Without a doubt, this was the Vae of the novel. Arguably the most important side character in the whole book, even before the love interests. While Maria is taught how to be a god by the High Seraphim, it's Vae who helps Maria adjust to her life among the heavens. Helping her make friends with other gods and being her unwavering support during the hectic year of her ascendance.

Vae was the Muse of Tragedy, and as one of 9 muses, her job was to help shape human destiny, inspiring acts of woe. Unlike her other sisters who were muses of topics like love, comedy, or hymns, Vae was the outlier. Much like Asterius the other gods tended to find her a bit uncomfortable to be around but unlike Asterius they weren’t scared of her. Whispers and taunts always followed her, the most common insult calling her a demon. Maybe because of that Vae had a rather nasty attitude, a prickly exterior that hid the wounded goddess on the inside, and she hated anything to do with Gehenna.

“I’m here for business,” Vae huffs, tilting her head up as though to look down on them, but it doesn’t quite work with her short height. “Why else would I come all the way down here to the first ring of Celestia?”

Asterius knows that technically because of what the muses do they work under Asterius in the hierarchy of the heavens, but Vae had denied ever meeting Asterius in the novel. ‘Why would she lie about-,’

[HOST!] The System warns in large, bolded font, edges of its window red, [This is a main character! Host can’t break character at all or-]

He takes a deep breath, schooling his face into something distant and aloof, “was your business so urgent as to arrive in the middle of the night?”

“The Blood Sun just set!” she complains, gesturing up towards the twilight sky above them, where stars are already starting to appear. “And yes, this is important!” she glances over towards Cadeyrn, leaning back to cross her arms once more, “you going to let me in demon?”

Cadeyrn bows slightly, public service smile never leaving his face, “Sorry my lady, of course,” and steps to the side.

Asterius bristles, and steps forward re-blocking the doorway, “Whatever your business is, state it here.”

Vae blinks, clearly surprised, before she shakes it off, giving him an odd look, [Host…] the System warns hovering just in the corner of his left eye.

“You messed with one of my artists again.”

‘Again?’ he thinks, trying to figure out what she means, ‘System?’

[System also doesn’t know what she’s talking about.]

Pluma leans forward, glaring at her, “Master is in charge of the weave, if he wants to alter someone's fate, that’s his business, you are just a muse!”

“Pluma!” he scolds, snatching him up and giving him a stern look.

The angel has the self-awareness to deflate, puppy eyes looking up at him imploringly, “But she’s always complaining about the changes master makes to the weave…”

Vae gives the angel a glare of her own, “Next time make one that’s less annoying.”

Asterius doesn’t even know where to begin with that, so he just moves along, “Who exactly are we talking about?”

“Don’t tell me you forgot!?” she yells, “the Baline family! I’ve been working on their tragedy for three generations and you just undid all of my hard work!”

Well considering he hadn’t used the Weave of Fate since arriving here, it was the original that edited the script, but why wait almost a month to come complain about it?

He shakes his head, already feeling the headache coming on, dealing with annoying muses was not part of his contract as the temporary God of Fate, “What’s done is done.”

“You-,” she sighs, fiddling with the end of her braid and staring off into the distance, “honestly I don’t know why I was worried.”

“Worried?” he echoes, confused by the sudden tonal shift.

She glances at him from the corner of her eyes, “Everyone’s talking about it.” And before he can ask what exactly they are talking about, she elaborates, “You refusing the summons.”

Oh. Asterius’s father. There had been more letters, but Cadeyrn had destroyed all of them before he could even ask to see them. He’s still stuck between being thankful for Cadeyrn’s hate (or possible care, but Asterius isn’t down bad enough yet to think the demon has any other intentions) and annoyance that he just assumed Asterius would never care (the original certainly didn’t, and even though it does bother him that these personal letters are never even being read, he can’t exactly say anything.)

Asterius shrugs, trying to come off as unbothered, “I have no desire to see him.”

Vae looks at him for a moment, gray eyes scanning his face before she hums a soft note. Asterius doesn’t know what she’s doing but can feel all his hair stand on end. Somehow, he knows that she’s using magic. Pluma bristles from where he’s holding him and Cadeyrn frowns, the magical bindings flashing a brighter white.

They both start talking at once, voices overlapping on top of each other, “You dare use your magic here-,” and “My Lady this is highly improper-,”

Vae cuts them off with a heavy sigh, letting the tune drop, “Good heavens you two are annoying. I’m a muse, we sing sometimes, get over it.”

Pluma tries to lunge toward her, but Asterius tightens his grip, so the angel resorts to yelling, “You were trying to weave a tragedy for my master! You hold no power here-,”

“Pluma calm down,” he soothes, petting the griffin’s head. He might be new to this god thing, but he can tell whatever she was doing wasn't meant to harm. "She wasn’t trying to do anything.”

