Wading through the tide of humanity, most of whom were heading away from the palace, Derzina reached the grounds before the colossal structure. Awe-inspiring as it been when she first laid eyes on it, now it only served to agitate her. She could only see it as a symbol of divine arrogance and the disregard they had for other people; mortals and gods alike.

Derzina walked up to the nearest guard outside the palace and said, “I need to speak with Lady Inea.”

The woman looked Derzina over and replied, “Aren’t you the one she threw out yesterday?”

“That’s right.”

Shifting uncomfortably on the spot, the guard looked down as she spoke. “And you still want to see her? Even if you do, I doubt she wants to speak with you.”

“You’re right, but I must speak with her. Tell her that I have important information regarding the coming attack.”

After a short pause the guard nodded and hurried toward the palace. Left to wait, Derzina looked around at the other guards to pass the time, but none of them would meet her eyes. There was none of the excitement of her first visit to the palace, now Derzina was just another person out of favour with Inea. A list which seemed to grow longer by the day.

However, that would all change soon enough. She was going to win over Inea, at least enough for her to work with Atasimon and the other gods on more equal footing. Then the people of Brtet would see that Derzina was only trying to help them.

Eventually the same guard returned, walking quickly out of the palace and toward Derzina. “Lady Inea will see you now.”

“Thank you,” Derzina said, allowing the guard to escort her to the palace’s front entrance where they left her to enter alone.

Taking a deep breath, Derzina stepped inside to find Inea already waiting for her. The goddess’ long dress was gone, in its place she wore a jewel encrusted suit of plate armour with a long silver cape draped over the back of her throne. Each of the green individual plates was a work of art, bearing intricate symbols etched in silver.

“I had not thought to see you again,” Inea said, once the door was closed and they were cut off from the outside world. “Did I not make my displeasure clear in our last meeting?” Though she sneered at Derzina, her voice spoke more of exhaustion than rage.

“You did, but as I said to your servant, I have important information.”

“Information which you could have freely given to them rather than wasting my time; something which you continue to do. So, tell me, what do you want?”

“I want the same thing we all do; to protect this city from the demons who seek to destroy it. And to do that, I need you and the other gods to stop all this nonsense and work together as equals.”

Inea drummed her fingers on the armchair of her throne, looking down at Derzina in irritation. “I don’t know what nonsense you’re insinuating; I have done nothing but try to work with them. Now more than ever.”

“Then why do you insist that they must work under your command? They would surely serve the city better if allowed to act of their own free will. It would certainly make Xanathel more willing to help.”

“Would they? Like they have all these years they’ve wasted in their own frivolous pursuits? Would you have me stake the lives of all my people on the whims of a dotard and a crook?”

Though Derzina had intended to keep a level head and try to persuade Inea, she simply could not let such a comment pass. “I do not mean to lecture you on your own people, but how can you in good conscience speak of frivolity when we stand within this enormous palace of yours? I’ve never seen such a monument to arrogance and waste.”

“I see Atasimon did not choose you as a vessel for your wisdom or your foresight,” Inea said icily. “My palace, along with all the works with which I have graced this city, exists to inspire my people and bring them together. In everyday life, and especially in times of crisis, as we now find ourselves.”

“And how, precisely, does plastering your face across the city help to bring people together?”

Rising from her throne, Inea descended the steps until she was level with Derzina. The goddess looked her in the eye and when she spoke once more, the anger was gone. In its place was respect, even reverence tinged with sorrow.

“People need something to believe in. It gives them purpose, makes them better than they are. All I have ever done is try to give them that, difficult as it is in this blighted world that we’ve made for ourselves. Not that I’d expect you to understand that, none of the other gods seem to be able to grasp it either.”

Inea was right, Derzina didn’t understand it and she wasn’t sure she believed it either, though Inea seemed to. Did humanity really need such a thing? She wasn’t certain they did, but then again, what was her life without Ortesia?

She’d devoted most of it to her city’s protector, it had defined her whole life. Without that goddess to follow what would she have become? What was she now for that matter? Derzina found herself at a loss, both on how to answer her own questions and what she could say to Inea.

Nothing she said seemed to reach the goddess, who clearly had her own very strong ideas about how the world worked. It probably should have come as no surprise, to her Derzina was a mere child. A mortal child at that. Inea wouldn’t listen to the gods who’d ruled this city with her for so many years, why had Derzina thought she might listen to a mortal interloper?

“You’re right, I don’t understand it or your city. Even still, I implore you to reconsider forcing the other gods and their followers to serve you. This course will only serve to foster anger and distrust among them.”

