***Chimera – The Eternal Palace***

***Angrod***

“Her soul is fraying at the edges. It looks like the weapon reversed whatever effect caused Isabella’s and Myrm’s souls to fuse with each other,” my mother, Ireth, gives me her diagnosis of my wife’s situation, taking her hand away from Celes’ forehead.

My wife is lying on an operating table which I conveniently had standing around in my laboratory. Not that I need it often these days. She is a spoilsport when it comes to experiments on living test subjects.

“How much time does she have,” I ask, knowing the answer already, but I want a second opinion for confirmation. Ireth has the memories of her former personality, Janice, a soul mage at least as experienced in the craft as I am, even if she concentrated her field of research on necromancy instead of focusing solely on soul-magic.

“However the spear works, it only reversed the effect. Several centuries passed since Seria’s fumbled attempt at repairing Myrm’s soul, so I don’t see any reason why the reversed process should happen any faster or slower,” she answers and turns her attention to the crystal spear which hovers on a pedestal in my laboratory, safeguarded behind the strongest wards I can come up with. It is the safest place I can think of.

She shakes her head. “Just what were you thinking when you made that weapon? Something that unravels the enemy’s soul is truly terrifying, especially since anyone seems to be able to wield it! We can be glad that the thing only grazed Celes. In the future, we have to keep an eye out for plots like this one.”

“I know. From the beginning, I had a bad feeling about the whole situation, but we can’t just hide behind safe walls if we want to find a clue about our enemy’s whereabouts,” I growl, frustrated by the fact that we have nowhere to strike.

I glance at the spear which is a gnarled and ugly thing, the shaft something between a naturally grown crystal and a genuine item. Only the blade is formed halfway correctly, a short-sword attached to the long shaft. “It was one of my first attempts at creating a weapon from mana crystal. Back then, I didn’t know how to correctly control its growth or how to apply runes and enchantments during the process. All I did was channel my divinity into the item while I created it, hoping that it would have an acceptable result.”

“So infusing Chaos magic into the weapon got you something that destroys not only the physical body but also the soul.” Ireth clicks her tongue in disapproval. “I thought my old self taught you better than to experiment with unknown forces.”

“Without trying and refining the process I would have never arrived at the desired result!” I gesture at the walls surrounding us. “So you have no idea how to undo what the weapon did? I thought you were present when Seria ‘repaired’ our souls.” I look back and forth between Ireth and Katrine.

Ireth sighs in frustration and straightens her blue-red dress with skin-tight leggings beneath. “I wasn’t present.” She looks at Katrine, the former succubus matriarch, who wears a regal gown with short sleeves.

Katrine only shrugs. “I admit that using another soul to ‘patch’ Myrm was my idea, but all my soul magic was an innate ability from my existence as a demon. Seria was the one who actually fused Isa and Myrm. Her magic was actual soul-magic, like yours, and therefore above my pay-grade. The exact ‘how’ was her doing.”

“Great!” I grumble. “Seria’s memories are unfortunately unreliable until she grows up. And even then I have no guarantee that she will remember what she did.”

Katrine frowns. “Is it really a bad thing?”

“What?” Ireth asks, confused.

“That her soul is fraying.” Katrine gestures towards Celes. “Previously, we were concerned because Myrm’s and Isabella’s souls were fusing, because it was unnatural. And now we are concerned because the two souls are splitting up, which is exactly as Seria originally intended it to happen.”

I clench my fists together, not wanting to admit in front of everyone that I am afraid of losing the version of Celes which I have right now. Myrm was a psychotic control freak and Isabella was pushy as hell – even if she loved me with abandon. Celes is just the right mix, the perfect woman for me. She is independent and knows what she wants while loving me at the same time. Even better, she doesn’t take my shit and has her own opinion… and she does all the things I don’t really want to be bothered with. Like governing the kingdom, dealing with the nobles and the other societies on a day to day basis…

What would I do without her?

“I am just afraid of what will happen. The ‘not knowing’ makes me crazy!” I reply. “What do we do if she actually separates into two personalities? Wouldn’t it be like having schiz- schizo-” Damn! I am no good at this stuff.

“Schizophrenia.” Ireth rolls her eyes. “We clone a body for Isabella and you marry her too… well… according to Katrine you are already married to her… so you will simply have two wives.”

Katrine shrugs. “It wouldn’t be the first time for a king to have multiple partners. The commoners do it all the time.”

