Being moved instantaneously from one place to another isn’t that big of a deal, if one has the power and knowledge to do it.  There’s no ill effects.  Or at least, there in theory wouldn't be, if it weren’t for the fact that my brain was convinced that my stomach was supposed to be miles away.

I almost threw up on Manere’s feet.  Part of me was disappointed I didn’t.

“Oh dear,” Manere said.  “Should I have warned you?”

“Yes,” I croaked.  “Or better yet - don’t do that at all.  Ever again.”

She didn’t seem sorry.  In fact, she seemed rather pleased that she had me to herself until Sir Carid returned to the city to safely escort me back to my rooms.  The God’s Beloved.  The title was starting to feel more literal by the day.  She busied herself with calling for servants and I quickly found myself whisked into a parlor and provided with food and drink.

The servants were supposedly there for the god’s needs, but gods didn’t really need anything.  They were more to make the god’s visitors comfortable, as even with a blindfold a god’s presence tended to have an unpleasant effect on people.  It varied from person to person.  I’d heard it described as anything from a severe stomachache to feeling like there were ants crawling underneath every inch of skin.

Yes.  Underneath.

Believe me, I wanted nothing more than to sit there and be pampered by the god’s servants.  The tea was delightful and the scones paired perfectly with it.  However, I was struck by a sudden horrible idea.  Brilliant, but horrible because now that I’d thought of it I felt obligated to carry it out.  I sighed heavily and slowly spread some clotted cream onto what would surely be the last scone I’d eat for the time being.

“You’re sad now,” Manere said.

“I’ve realized I have to get back to work,” I sighed.  “Do you think you could fool Count Hidere?”

She laughed harshly.

“I’m not so young to be blind to my own shortcomings,” she said.  “I’ve lost the knack for deceit and I don’t think I’ll ever get it back.”

The gods weren’t good at deceit.  That was common knowledge.  They’d lost their old emotions and while it made them hard to read, it also made it hard for them to read others.  It also meant they were terrible at deception, for they didn’t know which emotions to prey upon or which ones to mimic.

“I want to bluff,” I said calmly.  “I want Hidere to think that we have evidence against him.  I can’t do that, because he’s not scared of me.  But he’s scared of you.”

“I can try to threaten him,” she said dubiously, “but I don’t think that’s not what you’re looking for.”

“It’s not.  Send me in your stead,” I suggested.  “Can you make me look like you?”

She went very still, her eyes wide.  Yes, she finally said.  She absolutely could.

And so less than an hour later, I was at the gates to Count Hidere’s city estate.  It was a modest dwelling, as most noble houses in the city tended to be.  Space was a luxury and since all the neighboring houses also belonged to nobility, it wasn’t like any of them would sell so someone could absorb their land and build a bigger house.  The nobles competed with each other through gardens choked with imported flowers and fresh coats of paint on the shutters.

Or with their ornate gates, of course.  Ornate gates with guards.

While Manere was lurking close by, I wasn’t actually a god and couldn’t merely flick them open.  I could only hope that the two people standing guard knew what Manere looked like and would open them for me.

They did recognize Manere.  They hurriedly wrenched the gate open without question, bowing and not saying a word as I breezed past them.

I had to act like a god a little bit.  I couldn’t be entirely smooth words and carefully neutral expressions.  I had to pick an emotion and let it display in entirety.

I settled on anger.  It wasn’t hard.  I had so much anger at the moment.  He’d (probably) tried to kill me.  He’d caused this whole situation with the harbor.  He was the reason I was here at all.

And I very much didn’t want to be here.  I wanted to be at home, considering when to hold my next party and who to invite.  Having my afternoon tea at my favorite time in my favorite place with my favorite tea that all the maids knew by heart.

Instead, I was staring down this weasel of a nobleman who had the gall to look surprised that Manere would waltz into his parlor without notice.

Thankfully, the blindfold over my eyes was also an illusion.  I could see every expression on his face, and I needed to, in order to get what I was after.

“You tried to kill the Beloved,” I said evenly.  “I was there.  I tore their minds apart.”

“I have no idea what you’re-”

“DON’T toy with me,” I snapped.  

My voice echoed in the room.  Manere, surveilling from nearby, had nothing to do with that.  I knew how to project.  It gave Hidere pause.

“I didn’t get to the mage before she died,” I continued savagely, “but I got the rest.  Hard to get professionals on short notice, isn’t it?  They very much didn’t want to die and tried to escape even when they knew it was futile.  I had choice pickings to work with.”

He didn’t reply.  He knew that Manere had sunk those ships for a very good reason.  He knew that she had reason to be furious with him.  It was only a matter of time before it got to this point.
“I just want to know one thing,” I said.  “Without shredding your mind to get at it.”

He flinched and looked away, clearly sick at the thought of what the god could do to him.

“Did you know what they planned?” I continued.  “Did you know they were going to kill a god?”

“No,” he whispered.  “I-I didn’t.  I would never have - if I’d known-”

He covered his face with both hands and the confidence crumpled from his frame.  I believed him.  I believed he was being honest at this moment.  He hadn’t known and now he was in freefall, panicking because these people he was responsible for allowing in through his harbor had done the impossible.

“I want to know everything,” I said, gently this time.  “I need to know how to protect myself and my kin.  This is your one chance to tell me peacefully.”

If he refused, Manere would rip his mind apart.  That was the unspoken threat and clearly it was a very effective one, for Hidere told me everything he knew.