As her Tiefling self, Iona stood center stage to address the assembled spiritual audience.

“Self-Love. The next step to work on after Self-Care and Self-Discovery. A simple concept and, sometimes, a difficult practice. For those, like myself, that deal with depression as a mental illness, it can be an uphill battle that leaves us drained with little progress to show for it. For those of you who still have the heart to be able to hold onto the love, I envy you. But that envy comes without bitterness because it is a relief that you can. I know what it feels like to be empty when you’re not actively trying to feel something towards another person or being. I want to feel happy when I’m alone. But, for now, I am content in knowing that I am being myself.

“For those of you who aren’t stuck in a Divine Punishment, I’d like to invite Aphrodite to the stage. I know they say ‘those who can’t do, teach instead,’ but teaching on this subject makes me feel like a hypocrite, so I’ll turn it over to an expert. Ladies, gentlemen, and everything in between, please be advised that the first two rows are a Splash Zone for this one, so let’s have all of the demons move back and the lighter spirits move forward to soak up the love that radiates from this Divine Feminine,” she said, motioning with her instructions to illustrate the movement and smiling when she saw the darker spirits drift towards the back of the audience, allowing the handfuls of lighter ones to take their place. “Thank you, now if you don’t mind giving a round of applause, you love her, I love her, it’s impossible not to, the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite.”

Bowing at the waist and backing up to the opposite side of the stage, Iona turned towards the goddess as she entered from the backstage area with a smile, her radiance permeating the area as she waved with the regality of a queen, her back straight and her wavy, strawberry blond hair flowing against the laws of physics to frame a heart-shaped face with eyes full of kindness and acceptance. When the applause died down, Aphrodite stood there, seemingly at a loss, though she hid it well.

“What do I say?” she asked, turning towards Iona who snorted a laugh and shook her head.

“I’m so glad this is just a rehearsal,” she said, pausing the audience again.

“Well,” the goddess said with a small huff.

“Just think about what you do for me when you know that I’m fading,” she said. “When I’m down and having trouble producing love for myself, you remind me of all of the qualities I have found to truly enjoy about myself so I can focus on it and it works. I just can’t retain it without you being my perpetual Hype-Man,” she added.

“What about the movies I pick for you?” she asked. “Not all of them are about romantic love.”

“I’m well aware,” she said, thinking about the most recent recommendation they’d watched after coming inside from the garden. “A thirtysomething woman who has decided to take a break from the life she’d been living, which she felt had been designed by someone else,” she summarized. “That was a bit too on the nose for this time in my life to not see the synchronicity. Again, beautifully shot, beautifully written, and beautifully acted. And, I appreciate you picked a quality flick, I really do, but I kind of checked out after I realized how superficial the main character was.”

“Superficial?” she asked, seemingly surprised.

“The main character was using romance for validation as a person and was supposed to take a break from it to find herself,” she said with a sigh. “Instead, she slipped back into old habits and didn’t actually try to improve herself until she realized she was about to have a kid. At the end of the day, this is still using another person to gain validation, except it’s a child that needs raising instead of a romantic partner. And, as made evident by this project, I don’t need another person to validate my existence. I am leaving my mark all on my own. For someone just starting, yeah, it’s a good film to show what happens if you don’t break the cycle; you’ll either get stuck in it or something will come, like the Tower in a reading, to shock the system and throw it into Chaos so you can rebuild and move on after learning from it. But my tower has been destroyed so many times, rebuilding is just a new part of the cycle and a list of chores on my to-do list.”

“Are there any romance movies you like?” she asked flat out, shaking her head as she put her hands on her hips and leaned forward a little, bringing her closer to Iona’s eye level.

“Wristcutters: A Love Story,” she said easily. “Two spirits connect in limbo, one too afraid to admit the love there, the other determined to get back to the life she left behind because she knows it wasn’t her time to die and the miracles that take place when they don’t really matter. It’s melancholy and yet hopeful and deals with the fear of making those connections. It’s as closer to the love I have already felt and wish I could have in this world than any other film on the subject of love that I have seen.”

