

  … What? Sophia blinks, pulled out of her thoughts as she looks back at Oren. The Otherworlder looks exhausted. There's been no conventional fight, but even still, he's been beaten down by Tyranos' mere presence at this point.

  The Ancient God in question chuckles darkly as she looks to Oren.

  "It must be done, I'm afraid. Mortals are fun enough to toy with and subjugate, but an Otherworlder? No, he's far too much of a threat to let live. He's not leaving this cave alive Sophia, but considering all the harm he did to you, I thought you might like to do the deed before we depart. Cut him down with this and we can get going."

  Sophia turns back around to see that Tyranos has picked up the Celestial Dagger and is holding it out to her, handle first. Swallowing thickly again, she stares at the handle for a long moment before taking a step forward… and pulling it free from his grip.

  Tyranos' grin grows wider and wider as Sophia looks down at the bde.

  "… A-Alright."

  Then, she turns and begins walking towards Oren, dagger in hand.

  -x-X-x-

  A/N: Oh noooo. Sophia has fallen to the dark side and is totes going to kill Oren…

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