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Karna tapped the table inside the gazebo with a finger while considering her next words carefully. She didn’t want to alienate this goddess or the Titans she represented, but to say she wasn’t impressed by the arguments she had been given was putting it mildly. “You should be aware of something. I’m not completely unsympathetic to the one that gave birth to me, or whoever my father is among your faction, but they’re not my parents. They might be biologically, but they did nothing to raise me. Which one do you think I’d consider my father? A Titan I’ve never met and who no one even knows who he is, or the man who took me in after I fell from the Divine Plane and has sheltered me ever since? The same thing for my mother. As I said, I'm not unsympathetic, but I'm not going to upend my life to salve the worries of a woman who by your own account chooses to stay imprisoned, and I'm guessing not in uncomfortable conditions. If it makes your political situation more complicated, then that’s too bad, but once again not something I’d sacrifice myself over.”

“Even so, she was imprisoned for giving birth to you, and you’re still in danger.” The goddess pointed out.

“Mmm, strictly speaking, I believe she was imprisoned for consorting with the exact wrong race instead of marrying another phoenix like a good princess of House Asuryan should. My birth just made things worse and brought the affair to light. Had the affair been discovered, she would’ve faced punishment even without me. I’m also not stupid enough to not realize that allowing herself to get pregnant was a power play in divine politics. These things don’t happen by accident at that level. Playing on my sympathies will not work. Now, before you get insulted, I’m not opposed to some sort of alliance with House Titannica when I do reach the Divine Planes, but you should not expect my automatic cooperation just based on heritage. You are essentially planning on using me to spearhead a revolution, or at least to become a bargaining chip.” Karna cut through the nonsense and went straight for the heart of the matter.

Narmada wasn’t displeased by her words. In fact, she seemed inordinately pleased for some reason. “As would everyone else. Thanks to your heritage, you will end up being a tool no matter what you try. Even if you decide to go your own way and defy all the other Houses, that too just makes you another player in the game, utilized by others. The question is, will you be a willing participant that gets raised to the throne, or will someone try to use you to produce an heir for a future challenge to the throne. You will need someone’s protection. No matter how strong you might become individually, there are limits to what a single being can accomplish.” The goddess pointed out calmly.

“Perhaps. And the incoming succession does complicate things. You said I’ll be in danger. I’ve been in danger since I was born, and while the danger might grow in the next few decades, that time is exactly what I need. If you want me to take the throne, then not only will you not want me to come to the Divine Planes now, but you’ll do your best to make sure I won’t have to for the foreseeable future either.” Karna stated confidently.

“Why?” The river goddess asked, humoring Karna for now. She seemed to be testing her.

“Because you don’t need just any candidate. You need the best possible candidate. And there’s a world of difference between someone who was brought to the Divine Planes by a goddess, and someone who Ascended there on her own power and effort. Especially if that someone makes the trip without the help of the Host and the Emissaries.” Karna had a smug look on her face as she spoke the last words.

That got Narmada’s attention. Karna was right. There was a different level of respect for those immortals that had Ascended to the Divine Planes when compared to those that were born there. There was no overt discrimination or favoritism, but the words of someone who’d shown the ability to rise through the planes with their own power always got that extra level of respect and leeway that a normal Godling or Divine Plane-borne immortals didn’t. And no one had made the journey from the Higher Planes on their own power for ages. If Princess Ynnead did, then she’d immediately earn the respect of many important people and would be taken much more seriously.

Truth be told, House Titannica was mostly prepared to back up the mother, as she was a respected True God with dual domains. She could be a serious contender for the throne, even if her victory was far from assured. Even if it would be better for the House Titannica if Ynnead, being part Titan herself, got on the throne, making it happen was almost impossible without using military power. Ynnead was just too young and inexperienced. She didn’t have the connections, or the stable position brought about by being a goddess of an important domain. Even if the princess would manage to reach godhood before the old emperor abdicated, she’d be a minor goddess at best. Getting her the support to ascend to the throne would be a struggle. Unless she earned enough respect in other ways. Even then it would be a long shot, but at least she could be presented as someone with incredible potential for greatness in the near future.

“That’s not a bad idea, but it leaves you vulnerable here. If I found your location, others will as well. And soon.” This possibility had also been considered, and it was among the plans they had made. They couldn’t really force Ynnead to come along, as they needed a willing ally, not someone that carried a grudge. Those that just wanted her to bear a child could be forceful, while House Titannica could not.

