AO 5 Chapter 27

Chapter 27

"Missy, it's," I struggled, rubbing my hand against my forehead. "Missy, you're clearly the fucking Hollow Mage. It's not like you've actually tricked me in any of this.” I could tell that the goddess was stupefied by my reaction. Then again, I hadn’t actually had a conversation about this with anyone because you never knew when the goddess could be listening.

"What, do you think I'm an idiot? Actually, no, don't answer that." I held a finger up to stop her. "I am not an idiot. What I am is Ard. And while I understand from your explanation of what happened with Zenov, that you were very, very upset at the gift that you gave him being scorned. I mean, shit. This one time I gave Emlyn ice cream--”

“Do not tell the ice cream story again. I've heard it all." Missy groaned.

"Oh, that's right, you've heard it all, because you're a freaking voyeur in my life." I gestured at her and then around at Soulgard, "because you always seem to be here." 

"I am not always here." She crossed her arms, no doubt pouting.

"Uh-huh." I hummed to myself. This goddess was very easy to read. 

"I am not always here.” She insisted. “I am a goddess. There are many tasks I am doing, though there are times where I come here because it is easier to talk to you when you are here." 

I kept my lips flat and turned back out towards the glowing tendrils seeping into my bluesteel walls. "Sure, let's pretend I believe you're not always here, being a voyeur in my life, and let's go back to the fact that you are, in fact, the Hollow Mage, or should I say. The Mistress of the Night." I made an extravagant gesture. "And all of the other titles you've claimed, the Hollow Mage is just another one of those. But I don't think you've claimed that one so much as been given it."

Teasing her was just too much fun at this point.

"And why have you worked with me if you knew that?" She tilted her head.

"Huh?" I looked at her like she was stupid. "You've done nothing but help me. Well, save for that small bit in Hidavente where you knocked out a bunch of the mages. Did you have something to do with the corrupted?"

Now I couldn't see her expression, but I could practically feel the guilt coming off of her. She opened her mouth to speak and then I heard it snap shut, pausing for another moment before speaking. "If you knew this, if you realized all of this already, then why?" She asked, her voice laced with confusion.

"Trust," I continued, ticking off on one finger. "You're a goddess. I'm pretty sure if I don't trust you, you can still do whatever you want. It's better to work with you than against you." I ticked off another finger. "Also, you have helped me a considerable amount. Not to mention, you were pretending to be a maid in my household to keep an eye on me."

The veil of mystique around her dropped and her jaw hung loose. "You fucking asshole," she spat, leaping out of her rocking chair. She grabbed me by the lapel, knocking me out of my own chair. "You!” she gasped before landing atop me. “You knew this entire time.” She shook me against the floor.

“I thought the jokes about maid eating were on the nose enough." I couldn’t stop laughing and poked her on the nose as I said, “Boop.”

"You don't boop a goddess." She shouted, yet she didn’t recoil much at the touch, nor did she shake me any more. In fact, booping her had calmed her down.

I shrugged underneath her.

She dropped her normal disguise as she leaned over me. Hecate, my mother's maid, was in front of me, garbed in an incredibly extravagant and regal-looking cloak and dress. It was woven from purple cloth with embroidery that shifted between gold and silver as she moved.

"I don't know what to tell you, Hecate, but I've known for a while. I mean, it wasn't hard to put together the Hollow Mage appearing every thousand years and you waking up every thousand years after your Zenov story. There's probably only so many ultra-powerful beings on a thousand-year reset timer."

She still had me pinned to the floor but was blinking at me like I had stopped her brain and she was busy putting it back together. "I can't believe this," she said, finally pushing off of me and sitting on me, straddling my hips.

"Believe it or not. I’m pretty insightful," I pointed at myself with a proud smile. "Not that I really blame you for any of the smoke and mirrors. I mean, honestly. If I, and this is point number three for the record, scorned Emlyn the way you Zenov scorned you, well fuck, I think by the time she had gotten to the tenth generation, she would still be starting to warm up. Actually, I would be even shocked if my family tree made it past a generation after that. Emlyn does not forgive easily."

Hecate blinked. "You surround yourself with such interesting women."

"I really do. They are singularly amazing in everything they do." I agreed. “Including holding a grudge.”

She shook her head, pushed off me to stand up. "Well, I shouldn't let the one catch me sitting on you like that. Who knows what she would do to me.”

