People rushed to meet Dee almost before her dragon form had even landed after exiting the Astral Sea. She had somewhat expected that, though the number of people was a bit over her expectations. Most of them were either messengers or those simply curious to see her from close. What did catch her by surprise a bit was that the seer she was looking for was among those that were the first ones to reach her. In fact, the only one faster than the seer had been Moirai. “Are you alright?” Moirai asked, clearly agitated.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Dee asked a little surprised. They shouldn’t know anything about the demon attack, and the attack should not have elicited a response like this.

The seer that Dee now knew to be something more than that replied in Moirai’s stead. “Apparently the Celestial Court knew about you leaving the confines of the Five Winds and sent multiple immortals in an attempt to hunt you down. I assume they thought it would be easier to get at you when you were alone. I told Moirai she didn’t need to worry, but you know that worries don’t always listen to logical arguments. Your return came at the perfect time actually.”

“In more ways than one.” Dee said, before shifting back to her normal form. The dragon form was many things, but quiet was not one of them. “A…semi reliable source told me your husband is coming soon.” She waved at her hand in a dismissive gesture at the word reliable. Not that she doubted Umbra, but calling the goddess reliable would be giving too much credit.

The empress grimaced. She had hoped to have this conversation at a better time. “Yes, well, husband in name. I should probably re-introduce myself. The Celestial Empress, at your service.” She gave a small mocking curtsy.

“I’ve got about a hundred questions, but I suppose those can wait. There are more urgent matters. You didn’t seem surprised by my words.” Dee pointed out.

“I appreciate your tact, and I wasn’t surprised. I still have plenty of sources in the Celestial Court, and they already sent word that the emperor is preparing to make a move. That’s what I meant with you coming at the perfect time. I have plans that we can implement when he does make his move, but they require exquisite timing and decisive action. Before that, everyone involved needs to know what to do. You coming back when you did gives me the chance to explain. We might want to move this to where the other relevant people are already gathered.” The empress explained.

The empress made an inviting gesture towards some of those relevant people that had just arrived upon receiving the word of Dee’s return, namely Nyx and Razark. They all separated from the crowd and went to the gathering in the room the representatives usually used for unofficial business. Most people were kept out, but all the representatives, as well as the leader of the Crimson Witches, were present, along with the most powerful members of their little alliance. The empress took the leading role in the proceedings, and even explained her own connection to the Celestial Court and fielded a few simple questions before moving on.

“As you’re no doubt aware at this point, the Celestial Emperor has taken a dim view of both Teresa and Dee, and for related reasons has taken a dim view on the community of Five Winds. One of those related reasons is that I’m here, so basically the Five Winds is harboring three people the emperor is displeased with. I’d like you to take note that I mentioned an important point just now. The Celestial Emperor has taken a dim view, but the Celestial Court as a whole doesn’t really care. To the court, most things besides perhaps my presence are immaterial, and my presence is not a big enough matter to really warrant a hostile response. They might actually have warm relations with us if the emperor was not present. Thus, our real problem is the Emperor, not the Celestial Court as a whole.” The empress summarized the situation.

“Is that not a distinction without difference? From what I understand, the emperor has an unbreakable grip on the court.” Shioko asked.

“Not when you consider why he has that grip. The Celestial Court is made up of over a hundred races nominally working together, but each having their own ambitions and desires. They also have powerful enough people that several of them working together could have the power to overthrow the emperor. The court also has a habit of poaching powerful individuals, mainly the immortals, from the lesser circles, some even against their will. So why has no one overthrown him in all these years? Two reasons. Well, three really if you consider all the work I did from the shadows before coming here, but that factor is gone now.” The empress managed to get a little sidetracked.

“Less patting yourself on the back. We’ve been benefitting from your advice in the last years as well, so no need to focus on that. Get to the point.” The Anshar representative joked in an attempt to lighten the somber mood that was building at the prospect of facing the Celestial Court.

The empress smiled at the attempt. “Yes, well, to the point it is then. First of all, the emperor is in the habit of taking hostages. Those hostages are all treated like royalty and nothing bad happens to them, so there’s less reason to complain, especially since it’s something everyone has to deal with. The hostages are also rotated on a relatively frequent basis, so there is less resentment due to losing a family member for years on end. However, the emperor makes sure all the hostages are too important to lose. So there’s no opportunity to send a useless hostage. A really potent example is my companion there. Would you care to explain” The empress gestured at the flamboyantly dressed Phoenix.

