”Oh gods, now there’s two of them!” Moirai said with a deep sigh as they watched Dee and Aurelie duel over the last bowl of something they could not recognize. Some sort of local specialty. The two were literally dueling, using their forks and knives to fence for the last bowl. They both also had one foot on the table as they were leaning closer to reach over the table. They had to lean over the table because the floor around them was filled with empty dishes and bowls, and that was with the servers from the restaurant ships making several trips to get their dishes back. The flashing of utensils reinforced with psionic power was almost blinding, yet also oddly subdued as neither wanted to damage their ‘weapons’.

“Do you think it’s a chimera thing? Where does all that food even go” Nyx asked, watching the duo with morbid curiosity. Dee had mentioned to Moirai before that Aurelie was a being of similar nature to her own weird heritage, and Moirai had shared that information with Nyx.

“Well, we have a sample size of two so it’s not exactly representative, but so far I’d say yes. I’ve never seen such gluttons outside some very specialized beings, and those beings tend to be grotesque in size. Those two seem to have some sort of dimensional storage in their stomach.” Moirai speculated, only half joking.

“Speaking of, I think I saw Dee slipping a couple of dishes into storage.” Nyx pointed out. They’d long known Dee had some sort of dimensional storage, but that wasn’t all that odd. They both had one too. Or to be exact, Nyx used to have one. Her new body naturally didn’t come with any of her old stuff.

“Should that be called foul play in this case?” Araqiel wondered, joining the discussion. The trio was sitting together with the two Archangels, who incidentally had been rushing to get their own share of the food. Apparently, the restaurants had been prepared for Aurelie and a large party when they were called, but the combination of Dee and Aurelie had stretched their abilities to the limit.

“I don’t think so. They don’t seem to be competing. Well, except over that last bowl of course, and they seem to have no trouble with using foul play there.” Nyx argued as the duel seemed to be escalating. Aurelie had tried to stealthily grab the bowl with her tail covered in chitin plates. Dee, in turn, used one of her black wings to pin that tail to the table, while at the same time using her telekinesis to try and get the bowl.

“I don’t think that’s going to end well.” Moirai commented, getting nods of agreement from everyone.

The two had a rather epic duel over the food. It was also extremely controlled as neither wanted to break the bowl, the utensils, the table, the rest of the dishes, the tower, or half of the city. In the end though, the two had to declare a truce as the bowl finally cracked despite their attempts to avoid just that outcome, and they ended up sharing it. The others just thought they should’ve done that in the first place.

“So how exactly are you paying for all of this?” Dee asked, waving at the surroundings.

“Oh, I keep forgetting you’re not aware of some of the most basic things as you’re not a proper Lord yet. We need to get that fixed as soon as possible. In your case the whole process should not take too long. The first test might take a while since your heritage is just as checkered as mine, but luckily with a few of our kind already in the Assembly, there’s precedent. They know we aren’t the typical demons or typical anything really. They will most likely just skip the second test, seeing as you’re already rank thirteen. The oaths take only a minute as well. Your current situation is a bit murky, so it would make things much easier if you just get it done.” Aurelie got a little lost on a tangent, though on purpose. She had been encouraged to bring the matter up quickly, for several reasons.

“We can get that done as soon as you’re ready.” Dee replied easily. With Umbra’s guarantee that no oath would be able to hold her and that she would be able to remove any binding oaths Moirai or Araqiel made, there was little reason to delay. If the Assembly were to get demanding later on, Dee could simply decide not to comply. None of the oaths even demanded obedience, and with her strength, she was guaranteed the seniority in most situations. Having the Assembly lending their weight behind her might make certain matters she had to deal with easier, even if the Assembly ended up doing nothing for her.

As if reading her mind, Aurelie continued. “Although, seeing as you’re the Champion of the primary dark deity, I would not be surprised if oaths had no effect on you. Doesn’t matter, you’re not the only one, though definitely in the minority. There are some others, and they tend to all end up in the red faction. Something you should keep in mind. What the Assembly really needs is at least a vague guarantee that you’re one of us. I’d still advise you to act as if the oaths were binding, just to keep up appearances.”

Dee decided to not show any reaction. “You were about to tell me how you can afford to feed yourself.”