“As to that, I have a plan. I think the Emissary has been given a mission to approach the Outsiders in this area in order to form a deal of some sort. Would my guess be accurate? I thought as much. I think it would be beneficial if you joined that delegation and happened to bring me along. I…have an in with the one leading them.” Karna admitted. Ysendra would also love the fact that she was acting like a diplomat and might even be amused enough to agree just based on that alone. Unlikely but possible. It was always a bit of a game dealing with the dragon. That was why she hadn’t wanted to be the first to make contact.

“While it might help if a being like that would agree to protect you, would they really be enough to keep away True Gods long enough for you to Ascend?” Narmada could see the plan forming already and agreed on principle. This could work, assuming the princess could Ascend quickly enough. Smuggling the girl along the delegation would not be too difficult, though Tethrine would get suspicious. She could come up with a plausible reason though. The princess was a member of the local people, who would have an interest in the negotiations after all.

“You don’t think a Nakshatra strong enough?” Karna asked before noting the look on the goddess’ face. “Oh, you didn’t know about that, did you? Well, this should be interesting.”

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“What’s with the mortals?” Tethrine asked rather pointedly as the woman he suspected of being a goddess brought in a group of the stronger people currently residing on this world. One of them was even masked, though was obviously female. The prince had no idea what the point of bringing the mortals was. He had some theories, but they all seemed silly and pointless.

“They’ll be joining us during the negotiations.” The female immortal replied as if the whole thing was already decided.

This had been one of the theories he’d considered. In fact, it had been the most obvious one. “I see. Why? In fact, when did you decide to take part?” He had been ordered to accommodate the woman, but he was still in charge of the negotiations. In theory.

“They’ll be coming along for two reasons. First of all, this is their world. It’s only fair they get to participate, although they will be running their own negotiations parallel to ours. Secondly, and most importantly, they’ll be coming along because they arranged the meeting.” The woman ignored the other question in a rather obvious fashion.

Tethrine knew a diplomatic dodge when he saw one and saw no point in pressing the issue at the moment. The presence of the potential goddess, and perhaps more importantly her two bodyguards, could be highly useful. It could also be threatening, though tempered by the presence of the mortals. Bringing them along had that benefit at least. The downside was that it could end up sidelining him during the negotiations. He didn’t really care about the mortals. They didn’t truly matter. What did matter was, why bring them at all? What was the goddess planning? It was doubtful she would’ve brought them along just for the reasons she had mentioned. Although, there was one detail that stuck out. “They arranged a meeting with the Travelers? And how did they manage to swing that? I thought they were not in contact with the ones we seek.”

“In general, we aren’t. One of us apparently knew how to contact them however, and when asked…” Tsumi explained. This whole thing was proceeding so quickly that she wasn’t sure how to react, but she was playing along with Karna’s plans for now.

“Uh-huh. And when is this meeting taking place?” Tethrine wasn’t fond of the games obviously happening around him, but he had to admit that this saved him a lot of time. He also recognized the Headmistress of the Academy and knew she was reasonable. At least she wouldn't be a huge burden.

“At our earliest convenience. We have been provided a destination.” Tsumi replied curtly. This was all something Karna had arranged, and she didn’t even know where they were going. She didn’t even know how Karna had managed to make contact, or who they were meeting. Apparently someone powerful that the Emissary was sent to negotiate with, and she could guess it had something to do with the Outsiders from what she’d heard.

“I see. I do not appreciate this whole thing being dropped on me like this, but it would not be a good idea to keep them waiting. Now that we have mortals with us though, we need transportation.” Tethrine pointed out. He was not happy with the arrangement, but it would be counter-productive to fight the minor points here and now. Picking a fight over the details would be petty. He'd have to make sure the others followed his lead later on though.

"We have that arranged." Tsumi smiled a bit before they were all surrounded by a light and several rings that surrounded them before teleporting them somewhere.

The only reason Tethrine didn’t defensively lash out was because the goddess didn’t react and because he’d experienced such methods of teleportation before. In other lives. That raised some questions. “Where are we?” He asked as soon as they arrived inside some kind of structure.

“My tower.” The masked woman spoke. She seemed somewhat familiar somehow. He couldn’t quite put his finger on why.

Tethrine suddenly realized who she must be. He’d seen the tower in question before, which made sense. He knew the Grand Medjai’s daughter was a reincarnator, which explained the teleporter rings. “Miss Karna, I presume?” Her voice sounded a little different though. There was also a subtle difference in the aura of the girl when compared to the last time they met.

“Quite. Our destination is relatively close, so we won’t have to stay inside my tower for very long.” She explained.

Tethrine could sense the ‘tower’ suddenly accelerating away from the world, quickly leaving it behind before being swallowed by the spatial forces. Surprisingly, he could also sense the vessel using some sort of faster than light travel to speed the journey, combining magic and technology seamlessly. Most such FTL drives would not work in the soup of spatial forces that made up this universe, but this vessel seemed to have no such issues. ‘I think I’ll need to have a word with her again. Clearly, she can engineer things to a degree I didn’t expect. Even the Host would find these kinds of vessels useful.’