I look at the both of them, aghast that my own mother and my mother in law could suggest such a course of action.

“Could you please stop talking as if I am already dead?” Celes inserts herself into the conversation, fuming while lying on the operating table. “Just listening to you makes me sick! It’s as if all of you think that I have some type of cancer!”

She sits up and slides off the table, spreading her hands to show us that she is fine. “I feel good! Maybe a little edgy after almost having that thing stabbed into me again. The memory still gives me the shivers.” She turns to me. “And it’s not like we have to worry about it anytime soon. A few decades are more than enough to find an answer. Even if there is no cure, you still love all of me, right Angrod?”

I scratch my chest, trying my best not to show my guilt. “Of course, dear! I love every aspect of you.” When they are together… I have to find a way to fix her!

Thankfully, telling a half-truth seems to work and Celes goes on. “Good!” She closes her eyes and sighs, clearly stressed out. “So, what happened since I was out? All you did was fuss over me since I woke up.”

“Nothing much,” I reply quickly, throwing a meaningful look at my mother, but Katrine blows the whistle.

“Angrod blew up a planet!”

“What!?” Celes turns on me. “We were supposed to save that damned piece of dirt!”

I wince and try to defend myself, “I didn’t blow it up! But when you got injured I- I-”

“He used his Chaos magic to disintegrate the remains of the Calamity’s infection, wiping out approximately one-eighth of the planet,” Ireth corrects Katrine.

Which isn’t really helpful, thanks, Mom!

“I didn’t wipe out one-eighth of the planet!” I point out, starting to get miffed about their incorrectness. They know how Celes reacts when she thinks that I am going overboard. “I sterilized roughly one-eighth of the planet’s surface, making sure that none of the Calamity's agents survive – minimizing the losses among our own forces!”

“And sending the planet into a nuclear winter…” Katrine adds smugly, clearly enjoying stoking the fire.

“Which will last only a few decades,” I growl.

“Killing countless mortals,” she chirps.

“Yes! Fuck it!” I call out. “Who cares about a few of those cockroaches when some soul-devouring entity is out to swallow all of us whole!? The planet will survive, most of the remaining population will survive! I would have been justified to wipe the whole damned thing out of existence for hurting my wife! And somehow I will find a way to get to the rest of the Council and make them wish they had never been!”

Celes places a hand on my arm and smiles. “It’s okay.”

“It is!?” I ask.

“Yes, honey.” She hugs me, startling me. “Given the circumstances, I expected you to overreact.”

“Ahem.” I frown. “It’s good then.”

“Yes, and the little one is fine. That’s all that’s important.” She lets go of me. “And it’s not like Evenguar can’t take care of a little nuclear winter if he really cares about the world.”

“Ahaha…” I nod. “Yes, that’s right.” An unexpectedly good reaction from Celes. Could it be that Isabella is more in control now?

We stand for a few seconds in silence until I decide to speak up again. “I am a little mad that you didn't tell me sooner about this new whirlwind that’s to be added to the family.”

“So it’s true!?” Katrine can’t hold herself back any longer. “We get a third one? I would have never expected in my life that I would be blessed with that many grandchildren!”

“As I said, I found out only recently and given the new developments I am not sure if I should have it,” Celes admits.

“What's the problem?” I ask her with a surprised voice.

“That’s completely out of the question!” Ireth adds with fervour in her voice, the indoctrination of old times when the royal family had fertility problems speaking out of her. “You are going to have it!”

“But I have no idea who it will be. And having a random soul as a baby creeps me out.” Celes tenses up.

“Aengus was like that too,” I point out. “I could search for a nice one? It should be no problem, we did the same thing with Seria.” I am a little overwhelmed by the situation, but I won't try to talk Celes out of this. Especially not in front of our mothers.

“Aengus was already there when it happened. And Seria was Sofie. It's different,” Celes tries to explain her feelings.

I smirk at my wife. “Why don't you ask Lada. She is still a little down despite her new job. Or Enyo, she would be a real baby because she is completely wiped. We don't have any idea what to do with her besides rehabilitation. If everything fails, I still have Elsaria stowed away in my personal dimension.”

I click my tongue in displeasure. “Ah, I completely forgot about that one. She should be overripe for interrogation by now, but I doubt that she was anything more than a pawn.”