The man stepped forward. “Our race is not exactly fecund, so each young Phoenix that is hatched is extremely important to our race. The emperor has decreed that all females of our race are to have their eggs in captivity and the emperor is keeping all the eggs as a hostage. The eggs take decades to hatch even under constant care and not all of them will provide a living hatchling. At any time there could be a dozen or so eggs under the emperor’s thumb. Our race could not deal with such a loss as it would take too long to recover.”

That brought some nasty and commiserating remarks from everyone gathered. The empress waited a while before she continued. “The second reason the emperor can hold his position is something you are starting to get a small taste of. He has a Domain that is rather similar to what Dee has, only he has a lot more experience in using it. Shioko can you tell me what you feel at the thought of going against Dee?”

“I…can’t. I would die.” Shioko managed to utter with a shudder. The amount of raw emotion in her voice was clear to everyone.

“And that’s with Dee barely having gained full control over her Domain.” The empress pointed out. “The emperor has everyone under his thumb, and few people are capable of even contemplating going against him. However, if enough people did and the powerful people were given enough reason to, that could change. I have a reason to believe that if Dee applied her own Domain, the emperor would lose his hold on people. Something to be aware of though, is that it works both ways. I doubt you will be able to suppress his abilities Dee.”

“So is that your plan then? Have Dee use her Domain to counter the Celestial Emperor and instigate a rebellion? That sounds a bit wishful and half-assed. Not up to your usual standards.” Nyx interjected, clearly not pleased with the idea.

The empress shook her head. “That’s just a part of it. I already mentioned that the emperor is coming here, most likely with a fair number of his most powerful subordinates. He expects to go against the Living Mountain, me, Dee, Teresa and possibly a lot of the Crimson Witches, as well as all of you. He wouldn’t dare come without enough forces to match that at the very least.”

“That doesn’t sound good for us.” Razark pointed out the obvious.

“Indeed. That’s why they will never get here, and even if they do, we will not be here to meet them. I have people in position ready to send me a word as soon as the emperor starts to move. The first part of my plan is to be away from here by then, and that we’ll disable any teleportation gates in the vicinity. Thanks to our coalition against the Spider Cult, all our neighbors owe us a debt, and I’m sure they wouldn’t mind repaying that by disabling their own gates for a short time, especially if we provide them with a good enough excuse to do so. Say, for example, a delayed party for our victory that we want to keep private. That will buy us some time to act. The emperor is stubborn enough to use a more distant gate and travel over land, and will not reach here before he has to turn back.” The empress outlined.

“Will they not just make their own spells to teleport people over? I seem to recall hearing that the wolf tribes can emergency deploy their own forces if the need is dire enough.” The leader of the Rakshasa asked.

“Emergency teleportation over vast distances is viable, but only works for a small number of individuals. Remember, the emperor needs to come in force. Besides, even if the emperor could manage that, we’ll throw up a spell to block spatial magic as we leave to prevent scouts from using that method.” Amarog guessed correctly.

“And what do we plan to do with the time we are buying? You mentioned the emperor being forced to turn back.” Razark asked, deciding to play the part of asking obvious questions for expediency.

“First, we’ll evacuate everyone not essential for the main operation. I’m pretty sure the Lacademonians, for example, will be happy to take them in for a while. Then we will do the thing the emperor least expects. We’ll attack the Celestial Court itself. I have not been idle all these years, and we’ll have some help from other communities in the first circle. The Coven at least is almost salivating at the chance to strike at the emperor, and a few other communities wouldn’t mind bringing the Court down a notch.” The empress smiled, rather pleased with herself.

“And what exactly are we hoping to accomplish? Like you said, the court itself is not our problem, the emperor is.” Shioko asked.

“We are attempting to sever the emperor’s hold on the court, as well as remove his power base. If we set the hostages free and release the different factions from the emperor’s hold, then he will have to face us personally in an attempt to retain his hold over the court. Unless he gets his own hands dirty, the other members of the court will lose their trust and reverence, and thus his Domain will lose power. And I’m willing to take my chances with that. Or at least I’m willing to bet Dee or Teresa can deal with him. With the emperor gone, the different factions will be too busy to wage an external war with us due to an internal struggle. The new emperor might even be rather grateful. I’ll personally make sure the new emperor will not be the type to attempt solidify his hold by trying to accomplish what the previous emperor failed at, namely taking care of us.”