“Perhaps,” Inea said. “Or it may demonstrate to them the benefits of my rule, which so many have already come to appreciate. This is the perfect opportunity for them to learn the strengths of unity. I’ve often thought I was too lenient with them and now that shall be rectified. If they have any regard for the city and the safety of its people, they will fall in line.”

“You can’t just force them to obey, do you care nothing for their freedom?”

“There was a time where I did,” Inea said, looking upward, “before the merging. That freedom is what has brought us to where we are now; prisoners within our own cities at the mercy of the demons that roam free over what was once our home. Freedom does not make one happy or prosperous, it merely allows mistakes to happen. Mistakes like people wasting their whole lives to no purpose. Through following my will, my followers have all been spared such an ignoble fate.”

Face to face with Inea’s cold yet beautiful visage, framed by her long dark hair, Derzina understood why people followed her. The goddess possessed vision and the strength to see that vision realized, yet Derzina could see nothing for herself within the goddess’ ambitions.

Inea wished for a world where humanity was bent to her will, ostensibly for their own good. For all its supposed benefits, it was a fate Derzina would not wish upon anyone she’d ever known. If you weren’t free to live as you chose, what was even the point? Were you even a person then? They would be little better off than the people of Merstaneon, whose lives were defined by their own ruler and her ideas of how people should be.

Derzina wished Atasimon were awake, perhaps the goddess would better be able to grasp the true scope and implications of Inea’s ideas. Painfully aware of her own failure to do so as Derzina was, she rejected them on a fundamental level. She was certain that all Ortesia had ever wanted her for followers was for them to be what they thought was their best, not what the goddess decided for them.

While Derzina stood there deep in thought, Inea returned to her throne. Once she was seated, straight-backed and proud, she gave Derzina almost a pitying look. “I thought there was the slightest chance that you might understand, but for all your experience with the outside, world and the divine you’re no different than the others. No more than a lost little person in a vast world.”

Derzina thought it most strange that the goddess might pity her, given that she felt much the same way about Inea. “I never claimed to be anything more. I’m a simple woman, I know that, but even I can see what you’re doing is wrong. You speak of mortals being lost, yet you are the most lost of all. I can scarcely imagine the path that brought you to the point where you seek to control humanity rather than protect it.”

“Imagine?” Inea asked, answering her own question with a furious shake of her head. “Whatever you are imagining isn’t even close to the reality of it. I doubt even I could have imagined what would happen during the merging.”

Inea seemed to look straight though Derzina as she continued, “I heard that Meztraxia destroyed your city. How much of the destruction did you see?”

“Enough.”

“You saw your people butchered before you while their homes lay broken?”

Derzina swallowed as sorrow welled up anew within her. “I did.”

“Such sights were commonplace during the great war, that’s precisely why we resorted to such extreme measures. But what we brought about was worse than any war. Entire continents were snuffed out in an instant, and the world we once knew was gone forever. We just wanted to put an end to the war. Instead, we nearly destroyed mankind and ourselves.”

Inea blinked and just like that she was staring at Derzina, instead of the past. “Nothing like that can ever happen again if we are to survive, I won’t allow it. What’s left of humanity will work together under my leadership and we will take this new world for our own. Is that not the worthiest of aims?”

Hearing both the hope and absolute conviction with which Inea spoke made Derzina’s heart ache. There was such determination and righteous intent within the goddess, yet it was utterly misplaced.

“There are parts of it that I agree with,” Derzina said, “but on the whole I still believe you are wrong. Unity cannot be forced.”

“You are solely mistaken on that point. My city is a testament to the virtues of my method. Do you think any of my followers wanted to serve me as they do? Always working for the benefit of the city, rather than themselves? Of course not, humans are too selfish for that. And yet, despite their natural inclinations, they obey me and are better for it. The entire world is better for it.”

Derzina almost wanted to cry out of frustration and powerlessness; nothing she said was getting through to Inea in the slightest. Which, as she was increasingly coming to realize, was exactly what she should have expected.

Of course Inea wasn’t going to discard everything she’d learnt over the past century, especially when her methods had achieved such success. If Derzina was going to change her mind, then she would have to demonstrate to the goddess the error of her ways.

“It is as you say,” Derzina said. “I would like to take my leave, if you will permit it, my lady. It appears you have already heard all I know about the threat Meztraxia poses; thus, it would be best that I didn’t take up anymore of your valuable time.”

“Then go,” Inea said, not sounding convinced in the slightest by Derzina’s sudden turn. “But remember what I have told you here today. If we are to triumph over the demons, it will be through enacting my vision.”

Bowing her head in deference, Derzina strode out of the palace.