Aurelie waved Dee’s small jibe away. “Says the one who is even worse. Anyway, most Lords get their income in two ways, a stipend given by the Assembly and contributions. In both cases the money comes from the Assembly. The Assembly gathers funds from the worlds under our protection either as taxes or by selling certain goods. In certain situations, the services or the expertise of a Lord is required by the worlds we control and usually those services cost a nominal fee as well. In turn, every Lord is given a stipend according to their strength. Additional funds and resources can be requested based on your contribution, which can take many forms.

“Certain factions also pay extra to their members as a way of attracting people, though this is usually only done by four factions, the yellows, the blues, the browns and the greys. The greys are just greedy bastards, while the browns are the main source of crafters, enchanters, smiths, alchemists and just about anything that has to do with creation. Their faction helps their members since such pursuits can be expensive, but in turn the browns are expected to provide a certain quota of items or products to the faction. A similar thing is going on with the blues. The difference is that they are the innovators and scientists instead of the creators. The yellows simply try to attract more people as simply helping others isn’t a sufficient motivation to attract enough Lords, and material wealth is one way to draw in more.” Aurelie finished her explanation with a harrumph. She slightly disdained such greedy practices, but people had different priorities.

“So I’m guessing these contributions can be pretty much anything like lending your strength in battle or bringing in materials?” Dee clarified.

“Yes, those are the most common ways. If you find something you don’t need, just give it to the Assembly, and we will find someone who can make a proper use of whatever it is. You’ll get something nice in return. The greedy greys do a double service by administering major worlds where they can gather personal wealth and contribute at the same time. Still, they are good at what they do. In the end though, we are often problem solvers. Once the locals run into something they can’t deal with, the Assembly sends someone appropriate to deal with the problem. Some Lords think it’s a bit beneath them, but that’s how the universe works. If you don’t want to simply exploit those weaker than you, then it becomes all about what we can do for each other. Those with power and knowledge provide those things, and those without provide wealth, materials and their efforts.” Aurelie herself was something of a pragmatist.

“Well, I do have extensive experience in smacking things, making things dead and causing general mayhem and destruction. So I suppose my option will be a bit limited.” Dee grimaces a bit. She had some ability with alchemy, but she had not trained in that field so her skills couldn’t rival the experts of the Assembly.

“Those are actually talents in relatively high demand. Almost half the requests that reach the Assembly have to do with making things dead. More than that if you include killing something really mean and dangerous for materials. Incidentally, that’s one of the main things that keep the greys from getting too greedy. If they start neglecting their subjects too much, those subjects will put a bounty on that Lord's head, available to the rest of us to collect.” Aurelie gave a wicked grin at the thought.

“I doubt hunting other Lords will make you very popular in the long term, and I suspect there are some rules about the whole thing?” Dee asked, receiving a nod of approval from the other woman.

“There is that. Still, I wouldn’t worry if I were you. Rank thirteen beings get an absolutely disgusting stipend just to keep them happy. I don’t think you’ll need to do anything if you don’t really want to. The main purpose of someone of your rank is to keep others in line and to function as a deterrent against the dragons and angels. Or in the current situation, holding back the most powerful dragon Aspects from rampaging through our worlds. It’s actually pretty rare for rank thirteen beings to take part in battle, simply because that would quickly end up with several worlds in ruins. Just having you around in an area will make sure the dragon Aspect on the other side will have to keep in check as well or risk getting attacked by you while they are spent.” Aurelie explained with a shrug.

The recent battle between the leader of the gold faction and the Red Dragon Aspect was actually extremely rare. Both sides just happened to be exceptionally battle hungry. Red Dragons were fierce and battle-hungry in general, and the leader of the gold faction was overzealous to a fault. With the two of them in such close proximity, a battle was almost inevitable.

“Well, while it’s good to know I won’t be starving to death, you keep dodging the real question. How do you make your money? You listed all these possibilities but didn’t tell me what you do specifically.” Dee pointed out.

Aurelie tsked a bit before relenting. “I suppose it’s only fair to let you know. Who knows, you might even be able to help. Follow me.” As the others saw the two get up, they also prepared to leave but she waved them back down. “This won’t take long. Get dessert. If there’s any left. If not, get exploring but be back in half an hour.”