“Maribelle can get a little jealous," I agreed with her in a high-pitched voice, suddenly looking over my shoulder to make sure said anchor wasn't lurking in the corner. I would not put it past her.

Thankfully, a quick scan of Soulgard told me that Maribelle was meditating next to the Serpent Sphere and I didn’t have to fear for my life.

"I see.” Missy, also known as Hecate, dusted herself off. But she was still Missy to me. She disliked the name and it was fun to watch her get flustered. “Something is going on within your head, and I don't think I'm going to like wherever your thoughts are going." Missy squinted at me.

"Absolutely, Missy," I replied.

She frowned. "Ah, fuck. With everything you could call me, that’s what you’re going to use?"

I laid down on the floor, tucking my hands behind my head to prop it up. "Yep, that's what just happened. You could be Hecate, but I think Missy's far more entertaining."

The goddess let out a heavy sigh and sat back in her rocking chair. "I knew interacting with my worshipers was not a good idea. It's never a good idea to remove yourself from the god position back to something more accessible by mere mortals."

I shrugged. "I'd already figured out your secret, so it's not that big of a deal. But again, I'm giving you three reasons why I am working with you." I rolled on my side and propped my head up. "So why the heck is a goddess working with little old me?"

Missy sighed and stared up at the glowing strands feeding into the bluesteel walls.

"Why indeed," she began. "I think it started because I was disappointed that Zenov’s line had ended, that I woke up this time and he was gone. For the first time, he was gone. And even though I had been so angry, I think some of the human sayings have truth to them. That hate is only one step away from love. And I think when there was nothing left to hate, I could only remind myself that once I had loved Zenov. I see much of him in you. And once you began to grow in power, I saw quite a bit of potential in you as your own person.”

I waited, letting her continue.

“I was once a mortal, learning witchcraft to elevate myself to godhood.” She told me. “Though you've been given quite the shortcut in magic, you still started with so very little, yet you've grown so far. Yet you…” She gestured at the bluesteel walls. “I have never seen any of Zenov's line produce something like that, nor any of the other mages of great caliber that have been birthed in this world.”

Apparently if I stayed silent she’d just keep complimenting me, so I said nothing.

She sighed. “No, you've done something entirely unique and incredibly successful on your own. It's why I don't have advice as to what direction to take, because I think right now, the best direction is to walk an uncharted path, Ard."

"Well, that got me curious," I said, lifting an eyebrow.

"Curious how far it could go?" She interpreted.

"Very.”

“However, I must warn you," she said, waffling her head back and forth. "In my... despair, I taught King Martin, or Martin the Healer when I first met him, some soul magic. At the time, he was a healer with good intentions, doing good work for his kingdom. He was…" she hesitated, "a good man."

"Was a good man," I emphasized.

"He is not any longer. Correct." Missy frowned and looked to the side. I could tell she at least felt a little ashamed. "Have you ever heard that power corrupts?" 

I nodded. "Absolute power corrupts, absolutely," I echoed something that had been in one of those books Maribelle had forced me to read. I was fairly certain it was a line from a general some hundred years ago.

Missy nodded before staring out at Soulgard, yet not really looking at it. "It is both a very simple, obvious observation, and yet something quite so profound. Give a healer the ability to heal nearly all wounds, do everything except bring the dead back to life, and suddenly, when his way of doing it is challenged, he is able to bring a type of despair and desperation that makes him a terrible monster. Sadly, he had the power to retaliate against Garrish’s nobility and he’s gone too far in his lust for power."

"Like these experiments?" I asked.

"These experiments are tests, and my great fear with his recent disappearance from Garrish politics and the war. Add in Freya's involvement and it may mean that he's finally had enough with his experiments. He may feel he knows enough to perform one on himself." 

I frowned. "You mean, turn himself into a version of Colin?" 

Missy nodded. "He is a serpent sphere mage, and he has been--"

I gasped, suddenly putting the connection together, "gathering all those serpent spheres, turning them into corrupted, trying to make them fucking stronger.” I held a hand to my forehead. “They're all test subjects. They're all trial runs for his own transformation."

Missy had a sad smile. "I should tell you that by the time he even began to embark upon this path, I had already ceased helping him."

"But you didn't stop him?" I interrupted her.

"No, he's mortal. He will eventually perish, and the world will continue spinning." She said the words as if the concept was just a simple reality, while I stared blankly at her.

