“Aftereffects? I haven’t noticed any issues with magic.” Magic on Earth seemed pretty much like magic elsewhere. Serenity was sure he’d have noticed if it was different.

Psyche shrugged. “You use internal magic. I felt that when you triggered the token. It’s pretty clear you can use external magic, you are right now, but you’re from Earth; the damage probably seems normal.”

He was using external magic right now? Serenity wasn’t doing any spells. In fact, the only thing he was actively doing with magic was eating it - oh. “When you say external magic, you’re talking about ley lines, aren’t you?”

Serenity had noticed: Earth’s ley lines were positively weird. Too common and too fragile at the same time. He knew he hadn’t learned much about ley lines the first time around until well after Earth’s destruction, but he’d seen a lot of planets afterwards and none seemed so broken. He’d already guessed that it was caused by the second cataclysm; he simply hadn’t known the mechanism.

“The blood of the planet, drawn through your own veins. Yes, it’s called external magic because it comes primarily from outside; you have to process it and make it yours before you can use it. External magic is easier to learn, or it used to be. All the stories I’ve heard for centuries are about internal magic, which seems strange.” Psyche shrugged. “Perhaps it’s simply because the shattering left Earth’s magic network too damaged.”

Serenity wanted to ask more, but history wasn’t why he’d called Psyche. “Back to the problem at hand. If it’s not Apollo, who could it be? And how does that change things? Or could it have been Apollo’s and survived his death?”

Psyche shook her head. “It wouldn’t be adapting the way you said it did if the person who created it were dead. It probably wouldn’t even be propagating. Hmm. Sunlight and a curse placed on a Seer. Hmm. Wait, you said something about one of the visions mentioning something about a son?”

Serenity shook his head. “I wrote it down; the line was ‘the sons she took from me will bring her no pleasure’. I took that to mean something about children?”

Psyche shook her head. “Could be. Many of the Ascended gods liked to travel and liked women; some of them were also astonishingly petty. But for one to …”

When Psyche said Ascended gods, she had to mean ones that were once mortal; Serenity knew there was a difference between them, Concept-gods, and Beast-gods. Ascended gods were categorically different; they were allowed to be more personally involved than the other types, who had to work through their worshippers.

The Final Reaper had directly killed a lot of Ascended, while the other types tended to die off when he killed enough of their worshippers.

Psyche snapped her fingers. “Helios. He seduced one of Apollo’s A’Atlan Oracles a few years before the war. It was one of Apollo’s grievances against A’Atla; he had to keep an Oracle there to have a presence, but many of the Oracles he sent left his service. I never heard what happened to her, but Helios probably survived; he rarely spent much time in A’Atla. That’s why it was such a surprise when he turned up at a party with an A’Atlan Oracle. I remember he got into a fight with Apollo; I don’t remember how it started. I left; even then, I was tired of the continual fights.”

“That sounds like it matches,” Serenity said cautiously. “Does he do curses?”

Psyche shrugged. “Sure. Almost everyone did. Well, all of the gods. He didn’t use them much, at least not in the area I lived in; more or less what’s called Greece, now, where he was known as Helios. I think he was on good behavior near A’Atla, too, when he was around. I heard some pretty nasty rumors about what he was doing in other parts of the world. Using other names, of course.”

Serenity frowned. “If he’s the person who cursed Rissa’s family, that’s good to know. I think we have a way to individually clear the curse off people, but how can we get him to stop attacking Rissa?”

“Make it a contest - a bet. Helios loved both; he’d bet on anything. Won more often than not, too. It’s even better if it’s something you both have to do … maybe a fight?” Psyche tapped her fingers against her cheek. “How would we set that up…”

Serenity shook his head. A fight was definitely a bad choice; he wasn’t certain he would win if he didn’t go for the kill. Killing Helios would probably dissipate the curse and prevent harm to Rissa, but he really didn’t want to start killing gods. That tended to scare other gods; he’d been down that road before, and starting it at Tier Three was a recipe for trouble. “No, it needs to be something else. Something useful. Wait; can gods close invasion portals? Why haven’t you been doing that?”

“I’m sure some have. Those who can. I can’t.” Psyche seemed to take the question as an insult.

Serenity shook his head vigorously. “Not what I mean; I mean, why are there only…” Serenity pulled up his Quest list. “Fifty-seven … when did we get to fifty-seven portals closed? That’s quite a jump.”

He shook his head; it was excellent news but a large surprise. It hadn’t budged by more than a couple in the week after he closed the Sterath portal, but now it’d jumped by more than ten in the two days since he last checked. “We’re past a tenth of the way there now. That’s good, but the pace needs to be higher. If we can make that the contest, would it work?”

Psyche looked at him skeptically for a moment before she seemed to really consider the question. “A contest to close invasion portals? You’d need a sufficient bet. What do you have that he’d want?”

“Uh. Maybe a token that grants the favor of another god?” Serenity had no idea what to bet, but he did have a bunch of Favors from Tek. He hoped betting one of them wouldn’t tick her off.

Psyche shook her head. “Too abstract; he’ll want something concrete. I don’t think letting him fuck your wife is something you’re going to offer, but it’s the first thing he usually asks for.”

Serenity blinked. No, that definitely wasn’t something he was going to permit. Whatever he offered needed to be carefully bounded; it was possible he’d lose. If he did, he’d have won a reprieve for Earth, at least; he could figure out a next step from there. Taking Rissa and running would be possible, though he doubted he’d do it.

Serenity shrugged and dumped out his backpack. It’d been a long time since he actually looked at what was in there; most of it was junk that he hadn’t bothered to clean out or stuff he used infrequently; there was an entire collection of previous versions of his Earthling’s Guide, mostly rough drafts. He really should toss most of those out.

