He walked inside and I followed. It was a quaint little house, surprisingly, designed comfily. Nicely decorated rugs adorned the floor, paintings of seemingly famous people I’ve never seen hung on the walls, and ribbons draped all over, vaguely reminding me of Christmas decorations.

“It’s for the Imperial celebration. Almost like our Christmas here,” he said as he walked into the kitchen.

Blood drummed in my ears. I was willingly standing in this killer’s foyer. What the hell was I doing? Hana was probably worrying by now, having noticed me gone for too long.

I heard some faint rumbling in the background.

“Come on in and take a seat, Griffin.” Was that threatening? Was he going to murder me here? I couldn’t tell, his tone being too neutral.

I made my way into the kitchen and saw him making himself some bread and cheese on a cutting board. “Want some? It’s a fine cheese, pretty sharp.” I shook my head no, choosing to stand against the wall that led into the kitchen. I reasoned that if I moved any deeper into the house it would be too tough to escape. It was flimsy but it did just enough to reassure me a touch.

He had finished preparing his snack and took a bite, finally looking up at me. “What brings you into town?”

I couldn’t get past the casualness. He was treating this like we were old friends or something. It was too off putting but even then a gusto of bravado filled me.

“Why did you kill Zeckmas?”

He took another bite and pondered the question, black threads of hair dangling in front of his face. “There’s a lot you don’t know, a lot of players in a very complicated game. Have you spoken with Latem yet?”

“No. Who’s that?” I vaguely heard more rumbling in the back of the house, maybe a small dog in a cage or something.

“A man who might have some information that could be of use to you.”

“Why would you tell me that? What’s going on here? Does this have anything to do with my ‘mission’ that you spoke about before?”

“My, my, just chock full of questions, aren’t we? I would really love to tell you everything,” he said with a smile that, for the first time since meeting him, looked utterly insincere, patronizing even. “But unfortunately we aren’t really alone so I can’t divulge anything pertinent.” Percival took another bite, perfectly white teeth gently tearing through the bread.

My eyes slid to the hallway that led deeper into the house. We weren’t alone? Was I in danger? My fingers jittered rapidly, full of adrenaline. Then the rumbling grew louder and I could tell it wasn’t a dog.

Clickclackclickclack. Something was approaching, slowly, taking its time. It was close enough that I could hear it breathing, long deep breaths that made a slight whistling sound interspersed with a quick panting.

Around the corner of the hallway, it appeared. A monster, clinging to the ceiling, drool dripping from its maw, crawled slowly forward, appearing from around the corner. It was a dark gray beast of a thing, limbs long and spindly with at least three or four times the normal amount of joints. Two arms and two legs, all capped with fierce claws. Its mouth was row after row of gleaming razors, so large that it looked like it could swallow a person whole by dislocating its jaw. The creepiest part was its lack of eyes, its face entirely smooth except for two small holes where a nose would be.

Drool continued to drip to the ground as it breathed, having stopped moving, waiting. I immediately started to back up and move towards the door. It was something out of a nightmare, a creature that crawled forth from a hole of fire and terror.

Percival stepped forward and I fell backwards into the door, hitting the floor. It was going to brutally maul me. Its gazeless face, its bloodlust, its stench.

“Rather rude to do away with greetings, no, Giaos?”

I instantly realized that was the person he had just referred to and what I thought had been instinct suddenly burst forth, taking over.

She was in control of my body, me now truly a detached observer, watching helplessly. It was surreal, almost like I was in a dream.

“I’ve finally found you.” Giaos said through me, my voice sounding deep, ancient. My hands (Giaos’s?) flexed and unflexed.

“It’s a pleasure, my lady.” Percival coupled it with a flourish and a small bow. The monster above hadn’t made a single move, just breathing.

“Don’t taunt me, mortal. You are a mere child playing with fire. Do you even understand the depth of what you’re doing, how we gods are becoming implicated in it. This is no mere scheme, anymore. This is war.”

“Oh, I understand perfectly well.” His voice had dropped, a deep anger rising to the surface. “I understand far more than you know.”

“Don’t be foolish, mortal,” she snapped. “Iztarr's coming death will only bring chaos. Do you understand the gravity of that?”

“If you think this is about him, then it’s you who has not a single clue.”

I was suddenly able to notice all the little movements Percival made, the particular angles of his body and even the areas that were filled with tension. It was as if an aura radiated off him now, one that I could see. This new sight should have given me insight into him, his disposition, his fears, his worries, his hopes. How I knew that I couldn’t say but I did know it.

Yet nothing came of it. It was as if he were a black box, a void, his aura faint and undefined, his movements and positioning so relaxed that it revealed nothing. It was so unnatural that I began to question whether he really was human.

“Explain yourself, mortal.” I-we said, tone bitter and fierce.

