The Abyss. Endless caves, tunnels, and caverns of pure, undisturbed darkness. The moment I had stepped through that Gate in my Demesne, I was mentally brought back to it. To the silence, the desperation, but most of all the lack of orientation, or even the sense of the space around me. Coming back to it, to even just the reminder of the time I had spent down there, was like a punch in the gut. I hated it, hated every second of it. Sure, I had [Eyes to pierce the Darkness], but the monochromatic black and white it turned my vision into did nothing to stop me from filling the unknown and unseen with demons and apparitions of my own imagination. It was worse if anything at all.

“This better be worth it, lad.“ The man beside me snarled, but there was a hunger in his voice, and excitement that was barely contained. “I had to let a fat bounty sail for this.“

Captain Bones came to stand beside me, squinting his eyes as he stared into the darkness ahead. „What a lousy place.“ He spat.

„Not much more lousy than the golden palaces and desert paradises I have seen the lackeys of the light built for themselves. They are unbearable...although they at least do not try to hide how boring they are.“

“This is boring to you?“ I asked the Moonlight Jester, as he stepped into the darkness behind us, but where he walked, he brought a cool blue light with him. He was not called the Moonlight Jester for nothing.

“There is a reason I, and I guess we all, chose freedom for our Dogma. Can you imagine being this one-dimensional?“ He made a gesture towards the caverns of darkness. “One shudders when one thinks on how they spend their time when their imagination ends at snuffing the lights out.“

I had indeed chosen freedom as my Dogma.

To prepare myself for what was to come, and while I waited on the two, I had funneled almost all of the Essence I had left, 3000 of it, into the little statue that served as a representation of my Paradigm [Freeman]. It had been a bold choice, but a little comment in the fight I had in my own Demesne had made the decision for me. It had been the man named Lord Sombran who had taunted me with not even having a Dogma.

I had not been sure why, but in the world of gods, a Dogma was a sword to wield and a shield to hide behind. The way the attackers had fought with darkness and shadows...had been impressive and overwhelming. I assumed them to have used the Dogma of Darkness against me. I wanted that for myself.

As I completed the Paradigm, I had received two new Skills: [Contortioner‘s Trick] and [Lament of the Shackled]. The first one would help me free myself from bindings and chains in reality, while the second would let me literally hear the lamentations of those that were not as lucky or free as me. I had not tried it out so far, but it seemed geared towards finding others in need of my help.

The Dogma I had opened had been the real treasure, though. I knew that in theory it was like connecting my Demesne to the Dogma, and thus gaining passive Essence through the connection as it trickled through from the vast reservoir.

There was more to it, though. I could feel it the second I had finalized my work and saw the Essence constructs I had woven take up their work, carving a tunnel through the space and time of the Limbo toward the Dogma. It changed me. More than anything I had experienced before. The Essence that now, roughly one or two EP per day, was accumulating in the lake in my Demesne was - it is difficult to wrap in words - colored. Flavorful. Consciously, my divine self got diluted with the hopes, dreams, personalities, and intentions of those that filled the reservoir of Essence of freedom in the first place - with their prayers and actions.

It was a negligible amount. Yet.

I could already feel the humming and thrumming of the foreign voices, though. Aligning with a Dogma was no jest, and no feat done without reason, it seemed. I was becoming, slowly and steadily, part of something bigger than myself. And this bigger thing in turn became part of me.

My allies had seen the change, and while I could make out the approving look of captain Bones, the Jester had gone so far as to dance in joy as he saw me, praising himself as the one who had caught the Raven in a net of good intentions and strong character.

To bring them to me I have had to do nothing but ask. They were much more enthusiastic about invading the Demesne of a servant of darkness than I had anticipated. It was an opportunity, they had explained to me. A blunder- opening a backdoor wide open...I could have asked anyone and they would have come. It was just the world I was living in now.

“How exactly are they weakened, now?“ I asked as we stood in the darkness of the Demesne of Heron.

“You defeated them in your Demesne.“ Bones said. “Good tidings for that, by the way. But to enter another godling‘s Demesne is not an easy task. Sure, sling around all the Dogma you want, but there is a price to pay. Always. Your reserves were not endless. Their reserves are not endless.“

“The system makes us complacent when it comes to things that cannot be leveled or counted.“ The Jester chimed in. “But your Demesne cannot. It is your imagination and the willpower you have to carve it into existence. And yet you spent it to repel the attackers. The same goes for a Dogma. It is the part of you aligned to the concept. Your...willingness to give yourself up and replace the hole with something else. How well you fit. There is no number and no comparison, but fight with it and you exert yourself and worse, the Dogma.“

“Why is that worse?“ I asked.

