For the Record

Well, this is definitely someplace I haven’t been before. What is this, water? It looks like the walls, floor, ceiling… they’re all made of water.

Not frozen either, it’s rippling… but it’s supporting weight too. I test it momentarily, and sure enough, it doesn’t even give under pressure.

Strange.

I look around, and it looks like I’m in some kind of hunting lodge… the decorations are reminiscent of Arty’s treehouse, other than the type of monsters… I’m not really sure what they are, but most of them have scales of some kind. Some are smooth with round faces and big teeth… and no feet. Do they float like me then?

Ah, and there’s Izzy… and a lot of others…

They’re all in some kind of matching armor, also covered in scales, holding tridents with a faint glow to them.

And completely unresponsive. I wave a hand in front of my wife’s face… but all I get in response is… well, nothing. Her dead eyes just keep staring emptily ahead… but I can tell she’s still alive…

Well, as alive a she ever was after I changed her.

“Come on, Izzy. Let’s go home.”

…

Still no response.

Nothing.

Huh.

Experimentally, I give her a small push… and she simply steps back to her previous position.

…

She’s not herself.

She’s not herself at all.

I give her a gentle brush with Consume… I remember she always liked that… at least I think she did. It’s been a long time, and I can’t help that my memory of it has gotten at least a little hazy. Maybe I’m only recalling the good, rather than the bad…? I know she also got mad at me a lot, though I can’t quite remember why… at least not in this moment.

Hey, finally a reaction! Not the one I wanted though, as my wife promptly Blinks behind me and tries to insert her trident through my midsection…

Fruitlessly.

“Honey. Baby. Sweetie. You were there every time some fool tried to kill me like this. You know it won’t work, see?”

I grab the trident by the shaft and pull her through myself to stand in front of me…

And she promptly tries again. I can’t help but sigh.

A few more minutes of this and I’m starting to lose my patience, but before I can act a voice interrupts us, deep but smooth.

“That’s enough, Eles. It’s clearly more than a simple wraith, I assume some kind of messenger, yes? Thank you for notifying me, please return to your post. Tell me then, intruder, whom do you represent?”

Izahne returns to her previous position without a word as I turn to the newcomer.

“Represent? I am Nemesis, come to retrieve my long-absent wife.”

A bemused smile spreads across his face as he offers a sidelong glance toward her. “Oho, the demon of the battlefield itself. I assume you refer to this?”

“Don’t call her ‘this’,” I snap back. “She belongs to me. I won’t tolerate this. She’s clearly not herself, what did you do to her?”

“Nothing too special. I’ve been doing this for a very long time, you see… it’s a simple trade. New gods come inexplicably to my home, and I offer them a Vessel in exchange for servitude. This one is no different.”

“You enslave gods, then.”

The unknown god shrugs theatrically. “As I’ve said, I’ve done this for a long, long time. It’s a simple exchange.”

“Uh huh. And why exactly is this place so hard to find?”

“Also simple. I collect ancient artifacts… tools of the magical variety, some even dating to before the Record, you see. Ones that can bypass the Record’s rules. One of them happens to block telepathic perception and communication – at least of the incoming variety.”

So that’s why I could feel her, but she probably couldn’t feel me… she probably would have responded. But I can still feel the bond between us… it’s definitely still there.

“And how long exactly is this servitude?”

His gaze shifts toward me again with a predatory grin. “Indefinite.”

“So yes, you enslave gods. Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you right now. RETURN HER TO ME.”

“You speak as if I would be simple to slay. A secret… I won’t be. I’m far stronger than you seemingly expect, as are many of the others… and even if you did, you’d be promptly targeted by the order faction. Oh, did you assume I would lack allies? You are already an enemy of the dark pantheon; we’ve let you be since you ended your hostilities. If you want my Eles–”

“HER NAME IS NOT ‘ELES’,” I snarl.

He sighs. “Civility, please.”

“Fuck you.”

“If you want a trade, then I strongly recommend you curb your temper. As I was saying when I was so rudely interrupted… if you want my Eles, what do you offer in trade? She is a talented executioner, you see, although she is unfortunately… quite homely, yes? Certainly not gold, possibly iron and not much better in quality, I’d say.”

There’s something wrong with his voice… I can’t quite put my finger on what, but there’s something laced into his words…

Persuasion? No, that’s not it…

What the hells is it?

(Charm, probably. It’s probably a Skill,) Nyx comments, and I feel a confirmation from Artemis.

“Don’t you fucking patronize me,” I say as I smash the feeling worming into my mind with every bit of my will. “What did you want, for me to offer myself? I WILL KILL YOU.”

“No, you will try. What do you hope to accomplish with that weak surrogate? Nothing. You will accomplish nothing.”

“We’ll see.”

I begin weaving the words of creation before he interrupts me with a simple statement…

“You are no longer welcome here. Begone.”

And before I can even think about what he’s said, I can tell my kin is gone. Destroyed.

I promptly attempt to send another through the same route… and although I can feed another of my kin into Izahne’s dimensional storage easily enough, exiting it is… a whole different issue.

I can’t.

I can’t get through.

Why can’t I get through?

My fox wife unexpectedly appears and wraps her arms around me. I briefly bristle at the surprise but take a breath… I don’t want to lose her too.

I don’t want to lose anyone. And that’s why I’m not finished.

…

I don’t even know who the hells that was.

“Ceto,” Artemis says quietly into my chest.

“Doesn’t matter who he is. I’m going to kill him and take Izzy back. She wasn’t even present in her mind… I’m going to return whatever that bastard did to her a thousand fold, and then I’m going to massacre his plane. Or maybe in the other order… He needs to suffer.”

“Maybe.”

“No. Definitely. Take me to him.”

And she just furrows her brow.

“Why not?” I ask with more than a little impatience and a touch of hostility.

“Can’t.”

“Wait, you can’t? Don’t tell me it’s another thing like what Themis had…”

“Stronger,” she answers quietly. “Probably. Can’t. Tried.”

I…

I’m powerless.

I’m powerless again.

NO.

NO NO NO.

I won’t accept this.

I REFUSE TO ACCEPT THIS.

This is… more of any emotion I’ve felt before.

What is it?

Anger?

Irritation?

I want to kill him.

I want to rip his soul out.

I want to tear apart everything he values, everything he’s worked for before his eyes.

I want him to suffer.

(Rage,) my angel of envy answers flatly.

Ah. That’s what it’s called.

Rage.

I continue to learn, even after my many centuries, but that doesn’t stop me from gritting my teeth hard enough that even the compressed ash my body is made of begins to crack.

I don’t understand.

ANY of it.

She’s my wife.

We’re married.

That means I belong to her, yes, but more importantly… she belongs to me.

And he took her anyway.

Nothing makes sense.

NOTHING.

And I feel something…

Change…

Something inside me.

Something… sHifts.

no.

this is wrong.

wrong. it's wrong

wr

o

ng Wr

o

ngw

Rrogn

e-

I roar in an unfamiliar voice... that I somehow know is my own - a voice that rattles the plane, that rattles the entirety of the real itself

as something deEp inside me

soMething impOrtaNt

bREaKs.

I feel myself begin to breach the surface, as thousands of my mirror smooth feelers pierce the real from the space between space, tearing at the divinity holding the Shadowed Plane intact.