Stars was almost the opposite of what Serenity thought he was as a Void Sovereign. Shadows, perhaps, but not stars. “What are you talking about?”

Serenity squeezed between the two chairs and sat down. Without the curse in the way, it was a bit awkward to maneuver his wings but not truly difficult. It was simply unfortunate that he hadn’t had the chance to damage the curse with his ax.

“You looked like the night sky on a clear, moonless night. Darkness filled with stars.” Jacob sounded more coherent; that was good. The description didn’t make sense, though.

“No, I don’t.” Serenity turned towards Rissa and Denise, who both seemed puzzled as they looked towards the back seats. “You two didn’t see anything odd, did you?”

Denise made a gesture like an overstated shrug. “You turned into … I don’t know, ink? Then it flowed over the back of the seat. Seemed pretty odd to me.”

Serenity shook his head. He knew about that part.

Rissa tapped her lips with a finger. “Maybe. If I did, it was small. Shift back; I want you to try something.”

Serenity slipped into his Void Sovereign form and looked at himself.

All he saw was shadows. He hadn’t paid that much attention to his vision before; he’d gotten used to Eyeless Sight, and what he could see as a Void Sovereign was very close to that. The difference was that - even more than with Eyeless Sight - he saw with his entire body. It was almost as much like touching as it was like seeing, even though it was at a distance.

Like Eyeless Sight, it “saw” glass as a solid. However it worked, it clearly wasn’t visible light.

Rissa made a deep noise in her throat, as though she were concerned. “Shadows. That’s all. Please move closer to Jacob. Closer … yes, closer … still nothing. Touch him?”

Serenity brushed up against Jacob. It went from nothing to slight pain and distinct antipathy almost immediately.

“Yes! There it is! There are sparks where you’re touching.” Rissa sounded excited.

“Oh I see! That’s neat!” Denise did, too.

Serenity was somewhat less pleased, but he was the one feeling the pain. At least it didn’t seem to have tried to spread the curse, this time.

Serenity looked down at the area where his shadows met the crazed surface of the curse and understood what they were seeing, even though he couldn’t see it visually; Essence Sight gave away the story. The pain was because the curse was actually trying to push him away, but whatever it did, he could just flow around. Whenever he accidentally separated a tiny fragment of the curse from the rest of it, it turned into a tiny painful spark of light.

When he was touching the curse, it happened frequently and apparently looked like stars.

However pretty it was, Serenity didn’t like it. He moved away from Jacob.

A coyote stood alone in a place that didn’t exist, watching events play out on a planet far from his location. As he watched, a darkness formed silently behind him, seeming to watch the watcher.

Coyote was glad the Voice had drawn his attention back to Earth. It had always been full of surprises, but that was to be expected. What he hadn’t expected was to finally find something he’d been looking for after so long. An anomaly, of course, but Coyote wasn’t interested in anything else.

And it was a dragon, too! Coyote clearly needed to check with Dragon; the old coot was probably still sleeping, dreaming of the past when they were all young, planning for a future that turned out differently than expected.

Serenity had emerged as a possible Power in nearly no time, without Coyote being aware of him previously at all. His background was interesting, but no more so than many others on Earth. A Dragon born of two Humans wasn’t at all common, but this wasn’t the first time, even on magic-starved Earth.

Not that Earth would be magic-starved for much longer. That was why Rhea made the promise she did, after all.

Coyote touched the warped godsgift, pushing it to give up some of its secrets to the anomaly. It didn’t actually contain anything so banal as words, but that was probably how Serenity would see them.

It was such a bright gift, twisted with such hatred. Coyote wondered which god had granted it; light and ForeSight were a common pairing, almost as common as darkness and secrets. He’d noticed it when it entered his lands, but only as a godsgift; the twisting was subtle and deceitful. Coyote would have thought it was done by two different gods if he hadn’t seen the patterns that showed a single god’s hand.

It wasn’t impossible that someone had imitated another god; Loki was well known for that very thing. Still, this didn’t feel like Loki’s work.

“Distracting, isn’t he?”

Coyote looked up, startled. There were only a few people who could join him in this space, and fewer who always spoke like that.

Oh, it was Death. Of course. There was a reason Death was called “silent”. The only noise he made was when he chose to, and he could go anywhere. “How did you know who I was watching? He’s not your Champion, you don’t even have one.”

