“So, you had fun?” Iyo asked as I nearly floated back into the study.

“Oh, definitely,” I said with a smile.

“Looks like it, Emily. Were you with Yubik all night?”

“Most of it, yes. Where did you go all night?”

He was undoing the buttons of his coat. “Oh, I spent most of the time mingling. Oh oh! I met Goddess Teyalu! She was too amazing and so smart, I can’t even express it.” Teyalu, Goddess of Wisdom. Iyo was a priestess- and priest- under her before coming along with me.

“Wow, that must have been exciting. I… woah,” I stopped, feeling the night finally reaching me.

“Something wrong?”

“Just… So tired. I need a minute.” I stumbled my way into the bedroom again and went to the bed to sit down. I was just going to sit for a little bit and go find Yubik again. However, my body had different ideas after I slipped the boots off my feet. Despite my mind’s protest, I lied my head back against the soft covers. I don’t remember how long it took, but I wasn’t getting up again for the rest of the night.

--

I opened my eyes to the bright morning sun. There was a light breeze and the air was cool, contrasting well with the sun’s heat. I was standing up, oddly, at the edge of a dark forest. In front of me, I saw the steps up into my fortress with my statue guards in position at the sides. My bag was over my shoulder and my clothes were the same as when I fought Morak Serihn, but much cleaner. I felt like the night before was all just a dream. Maybe it was.

“I guess we didn’t have to check out,” Iyo broke the silence next to me. I looked over at her, seeing her gray skin shimmer in the light. “Pretty impressive, I’d say.”

“I agree,” I muttered. I realized what had happened: Ascentian citizens, probably Yubik, dropped us here with thin memories of what had happened, making us think we had been just imagining it the whole walk home. I wasn’t tired, though, so they can’t think they are that clever. That made me think about why I was so tired last night, though. Could it be that Ulla was giving me more energy when inside my body that I didn’t have before? Wait, Ulla… Elyse!

“Oooh, I don’t have time to sit around, Iyo,” I quickly said as I went to run up the steps. I called behind me, “Make yourself at home, alright?” When I got to the entrance, I turned once more. “Tell anyone here that I said you are a friend!” I whipped around, receiving an unexpected guest in my throne room: The High Emperor and High Empress.

She had her fingers interlocked at her lap while he held his hands behind him. He spoke first, “Well, have the gods answered our prayers? Have you found a way to save our daughter?”

I was taken aback, but I haphazardly opened my bag to find the amulet. Its glow gave it away, and I shakily lifted it out into my hand. “Y-yes, I have it right here. Where-“

“Upstairs, go.” The High Empress’ words were all I needed to make my way through the side hallways. I flew my way up the many staircases until I reached my room. The light spear-wielding guards tumbled out of the way as I pushed my way in. She was there, her hair and skin faded.

“Elyse, I’m here,” I said as I kneeled at the side of the bed. Her eyes followed me, but she was still. I lifted the amulet and clasped it in her hands. “This is yours, I believe. Uh-uhh, just feel it a-and it should, uhm, be drawn back to you.”

I waited, but nothing happened even after her parents rushed into the room. “Well?” he asked. I didn’t have an answer, though. Elyse stayed just as she was with the amulet over her stomach. She was much frailer, her forearm way smaller than I remembered. Come on, I thought to myself. I looked up at the blank ceiling and, for the first time, thought about the gods and goddesses in a different light.Goddess Yhannason- Yhanna, I know I’m not the most religious person out here, but I need to ask of you another favor. My friend, the Empress, you know what happened to her. She doesn’t deserve this at all; it’s my fault. Please, take something from me if you have to, just let her live. It was all I could muster for the time being. However, I think it was enough.

Elyse’s amulet began to lose the reddish color, becoming the regular light of the sun. Her parents’ gasps of relief made me think it was going to be alright, and I looked down at their daughter on the bed again. I saw hints of pink in her hair and color returning to her face, but I figured it was going to be a slow process. I stood back up and looked to the High Emperor. “I guess they have,” I said, then looked back down at her. “The gods have answered after all.”

After the initial hiatus, the two insisted on giving me hugs outside the room. “We owe you such a large debt of gratitude, Lady Everlock, we cannot tell you how much you’ve done for us today.”