“Yeah, what he said,” she agrees, smile bright and flippant, but she keeps glancing at him, confusion in her eyes. Astreius glances over at the System ready for it to flash red for his OOC, but it's still the same peaceful pastel green.

Cadeyrn steps forward, “Do you have any other business, Lady Vae?”

She gives Asterius one last searching glance before shaking her head no. “Nope," and she pops the p hard like she's chewing bubblegum, "just delivering my friendly and oh-so helpful advice."

She gets a grumble from Pluma for that, which only seems to brighten her spirits more, "Well do whatever you want. Visit or don't, I don't really care, not my messy family business," and she turns sharply on her heel, “Just stop poking your nose into my work if you know what's good for you. I won't be so nice to you next time, Spinster.”

Despite himself, a smile tugs at his lips, this Vae was harsher with her words, but the intent was far easier to see than the one he remembers reading. For some reason, this Vae genuinely did seem to care for Astreius to a certain extent, (even if that affection was shown in very odd ways).

“Not going to have her stay longer?” Cadeyrn asks, eyes focused on him.

“No, that’s alright.”

Pluma huffs, fluffing his feathers, turning awkwardly to nose at Asterius’s chest, “I don’t understand why master likes that woman, she’s mean.”

‘I don’t know either,’ he thinks, glancing back at her one last time. He startles finding her staring back. She sends him a smirk, raising her hand into the air, and for a split second, he thinks she’s going to wave before she flicks him off instead.

Pluma fumes, feathers bristling, as Cadeyrn snorts, “Still as brashly offensive as ever I see.”

Asterius is left even more confused than when this whole mess started. Apparently, Vae and Asterius were friends, a friendship that was never brought up in the original novel. ‘Something huge must happen for it never be even mentioned,’ he thinks trying and failing to stop the thought that maybe this wasn't supposed to happen at all, ‘System I haven’t broken the script, have I?’

[System’s readings suggest everything is normal…] There’s a long pause as Cadeyrn slowly closes the door, [If it helps, System is confused too.]

‘No, that doesn’t help,’ he thinks, with a sigh. ‘The Novel hasn’t even begun, and things are already messed up.’

[Host is getting better!] It encourages, even though he’s sure they both know it's lying, good to know the box of code could lie though, that might be useful later, [System will remind Host that so far Host has not caused an OOC infraction yet. Host has come close before, but not once in the conversation with Vae did Host trigger an OOC warning!]

It is phrased like a good thing, but.. ‘How?’ he thinks, mindlessly walking up the stairs towards his room, ‘I get warnings all the time just from talking to Pluma and Cadeyrn, how could I get none talking to a main cast member?’

[… System has a few ideas, but all of them are impossible.]

‘Well let’s hear it anyway.’

[If Vae was no longer Vae, it is possible.]

‘Wait, she’s like me?’ he thinks, glancing back towards the front door, had he missed is chance of meeting someone like him?

[As System said, impossible, System is the only active System in this novel. And System has received no updates from the administration of new arrivals. Therefore impossible.]

‘Well okay, but you said theories, what’s the other one?’

[If this Vae isn’t the Vae of the novel.]

He double-checks to make sure he read what he thought, ‘What does that mean?’

[The Muse of Tragedy Maria befriends isn’t the one currently in the story.]

‘Are you saying she’s replaced?’ and a chill races down his back at the thought, ‘that the one I was talking to is some sort of imposter? That because it's not the real one it doesn't matter?'

He can tell he's spiraling a little, but that's a terrifying thought. It was mentioned that there are entities that can shapeshift, mostly Gehennan gods, was he just talking to a demon? Why-

[Host] the System scolds, [This is why System also said it was impossible. The current Vae is the Vae of the novel, System has double-checked.] it reads, and Asterius is just more confused, [System does not know why Host didn’t read as OOC, but System thinks Host shouldn’t worry about it.]

‘Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth?’ he quotes, turning to look up at the constellation mural in his room.

[System does not understand the reference but agrees Host shouldn’t try to dig any further. System has been advised that Hosts that try to learn things beyond their scope tend to… be terminated.]

Great, so not only does he have to worry about staying in character but asking too many questions can also end his stay permanently. He’s starting to really doubt whether or not he can last 20 years of this.

[But look on the bright side Host!] The System says, [just four more days until the novel starts!]

He’s not sure that should be a cause for celebration, but at least after this, he won’t have another mission for 20 years; plenty of time to get into character then.

‘Give me the character details again,’ he thinks as dozens of green windows appear in the air before him, ‘let’s make sure I don’t slip up when it really counts.’