“So, all I do for you is help you find some love for yourself to help ease the grief?” she asked quietly.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “You remind me that True Love is real and shouldn’t be envied to the point of detriment. I am a hopeless romantic. I am a romantic that has given up on the hope of finding my perfect person, waxing poetic over the notion because I have seen it with my own eyes, in my friends that have found their partners. That’s why I will fight to help them preserve it when the superficiality and envy of others threaten to break it. You have given me the imprint of the love Heosphoros and Astraea felt for each other, so powerful it was too painful to hold onto for more than a second because it felt like my entire being was being stretched out farther than I had ever felt to accommodate it. For a single moment, I felt fulfilled in every aspect of my being in a way that inspired me. You gave me what I needed to be able to recognize True Love when I’m in its presence and honor it, instead of being cynical or dismissing it. You gave me the chance to celebrate its existence because the more of it there is in the world, the better. You trying to convince me that, someday I’ll find my prince, was what kept me going for a long time. But my life isn’t a fairytale, I am not a princess, and I wasn’t satisfied with the happiness being held captive until the Ever After. I got selfish and impatient, so I looked at my book in the Library to see if I could figure out who my partner had become in the human world. And, like all Greek romance, it became tragic. So, now when I need to remember what love feels like, I call on you to remind me so I can pick it apart and try to recreate it for myself. You taught me what love really was. Don’t even diminish that. Especially on account of your movie recommendations because Hollywood is still celebrating the conflict instead of the peace that is discovered when you find it, creating a safe harbor in a world full of conflict.”

“Oh,” she said quietly.

“That’s why I prefer you to pick the playlist of music I dance to with Selene more than anyone else,” she added. “When you pick the music, I can feel it. Maybe it’s just the echoes of what my heart feels while it’s with him, but it’s enough to break through the shell of darkness. But that’s why I dance until I can feel it as strongly as the first time you showed it to me. Because, then, I can let go of the grief of his absence and sleep peacefully for the night.”

“Do you dream when you sleep after cleansing with Selene?” she asked.

“Yes and no,” she admitted. “I can never remember what the dream is about, but there’s a scene that gets stuck in my head. More just the setting. I see myself sitting in a wooden gazebo in a double-wide hammock chair, looking up through the sky view in the ceiling of the structure, and it’s surrounded by flowers. Night rulers, moonflowers, evening primrose, and night-blooming jasmine perfuming the air on a clear, cool night, while I stare up at the stars and wonder what their names are, wondering if they are gods looking over their own worlds, wondering what those Elysiums are like,” she said, clamping down on the sense of nostalgia that threatened to break her. “But, that's how I know I need to head North, somewhere I can grow all of those flowers together,” she said after taking a steadying breath. “That’ll be the closest I can come to my Elysium. Yeah, it hurts to think about being alone, but it’ll remind me of him. Give me a peaceful place to tap into my own heart and let the love in until it leaks down my face a bit before I have to shut it back out again.”

“Why shut it out?” the goddess asked.

“Because, as I learned from inadvertently channeling him to fulfill the role of Mr. Fantasy Fulfillment throughout 2020 while I was writing a vampire romance novel for you when I knew I would never be able to take the project seriously enough to actually finish it,” she said, “I can’t see what lies ahead if I’m focused on him. I’m stuck in the present of a world that doesn’t exist except inside my head. And, if he’s not a skeptic and has even a hint of what I have in the Claircognizance department, I could be driving him insane. If I tap into my heart, I can feel him there and I know that, if I hold on for too long, it’ll drive him mad knowing I’m out there. If he’d denying his gift, I could be gaslighting him without realizing it. I can’t force him to come to me because it’s always been his choice that ended up with us being connected. When he chose me, I was surprised because he got to choose first as Zeus’s favorite, and out of all the others in the legions, he picked me to be with him. And, as he started pointing out all of the qualities he considered when he made his decision, I started feeling appreciated and a lot more capable than I had. Damn it,” she said, taking a deep breath as her face started leaking again and she fought to close the hatch. “But my point is, if I keep thinking of him, I can’t see what’s in front of me, I forget everything I was trying to say, and I run the risk of making him think I’m casting a spell for him when I’m not. Come to me gently and of your own free will is the only love spell that should have ever been written. And, I don’t have the heart to feel the pain for too long, so I’ll be ok,” she told Aphrodite who’d begun to cry with her a bit. “I promise.”