“Who exactly did you manage to get help from in the first circle?” Teresa asked with interest. She had not spent enough time in the first circle to sound out any support she might gather. Anastasia had tried with limited results, despite the wondrous power of the gift basket.

“The Heavenly Temple and the Children of Gods were rather eager. They have had their own troubles with the Celestial Court before. For some odd reason…” The empress coughed and pointed at Dee. “…the dragons were rather willing to offer support as well. Apparently, they were not all that pleased with what happened to Xinglong either. Then there’s the Coven of course. I was planning on approaching the Titans as well, but things escalated a bit too quickly. We can manage without them, though it would have been nice.”

“I assume you also have an actual plan of action as well?” Razark asked, already resigned to follow along.

“Of course. As it happens, many of the security features of the Celestial Court were designed by me, partly because the emperor is not an expert in such things and knew I would do a better job. To the surprise of absolutely no one, I can also get us through those defenses. Most of them at least.” The empress had to grimace a bit at her last words.

“Most?” Dee asked with a sneaking suspicion that she would not like this.

“Well, it is my understanding that you can take a small group inside the palace and I can help us deal with the security once we are inside. However, we’re on a clock with this operation and everything needs to happen before the emperor returns, so you’ll need to use the quicker portals Nyx told us about. It is my understanding that those require you to actually physically carry anyone going with you. That won’t help us get most of our forces inside. Thus, we will need to use a small group to disable the field preventing other spatial magic from reaching the palace to allow everyone else to rush in. And the emperor might have been rather insistent on handling the security of the spell keeping that particular field up. He never did completely trust me and he’s not an idiot. He knows that field is the key to the palace defense, so…” The empress sounded genuinely apologetic.

Dee sighed. “Alright, I kind of expected something like this. It would be too much to hope I could just walk in and flash my Domain around to claim victory. How bad could it be?”

------

The Five Winds had started sending their people to safety in small groups well before the emperor made his move. A mass exodus would have drawn too much attention, but a slightly increased traffic into several directions was much less noticeable, and the emperor didn’t really even care about the general population of the Five Winds. A large portion of the evacuees went to the Lacademonians, but not so many that it would make them an attractive target instead. The Five Winds had a lot of friends at the moment, so there were plenty of safe havens to be found.

The plan was that the Celestial Emperor would never actually make it to the Five Winds before turning back, but they had to take measures in case the emperor decided to send a smaller force to continue on out of spite. The Anshar and Dagon representatives stayed behind with some of the Rakshasa to make sure a small scouting party would not be able to destroy everything they had built. It was a large possibility that the mission of staying behind might turn into a suicide one, which is why those that stayed behind did so as full volunteers.

All teleportation gates except one had been disabled long before, and as soon as they got the word about the emperor making his move, they all used that remaining gate before it too was disabled by those staying behind. They soon found themselves in the area controlled by the Crimson Witches which had been chosen as the staging ground for the attack. It was out of place and rarely used by anyone, but now the area was brimming with powerful beings.

“So let me get this straight. Counting the Crimson Witches as well, a full half of the first circle communities are taking part? How did you manage to wrangle that?” Nyx asked in a subdued tone. The beings present here were all extremely powerful, and many were also imposing in their appearance.

“Well, while most communities are not aware, those in the first circle with real intelligence know of me and my importance to the Celestial Court. They see this as a perfect opportunity to teach the court a lesson. The emperor has been throwing his weight around for centuries, and the others are not happy. That said, it’s not like we’re getting the full support of the others. We’re mostly getting aid that is almost more symbolic. The Dragons, for instance, are not flying to support us in force, but they did send a handful of their more powerful members. Not the most powerful mind you. But that’s fine. We’re not trying to eradicate the court. That fight would ruin half of the first circle.” The empress explained.

Dee was more focused on observing the various beings around her. The dragons all gave her odd looks that she wasn’t entirely sure how to take. They weren’t hostile, but they were not exactly friendly either. The closest word that came to her was ‘interest’. Still, the dragons and the Crimson Witches were perhaps the most boring participants of this gathering. Everyone knew and understood their power, but the others were less obvious.