Aurelie led Dee through a teleportation array and they found themselves in a room filled with crates and a pair of mages sorting through some plants. The mages looked up for a moment as the two of them entered but went back to work after giving Aurelie a small greeting. The room was fully walled in, aside from a single large door opposite of the teleportation formation. There were no windows and the only light came from magical lamps placed near the table. As they walked to the large door, Dee could see that the other side held a garden of sorts. They were not gardening for food though, as the plants all seemed to be for medicinal and alchemy uses.

“Gardening?” Dee asked a little surprised.

“You could say that.” Aurelie replied with a laugh, eliciting a chuckle from the two mages as well. She made a sweeping gesture just to point out how large the garden was. And it was fairly extensive for something inside a tower, despite spatial magic being involved. That wasn’t new to Dee though, as the gardens on Pantheon were several times larger and they also included spatial magic to facilitate easier transportation for when a community either rose or fell in rank. Then Aurelie made a gesture in the air and the view on the other side of the door changed. In fact, as Aurelie’s gesture kept on, the view on the other side of the door kept changing. It was like she was rapidly flipping the pages of a book. Each garden seemed to not only have different plants, but they also seemed to have different conditions and climates ranging from permafrost to the insides of a volcano. And some of them gave the impression of being extremely old.

“So quite a bit of gardening. How many are there?” Dee asked with her curiosity piqued.

“Tens of thousands. Sorted by age and climate. There are several systems like this in this city. In fact, I’m pretty sure every faction maintains their own. We plant new ones every year and harvest the older ones. Or to be exact, we harvest those that are old enough to fulfill the orders we are given. The oldest plants that are in the ancient section are over a hundred thousand years old.” Aurelie explained.

“So this isn’t something created by you. You’re just maintaining it for now. Why you though? You don’t strike me as the gardening type.” Dee pointed out. Psions were not creators.

“Funny thing that. You know how our power is manifest in every cell in our body? Well, apparently if released correctly and gently enough, we can instill that power into other living things in the same way. It’s very effective in various ways. Does great things to plants especially. Now granted, a life or nature type mage can do even better, but the two can be combined for even better effect. We have several druids working here actually doing the planting and…well whatever the hells they do. I just provide power. Any time I’m inside the tower, a little bit of my power is continually siphoned away and passed on to the gardens.” Aurelie flicked a pendant on her neck for emphasis.

Dee had noticed Aurelie putting the necklace on as they entered the tower, and she had even noted the small drain of power, but she had assumed it was done to maintain the spells in the tower. ‘I suppose that’s not wrong, just more focused than I thought.’ She thought to herself. “If you hoped I could help then I’m sorry to disappoint. My power has a very heavy element of death. I’d just kill all the plants.”

“Well…” Aurelie hedged her words and slowly and flipped the gardens to a very particular one. The whole garden was filled with the energy of death and there seemed to be some sort of ghastly beings working the garden. These plants most certainly were not for medicinal use. “Not all plants like life energy. But don’t think this is why I brought you here. I’m just throwing the possibility out there as an easy way to earn some fairly valuable contributions. Despite the warlike nature of the red faction, it’s rare to find a Lord with as pure energy of death as you. It could be fairly valuable in certain circumstances. Just food for thought.”

-----

“The damn rumors keep spreading!” Lumen cursed as she seemed to be observing something unseen with her mind. “Even some of my more loyal followers are starting to buy into it! Apparently our previously weird alliance somehow makes much more sense if we are secret lovers. Are you listening?”

“Nope. Believe it or not, I have something more important on my mind.” Umbra brushed Lumen’s concerns away.

“What could be so important?” Lumen scoffed. These rumors were quite a big deal. It seems Order had totally embraced the rumors and was also spreading them just so he could condemn the two goddesses. He knew better, but it served his purposes. An originally innocent rumor might end up having an effect in the politics of the gods following the recent dissolution of the old ways.

“One of my subordinate gods tried to claim the old realm and position of the now dead Spider Goddess. She failed despite my help and despite being eminently qualified.” Umbra explained while pursing her lips.

“Why would you want to do something like that? Even if she had succeeded, she would’ve inherited only a part of the Spider Goddess’ power and she would have become an instant target.” Lumen pointed out. There would eventually be a new primary deity in charge of poison and undeath, but it was better to let something like that happen naturally. Taking the position forcefully was less effective and mostly done just to get rid of the previous occupant of the position. That was partially why Order had been pushing others to challenge Lumen.