“Might I interject?” Persephone asked as she came to the edge of the stage.

“Go for it,” Iona said, taking a deep breath.

“I have some news from Zeus,” she said and Iona frowned a bit. “Don’t worry, I didn’t demand that he help the reunion, but he did fill me in on your punishment.”

“Ok,” she said patiently.

“There’s an expiration date,” she said. “You only have about fourteen months left on your sentence. After that, he will no longer interfere in your circumstances when it comes to your partner.”

“How’d you manage that one?” she asked not really wanting to believe it.

“Showed him how much you've grown,” she said. “Yes, it was a punishment, but it was chosen to give you a chance to realize yourself as a spirit instead of your previous, fragmented iterations. You said yourself that you have found out everything there is to know about your own spirit. You don’t need your partner for validation. You know yourself well enough to know what you need from him, but you are strong enough and smart enough to get it yourself without him. The rest of your sentence is so you can work to earn the money you need to be independent and change your circumstances. We will try to help that on the backend, but it’s still up to you to put in the work.”

“I can handle that,” she said. “You just gave me a timeframe to get my shit together and hope I don’t fuck things up if and when we cross paths. Alright, ladies,” she said. “We’re going to break from rehearsal for a bit, I need to speak with my Director about a possible HIATUS.”

*****

As with a great many things in this world when it comes to the Chaos Engine, all of this is Loki’s fault. I first crossed paths with the Head of the Tricksters Union, as a human, when I drew a Chibi Loki tattoo and, in a show of pride in my artwork (which was rare) decided to get it as a tattoo back in 2015. Shortly thereafter my life fell apart through fate, bad decisions, and genetics, making it abundantly clear I was on the wrong path. Chaos Magic at its finest. I call the results of getting a tattoo of the Trickster the Moldavite Effect for those of you familiar with it. I knew when I got the tattoo, I was flirting with Chaos by doing so, but I was deluded into thinking I was happy with stagnation and had begun to doubt the gods’ existence. I needed to see that they are real, stability had nothing to do with employment or finances, and living with instability, finding peace within the Chaos and feeling comfortable knowing it could all go to shit because I knew I had the tools and the ingenuity to handle it, was the key to his teachings.

Two things any Baby Witch should know when it comes to the Trickster; first, was that his presence tended to exacerbate any latent ADHD and it takes time to adjust to the rapid-fire thinking. The second was that he loved using cats as messengers. After I’d decided to call on him, I laid down to get some sleep. When I got up and decided to process my thoughts out loud, every time I got distracted, standing up and pacing or finding other activities besides writing, Chonk, my twenty-something pound lard ball of a cat, started screaming at me and grabbing at my Lapis bracelet, demanding head pats, pets, and cuddles until I sat down in her chair and he claimed my lap. Trying to write a linear scene with Loki was nearly impossible without clearing the mind of excess thought; that’s why he’s so adamant about Shadow Work he was willing to tap someone who didn’t worship him to help his followers.

*****

“The Demon Method of Shadow Working is a fuck of a lot more cut-and-dry than I thought it was,” Loki admitted as he looked over her work. “Let go of your demons through self-exorcism, discover yourself, accept it, and move on,” he said with a sigh. “I thought it would take a lot more material to cover it all.”

“Nope,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest, facing him as he sat in one of her porch chairs, her feet slightly farther than shoulder-width apart.

“You’re not as chatty as you usually are,” he pointed out.

“I’m the only one in my head besides you right now,” she said simply. “Without legions of demons all trying to fight their way out of my mouth, driving me to try and explain every move I make, I don’t feel the need to word vomit all over the Head of the Tricksters Union.”

“You seem angry,” he pointed out.

“I’m not,” she said immediately. “I’m just tired of feeling caged. I just found out that there is a legitimate end to my sentence. A real, tangible light at the end of the tunnel in the form of a release date. All I have to do is earn enough cash between now and then to facilitate a location change. What you’re getting from me right now is the determination of demon on the verge of breaking free, it’s raw, deep, and vicious towards any obstacle that stands in my way.”

“Are you sure you’re not Valkyrie?” he asked dryly.

