AO 6 Ch 12

After an exhilarating afternoon of being chased by powerful mages and luring a giant crab to kill people, I was parched.

Thankfully, Ditzy was my own personal water well. She filled a glass for me back at our little home in the Badlands.

If we were going to stay here much longer, I needed to spruce up the place and make it more livable.

"So, what exactly are we going to do with Freya?" I asked curious about the next step while Maribelle went and stuffed the hostage in a back room. Missy had tapped her on the forehead and assured us that she would be out until woken. "I'm all for anything that undermines King Martin, but I think it would be better if I understood the plan before I run off and do something some might call stupid, but some might call brilliant." I gave Emlyn an exaggerated wink before looking back at the two goddesses.

Truthfully, I’d give my left nut to take a stab at the man who ordered the burning of those poor villages. Good thing that was very much on the table. The stabbing, not the nut.

"Ard has wild ideas, but I will admit his ideas are slightly less wild if you give him information to use." Emlyn offered. 

“He does seem to come up with surprise choices." Eva hedged, the princess giving me a long look.

"Quite the endorsement they have for you," Ditzy smiled at me. 

"I'm like a fine wine, sometimes I'm an acquired taste. So, what is it we're doing?" I pressed “Maybe I can come up with a few of my own surprises.”

"Before we get to that, you have to understand the game of the gods," Ditzy explained, glancing at Missy as if to see if she was going to jump in. 

"Oh no, please, by all means explain that one to Ard. I'm sure it's going to go over great." Missy then busied herself, seemingly not paying attention, though I could tell her ear was tuned directly to what Ditzy would say next.

"You have to understand, in so many ways, your lives are like a game to the gods, no offense," Ditzy explained. "I understand it is not comfortable for you to think of it as a game, and I would say it's not comfortable for me either, but it's the reality that we are faced with at present."

I raised an eyebrow. So far this conversation was off to a great start. I might as well 

"Alright," I said slowly, "so what are the rules of the game?" 

"Well, it’s rather simple. We gain power from worship, and using that power, we each control at least one aspect. At the inception, we all controlled only one aspect. And now," she paused, "the gods can use the connections between each other, whether from a familial relationship, or how they relate to each other magically with their aspects to fight. That is to say, someone else that had the ability to control water," she swished some water around her hands and spiraled around, "would be able to interact with me based on my aspect and potentially siphon my power away, if they get everything, then they’ll gain my other aspects. It’s more complicated, but that’s the gist." 

"Wait, siphon it away?" I asked, stunned. "You mean, you can steal one another's power?" It wasn’t terribly unlike what Colin was doing and that made me very uncomfortable.

"What she's leaving out... is that lines were drawn and groups were formed so that no one was off of their own," Missy turned around from where she was working at the counter. 

"Pantheons," I said, seeing where this conversation was going. That word had come up more than once with the two goddess around.

"Correct," Ditzy picked back up. "We formed pantheons. My pantheon, for example, had multiple gods who had power over water, but we divided that quite succinctly into different aspects for worship, so we weren't in conflict. Though, some overlap is always inevitable. Oftentimes, we were unafraid to overlap aspects when we already overlapped familiarly. There were lots of rules, so we played nice."

"So if your parents had water, then you were fine taking water because you trusted them enough not to use that connection?" I asked.

"I wish I could say it was trust. But the risk was already there, so why limit myself into a weaker subset?" Ditzy shrugged. "To some, that ended up being very unwise, I will admit. People whose parents were unscrupulous would have multiple children, only to then, oh I don't know, try and eat them for power. Though the older generation would quickly find that the younger generation often had an advantage. It's actually quite difficult to rule from a place of power without the power of those who support you. Cronos learned that lesson the hard way." She chuckled, though the name Cronos meant nothing to me.

"Alright. So because the Pantheons are groups of gods who have different aspects or are family because family just sticks together. And then the Pantheons at large are then at war with one another?" I asked, trying to wrap my head around everything I was being told.

