The camper rumbled as we drove out of the marshes and back onto solid ground. I sat in the passenger seat as Panda dutifully steered us onto the dirt track.

  “Now we’re out of the wetlands we’ll have to clean her,” he said, reaching out of the driver’s side window and patting the vehicle lovingly.

  “Somehow I doubt there will be a car wash in High Rock,” I replied.

  “We could tie Rex to a stick and use him as a sponge?”

  “What if,” Bell said, appearing from behind us, “we get Azzy to bite a water mage, then he can fly over the camper and spray it down with the absorbed power.”

  “That could work,” I replied, “if only we could find a willing participant…”

  “Who said anything about willing?” She smiled devilishly.

  We drove along the dirt road for some time, carrying on in the same manner. Tall trees surrounded us and the muggy air eventually changed to a brisk, winter breeze.

  The road was desolate. Despite having driven all day we hadn’t come across another living soul. It was exactly the kind of peace I’d been craving after our hectic adventure in Boggy Marsh.

  Back in the town we’d handed in two quests getting rid of our hog-tied bandit and killing the Shogun. I was beginning to feel financially secure once again with the quest payments brining my personal total coinage up to 15,100 gold pieces.

  It was by no means enough to claim wealth, but at least we weren’t going to go hungry anytime soon. Economics on the continent differed vastly to that of Havar. Money didn’t go as far, but luxury items were more reasonably priced.

  Adventuring gear was much more affordable, though still pretty pricey, but general items such as food, water and potions were vastly more expensive than they had been in the socialist city state.

  In fact, I didn’t have any potions left at all.

  I’d hoped to stock up on them at Boggy Marsh but the hamlet was so desolate and isolated that it didn’t even have a general store. The people there were almost completely self-sufficient and apparently they bought their potions from High Rock or the travelling traders which occasionally passed through.

  After a long day of sitting in the passenger seat talking about nothing in particular and meditating the day away, I’d retired to the lounge area for a strong drink.

  Rex joined me after he was done cleaning the kitchen and for a while we sat in silence as the camper continued to trundle along in the semi darkness. Until I broke that silence.

  “Have you ever been to High Rock before?”

  “No,” he replied gruffly, “it’s a human settlement.”

  “What’s your problem with them?” I asked, “you said your people had a past with humans before.”

  “I did, and then I found out that you’re an outworlder, and the mage accosted me,” he chuckled. “It’s so strange to be talking to someone knows nothing of the slow slaughter.”

  “Slow slaughter?”

  “Yes, though it’s more commonly referred to as the lycanid tragedy of Athenile 506. It happened hundreds of years ago during the height of the empire. Back then there were a lot more of us, lycanids that is, and we were a noble people. Rulers of the continent, a warrior class. We slew monsters, protected the innocent and most of all we were respected.”

  “What happened?” I asked, taking a deep swig of my drink. It burned my throat, but in a nice way.

  “Humans happened,” he growled, closing his eyes and leaning forward. “What they lack in raw strength and honour they make up for in ingenious cruelty. They came from the whale road, invading our land and staking claim to it. They saw us as inferior, demi humans, they even referred to us as monsters in some instances. But the lycanid people were honourable folk and if we were to wage war we did it with the axe, we faced our foes head on.

  “The humans were not like that.” He sighed deeply and reached across the table snatching my bottle and downing a skinful. “They wormed their way into our society with silver tongues and gifts. They knew they could not beat us with honour, so they stabbed us in the back. A powerful Jade Soul named Achlys gifted our empress a potion. He told her it was his own creation, a virility tonic which would help her to sire stronger, larger offspring.

  “In drinking it she doomed our people to a life of servitude and mercenary work. In those days the empress bedded frequently, she chose from the best warriors, a reverse harem of all the finest and most prestigious blood lines. It took years before the effects were made apparent: a sterility poison, a contagious one, was passed through all of the noble lycanid houses.

  “It took less than a decade for Achlys’ deceit to decimate the empire. An empire which had lasted for centuries. Now my entire race has been reduced to little more than glorified guards and mercenaries. Nearly all of us are infected.”

  I took another drink as I considered his story. The room felt cold as I watched his large eyes staring wistfully into the bottom of the bottle.

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  “What happened to Achlys?”

  “He became a god,” Rex spat, “to this day he remains a member of Athena’s pantheon. Though he goes by another name now… Diako.”

  “He’s a sneaky one, kid,” Panda said from his place in the driver’s seat. “Not much is written about him but I heard he runs a cabal of assassins. He’s sometimes called The Shadow Puppeteer because it’s said that he has a hand in almost all the political ongoings of Celestia. Bit of a portentous moniker if you ask me though.”

  “So let me get this straight,” I said, tapping my chin as I tried to make sense of it all. “Lycanids ruled the continent until some dude came along and tricked their empress into drinking a sterility potion. She slept with all the best fighters and it spread and now the potion’s maker is a god and lycanids can’t have kids. Did I get that right?”

  “Pretty much,” Rex nodded.

  “How could sterilising one woman make an entire population infertile?” I asked, “and why would anyone do that in the first place?”

  “Is it not obvious?” Rex snarled, “Achlys wanted humans to rule the continent. He saw lycanids as vermin and proceeded to enact his form of pest control. Power. He wanted power.

  “And as for how the virus spread so easily well… that is the fault of our ancient culture in part.” He relented, sighing deeply as his ear twitched. “By our very nature, lycanids do not sire many females. It is not known why, but it has been said that less than one in one thousand pups are females.

