It was sometime after mid-morning Wilran finally stirred. Her body still had an odd stiffness about her, but the dizziness and nausea that had been prevalent the night before were long gone. A soft light penetrated the tent that brought about a comfort that was normally absent in the darkness. Darkness wasn't something that had bothered her in a long time, but even the most battle-hardened soldiers she knew had an irrational fear that often came with it. Even now as she reveled in the warmness of the light, it was a preference she wouldn't have traded for the world, save for the fullness of the moon.

  Wilran shifted her body and felt a small pop give way in her back. She started to stretch her arms high above her head, but the moment she felt her dominant arm rotate more than halfway up her shoulder, a stabbing pain ran down and around its joint and she let own a small yelp.

  "You really should put that in a sling."

  The feminine voice startled Wilran. She abandoned her stretch, shifted her body to place the ends of her feet on the floor, and then used the strength of her non-dominant hand to pull herself up by the cot.

  There, not five feet from her sat Delphi. The halfling was in a meditative position on the floor eyes closed. Not sure of what to say and wanting to avoid the awkwardness of the conversation regarding the halflings appearance, Wilran started with the obvious.

  "You're awake."

  Delphi smiled. Fine lines drew from the corners of her mouth the tips of her cheeks. The youthfulness of her face was long gone, and despite having the body of a twelve-completion old, she thought the Prophetess looked more her age.

  What happened to you?

  "For now. I'm still out of sorts and I can only imagine what I look like."

  "You look beautiful," Wilran lied. Truthfully, Delphi was beautiful, but the disfigurement had completely rocked the halfling's former glory.

  Still, Delphi smiled and met her brown eyes. "A kindness we say to those we know or care about. Would you have said the same thing if I was a beggar on the street?"

  "Yes," Wilran said truthfully but understood her point.

  It was hard to imagine an everyday Saintian not seeing the scars and recoiling, even if it was unintentionally.

  "An influence of Chandeidra I'm sure."

  "Maybe not," Wilran mused. "Chandeidra might teach us to love, but shouldn't Saintian decency expect the same of us? It seems our very being should want us to treat others with respect. The love of Chandeidra should drive us to push it further."

  "Perhaps. Saintians due tend to be their own worst enemy. Those that struggle with appearance the most are the same ones that have mirrors and portraits all over their dwellings. It's as if the more we see ourselves, the more we obsess with it."

  "A sad state," Wilran said as she flipped her own hair behind her shoulder. The irony of her own vanity was not lost on her. "The Goddess teaches self-reflection. Perhaps loving Chandeidra is just as important as loving ourselves."

  "Well reasoned. You have grown much since the last time we spoke. I hoped as much."

  Wilran raised a brow. "Hoped?"

  Couldn't you see?

  "Choice muddles the future."

  "Oh." Wilran trailed. The Prophetess was being vaguely cryptic. If it wasn't for her desire to know more, the conversation might have driven her mad. More infuriatingly, Delphi changed the subject.

  "It was wrong of my sister to ask so much of you."

  That's a surprise, Wilran thought. The statement caught her off-guard and she shifted her body awkwardly.

  "It was still my choice. I could have done nothing."

  Delphi's eyes narrowed. She stared hard at Wilran as if what she was about to say was not only obvious, but extremely important.

  "A choice is a matter to consider. My sister removed it the moment she sent me to you. Even if you freely wanted to help, the situation she put you in took advantage of your good nature. An ascended should know better. Why do you think she came to you and not Gamma?"

  Huh? Surely you wanted to live. Surely, the Goddess Edlyn knew what was best, even if I didn't see the big picture. Why are you so upset? Shouldn't I have helped you?

  "I don't know."

  "Because Gamma," Delphi shouted in anger. Her voice carried around the tent and Wilran was sure it could have been heard by those outside. "Would have used the mask to channel Chandeidra and She would have refused. The Gods cannot interfere with death directly. It was still a risk coming to you, but at least she wouldn't face outright rejection. Chandeidra still lets you direct your own magic, even if you are her prophet."

  Wilran looked away. She couldn't face the angry gaze of someone she had come to care about, especially over a matter of life and death. "You would rather me let you die?"

  "I..." the Prophetess faltered. "My sister has a soft spot when it comes to me. El maybe perfect, but his chosen family is far from infallible. Despite the goodness that lives inside of them, they too are tempted by their Saintianity. By the time my sister left her adopted family to find me, she had spent completions watching out for her adopted brother. Having left him behind to take care of me, she projected a lot of that love in my direction. I don't regret it or you saving my life, but actions have consequences."