“He is not likely to choose to Champion anyone. Tek is still trying but I doubt he’s realized.”

Death was almost as good at evading questions as Coyote himself.

“I’d prefer if he didn’t,” Coyote admitted. It was easier to move game pieces if no one else had authority over them. Not that he’d needed to do much moving; the only thing he’d done other than watch so far was push on the twisted godsgift. Serenity seemed to have a knack for finding every possible messed up situation on his own, and Tyche was punching him into finding the ones that were completely ridiculous with her Mark, though that was for her own amusement.

“There are other options than Champion. There are many ways to serve a god.” Coyote was something of an expert in working around restrictions; he didn’t have a Champion, but that wasn’t because he couldn’t get people, even humans, to work for him. It was because he didn’t need a Champion and hadn’t chosen to grant that much of his power to anyone. There were large advantages to having a Champion, but it wasn’t Coyote’s style.

“Serenity will not be commanded. Persuasion may work, but what you are will work against you. He does not trust the gods.”

Coyote barked a short laugh. “I can’t argue with that. I don’t trust the gods either. It’s interesting to see that in such a young one; distrust takes time to learn.”

Death didn’t respond to Coyote’s unasked question. After a moment, Coyote continued. “I wonder how he’ll feel if he ascends. He’s on the path to it now; strongest in the world as well as notorious.”

“He does not wish to be a deity.”

“Neither did I.” Coyote snapped. Death knew that. Death didn’t understand it, of course, but he was always willing to listen.

Death didn’t pass on secrets; he was possibly as close as Coyote came to having a friend among the other gods, even though he was a Concept and Coyote was a Beast.

“Was it worth it? All that you have done and given up, to help the weak, since the beginning?”

That was not a question Coyote had ever expected Death to ask. Death had never been nuanced or philosophical; there were reasons he stood and watched without speech. “You’ve changed.”

Coyote waited for Death to reply. He could take his own sweet time, sometimes.

“Yes.”

It wasn’t as long a pause as Coyote had expected, and the answer was even less expected. No attempt to evade the question; just a simple admission. “Why?”

“Was it worth it?”

Coyote started to consider it, but the answer was easy. He’d long since been repaid for what he’d lost. “Yes.”

“It was for me as well, and will be.”

Absolute confidence rang in Death’s words.

That wasn’t like Death at all; he’d never been emotional. He was only a Concept, he didn’t have the capacity to-

Oh. Of course. “You have an Incarnate.” Incarnates affected the deity they were tied to, if there was one.

Coyote couldn’t remember his first Incarnate; it was simply too long ago, and he’d been very different then. Little more than a simple coyote, for all that he was their god. He hadn’t really come to awareness until he had an Incarnate reach past what was known to be possible.

The Voice made reaching Incarnate far easier, but even with the Voice, Coyote couldn’t see how it was possible for Death to get an Incarnate. Unlike the Beast-gods who almost always had an Incarnate within a few years of the death of the current one, they were rare for any of the Concept-gods; Luck’s most recent Incarnate was a great example. Tyche Herself died something like a thousand years ago, yet her preferences still ruled Luck - she was even still using Tyche’s name!

“Yes.”

“How - no, who? Where?” Coyote wanted to keep an eye on Death’s Incarnate; he’d be a major player, and Coyote had no idea who it was. He could completely upend some Coyote’s long-term plans, even without meaning to. With luck, he was somewhere unimportant; one of the Necropolis planets, perhaps. That seemed like a likely place to find an Incarnate of Death, and Coyote didn’t have any plans for any of those worlds.

“You will know if it matters. For now, he wishes to conceal his identity. I believe that you were watching the Power-to-be?”

Serenity was no longer working with the curse; instead, he was walking towards the bridge. Good; Tyche’s Mark must have come into play again. Coyote wasn’t certain why they were here, but he was headed directly towards the closest invasion portal.

This one should be interesting. Coyote had already seen a lot of interest in this young Power; he was one to work with for a long time or kill immediately. So far, Coyote thought he’d be able to work with him, and that was certainly preferable. It was often impossible with a new planet’s first Power; there seemed to be more wrong roads than right ones for someone in that situation.

This encounter should reveal another piece of the puzzle that was Serenity. The Traa were difficult to fight, but there was no need to fight them this early as long as you were willing to try other solutions. Still, they did need to be managed; Coyote was not prepared to let this particular world become a new Traa stronghold, even if he had created them in the first place.