[-=Nox=-]

[I was 100% right. She’s not budging.] Yul mentally scalded me. [She’s afraid of illusions, Nox.]

[Shut up and help me! I’m freaking out over here! What do I do?] I shot back at her. I felt that there was an emptiness in my chest. It wasn’t a good kind of emptiness. Not one made of lovely Void. It was the kind that was made of crushing despair that I couldn't simply turn off. It hurt so much that there was excessive water forming in my eyes. Human feelings were the worst.

[I hope you know that I’m helping you only because of the pact.] Yul sighed.

[Whatever! Advice! Gimme! NOW!] I commanded, pulling on my part of the pact between us, forcing her to aid me.

[Umm… Try telling her only something the two of you know.] Yul finally said. [That might convince her that you’re Nox and not a random illusion mage. Also, thanks for showing me our [Pact] can force obedience.]

A flutter of hope blossomed in my heart. “June. Listen. We don’t have to go on a date in this dream if you’re scared of illusion magic. Just know this - I’m not an illusion. I can tell you something that you told me alone… you told me that you and your kin flew from your village Maldive down to the valleys on wings that you’ve made yourself from manta-ray skins. That you used to love camping with your friends beneath azure lakes with crystal-clear water, amongst the oceans of golden wheat filled with little cat-owls.”

“Oh.” June froze. She stepped towards me, sitting down next to me. “I didn’t tell this to a single soul. Nobody could have known this… except for my kin... this was my secret.”

“You told me… when we were together. When you loved me.” I said, wiping the bothersome moisture from my eyes.

“If you know that much, then you know everything.” She sighed.

“I don’t know everything. I don’t want magical secrets out of you, June. I know that you’ve lost your memories. It’s my fault, really. I should have flown the Resurgence away from Kleinburg to the Edge mountains instead of spending all night with you. I was drunk and acted foolishly. Forgive me.”

“So, you’re to blame for the fact that I can’t remember shit too.” June’s words of disappointment in me hurt.

“Yeah…” I sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“Look, I do feel something when I look at you… Nox.” June glanced at me. “I feel this inexplicable all-pulling attraction, but I’m also terrified of it. This feeling that I have… I’m very concerned that it’s just some kind of elaborate magical deception.”

“It’s not. Just give me a chance. Please?” I asked, staring at June’s golden eyes. This is what I have been reduced to, begging. I ruled the world and now I was begging like a pathetic human.

[I find this very ironic.] Yul commented. Ack! I must have thought that part out loud in her direction.

[I’m glad you find amusement in my suffering, Virtue.]

“What’s with the kitten?” June asked, noticing that I was staring at Yul.

“June, meet the Avatar of the Goddess of Virtue!” I announced, petting Yul.

“Do you hang out with all of the Gods in dreams? Is this a thing that you do?” June commented dryly.

“Nope. Virtue is my only companion-divinity.”

“Well, tell her that her religion sucks ass. Their persecution of darklings is really annoying.”

“Oh, she can hear you. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have control over her dickish followers. Not yet anyway. I’m working on it!”

[What?] Yul glared at me.

[You’re Virtue. It stands to reason that you can someday take over the Triumvirate of Virtue and fix your religion.]

[You want me to take over Virtue?]

[Not just that. I want you to take June on as an Apostle.]

[Not only do you want June to love you, you also want to force her into being my Apostle too?!]

[As the Avatar of Virtue, pray tell, where do the Sins of lust and greed come from? Mortals force all manner of relationships upon each other far more often than I care to think about, and not just for love. Don't believe me? Then think about debt and slavery. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but even so, I doubt anyone ever willingly begged to have a slave collar secured on their neck. Do forgive my willing attitude towards murdering such scum who take advantage of the weak and defenseless. Do forgive me for planning to elevate you to the top of the Triumvirate of Virtue!] Her nagging was getting on my nerves.

[What the hell would be the point? Is there even anything left of the Triumvirate of Virtue after the Sextant invasion?] Yul growled. [Oh… You know what? I would actually like to go home.]

[To the farm?] I asked her.

[Yes, to the farm. I need to make sure my family is okay.] Through the pact between us, I felt overwhelming anxiety and… fear?

[The Sextants have likely already killed your family, Yul. I am relatively sure that they are guided by Magraterra. Aloenna’s job was to create you, so that you would bring me to Maggie. I am the key to Maggie’s weapons. Our path was supposed to end in Maggie’s crystal citadel with my agreement to unlock her full arsenal. We’ve escaped and survived only thanks to Rimmer greed.]

“What? WHAT?!” Yul mewled, breaking up the thought conversation.

“Did your kitten just talk?” June gasped. “Why does it sound like Yul?”

“That’s because it is her. Valerianne Yul is the Avatar of the Goddess of Virtue.”

“You gotta be fucking with me.”

“You don’t believe me?” I inquired, timidly.

“I do not. Gods never did anything for me. Gods did nothing when my village burned.” June pressed her case.

“I swear to Gaia if my family is dead then…” Yul growled. Her rage pulled at the pact between us. “You fucking fucker! It wasn’t enough that half of the people on Europa’s mainland are dead!”