“Please, it wasn’t too difficult,” I lied. “The gods already rewarded me; I believe that is enough.”

“If you need anything, Lady, please let us know, and thank you for letting us use your chambers.”

“Oh, I stole hers a while ago anyways, please don’t worry about it,” I brushed it off. “Just let her rest and I’ll see to it that my best healer checks on her regularly.” Their teary-eyed nods gave me enough of a response and I turned down the hallway again.

“Lady Emily,” one of the Rescued said I as I was rushing by, “You have a vis… itor.” I didn’t catch the last part. I had a feeling I would have many soon; news of my victory must have been spreading. Defeating any god or goddess in such close proximity of the surrounding cities was never lost in the wind. I had to find Iyo, though, before-

I stopped on the steps into the throne room. “Oh, my…” I couldn’t find the words for what I saw in the center of the room. She stood there with some of the High Emperor’s guards scurrying in from the entrance, surely seeing her as a threat. It was too real that she could be here, so I wasn’t sure how to respond. My mind responded with a flashing image, however, of a demon in a pool of blood at my feet. I felt a pang of rushing pain in my head and I put a hand to it, showing discomfort.

Just as expected, she strode over to me. I felt her massive, clawed hands wrap around my shoulders and she spoke, her kind voice echoing throughout the room. “You always rush to help someone, Emi. You passed right by me in the forest.” She, Lucelle, my childhood demon best friend, was in front of me. She pulled me into a hug and I reciprocated, then felt where her wings were at, but they were gone. “Don’t worry about me,” she said. “I just found the wrong person at the wrong time. I heal quick, anyways.”

“Where have you been, for so long, too?” I felt tears getting in my eyes, which is not what I wanted. “You could have come home at any time.”

She pulled away from the hug, but kept my shoulders clasped. “I’ll have to explain in private, Emily, I-“

“No, private is good. Yes, just… there’s something I need to do. Like… right now, it’s important.”

Lucelle nodded, then slid one closed hand against my cheek. “Just like I remember. Right, right, I’m sorry.” She let me go and got out of my way. “I can wait for you.”

I placed a hand against the top of her chest as some sort of consolation for having to leave her as I was walking towards the entrance. “Thank you. I’m so sorry, I’ll be back!” I fled the place and almost jumped down the steps. I ran right into the forest until I found some kind of clearing. When I did, I went to the center and kneeled onto the grass with my head turned towards the sky. The forest was quiet, for the most part. I knew what I had to do, no matter how much I was dreading it. I was to speak up to the heavens, ready to pay for the favor. When I opened my mouth to find the words, I was greeted with something much different than I expected.

The air around me began to feel misty and cool, like a spring rain had just finished. I saw a flurry of butterflies float past me almost in a swarm with enough to be noticeable, but not too much to be subtle. I tilted my head, unsure if this was a sign for something. Then, the flowers around me began to shift with the changing wind. As if on cue, an audience of wildlife approached the clearing. This was not how a forest greets a Void creature. It was, however, how it would greet…

“Emily Everlock, you look different out of a dress.” I would recognize that voice anywhere because of last night. I lowered my head to see the ethereal Goddess Yhannason standing in front of me. I instinctively dropped it farther and bowed with my forearms against the ground. A goddess in the living world, how exciting for someone that is actually religious. To me, it was like meeting a famous friend, of sorts. “Emily, rise.” After I got up and brushed myself off, she added, “You really don’t need to be so proper. Do you think these weak little hands could smite anyone?”

“It is out of respect, Goddess Yhanna,” I replied. “And, I wouldn’t put it past you to be more powerful than you appear,” I joked.

Yhannason laughed in response, easing my anxiety. “I think you owe me a tour, Lady.”

“I owe you so much more than that, but we can begin with it.” I turned to the side and gestured for her to walk with me. It wasn’t completely unnatural for a god or goddess to visit the living world, but in their true form without announcement? Yhannason was a different kind, I suppose. “Why not just pull me back up, Yhanna?”