“Explanations, explanations,” he drawled, before taking another bite of his food. He swallowed carefully, delicately almost, and we snuck another look at the monster. This time, with the help of Giaos’s improved sight, we were able to determine something about it. Whereas Percvical’s aura was shifty, ambiguous, the monster’s aura was truly a blackhole, sucking in tendrils of color around him with a greediness that surprised even Giaos.

“Do you think that I would really forget the sins of the gods,” Percival continued but his voice held a light airiness to it, a stark contrast to both the situation and the words he was speaking. “The blood that has been let in the name of power and your endless rapacity. For millennia, you have made a sport of destruction and death, and like the elder spirits of old, you have only sought after your immediate wellbeing, unaware of the growing force beneath your wicked feet that seeks atonement. This is what I will bring, dearest mistress of the elements.”

“A righteous cause for someone so driven by bloodlust himself.”

Percival chuckled. “Don’t be fooled. I have no notions of trite pleasantries like justice or morality. Atonement seeks nothing but balance and that is the quest I have carved out for myself. An eye for an eye.”

Suddenly, I felt a power bubbling forth in us. It moved to the tips of our fingers in a flash and then speared out. Giant icicles burst from the ground, tearing through the wooden floors and going straight through the ceiling. Percival, somehow, moved around each one, moving fluidly with a dancer’s grace.

Then that thing attacked. It leapt forward from its spot on the ceiling and flew towards us. Immediately, a gust of wind burst forth. It was so powerful that it sent the monster through all the walls of the house, flinging it outside. We turned to see Percival escaping through a window. A flash of annoyance arose and then another surge of power.

A ball of fire grew to the size of the room in less than a second. It raged, fire crackling so loud it was deafening and then we pushed it forward. It moved just as quickly as it had appeared, incinerating the window Percival had just escaped through.

We raced forward through the trail of ash. The house was collapsing as we ran through the kitchen but I could feel Giaos’s disregard. It was like a forcefield prevented the house from collapsing on us and, within a heartbeat, we were outside racing across the blacktop.

The monster was in front of Percival, who was still running away, having blocked the blast with its body, the melted road enough of a clue to put it together.

It looked completely unharmed, working its jaw on small, tight circles.

Without hesitation and in mid sprint, we worked a storm in the sky, dark, ominous clouds forming rapidly. What was a sunny summer day turned almost instantly into a dark, brooding atmosphere.

Lightning flashed from the sky, arcing towards Percival but it curved, being directed into the monster. The ground around it exploded and bits of asphalt rained down us.

A dust cloud had formed where the monster was but we blew it away with another gust of wind and moved towards the monster. It reacted immediately, arms and legs tensing up before leaping towards us again.

A wall of stone pulled itself forth from the ground, blocking the monster’s attack. I could hear it smack against the wall and then scrabble against it, moving to the right. It’s head appeared, all three rows of teeth bared at us, spit and dribble mixed with blood.

We didn’t hesitate. We hit the ground with one hand and the monster erupted in an enormous pillar of fire. It encompassed his entire, abnormally large body, stretching so high it cut through the clouds. Blues and reds and greens danced in a display that looked like an art show, not a blistering attack. It was so intense that my hair was blown back, clothes billowing wildly in the wind, the heat strong enough that it should have cooked us alive but it didn’t.

We charged past the still going pillar of flames only to be grabbed by this invincible demon thing. It’s claws penetrated my skin with relative ease, like cutting through butter. We reacted, ending the fire pillar and bringing forth a raging river from underneath that smashed it into the side of a house. It tore up my leg pretty good as the force of the water tossed him around but we were able to continue running.

Percival was already out of sight, probably taking a turn up at one of the intersections. Our feet flew across the pavement, barely feeling winded. I noticed our leg was already healing as we ran.

We made it to the intersection and scanned both ways. No sight of Percy. A sudden burst of wind lifted us off the ground. It felt like a windtunnel, pushing us higher and higher into the air. Before we knew it, we were two hundred feet in the air, surveying the area.

Percival was nowhere in sight. Disappeared like a blown out candle.

The monster was pulling up a manhole cover, descending into the dark reaches of the Mishan sewer system.

“There’s no point in chasing it. Your body is too weak to fight it. I couldn’t even use a fraction of my power,” Giaos said.

You’re just gonna let him get away like that?

“This was not a meeting meant to end in death, child. The fates have decided that a long time ago. It was a test, to see what tricks he was hiding from me.”

Couldn’t you have just teleported here in your own body if I was too weak?

“Not with that beast present. It must have been a Krilil for it swallowed my magic just like one.”

We started to descend to the ground.

Wait, there are monsters out there that are too dangerous for gods to face?

“Dear child, there are many great evils out there, some far stronger than any god. While we carry in us the presence of an entire realm of power, we are not invincible. Mortals have defeated us before. It was how I became a goddess.”

We landed lightly on the ground.

You were a human before?

“No, no human has ever become a god, much less an ascendant. I was one of Fenrir’s Chosen, a now dying race.”

Fenrir’s Chosen?

“I must be gone. Stay out of trouble for the time being and become stronger.”

With that, she was gone.