This is part two of A Little Goddess and her Ambitious Pet--I mean person. If you havent yet, be sure to read Part 1 first!!

Without further ado:

I pull away from Amelia and I dig my fingers into the earth, all the way up to my wrists. Henry and Lasis halt in their work, watching me with surprise. Somewhere deep inside, I find my voice. This is the last thing I need to say before the end, before the beginning: lest I ever lose track of my duty. “Goddess, I commit this last lifetime to your works, until I return to your soil.”

“I wondered when you’d get around to that.”

All of our heads whip up at the small voice coming from the treeline.

A small figure in gray clothing walks toward us from out of the dark of the overgrown evergreens, stepping over needles with small limbs and pale skin. Her hair is long and silver, twisted into wild braids that reach past her shoulders. Her face is impassable, but her slate yes are knowing. My mouth goes dry. “Wha–?”

“Sybil Whitman, whose timeline has been reset, I have been waiting for you.” Her voice is like that of a child’s, but it also bears a weight: a heaviness that might pass as agelessness.

“Who are you?” Amelia asks for me.

She ignores my construct, taking another few steps toward the open grave. She gathers another handful of soil and lets it pass over her palm onto the bones below. “Another blessing, from the Daughter Herself, may you pass with Arceme into the next life with ease. Rest easy,” she closes her eyes. We watch her carefully, each of us trying to decide how, or what questions to ask this child. She breaks her prayer with a nod to Henry and Lasis. “Please, continue. Sybil, come with me.”

Henry and Lasis glance between me and the child, but start back to work.

Amelia grips the edge of my shirt, but I shake my head. “Stay here with the others. If I don’t come back, finish the farm. Sell produce to the townspeople. Do this until someone else comes and can bind with you.”

“You will be the last one,” Amelia whispers, voice tight. “You are the last for all of us.”

I smile weakly at her, and the little girl stops at the edge of the forest, a look of annoyance gracing her features. “I’m honored.” I squeeze her fingerbones. “But do as I say.”

Bound to me, she must listen. She nods, and I feel the disappointment in her energy that blends in mine. I know she wants to come, to protect me, but if this little girl is the Goddess she claims to be… well… There’s very little anyone can do to save me.

I step into the brush with the little goddess, and let her lead me beyond sight of the grove.

“I’ve been meaning to get you alone–for a chat, but I haven’t had the opportunity.”

I watch her small back as she climbs over fallen trunks, bare feet sticking to needles and black soil. “Who are you?”

“I finally got my chance,” she says instead. “I have questions for you.”

I chew on my lip, frowning. “As a matter-of-fact, I’ve got plenty myself.”

She turns her head and regards me. She’s not the smiling sort, but she doesn’t look offended. “Touchy,” she says, twirling a braid around her thumb. She turns and scrambles up a large boulder, sitting at the top to look down on me. She crosses her arms over her knees and stares into my eyes. The unnerving sensation raises goosebumps along my arms and the back of my neck. “I need you to answer some of these next questions, and I’ll let you go back.”

“Who are you?” I try again, narrowing my eyes at her.

“You know who I am, Sybil. You’ve always known it. My sibling, Arceme, couldn’t help themselves and I intend to take full advantage of that fact.”

I frown. If this little girl was the goddess she claimed to be, what could I offer her?

She raises a finger at me. “You are going to tell me how this war is going to come about, and you’re going to help me stop it.”

I stare at her for a beat. Then a laugh bubbles out of me.

She frowns, the first emotion she has displayed on her pale features since she revealed herself to us in the grove. “What?” she demands, “What is so funny?”

I grin up at her and shake my head, trying to clear the giggles from my chest. It helps… barely. “You don’t know what happens?”

“You know I have the power to remove you from this earth–as though you had never existed. Not once, and certainly not twice,” she threatens, and I cannot help but hear the tone of a spoiled child being refused a sweet.

I bow low and turn around. “I’m not going to be any help to you with that, my Goddess,” I tell her over my shoulder. I start walking back to the grove, half-expecting for her to smite me. The lightning never comes, and trees don’t whip me into the air to be crushed by gravity. Instead, I hear her feet hit the ground and she runs toward me.

“Hey! Wait!!” She catches up to me, tugging on my shirt, pulling me to a stop. “What did they tell you?”

I smile at her. “Do you know what my last words to the world were, when I died?” I ask.

“No,” her brow furrows, wondering where I’m going with this.

“This is stupid.”

Her expression doesn’t shift. “What does that mean?”

“It means many things. More than anything, it means that I’ve already promised Arceme, if that’s who ‘reset’ me, as you say, that I would not interfere with this world’s timeline.”

Her eyes narrow minutely. “You’ve made an oath.”

“To not get involved,” I finish for her, nodding cheerfully.

She scowls. “How am I supposed to win, then?”

“How did you win the last time?” I ask.

“I didn’t.” I tap the side of my nose. Her eyes darken. “You just swore yourself to me, to honor me.”

“I can’t break an oath I’ve already made.” I explain, stepping over the log. I hear Amelia and Lasis talking in low voices by the grave.

“I will follow you around,” she says it like a threat, and I can’t help but smile.

“Sure, you can do that.”

“I mean it!” she grumbles, following along beside me with her fists bunched up at her sides.

“What kind of Goddess won’t smite me when she’s most angry?” I wonder aloud.

She frowns and gathers herself with a huff and a scowl. “I’m benevolent to a fault, I suppose. Can’t be killing everyone as I please. No one would worship me then.”

“That’s a fair point,” I tell her.

We breach the treeline into the grove and Henry straightens up, big fists curling defensively. I raise my hand, “It’s okay,” I tell them, and Lasis and Amelia seem to sigh in relief. They eye my companion warily. “Gents, this is…” I look down at the child-god.

She doesn’t look at me, scowling at some point ahead of us. “Vi,” she mutters, defeat heavy in her voice.

I bend at my waist and cup my hands around my ear. “Sorry?”

“Via,” she says it with annoyed deliberation.

I smile reassuringly down at her. “Nice to meet you, Via,” I tell her and her scowl eases some. “She might be staying with us for a little while.”

“A little goddess?” Lasis asks.

“Gods are finicky things,” Amelia grumbles, and Via shoots her a glare.

I shrug, “Finicky or not, I think that she’s going to stick around. We ought to keep her comfortable.”

“You can barely take care of yourself,” Lasis mumbles, and I laugh.

“Yeah, you’re right about that. We can let her use the blanket tonight and then I’ll take her into town tomorrow.” Via opens her mouth to argue, but must decide better of it, because it closes immediately. “Sound like a plan?”

“Should one of us go down with you?” Amelia asks.

“How would we do that?” Lasis frowns. They tuck the shovel over their shoulder and grinds a toe into the earth. “Unless one of you knows glamor magic.”

Amelia’s teeth grind, but she doesn’t say anything. “Anyways,” I say, extending the sound. “Let’s get going back before Willard and Rod plow an acre and Jun and Samantha cook everything including the house.”