"Understand, with my lifespan and experience, to me, Martin might be the same as the spider in the corner of your house. Sure, are those webs unsightly? Yes. Has it left several victims? Also yes. Would I not like it in my bedroom? Yes. However, within a few short months, it will be gone." She shrugged. "That is what Martin is to me. Just a pest that is currently active in your house and will be gone shortly."

I sighed. "Fuck. Gods are strange. Alright, and something's changed?"

"Well, now there's something that I have a far more vested interest in living near the spider, and I am concerned the spider will attack it. Thus, now I have a vested interest in the spider's immediate removal. Not to mention, the spider seems to have become a little more embedded than I originally envisioned. If Freya truly did help him with the transformation, there is a chance that despite being a single-sphere mage, he likely will not die of old age any longer. To make matters worse, if he can use what he learned as a way to absorb souls, he will continue to grow more and more powerful."

"Are you worried he could, say, harm a god?" I asked.

"Oh, most certainly. He will have the ability to harm a god within a hundred years, if left alone. Knowing King Martin's personality, even Freya is at risk. He has a," she made a distasteful look, "penchant for wanting to put others beneath him. Now that he's discovered the power he wields, he will certainly try to tame her as well."

"Ah, I know the type," I mused. "Sometimes those who have been bullied become those wanting to bully and prove themselves as better through it. It is an unfortunate human reaction." I stuffed my tongue in my cheek. "Alright, so, did I ruin your attempt to get at his soul, or did you screw it up?"

She glanced at me out of the corner of her eyes. "Neither. There was a shift in the fragment of the soul he kept inside those mages. He managed to withdraw it despite the large space between us and him. Well, he didn't withdraw the entire thing. It would be more accurate to say it collapsed on itself until it was nothing but a tiny speck. And that speck was all that we managed to destroy. It wasn't a strong enough link for me to go after Martin's soul directly."

"Well, now that we've addressed all of the serious topics, how about we talk about the fact that you have set up shop in my soul.” I grinned, needing a break from the doom and gloom.  “If I look around, is there going to be some room in my castle that you've taken up roosting?"

Missy gasped and swirled out of her chair, drawing her cloak around her. "You're going to be such a rude host, and I will just leave."

"I wasn't kicking you out, I was just trying to establish... if you were really my guest." I stopped teasing her.

Missy paused, and I realized that huff had been an act. A very good act. "Well, if you will so graciously host me, then I assume I could be a guest for the time being. Because I gave Zinov the access to magic, and he has passed it on to you through the lineage, this place is actually still attuned to my magic." She put a hand against her chest. "Thus it is very comfortable."

I raised an eyebrow. "Does that mean if you stay here, the pressure that makes you go to sleep for a thousand years isn't weighing on you?" It wasn’t a bad thing in my opinion. Missy growing stronger would benefit me and it didn’t seem to take anything from me.

Her cheeks dusted with a slight blush before she nodded. "Yes. That would be accurate. It would also be accurate to say that while I am not having to resist that pressure, that I am better able to heal myself."

"Ah." I made a noise of understanding. "So, coming into my soul is like being in a relaxing hot spring for you. Or a warm bath. Something to let you relax and recover."

"Just so. In fact, at your suggestion, maybe I should add a hot spring into your soul." She glanced up at the colorful lights above.

"Really? Don't you take the choice cut when you leave me just the scraps of your soul juice?" I gasped. It was just too fun to tease her. Clearly, Missy hadn’t been teased in a very long time.

"These are not the scraps," she insisted, her honor clearly at stake. "These are the choice cuts. I take the scraps for myself because they would do little good for you. They might even actively harm you."

I pointed at her. "And once again, you've proven why we are working well together. I understand that this place helps you. Thus, I offer to host you. In return, you find a way to make me stronger by offering me the choice bits of the soul juice, while taking scraps for yourself. I don't think we ever need to question why we are so comfortable working together again."

Missy pouted and swirled her cloak, turning herself back into the mystique of the goddess that she had used so many times before to hide herself from me. "Can we go back to pretending I am the great, wise, and oh-so-beautiful goddess?" She ran a hand through her curly raven locks.

"No, as I can't fully appreciate your beauty in that form," I said, playing to her vanity.

"Well, when you put it that way," her form dissipated instantly. "I suppose I will just have to stop hiding myself so much. It would be a shame to deny you the beauty that is me." She fluffed her hair again.

