“This is unacceptable Vaingloth.”

“And yet, accepting it is what we will do Vitor.”

“No! This is not what we wanted!”

“Of course it is not. Someone’s calculations were incorrect.”

“Calculations? Vaingloth, there is a fragment of the Beast not a hundred miles from my city.”

“A hundred? Consider yourself lucky. Insikir has one within ten miles of his domain.”

“Lucky? No. I will not consider myself lucky Vaingloth. This is unacceptable. That thing could wake at any time and decide to stroll right through my domain and what would I be able to do to stop it? Nothing. Literally nothing.”

“Well there is always your sister, is there not?”

“Pfff, I asked Malgenia and her answer was that she didn’t want to do anything about them. Or she wants to study them. Or she thinks they’re a charming part of the landscape. Or, or, or. You know how she is.”

“Not so well as you do, but her answer doesn’t surprise me.”

“It doesn’t? Don’t tell me you’re in favor of these things? Our reigns can hardly be as ‘eternal’ as they were promised to be if we can run afoul of one of these things whenever they decide they need a snack!”

“Oh, I am terribly wroth with the existence of the fragments. More so than you are I would imagine. I simply do believe they are an issue we are currently equipped to deal with.”

“Not currently? Certainly you mean ‘not ever’? These are not finite entities. Even were we to bring all the force we have gathered to bear on them, we couldn’t erase a single one of the pieces of the Beast.”

“Lost one of your divine fragments finding that out did you?”

“Several.”

“Take heart, I believe we all have, and we’ve all come to the same conclusion.”

“That we are doomed?”

“Far from it. Has it not occurred to you that the creation of the Beast fragments was a predictable effect of the divine battles.”

“No. There was no indication that we might face a problem of this scope. I don’t recall reading a single report which mentioned we might have to deal with the Beast we summoned. That was very much not supposed to be how things were resolved.”

“Indeed. And who wrote those reports?”

– Neoteric Lord Vaingloth planting seeds for Dyrena’s eventual execution.

I was Malgenia. I had to be when I answered the door. Whoever was out there, Malgenia had to be who they were expecting, and there were at least eight terrible possibilities for who might want to meet with Malgenia looming in my head as I waved the door open. 

Only to find a Crow waiting for me.

“She’s in,” the Crow said. Or Crowkin I guessed. I hadn’t seen one before but Malgenia was familiar with them.

“Excellent. Perhaps she’ll also invite us in?” The woman who stepped from the shadows behind the Crowkin had not been there a moment earlier. Malgenia’s near deific senses were convinced of that. I, however, was sure they were wrong.

“How lovely. Visitors!” Channeling Malgenia wasn’t a muscle that had atrophied all that much after a month of being myself but I was still concerned with my performance. As far as I knew Malgenia’s expected response to visitors could have been to turn them into some of her ‘artwork’ with a snap of her fingers.

“Are we?” the woman was harder to make out than she should have been. I had the sense that she was a Blessed, but was she? 

In fact I wasn’t even certain she really there. All I felt confident in saying was that she was dangerous.

And I had Clarity and Responsibility in the house with me. That would have been enough for me to at least slam the door in their faces, except for lightest of brushes on my hand and some gentle laughter I heard as though from across the other side of the world.

I think we need to speak with them, Diyas said.

Yes, you really do, the woman said!

I have a really solid grip on my facial expressions. My Malgenia mask is harder than diamond and stronger than steel. Gaping in shock and surprise though was the only answer I could make to that aside from waving the two in.

“It’s okay Insight, you don’t have to pretend to be her if you don’t want to,” the Crowkin said and I nearly teleported myself and everyone I cared about back to Malgenia’s sanctum.

“We’ve got guests?” Clarity asked from behind me, rather than staying hidden away like I’d asked her to.

“Apparently ones who know a lot more than they should?” Responsibility said.

“Thank you Kalkit, would you like to get back to what you were doing?” the woman asked.

“They will need me, we’re almost at the crisis point I think,” Kalkit, the Crowkin said and with a wave of the woman’s hand, the Crowkin vanished.

“You’re not a Neoteric,” I said, adjusting to interpose myself between the woman and my…hmm, we hadn’t really put a name on what we were had we? My Deaths I guess?

“Delightfully, neither are you,” the woman said. “If you were this conversation would be very different.”

Night, stop teasing my Blessed, Diyas said.

“I said she was delightful,” the woman said with a pout. “None of you ever let me have my fun.”

“Wait, Night? As in the God of Night? As in…” I was still verbal. That was such a supreme accomplishment I feel I deserve unending praise and recognition.

Yay, all hail Insight, the word worker, Beauty said.

Foresoothe! Surely her questions shall lead us to something we haven’t already been told, eventually, Inhibition said.

Be nice you two, this isn’t a casual visit, Reason said, sobering them up and centering me.

“A representative, you may call me Meluna.”

“Your friend mentioned a crisis, does Night face a crisis?” Clarity asked.

“Not as such,” Meluna said.

“Does the crisis concern us?” Responsibility asked.

“It needn’t,” Meluna said.

Just dropping by to say ‘hi’ after all this time are you Night? Diyas asked, a strong note of reprimand in her tone.