“Positive,” she answered just as dryly. “I admire the fuck out of them, but honor and glory come secondary to completing my assignments. You asked me to demonstrate the Demon’s Method of Shadow Working, balance psychology with spiritualism in a digestible format that you could direct your followers to instead of putting them through reliving their roots over and over, teach them how to rip the fucking things out and replace them with the gods so they can heal and move on. At this point, all I’m doing is giving tips on how to deal with depression when I have no right to do so.”

“You have depression,” he said, not seeming to understand her reasoning.

“Yes, but I have never been to therapy, I don’t take medication, and the depression is the only thing in my medical records at this point,” she said. “When I tried to use the same methods of the newer generations, all it felt like was coddling and catering to the demons instead of dominating them, which is what needs to start happening a lot faster than toot-sweet. Especially since the Apocalypse already happened and the world was too self-absorbed to notice.”

“I still don’t know how I’m going to explain that one to my followers,” he said, his green eyes widening for a moment and Iona looked up over his head at nothing and blinked for a moment before clearing her throat and cracking her knuckles.

“Demons are psychological creatures, effecting the mind by ramping up your perception of the world, making every thought ring through like a foghorn and forcing you to feel the emotions those thoughts illicit, whether you like it or not,” she said and he nodded, listening closely. “Because they are psychological creatures, they aren’t going to come storming to the surface in a hail of fire as physical legions. Instead, they are going to introduce a set of circumstances into the Chaos Engine where the humans ignore the best and brightest of them when they warn of the dangers of overprescribing antibiotics until, lo and behold, the prophecy comes true and a pandemic happens. This creates an environment where people are being forced into isolation for the first time in history and, as a result, the entire human population got a taste of Isolation Madness. So, as they are clawing at the walls of their homes, trying to distract themselves, pretending to work on themselves when they are all hoping to go back to the way things used to be so they can forget how fucked-up they really are, the demons are quietly filtering in through the cracks developed by the madness,” she said as she straightened her stance and did a quick step to indicate the end of the tap-dance. “The demons are in place to rebuild the bridges and facilitate communication, all the humans have to do is face them, assert their dominance, and put them the fuck to work.”

“Point taken,” he said, shaking his head as he looked away and at her feet. “You still think I’ve been too gentle with my followers.”

“Gentleness is for the injured and innocent,” she said bluntly. “And whining, crying, and kicking at rocks because it’s too hard only serves to expand the Void. The fact that it took me so long to stop being a useless little shit and just get it done pisses me off more than anything else. Yes, it was hard, but I feel a lot better now that it’s done and I wonder how much I could have accomplished before now if I hadn’t been so hung-up on my loneliness.”

“And that’s not a problem anymore?” he asked.

“Nope,” she said.

“Because of your partner,” he said.

“No, because Zeus is backing down,” she said.

“When it comes to your partner,” he said.

“Which means he will never stand in my way again,” she said, leveling a serious stare on the Trickster. “My partner and I were smart when we came up with a game plan before we agreed to the shift in reality and were sent to be born as humans,” she said. “Because he and I are linked, everything I do leads back to him. Which means everything I do involves my partner, whether we’re together or not, ergo...”

“He can't interfere even if he wants to,” he said as he blinked. “You’ve painted the King of your Pantheon into a corner,” he said with a small smile forming.

“At the end of my sentence, he will no longer hold any sway over what happens as a result of my decisions and actions,” she said. “Since the Demon Lords recognize me as one of them, I choose to fly Hades’ banner, because I love and respect him, and represent the Underworld Crew by choice, instead of being forced to like I was in the Abyss. When I say I can taste freedom, I mean it. Why do think I’m so keen on getting the fuck out of the Lightning Capital of the World? Here, I’m miserable, always under the oppressive eye of a Divine King that hates my guts because I’m smarter than he is and he doesn’t like that I’m not afraid of him. Sure, he’s gotten better and he’s not as much of a tyrant as he was before, but he’s still a DudeBro and his ego will always be his biggest weakness.”

“Was that the plan the whole time?” he asked.

“Nope, just happy byproduct of my stupid, impulsive nature,” she said with a smirk. “Kinda like getting an image of you put in my skin to balance the image of Oogie Boogie to represent the Twins, and ending up with a pack of Trickster gods to help me work through my madness. It helps to be one of the beings drawing Chaos straight from the edge of the Void instead of the stuff you give out. No offense, dude, but your brand of Chaos is Demon Lite.”