She appeared to glide across the ground in her beautiful gown, that being a shorter- though still quite long- more colorful and flowery sun dress. It had a leathery-silver band at her waist and the lower bit of her very long legs were exposed aside from the equally as colorful shoes on her feet that ever so creatively had a bow on the top of each. Her hair was let loose in the wind, much of its curled beauty playfully laid over her shoulders and back. Finally, she had a yellow band in her hair that also had a bow on it. She looked like a young woman, but I’m sure no one could mistake that face for anyone else because of just how… amazingly perfect she looked. Her voice, as angelic as ever, lit up the forest. “Well, I’m due for a stroll in the living world, no? Also, I think I can do a bit of redecorating in your so… dull abode- no offense, of course.”

“I take no offense at all, I know it’s bland,” I laughed. “Anything you would like to do to it, I would agree to, Yhanna.”

She gestured with her hand towards me. “That is a poor choice of words, Emily.” I suppose it was.

“Well… Anyways, I want to thank you for what you’ve done for me and to warn you that you will probably be thanked too many more times when we arrive. Elyse’s parents, the High Emperor and High Empress, are staying with her in my chambers.”

“I came to visit you, Lady, but I can find time to meet them.” So, so kind.

“I don’t mean to question you, but… why me?”

A bird landed on her hand that was slightly held out in front of her, just like last night. It chirped and she gently sent it back off. “Why you? Why not you? I had a lovely time and felt sorry that I had to leave so soon.”

“It was no worry, Goddess. I do not get upset easily, especially by those who are nothing but generous to me.”

“I’ve seen you enough to know that there are times you let things get to you, Emily. There’s nothing wrong with sadness, you know.”

I looked down at my feet while walking. “I know, but I don’t see the point in it sometimes. Crying doesn’t bring my mother back, or- or bring my allies and close friends back from the dead. It does little for me, really.”

“The purpose of crying is to relieve yourself of those burdens, Emily. Let it all bottle up and it could fester into something worse. We don’t want that,” she smiled, her teeth pearly white.

I returned the smile. “You’re right, Yhanna. I guess it’s something of a matter of pride for me.”

“You’re very prideful, which is a good thing!” She didn’t seem to want to offend me by the way she spoke. “Pride can get to others, though. Did you feel pride when the great God of Light first spoke to you?”

“I don’t remember what I felt, to be honest with you.”

“Now now, is that truly honest?”

I kept quiet for a few moments as the steps to the fortress came into view. “I’ll have to think about that one. Alright, here we are, Yhanna.” I stopped at the first step, my two guards setting down onto one knee. “Home sweet home.”

“Black.” Hm, simple.

“Quite. Here,” I said as I held out a hand for her to take, which she did. I took her up the steps, each guard dropping down in sync with the one across from it.

“Automated soldiers. Are they effective?”

“They intimidate and keep the people who want to do harm out.”

“Oh,” she simply said. I guess that was fine enough for her. When we got to the top of the steps, the entrance was guarded by my most loyal, and most powerful, soldiers, the brothers of Flame and Frost. When Yhannason saw them, she let go of my hand and approached them. “I have seen you before,” she said as she got up to Xinex. “Wooh, you’re cold,” she giggled as she went to Xin’ier. “And you’re warm. Automated, Emily?”

Xinex spoke up with its ghostly, low voice. “We are sentient, Goddess Yhannason.”

“My, what amazing beings. Well, no use in standing out here all day, huh? Come on, Emily, I want to see everything.” She had become more outgoing since she first got here, now having a bit of playfulness in her step. As we entered the main hall, the throne room, guards, both automated and real, along with the many Rescued workers and visitors alike all dropped into bows. Yhanna seemed to just radiate something great, which I guess was, coincidentally, love.

“Hail, the Goddess of Love, Yhannason!” A call rang out from one of the people. They were signaling to the whole fortress that she had entered, letting everyone know a being from Ascentia had arrived.

“Everyone, thank you for your kindness, but please, go on as you were,” she softly said to them. After she spoke, it took a few moments before the bowed people began to rise again.

I walked her through the area. “This is the throne room, or more likely known as the main foyer. My people congregate in this area quite often.”

“Very regal, almost like you didn’t design it how you’d like it.”

I smiled. “If I designed this room, it would be ten times smaller and without a throne.”