  "But clemency! Surely El would grant Edlyn clemency?"

  Delphi shook her head and looked down to the floor. "He already has, but the Gods play by higher rules. Edlyn broke the command; therefore, atonement must be paid. Lilith has already demanded it."

  As if to demonstrate, Delphi gave a slight twirl of her hands and chanted a cantrip. The well-known spell was so familiar to Wilran she would have been able to perform it in her sleep. Despite what should have been a short casting ritual, she continued to watch in confusion while the Prophetess performed its motion over and over, but no energy ever manifested, no spell came forth. Wilran raised an eyebrow, but after Delphi's fourth or fifth attempt, the halfling threw down her hands in anger; much like a youngling pouting for not getting their way.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  "El removed my mental link."

  Wilran gasped. She tried not to think of how spiritually draining that might be to someone like Delphi. Mentally she compared it to Rory using the power of the mask to banish Gamma, but that wasn't exactly close. Even after the banishment, Gamma still had the link, even if she ignored it.

  Where would Gamma be if that had happened? Where would I be if that had happened to me?

  "Your magic is gone?"

  "Everything's gone," exclaimed Delphi. "My link, my magic, my visions, and my immortality. I'm almost absolutely useless to the war effort."

  Now Wilran felt really sorry for the halfling. Here she thought Delphi would be worried about trifling things like her scaring and missing hair. She never imagined it would have been serious to make the Prophetess lose everything she held near and dear.

  "What about the mask?"

  In a blink of an eye and a short flick of the wrist, Delphi summoned Edlyn's mask into her hands. Its wooden frame and brown swirls were smaller than she had imagined, but there was no mistaking its distinctive shape and leafy outline.

  "I have never needed it, but it's my birthright to wear the mask. I share in the blood. El cannot take that away from me."

  That sounds familiar...

  "Then you're okay?"

  Again, Delphi shook her head. "No. The mask comes with its own set of rules. It takes...a lot out of the Goddess."

  Wilran unknowingly blinked. It was the second time in a short span Delphi had mentioned the fallibility of the gods.

  "I can tell your confused. If I had not spent many lifetimes studying it, I don't think I would understand it much either."

  "Try me." Wilran pleaded with a weak smile.

  Delphi stood from her position and stretched out her tiny arms. Afterwards, she took a small stroll around the tent carefully taking her time walking around the edges of the room. By the time she was finished, she sat back down in the same spot on the floor and made a statement that Wilran thought made absolutely no sense.

  "No Delphi sits in the same spot twice."

  What?

  "I'm not sure I understand."

  Delphi giggled and gave a short smile. "Of course not. I would have been quite impressed if you had. It is why I showed it to you. Consider the following four things you just witnessed."

  Once more she stood up, but this time she gestured to herself. "Being."

  Next, she interlocked her fingers and pushed her arms outward. Small pops cracked along her knuckles and forearms. "Identity and change."

  After that, she took another quick stroll around the room, before once more coming to stand in the same spot as before. "Time and space."

  Finally, she sat down. She gestured to Wilran with one hand, then used both her hands to gesture to herself.

  "Causality. No matter what I do, it is both physically and spiritually impossible for me to be the same I was moments before. My very being was changed the moment I stood and stretched. Time moved and my body aged the moment I walked around the room. Even your own observations of me where not the same. And that's just me. The floor changed, the air changed, even you changed just by watching me. These are the rules by which the Gods and Goddesses live by. They are metaphysical creatures tied to two planes of existence. They exist in one place, but their power comes from their followers and the mask El gave them. If more followers put their faith in them, the stronger they grow, and the more powerful the mask becomes. However, the mask also acts as a release. Each spell that's cast with it drains the God or Goddess. Too much could kill them...and quite possibly their followers."

  Wilran thought back to what Delphi had said earlier. "But you said El is perfect. Wouldn't he also be subjected to these rules? Wouldn't that by definition make him fallible?"

  "I can see how you would think that, but no. Remember, what I told you a few completions ago. El is transcendent. As the creator of both realms, he is above both of them. He walks in both, but exist in neither. Therefore, he is not subject to the items that bind them. However, because of his eminence, he will uphold the rules, because of..."

  "Our choices, I know..." Said Wilran letting out an exasperated groan.