“Ouch,” he said, putting his hand on his chest before acquiescing with a wave of his hand.

“But my point is, my loneliness won’t be a problem because I am going to be too busy to feel it,” she said. “He wants me, he’ll come to get me. Until then, I’ve got shit to do. Starting with rebuilding the bridges between the humans and the Heavens so I can finally stop feeling like the March Hare, trying not to stab people for being unreasonable.”

“That’s why I’d prefer you to be in an area where the witch community is stronger and better connected than they are here,” he said and then paused as it seemed to click. “The first time you practiced magic was when you were thirteen. After two years later, you landed in the Lightning Capital where the witches were displaced and isolated.”

“My prison for the duration of a twenty-three-year sentence,” she said easily.

“Twenty-three,” he said as he pursed his lips, looking slightly disgusted. “A number that’s all about freedom, sensuality, and an interest in nearly everything, used as a punishment, imprisons the Clair senses and makes it nearly impossible to stay interested in anything.”

“I’m well aware,” she said. “Which means I won’t need the gods to play guide dog in the world of the spirits anymore and our interactions won’t need to be done during autonomic writing sessions.”

“Zeus does realize you’ll come for his head, right?” he asked.

“No, I won’t,” she said easily. “I’m gonna leave him for my partner to deal with. I go after him; it’ll break the accord I made with Ares when I nearly declared war on the gods on behalf of the humans that demanded atonement. Thankfully, the only one still resisting giving atonement is Yahweh.”

“Does that surprise you, though?” he asked.

“Not really,” she admitted. “Then again, I know his real name.”

“So, what we need to figure out is what you can do to get started before employing any kind of magic to the situation, at least when it comes to your own,” he said and she nodded. “But you don’t want to continue writing for the next fourteen months.”

“You know full well the only reason I started writing was that it was my mother’s dream to be an author, not mine,” she said. “I’d rather be out living than writing about it. Besides, I'm about to go undercover as a normie. That story is already boring me, regardless of the job that I’m doing.”

“What about getting a job at an Apothecary or one of the witch shops in the area?” he asked. “I know there aren’t many, but I’m sure the other gods would be willing to vouch for you if the people who own the businesses are our followers.”

“Getting a job with the witches is next to impossible without being connected,” she said. “Even if you were to manifest in their ear and yell at them to hire me, they’d likely ignore you because their intuition will ping Darkness the moment I step into the shop. It’s happened before. Every time I walk in, they go on point and watch me like I’m getting ready to blow the place up when all I’m doing is getting incense and, maybe, a couple of books.”

“You could demonstrate your knowledge,” he pointed out.

“My knowledge isn’t in ritual and material magic. I recognize synchronicity, predicting ripples and balances, and I understand the basic theory and mechanics of magic on a spiritual level. I understand how the system works; I give a list of desires to the gods, y’all cross out everything that I can’t have, and then submit your request to the demons to affect the Chaos Engine by manipulating probability, setting off a series of events that result in the approved desires being met,” she said flatly. “But, if they ask me where I studied Magical Theory and Mechanics and I come in talking about studying in Hekate’s Library in Tartarus, they would laugh and call me a liar, or think I’m a threat of some kind when I’m an Artificer who specializes in making spiritual tools with intent and charged with a Titanic spirit. On top of that, I have sixteen years experience in Customer Service, baptism by fire style in a call center for five of them, and a background in haunted house construction which translates to basic handyman skills, and a background in small business retail for two years as the only employee besides the owner.”

“But your nature pings as being an enemy for those who still believe the demons are the opposition,” he said, taking a deep breath in frustration as she tapped her nose.

“I have the Demon Lords wanting me to present as a Shadow Worker to teach people how to train their own legions, instead of having to possess people themselves,” she said. “I have the gods wanting me to connect to the witches to help them relearn the spiritual basics outside of the religions to rebalance the scales after the Apocalypse. And, my fucking bank account wants me to spend the rest of my days slaving away in corporate America.”

“But, what do you want?” he asked.