There were several bags of small Tutorial monster cores; they were the biggest things in there other than his bedroll. He set them to the side, doubting they’d be good bet material for someone from Earth. Unless … “Does he have a use for monster cores? They’re a low-grade mana source, very impure.”

Psyche shook her head. “He’d either call that a trap or ask for something silly like his weight in them. What are those?” She pointed at two items, a small statuette and a small wooden box.

“The statue’s a golem; I know it’s named Lessi but I don’t know the activation phrase. The box has an enchanted stone; it activates when it’s touched and puts everyone nearby into a deep magical slumber. The person who touches it may hallucinate.” He’d gotten the golem from Frank Smith and the dreamstone was the one he’d gotten from Rakyn on Tzintkra that was never delivered. They both probably belonged in the collection of magical junk Rissa had; it was in Aki’s dungeon now, and Serenity couldn’t think of a better place for random magical stuff he was never going to use than there.

Psyche nodded. “He’d definitely be interested in the stone as long as it’s powerful. The golem might work, too.”

“Can you issue the challenge to him?” Having Psyche take it to him was probably the easiest way, plus it wouldn’t cost Etherium.

Psyche shook her head. “How are you going to enforce that? He could tell you he closed all of them.”

“He’s that type? Ugh. I hate people who cheat to win.” Serenity frowned. Spending the Etherium seemed like the best way, now. Hopefully he could; Optional Quests had some pretty severe limitations. While one of the limits was the cost, you also had to have the authority to issue a Quest.

The Final Reaper had qualified, but he’d rarely used it because he hadn’t found it worthwhile. It was worthwhile here if he could use it; the Voice enforced Quest awards. Serenity knew he’d qualify to issue a Quest to anyone living in Serenity Settlement, just like Aki (and probably Raz) could issue them to residents of Aki’s dungeon. Whether he could issue one to a god … well, it was worth trying.

Voice? Can I issue an Optional Quest to Helios, whatever name he’s using now?

[You may issue Optional Quests to any resident of Earth or Tzintkra, as well as any registered citizen of Serenity Settlement or Tzintkra’s Necropolis. Quests may also be issued using your Dungeons as an issuance point]

That was good to know. A little concerning, but good to know.

He’d better get to it, then.

“Psyche, would you take a look at this? I want to make sure it’s clear and doesn’t have any loopholes.” Serenity pushed the information on the Quest to Psyche as a second set of eyes.

[Optional Quest: Invasion Portal Challenge]

[You have been challenged by the individual currently leading the Invasion Portal Global Quest]

[Quest: Directly contribute to the resolution of more Invasion Portals than the current leader]

[Conditions: Indirect contributions will be counted in proportion to their value towards the closure of the portal. Qualification of Portal contribution will be determined by the Voice. Preventing others from closing Invasion Portals may count as negative contribution. Results of this quest will be adjudicated at the end of the Invasion Portal Global Quest]

[Minimum win condition: Higher total contribution level than the current leader of the Invasion Portal Global Quest]

[Reward: Golem statuette]

[Supplementary Win Condition: Have the highest contribution level in the Invasion portal Global Quest]

[Supplementary Reward: Dreamstone Orb]

[Failure Condition: Lower total contribution level than the current leader of the Invasion Portal Global Quest]

[Failure Condition: Failure of the Invasion Portal Global Quest]

[Failure Consequences: Required to cease all attacks on Rissa Latimer and permit her to enjoy the sunlight once more. Required to remove the blessing/curse applied to ALL of her relatives. Required to remove/heal effects caused by the curse. Not permitted to act against Rissa Latimer, her family, or her allies for a minimum of twelve years]

Psyche looked doubtful. “This Voice of yours can enforce that? What if he’s not actually the god who made the curse?”

Serenity shrugged. “The Voice will give him a mandatory quest with failure conditions it deems appropriate if he doesn’t follow the stated terms. That’s part of what the Etherium payment is for, and why I didn’t put in anything about it being caused by him. The rest is because the Voice really doesn’t like being used as a delivery boy, so it adds a convenience charge.”

Serenity bit his lip, then chuckled. “At its worst, this gets someone else really working to close portals at the cost of a couple items I don’t really care about. Even if I lose, it achieves something; we’ll have to come up with another plan, but we can do that. If I win and he’s not the culprit, it gives me someone else powerful to help solve the problem. This was a great idea, thanks.”

Psyche shook her head. “I hope your Voice is as powerful as you think. Helios will try to win, whatever it takes.”

“That’s why I made the Voice the arbiter and added the line about negative contribution, you said he’d try that. The Voice is good at quests and good at tracking things; sabotage to let him get credit won’t help him much, and may hurt him more than it helps.” Serenity was happy with the terms, or at least as happy as he was going to be with only having the chance to write a first draft.

He paid the ten Etherium the Voice wanted for the Quest; it was a lot, but it was actually on the cheap end for an Optional Quest. He hated the fact that he could only send it to “Helios”; hopefully the Voice could figure out who that was. He’d have preferred to send it to “the guy who cursed Rissa”, but the Voice made it quite clear that wasn’t an option when he tried by laughing at him.

Was that the first time he’d heard the Voice laugh? It might be.

Moments after he sent the Optional Quest, the Voice notified him.

[Optional Quest: Invasion Portal Challenge has been accepted and added to your Quest List]

Had Helios even read the conditions? He either hadn’t or he read really fast.

Serenity supposed it didn’t matter; he’d have to follow them or be penalized in the contest.