His thoughts were interrupted by their quick arrival. They had not been traveling for more than a minute or two, so even with the speed of this vessel, their target truly hadn’t been far. One of the walls showed the view outside, and even Tethrine had to shake his head in disbelief at the sheer size of the structure in front of them. It was like someone had stitched together pieces of several planets, enormous space stations, and something he could only describe with words like craftworld or city-ship. The whole thing was a hodgepodge of magic, technology, and sheer elements, and it seemed the place had been added to in a thousand different seemingly random ways over countless millennia. He’d heard about the Crossroads, and he had no doubt that he was looking at a rather sizeable chunk of that very place. How it managed to hold together was a mystery.

“That’s…big.” Tsumi managed to eloquently articulate.

“Indeed it is. Also damaged.” The one Tethrine now suspected to be Karna stated in a tone that seemed to be quite familiar with the structure. She had obviously visited the place before.

What he suspected to be the tower spirit suddenly appear in the middle of the group. “We’re being given instructions to dock.”

“Follow them.” The master of the tower instructed the spirit. It seemed a little odd that she’d be the one giving the commands as she was the weakest among them, but she was the one who controlled the tower.

As they approached, Tethrine sensed two enormous beings approaching and adjusting their course to fly along with the tower. The beings looked like a lovechild between a behemoth and a whale, and Tethrine could identify them as Astral Dreadnoughts, beings native to the Astral Plane and dangerous to even gods. The two seemed to be escorting them, and he could see why. There seemed to be thousands upon thousands of ships docked around the enormous structure, and they ranged from the arcane to the technologically advanced, and some were a mix of both, just like the tower they were on.

They could all sense and see powerful guardians floating all around the place, wearing a variety of equipment just as varied as the place itself. These guardians were from all kinds of races, most of which they didn’t recognize. Notably though, a large portion of them were immortals, and not weak ones either. It was clear that at least the guards of this place were extremely strong, though something about them suggested to the prince that their skills might not match their power, and that in many cases that power had been laid on a shaky foundation. He suspected many of these immortals had used various inefficient means to reach their rank instead of using the refined techniques of this universe or the reincarnators. That wasn’t all too surprising, considering this place was supposed to be the Crossroads. Even reaching the place would ordinarily require a high level of power or technology, but that didn’t mean all the universes these beings came from had refined techniques.

"It seems that turning this into a battle wouldn't be the wisest of ideas," Tethrine instructed the others. "We're heavily outnumbered and outgunned. Keep that in mind, and try not to piss off anyone."

“Wise plan. Though I would suggest that being too accommodating and servile will also have negative consequences.” The one that Tethrine assumed to be Karna spoke, sounding once again like she had experience. “Be firm but polite. Don’t allow yourself to be pushed around, but don’t go around picking fights either.”

“So, don’t act like an ass. Got it.” The large frame of the rank 9 warrior known as Wolfgang summarized.

Tethrine once again didn’t appreciate someone else giving orders, but the advice was good, likely based on experience, and largely what he’d said anyway, so arguing would’ve been petty. That seemed to be becoming a theme. Those around him seemed to be making their moves in a way that would make any of his arguments sound unreasonable. A good strategy, though annoying.

The tower soon reached the designated place, and they once again teleported outside, where they were met by a group of guards and a very official-looking woman from a race Tethrine did recognize from his earlier lives, though he couldn't recall the name. The blue-skinned woman was largely humanoid, but instead of hair, she had a headcrest of some sort on top of her head, with several tiny finger-sized extensions forming a whole. For some reason, he remembered that the entire species was female. Wonder why?

“Ambassadors. My name is Aleena, and I’ll be your liaison during your stay. You will be able to meet with the mistress shortly, but I have been instructed to provide you an opportunity to refresh yourselves beforehand. I understand this meeting came about quite abruptly, and the mistress is currently still dealing with another issue, so you’d have to wait a bit if you don’t avail yourselves.” The blue-skinned woman explained. “Alternatively, I can show you to the accommodations that have been provided to you, though you shall of course have the opportunity to use your ship during your stay.”

“Tower.” Karna corrected automatically.

“My apologies. In addition, there are some people that we’ve…been forced to apprehend for some time. You can discuss with them and check if they are someone you’d like to see freed. We’d be happy to release them into your care.” The woman explained while already leading them deeper inside the enormous construct. She was quite skilled at playing a hostess, and they found themselves following along without even noticing.