Missy was extraordinarily beautiful. Unlike when she was pretending to be my mother's maid Hecate, there was some sort of faint glow to her that marked her as supernaturally beautiful. Her dark raven hair fell down in loose ringlets around her face. she had the kind of face that could be cute with a smile, or heart-wrenchingly seductive with a pout. And her body left nothing to chance. She was curvy enough to tempt a man to do bad things when worn with the right clothing, but not so curvy she couldn't hide it if needed.

Though she was quite curvy, she had enough height that it wasn’t ridiculous like Maribelle.

At the moment, she was certainly not hiding.The shimmering dress that she wore pinched at her waist and showed off her bust. A small slit down the thigh allowing her legs to look extra long. As she stood in front of me, she posed, letting me admire her.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an anchor that very much needs my attention," I said, referring to a woman who in much need of being pampered up and down and all around.

Missy was still posing and pouted at me, pulling her shoulders back and pushing her chest up. 

"Really?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. 

"All that maid did was heal some people," Missy tried to argue. 

"Yes, people I very much wanted to heal. She healed them when I could not. Thus, Maribelle wins the Anchor Awards, probably not just for the day, but likely for a whole week. Emlyn's going to be so jealous." I enjoyed the thought of teasing Emlyn and really what Maribelle did was so out of character for her it was clearly all for me.

"Is it good to make them jealous?" Missy frowned. "There's also Zuri. I think you and Zuri probably need to have a talk," She told me.

I grunted. "Yeah, yeah. I didn't trust her as much as I normally did, and that's probably going to come back and bite me. But you can't blame me for wanting to keep her out of a fight against people connected to her mother's killers.”

Missy shrugged. "I am not talking about the moral correctness of the situation, merely the situation you find yourself in. After all, you are now my gracious host," she waved around at Soulgard, "and if nothing else, I should lend you my valuable wisdom."

"Yeah, how'd that valuable wisdom do for you?" I straightened out my clothes to make sure they were all presentable and gave her a sharp salute. "Anyway, I am off to go play with Maribelle. If you want to play the voyeur, I guess that's on you. I doubt I can stop you."

Missy puffed out her cheeks and crossed her arms, which also had the effect of pushing her chest up further. She knew exactly what she was doing despite looking so cute and curvy. I decided not to get drawn in once again and followed through with my goodbye. 

I moved in search of Maribelle. My anchor's soul didn't always consciously move around Soulgard. Emlyn had come here a few times, thinking it was a dream, and Maribelle had certainly come as her avatar had begun moving even before I formally bound her.

The connection between Maribelle and I was rich and full in a way that I doubted any of my anchors would ever quite match. She had given herself to me completely, and I walked up to her avatar, running my hands through her hair and grabbing a clump with a bow, holding her curls away from her face. 

"My sweet little pet, where are you?" I said into her face, causing her to blink, her sapphire blue eyes staring up at me as she realized that she had been summoned to Soulguard. 

Part of me wanted to be soft, tender, and loving to Maribelle. It was this part that felt like tenderness was expected of me. 

However, Maribelle had unlocked another part, a deep, dangerous part of me that seemed to have always been present. I had just never felt safe expressing it until I was with her. She had coaxed it out of me bit by bit. 

My pet loved to be chased, but the chase was only the prelude to being pinned and taken. The best way to describe Maribelle would be that she was aggressively and unconditionally submissive. She didn't want to be coddled, to be held. No, she just wanted to be taken, getting her pleasure from me seeking mine. It was a little bit of a mindfuck the first few times, but as I'd grown more comfortable with the concept, I too found my enjoyment completely free of guilt. 

Her eyes blinked up at me, focusing with the realization that she was in Soulguard only for a completely helpless expression that normally didn't match the anchor to appear. She swallowed, and I knew instantly what had happened. She had switched into becoming my prey. But there was no chase, not today, as I held her hair and pinned her down.

"My sweet, sweet little morsel, it's already too late. I will hunt you and I will chase you another night. Tonight, you've already been captured, and I will take my pleasure. I will take it out on not just your body, but also your soul," I whispered the last in her ear. 

As Maribelle moaned, her chest pushed up against the cold hard stone of the Soulgard tower. And I felt far more joy and pleasure in the move than I ever thought would be possible half a year ago.