The monks of the Heavenly Temple seemed the most unassuming, but Dee could sense they were all one with the nature around them and ready to spring into action on moment’s notice. Still, they hid their power well, even from her sight. What made things interesting was that Dee recognized a handful of the monks from her time at the old man’s volcano. Those monks had gone there for training and to exchange knowledge. At least one of the monks present had been Dee's sparring partner on few occasions, and Dee had based some of her own skills on those she had seen the monks use. She half expected the old man to show up, but was slightly disappointed to see that was not the case.

The witches of the Coven were almost like small stars radiating power to Dee’s magical sight. These more warlike members of the Coven were undoubtedly some of the greatest magic users on Pantheon. Every piece of equipment and every ornament was enchanted to the utmost degree and there were waves of elemental power radiating off the witches even when they weren’t doing anything. Dee was almost certain that all of them had battle related elemental totems of some sort and would have almost perfect control over their chosen element. And as usual for the Covenant witches, they all exemplified their own idea of perfect physical beauty, be it male or female.

Yet, even the witches lost in appearance to the last group. There were twelve beings spread between both male and female humanoids, all of them even taller than Dee. They must have been at least three mels tall at the shortest. They were all what could only be called perfect when it came to their bodies and appearance. Every muscle was the perfect size and in the perfect place. Every contour was just the way it should be and there wasn’t a single blemish on any of them. Their features were all perfectly symmetrical and pleasing to the eye, giving the impression of ‘this is how one should look’. Yet there was something otherworldly about them. Beauty was always in the eye of the beholder, as made obvious by the Coven, but these beings seemed to somehow transcend that.

“I see the Children have caught your eye.” Nyx commented to Dee with a slightly lascivious grin.

“The Children?” Dee noted the odd emphasis.

“Yes.” The empress interjected. “Their community is called the Children of the Gods, as that is exactly what they are. Gods don’t often have actual children, even though they may call some of their creations as such, but when they do, the result is what you see. The Children might be the only beings that have received even more gifts when it comes to their physical bodies than you. The Children are all universally beautiful, statuesque, and self-assured. Their bodies are naturally almost immune to magical attacks, and highly resistant to almost everything else. They also naturally command the power of magic without any form of study. They are born Immortal and don’t age after reaching maturity and even their surroundings seem to react to their moods. When they are unhappy the clouds might cry in concert with them, the flowers might wilt and dead animals can be found washing ashore and rotting in the forests. Yet they are perhaps some of the most tragic beings as well.” The empress said in a faraway voice.

“And why is that?” Dee asked.

“Because their power is determined at birth. Theirs is a fate tied to their parents and waxes and wanes when the power of the parent does. They can never simply train to increase their strength. Although they are all powerful, there has never been one of their kind that could be counted among the most powerful beings of Pantheon, let alone the universe. And should something happen to their divine parent, they will follow that parent to death. Their might is strong but their fates are sealed.” The empress’ eyes sharpened as she received a message. “Anyway, this is not the time for such things. We have to act quickly. The emperor just led his forces out from the first circle.”

“So who is actually going to the palace with me?” Dee asked ready to act. She had heard the composition of some of the other groups that would strike with their own missions once the spatial field came down, but no details on her own group. Though she could make guesses based on a simple process of elimination. For example, Nyx and Moirai would not be coming with her but would help rescue the hostages.

“My plan calls for three people to go. You of course, as you are needed for two things, one of which is to get us there in the first place. Secondly, I will be coming along to disable the defenses of the palace and lead us to the right place. I was thinking of bringing Teresa as the third, to handle unseen circumstances that might require additional fighting power, which she has in spades. Besides that, she has the gift of limited foresight as well, so she won’t be making stupid mistakes.” The empress stated. “Does that seem acceptable?”

“Why are you asking me? You’re the one who has this planned out.” Dee‘s eyebrow shot up in question.

“Well, from what I hear, you’ll have to carry us, and I’m also aware that you don’t exactly enjoy the prospect. I’m just thinking about people you might be able to tolerate.” The empress replied a little warily.

Dee gave an evil grin. “Oh, I’ll carry you alright. You’re not getting on my back though; that's reserved for the few people I call friends. Let’s go. There’s a Celestial Court to assault and an emperor to kill.”