"Close enough," Ditzy shrugged. "The end result is the same. There are people with power and people who want power. This is true for humans and for gods. And so, the gods fought. Just as mortals shed blood for land, gold and steel, gods fought for control of the aspects." 

Missy shook her head. "And not like a squabbling fight, but fairly large wars with one another's followers. Unfortunately humanity is a bit frail, so everyone entered an agreement bound by magic that we were unable to directly attack each other's followers with the exception that we were allowed to defend ourselves." Missy sipped a cup of hot tea.

I could suddenly imagine a god swooping in and leveling a field of soldiers. Heck, an elder mage could and Missy could do things way beyond them.

"And that must be where you come in," I said, beginning to understand. "If I have a piece of, say, King Martin's soul, and it's connected to Freya, then you can attack her directly. King Martin is just the mountain pass you need to cross." 

Missy grinned savagely over her mug. "Exactly. The best part is there's not much she can do about it. Sure, she gets to go complain to the other gods. But if I have a fragment attached to her soul," she raised an eyebrow with a smirk, "there's very little she can do to ward off my attack.”

“Now, you're still going to need some luck for it to be successful," Ditzy added, only to earn a grunt from Missy.

"Well, that's why I have you with me. I’ve been cooking this plan for a while," Missy smiled. "Another reason that we made the Pantheons was for the connection. For example, I can bring Aphrodite here in on the attack with me. She doesn’t need a connection of her own. But for us to form that connection, there needs to be trust because we are both exposed.”

“And you need my connection, so do I get to play a part?” I asked. “I’d love to take a stab at King Martin, including the goddess backing him. Not that I ever expected I’d be going up against a god in this lifetime or the next dozen.”

"You won't be doing much," Ditzy laughed. "If anything, the two of us will just be providing some magical energy for Hecate to do the real combat. There's a significant amount of trust in all of this. Technically she could drain us dry, weaken us both, only for someone else from Freya's pantheon to finish us off."

I glanced at Missy, who momentarily looked a little nervous. "Nah, Missy would never do that.” I waved away the concern.

 Are you sure?" Missy asked, watching me closely.

"Yep! I mean, I get that it’s not a certainty. But I am reasonably sure that you and I are on the same team. I’m pretty lovable to those who don’t hate me. And I don't think I've pissed you off enough." I glanced over at Emlyn for reassurance.

"Don't look at me. Shouldn't you know if you are making people upset?” Emlyn replied.

“You've told me before I'm not the best judge of that. Really, I'm just following your previous guidance." I smiled.

Emlyn pursed her lips. "I hate when you use my own words against me."

"I love it. Because it makes you think twice before you say something.” I answered.

“If only we could get you to do that Ard." Zuri joined in the teasing.

"Good luck with that," Emlyn patted Zuri on the shoulder. "I mean, this in the most genuine way. Good luck. We all hope you find success."

"It's not that bad," I snorted before getting stares from every woman in the room. "Anyway," I moved the conversation along. "Got it. So, I become a magical battery for Missy. It'll be like she's one of my anchors." I grinned, enjoying that framing.

"Whatever you need to think. And besides, we won't be able to go for everything Freya has in her. At most, we'll just weaken her. The game of the gods is never won in a single move," Ditzy cautioned. "These moves that the gods are making take hundreds of years just to get a small fraction of each other's power. What they did to Missy here, censoring her and shoving her down into this world also stripped her of a decent amount of her power. They then divided that power up amongst them. To be frank, she's in the dangerous final phase, where she could actually be killed."

I glanced over at Missy, she had never said anything about being at death’s doorstep.

"Don't give me that look," she wagged a finger at me. "I'm not pathetic, nor do I need any pitying, especially not from you. What we are going to need is some of your firepower, Ard. Your soul magic is unique enough that I think Freya will have trouble adapting to it quickly. We’ll hold that in our back pocket. Mostly, I just want you to see what we are dealing with this time."

