[Valerianne Yul]

We were suddenly back in my dream of my home, sitting together on a log in Aloenna’s grove, facing the forest of Bree which caressed and reached out to the Edge mountains.

“See? None of them were innocent,” she said. “The Convent of the Light was the ultimate prison of death and torture designed to mentally edit people.”

“They didn’t die though,” I said, biting my lip.

“People didn’t die in it fully, sure. But important, valuable parts of their souls that made them who they were, were carved away… it was more than enough to produce ghosts. Try to understand me - to a divinity like myself, being forgotten is the same as dying. A human would die from starvation if they don’t eat for a month. I slowly die if I am not remembered by anyone, if I am forgotten.”

“I don’t know if I should believe you.” I shook my head. “You could be showing me an illusion, trying to trick me. You’re obviously in control of this dream somehow.”

“My fault really,” She sighed. “I’ve been acting very mendaciously to you. Threatening you into obedience was a foolish tactic.”

“Well, no more lying to me and no more killing people!” I told her. “I’ll help you with June, but no more taking over my body to do terrible things with it without my permission!”

“Fine.” She sighed, offering her hand.

I felt bad about using the only thing that she cared about to manipulate her, but it was for a good cause. I looked at her outstretched hand and then back at her.

“Become my acolyte, make a pact with me,” she said.

“I don’t think so.” I replied. “I don’t want to build the church of the Void or whatever it is you want to do. Also, are you going to destroy more things?”

“I don't want to destroy things! I want to build things.”

“Things like Void temples?”

“Why are you being so difficult?” Nox groaned. “I don’t want to build Void temples. I just want June back. I’m done building temples, I’m done manipulating people into believing in me. I can’t even remember why I wanted to do these things anymore! There’s no point in becoming all powerful in a world where everyone is dead! There’s no point in building temples when the entire System is at war while slowly falling into the tartarus that is the voidstar!”

“What are your plans then?” I asked.

“To get June back,” she said. “And then… I have no idea. Try and fix things, I suppose? Try to rebuild the ruined world. Try to do things differently, better?”

“Better how?”

“Magraterra demanded that I unlock the weapons cache sealed within her. Within her Void subspace dungeon storage lies the power to kill everyone - self replicating weapons I’ve designed. She wants to tear everything down to rebuild my Void Empire anew using her silicoid life. I don’t want to do that. I told her ‘no’.”

I looked at Nox. I couldn't believe it. The Avatar of the Void, darkness itself, chose the path of goodness instead of what was easy.

“Maggie is not going to stop, I am sure.” Nox said. “She’s not listening to me, not obeying my orders. She will keep trying. She’s not alone, either. There are many weapons, many other… dangerous things that my Empire made. Things that I had designed and asked my Archmagi to build, long ago. Things that they’ve invented themselves. Like Magraterra... they have undoubtedly manifested intelligence, consciousness. They will come for us, try to break you, try to use us both.”

“Gaia have mercy upon us.” I muttered. I didn’t like the sound of any of this.

“What do you think Gaia is?” She inquired.

“The Goddess of the Green mages that me and my family believe in. The mother of all forests in Europa.”

“Damn it, me!” Nox swore. “Gaia was never a God of anything! She was just one of the control elements for a group of terraforming systems.”

“Terra-what-now?” I blinked, not understanding the word.

“Terraforming is a process of deliberately modifying the atmosphere, temperature, surface topography and ecology of any uninhabitable terrain. The ultimate Green magic to turn any dead rock into a forest!”

“The dryads.” I muttered angrily.

“Yes, the damned dryads! Even my most harmless projects have mutated, grown, changed! I’ve made the dryads as a way to keep parts of my Empire such as nature preseves clean and green and they’ve grown into these fucking absurd, gargantuan abominations!” Nox poked the root leading into Moosy.

I nodded, my eyes wide. She really was the All-mother. I started to believe.

“We have to work together.” Nox said. “It won’t be easy. There are many terrible, undoubtedly truly mad, vile things out there. Things like Magraterra that will try to manipulate, play with us, use us. We must not let them win. I’m willing to sacrifice what I am… are you?”

I blinked at the girl made of Void and stardust. She was making far too much sense for her own good. Was she really willing to sacrifice her personality, her memories, her morals… just to get June back, just to win this battle, this game against her children? It seemed nonsensical, absurd, but then again I had no idea how divinities worked. I had no idea how Nox worked.

“This pact... Being your acolyte… What does it do?” I asked.

“It’s a very basic magical pact. It simply allows us to understand each other better. It ties the Void in you to me. I don’t even know if it's going to work properly with you, since the Void in your soul is ME.” Nox rubbed her face in a gesture akin to a frustrated human. “To clarify, you aren’t going to feed me extra power like June used to or anything… so it’s not an exchange of power, more of a gesture of reinforcing your belief in me.”

“Am I going to explode if I accept this or something?” I squinted at her.

“I don’t think so,” she said. “I’ve had White Archmages as my Apostles. I’ve had a full rainbow of colors at one point if I am recalling things correctly.” She waved her hand at a distant rainbow that the storm was casting over the Edge mountains. “Pretty sure it was the White Archmagi that built these towers after I exploded.” Nox pointed to the White Tower looming over Amarillia.

“Huh.”

“I think that the children’s children of my White Archmagi became the Triumvirate of Virtue,” she said.

“Damn. Okay. I accept, if you accept my condition of no more murder. You can kill as many monsters as you like though, I suppose.” I said and offered her my hand. “We work together.”

“Thank you.” She smiled and reached out to me. Sparks danced between us as our fingers interwtined.

I looked at the sparks with concern. Wherever they fell, they colored my skin pure, brilliant, crystalline white shades.

Nox looked at the dancing sparks. “This is odd. The pact isn’t… settling in. Kiss me?” she said.

“Ehhhh….” I looked at her.

“Please?”

“Do I have to?”

“You don’t have to do shit. You don’t have to accept me into your heart.” She rumbled. “I’ll run out of Void mana and then the Dream mage will find you and carve you up like a melon and learn everything you know. The Rimmers will know all of my secrets and will use them against me and you will be turned into a slave bound by debt or worse. Choose your path, Yul. Choose our future. Embrace me. Believe in me.”

I looked into her eyes. They were made from spiraling rings of light composed of myriads of stars, containing seemingly impossibly distant galaxies. It was the same as staring at the night sky. She wasn’t human. She was a being of magic and power. I decided to try something else. I tried not to associate her with evil, with darkness and reached out to her, touched her face. My hand sparked as it connected with her, growing paler, shinier. I didn’t draw away. I slid closer to her and hugged her and our bodies ignited. It was a fire that didn’t hurt me, didn’t break me. Instead I felt that it was tempering me into something different, better, making me stronger.

“This cannot be…” Nox whispered as she hugged me back, looking at me, her eyes wide open in shock.

“What?”

“You’re…” She stammered. “You’re the Avatar of Virtue.”