“Because it is not your money you spend, in theory. It is accumulated by the hopes, prayers, and sacrifices of mortals as well as whatever else plays a role in the Dogma. Squander enough of it and other beings might come looking for the one wasting it. Some beings really are invested in the plight of the mortals and hate their efforts be in vain.“

“What does that mean for us? Should we not use it?“

Bones laughed his borderline manic laugh. “Oh, you better use it, Raven. Nah, no worries. We do not have to explain ourselves to anyone for this. No Twice-Born even can waste that much Dogma. What we and what they are doing is a drop in the ocean.“

“If it is not their power that they have fought me with. How are they weakened, then?“

“You can have all the muscles you want, at some point you are too tired to use them.“ Jester said.

“Stop thinking, Raven. We do not fear those darkness loving bilge rats, and you do not have to either. This is not a fight. This is plundering.“ Bones laughed.

“Quite right.“ The Moonligh Jester smiled. He made a grandiose gesture towards the dark tunnel ahead of us. “Shall we, esteemed colleagues?“

With the same ease that the invaders had flooded my Demesne with shadow and flame, the Jester now banished the shadows ahead with a stray thought. He explained it to me, but it was hard to follow, to be fair. Freedom was a Dogma that could not exactly produce the most straightforward effects.

The Jester had ‘freed ourselves from the oppressing darkness‘. When you broke it down, it was the will, the power, and the creativity to make it happen. We just had to be more creative in how we used our Dogma than others with their more concrete and straightforward Dogmata.

“Ahh, clever.“ The Jester said as he turned around to look. The Gate we had just entered the caves from stood upon a little pedestal in the center of the room. “Or paranoid. Maybe both.“

He looked around, even squatted down to take a closer look at the ground, rubbing the dirt between his gloved fingers.

“What is clever?“ Bones asked. “A labyrinth?“

“I mean, they intended to invade the Demesne of our young friend Raven here, but they were clever and paranoid enough to put their own Gate in the middle of a labyrinth. Take note, Raven. Paranoia is helpful until it is not.“

“Is it the outskirts? Are their defenses of the Demesne between us and them?“ Bones frowned. The opportunity to circumvent those were the main reason they had accepted my plea for help with the amount of greed and joy they had displayed.

The Jester looked around and shook his head. “No. It is just a labyrinth. And what is a labyrinth but a prison made with cruelty and sick humor? They made a mistake today.“

“What do you mean?“

“Do not try to stop followers of freedom with a labyrinth, you oaf.“

Bones laughed. “That is bad luck if ever I saw it.“

“They should have stuck to fighting the light. Those guys would die of thirst on a river barge.“ Jester smiled and confidently walked ahead into the darkness, which peeled away from him like he was repulsing it physically, the cool moonlight he held effortlessly banning the shadows.

“Careful.“ Bones said to me, watching the Jester with squinting eyes. “He does not take anything seriously. Anything. There are eyes in the darkness, and maybe creatures that use them.“

I nodded my thanks before I followed the jingling of the bells on the Jesters costume.

The labyrinth was not empty, not as empty as the Abyss had been. This structure appeared to be in use. There were rooms with a purpose, even if the purpose escaped me. I more and more got the feeling to stray through the underbelly of an ancient temple.

There were markings and symbols on the walls and a few rooms had baths, pedestals, twisted art, and rows of stools. Nothing of the things I saw spurned my memory. It was all foreign and alien to me. If this truly was based on a faith, I had never heard of it. I never even had heard of the language or symbols used.

If there were traps or ambushes hiding in the wings, the Jester waltzed through them with nothing but his confidence. So much so, that even Bones got annoyed. A giant blade of metal slammed horizontally into the wall, all the while the jester just had bent backwards and still was walking forward, sliding under the blade without missing a step.

“Tidal waves and stinking Kraken breath, Jester! Can you use your damned mouth for once? You cannot hold it shut for a minute, but now you are too shy to warn me? We are not all descendants of jellyfish that can walk through traps and squeeze through the holes in fishing nets!“ He shouted as he, just as I had, jumped back in surprise at the slamming blade that had missed us by just a hand width.

“I am not talking, dear captain, because I wanted surprise on my side. But now you spoiled the fun.“

The Jester straightened himself and smiled into the darkness around the corner. “Really? Hiding in the Darkness?“ He asked laughing. “That is like the first place I would have looked.“