“You're creeping me out! No way! Enyo is completely out of the question! And Lada is the president of the multiverse now!” Celes goes stiff and objects vehemently to my suggestions.

“Well, you could ask her. It's not like she still couldn't do the job. And she would get to be Seria's little sister. As for the duration where she will be a child, there should be a replacement,” I try to sweeten the idea, not wanting to have a random brat as my offspring either.

The people who enter this family have to be powerful and no pushovers. Otherwise, they won’t survive for long, given our background.

Celes elbows me into the side. “I knew that you are useless in this matter. This is a delicate field for a woman!”

“Hrm. Anyway. I humbly await the Queen's decision in this matter,” I concede and lean in to whisper into my wife’s ear, hoping to take advantage of her surprisingly good mood. “If you feel better again, I always wanted to try the cat costume on you! You know, the one with the tail! It’s not like anything can go wrong now, right?”

Celes only shakes her head. “You will never learn.”

***The Crystal City***

***Celes***

“This looks troublesome.” Mawu comments on our tactical map of the multiverse which is projected above the conference table. Several zones are marked red, indicating infected areas. Since the incident at Elhort, our enemies expanded their operations to multiple worlds and dimensions in an attempt to overwhelm us.

The matter is serious enough for the Chimerans and the other societies to come together in order to hold a meeting regarding the new appearances of Spheres and servants of the Calamity.

I study the map.

There are many different opinions on how to present the multiverse. It's a little hard to make a map of different dimensions which overlap with each other in some areas. I never had the patience to learn the exact theory behind it, but I like the twisted spiral which forms partly overlapping circles best.

It may be a very simplistic description of the multiverse, but this version is the easiest one to point out a specific location. The height of the spiral represents different dimensions with changing laws of physics. Each layer is its own universe.

In some points they are folded into each other and in others, they are farther away. In reality, the spiral doesn't form a circle but is more like a knot. For ease of understanding at this meeting, we chose this representation. I think my husband is the only person in existence who prefers the ‘knot’ because it comes closer to reality.

“These Spheres pop up all over the place and cause havoc! My community already had to deal with seven of those incidents! We need to stop this!” Miruliru foams with anger.

“It's true. It's like those fuckers pull terrorist bombings on us.” Carne folds his hands together, resting his elbows on the table.

“They are trying to feed the Calamity.” Chiffre tightens a bolt on his mechanical arm, pointing out the obvious.

“Feed it? They didn't have to feed whole worlds to it until now!” Zanders adds.

“Up until now, they fed it with gods. Now that they don't have this resource as readily available, they have to use the souls of mortals. I guess that the Calamity is on a pretty harsh diet right now. Otherwise, they wouldn't go on a rampage like that. Being that active increases their risk to be found out,” Chiffre continues his assessment and places a drop of oil on the bolt. “We should see this as a good thing. The more operations they have running at the same time, the likelier it is for them to mess up.”

“So the Calamity could really starve if we destroy all the Spheres?” Gwallona asks.

“It is a possible interpretation of the situation,” Angrod admits from his seat next to me, not sounding entirely convinced.

“By the way, I heard that you saved the planet of that little god who begged you for help? How did you do that? We had to wipe out our planets completely and sort the souls from the demons!” Miruliru asks us the dreaded question.

Angrod already informed me that he used his Chaos magic and that he doesn’t want to share this knowledge.

“I heard about that too!” Carne follows up and everyone gazes at us.

Angrod fidgets with his fingers while keeping eye-contact with them. “For various reasons, the magic we used for that purpose is a secret of mine. Anyway, a fortress like ours would be needed to cast the spell on the necessary scale. It would be of no help to you. We are willing to help out with our fortresses anywhere you need them.”

“Sadly, it won't change the overall situation,” I add with a grim expression. “We are already building more fortresses as fast as we can.”

“Fortresses can be built. If one is needed to save a world from the fiends, we shouldn't spare the effort to create them,” Chiffre points out.

“You would have to share your crystal technology with us.” Miruliru points out. “That’s the main problem.”

I continue to stare at the map while I contemplate on how to handle the situation in a way that’s acceptable to everyone.

“You should place at least that much trust in us. Why don't you want to share that knowledge? If you can't give us at least an explanation, this group has already failed its purpose,” Gwalonna voices her thoughts.

She has a point.

I decide to go with the truth. “Angrod, just tell them. It’s not like we can hold the knowledge back forever – as dangerous as it may be. Holding back just isn’t worth the long-term political ramifications.”