I grabbed the kitten and put her in June’s lap and took June's hand between mine. “June, Yul listen up. There IS something I can do for you for both of you. Something extremely dangerous. Something that will likely shatter the last remnant of who I am. I have made foolish choices. I’ve been contaminated with the power of the Labyrinth created to contain me, affected too much by the belief of the sinners of Euroa. I’ve been kept imprisoned far too long. I’m barely alive as I am now.”

“What would that be?” June squinted at me.

“Huh?” Yul squinted at me in a similar fashion.

“One final miracle.” I told them. “The sacrifice of myself to grant both of your wishes, your desires. I understand both of you sufficiently enough to give you both what you really want.”

“Explain.” Yul demanded.

“Valerianne, you lack agency and affinity by design.” I finally called her by her first name, accepting her as an equal divinity, not someone beneath me. “As you are now, you will always be lacking agency, because there are markers all over your aura. Everyone you have met thus far have placed these trackers upon you - the first one within you in Aloenna's seed, the second put on you by Maximillion Rex hidden within the amulet of healing, the third by the Rimmer Archmage Nicodemus and the fourth by Maggie herself.” I was making a lot of revelations to Yul, based mostly on deductions and guesses. I had voiced them out based entirely on the responses of June and Yul. I needed the power of Virtue and wanted June by my side. I made a terrible mistake six thousand years ago in forsaking others, in trying to change the world alone. I would bind these two to myself forever, create an unbreakable fellowship between the three of us.

“Fucking hell!” Yul swore. “Can you not do something about them?”

“I lack the ability to remove the trackers, as I am unable to work with pure White magic. You won’t be able to do it either, as you’ll never reach the level of someone like Aloenna - her tracker seed construct came from the core of her garden. It’s likely very advanced, dangerous magic and will likely try to defend itself, move to another place if bothered. Maggie will find us, try to bring us back to Magraterra by any means necessary. The way things are heading, the probability of us achieving any of our mutual goals while being tracked by someone like Aloenna and Maggie is ludicrously low, impossible even. We’ve been molded into our roles, tested, observed, led like sheep to the slaughter.”

“Then what can we do?” The kitten mewled.

“It was five years ago that Aloenna made you consume a tracker seed, Valerianne. There’s one way for you to gain the freedom you so desire. There is only one way to undo what I had done.”

The white kitten looked at me curiously.

“June - four and a half years ago the Sextants executed your kin, destroyed your home. There is a way to bring your family back.”

“What?” Both June and Yul uttered at the same time.

“Temporalmancy. I already told Valerianne that I’m willing to sacrifice what I am… are you willing to sacrifice what you are now to save your village, June?”

“I am!” June finally gripped my hand back. “I would do anything to bring them back.”

It worked! She was hooked.

“Valerianne, are you willing to sacrifice your current self to gain agency, to throw off the chains that have bound you since before you were born?” I looked at the kitten. “Are you willing to end your current self to save your family? To save Kleinburg, Amarillia and other cities of Europa’s mainland from the Sextant invasion?”

“I am.” She nodded. “What do you mean by temporalmancy?”

“The magic of time.” I told her. “When you stumbled into my prison, I had integrated myself with your soul. The current pact made between you and me is unbreakable for a reason. Through it I have already learned much about you. I now know enough to destroy the current timeline, fling our pact backwards to the pivotal moment in which you had become a pawn of Aloenna. It will change a single parameter within you, change who you are. It will allow you to free yourself from Aloenna before she is able to complete her dominion over you, before she erases your memory and love for your family. You will find me once again, find June and save her village. It will help us escape from under Maggie's thumb. We can take their entire chess board and flip over the table and nobody and no one will be able to screw with us, track us or be able to stop us.”

“How?” Yul blinked.

“A sacrifice of everything as it exists now. A total System rewind.” I looked up at the black hole corona shimmering above the city.

“Holy shit, you can do that?” June gasped. “You... can rewind time?!”

“I can do a lot of things, June. I ate a lot of Gods. Rewinding five years won’t be easy. It will require a shit ton of magical power and an absolute interruption of my current self, the total surrender of my agency to Valerianne. I would have never considered this option had I never met and lost you, June.” I told her. “I finally understand now what it’s like to lose someone. I can save your village with temporalmancy. I can do it because I... care for you. I can give you the ultimate miracle, to restore the lives of your family. All you have to do is become my… no our Apostle, bind yourself to me and Yul with an unbreakable pact so that we can find you again... five years in the past.”

June’s eyes lit up. “I’ll do it!”

I looked down at the grumpy kitten sitting on June’s lap.

“If this timeline is erased… everyone living now will be gone.” Yul muttered.

“Yes, but it will also undo the Sextant invasion. It will free you from the dryads and Magraterra. It will save your family.”

“I’ll do it,” Yul looked up at me with determination. “I want to be free.”

“Good. Let's wake up, make our pact with June and take the ship.” I said.

They were both ready. I had won my June back with a promise. Five years wasn’t very long, but would give me the necessary time to derail the plans of my children. I reached out to June and hugged her and she finally accepted my embrace. I felt a tether of belief, of blossoming hope connecting from her to me.

“Wake me up Jilliani.” I declared into the empty city.