  “That is why we have always been a matriarchy; females are so rare in our society that they are treated as divine. The empress’ main role was to sire as many litters as she could from the strongest suitors with the most superior genes. Those same suitors were expected to sire litters as often as possible with other females as well, to keep our civilisation from crumbling.

  “In enacting their duties, they unwittingly sterilised most of the population. Now, after hundreds of years, there aren’t that many lycanids left. My mother is one of the few birthing females alive today. There are only three that I know of, in fact. It is highly likely that any other lycanid you meet is a brother of mine, not that I know many of them.”

  “But I’ve met female lycanids before…” I began.

  “You have met the infertile. Just like me. They have no further purpose to serve. Like me, they have no home, no future, no chance at family. What else are we to do if not fight? What else is there?”

  Hanging my head, I chose not to reply. His story hit me hard, considering my goals were heavily based around my longing to reunite with my own family, I felt for him.

  I wasn’t sure I agreed with how his people’s customs functioned, but I saw little point in pressing that issue when his entire culture was based on mercenary and guarding work in the modern era.

  Diako, I thought. I feel like I’ve heard that name before. Why does it feel so familiar?

  “Tell me more about Athena’s pantheon,” I asked darkly.

  “It is not my area of expertise,” Rex said solemnly. “…I think I’ll retire for the evening. My head hurts.”

  “Ok,” I said, “thanks for telling me about… everything. It can’t have been easy.”

  “There’s no need to thank me,” he said, a sad smile on his lips. “I’m just glad to see your confusion at Achlys treachery. Perhaps not all humans are bad people.”

  “They’re not,” I replied, “but I’m an outworlder, remember.”

  “That you are.”

  He reached out towards me and I grasped his meaty, fur-covered forearm in a warriors shake. Then he went to bed.

  “I can tell you a bit about the pantheon if you like, kid?” Panda said and, grabbing my drink, I returned to the passenger seat. “I could use the company anyway; it’s going to be a long night if I have to drive on my own.”

  “It’s a good job I don’t need to sleep then,” I smiled.

  “Indeed. So, the pantheon. Well basically a long time ago Athena was the first mortal to ascend and become a god. For hundreds of years she was the only god in Celestia, that’s why the calendar was named after her.

  “Other gods have created their own versions since, but few use them. If you ask me they’re just jealous because Athena got there first. She was the original and they’re all trying to live up to her name. But I digress, eventually, back in the old times, other mortals began to work out how to ascend themselves and that’s how we got the pantheon.

  “Of course they guard those secrets like a dragon guards its treasure, but that’s beside the point. There aren’t many gods, nor is there a god for every creed like that there was in your world. Currently there are seven, including Athena. Chrysus, who you met briefly and, Diako, who we just spoke about, are some of the bigger names in these parts. However, the other four are still pretty big fish. There’s Baccus, the god of wine and ale. He’s the fighting type, a lot of mercenaries wear his pendant. Then there’s Phonoi, god of murder. She’s a bit of an odd one as it’s considered taboo to worship her on the continent, obviously.”

  “If she’s the god of murder then why isn’t she running the assassin’s guild instead of Diako?” I asked.

  “How should I know?” He replied, flapping his paws, “and it’s not an assassin’s guild, it’s more like an underground cabal. They call it The Organisation, it’s all very ominous and secretive.”

  “Then what kind of cult does she run?”

  “She doesn’t. Chrysus’ people are called the cult anyway, but Phonoi’s people are more individual. Serial killers and their ilk. I don’t think they have a club.”

  “I can’t believe there’s a god of serial killers, that’s so messed up,” I said.

  “Well, as you might come to realise if you listened to my explanation rather than interrupting it, no one nice becomes a god in this world. If personal power is the game, then selfishness is the method.”

  “Sorry,” I replied, taking another sip of my drink. “I won’t interrupt you anymore, your sageliness.”

  “See that you don’t, and don’t think I didn’t detect a hint of sarcasm in your tone,” he scalded. “Anyway where was I? Ah yes, there’s also Nyx. He’s the newest of the gods so people call him a minor god. He acts more like a gang leader than a deity. You’ve already heard of him though, he's the guy in charge of The Morningstar Collective.

  “And finally, there’s Loki. He’s also pretty new, known as the god of trickery, the story goes that he gained most of his power through the use of illusion mana. That’s pretty rare in Celestia, most people tend to believe what they see around these parts so you can imagine how powerful an illusion might be.”

  “Loki?” I asked incredulously, “ok now you’re having me on.”

  “Not the Marvel character,” he sighed. “Or the Norse god from your world. Our Loki is real.” He said, drawing out the last word as if I was dumb.

  “Sure… There’s still one thing I don’t get though.” I said, “if Athena is the most powerful of them all and she’s also the only one who doesn’t sound like a complete tool. Then why does she even allow them in her pantheon? Each and every one of them sounds evil.”

  “Now you’re asking the right questions, kid,” he replied, a serious look on his face. “No one knows, but I can tell you that no alive today has ever seen Athena. As far as I’m aware, even the rest of her pantheon have never met her.”

  “So what, she upped and left?”

  “Who knows? It’s one of the great mysteries of this world. Everyone knows who she is, she’s still the most widely worshipped too. Yet no one has seen her in hundreds of years, maybe even longer.”

  “This whole world is ridiculous,” I replied and took another swig of my drink.