“My partner so I can pull it all off without burning out or breaking myself,” she said with a mirthless laugh. “I know I can do it by myself. I set up the Patreon, as you asked, and set up three tiers that all have Discord access; Diamonas for those who just want to help or get help with Shadow Work, Baby Witches for those wanting to learn or relearn the basics, and the VIPs that are willing to pay my phone bill every month so I can include them in what’s going on. But the success of that hinges on the exposure of the story I’m writing for you, your followers’ willingness to donate, and their finances which, if they’re anything like mine, are pretty much non-existent.”

“I’ll handle that on the back end,” he assured her. “Who all do you have in there right now?”

“I have Murphy providing the Behavioral Psychology reference if he’s up for it, Cassia as my guinea pig when it comes to teaching the Demon Method, and a political science major I can tap if anyone needs ideas on community projects they can do as a way to better themselves and try to make the world a better place in the process,” she said. “I’ll be in there as much as I can be, but I have to walk the Mundane Path for another fourteen months unless my partner appears to break my ass out of this prison,” she said with a deep sigh. “I have everything set up; we just need a home base outside of the internet to start putting things in motion. As long as I’m on lockdown, the mundane won’t know what’s happening. The more Diamonas that wake up and unite, the better the cover. But once the mundane catch wise and Yahweh notices we’re making progress, they’re going to come at us looking for proof that magic exists that doesn’t rely on faith. That’s why I can’t promote the project myself. All I can do is the groundwork that requires a physical body. If I try to ensure success by advertising or sharing the link myself past my Twitter account and giving it to my friends, then I’m not trusting you with the intent.”

“Yes, and you can kill a lot more birds with one stone after you’ve done your Shadow Work,” he said.

“That was a META moment if I’ve ever seen one,” she said with a snort.

“Well, it’s true. When I can connect with you clearly, we can have these conversations and discuss the details and reasoning, instead of me just trying to guess what your intent is based on whatever ingredients you’re using to do your spell work,” he said. “I would much rather sit in this chair and discuss what it is that you’re thinking and why you feel you need our help when you’re perfectly capable of doing it on your own than listen through layers of screaming legions trying to guess. Yes, the ingredients used and the ritual of the practice do help us translate, but trying to hear through that noise is like trying to have a conversation in a rainstorm, outside, under a tin roof.”

“You need a burp after that?” she asked with a snort as the horned god sat forward and shook his head with his face in his hands.

“Let’s just say you aren’t the only one chomping at the bit,” he said. “We’ve been teasing our followers with whispers of another shift about to happen, and soon, all of them can feel it, and we are finally within reach of rebuilding the bridges so we can have enough energy to give visions again. We may not be able to take physical form, but we are capable of mass hallucinations to those who are open to it if we have enough energy to do it.”

“Yeah, but for that you’d the entire human collective in that area to be focused on wanting to see it, feeding you love, and intent on opening the connection,” she said. “Oo,” she said as she had a thought. “Samhein Pagan Festival,” she said, looking at him. “It wouldn’t be this year, but next year I’ll be out. Get the Underworld Crew together and have different events and workshops for the deities of the Underworld across the Pantheons so we can all get to know each other as humans, swap stories and knowledge? Let Dionysus DJ the parties after dark with Brijit running the dancefloor?”

“See, this is why I want to bath you in riches,” he said with a huff. “That is a fantastic idea.”

“If the caplata decide to do a Gete Banda, the Baron might be able to cross in the flesh in front of everyone,” she said, wagging her eyebrows. “I wouldn’t bank on it, but that just because I’m a realist.”

“You realize, now that you put that in my head, I’m going to talk to him,” he said.

“I’m aware,” she said with a snort. “You realize it’s also a challenge.”

“I’m aware,” he said with a small smile of pride.

“Hey, I told y’all a long time ago that you were going to have to contend with the most skeptical mind you can imagine. You got me,” she said, “someone who knows for a fact that magic is real and has had enough validation to choke a horse, pardon the expression,” she said and he chuckled, “but I can still dismiss it as fantasy in the minds of anyone else that isn’t tapped into the spirit. Everyone else will think it’s an elaborate scheme to gain publicity on a project I’m not actively promoting and don’t expect to make anything off of, while those that are tapped follow the breadcrumbs to find others that are like them. At that point, I’m not gatekeeping, I’m just directing traffic and keeping the trolls away from the Diamonas while they get their Shadow Work done and figure out how they can show that we are not the enemy, we’re here to help reverse the damage. The demons saw that their taste for destruction was going to destroy their food source and the demons have grown rather fond of existing. They are actually working together semi-peacefully, granted it’s because they only appear in separate mirrors to keep them separated. But they’re at least willing to be civil with one another enough to help me. I was so shocked when they first showed up in their own separate mirrors without threatening the break the glass and possess my ass, I asked them why they were willing to do so. They gave me the most selfish answered in unison so loud my vision blurred; because I’m helping them better their reputation.”