“I am instructed to extends Night’s regrets for not speaking with you sooner Beautiful and Bountious Diyas.” Meluna sketched a small bow as punctuation to her words. “She is however rather absorbed in her present task.”

Extend my gratitude to her for her efforts, and let her know, assuming she’s not already aware, that Sola has taken a new Blessed.

“Yes! I met her! Singularly interesting I must say, especially given what she’s become.”

“Does she need shelter?” I asked, trying to work out why Night would be visiting Malgenia, or me since apparently she somehow knew that.

“I…you know, I am quite honestly not sure how to answer that. It may be we who need shelter from her, though I am willing for the present to accept the Foxwind’s judgement of the Blessed’s state.”

There’s a Foxwind as well! I could feel Diyas nearly dancing with delight. Oh! Sola must be so happy!

“She would be except for the small issue where she is currently bound by Vaingloth’s spells and cannot communicate or act through her Blessed or her Foxwind.” Meluna gestured to one of the chairs, asking permission to sit, which I granted with a nod.

As we all took seats around the central table, I conjured an extra in case my inner Deaths wanted to join us.

“Is that what you’re here for? I’m not Malgenia, but I do hold her power and I could probably break any spell Vaingloth could cast. Also, just out of idle curiosity, how in the ten thousands hells did you find out who I was?” I might have stood up then, and the candles which lit the room maybe flared with a deep purple light. I wasn’t being intimidating or threatening though. I was just a little curious you see.

Meluna is trustworthy, you needn’t worry, Diyas said in a calming, and amused, voice.

“Not at all. Though, sadly, Diyas is quite correct. In this, you may rely upon my discretion. As to how I came by the knowledge of your identity, you may take heart that it is quite safe. My associate Kalkit, whom you met, is the Blessed of Secrets.”

“Does that mean Insight’s identity is still a secret or that it was a secret and isn’t anymore?” Responsibility asked.

“It is, so far as I know, quite secure,” Meluna said. “With the current issue that is unfolding, I checked to see what the disposition of the Neoterics was only to discover that Malgenia was missing from her domain. That raised several important questions which is why I sought out Kalkit. He was able to locate where Malgenia’s power was secreted away but was quite as surprised as I to learn that it was no longer Malgenia’s.”

Which told me that the Blessed of Secrets didn’t know all of the world’s secrets all the time, otherwise I would have been discovered years ago.

“And so you thought you’d drop by an introduce yourself to make sure we weren’t going to foul up whatever undertaking Sola’s new Blessed is pursuing?” I asked.

“To be quite truthful when I learned that Malgenia was no more I was quite compelled to make your acquaintance on that basis alone,” Meluna said. “As you might imagine, Night is aware of nearly everything which transpires on this world, and yet you came as a surprise to both of us. I believe Night would have me shower you with accolades and praise as Malgenia represented a singular challenge amongst the Neoterics. Her removal is as welcome as it is unexpected.”

“You do want something though,” Clarity said.

“Of course. Many things in fact. At present however I believe learning about you three may be a critical priority. Whatever brought you out into Wastelands? This isn’t a safe area even for one who bears Malgenia’s power.”

“Kalkit couldn’t tell you that?” I asked, not at all showing that I was slight irritated that there was someone capable of knowing my most dangerous secrets.

“Didn’t. They didn’t. I can’t speak to whether it was knowledge they possessed or whether it was outside their domain. We traveled here rather swiftly and I’m afraid I did not have time for thorough research on you or your aims. For instance, I would gather that these two young women were once Malgenia’s Deaths?”

“The Death of Clarity.”

“The Death of Responsibility.”

Their introductions were accompanied by small nods.

“As I imagine you are important to the Death of Insight, I extend Night’s recognition to you as well. Call my name in dark places and I shall hear your words. I am not always free to act, but to the extent Night can assist, aid will be rendered.”

That was not at all what I’d expected her to say and the implications of having the last unbroken god on our side spread out faster than my imagination could follow.

“Thank you,” Clarity said. “I understand the need to limit information overflow, but it also sounds like something is occurring which we might be able to offer assistance with. You said it wasn’t anything we needed to be involved in, and I can understand at least some of the issues with Insight acting in her guise as Malgenia, but is this a situation where Responsibility or I could tilt the balance in the favor of Sola’s new Blessed?”

Meluna blinked at that and looked from Responsibility to me and then back to Clarity.

“That is an unexpected but welcome offer,” she said. “Alas, I can think of no means you might possess to effect the outcome of the events which are currently transpiring.”

“So we can’t do anything for you or for Sola’s Blessed?” Responsibility asked.

“By remaining here, you are doing everything which is needed of you,” Meluna said. “My primary objective in this visit was to ensure that you did not become involved and I see that was likely wise.”

I wanted to ask why, but I felt the shift in the world’s power all too clearly.

Vaingloth was moving.

And he was furious!

“Are you sure?” I asked her. “There is still time. I can stand against Vaingloth. He can’t overcome me.”

“That is why we need you to remain here,” Meluna said. “If you entered this conflict, Vaingloth would either withdraw or he would assault you.”

“He would not win that fight,” I said.

“No he wouldn’t,” Meluna said. “But…”

And I felt it.

Void.

Emptiness.

Vaingloth wasn’t just dead.

He was gone.