He looks at me, then sighs. “It's my personal magic. I developed it long ago – and it started out as a means to kill myself. It is a disruption spell which interacts with all levels of reality. It minces everything to pieces, be it physical or ethereal. Doesn't matter if the soul belongs to a mortal or a god.”

He waits for questions, but the others just stare at us in shock.

After a short silence he continues, “You probably realize that this spell is dangerous, so I don't want it to spread. I don't like the idea of it being used against me, and the Council has repeatedly proven their tendency to take things which do not belong to them and turn it against others. If possible, I wouldn't use this spell at all and simply take the losses of worlds and mortal lives. Saving Evenguar’s planet was just a test to see if it works on the fiends. Still, it was comparable to using a nuke on a house. You can probably imagine the damage it could do to us if this knowledge fell into the wrong hands. The security on my flying fortresses is reasonably safe because everything is hard-coded into the crystal. There isn’t much chance of getting the knowledge out – or back – after I deleted the memory stores. Still, I won't use the spell anywhere where I am not entirely sure of the security measures. Right now, the only place where the spell resides is in my head.”

Mawu leans back in his chair. “I see. It would be a horrible weapon against us gods.”

“But the test proved successful. How can we not take advantage of something like that when whole planets are dying?” Carne complains.

“Can you promise me that the spell won't spread if Angrod gives you the magic theory behind it?” I ask them.

Miruliru and Carne look at each other, then they shake their heads.

“Everything can be stolen. If it spreads widely enough the information will get out. It would be foolish to give such a promise and I am not stupid enough to believe that my people are able to keep such a secret on a grand scale,” Carne admits. “My best men – sure – but that only includes a handful of men and women.”

“I am with the Chimerans on this. As long as it stays in his head, it's relatively safe. The Chimerans' fortresses are also the most secure place at the moment – at least until we can build something similar. I don't want some maniac to use that magic against us.” Zanders takes our position.

“Just tell me. Did you indeed try to kill yourself when you developed that spell?” Chiffre addresses Angrod.

“A long time ago I lost something very precious to me. And when I realized that I wouldn't get it back, I wanted to end it once and for all. I wanted to be sure to forget the endless cycle of hell I was caught in,” Angrod answers him, referring to the cycle of life and death which none of us gods can escape.

“Impressive.” Chiffre furrows his eyebrows.

“Haaah. Where is Lada when you need her? The president should be here for cases like this and give us her moral judgement of the situation.” Gwalonna complains loudly to us.

“I was at her office earlier, but there was just this sheet of paper at her desk. Seems like she really needed a time-out.” Miruliru throws a letter at the table and I start reading.

Dear Children!

This old nanny of Love and Peace will go on a vacation! Sorry for letting you guys down, but I need a little time away from everything. From what I've seen, you are doing fine without me anyway.

Be careful not to lose the right path or I will have to come back and haunt you! I have planned my vacation to last for a few decades, so don't bother looking for me!

You wouldn't guess where I went anyway. Myahaha!

Sincerely yours,

Lada – LOVE ME. HUG ME. I am your ONLY one Goddess of Love and Peace!

PS: Find someone else for this boring job!

I feel the pearls of sweat forming on my forehead as I read the letter. “She ran away! After all the effort of pushing her into that job!”

But the style of the writing looks so familiar! I can't help myself... Seria? I know that ‘S’ of hers. She is the only one who makes that little swirl to connect it right to the next letter. Why would she need to fake a letter for Lada?

Typical! I am out of commission for a few days and the kids get all kinds of stupid ideas! I wonder whether this newest gig of hers warrants extensive punishment.

“So irresponsible!” Chiffre complains. Then his expression turns fearful. “Does that mean one of us has to do the job?”

“Aw... and there I hoped we found the right one for this! I wonder where she ran off to?” Gwalonna puffs up her cheeks.

“Let her have her vacation. She could go for a few thousand years for all I care. Think about how long the Council ruled.” Carne waves his hand at the letter.

“I guess it makes no sense to look for someone who is an eternity ahead of us.” I smile at the group and hand the letter to Angrod for him to dispose of it with a flame cantrip, not wanting to draw any more attention to this matter. He knows Seria's style as well as I do, so he should catch up quickly enough.

For the rest of the meeting, I am very silent and compliant, trying my best not to show that I want to jump up and run out of the room immediately.