“I wanted to check if it could be done. Incidentally, you remember the deity Dee killed during her rampage through the Champions Order was throwing at her? Yeah, someone tried to inherit that realm as well. Didn’t work. One time is an anomaly; two is a coincidence bordering on a pattern.” Umbra explained.

“So what you’re trying to say is that any realm whose owner is killed by Dee is lost for good? Why?” Lumen asked, suddenly paying a lot more attention. Realms were extremely important to deities and taking over the realms of dead or forgotten gods was standard practice to gain power quickly.

“Well, have you seen her totem? I don’t want to exaggerate, but the totem is not exactly giving reverence to any of our holy symbols. I’m guessing it’s something along the lines of ‘anything she conquers, she keeps’, at least when it comes to deities.” Umbra speculated.

“That might become a problem.” Eternity suddenly interjected. He had been so quiet after his sermon to Death that the goddesses had somewhat forgotten his presence. “Especially if she kills more gods. The two she has killed so far might also become a problem at some point, but if Dee kills someone like Sol Invictus or Order, the whole balance of the universe could be broken.”

Umbra frowned a bit. “Why?” She had an idea but wanted it confirmed.

Eternity had to give a small sigh. The younger gods could be so stupid at times. “Think. If she has the power to prevent anyone from absorbing those realms, that means she has power over the realms. That means she can draw on the power of those realms once she figures out how. Now I don’t know about you, but a mortal being able to draw on the power of multiple realms sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, even discounting the power from our blessings. I have a certain amount of trust in little Dee, but power corrupts. And your title as prime gods of your chosen field is not an empty one. If Dee were to, for example, kill Order as things seem to be headed, then there would be no way for a new god of order to assume the position of the primary god of order without growing their realm to match the one controlled by Dee. That means there would be no primary god of order for ages. ”

Umbra grinned. “I don’t know about you, but having no primary god of order sounds like a great plan to me. The existing weaker gods of order would have to lay low or risk incurring my wrath without protection from Order. Finally a victory in the eternal struggle between the two sides.”

Eternity scoffed. “And that doesn’t sound like trouble to you? You aren’t meant to win. Having one side be dominant for a time is fine, but a final victory would break the balance holding things together.”

Umbra shook her head. These two didn’t understand. She didn’t care about balance. Pushing the boundaries and bringing about change was what she existed for. She wasn’t worried about what would happen after. Even if the universe were to collapse, a highly unlikely scenario, that would still be just another form of change. While others might abhor such change, for her it was almost exciting. The others might try to prevent Dee from killing more gods, but she for one embraced the possibilities fully. While others might be worried about their place in the changing universe, she had no such concerns.

“But what can we do?” Lumen asked with resignation. “It’s not like we can control her, and even if we wanted to, we can’t pull back our support at this point. And just for the record, I don’t want to pull back my support. Aside from the recent rumors, she’s doing fine. She’s even helping the angels still loyal to me escape.”

That gave even Eternity pause. He had one method. He had been considering it after the stunt Death had pulled, but hoped it didn’t come to that. The Guardian would not be happy, and punishing Dee for something Death had done or a potential danger she represented was questionable at best. “I’ll think on it. For now, just don’t try to push her to fight against Order. His servants are fine, just leave him alone. And if the challenges do come back in one form or another, or if this recent struggle turns into a battle between gods, stop using her as your pawn and fight your own battles. She seems to be reaching the limit of giving favors to you anyway. In return, I will make sure Order is not allowed to use any of his pawns to attack you either.”

“Fair enough, but I doubt that will become relevant for a while. The struggle between the gods is only starting to heat up. We are still pretty far from open battle between us.” Lumen acquiesced. She knew better than anyone that Dee had limited patience for such things, so basically she wasn’t giving up anything in exchange for limits being placed on Order.

Suddenly Death interjected with a new topic entirely. “While this is all very interesting and all, why is it that we can even see Dee at this point? I can’t be the only one questioning this. I’m pretty sure she can already sense our observation, yet she hasn’t done anything about it.”

“Maybe she doesn’t know how to prevent it?” Lumen threw out a guess.

“There are about a hundred ways she could use to stop us from observing, and you think she couldn’t come up with even one?” Death’s voice made it clear how stupid that had sounded.

“The only possibility is that we can see her because she is choosing to not do anything about it for some reason.” Umbra stated with a shrug. “Why worry when we can just ask her the next time she comes here.”