"I would be careful, Hecate. His magic, in part, comes from her. Using both of yours is impressive. It is also incredibly dangerous, because ultimately, you could open yourself up to the same risk of being attacked." Ditzy cautioned.

"Freya doesn't have him in her sights at all," Missy argued. "We both know she's here for me.”

“And Ard might just provide her the perfect avenue to attack. I'm not an idiot, Hecate. I can see how reliant you are on him." Ditzy replied.

Missy clenched her jaw. "I would prefer if you don't talk about things you don't understand." She snorted and turned so hard that her hair flung out in every direction.

The blonde goddess grunted. "Being defensive about it won't solve any of your problems. Instead, I think we should spend some time working on Ard's magic, and the two of you practicing. After all, if I'm going to make a brand new Pantheon with you, I'd really rather not lose you right out of the gates. And besides, we still need to formalize our rules in the agreement of the Pantheon."

I perked up immediately. "Like a trade agreement or a contract?”

“There are a number of ways to frame it. You might call it ethics too some, rules to others. The important part of all of it is that we all agree to abide by it." Missy glanced over at the blonde goddess. "I assume you won't mind if I at least come up with the first proposal?"

"Not at all. In fact, I would almost insist that you take the lead. I'm sure you have some trouble with trust right now. And you should let Ard participate. He seems curious.” Ditzy had a knowing smile.

“I mean, it's like a trade agreement but for gods. Wait, can we put silly things in there too?" I asked. “The actual agreement Zuri or Emlyn can read over.”

"Good. This is a good opportunity for you to work with Hecate. I'm sure the two of you can come up with something very interesting. I am committed to making this work, but don't push me too far, Hecate," Ditzy warned.

Missy took a sip, nodding along and spelled it out for me. "The structures for the Pantheons can be quite varied. But I have my own set of standards." Missy paused. "Are there any existing relationships you have at present? You had a strange look on your face."

"No. Hephaestus is long gone at this point, and the rest of Olympus has fractured heavily. When push came to shove, we were nowhere near as united as the other pantheons. That's why Hades is off being a mercenary. Zeus is probably trying to cuckold Thor again. Meanwhile, the minor ones were simply devoured up, at least I assume that's why they went missing so quickly.” Ditzy shrugged and I shuddered at the imagery. “I haven't really been able to trust many amongst the other pantheons. Love is a fickle aspect," Ditzy scowled.

I glanced over at Missy, who quietly shook her head. I'd ask her about that one later. Right after I wrapped my head around devouring gods for power. Then again, I was drinking freshly squeezed soul juice. It wasn’t really any different, only Missy was taking the dirty work on herself.

In the end, humanity and gods weren’t too far apart. It was just a matter of morals in how you accomplished it. I felt righteous in using those who tried to kill me to fuel my abnormal growth, meanwhile King Martin was a monster who hunted others for the sole sake of power.

Missy was more like me, Freya had chased her to the end of her ropes and only now was she going to drain her.

With that settled, my mind was much more at ease.

"Well then, Missy, if you wouldn't mind, how about we go somewhere more private?" I tapped out my temple before wandering off to my bedroom and laying down in bed. Aurelia was the only one who looked a little confused.

"They're going to Soulgard," Emlyn explained as Maribelle snuck into the bedroom and laid down next to me, as quiet as a mouse.

"Oh, before I forget," I opened up a portal with dark magic before I began to tug at a crate only to not have the strength to pull the whole thing out. Maribelle reached in, grabbed the lip of the crate, and hauled the box out before handing it over to Aurelia. "Organize that. I will see you in a little bit." I did a little wave with the ends of my fingers, feeling happy to hand off that work.

My maid curtsied before jumping back into bed with me.

I could see a strange look of almost loss from Aurelia. I wondered if she was having regrets that she hadn't yet entered Soulgard like the others, but there would be time for that later. Neither of us were going anywhere, and she certainly wasn't going to escape from my life. I was pretty set on keeping her.

AN - Reminder that Mortal tier will stop at chapter 13.