  She had never considered the lasting consequences of her own choices. Most of the time Wilran thought her choices only affected herself or at most, one or two other people. But now she realized that was not true. Large groups of people, maybe even the whole world could be affected by what she did. More amazingly, if what Delphi said was true, even the Gods can and do make fallible choices that could change the fate of the world.

  "I guess we should be grateful only El doesn't have to play by the rules. Imagine if Lilith...wait." Wilran said jumping to her feet and shouted emphatically. "Lilith destroyed Goldale!"

  Delphi gave her a weak smile. "I think you've almost got it. Much quicker than I did."

  "Let me see if I got this." Wilran said while trying calmly to collect her thoughts. "To destroy the city, Adreanna would have had to use the mask. Something that powerful would have surely drained her, perhaps even enough to kill her, maybe even destroyed Lilith once in for all."

  The more Wilran thought about it the more she became angry. If she was right, they had the perfect chance to stop Adreanna, and they blew it by not pushing forward to Goldale after saving Lightmount. Instead, they chose to worry about things that could have been handled in the aftermath. The war could have been over by now and she, along with everyone else had wasted any opportunity they had on just biding their time. Not that the things they were doing weren't important, but temporary problems were just that, temporary.

  "You think so little of Lilith. She saved you."

  Wilran was foaming. "SHE TRIED TO KILL ME!"

  But she didn't have to try, she is a god...

  Delphi turned but said nothing. From the flap of the tent someone ran in, but Wilran ignored them. Instead, she continued to berate the halfling.

  "Chandeidra tried to say the same thing to me. I care not for Lilith's problems. I owe her nothing."

  "Wilran?" called a soft voice from the flap, but Wilran continued to ignore it as she turned her ire on Delphi.

  "Why didn't you do something? Why didn't Chandeidra do something? She could have sent Gamma, myself, or Thepa. We were all right there in Lightmount. We could have hopped on board the Arcadia, maybe not to stop Goldale's destruction, but at least we could have prevented further bloodshed. We could have stopped Adreanna completely in her tracks."

  "Chandeidra could not," Delphi muttered.

  Wilran stared hard at the halfling. In the completions she had known the Goddess Chandeidra she had never been more upset with her than she was in this moment.

  "Why not?"

  Delphi met her eyes. They were soft and pleading, but the age she saw in them now grew by leaps in bounds. "You more than anyone should understand why. She was just as weak."

  Wilran rolled her eyes and threw both her arms into the air. The dominant one cried out in pain, but it was another thing she chose to ignore. "Weak? Cowardness is a weakness I guess."

  That's a low blow... you don't mean that.

  Delphi bit her lip and closed her eyes. Without looking up, she returned Wilran's bitterness with carefully soothed words. "Remember, the magic of the mask weakens the Goddess. That same night, Chandeidra performed two acts of pure kindness, neither of which had ever been seen on Sainta. The first of which stands before me: a Saintian soul absent of iniquity. The second was allowing Thepa and Gamma a chance at reconciliation with Rory. The combined effort almost killed her and Gamma. I'm willing to bet Gamma couldn't cast a single cantrip for a long time.

  "Gamma?" Wilran asked. Her voice cracked on the last syllable, and she could feel her face flush.

  Finally, Delphi opened her eyes, now watered. "It was well timed on Lilith's part. A perfect gift to push forward her plan. The minute Rory came through this plane, it affected Adreanna. At first, Lilith was angry, but quickly realized the amount of magic Chandeidra would have to use to bring Rory back and took advantage of her sister's weakened state and destroyed the city. Normally, that kind of magic requires a tether. By the time I was able to figure out what was going on and get there, she was already gone. Carried away on the backs of thousands of new followers now that Typhon no longer had any control over them."

  A soft hand found Wilran's shoulder, and she turned in its direction. There she found Elineia. Lines of worry crossed her friend's face into the large scar that ran down her nose. The elf's lips parted in a frown and when she spoke, Wilran could hear the trepidation in her vocal cords.

  "Everything alright in here?"

  The comfort eased her, but only just. She grabbed her friend's hand and gave it a small squeeze before settling down near the cot as her anger dissipated leaving behind a wake of confusion and embarrassment. Elineia sat down next to her and when Wilran turned her head back towards the direction of the Prophetess, she asked the question she didn't want to ask, because she feared she already knew the answer.

  "So, Adreanna is more powerful now?"

  Delphi brought up a single hand to the bald side of her head and rubbed it down her face. The gesture was not lost on Wilran who understood its meaning even before the halfling answered.

  "Yes."

  Wilran sighed. What hope do we have now?