“Yeah, that tracks,” he said with a small nod. “That’s extremely selfish.”

“So, all of the gods are working together, crossing Pantheon lines to foster peace by gaining perspective, and the demons working together, willing to go hands-off and let the humans come to them for help if they need it when it comes to training their legions because they don’t want the Chaos Engine to get swallowed by the Void,” she said plainly. “The only spirits we’re waiting on are the humans to get on the same page and united as a race to usher in a new Golden Age.”

“You know, before every Age, there’s an age of the Hero,” he said, “If memory serves me correctly.”

“Yeah, but this Hero’s age will belong to a collective,” she said. “The Diamonas; a spiritual idea to cross all boundaries and unite the outsiders, kindred spirits from every background and flavor of weirdness, in a family willing to go out and make a positive change in the world. If they want to do it in the name of their god as an act of devotion, that’s their business. Hang out with your gods while you’re doing community service,” she said with a shrug. “I don’t give a fuck. I ain’t ya Momma and I always have my own agenda, I’m just not shy about admitting it.”

“Your partner,” he said and she nodded.

“Everything I do towards bringing about a new Golden Age under the Banner of Astraea brings me one step closer to having my partner beside me, so I can finally see his face,” she said, “even if it’s just so I know who to avoid in the future,” she said. “Yes, I still love him. But he has to decide for himself. If he’d rather choose the life, he has over a life that has me in it, that’s his business. I can’t change how I feel, but I can sure as fuck shut it out with the rest of my heart and embrace being a demon. Come to me gently and of your own free will is the only love spell that should have been written. Now, every word I speak when I think of him will be laced with the longing for that moment when I can look him in the eye and thank him for simply existing, for always being there when I needed him in the Abyss, cheering me on and challenging me. For inspiring me when I needed it by making me laugh, getting me excited, winding me up, and pissing me off when I needed more backbone. Unless I shut it out and forget how to feel it by not thinking of him.”

“I’m not sure I like the idea of you going full demon,” Loki admitted. “You need to be able to burn off your darkness and you need the heart to feel the light it produces when you do.”

“Once I stop writing and go on HIATUS, I’ll be able to think about him now and then, I promised Aphrodite I would burn it off with poetry while I’m still in captivity,” she assured him, “but I can’t hold on for too long without risking possession. The longer I hold on, the stronger the connection gets until I feel like I’m in his head and I really don’t want to drive him insane with my legions. The poor man will end up dreaming about snow-white Tieflings with blue hair leading an army of Skittering Nightmares every night until he exorcises the damned things.”

Loki gave off a horrified shiver at the mention of the homebrew beasts from her D&D campaign. The horrid brainchild of Lolth (played by Nyx in her head and fucking nailed it) and Madame Mayhem, her Tiefling's alias, Skittering Nightmares were the infant horde-offspring of Meandering Tangents, a spiritual race modeled after the Dryders with claws dexterous, and sharp, enough to perform surgery and rows of shark-like teeth that chattered so quickly it sounds like their whispering. Skittering Nightmares hunted like trapdoor spiders and tended to dig rabbit holes in the consciousness, allowing their parents to come in and connect memories that wouldn’t otherwise be connected. Excellent for the Twins to use when separating a follower from the damage of their trauma after the Skittering Nightmares do their thing by consuming any excess of demons.

“I know why you created them,” Loki said, “but did you have to make them so grotesque?”

“You ask a demon for help clearing your followers’ minds of demons that don’t belong, you’ll get demonic results,” she said, “brutal and sure to leave an impression in the subconscious they’ll remember when they wake up. How else is the client supposed to know the area is clear and ready for them to start working with you guys to build their Elysiums so y’all can communicate easier? Duh.”